Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Penelope - AEGEAN



• Cat (Captain)
• Danielle (Co-Captain)
• Kylie Standley (Co-Captain)
• Pat (Co-Captain)
• Gemma Berry
• Rachel
• Andy
• Karen
• Rina
• Sassafrass
• Kristen Joanne
• Sarah
• Linda C
• SandyL
• Heli
• Jillypenny
• Rose

Official Team Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Challenge Status Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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Key Info

Rules and Information
Page minimum: 100pages+
Danger MPGs (Kids, Poetry etc) / Illustrated: 3hrs+ audio / 30k words, as per AR Bookfinder (.com / .co.uk / .com.au)

MUST be started after the start of the challenge
Re-reads OK after 6 months

Team Behaviour
A reminder for everyone that this is a FUN challenge - some competitiveness is welcome, but let's keep it in proportion.
Make sure messages to each other are kind and respectful, and that any inter-team teasing is the same!
Please check-in at least once a week, even if only to say that you are still playing - that's the minimum commitment you made when signing up, and we captains really don't like to have to feel like we are nagging when we chase you. General chat is encouraged - what was that last book like, for instance?

STRATEGY
Longer books are better, as we have the book cap (for the WHOLE team across the WHOLE challenge), so if you can read longer please do so!

BOMs are the best way of getting points, so please look at the BOMs (first one is the May Themed one) and participate by answering questions. If you are feeling it, volunteering to write a set of questions gives us the chance of even more points!

Task based mini challenges: people can claim ONE task at a time, please, working from the more niche to the easier to fill. Captains reserve the right to move your book to a better task if that helps the team finish them off; your book will be used for points!

Admin
There is a tracking spreadsheet for planners and those who like spreadsheets to use (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...)
The sheet should be pretty straightforward: pop in your book title (ideally a hyperlink to the edition you read), pick your name from the dropdown, add the pages and the date you finish it. Ignore the blue columns - those are for the captains to check the book info and finalise where it is used for additional points. In the "Task" column add information that explains which task(s) it fits and why. "Notes" will include information if the book is audio, kids etc, to document page count justifications etc.

Mini Info

May Meet the Muses Mini - fully completed

June Supergroup Maze - see the supergroup chat

June Monster Mini
Monster one-shots
Echidna : The Fathomless Caves
Nemean Lion: A Spear of Summer Grass
Python : Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders
Chimera: From These Broken Streets

Four-in-one options
(note that some of the four-in-ones might be edition/cover specific, so some care needed!)
Charbydis: The Priory of the Orange Tree
Echidna: Spells of Breath & Blade
Harpies: Enthroned Red Queen Enchanted
Lamia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Mares: Permed to Death
Python: Mr. Blakely
Sirens: Rolling in the Deep
Sphinx: Wizard and Glass
Stymph Birds : When He Was Wicked Emerald Blaze
Typhon: Zeus

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BOM

MAY
16th - The Travelling Cat Chronicles - discussion thread (answer DQ’s by 16th June)
22nd - Wildfire (Backroom) - discussion thread


JUNE
2nd - Adult/Non-Fiction - The Book of Cold Cases - discussion thread
8th - MOD - The Master and Margarita - discussion thread
16th - Theme (Mythology) - The Witch's Heart - discussion thread


JULY
2nd - Ariadne - discussion thread
16th - Malibu Rising The Witch's Heart - discussion thread

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Hello everyone, welcome to the start of Tower Teams 9 - The Muses edition. As a mod I know a bit about what's coming up and am pretty excited to see how it pans out!

Anyway, introductions!

I'm Cat (she/her) based in London UK, and am a regular TT-er now. I read all sorts, generally with a couple of books on the go at any given moment. Fantasy is my go to comfort genre; and sci-fi my one for interesting ideas, but love a decent crime and the learning of a non-fiction. Basically your standard bookworm!

