Play Book Tag discussion

I believe this was the closest vote we've ever had. All three choices received plenty of votes, but the voting between friendship and dark fantasy came down to a five vote difference. The winner is:

friendship

Please share your reading plans and recommendations below!

Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as friendship on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.

One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:

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

Ah, I was hoping for "dark fantasy". This one will be way too easy! That being said, I have lots on my tbr, so some more likely options for me:

- The Mitten / Jan Brett
- Ink and Bone / Rachel Caine
- Suspect / Robert Crais
- Immortal in Death / JD Robb
- Finders Keepers / Stephen King
- By the Shores of Silver Lake / Laura Ingalls Wilder

I could do a few recommendations, but hard to pick a top one! Others will probably also say it, but I have to go with (in case there is anyone who hasn't yet read it):
The Help / Kathryn Stockett

Other recommendations:
- It / Stephen King
- Joyland / Stephen King
- Will Grayson, Will Grayson / John Green
- The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins
- Charlotte's Web / EB White
- The Boys in the Boat / Daniel James Brown
- Ready Player One / Ernest Cline
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas / John Boyne
- Unwind / Neal Shusterman
- A Thousand Splendid Suns / Khaled Hosseini
- The Actor and the Housewife / Shannon Hale
- Cindy Ella / Robin Palmer

ETA: The titles I've linked to were all 5 stars. The others, 4.5. And all my recommendations were tagged "friendship" by me, so I really do think they fit!

Wow .. only 5-vote difference!

My recommendations (All were 5-star reads for me)
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat
The Kite Runner
True to Form
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
The One and Only Ivan
The Secret Life of Bees
Snowflower and the Secret Fan
The Outsiders
City of Thieves
Lonesome Dove
The Housekeeper and the Professor
84, Charing Cross Road



What I'll read ...
Well, I'm going to have to take a close look. The one I'm reading now would fit, but I'll have it finished before Sept.
Cold Sassy Tree is a possibility
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (I know I've read this before ... possibly twice. But according to goodreads I've never read it ..S*I*G*H)

There are some great suggestions of books I'm interested in that I wouldn't have thought of!

Trekker wrote: "Even though I voted for dark fantasy, I found several books on my shelf that fit the September tag for friendship.

Recommendations:
Prayers for Sale
[book:Harry Potter and the Sorc..."

I highly recommend Six Of Crows-great story-telling, world bulding and relationships!

Hands down my three #1 recommendations for this are The Housekeeper and the Professor, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry and All the Light We Cannot See although there are some other good books there. I had to go a number of pages in. I'll be back once I make a decision. I don't have many tbr's here and am going to take a look at each one I have marked in light of any reading games/challenges.

I was really hoping friendship would win as I've had Lab Girl by Hope Jahren sitting on my TBR for the majority of this year in the hope that I could get to it!

These are my recommendations:
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan

This is a broad topic, and so many books fit into it. I think I am going to try for something where friendship is the hero rather than the accent. (Quote borrowed from MasterChef - Lol!) However for others (Ahem, Rachel - other than your Harry Potter project), or anyone else, a beloved book that I picked up because of PBT was:

Shotgun Lovesongs

I truly loved this little gem, and it is about four guys who grew up together and about their friendships and how their lives evolved. Its written in five points of view including the girl Beth they all grew up with together, who remains very much in their lives.

For me, and you can consider it either cheating or convenience - I had a list of like 10-15 books on my phone that fit, but my son's back to (high) school reading book is the Sun is Also a Star. So I will be reading that alongside him this September, and it sounds like that is a home run fit. Two of the other choices I have are all books I happen to own, so it will help reduce the pile in my front hallway that my husband just despises and wonders why it just gets bigger and doesn't go away... Its your fault - all of you truly, that such a problem exists. Anyway, I can also read "Its Always the Husband" or "Same Beach Next Year." In the meantime, I am quite sure that one of my other books planned for September, will have some sort of friendship in it. If it feels more like the hero than a side dish, I will count it as well. And we still need to hear what the decathlon is... So, we shall see.

Five votes? That is indeed impressive...

Amy wrote: "This is a broad topic, and so many books fit into it. I think I am going to try for something where friendship is the hero rather than the accent. (Quote borrowed from MasterChef - Lol!) However fo..."

Friendship is the highlight of The Housekeeper and the Professor if you haven't already read it :) 5 stars.

