Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

The list has been released. Post here to continue your discussions and dissection of the list.

2017 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge
A book recommended by a librarian
A book that's been on your TBR list for way too long
A book of letters
An audiobook
A book by a person of color
A book with one of the four seasons in the title
A book that is a story within a story
A book with multiple authors
An espionage thriller
A book with a cat on the cover
A book by an author who uses a pseudonym
A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read
A book by or about a person who has a disability
A book involving travel
A book with a subtitle
A book that's published in 2017
A book involving a mythical creature
A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile
A book about food
A book with career advice
A book from a nonhuman perspective
A steampunk novel
A book with a red spine
A book seet in the wilderness
A book you loved as a child
A book by an author from a country you've never visited
A book with a title that's a character's name
A novel set during wartime
A book with an unreliable narrator
A book with pictures
A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you
A book about an interesting woman
A book set in two different time periods
A book with a month or day of the week in the title
A book set in a hotel
A book written by someone you admire
A book that's becoming a movie in 2017
A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
The first book in a series you haven't read before
A book you bought on a trip

Advanced
A book recommended by an author you love
A bestseller from 2016
A book with a family member term in the title
A book that takes place over a character's life span
A book about an immigrant or refugee
A book from a genre/subgenre you've never heard of
A book with an eccentric character
A book that's more than 800 pages
A book you got from a used book sale
A book that's been mentioned in another book
A book about a difficult topic
A book based on mythology

What, exactly, is meant by an "unreliable narrator"? How are you supposed to know if a story's narrator is reliable until you have read the book?

And I would love to find a book about a holiday from a country besides the US. It's harder than I thought...

Sara wrote: "What, exactly, is meant by an "unreliable narrator"? How are you supposed to know if a story's narrator is reliable until you have read the book?

It's like you're in my head! I had the same thought. And if you are recommended a book for the prompt does it ruin the story if you know the narrator is unreliable? Ugh.

Sara wrote: "What, exactly, is meant by an "unreliable narrator"? How are you supposed to know if a story's narrator is reliable until you have read the book?"

I was going to find a good psychological thriller for this one.

Megan wrote: I was going to find a good psychological thriller for this one..."

Ooo...that's a good way of looking at it! I can think of one I read this year that would make perfect sense, but like Juanita said if I recommend it to someone for this category that's a major spoiler! :(

Sara wrote: "Megan wrote: I was going to find a good psychological thriller for this one..."

Ooo...that's a good way of looking at it! I can think of one I read this year that would make perfect sense, but lik..."

What about trying to find books where something about the narrator makes them obviously unreliable, like Turn of Mind, where the narrator has Alzheimer's? (Not a spoiler!)

Juanita wrote: "Sara wrote: "What, exactly, is meant by an "unreliable narrator"? How are you supposed to know if a story's narrator is reliable until you have read the book?

It's like you're in my head! I had th..."

Well, there are lots of books that have been widely reviewed and thoroughly spoilered as having unreliable narrators. So you could go with one of those. Then I can think of some where the narrator outs him/herself as unreliable right away, like We Were Liars . So those I don't feel bad about recommending. But yes, I can think of plenty of stories that could be ruined by spoilering an unreliable narrator, so I guess you'll have to stumble across those on your own. And even then, you'll just have to trust your own judgment. (I can think of several books that I consider to have an unreliable narrator, but other readers disagree with me. And vice versa.)

I've found that many challenges include at least one task that I can't really plan for. Luckily, I read enough that I usually end up with something for them anyway.

Juanita wrote: "Sara wrote: "What, exactly, is meant by an "unreliable narrator"? How are you supposed to know if a story's narrator is reliable until you have read the book?

It's like you're in my head! I had th..."

When I first read this prompt I immediately thought of A Million Little Pieces. But other good examples would be Lolita, Catcher in the Rye, The Girl on the Train.

Lindi wrote: "When I first read this prompt I immediately thought of A Million Little Pieces."

Oh my God that is a GREAT idea! I love the idea of using the book to read nonfiction by authors who've been discredited.

Lindi wrote: "When I first read this prompt I immediately thought of A Million Little Pieces. But other good examples would be Lolita, Catcher in the Rye, The Girl on the Train."

