Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Belém Tower




Team Members
• Judith Captain
• Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* Co-Captain
• Lexi Co-Captain
• Cathy M.
• Melanie
• Susan
• Diane
• Suzanne
• Linda C
• Maria Jo
• Ann S
• Steven



• Ashlee

Team Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Challenge Status: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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Member Shelves
• Judith: tt2025
• Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*: towers2025
• Lexi: tt2025
• Cathy M.: tt11 belem tower
• Melanie: tower teams xi
• Susan: tower team 2025
• Diane: 00 nbrc tower teams
• Suzanne: 25tt
• Ashlee: towersxi
• Linda C: tower xi
• Maria Jo: tower xi
• Ann S: tower2025
• Steven: tower teams around the world

Important Links and Information

Spreadsheets
Tracking Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...


General Links
General Rules
Pre-Challenge Chat


Resources
Cover Color: https://labs.tineye.com/color/
Word Count: https://www.arbookfind.com/UserType.a...
https://www.arbookfind.com.au/UserTyp...
https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/UserType...

Countdowns
Start of TTXI: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Current Unclaimed Tasks for Mini 2:

Read a book where two people with different religions interact
Read a banned book
Read a book set in the time period "Post Modern"
Read a book with the sky on the cover
Read a book with an unearthly mode of transportation on the cover (i.e., spaceships allowed)
Read a book with a title that starts with one of the letters found in TRAVEL (Articles may not be used but can be ignored)
Read a book that is stand-alone
Read a book with the word highway, road, avenue or street in the title (Plurals are acceptable)

Current Countries and open tasks for Mini 3: Korea, Canada

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Red, Blue, White and Black on cover
character goes to the spa
letters SEOUL in title (any order)
MPG Science
character works in technology
K
O
R
E
A

.

Book of the Month Information
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points.

May:
May 16th - What the River Knows- Discussion is here

June:
June 2 - Great Big Beautiful Life - Discussion is here
June 16 - The Berry Pickers - Discussion is here

July:
Poll closes June 7

Links for Finding Countries
Note: You will still need to check author or over 50% of the book set there to still qualify.

1. https://readaroundtheworldchallenge.c...
2. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_... - This group has lists for every country by continent.
3. https://strongsenseofplace.com/ - more for fun but has some lists as well (thanks to Susan for this one)


Also, countries where we already have two books claimed (you can see this in yellow on the planning sheet):
Hard
Tanzania
Uganda
Kuwait
Ethiopia

Medium
Taiwan

Also, mine.

Hello members of team Belém Tower!

Most of you are familiar from around the challenge circuit, but for those that don't know me I'm Judith and captain of the team for around Tower Team trip around the world! I'm also one of the moderators of this group and partially responsible for this crazy challenge.

I hope everyone is looking forward to a fun few months together!

Over the next couple days Lexi, Erin and I will be getting everything sorted and ready to go for the start of TT next Saturday, including a tracking sheet. But since we seemed to be ready, we figured we'd leave the thread open and let people start to check in.

We have a few mini challenges happening, all which run the length of the challenge, so don't forget to check those out as well.

Happy Reading everyone!

Hi all, My name is Lexi (she/her/hers). I live in Atlanta, and I work in global health and parasitology. I enjoy reading fantasy and sci-fi generally, but I’m also trying to read a book from an author from every country. Mini 1 is great for that. I have co-captained before with Judith and look forward to co-captaining with Erin for this TTs.

I will get the BOM details up this evening or tomorrow. I will also post some of my favorite books from “hard countries” for Mini 1 if anyone else wants to read them and feel free to post your own suggestions.

Please feel free to ask any question now and throughout.

Hello, all! Like Judith and Lexi, I am a long-time player of Team Towers in different roles, whether previous captain, co-captain, or regular player. It's my favorite competitive team challenge, love the themes, minis and enthusiasm. Excited on this theme and getting to play with you all.

For personal, I'm a single female with a 24 year old son who lives with me in Central FL. We have three adorable cats: Malz, Oscar, and Raven. I've worked as an Outpatient Intake Coordinator for a non-profit clinical counseling program for 12 years.

I read e-books, paperbacks, and audio primarily. With Libby, I do a lot of digital borrowing, and also have Kindle Unlimited and Audible Premium Plus which comes in handy with Towers.

Most of my reading is adult fiction - Urban Fantasy, Mysteries of all kinds and sorts including noir and hard-case crime types and cozies, Certain forms of romance, Horror, General Fiction. I will read any genre but have more issues with High Fantasy and Magical Realism types depending. For Young Adult I have been re-reading a lot of Retro YA from my childhood, and enjoy some YA mysteries and drama. Have been having fun with middle grade audiobooks of all things the past two years.