Three friendship books I recommend are:

A Man Called Ove
A Gentleman in Moscow
84, Charing Cross Road

possible reads on my TBR:
Our Souls at Night
The Peach Keeper
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny

I recommend the following:

Tigerman
The Yellow Birds
Lonesome Dove
Hearts in Atlantis
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

I'm going to try to read The Kite Runner.

Ah, I guess I should have thrown more points at dark fantasy! I just used my one free vote. But that's ok of course I can find something easily for friendship. Let's see what to recommend..

My first has to be All Creatures Great and Small because I just love those books. Another would be Practical Magic. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell would definitely fit. If you're looking for something silly with humor the Percy Jackson series starting with The Lightning Thief is definitely friendship oriented.

As for me I'm planning on reading Smoke in the Sun the next book in the Flame in the Mist series because it is marked as friendship. After that if I still have time I might read The Help or Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

I'm with you Charlie. Kite Runner has been on my list for too long, and I've read his other books. I think I'll also try to get to Of Mice and Men, which I might have read many years ago, but all I remember is a movie.

There are so many good choices. I've been trying to think of books that are about the friendship not just including a friendship. And it's hard to get past the children's classics:

Winnie-the-Pooh
Charlotte's Web
The Wind in the Willows
Frog and Toad Are Friends
Roller Skates

I agree with many of the titles already mentioned. These are all 5 ( or 4) stars for me:

Rules of Civility and of course
A Gentleman in Moscow

Days Without End
Etta and Otto and Russell and James
A Song for Arbonne
The Lions of Al-Rassan
The Boston Girl
Doc
The Sparrow

Honestly? I'm sure this will be easy enough that I don't need to plan. I just need to remember, as I finish each book, to decide if it qualifies.

Maybe I'll make it just a teeny bit challenging by trying to find a book that actually has the word 'friendship' or 'friends' in the title. ;)

I'm so glad this won.

I have no plan right now, but from all the great suggestions so far, many I have read, many are in my TBR, and quite a few are new to me! I would like to add to the list:

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

I am aure I will have others.

There are some fantastic recommendations here!
The book I’m reading right now touches on sisters and friends:
Fruit of the Drunken Tree. And the one I finished last night is a heart breaking look at friendship and immigration in London: In Our Mad and Furious City.
And a fun read that’s one of my favorite movies: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

I’ll have to take a look at my shelves for my reading choice for the month- I’m sure I’ve got a lot.

A new book that sounds amazing: The Air You Breathe

Some recent favorite reads that fit:

The Secret Garden
Charlotte Sometimes
Quite a Year for Plums
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans - or any others in that series

my recommendations...

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
Ghost World - a graphic novel about two teenagers
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
Watership Down
The Tripods Trilogy
City of Golden Shadow (first book of otherland seriers)
and last rec - a sweet kids book from my childhood:
Dot and Anton

what I might read:
The Fox Was Ever the Hunter - which looks like it might be about friendships (if arrives from library)
Bel Canto
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
My Brilliant Friend (Cheryl - it has friend in the title...)
Out Stealing Horses

(or what was recommended by bc & karin - the housekeeper and the professor, a prayer for owen meany)

Theresa, The Air You Breathe is on my list as well!

Cheryl wrote: "Honestly? I'm sure this will be easy enough that I don't need to plan. I just need to remember, as I finish each book, to decide if it qualifies.

Maybe I'll make it just a teeny bit challenging by..."

When you said you were going to read books with 'friend' in the title it reminded me of how I've been wanting to read Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. Maybe this will finally be the month!

One of my favorite books about friendship is The Myth of You & Me by Leah Stewart and it has one of the best final paragraphs of a book. So I would recommend that one.

So many good recommendations that have already been mentioned! I second The Housekeeper and the Professor, 84 Charing Cross Road, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat, and Bridge to Terabithia.

Not yet mentioned:
The Golem and the Jinni
The Blackthorn and Grimm series:
Dreamer's Pool
Tower of Thorns
Den of Wolves
The Monkeewrench series, starting with Monkeewrench

I will try to finish The Kite Runner.

My recommendation for a great read about friendship is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

I'm going to stop reading All the Light We Cannot See as an other for this month and start over September 1 for friendship. As time permits:
Rules of Civility
The Housekeeper and the Professor
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

We will see. We're in the middle of moving so I guess I'll be reading in between unpacking a gazillion boxes. Wish me luck.