I've popped some information up at the top of the thread, but do shout if you have any questions :)

My first question: which book published in the last couple of years do you want to recommend??

Hiya team Penelope.

I’m Danielle (she/her) and I’m from Wales. I’m one of the co-captains on this muses tower. I’m not sure how many TT’s I’ve played, but it’s been quite a few.

I’m mostly read romance (many genres) and fantasy. I do like to throw some mystery and sci-fi in there too. Horror is a definite no!


I’m looking forward to playing this round and reading some good (and long) books, hopefully!

Here’s my tower shelf - tower

oh! yes - thanks for the reminder Danielle, here's my shelf:

tt9-muses

Recommending books is hard for me, I like getting recs, but giving a rec, I don’t like.

I did enjoy reading . I listened to it twice last year.

Hello Team! I hope you all are as excited for this challenge as I am :)

My name is Kylie and I'm from California. This is my first TT ever AND as a co-captain (slightly crazy i know). I have done some challenges with the Perks group that have been a blast, so I cannot wait to get this challenge started with all of you.

My typical genres include literary fiction, mystery/thrillers, and classics. Fantasy is something I haven't gravitated towards much, but I would love some recommendations!

In regards to Cat's first question, I would have to recommend Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed for the nonfiction/psychology/autobiography lovers or The Silent Patient for the mystery/thriller lovers.

Here is my bookshelf: tower teams 9 2022

Looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Hello everyone,

my name is Kristen and I am from Southern New Jersey. This is my second year playing Towers and I am so excited! I had a blast playing last year!

I enjoy all types of books honestly. My favorites would be fantasy, horror, mystery, romance, suspense, and thriller. I read anyone from Stephen King to Nicholas Sparks.

I recently read Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover I really loved this book. Colleen Hoover is a great author. Something similar that happened in the book happened in my town when I was in high school so I could relate to the story. Also, I read a great four-book series, The Collector. The first book is The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison I tell everyone to read those books! I am a sucker for a good series what can I say :-)

Also here is my book shelf
2022-tower

Hello everyone! I'm Sarah, from the UK, and I've been doing challenges for quite a few years now. I read almost everything, but am most likely to read mysteries, historical fiction, fantasy, or sci-fi. Romance is not my thing, nor dark crime/horror/thriller types.

I'm looking forward to cracking open a few doorstoppers in the next few months, although I won't manage to read those exclusively.

My shelf is tt-muses‎

My recommendation for published in the last few years is The Thursday Murder Club - I love it and found it hilarious, but having read people's comments over in SRC where it's the group read for Spring, I'm aware not everyone does!

Hi Kristen, Sarah *big waves*

I've got Thursday Murder Club to read for SRC, so I've not read any of the comments. But Richard Osman comes off as very dry on TV, so I can see how that might not translate into universal love. Fingers crossed I don't hate it!

For me, it's a bit older - 2019 - but I really loved The Hands of the Emperor. If you liked The Goblin Emperor you'll likely like this one too - a quiet character just getting on and doing what is good and right. I thought it was wonderful (and 900 pages is nice to have too!)

Hello Kristen and Sarah.

I really should try another by Colleen Hoover. I’ve read two by her years ago and I liked Slammed but didn’t like Ugly Love.

I picked up The Hands of the Emperor after you read it and recommended it, Cat. I haven’t managed to read before now, but I do hope I can this TT.

Hi everybody! I'm Pat (she/her), and I've been on a haitus from GR for a bit, but I recently went back to work at the library, and have lots of time now for reading and interacting with other readers about books.

In fact, I have a full hour-and-a-half a day carved into my daily work schedule for something my boss has called "reader's advisory" which really just means I read books and recommend books and get recommendations for books and it's AWESOME to get paid time for READING~

I've got a jones for historical fiction, but I like a lot of the contemporary stuff too. I don't read bodice ripper romances, but I'm ok with most of the chick-lit. I've discovered that I can read sci-fi if it's campy and funny, but I'm not a fantasy fan.