I am a big pre-planner with monthly and yearly goals - I already had some other country plans for this month set as Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man (Japan???); Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Australia), Cult of the Kraken (Scotland). I'll have to do some more searching. I know my Amelia Peabody re-reads work for Egypt usually.

I know we'll all have fun!

Please remember to make a shelf for TT and please link it here if I don't have it linked above.

Oh Captain, my captain! Judith - so glad to be on one of your teams again! And to be on a team again with several of you!

Hi all, I'm Cathy. Currently living in Charleston but I still work as an Office Manager of a law firm in LA so travel the last week of every month (meaning I'll be a little less active those weeks) back to office for meetings. The hubster and I adopted a dog recently (12-wk old now golden retriever named Whiskey) who is taking so much more of my time than I anticipated. I've only had cats before so every day is a learning experience for all of us.

I mostly read Fantasy but will try to read other genres if it gets us points :) I haven't played TT in a while but look forward to playing this round with everyone!

My shelf is tt11-belem-tower:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Flying Squirrels forever!! haha :)

Hello team. I'm so happy to see some familiar faces, and some faces that will be familiar in a few short months!

I'm Suzanne - I live in Idaho with my husband and 1 son - and have another son and daughter that don't live with us. I have a Big English Mastiff that is super well behaved - but that's because he's not a puppy. Good thing puppies are so cute, right Cathy?

I will be reading a lot of science fiction/fantasy because I'm voting in the Hugo awards, and want to be a responsible voter. I'll knock off the novellas and short stories this week since they wouldn't count for tt points. And I must be super excited for this challenge because I already found several books that fit some of the "hard" countries. Admittedly, my husband and I looked several of those up - I'd never heard of them!

My shelf is 25tt: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Judith wrote: "Flying Squirrels forever!! haha :)"

YYYYEEEESSSS!!!! I can't believe how long ago that was...

Suzanne wrote: "Hello team. I'm so happy to see some familiar faces, and some faces that will be familiar in a few short months!

I'm Suzanne - I live in Idaho with my husband and 1 son - and have another son and ..."

Why did no one tell me how much work puppies are?!?!?! If only he would stop peeing in the house. I try to take him out at least every 2 hours but he got so excited to get out of his playpen/crate area that he just had to pee on the carpet *sigh* He's done that twice now so he's on a tight leash when going around the house. Yes, it does help that he's cute and so lovey. When I came home last week from LA he was so excited to see me and wouldn't let me leave his side for hours. Cats don't do that :( I'm looking forward to the day that I finally quit my LA job and get something local so I finally get a kitten.

Hi all, I recognize a lot of you from various challenges.

I'm Melanie and I live in New Jersey (right across the river from Philadelphia) with my husband and our two cats (Marty and Sasha). I've worked in the finance department at a book publisher for the last 13 years.

I primarily read romance (historical, suspense, contemporary, paranormal) and mystery thrillers with the occasional cozy mystery, urban fantasy, or sci-fi. I mostly read just adult but I'll occasionally pick up a YA mystery. I'll pick up almost anything for a challenge though even if it's outside my usual genres. I have a pretty big personal library as well as access to my county library, Everand, and Kindle Unlimited so I can usually find something that fits a task that I want to read.

I'll take a look at the countries list and see if I have anything on my shelves that will fit or if I'll need to do more digging.

Mini 2 has a lot of tasks that aren’t directly tied to countries.

Only 10 of those tasks are currently known. Well unless you are bored and go look at other teams. Each teams’ tasks will pop up in a different order, but are the same 100 tasks.

Cathy M. wrote: "Oh Captain, my captain! Judith - so glad to be on one of your teams again! And to be on a team again with several of you!

Hi all, I'm Cathy. Currently living in Charleston but I still work as an O..."

I absolutely adore the name Whiskey for your new dog. I no longer can have dogs, but adore them - they're handfuls but priceless. I had a friend who kept naming her dogs like that, she had Bourbon and then Brandy. Another friend inherited a chihuahua named Tequila lol

Book of the Month Info

The first BOM starts right after we start on May 18th. You can volunteer for DQS or just join to answer questions. Discussion is here.

Since both books are very popular and if you need to find copies, the two BOM books for June are Great Big Beautiful Life (June 2) and The Berry Pickers (June 16)

Next, feel free to nominate a book for the July two BOMs. Nominations are open until May 27th so lots of time.
July Adult
July Theme - Mountains

Please ask any questions if anything is unclear. The info is also at the top of this thread.