I'm so glad this tag won after a couple of 'duff' tags for me over the last couple of months! The book I'm currently reading (A Death at Fountains Abbey) will work really well for this tag - if I eke it out I can probably finish in September but the only problem is that it's by one of my favourite authors!

My TBR possibilities
The Kite Runner - this one works really well as I received it in a book swap over on Litsy!
We Were Liars
Big Little Lies
A Man Called Ove
Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
The Wind in the Willows
Heist Society
The Girl Who Played With Fire

My recommendations:
Harry Potter
The Hunger Games
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Eleanor & Park
Divergent
Anne of Green Gables
A Little Life - YOU'LL PROBABLY NEED TISSUES WITH THIS ONE!
The Hobbit
Water for Elephants
All the Light We Cannot See
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Color Purple

In the Woods
The Likeness
The Secret Place - these three are all by Tana French

The Magicians
Pride and Prejudice
The Diary of a Young Girl
The Lord of the Rings
Northanger Abbey
The Boys in the Boat - CAN THOROUGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ONE!

Would it please be at all be possible to get the Decathlon task too? Just so that we have a rough TBR pile?

Jenny wrote: "I'm so glad this tag won after a couple of 'duff' tags for me over the last couple of months! The book I'm currently reading (A Death at Fountains Abbey) will work really well for t..."

I will ask Nicole to post the Decathlon task as soon as she can. She just returned to law school so it probably isn't the top of mind!

Thank you!

I am posting decathlon now.

Thanks again.
It looks like The Kite Runner and/or The Girl Who Played With Fire for me :-)

Nothing for me captures the epitome of friendship as Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey and Maturin in their dozen plus adventures in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, starting with Master and Commader. Captain Jack Aubrey, who is courageous but impulsive and playful, always seeks the advice and support of his Catalan-Irish doctor aboard ship through hell and high water. Doctor Stephen Maturin, who is also a naturalist and a spy, is a perfect counterfoil, as he is philosophical, political, clumsy, and impractical. They don’t even need words to commune, such as when they sit down to play string duets as the cross oceans for important missions battling those dastardly French and Spanish.

It also comes to my mind that the relationship of Gus McCrea and Woodrow Call, told over a set of novels by Larry McMurtry starting with Lonesome Dove, is one of the best literary explorations of friendship of all time. These ex-Texas Rangers are such complementary personalities, the former charming, lecherous, and jocular, the latter laconic and reserved but a man of pure action. I long to be with them as they set out on an epic cattle drive from Texas to Montana, though the dangers of Commanches and nature’s hazardous tricks, having fun and adventure all the way.

On the female side, My Brilliant Friend, the first of Ferrante's Neopolitan Series captures the importance of a friend (and competitor) through the struggles and emotional ups and downs of growing up and finding love and identity.
There are a lot of indelible friendships in the mystery genre. My favorite pairs are James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux and Clete and Crais’ Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Both illustrate how a friend gets your back in the time of danger and reins in your worst impulses and reactions. In fantasy/sci fi, Frodo and Sam through the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings personify the lasting value of childhood friendship extended into the perilous quests of adulthood. In non-fiction, the up and down friendship of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson is such a wonderful theme as the backdrop to U.S. history in McCullough’s John Adams.

I aim to pursue The Song of Achilles for its relevance to my reading theme on Anciet Greece and because of the literary friendship of Achilles and Patroclus and the terrible grief of the former at the latter's death at Troy.

Book Concierge wrote: "Wow .. only 5-vote difference!

I love a lot of your recommendations but I want to comment on your possibles - definitely read Cold Sassy Tree I just loved it. It was many, many years ago but I get that warm fuzzy feeling every time I see the title!

Linda C wrote: "Three friendship books I recommend are:

A Man Called Ove
A Gentleman in Moscow
84, Charing Cross Road

possible reads on my TBR:
Our Souls at Night..." </i>

I love all three of your recommendations! I highly recommend [book:Our Souls at Night. I believe it made my top 10 last year.

I agree with so many of the recommendations that have come up but would like to add The Help as another of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned yet.

As for my list:
Me Before You
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Beartown
The Hate U Give
The One and Only Ivan since I'll spend part of Sept with my granddaughter and its one of her favorites.

Code Name Verity
A Gentleman in Moscow
We Were Liars
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
The Swans of Fifth Avenue

Magdalena wrote: "When you said you were going to read books with 'friend' in the title it reminded me of how I've been wanting to read Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. Maybe this will finally be the month!"

Oh, good luck with that! I loved the BBC miniseries of it but have tried multiple times to get through the book and couldn't.