I don't read a lot of series books (hence my struggle with the Novel Quest role play because I pretty much insist on using my sword instead of my staff). I like stand alone books of 300-400 pages, but if the book is really good, I'll swallow it whole.

Here's my TT shelf - nothing on it yet, but I'm looking forward to putting stuff on it really soon! I actually have "The Travelling Cat Chronicles" in my hand and I'm just waiting until the 15th to crack it open.

Pat's Tower Teams Shelf 9

Recently Published Book Recommendation
Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
or
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Kristen wrote: "I recently read Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover I really loved this book. ..."

That's my next read. It's on my desk right now, and as soon as I'm done updating various threads and responding to work email, I plan to spend the last hour of the day with it!

Hi! Linda C here. I am located in upstate New York and am a retired librarian. I read in almost all genres. I like a touch of romance and avoid vampires and zombies.

A couple of recent reads that I recommend are and

My shelf is tower

Hello!

Sass here, right outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I read mostly romance, but I'm pretty much open to anything.

Recently published book recommendation....I'm in a conundrum because my recommendations are all NBRC group reads, so I don't know if I could use them!

My Shelf

♞ Pat wrote: "Kristen wrote: "I recently read Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover I really loved this book. ..."

That's my next read. It's on my desk right now, and as soon as I'm done updating various threads a..."

I really liked it! Let me know what you think when you finish?

Sassafrass wrote: "Hello!

Sass here, right outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I read mostly romance, but I'm pretty much open to anything.

Recently published book recommendation....I'm in a conundrum because m..."

I'm only 30 minutes from Philly!

Kristen wrote: "I really liked it! Let me know what you think when you finish?..."

Absolutely, I will! I'm done with work and done fixing dinner, so I'm heading to my reading chair ...

We're in the middle of some seriously bumpy weather. It's the first week of May in Oklahoma, which means the default week for very large tornados. One is currently on the ground south east of me, but it's moving away to the east, so it looks like hubby and I dodged a bullet tonight for real and true!

Still, the color outside is seriously creepy - that pea green gross color and the world here is very still because the storm is pulling ALL the atmospheric energy into it so there isn't any left for the rest of us. It's a HUGE storm. Softball size hail, and it's rain wrapped so it's impossible to see. It'll make national news tomorrow morning.

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♞ Pat wrote: "Kristen wrote: "I really liked it! Let me know what you think when you finish?..."

Absolutely, I will! I'm done with work and done fixing dinner, so I'm heading to my reading chair ...

We're in the middle of some seriously bumpy weather. It's the first week of May in Oklahoma, which means the default week for very large tornados."

Those things are really scary! I saw the passage of what looked like a tiny thin one on TV and it left a horrendous amount of damage. We don't get them in NY. We have had a few of what they call mini bursts. They seem to be a quickie touch down of a wind swirl. Can take out a grove of trees. That'd bad enough.

Hi everyone!
I'm Gemma, in the UK - just outside London.

I'm pretty diverse in my reading choices but Stephen King is my all time favourite :)

Since the pandemic I still predominantly work from home so have lost my 2 hours of reading on the commute but make sure I still find time every day to turn to a book.

Last couple of years I've really loved anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo became a big favourite. I also love the 'You' series by Caroline Kepnes.

Hi Sass, Linda & Gemma! Great to have you :)

Sass, I think it's great that NBRC group reads have formed some of your recent recommendations! Yay for the system working :)

And that (plus Pat sitting patiently on The Travelling Cat) reminds me:
BOM points. We love BOM points! Participation gets us 20 points as well as the page points, so if you are at all interested in reading the BOMs please do try and answer three sets of DQs!

The first BOM is The Travelling Cat Chronicles, which is a lovely book, even if not recommended to be finished in public! If you want to volunteer to go in the randomiser to write DQs, please throw your name in the ring, otherwise, get hold of a copy of the book and get ready to read and discuss from 16 May.