The Berry Pickers sounds good to me.

Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* wrote: "The Berry Pickers sounds good to me."

I read it about 6 months ago and enjoyed it. Also, it is a good audio.

Hi, Linda C here. I recognize several names on our team list and think I have been on teams with some of you.

I live in Upstate NY near Rochester with my husband and am a retired college librarian. I have a huge book collection to draw from, so usually have little trouble finding books for tasks. I will look at the minis and see what might work from my shelves.

I have The Berry Pickers on my kindle, so that's one I will read for sure.

I've tried reading Emily Henry before and don't like her books/writing style so I'm going to skip that one. But my library has The Berry Pickers so I've put a hold on that one. I'm 10th in line but there are 7 copies so I feel like it should come in by the time the buddy read comes around.

I also added nominations for the July BOMs.

Some books that I have on my shelves for Countries

Mid-level
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team - Thailand - Middle Grades: 42,568/AR Bookfinder
A Spear of Summer Grass - Kenya
Singapore Sapphire - Singapore

Hard
The Bird Hotel - Guatemala

Hi team! I'm excited to jump into another Tower Teams!

I live in Kansas with my husband, and we are currently expecting our first child. I didn't get much reading done in the first trimester, so I'm excited for this challenge to help me get a lot more reading done now that I'm feeling better! The family I tutor for is also going to be on vacation for most of this challenge, so I will have more time as I won't be working!

I read a lot of mystery, historical fiction, and nonfiction. I'm excited to explore some new places with some of the Minis! It is going to be hard to wait another week to start reading!

Congratulations on your first child, Maria Jo! That's exciting!

I found Great Big Beautiful Life on Spotify premium, if that helps anyone.

Here are some of the mini-challenge hard country books I found - but they should probably be double-checked. I did my best though to check on them :) I'll try to read quite a few of them - I own them all.

Croatia - The Collaborator’s Daughter
Albania The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax
Bosnia People of the Book 50%??
Honduras The Lost City of the Monkey God
Lithuania Spinning Silver Fantasy so only based on
Montenegro The Black Mountain
Philippines - Along the Broken Bay
Somalia Keeping Hope Alive: One Woman: 90,000 Lives Changed
Tanzania Trade Wind

Anyway - hope that helps! It gives me a potential book list anyway :)

Thanks! I'm doing some pre-hunting today

Just checking in from spring gardening time Louisville Kentucky. I’m Susan aka Lexi’s mother and enjoy how doing challenges with her leads my reading in new directions. My most common reads are mysteries, historical fiction ( and no, the 60’s and later don’t count!) and literary fiction. My goal is at least 12 non-fiction this year. Please check out my profile to see my new Digby adopted at 10 Mos from Louisville Metro shelter.

These are all some good suggestions. Just make sure that the book is over 50% set in that place.

Just from quick checking, I would suggest you double check People of the Book as it seems to be multiple places.

Also, the tag on Goodreads cannot always be trusted so Spinning Silver is actually set in the fictional place of Lithvas, "a fictional country with with elements of Lithuanian, Polish, and Russian history and culture."

The others look great.

I tend to do my planning by where the author was born, which allows more flexibility by location, so I am planning:

Kintu - Uganda
The Gilded Ones - Sierra Leone
How Beautiful We Were - Cameroon
That Other Me - The United Arab Emirates

I have read and liked:
The Old Drift and Out of Darkness, Shining Light - Zambia
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina - Ecuador

For some tiny ones but still good (maybe wait for the end of the month when you haven't reached book cap):
The Fisherman King - Brunei Darussalam
Small Country - Burundi
Tentacle - Dominican Republic
The Last Brother - Mauritius
The Blue Sky - Mongolia
Friend - N Korea
The Time of the Goats - N Macedonia
Celestial Bodies - Oman
The Ardent Swarm - Tunisia
It Would Be Night in Caracas - Venezuela

At this point, I have read an author from about 60% of the countries in the world so if you want help with a country, feel free to ask.

Thanks for double checking those Lexi! I'll edit my list. And ty for your suggestions!

Hi team! Looking forward to getting this game started!

