Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

@Cynthia and @Kathleen, I've added your buddy reads now. Sorry about missing them. Do please keep checking because I don't want to miss points which we've earned. We're over 1000 points ahead and going strong so keep it up, ladies!

Rock Bottom by Erin Brockovich (A.J. Palladino #1) 272 pages

Finished 11/25 Rating ✿✿✿

At 17 Angela Joy leaves her coal mining town in West Virginia in disgrace because she is pregnant. She has her baby and manages to scrape out a life as a environmental activist which of course this author is famous for hence the movie Erin Brockovich.

Now due to unforeseen financial constraints she is forced 9 years later to return home along with her handicapped son David. Suffice it to say the welcome isn't great except by her grandmother. David has never been told who his father is but now his father is in charge of the top soil coal mining that is basically raping the land and A.J. gets caught up in the fight to stop this kind of mining.

Pretty good story. I rated it ✿✿✿

Night's Honor by Thea Harrison, Buddy Read (at least I hope it counts as BR. There has been very little conversation. )
Finished 11/25/14, 3 stars

The Old Blue Line by J.A. Jance 144 pages 11/25 ★★★

Skandia wrote: "Night's Honor by Thea Harrison, Buddy Read (at least I hope it counts as BR. There has been very little conversation. )
Finished 11/25/14, 3 stars"

Skandia, could you point me to where the buddy read thread is? I can't seem to find it.

It's one the Back Room BR threads.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I don't know if Captains have the automatic access to it but I think Lauren has been invited.

You have to ask the mods for an invite to the Back Room BR - You can ask in this thread: Back Room BRs

No problems. I have put it on the spreadsheet without a link, but if it needs one, Lauren, perhaps you could add it?

NancyHelen wrote: "No problems. I have put it on the spreadsheet without a link, but if it needs one, Lauren, perhaps you could add it?"

Sure thing!

Done :0)

Arcadia by Lauren Groff 304 pages 11/27 ★★

Duck the Halls by Donna Andrews 320 pages 11/27 ★★★

Finished by Karin Slaughter 28/11 ★★★★
- Good but not for the faint of heart. I really like Hank, there were some strong emotional scenes with him. Other characters aren't that likeable, their behaviour are quite erratic, especially Lena. Still enjoying it a lot.
- 470 pages

by Lisa Marie Rice
finished 11/28/14, 326 pages, ★★★★★

Surprisingly good romantic suspense about a woman relocated to small town in Idaho under witness protection program with couple of hired killers trying to reveal her location and silence her as a witness before a mob trial.

|| 304 pp || ★★★

|| ★★★

|| ★★ || BoM || 479 pp ||

|| ★★ || Buddy Read || 226 pp

A lot were left unexplained, too bad because the premise was good.

Kathleen, could you tell me how many pages Foresworn has? The spreadsheet hasn't picked it up so I need to do a manual override.

◆ Merry Christmas, Alex Cross by James Patterson 352 pages 11/29 ★★★★

Works for our Christmas challenge

by Charlie N. Holmberg, 224 pages, finished 11/29/14, 4 stars, BuddyRead

Actually very good fantasy book. Very unique take on magic but those unanswered questions and poor overall world building just dragged my rating to 3,5 stars and I rounded it to 4 stars for GR

Hi Nancy. I don't know how many pages it is? How do I check? It's the Kindle edition.

Kathleen, I believe we can calculate it based on the word count. Not being a Kindle user, I can only assume you can take a word count from the Kindle? If so, could you let me know what it is? We should be able to make an estimate from that, although I will try to get confirmation.

NancyHelen wrote: "Kathleen, I believe we can calculate it based on the word count. Not being a Kindle user, I can only assume you can take a word count from the Kindle? If so, could you let me know what it is? We sh..."

Amazon shows Foresworn for kindle being 195 pages. Hope that helps.

Sheila wrote: "Amazon shows Foresworn for kindle being 195 pages. Hope that helps. "

When I slide my finger up, it shows 3518. Is that the word count? I just got the Kindle a few weeks now and I guess I don't know my way around it as I should. Let's just go with 195 pages to make all our lives easier. I just got the ebook for a book tour and thought maybe Goodreads would just pick it up or something. Sorry for the bother Nancy.

