Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Oh, boy. Again, I'm useless. Popsugar has listed MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood.

What others?

Listopia is here

The Secrets of Tenet: Inside Christopher Nolan's Quantum Cold War is my choice until I see something better. On the cover, the word being emphasized is the palindrome.

I have found some options on this site
https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com...

There is a little bit of hope:

Here is a list of 34 books with palindromes in the title:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

And then there's that Penguin list.


Toot is looking pretty good to me right now.

I'm a little confused. I thought the intent of this prompt was that the entire title was a palindrome? But it seems that many options on the list are titles that contain a palindrome.

I'm going with Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry.

This is a tough one so I may just use a book by author Kristin Hannah

I am interpreting this prompt as the entire title can be a palindrome- example One By One. It doesn’t specifically state that it has to be a “one word title that is a palindrome”. Other examples of my interpretation would be Life After Life or Sing Unburied Sing.

All I could think was: Is there a book called "Madam I'm Adam" or "A Man, a Plan, a Canal, Panama"?

Well, seek and you shall find, lol:

A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama!: An Erotic Tale
Depending on your sensibilities, this may or may not be your thing. It's the closest thing I've found to the spirit of the prompt other than
Eve
Seveneves

Rachel wrote: "I'm a little confused. I thought the intent of this prompt was that the entire title was a palindrome? But it seems that many options on the list are titles that contain a palindrome."

I agree, otherwise it would be "a palindrome in the title"

I love me some palindromes. I know someone whose Social Security number is a palindrome, and I totally geek out over it!

That said, I'm probably going to cheat and pick a book with a single word in the title that is a palindrome. Though I hadn't thought of Jessica's interpretation, which might allow for more flexibility.

What does palindrome mean?

Nikola wrote: "What does palindrome mean?"

A word that's the same backwards and forwards. Like Racecar is Racecar no matter which way you go.

It makes the most sense if it is interpreted as a book whose title is the same whether read forwards or backwards as Jessica suggests. Otherwise we would all be reading the same half-dozen books with one word titles like Madam (which sounds good!). Still one of the narrower prompts.

Bob by Wendy Mass

My first thought was Jeff Noon, if the author can be the palindrome!

Rachel wrote: "I'm a little confused. I thought the intent of this prompt was that the entire title was a palindrome? But it seems that many options on the list are titles that contain a palindrome."


Yeah, I read it to mean: "the title is a palindrome" - but that's SO limiting! I think that's why people are branching out and finding titles that just contain a palindrome.

We know what a "palindrome" is. But what is "palindromic"? Does that mean all the LETTERS are the same forward & backward? or the WORDS are the same? or does it mean it contains a palindrome?

Merriam Webster is NOT helpful here: "of, relating to, or consisting of a double-stranded sequence of DNA in which the order of the nucleotides is the same on each side but running in opposite directions" I don't think that's what Popsugar was aiming for!!

Dictionary.com says "Relapsing; recurring." That's a little more helpful.

Which brings us back to: WHAT is recurring? the letters? or the words? I think we can say that either one works for this category.

I was seriously planning to read Leslie Patricelli's Toot, but STOP THE PRESSES: thanks to all of you helpful folks who added Eve to the Listopia, I have my book!! A deadly virus has wiped out the population? Eve lives in a walled-in city? Things are not as they seem??? YES PLEASE LET ME AT IT. I LOOOOOOVE the "walled city" dystopian trope. LOVE IT!

I've already put it on hold at my library. This will be my first Challenge read!!!

Mem by Bethany C. Morrow would be great for this prompt! I really enjoyed it and might reread it if I don’t find something else for this challenge ( it’s very short anyway)

I found a list of actual palindromic titles:

https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com...

including Ada by Nabakov which is probably what I'll use unless something better comes along.

I think I'm going to read Ogni mare è ramingo, an illustrated Italian book which shows impressive dedication to palindromes. Not only is the title a palindrome (it means "every sea is wandering"), but it's a collection of 484 "surreal and paradoxical" palindromes "for everyday use": the author, Guido Pistorio, chose to include 484 examples as 484 is a palindromic number that is also another palindromic number squared (22).

The tricky part will be finding it, as my library doesn't have a copy and it currently has 0 ratings on Goodreads...

Amber wrote: "Mem by Bethany C. Morrow would be great for this prompt! I really enjoyed it and might reread it if I don’t find something else for this challenge ( it’s very short anyway)"

Thank you!!!

If you're going for the title as a palindrome, Young Jane Young would work.

great idea Dedra, and this has been on my list for a while!

Hannah by Gloria Whelan

I found a graphic novel on my shelves called Eve. It doesn't have the best reviews but at least it won't take long to read.

Radar Girls by Sarah Ackerman.

Dedra ~ A Book Wanderer wrote: "If you're going for the title as a palindrome, Young Jane Young would work."

Another one is Maya Angelou’s autobiographical Mom & Me & Mom

I think I'll be going with Agatha Christie's S.O.S.: A Short Story for this

I like to pad out my challenge with extra bonus prompts (and a couple other challenges), and if I have time to read more (my GR goal will be 122 next year... this year was 121), I might try to read Palindrome (a book with the word, palindrome, in the title... AND it's got twins!), Mem (a book with a palindrome of letters in the title), and a third one, whose title is a palindrome of words, like Life After Life (which I've already read, unfortunately).