Here are our current tasks for Mini 2:

Read a book where the first word of the text is "One"
Read a book with short stories
Read a book where a character packs a bag (overnight, luggage, suitcase, with the intention of being away for at least one night)
Read a book first published in December of any year
Read a book that is an against all odds / survival story
Read a book with MPG Contemporary
Read a book first published in July of any year
Read a book first published in June of any year
Read a book which has several locations, none for over 50% of the book
Read a book written in first person narration


I will try to keep these updated in post 6. And as captains log books and we get new tasks, we'll post new tasks in the thread.

Our first 2 countries for Mini 3 are:
Spain, Japan

Author born in Spain
Red and Yellow on cover
features a bull
church or cathedral on cover
mentions Don Quixote
character eats seafood
S
P
A
I
N

Author born in Japan
Red and White on cover
character eats Sushi
cherry tree(s) and/or blossom(s) on cover
features a geisha
"temple" in text
J
A
P
A
N


I'll do my best to have these up to date in post 7. And like with mini 2, as we get new countries, we'll post here in the thread.

Ann wrote: "Hi team! Looking forward to getting this game started!"

Hello Ann! Do you have a challenge shelf?

Maria Jo wrote: "Hi team! I'm excited to jump into another Tower Teams!

I live in Kansas with my husband, and we are currently expecting our first child. I didn't get much reading done in the first trimester, so I..."

Congratulations!! That's very exciting

Lexi has put together a lovely tracking spreadsheet for the team to use. I will also have this linked in a top post.

You will only really need to edit 2 tabs, the books tab, and the BOM tab (if you participate). The mini challenge tabs auto populate from the Books tab.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

please let us know if you have any questions.

Also if you are not comfortable using spreadsheets or are having access issues, please post the relevant info the thread and one of the captains will log the information for you.

Thank you Lexi!!

Thank you, Judith.

Also, if you go to the sheet for the first mini, you will see a list of countries to the right. The number next to the country will turn yellow if we already have two from that country and will turn red if there are more than two books from a particular country in the mini. Only one from each country can be used per itinerary.

Hello all! The whole time I've been on goodreads I've gone by a pseudonym - DeeDee - but now I've switched to my 'real life' name - Diane. Some of you may have seen me as DeeDee in other team challenges. I'm a senior citizen, married for 40 years to my soul mate, with 4 children (now in their 30s) and 2 granddaughters (now both aged 2). I take care of my disabled son (who lives with us), and, sometimes, I help out with the grandbabies. My life before children included a decade as a NASA contractor.

I've travelled in real life to Canada, England, and Germany.
I like reading science fiction & fantasy; literary fiction; history & biographies. I also read mysteries (good for when you're in waiting rooms!) and the occasional romances. Lately I've been picking up science & psychology books for the 'educated lay reader'.

My team shelf is:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
I read about 8 books per month.
I'll go now and check the spreadsheet.

Linda C wrote: "Some books that I have on my shelves for Countries

Hard
The Bird Hotel - Guatemala"

We have discussed Bird Hotel as captains, and it looks like by the reviews that it is set in an "unnamed Central American country." If it is never stated where even if just city, then it cannot be used for the country but could be for the region (if that was ever relevant). As a side note, if the author is born somewhere, then it does not matter where it is set.

Hi all! I am Ashlee from Pennsylvania. I am an 8th grade Special Education Reading teacher, so I definitely have a love for all things books! I read pretty much anything, but have discovered that fantasy is not really my thing.

My shelf link is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Question: For the travel Itinerary mini - it has this sentence: The next itinerary can only be started once the previous itinerary has been completely finished.
Does that mean we need to watch finish dates? Like, if I have a Croatia book, but strategically it (might be?) better to wait for it to be on a later trip, should I wait to finish it til we are ON that later trip?
I hope that makes sense.

Lexi wrote: "Linda C wrote: "Some books that I have on my shelves for Countries

Hard
The Bird Hotel - Guatemala"

We have discussed Bird Hotel as captains, and it looks like by the reviews that it is set in an..."

Fine with me. I hadn't decided I was going to read it. As for location I was going by the sentence in the blurb - "While the world New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard brings to life on the page is rendered from her imagination, it’s one informed by the more than twenty years of which she has spent a significant amount of her time in a small Mayan indigenous village in Guatemala. "

Happy Monday before the challenge starts. Only this week to go until the 17th!



I'm going to spend the week trying to wrap up some currently reading for other challenges, and starting a book today for another challenge that's "timed". I have not reserved too much on the spreadsheet yet, will know as I get closer and once we begin.

I spent the weekend looking at some lists and other books that fit countries, some look pretty interesting, have no idea yet what I'll be able to get ahold of or read, but it's fun to find new books to add into the roster. Who knows, maybe I'll find some new favorites.