See, this is why I love you guys! When I can't wrap my head around a particular prompt you always come through with a different perspective! Thank you!

This is an interesting list! I think it will be fun! Like all of you, I was thrown by the unreliable narrator prompt and like Lindi I immediately thought of A Million Little Pieces Oprah's Book Club . I interpret that as books that were bestsellers (or not even) and then later the author was found to have made it up or have been a hoax. But I like the idea of reading a book by someone with Alzheimer's or some other condition that makes them tell untrue stories.

Here's a list for some unreliable narrator books

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6...

I'm going to go out on a limb now and say I won't be finishing the 800 page book prompt :)

I think the unreliable narrator allows for a lot of interpretation. Some lists that I have seen have had narrators who were very young/children, someone who was using addictive substances, someone with mental health issues, etc. I think there are many different ways you could take that prompt.

I'm so excited for this list! There are a few prompts that I don't really like, but it is much more interesting to me on first glance than last year's list was initially.

There are quite a few repeats from my other challenge (I think 10 categories repeated), but most of them are open enough to interpretation that I can pick two very different books so it's not a problem.

I think the advanced challenge is interesting, although I'm not really sure why it's considered advanced. PopSugar's first reading challenge was 52 books...did people find it too much? I was initially disappointed last year to see the list was "only" 40 books. I'm still deciding how to handle the advanced challenge. I'll either consider it just a normal part of the challenge, but maybe with an extended time limit, or I'll complete the 40 main categories within the year and as many as possible of the extras. I'm more inclined to go for the first option since many of the extra categories were ones that were recommended in my other group but didn't make the final list, so they're prompts I wanted anyway!

Sara wrote: "What, exactly, is meant by an "unreliable narrator"? How are you supposed to know if a story's narrator is reliable until you have read the book?

And I would love to find a book about a holiday fr..."

Some books are shelved as "unreliable narrator" - I have a shelf for that, although of course that doesn't help me since I've read all of mine, but there should be lists on GR based on other people's shelving habits.

And I don't think it's necessarily a spoiler. For example, in Lolita, he's obviously changing the story to make himself seem less abhorrent, the author makes that clear, and you know that going in. And in Before I Go to Sleep, the whole point is that she has amnesia and cant' rely on herself to know what is truth and what is false.

So far I've found exactly two "holiday" books that are not during Christmas: Something Wicked This Way Comes (Halloween), and Thanksgiving. I haven't started looking for other holidays such as Eid or Diwali, etc

Truly, I've spent the day basically looking at this list. I hope my boss wasn't planning for me to get a lot of work done today!

Linnie wrote: "I'm going to go out on a limb now and say I won't be finishing the 800 page book prompt :)"

Hahaha I'm already thinking of ways to get around that. Maybe I can find a really BIG picture book! (Like The Marvels, but that doesn't quite get to 800 pages.) Or maybe I'll listen to that one as an audiobook. Because I am not lying in bed each night with an 800 page behemoth on my chest.

And, one of my LEAST favorite books this year (in fact, it was a DNF and I ended up having to choose something else) was the book I had recommended by a librarian. So I'm worried about that prompt.

Nadine wrote: "And, one of my LEAST favorite books this year (in fact, it was a DNF and I ended up having to choose something else) was the book I had recommended by a librarian. So I'm worried about that prompt."

I found this earlier when I was planning some of my prompts. It's a collection of lists put together by librarians from the New York Public Library if you'd like to interpret it that way!

Okay, last post of the evening, I promise i won't keep hitting this thread all night.

These are books I had found for "unreliable narrator" (for the AtY challenge - I didn't come up with this entire list today!) - if any of you have read any of these books, can you tell me if they are unreliable narrators?

