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

Kristie you can get rid of my "options"

You can squeeze me into the world part of the chain with: The Mirrored World

Christina wrote: "Kristie... If I am not mistaken we can make love at the bottom of the chain... if so add Make Death Love Me for me. It will open up some options for Lauri also"

We definitely can. I added it.

Lauri wrote: "Just checking...
Would it help at all if I were to read Lost & The Lost Hero myself?
I only get books from the library -- no ereaders for me. I just don't like them...."

Sure, Lauri. You can start a new chain with those two. Books added to a new chain are 5 points each. If you can add to the longer chain they are 15 points each. So, if you are able to get books from the library to add in, that's great, but if you're limited to what you have on hand I understand that too.

I have you down for:
The Accidental Beauty Queen
Lost
The Lost Hero

How many books do you think you'll be able to read in a week?

Vicki wrote: "Kristie you can get rid of my "options"

You can squeeze me into the world part of the chain with: The Mirrored World"

Got it.

@Kristie- I found an audio of Black Dahlia & White Rose: Stories.. I still want to read Black Rose, but it is chunky. I think I should just switch it out now.

Christina wrote: "@Kristie- I found an audio of Black Dahlia & White Rose: Stories.. I still want to read Black Rose, but it is chunky. I think I should just switch it out now."

Ok, I updated it.

I was thinking the same about The Rose Code. It's probably too long for a toppler. I may sub it out for something shorter that still fits, but we'll see how my first two books go. Maybe I'll have enough time.

Kristie, feel free to get rid of my options.

I’ll read Death Comes to Pemberley, which links to “death” at the end of the chain.

I have a series I want to read that will connect to Love.
Love Bites
Love Bleeds
Love Heals

I'll keep them in mind and watch to see if anyone will match Bites, Bleeds, or Heals.

Also, for Lauri's Lost connection I can read The Lion Tamer Who Lost if you want,

Uh-oh. Found another book to link to Love.
A Dragon's Love Song

And there are three more in the series with Dragon's as a link.
Under the Dragon's Spell
A Dragon's Miracle
The Dragon's Perfect Omega

TrudyAn wrote: "Kristie, feel free to get rid of my options.

I’ll read Death Comes to Pemberley, which links to “death” at the end of the chain."

Got it.

I see jaxnsmom has several possibilities linking to love. Instead of reading Death Comes to Pemberly (which I’m not really in the mood for anyway), I could switch to something that would link to one of the books listed in msg 108 and 109. I’ll check my library to see what I might be able to get quickly.

J'mom - Did you want me to add the love books? And the dragon books?

Love Bites
Love Bleeds
Love Heals
A Dragon's Love Song
Under the Dragon's Spell
A Dragon's Miracle
The Dragon's Perfect Omega

TrudyAn - That's fine. I'll remove Death Comes to Pemberly. If J'mom decides she wants to add all of the books listed above, then try to link to one of the last 3 because they'll be interchangeable for now.

J'mom- Lauri has two books linked, so we don't need to add to that chain, but we can if that's a book that you really want to read.

Okay, I can link to Under the Dragon’s Spell with Under One Roof: Lessons I Learned from a Tough Old Woman in a Little Old House.

Kristie wrote: "Lauri wrote: "Just checking...
Would it help at all if I were to read Lost & The Lost Hero myself?
I only get books from the library -- no ereaders for me. I just do..."

I can definitely read 3 books! If we decide to add on 'death' as a link, I also have Immortal in Death. I can handle a 4th. Thank you everyone! I feel so much more useful now.

Are you sure TrudyAn? I don't want to usurp you. I see you didn't really want to read Pemberly, but want to be sure.

Kristie - you can definitely add the first four love books and Under the Dragon's Spell. Hold off on the other two. If I have time for more I'll either read the other two or keep an eye out for a needed link. I think I went overboard and already planned too much when I wanted to be flexible. 😳 As the chains keep being built, I'll keep an eye out.

As for the lion book, I didn't know if you wanted to add to that chain.

I see Lauri's adding a Death link. I'll do whatever helps the team the best, so tell me if you want me to change anything.

I added Dragon's & Under as connecting words.

J'mom:
Love Bites
Love Bleeds
Love Heals
A Dragon's Love Song
Under the Dragon's Spell

TrudyAn:
Under One Roof

If everyone could please take a look at the main post and make sure all your info is correct that would be great. I just want to make sure we all have the same expectations because if there's a mistake, it will be hard to fix later. Thanks! Planning post

Lauri wrote: "Kristie wrote: "Lauri wrote: "Just checking...
Would it help at all if I were to read Lost & The Lost Hero myself?
I only get books from the library -- no ereaders f..."

Sorry, Lauri! We ended up not doing a death link.

