Play Book Tag discussion

Last year I managed to read 12 books, this year I hope to read 24. I joined a bunch of challenges, since I've found accountability helps keep me going.

1. PBT Monthly genre challenge
2. Poll Ballot Tally-Jade Dragons
3. Decades Bingo
4. PopSugar Challenge
5. Bookopoly

PBT Monthly Genre Challenge

January-Thriller
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle 1/15
The Woman in the Window (maybe)

Poll Ballot Tally

Alabama - civil rights
Alaska - Inuit
Arizona - Grand Canyon
Arkansas - education
California - Hollywood
Colorado - Rocky Mountains
Connecticut - Constitution
Delaware - business
District of Columbia - presidents
Florida - Disney
Georgia - antebellum
Hawaii - volcanoes
Idaho - nature
Illinois - comedy
Indiana - auto racing
Iowa - politics
Kansas - weather
Kentucky - horses
Louisiana - southern gothic
Maine - Stephen King
Maryland - Navy
Massachusetts - witches
Michigan - Great Lakes
Minnesota - vikings
Mississippi - blues
Missouri - pioneers
Montana - wildlife
Nebraska - farming
Nevada - gambling
New Hampshire - hiking
New Jersey - mafia
New Mexico - extraterrestrials
New York - Broadway
North Carolina - Appalachia
North Dakota - paleontology
Ohio - industry
Oklahoma - Great Depression
Oregon - ecology
Pennsylvania - Amish
Rhode Island - sailing
South Carolina - pirates
South Dakota - frontier
Tennessee - country music
Texas - space
Utah - Mormon
Vermont - libraries
Virginia - FBI
Washington - coffee
West Virginia - mining
Wisconsin - cheese
Wyoming - western

Decades Bingo

B
1977
1972
1978
1979
1970

I
1987
1981
1984
1980
1983

N
1994
1997
Free
1995
1998

G
2009
2005
2000
2008
2001

O
2011
2015
2019
2018
2012

PopSugar Challenge-and the books tentatively planned

Regular prompts

1. A book that's published in 2020-The King at the Edge of the World
2. A book by a trans or nonbinary author-Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
3. A book with a great first line-Seabiscuit: An American Legend
4. A book about a book club-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
5. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics-A Gentleman in Moscow
6. A bildungsroman-Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
7. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed-The Canterbury Tales
8. A book with an upside-down image on the cover-The Collector Collector
9. A book with a map-The Silmarillion
10. A book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club-Norse Mythology
11. An anthology-The Complete Stories and Poems
12. A book that passes the Bechdel test-Cress
13. A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it-Madam Secretary: A Memoir
14. A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name-Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass
15. A book about or involving social media-They Both Die at the End
16. A book that has a book on the cover-Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
17. A medical thriller-The Andromeda Strain
18. A book with a made-up language-Watership Down
19. A book set in a country beginning with "C"-Still Life
20. A book you picked because the title caught your attention-The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle 1/15
21. A book published the month of your birthdayHollow Kingdom
22. A book about or by a woman in STEM-Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss
23. A book that won an award in 2019-The Overstory
24. A book on a subject you know nothing about-Katherine of Aragón: The True Queen
25. A book with only words on the cover, no images or graphics-Enough Said: What's Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics?
26. A book with a pun in the title-Grave Peril
27. A book featuring one of the seven deadly sins-The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
28. A book with a robot, cyborg, or AI character[-book:Scarlet|13206760]
29. A book with a bird on the cover-The Conference of the Birds
30. A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader-George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution
31. A book with "gold," "silver," or "bronze" in the title-Death Wins a Goldfish: Reflections from a Grim Reaper's Yearlong Sabbatical
32. A book by a WOC-You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain
33. A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads-Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
34. A book you meant to read in 2019-The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
35. A book with a three-word title-Funerals are Fatal
36. A book with a pink cover-Severance
37. A Western-The Blessing Way
38. A book by or about a journalist-Plan of Attack
39. Read a banned book during Banned Books Week-The Da Vinci Code
40. Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge-The Lost City of the Monkey God

Advanced prompts

1. A book written by an author in their 20s-Beware the Kitten Holy
2. A book with "20" or "twenty" in the title-Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages
3. A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement (a nod to 20/20 vision)-The Twisted Tree
4. A book set in the 1920s-Gods of Jade and Shadow
5. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics-Warcross
6. A book by an author who has written more than 20 books-Bullet for a Star
7. A book with more than 20 letters in its title-Just One Damned Thing After Another
8. A book published in the 20th century-The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
9. A book from a series with more than 20 books-The Color of Magic
10. A book with a main character in their 20s-A Darker Shade of Magic

Bookopoly

First Roll: Chance-Sort your shelf by "random" and read the first book
Manhattan In Reverse

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
January-Thriller/PopSugar Challenge #20-A book you picked because the title caught your attention


So glad I got to start off 2020 with this one! It's been a long, long time since I've been so enthralled with a book. I read most of it in one day.

Aiden Bishop has eight days to figure out who figured out who murdered Evelyn Hardcastle. Each day he relives the same day again. Each day he wakes up in a different body, and some hosts are more helpful than others.

This was such a fun, twisty-turny book. There's a ton of characters to keep track of, but there's an invitation at the front that helps a lot. I found myself rooting for certain ones through the story. The twists kept me guessing, and while I figured out a couple of them, there were definitely still some surprises.

This is a book I'll be thinking about for awhile.