Fight Club (Palahniuk),
American Psycho (Ellis),
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Jackson),
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Hodkin),
Elizabeth Is Missing (Healey),
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Fowler),
The Good Soldier (Ford),
The Widow (Barton),
The Lifeboat (Hogan),
The Wasp Factory (banks)
The Silver Linings Playbook (Quick),
On the Jellicoe Road (Marchetta),
Rebecca (du Maurier),
The Ice Twinss (Tremayne),
The Good Girl (Kubica),
Villette (Bronte),
Under the Harrow (Berry),
The Night Sister (McMahon).
Bone Gap (Ruby),
The Killer Inside Me (Thompson),
Among Others (Walton),
Fingersmith (Waters),
All the Missing Girls (Miranda),
Night Film(Pessl)

You guys! The list is finally here! I've been checking every day since Tara said she'd finished the list. A lot of the prompts are very creative, which is exciting. I'm also super excited that a prompt I suggested mage it into the list! (a book with a family member term in the title) And Rachel, your disability prompt made it! I'm so excited for you.

I agree with what a lot of people have said that there are books that knowing there's an unreliable narrator ruins the book, but there are a lot of classics with established unreliable narrators, so it wouldn't impact your reading of the story.

I'd never really thought about a book of letters as a genre before this group started suggesting it as a 2017 prompt. I realize that I recently listened to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which I really enjoyed. That one fits the category very nicely.

And I love the idea of reading H.G. Wells for the steampunk book. I know of steampunk as a fashion thing but not as a literary genre.

I am proud to say that I didn't obsess about the list today (totally unlike me). I actually had a good work day. But I had lunch with a friend/GR reader who also does the challenge and she told me I'd ruined her for the day because the hunt was on for books for 2017 (and she hadn't committed to the challenge yet but we sucked her back in. Mwah hahahaha!)

I've bought a few books on Kindle Deals or at a used book sale that I've been holding on for the new challenge. One of them is , which just happens to have a cat on the cover. :-) Another was a paperback copy of , which I loved as a child. My mother read the entire series to me and we would go to the library to pick up each book. *sigh*

Juanita, that is the exact book that immediately came to my mind for a book I loved as a child.

I'm super excited the new list is here! I need something good to focus on, and now I can see if books I've been itching to read can wait a bit to fit a prompt next year!

For Holiday books there are also The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie and Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge.

I didn't find this group until about halfway through this year, so I'm wondering when the list and prompt threads for next year will appear.

Poshpenny: Funny you would ask that as I just looked at the date stamp to see when I opened those last year. Turns out it was 12/31. How did you spend your New Year's Eve? I think it was late in December that we got the list last year though. Anyone else remember?

So I got this list late last night (I live in London) and stayed up way too late plotting out books.

I'm trying, at least for the first half of the year, to read only books set in London. But it's easy to slot many of them on this list. Also, I've long been meaning to read Lonesome Dove, which clocks in at nearly 1000 pages, so I'm finally going to tackle it.

Juanita wrote: "Poshpenny: Funny you would ask that as I just looked at the date stamp to see when I opened those last year. Turns out it was 12/31. How did you spend your New Year's Eve? I think it was late in De..."

I reblogged the 2016 list on Tumblr on December 10th 2015, so I think we got it in early December / late November?

I'm excited for the 2017 list, even though I have no idea about what I could read for some of the prompts. Well, I guess that's the fun of it, right?

I also like the fact that the list is 40 books + 12 for "advanced" readers, because in 2015 I found it quite hard to finish the challenge.

Lindi wrote: "Nadine wrote: "And, one of my LEAST favorite books this year (in fact, it was a DNF and I ended up having to choose something else) was the book I had recommended by a librarian. So I'm worried abo..."
I found this earlier when I was planning some of my prompts. It's a collection of lists put together by librarians from the New York Public Library if you'd like to interpret it that way!

Thank you! I LOVE this idea! I took a quick look and wow there are soooo many books recommended on that page. I actually have a NYPL library card (which means this would be legit a rec from "my" library), but I only use it for Overdrive, I never go to their website, so I've been missing out!

I'm not really sure what I'll read for "childhood favorite" - I read a lot of books as a child, but many I really loved I've already re-read to my own children, so I think I'll end up picking something I read as a "tween." Maybe Dragonsong

I don't buy books very often, but several years ago I DID buy a book while on vacation, and I never finished it (because, honestly, it wasn't that great, but ...) so I guess I know what I'm reading for that category. For "used book" I'm really not sure - I will have to look around my house to see if I have any. I bought Island of the Blue Dolphins from the library for my daughter (that would also work for "childhood favorite"!) We have a "book trade" shelf at work, and I may end up using a book from that if I can't find anything else.