Thank you Sheila!

Kathleen wrote: "Sheila wrote: "Amazon shows Foresworn for kindle being 195 pages. Hope that helps. "

When I slide my finger up, it shows 3518. Is that the word count? I just got the Kindle a few weeks now and I g..."

Kathleen, 3518 is Kindle locations, one location is equivalent to approximately 122-125 characters including spaces, or 22-23 words.

New post for a new month:

Lauren

2014-thundercats

Books Read

November



Kiss Me, Annabel by Eloisa James - 383 pages, ★★★
The Fire Lord's Lover by Kathryn Kennedy - 378 pages, ★★
Evidence of Trust by Stacey Joy Netzel - 316 pages ★★★1/2
Twice Tempted by Jeaniene Frost - 360 ★★★★
Crash and Burn by Allison Brennan & Laura Griffin, 315 pages ★★★★
My Favorite Bride by Christina Dodd, 375 pages ★★★
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, 550 pages, Buddy Read ★★★★
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness, 561 pages, Buddy Read ★★★★
Lord of Devil Isle by Connie Mason ★★★★
Open Season by Linda Howard, 337 pages ★★★1/2
Endgame by Dee Davis, 339 pages ★★★1/2
A Wedding in Springtime by Amanda Forester, 391 pages ★★

December



The Lazarus Machine by Paul Crilley, 280 pages, ★★★★
Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder, 441 pages, ★★★
Freefall by JoAnn Ross, 400 pages, ★★★1/2
A SEAL's Surrender by Tawny Weber, 224 pages, ★★★★
Lead Me On by Victoria Dah, 344 pages, ★★★★1/2
The Strangers on Montagu Street by Karen White, 352 pages, ★★★★1/2

3518 sounds like location. I've had kindles for years and I don't know how to determine page count so don't feel bad Kathleen. I just refer to Amazon for all things kindle.

So that would be 3518 divisible by 22-23? Or not? I'm really bad at this Math thing.

Lauren wrote: "New post for a new month:

Lauren

2014-thundercats

Books Read

November

[bookc..."

Wowza what a team we have!!

Lauren wrote: "New post for a new month:

Lauren

2014-thundercats

Books Read

November

[bookc..."

Whoah! I feel like I could just lay back and watch everyone read and still win thing challenge! GO TEAM! :)

Sheila wrote: "3518 sounds like location. I've had kindles for years and I don't know how to determine page count so don't feel bad Kathleen. I just refer to Amazon for all things kindle."

I'll take that as a tip. Note to self: refer to Amazon for all things Kindle. :D

I don't even come close to Cynthia and Sheila, our reading machines!

I think Cynthia is our power house. She leaves me in her dust. The rest of you are doing a lot more on the BR's than I am. I'm just reading what I want to read.

I'm taking the buddy reads to drive myself into reading some books that have been sitting in my shelf for some time. Two birds one stone!

Kathleen wrote: "So that would be 3518 divisible by 22-23? Or not? I'm really bad at this Math thing."

I think you should multiply to get the approx. word count :)

Skandia wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "So that would be 3518 divisible by 22-23? Or not? I'm really bad at this Math thing."

I think you should multiply to get the approx. word count :)"

Oh right! My bad. I was thinking of the page count.

@Nancy, I guess it would be 3518*22=77,396 words.

Tip for Kindle/ebook users: The electronic page count wildly fluctuates depending on device. The upcoming BOM Ruby Read has 337 pp in the Kindle edition and 203 in the epub, which is what iPad and Nook users read. Those books have the same word count.
If the Kindle edition is way off from the Goodreads default edition, I will simply use the default which is the preferred edition for challenges, usually.

Set your bookshelves to show page numbers and you won't have to look up page counts anymore.

My books for my vacation week. I did start a couple of audiobooks, but mostly I didn't get much reading done.



Fire Study 448 pp, ★★★, Series Buddy Read

The Glass Magician 224 pp, ★★★ (barely), Buddy Read
I don't know why I keep reading this series. The main character is the most annoying person ever.