I found some actual palindrome titles which look pretty good:

Never Odd or Even - the MC is really into numbers and solves mysteries

Was It A Rat I Saw- Neurologist helping a musician through seizure disorder; musician witnesses a murder with half of his brain, but not the half that communicates with the outside world.

Otto: A Palindrama - graphic novel about a day in the life of a boy - told entirely in palindromes!

Nadine wrote: "I was seriously planning to read Leslie Patricelli's Toot, but STOP THE PRESSES: thanks to all of you helpful folks who added Eve to the Listopia, I have my book!! A ..."

I enjoyed the Eve series. Not the most amazing young adult dystopian, but still good!

I was playing around last night and found:

Rats Live On No Evil Star, which doesn't seem to be widely available, but I found a short story of the same title in Tales of Pain and Wonder which my library has, so maybe I'll just pick that out!

Or if you speak Italian (I think?? sorry!) you could go with Star Rats

I feel like this is one of the most frustrating challenges this year, either vague or overly limiting. I like the idea some of you suggested of the title as a palindrome, like Mom & Me & Mom. Otherwise. maybe I'll go with one where the title, if not subtitle, is a palindrome. like Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age, which looks interesting. if it just said "palindrome in the title" like with onomatopoeia, that would be so much clearer and easier. I was thinking of Ana on the Edge when that's how I originally understood the challenge.

Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee could work

This looks cute, 4 hours on audio.

I considered MaddAddam until I looked it up and realized it's the 3rd in a series, and while committing to a 50 book reading challenge is fine, committing to a 3-book series is too much for me lol

So I went searching my library's PAC for palindromic titles and found Madam: A Novel and it sounds creepy and gothic and GREAT, so I think this is my choice for this prompt!

Miranda wrote: "I considered MaddAddam until I looked it up and realized it's the 3rd in a series, and while committing to a 50 book reading challenge is fine, committing to a 3-book series is too ..."

Far be it from me to dissuade you from reading Madam: A Novel (it looks good to me, too!), but I wanted to mention that the other books in the MaddAddam series could also be read for other categories in the challenge. The first book, Oryx and Crake has been mentioned in several categories. The second book, The Year of the Flood, has not been as widely mentioned, but it could count for the man-made disaster. I like when I can read a whole series as part of different challenges.

Debbie wrote: "...Far be it from me to dissuade you from reading Madam: A Novel (it looks good to me, too!), but I wanted to mention that the other books in the MaddAddam series could also be read for other categories in the challenge..."

Good to know! I'll keep Maddaddam and the rest of the series on my list of possible books for 2022.

I actually read the first two novels in the MaddAddam trilogy in 2019/20 but with covid happening I couldn’t bring myself to read dystopian for a while. Looks like I’ll finally be getting around to it this year.

Because I'm trying to use this challenge to clear up my TBR, not add more to it, I'll probably use a word inside a title and readDancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir

Lynn wrote: "Oh, boy. Again, I'm useless. Popsugar has listed MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood.

What others?

Listopia is here"

The Listopia has a bunch of titles that REPEAT the same word, not palindromes. Someone did not understand the assignment.

Merlot58 wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Oh, boy. Again, I'm useless. Popsugar has listed MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood.

What others?

Listopia is here"

The Listopia has a bunch of titles that R..."

I think some people are stretching the prompt a bit to include titles that could be the same if you flipped them. Which is a personal preference thing. For instance, Fifty Fifty with the words flipped is Fifty Fifty.

Maybe I'm stretching this a bit but I came across the term 'sagas' as a palindrome and one of the examples that was mentioned was Lord of the Rings.

So I'm guessing The Wheel of Time Series 1-15 Books Collection Set Pack (Book 1-14) By Robert Jordan series could fit that as well.

Possibilities:

One by One by Ruth Ware
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

I'm choosing to interpret this one as "title reads the same forward and back" in terms of words, a la "One by One."

Other options in that interpretation:
Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks
Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
Dog Eat Dog by David Rosenfelt
One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
Nora, Nora by Anne Rivers Siddons
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green*
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
There There by Tommy Orange
Mirror, Mirror by Gregory McGuire
Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O'Farrell*
Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner

Several by James Patterson: Never Never, Fifty Fifty, Mary Mary

*These arguably don't work because if you read the words backwards they'd actually be Grayson Will, Grayson Will and Am I, Am I, Am I, but I think it's up to the reader how strictly they want to interpret this prompt because otherwise it's really, really, really narrow

Ron wrote: "Maybe I'm stretching this a bit but I came across the term 'sagas' as a palindrome and one of the examples that was mentioned was Lord of the Rings."

You do you, but to me, that is stretching it way beyond the concept's stretching capacity. :-D
Also, considering, that LOTR and WOT are not sagas.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Yeah, I read it to mean: "the title is a palindrome" - but that's SO limiting! I think that's why people are branching out and finding titles that just contain a palindrome."

Yes. I find the limitation part of the excitement of this challenge. It forces me to read books I would never, ever read otherwise :-D

I just added 40 books to the list, and they are "true" palindromes. Some can have "The" in the beginning, some might have a subtitle. Like "The Deed", Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, which is actually just Ada, or Habibah: story of an island girl

Ketutar wrote: You do you, but to me, that is stretching it way beyond the concept's stretching capacity. :-D
Also, considering, that LOTR and WOT are not sagas.

Thanks. I need to find others then.