Barbara, the thing I loved most about Beartown were the 15 and 17 year old friendships. That will stay with me for forever.

I have so many books in my to-read list that would fit this month's theme.

If I don't finish Manners & Mutiny this month, it'll count toward next because friendship is definitely a huge component of the story.

I really want to get to Leah on the Offbeat and The Wild Robot (both v different reads, but one's been at the top of my TBR for a while, and the other comes highly recommended by librarian coworkers). Six of Crows and Shadow and Bone have also been on my to-read list for a while.

I think The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy should also have a friendship component.

And my coworker has been talking a lot about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz lately, so it might be a good time to try that.

I'm hoping this theme gives my reading mojo the kick in the rear it needs after kind of a slow reading month for me.

Believe it or not I voted for friendship because will be more a challenge for me than dark fantasy. I will have to do a bit of research to find a good fit to read. I do have some recommendations of books I have read and enjoyed and tagged friendship on my own shelf.

Recommendations:
Let the Right One In
The Outsiders
Ghost
Signal to Noise

Some possible book from my TBR:
The Key to Every Thing
Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Station Eleven

I am leaning towards reading Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.

recommendations

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (preferably on audio)
The Overstory Man Booker nominee
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Dark Crazy sh*t
The Shepherd's Hut should have been a Man Book nominee
The Goose Girl YA (audio preferred)
Our Souls at Night
Night Film (hint... JoLene loved it.)

My options (if I have time, which I probably won't - still reading Man Booker)
The Sense of an Ending
Remarkable Creatures

(just went through 25 pages, and those were the only two I found which I hadn't read and which were tagged friendship. That's lame.)

After I thought on it, I was kind of hoping for Dark Fantasy because it was the most out of my wheelhouse and I have some hand me down books from my mom and husband that would fit the tag. Friendship is so much easier for me and I think the majority of books I have read this year have fit this tag, so here are my recommendations from this year:

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Just finished this one and thought it was a great read!
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood - The main theme was family but he talks about his friends quite a bit
The Selection - It was fun but can't be taken seriously
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Me Before You
Artemis
Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
The Hate U Give
Big Little Lies
Cinder
Ready Player One
Red Queen
A Study in Charlotte
The Magicians
A Wrinkle in Time
and my favorite for the year... The Book Thief

I have so many books that fit Friendship on my TBR, that I'm not sure what I'm going to read yet.

I should be getting Dreams of Falling by Karen White from the library soon, so that is a definite read.

Other than that, I have a feeling that many of the books I read will fit this tag—I am a sucker for a good book about friends!—but I am going to try find another book or two where the friendship is the primary focus and/or some version of "friend" is in the title as Cheryl mentioned!

Barbara wrote: "I agree with so many of the recommendations that have come up but would like to add The Help as another of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned yet.
.."

I also mentioned "The Help"!

As I scrolled through the friendship tag, it just so happened that a lot of what leaped out at me were graphic novels: Smile, Real Friends, El Deafo. So I might be knocking out a few of these. I think I might also try to let this be the occasion I finally read The Outsiders, since I never have.

I recommend The Only Alien on the Planet, which is heartbreakingly beautiful, sticks with you long after you read it, and does not have nearly as much love as it deserves.

I have Code Name Verity out from my library, I was hoping to get to it for espionage-that's not happening. So I will use it for the Sept. tag-and then I thought OH! One of the marvelous, well-read admin people will have that on their 5 star list to fit the decathalon-NOT! Oh crumb, I say-crumb

LibraryCin wrote: "I also mentioned The Help..."

Sorry Cindy! I missed that. :-)

Hebah wrote: "Magdalena wrote: "When you said you were going to read books with 'friend' in the title it reminded me of how I've been wanting to read Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. Maybe this will finally..."

I've heard it's difficult, we'll see if I actually do it. I might read one of his easier books. Have you read any of the others?

Barbara wrote: "LibraryCin wrote: "I also mentioned The Help..."

Sorry Cindy! I missed that. :-)"

No worries! I looked back and I put that one in paragraph form, whereas the others were point form. Easy to miss!

Charlie wrote: "I recommend the following:

Tigerman
The Yellow Birds
Lonesome Dove
Hearts in Atlantis
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

I'm go..."


Yes, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is a good one for this as is The Summer Before the War by the same author :)

Oh, I gave The Only Alien on the Planet 4-stars!
In my brief review I mention that it's *not* SF:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...