Poison Flower 418 pp (because it's large print, 288 real pages, I believe), ★★★

Shift608 pp, ★★★★, Buddy Read

I will probably be doing less buddy reads and BOMs in the future. Some of them are quite short, like The Glass Magician or Winter's Bone. Those books count against my book count the same as Shift or Sarum.

I was reviewing the spreadsheet and I noticed that nobody has received credit for the BOM. Am I the only one that's read it? Do we get the credit when it's over?

◆ Notorious by Allison Brennan 336 pages 11/30 ★★★★

Cynthia wrote: "I was reviewing the spreadsheet and I noticed that nobody has received credit for the BOM. Am I the only one that's read it? Do we get the credit w..."

I read that BOM too, gave it a 2 and participated in the discussions.

786 pp, ★★★★, Buddy Read

I didn't enjoy the 2nd entry in this series as much as I did the first, but that may be because I read it so soon after. It was still an excellent book, and had more of the emotional element than book 1. I will definitely continue with the series.

Cynthia wrote: " 786 pp, ★★★★, Buddy Read"

Cynthia, I read the 3 books in the series so far, and I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the 4th in 2015, but Lies of Locke Lamora is by far in my opinion the best. (view spoiler)[I think it's because so many of the main cast of characters got killed in the first book and the lack of their presence shows in the subsequent books. I feel that 'void' where in the first book you got attached to interesting characters as Bug, Nazca (especially Nazca imo), Caldo, even the bondsmage etc. Book 2 has a completely other feel to it, although not necessarily bad but less like Lies if that makes sense.
I was disappointed with the 3rd book for a whole other reason. (hide spoiler)]

Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson 336 pages 12/1 ★★★★

finished 12/1 ★★★★
BR of Walt Longmire Series

I think this was my favorite so far.

I have quite a bit of spreadsheet updating to do today. I will get on to it hopefully by lunchtime. Just got to go and get the baby up (I can hear her gurgling away in her cot...)

Finished by Gordon Andrews, 2 December, ★★★★
- Collection of short stories from Curran's point of view set during or between the first 4 books in the Kate Daniels series. Enjoyed it a lot! Here kitty kitty
- 157 pages

|| ★★★★ || 339 pages || Series Buddy Read

I can't wait to read Parker's story.

OK, I think we're all up to date now. If you all don't mind checking each of your entries just to make sure I have caught all of the BRs and BOMs and got everything recorded, that would be great.

OK, I think we are up to date to Post #150. But if you would all be able to go and check your entries on the spreadsheet, just to make sure I haven't missed any more BOMs or BRs, that would be great!

358 pp, ★★★★, This book is a Buddy Read that I read early because it was a library waitlisted book. I'll have to claim the BR points later.

464 pp, ★★★★★,
Another Buddy Read, but again I can't claim the points yet because Kathleen and I are the only ones discussing it so far.

I won't forget to claim my BR points, don't worry!

|| ★★★ || 486 pages

Too many cliches.

Oh I think this qualifies for Nancy's mini challenge. (1) I've got Kiss in the title and there's kissing under the mistletoe during the season. (2) The cover's green. It's one of the season's color! (3) The title's got deception. There's a lot of deception going on duirng Christmas, parents trying to sneak their presents and claiming Santa came... secret santas at work... So that's 3 points? ;) Do these justifications pass quality control? ;)

Kathleen wrote: " || ★★★ || 486 pages

Too many cliches.

Oh I think this qualifies for Nancy's mini challenge. (1) I've got Kiss in the title and there's kissing under th..."

I am loving the way you think, Kathleen!

I have a couple of books for Santa's Quest.

337 pp, ★★★. BOM
Fits into the 'Paint Remover' section of Fix Santa's Sleigh.

100 pp, ★★
I rated this 2 stars because I wasn't expecting a book with this title to be a romance, and the blurb was about the murder. It may be a good romance if you like that kind of thing, but I don't.

Fits into the 'New Harnesses' slot in Fix Santa's Sleigh. And I will read the 4th novella to fill the other slot. Because it's short and free.