So, the one category that has completely stumped me, and I KNOW some of you have an answer to it, is "book with subtitle." How do I find a list of books with subtitles?? When I googled, I got a lot of sites telling me how to cite the book in a bibliography, which isn't at all what I wanted to know.

And, just to put things in their proper place, this is what I had written in the weekly progress thread about the new list:

Oh that's a fun list! They do a good job. You can never please everyone, and there are a few categories I'm not happy about (career advice? ick! 800+ pages!? nooooo!!) but I think that's a sign that they will get all of us to stretch our reading.

I'm most excited by "author from a country you've never visited" because that is similar to one of my suggestions!

A few have temporarily stymied me, such as ,"a book you've read before," because I don't like to reread books when there are thousands of other books out there that I have not read yet! But I'm sure I can find something. I've been slowly re-reading Zelazny's Princes of Amber series so that will probably be my choice.

Another one that I'm not sure how to interpret is "best seller from a genre you don't read" because I read all the genres! I don't know what I'll choose there. I might decide "literary fiction" is a genre, because that's the kind of book I rarely read. My fellow genre-readers: what will you do for this one?

A fun one to explore is "sub-genre you've never heard of." I superciliously thought "I doubt I can find a sub-genre I haven't heard of!" .... but then I googled "subgenre I've never heard of" and immediately came up with five I'd never heard of! LOL.

ETA: . I googled "genre best sellers" and immediately realized that I rarely read Westerns or horror, so I'm all set, I'll just choose one of those. Maybe it's time for me to finally read a book by Joe Hill!!

"Steampunk" is a pretty broadly defined sub-genre of sci-fi; if it's "speculative" and uses some sort of old-timey science, especially steam-powered anything, it's "steampunk." I'm generally so-so on the whole thing, but some I've enjoyed are:

Soulless (first in a series) by Gail Carriger - this is a sort of romance / mystery / steampunk, so if you like romance, try this one, or:

The Iron Duke (first in a series) - very much a romance, with a murder mystery. Also, some very very silly "science" here, so if you have issues with suspending your disbelief, this might not be a good choice. I was able to look past it.

In YA steampunk, Gail Carriger has a series starting with Etiquette & Espionage.

Poe-inspired YA sorta-steampunk dystopian: Masque of the Red Death

A well-written Western steampunk mystery set in an old and alternative San Francisco, with a diverse group of characters: Karen Memory

And Cherie Priest has a steampunk series starting with Boneshaker, which is set in alterna-Seattle. This one comes complete with zombies, which I happen to see as a bonus. They aren't a HUGE part of the plot. Priest is a really great "speculative fiction" author who doesn't get much notice, possibly because what she writes is often difficult to categorize.

Perdido Street Station was long, and excellent, and very very weird, and it has a steampunk feel (and I see it on steampunk lists), but I don't know if it's really steampunk.

One of the books that started the whole steampunk sub-genre is The Difference Engine, which I had a really hard time getting into and eventually DNF'ed, but it has a strong fan-base.

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

What kind of books are told by a nonhuman perspective?

Wait, just thought of one on TBR list. Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick.

Non-human can be animal, robot, or alien. Animal would be maybe Watership Down or Tailchaser's Song (neither of which I've read, so I'm just guessing ).

Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice is from a spaceship AI's POV, so that would work for this category.

The main character in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) is a human, so I don't think that counts, but Asimov's I, Robot series should work.

If zombies are "non human" then Warm Bodies counts.

I'm not sure what I'll read for this. I'm hoping I can find a nice sci-fi book about an alien or a robot, from their POV. Anyone find any good lists?

The Book Thief could possibly count as a non-human perspective. It is told from Death's perspective.

Timbuktu by Paul Auster is told from a dog's point of view

Nadine wrote: "So, the one category that has completely stumped me, and I KNOW some of you have an answer to it, is "book with subtitle." How do I find a list of books with subtitles?? When I googled, I got a lot of sites telling me how to cite the book in a bibliography, which isn't at all what I wanted to know. .."