Voting is still open for the Jun BOMs (check out the polls here); and I'll let you know when nominations for July open.

For those who like REALLY silly conversations about (bad) smut, there's plans for a Backroom BOM; check it out here.

Welcome Linda, Sass and Gemma!

This is my shelf: tower-teams-9-the-muses

Yes, I really have found some winners with the BOMs!

Two recent ones: and .

Both of these were fantastic and new to me authors that I can't wait to read more from.

Kristen wrote: "I'm only 30 minutes from Philly!"

Me too! Howdy, Neighbor!!

Linda C wrote: "Hi! Linda C here. I am located in upstate New York and am a retired librarian. I read in almost all genres. I like a touch of romance and avoid vampires and zombies.

A couple of recent reads that..."

I really liked The Rose Code as well, more than The Alice Network but I suspect the narrator put me off a little as I listened to that one and read The Rose Code. Good page numbers too! ;)

All this talk of Kate Quinn has reminded me to put a hold on The Huntress at the library. I can't read her newest yet as the library doesn't have it (but as they have all her others I expect it will come in this year some time).

Sassafrass wrote: "Yes, I really have found some winners with the BOMs!

Two recent ones: and .

Both of these ..."

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is one of my 5 star reads, and it quickly became one of my favorites. I have heard a lot about the former and would love to give it a go :)

Cerulean Sea is honestly a big cuddle of a book, and I definitely second Sass' rec :)

I've got a couple more of Klune's in the TBR, and fingers crossed they're also good!

Hi everyone,

I'm Andy from Ireland

took part in the previous tower challenge, but honestly, like a lot of other things last year, it's a bit of a blur.

my shelf is here

a few recent publications I'd recommend
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Billy Summers
What Willow Says

and some I'm looking forward to
The Night Ship
Fevered Star
Sea of Tranquility

Hi!!
I'm Sandy and I live near Los Angeles. This is my 6th time doing TT and something I always look forward to. I have a golden retriever and 1-1/2 cats. For work, I'm a tax preparer and am finally recovering from a crazy tax season - I'm so anxious to get back to having more time to read (although I'm still working, just part time now.) I help run a dog rescue and now that work has slowed down I'm looking forward to fostering again. I read mostly romance, although doing challenges makes me pick up other genres.

A couple of books I enjoyed over the past six months or so

Great and Precious Things
The Things We Leave Unfinished
both by Rebecca Yarros

Two of my favorite authors that I love to re-read during challenges like TT are Kristen Ashley and Mariana Zapata - and they both write longer books which is a bonus!!

My shelf: TT-9

Hello Andy and Sandy!

Good choices in KA and Mariana Zapata. I enjoy their books too.

Hello teammates! I'm Rachel and I live in Washington, D.C.. I'm a big fan of the annual TT challenge and I look forward to playing with you all. I'm not always particularly chatty in the team thread, but I definitely lurk.

My shelf is tt-ix

My favorite genres are mystery, romance, suspense/thriller, and non-fiction. As for recommendations? I feel like I've been in a little bit of a rut lately. But I really enjoyed Klara and the Sun

It's funny you mentioned Kate Quinn. I've read many of her books and I've never actually enjoyed them that much. I find that I sometimes have to force myself to sit down and read them. But lo and behold, when a new one comes out I always pick it up. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment? Of the four most recent, The Alice Network was my favorite.

Welcome Rachel!

Hi guys! I'm Heli from Finland. I mostly read mysteries and thrillers but also fantasy, sci-fi and romance.

My shelf: tt22

Two books that I've enjoyed so far this year: and .

And I really loved It was my favorite read last year. So many emotions.

Hello Heli!

Wow, we have a lot of good recommendations here. In fact I have several of them and will pull them to the top of my pile.

Just popped in to wish you well from the sidelines - taking this TT off