These are the current link words for the first chain: Rose, Black, Dead, House, End, Without, Hitman's, Guide, World, Storm, Ice, Queen, Love, News, Dragon's, Under

And link word Lost for second chain.

You are definitely being useful! All the points are helpful. :)

Make Death Love Me isn't actually under my name, but it is in the list. You can add Accidental Hero to my list to close the chain.

Christina wrote: "Make Death Love Me isn't actually under my name, but it is in the list. You can add Accidental Hero to my list to close the chain."

Accidental Hero will link chain 1 and 2 together right?

Good job keeping track of this Kristie!

Christina wrote: "Make Death Love Me isn't actually under my name, but it is in the list. You can add Accidental Hero to my list to close the chain."

Funny! I just said that to my husband... I have one more in the chains than I do below... just found it and came back here. :) It is fixed now and I will add Accidental Hero for you too. You are amazing at linking the chains!

We are back to having one chain! The following is the list of connecting words. Book titles with any of the following words can fit in the chain somewhere:

Rose, Black, Dead, House, End, Without, Hitman's, Guide, World, Storm, Ice, Queen, Love, News, Dragon's, Under, Lost, Hero, Accidental

Current words in first and last books to add to: Lost, Under, One, Roof (I kind of like that as its own title. lol)

Thanks, Vicki!

jaxnsmom wrote: "Are you sure TrudyAn? I don't want to usurp you. I see you didn't really want to read Pemberly, but want to be sure.”

Definitely not a problem, jaxnsmom. I’d rather read the “under” book anyway. The library better not let me down!

You can add one for me at the top of the chain with Things We Lost in the Fire.
That should give us some good words to work with if anyone still wants to add some books.

I might drop one of my "Guide" books as it wont effect anything. We'll see how the week goes.

That works, Vicki. Added. Just let me know later if you decide to drop one so I can pull it out.

Just about 26 hours until the toppler begins! How is everyone doing? Are you all ready to begin? I have a couple of books that I'm in the middle of that I will need to put aside, but I'm excited about my toppler reads and looking forward to getting started. :)

I started a reporting thread for our team. You can find it here: Fourged Together Books reported. I'll link it to the first comment as well so it's easy to find when you need it.

I'm looking forward to this! I also have found a couple more books that I can tuck in to the love part of the chain and the black part of the chain if I end up finishing the books I have already pledged. I forgot I have a three day weekend too!

That' excellent, Katrisa! I love a surprise long weekend.

I had poor timing with getting our puppy! I have had no reading time. Fortunately, Craig will be home for a couple of days at least and I already warned him that I will need to be doing a lot of reading. I also have audios, so I should be able to listen even while wrangling the pup.

I have a couple of other books available to me that I can slot in to connecting words that we already have, but I doubt I'll have time to read any extra. I already committed to what is probably my reading limit. I'm always hopeful.

So ready, even though I am putting a couple books aside also.

I have a few audio that I might add, time permitting. I am hoping to finish one on the first day and start three.

I hate to bug you, but could you see if The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA would qualify. I couldn't find a reason why not, but the audio is so short that I thought that maybe I am missing something.

Not bugging me at all! The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA works. The hardcover is the first listed and it has 208 pages. It could have a faster speaking narrator or something. Just make sure it's not an abridged edition and you should be fine.

Received my tea and a new pair of comfy slippers with moose on the. I have a big pot of vegetable soup done and working on a cinnamon coffee cake. Taking tomorrow seriously. LOL!

Woot! Go, Sharon!

I also got new slippers and toppler tea! Looks like we had the same plan.

LOL! Ready to go! Maybe the new puppy will sleep. LOL!

Ha! I'm just hoping she sleeps through the night tonight. :)

My husband is a good sport with my book obsession! I did promise some time sans earphones with him this weekend :).
I just got my second dose of vaccine yesterday and I feel like garbage! So maybe tomorrow all I will want to do is stay in bed and book anyway!

Kristie wrote: "Ha! I'm just hoping she sleeps through the night tonight. :)"

It's been a fat minute since I have had a puppy, but they are intense!

They definitely are! We adopt, so it's been a long time since we had a little puppy too. Our last couple of dogs were 7 months old and about 1 year old when we adopted them.

Fortunately, my husband is a good sport about it too. He'll help out with the pup while he's home this weekend. Although, I'm sure he'd appreciate (and is expecting) some time sans headphones as well.

I'm sorry you're feeling crummy, but glad you were able to get vaccinated. That must be a relief. I hope you feel better quickly.

It's such a relief to be vaccinated! I had 3 kids in my class test positive for covid in January! My school just opened pretty much normal except for masks (and kindergartners are not great at those) so this year has been stressful!!!