I'm not sure the best way to find a list of these (plus there are soooo many), but a lot of nonfiction books have subtitles. I've penciled in The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea. Books about natural disasters or adventures gone wrong like Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster tend to have subtitles as well. A lot of biographies too, and I think a lot of self-help ones do (though I don't personally read many of those).

Lindi wrote: "Nadine wrote: "And, one of my LEAST favorite books this year (in fact, it was a DNF and I ended up having to choose something else) was the book I had recommended by a librarian. So I'm worried about that prompt."

I found this earlier when I was planning some of my prompts. It's a collection of lists put together by librarians from the New York Public Library if you'd like to interpret it that way!

Another way to get a suggestion for this is Modern Mrs. Darcy's recent podcast episode with a guest who is a librarian. They talk a lot about books she recommends to middle and high school students (she's a librarian at a British school in China if memory serves). The list of books they discuss is here (not all are books she recommends to the kids). http://modernmrsdarcy.com/50-episode/

Sara wrote: "Nadine wrote: "So, the one category that has completely stumped me, and I KNOW some of you have an answer to it, is "book with subtitle." How do I find a list of books with subtitles?? When I googl..."


Thank you! I think I was a little confused about what a "subtitle" is. I went looking through my nonfiction TBRs and found some candidates. So books such as: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark and Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History and Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay would count?

What about a book set in a hotel? All I can think is The Shining. I'm not necessarily opposed to reading it again, but I would rather find something I haven't read before and maybe not a book that has to go in the freezer (name that show!)

Nadine wrote: "Sara wrote: "Nadine wrote: "So, the one category that has completely stumped me, and I KNOW some of you have an answer to it, is "book with subtitle." How do I find a list of books with subtitles??..."

I searched my To-read shelf for a colon and found some books already on my shelf with at subtitle. But I did the same google search!

Also, you make me laugh Nadine "I am not lying in bed each night with an 800 page behemoth on my chest." hehe!

Megan wrote: "Nadine wrote: "Sara wrote: "Nadine wrote: "So, the one category that has completely stumped me, and I KNOW some of you have an answer to it, is "book with subtitle." How do I find a list of books w..
Also, you make me laugh Nadine "I am not lying in bed each night with an 800 page behemoth on my chest." hehe! ."

:-)

Sara, for the "book set in a hotel" prompt, one option is Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson. It's a YA book about a girl whose family runs/lives in a New York City hotel.

Sara wrote: "What about a book set in a hotel? All I can think is The Shining. I'm not necessarily opposed to reading it again, but I would rather find something I haven't read before and maybe not..."

I'm struggling a bit with that too. I found a short story by Chekhov (The Lady with the Little Dog, and two romances by an author I like (Jill Shalvis): Simply Irresistible & Instant Attraction. None of these really "grab" me, so I'm still looking.

Danielle wrote: "Sara, for the "book set in a hotel" prompt, one option is Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson. It's a YA book about a girl whose family runs/lives in a New York City hotel."

Thanks! That made me think of book Eloise

What are some ideas for "spans a lifetime"? I usually avoid longer books, and thus I rarely read the long, sweeping family saga types that would possibly fulfill this category.

The Art of Racing in the Rain is an awesome book that is told by the dog.

I just found this helpful article about the non-human perspective. I can vouch for the Uplift series, I read (and loved) all six, and I wish Brin would write something else like them. I think I might choose Kesrith by CJ Cherryh for this one.

http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/xe...

Even if we didn't open the prompts until 12/31 last year, can we open them earlier this year (like maybe now) so that we can capture all of this discussion in the appropriate prompt, and it would help those who like to plan get ideas from each other.

Nadine wrote: "What are some ideas for "spans a lifetime"? I usually avoid longer books, and thus I rarely read the long, sweeping family saga types that would possibly fulfill this category."

I just read A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I hated and don't recommend but it spanned the lifetimes of the narrator and the titular character.

The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon is told from the perspective of the last passenger pigeon. Also has a subtitle!

It's my father's favorite book, and he asked me to read it in high school and loved it! He's now trying to get my children to read it, with no success so far.