You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Amanda(Lily) 🐝
Esther 🐝
Janice 🐝
Jayme 🐝
Katrisa 🐝
Kristie 🐝
Lori Z 🐝
Nistha (Nix) 🐝
Rusalka 🐝
Saar 🐝
Sharon Hopper 🐝

If it's okay, I will put 🐝🐝 next to every member's name who checked in. It makes easier to look who has checked in and who hasn't yet.

Link to spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Link to reccomendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Overview:
1. About one in three bites of food (35% of global food crops) depends upon pollinators.
🐝Drone: The Way (Janice)
🐝Worker bee: Sea of Charms (Kristie)
🐝Queen bee: This Story Might Save Your Life (Amanda)

2. There are all kinds of pollinators: bats, birds, beetles, flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, bees, even small mammals!
🐝Drone: Comme un papillon (Esther)
🐝Worker bee: Midnight Crossroad (Saar)
🐝Queen bee: Milk and honey (Rusalka)

3. Pesticides, particularly systemic neonicotinoid insecticides (applied to most all non-organic corn & other major crop seeds, thus showing up in pollen and nectar), habitat loss, climate change & disease can lead to pollinator decline.
🐝Drone: Peace Like a River (Janice)
🐝Worker bee: Carrot Cake Murder (Kristie)
🐝Queen bee: Families First: A Post-Apocalyptic Next World Series Volume 1 (Sharon)

4. According to the US Dept. of Agriculture, there are about 212,000 beekeepers tending almost three million colonies in the US.
🐝Drone: Wrong Place Wrong Time (Nishta)
🐝Worker bee: The Man Who Died Twice (Amanda)
🐝Queen bee: Death by a Honeybee (Lori Z)

5. 44% of managed honeybee colonies were lost in 2015-2016.
🐝Drone: A Book Of Bees: And How to Keep Them – A Melodious Beekeeping Memoir and Nature Journal from the Missouri Ozarks (Katrisa)
🐝Worker bee: The Watchmaker's Daughter (Janice)
🐝Queen bee: Strange Weather in Tokyo (Saar)

6. Any green space helps, no matter the size. If you don’t have a backyard, a balcony with a pot of coneflowers or marigolds is great!
🐝Drone: Murder in Bloom (Katrisa)
🐝Worker bee: The Apartment Across the Hall (Katrisa)
🐝Queen bee: The Clatter Man (Sharon)

7. Feed the Pollinators: Nectar and pollen from flowers are their primary food source.
🐝Drone: Dear Debbie (Nishta)
🐝Worker bee: These Memories Do Not Belong to Us (Katrisa)
🐝Queen bee: Blind: A Memoir (Katrisa)

8. Honeybees and bumblebees prefer yellow, purple, blue and white flowers, while butterflies favor red, orange, yellow & purple.
🐝Drone: Blind Date with a Werewolf (Katrisa)
🐝Worker bee: The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss (Katrisa)
🐝Queen bee: One Part Woman (Nishta)

9. Bees need water, but are poor swimmers. Consider placing a shallow dish on your deck or patio with stones, twigs, marbles as landing zones.
🐝Drone: Beautiful Ugly (Katrisa)
🐝Worker bee: The Water Outlaws (Esther)
🐝Queen bee: Rogue Wave (Sharon)

10. The best habitats include undisturbed patches of bare ground for ground-nesting bees, piles of dead wood or leaf litter, and hollow plant stems where insects can shelter and lay eggs.
🐝Drone: How to Make a Plant Love You: Cultivate Green Space in Your Home and Heart(Saar)
🐝Worker bee: At Any Cost (Lori Z)
🐝Queen bee: Within Reach: A Novel (Sharon)

Hi, Saar! I'm here. Looking forward to gophering for this one!

Hi, Kristie! I'm looking forward to gophering too. We still have time, though, but I've already got some possibilities in mind.

I'm doing this a little backwards. I plan to read The Enchanted Greenhouse, so I'm looking for places it will fit. First spot that caught my eye is #1 worker bee, author has three names. I'm sure it will fit in other spots too based on the cover.

I'm thinking it might fit for set in a wooded land (#6 queen) or features an organic gardener / pollinator-friendly character (#3 queen) or maybe one of the leaf / flower on cover tasks. I'll have to read it before I know about setting and featured characters, unless anyone else already knows the answer to that.

If I have time to read a second book I'll see what's open and find something to fit.