Oh, that would be so stressful! I'm surprised they could keep the school open with 3 kids in a class testing positive. That would mean all the kids (and you!) were exposed. You would think they'd have to close at least the classroom for 2 weeks. Did they doing a cleaning or anything?

And no, I would not expect kindergarteners to be good about masks or not spreading germs in general.

It sounds like we're prepared to get a good start. I have my teas waiting and I've ordered chocolate truffles that should arrive in the next few days. I thought I owned several of my books, but when I checked my kindle - nope, they're not in my library. Thankfully they're in KU. I've tried to line up my books so they're ready and waiting, but kindle's done something to the format and it's a real pain finding some of them.

Katrisa - Sorry you're feeling crappy, but I'm so glad to hear you've gotten both doses of the vaccine! Wow, you could be heading to having your life back.
I can't believe they kept the school open, especially your class. My family's in Virginia and public schools are closed. However, my one niece and nephew go to private school and they're open. My niece's teacher tested positive for covid this week and the entire 6th grade is in quarantine. Since she has contact with her brother he's in quarantine too. I'm sure they're going nuts being stuck in their rooms - thank goodness for video games! I only hope my brother survives.

I picked up my books from the library today, and I’m ready to start.

jaxnsmom wrote: "It sounds like we're prepared to get a good start. I have my teas waiting and I've ordered chocolate truffles that should arrive in the next few days. I thought I owned several of my books, but whe..."

Wow! When our teachers test positive they do nothing! I can't believe they quarantined the 6th grade because a teacher was positive! My state/school cares not at all. That's why I am sooooooooo glad that they at least moved teachers to the top of the vaccine list!

Also - my sister lives in VA! I visit from time to time. Where are you at? My sis lives in C-ville and my dad lived in Suffolk for years

Kristie wrote: "Oh, that would be so stressful! I'm surprised they could keep the school open with 3 kids in a class testing positive. That would mean all the kids (and you!) were exposed. You would think they'd h..."

They only quarantined the kids that sat at the same table :/
And that's only MY classroom!

That's just crazy, Katrisa. I'm really glad they moved teachers up the list for vaccinations though. I think they should do that everywhere.

I have all my books prepped and ready to go! Just twelve more hours!!

Just a couple of pre-toppler thoughts -

If you haven't planned your reading order yet, please plan to read books that are necessary to maintain the chain first and books that use a repeated connecting word last. That way, if for any reason you can't finish all your reads, it will be likely that the read you miss can be skipped without breaking the chain.

Also, if you're not going to be able to finish a read, please let us know as soon as possible. Sometimes, someone can jump in and cover it for you so that the team doesn't lose points. It doesn't always work out that way, but it's worth a shot.

If, on the other hand, you find that you will have time for an additional read (yay, you!), feel free to choose any of the connecting words or link to the first or last book, just let us know as soon as possible so that we can update the thread. I wouldn't want to not be able to count someone's book because we can't fit it in due to not communicating or updating the list. I will do my best to update frequently.

Really excited to toppler with all of you! :)

Current Connecting Words: Rose, Black, Dead, House, End, Without, Hitman's, Guide, World, Storm, Ice, Queen, Love, News, Dragon's, Under, Lost, Hero, Accidental

Current First Book: Things We Lost in the Fire

Current Last Book: Under One Roof

Kudos to all teachers. I am just glad my kids are in school. I am no teacher... just don't have the patience for it.

Katrisa wrote: "Also - my sister lives in VA! I visit from time to time. Where are you at? My sis lives in C-ville and my dad lived in Suffolk for years."

I'm in West Virginia. My dad and brother (and his family) are in Lynchburg, and my sister's in Richmond. It really is a small world. Where do you live?

I'm in Hawaii & I work at the State Hospital. Yes, mental hospital. I'm in medical records, so non direct care, thank God. We come under the Dept. of Health, so were among the first to get the vaccine back in December. I was hesitant to get it at first, but now I'm happy I did it. I had a bad reaction to the 2nd dose, too, but it only lasted a few days. I had to go to the hospital earlier this week for a colonoscopy & I was very thankful to have been vaccinated already!
Right now they're only vaccinating healthcare professionals & elders over age 75. The general public is eligible if their doctor recommends them as being at high risk. Teachers are not even close to receiving the vaccine! Crazy! Public schools are still doing distance learning.
My father-in-law had a heart attack on Thursday night & is the hospital. He's 91 years old & has only had his first dose of vaccine. So scary for him.
On a brighter note, I've got my books and I'm ready to roll!

I've got everything downloaded and ready to go. Less than two hours!

My mom's gotten both shots and that is such a relief. Teachers should definitely be a priority though I don't think they are here either.

Hopefully your father in law recovers quickly Lauri, hospitals are not a great place to be right now. (not that they ever were)