I'm also going to look for some recommendations that fit so I can get the bonus points. :)

hi team!
how about these for me.
Book:
Comme un papillon
would fit for 2. pollinator: drone. insect on cover.

audio: The Water Outlaws
would fit for 9. Water Worker Bee: Water in title.

If it's okay, I'll add the books to the spreadsheet tomorrow evening.

Great to see the buzz in our team thread. I need to flitter around the tasks, scoring, and rules to see which ones hit the sweet spot. I'll be back.

I will plan to read The Way. It works for Task 1 Drone or Queen.

Drone - rating is 3.82 on GRs
Queen - Cary Groner has published 2 books according to his author page.

eta it also fits Task 3 Queen - Dystopia is mpg.

Slot wherever it's needed most.

I can also do Task 5 - Worker Bee: Read a book first published in 2015 or 2016.

The Watchmaker's Daughter which was published in 2016.

I'll check to see if it fits other tasks so we have some flexibility.

One more: Task 3 Drone- Read a book that has been rated from 80,000 to 211,999 times on GR.

Peace Like a River, has 104,371 ratings on GR.

If I finish these, I'll see what is needed and go from there.

Just checking in team! Need to gopher a bit for this one

Hi team! I'm checking in, but I haven't had a chance to gopher yet.

Hi, y’all. I am checking in. I haven’t gophered yet. Looking forward to it.

Checking in! Heya teamies!
I'm just going to cook dinner and then will dig in properly this evening

Hi Team checking in
I will gopher when I get a chance probably not until this weekend maybe

update
I will read The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year for 3 - Queen Bee: Read a book featuring or written by an environmentalist, organic gardener, or other pollinator-friendly character/activist OR read a book with dystopia as main page genre.

I can read:

#1: Worker Bee Anything But Cozy, Phillip Drayer Duncan (3 full names)

#6: Queen Bee The Grizzly Claws Inn, John Lee Schneider (50% in park, forest or other woodland)

#9: Queen BeeRogue Wave, Boyd Morrison Water plays an important role

#10: Queen Bee Within Reach: A Novel, Barbara Delinsky Sand prominent on cover

I might can do more or whatever is needed.

Okay. I finished the check - in. We're still waiting for Amanda, Lori Z and Nix.
I'm going to add the books to the spreadsheet now.

What I have found tonight. I figure if I am going to read a small amount of books, I should focus on the higher points? But that said, if I am unreliable, should I go for lower level points? Strategy is a bit beyond me tonight, but focusing on the Queen tasks, please see below.

The smaller the book, the more likely I am to finish it and maybe read more. I also have 3 Japanese reads on here, and I would only read one

2. 🐝 Queen Bee: Read a book whose cover is 75%+ black and white, per tineye. Both colors must be present. - Milk and honey
3. 🐝 Queen Bee: Read a book featuring or written by an environmentalist, organic gardener, or other pollinator-friendly character/activist OR read a book with dystopia as main page genre. - Hive
4. 🐝 Queen Bee: Read a book featuring a beekeeper or where bees are significant to the plot. - Hive
5. 🐝 Queen Bee: Read a book whose page numbers are evenly divisible by 44 (176, 220, 264, 308, 352, for a start ) - Strange Weather in Tokyo, The Deep, Disgrace. I will need to check these with my physical versions.
6. 🐝 Queen Bee: Read a book that is set (50%+) in a park, forest, or other woodland, or features a similar scene on the cover. - The Easy Life in Kamusari
9. 🐝 Queen Bee: Read a book where water plays an important role, such as recreation, navigation, flood, hurricane, etc. - The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
10. 🐝 Queen Bee: Read a book where a hollow object(s) is/are featured on the cover, OR a book where sand or dirt is prominent on the cover. - Quota

Hi team! I have to do some gophering, will be back shortly with some book ideas.

I've changed the link of the spreadsheet in message 3 to our own spreadsheet. I'll update as we go. What's in color, are the spots that are taken. But on the right side of the sheet are the reserve options. So we can switch when needed.
And I also added an overview to see what is taken and what not.

Do we need a team name? 'Buzzy Bookbuzzers...'?

I can commit to 2. I will probably read more, but I don't want to over-commit and not be able to do what I said I would.

1 - Queen bee: This Story Might Save Your Life
4 - Worker bee: The Man Who Died Twice

Saar The Book owl wrote: "Okay. I finished the check - in. We're still waiting for Amanda, Lori Z and Nix.
I'm going to add the books to the spreadsheet now."

Nistha is Nix. That's her WoF.

Need to go to bed, but better stress, I committed to one book. The options I listed, I should be able to do 2. If the stars align, more. But do not rely on me for more than 1-2.

I think if one is Milk and Honey can do two.

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've changed the link of the spreadsheet in message 3 to our own spreadsheet. I'll update as we go. What's in color, are the spots that are taken. But on the right side of the sheet are the reserve..."

Thanks, Saar!

Kristie wrote: "Saar The Book owl wrote: "Okay. I finished the check - in. We're still waiting for Amanda, Lori Z and Nix.
I'm going to add the books to the spreadsheet now."

Nistha is Nix. That's her WoF."

Ah, thanks :)

Sorry for jumping right into it. I've never asked if anyone was up to make a spreadsheet or other things. Sorry for that 😉 It wasn't my intention.

Does this count for 10 drone:

Saar The Book owl wrote: "Does this count for 10 drone:
"

Yes! As long as leaves can be seen as individuals, it'll work.

And now a word from the sponsor (lol):

Just wanted to post a reminder in both team threads re: page count based on the edition you're reading - please double-check, so your books will qualify:

Each print book must be at least 175 pages, based on the edition you are reading.

Ebooks must be at least 200 pages to allow for the approximation of pages an ebook is based on.

Audiobooks must be a minimum of 6 hours long.

Thank you and happy toppling :D

Saar The Book owl wrote: "Sorry for jumping right into it. I've never asked if anyone was up to make a spreadsheet or other things. Sorry for that 😉 It wasn't my intention."

No apology necessary. I'm just glad someone is happy to do it!

Just a note - If anyone has questions regarding if a book fits, it would be helpful if you post it in the general toppler thread so Laura sees it. She is on the other team and might not check this thread as frequently. Plus, it may help someone else who has the same question.

That's a good point, Kristie.

Can we read for a task if it is already taken, or are we trying to fill all the tasks?

I think the goal is to complete the tasks? Or as much as possible?

Yes, we need to complete all the tasks. I think some of the books can work for more than one task, so if you can recommend a switch that would work too.

I went to the spreadsheet link and approval for my viewing it is being sent to Saar? Can you make it shareable to anyone with the link?

PS, and thanks for jumping in.

Saar approved mine. I think she needs to approve them individually unless there is a way to make it shareable.

I think there is a way to share with anyone who has a link. But, I don't use Google Doc's all that much so I'm not sure.

Same

I am going to read The Landman: A Jeff Koehler Mystery instead of The Grizzly Claws Inn for #6 Queen Bee

Saar - I just noticed that you added Nistha to our team, but also still have Nix, which is her WoF name, so she's listed twice now. Maybe you could list her as Nistha (Nix) if you want to keep her WoF to make it easy for reporting, like Amanda(Lily).

Janice wrote: "I think there is a way to share with anyone who has a link. But, I don't use Google Doc's all that much so I'm not sure."

Yup, that's what I tend to do so while I'm in bed/work you N Hemisphere folks can gopher like mad

I can't see the sheet yet, asked for acess. - but once I have seen it I will check for tasks not taken and try to fill them

You can still do that, Nistha. She's also posting the tasks in message 3 here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Thank you Kristie. I didn't realize there was a message being updated. That helps.

I asked Gemini, which is Google's AI. It said it has a setting specifically to make it shareable to anyone with a link. It gave me a copy/paste instruction on how to do that....

"Hey! Google is locking me out of the spreadsheet because the default privacy setting is on 'Restricted.' Could you tweak the share settings so the team can get in? Here is the quick fix:

Open the spreadsheet and click the blue Share button in the top right.

Under General access, click the dropdown arrow next to Restricted and change it to Anyone with the link (or our organization).

Set the permission on the right side to Editor (so we can update it) or Viewer (if you just want us to read it).

Click Done."

I hope this helps Saar.

Saar The Book owl wrote: "If it's okay, I will put 🐝🐝 next to every member's name who checked in. It makes easier to look who has checked in and who hasn't yet."

Saar, and A Team, Jayme has had a family emergency and doesn't know when she'll be back online. She's slotted into Task 3 - Queen Bee, so perhaps someone can fill that spot.

My thoughts are with her during this difficult time.