Play Book Tag discussion

I seriously hope someone is going to have a suggestion for me to read because the tag is:

dragons

and I'm gonna need help with this one!

Please share your reading plans and recommendations below (especially for me, because it's all about me).

Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as "dragons" 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/...

We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.

Happy Reading!!!

Can I admit I wasn’t expecting that one at all? Total surprise! I assumed magical realism was a lock. Fine to be surprised. I will be reading either Fourth Wing or the Priory of the Orange Tree. Please feel free to join me.

Oh, wow! Joanne is going to be happy!

I only have one on my TBR and that is The Buried Giant. It has been there for 8 years, so I guess this is a good time to read it.

Oh wow, I was not expecting that! At the top of my list:

A Wizard of Earthsea
A Natural History of Dragons
Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Anita, not sure what you’re looking for, but two that are *not* epic fantasy:
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton — fantasy of manners in a society made up of dragons
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune — gentle, cozy, humorous

Anita wrote: "I seriously hope someone is going to have a suggestion for me to read because the tag is:

dragons

and I'm gonna need help with this one!

Please share your reading plans and recommendations below..."

Have fun and go The Lightning Thief or any of the Percy Jackson or Heroes Of Olympus books. Be a kid for the month. Pretty sure a lot of theTerry Pratchett fantasy has dragons in too (I've only read 5 which all did).

Wow! This is a surprise! It just might be time to read another Harry Potter :)

I didn't vote but am stoked with Dragon for while I have 8 jobs and just want to switch off. Either Mort or Burn for me.

So happy! I’m a complete sucker for dragon stories!

Pam wrote: "Anita, not sure what you’re looking for, but two that are *not* epic fantasy:
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton — fantasy of manners..."

I second Pam's suggestion of Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton. My review HERE

And then there is this little gem ... you can read it in under an hour
Big Panda and Tiny Dragon ... My review HERE

I'll probably go with the next (for me) in the Temeraire series Black Powder War
Highly recommend this series!

Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon was pretty good (3.5*** from me) In my review I wrote: The dedication states he wrote this for his daughter, Naomi, who “ loves me, but has very little interest in my vampires, ghoulies, and slushy crawling things.”

And this little bit of joy ... which wouldn't qualify for points because it's only a 32-page picture book ...
The Best Pet of All When a boy's mom tells him he can't have a dog because they are too much work, he asks, "Well, can I have a dragon?" She says, "Yes, if you can find one."

Amy wrote: "Can I admit I wasn’t expecting that one at all? Total surprise! I assumed magical realism was a lock. Fine to be surprised. I will be reading either Fourth Wing or the Priory of the Orange Tree. Pl..."

Enthusiasm and participation points can go a long way! I think the dragon fans simply cared more. Joanne hasn’t had a great time with the tags this year, so I’m happy for her.

I read two dragon books recently and there is only one book I want to read. I had a great tag year and if I only read one book for this tag that’s fine with me. I just hope I can get it in time. It will be released on Election Day.

Booknblues wrote: "Oh, wow! Joanne is going to be happy!

I only have one on my TBR and that is The Buried Giant. It has been there for 8 years, so I guess this is a good time to read it."

I actually screamed! LoL

Pam wrote: "Oh wow, I was not expecting that! At the top of my list:

A Wizard of Earthsea
A Natural History of Dragons
Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Anita, not sur..."

Pam,

Thanks this is helpful. I had forgotten there was a dragon in The House in the Cerulean Sea. Do you know if there are any dragons in In the Lives of Puppets by the same author? It’s my Nov book club book.

Are there dragons in any other Ursula K LeGuin books?

Anita, I might recommend When Women Were Dragons-there is a chance for you to like that one, and anyone else too, if is this is way out of their realm! There are is a deeper story here than the dragon itself

I can highly recommend A Wizard of Earthsea, for anyone who loves a writer who wrote beautiful prose.

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight #1 -a mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and fun!

I will be back with more-after I get some coffee and realizing this actually happened! 😆

Unexpected but fun! I have Iron Flame pre-ordered.

The copy of Dragonflight linked above is a graphic novel version. I think I linked the book here.

Robin P wrote: "The copy of Dragonflight linked above is a graphic novel version. I think I linked the book here."

Thanks Robin, did not even check the link-which I know better-someone could appreciate the GN though

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Once I catch my breath after my extended happy dance, I will haul out my list of dragon book suggestions for the non-fantasy reader. I was one of those and still am in many ways.

Remember, we all claim to want to expand our reading.

I never get to make suggestions-LoL, so here I go

His Majesty's Dragon- a lot of HF set in Napoleon times-lots of fun too

Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons -Another fun one

The Dragon's Path - Epic and only for those who enjoy the genre-A wonderful series

The Rage of Dragons-Epic and only for those who enjoy the genre-A wonderful series

Try one of the fun ones if you are not feeling the tag 😁

So excited Dragons won this month!

I just added this short story collection to my TBR yesterday, hoping Dragons would win.

Dragon Palace

I ordered a ton of magical realism books from the library; lol!

Robin P wrote: "The copy of Dragonflight linked above is a graphic novel version. I think I linked the book here."

That has tripped me up endlessly! My Feminerdy Book Club read it and everytime I needed to link to it somewhere, the graphic novel version, which is listed first, threw me off!

I also have Iron Flame pre-ordered and it will definitely be my book for the month!!

@Anita and others who are not heavy fantasy readers (I was one of those not long ago, and I still don't read fantasy the way that Jen K and JoAnne and others here do):

The House in the Cerulean Sea - my favorite of the children was a sweet little dragon named Theodore. He moved into my heart and stayed. If you need something uplifting and fun with just enough deeper meaning to warm the heart, this is it.

The Name of the Wind - reads like Dickens for first 3/4 of the book - and the dragon only enters in the last part of the book. Also has a strong music theme in it. It may be first in a series, but I read it as a standalone and it works just fine.

When Women Were Dragons - alternate 1950s history, which includes women turning into dragons. Some serious themes under the fluff. Several of us really enjoyed this.

Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons - regency era with a twist -- Miss Percy is the poor relation, a woman of a certain age, who one day inherits a dragon egg. It's just a delight on every level -and really just a fun regency historical adventure tale.

This is more fantasy than a classic retelling: Jane Austen's Dragons series by Maria Grace - first is Pemberley: Mr. Darcy's Dragon. Really excellent story-retelling of P&P with dragons. There's a parallel dragon universe with each house having it's own very distinct dragon. In the first, Pemberly's royal dragon egg has been stolen just as it's about to hatch. Hunting for it and the thief brings Elizabeth and Darcy together. I have enjoyed these a great deal -- the first 3, all quick reads, together are the retelling of P&P and are on Kindle Unlimited. Very clever and the dragon personalities are almost better than the characters!

NancyJ wrote: "Do you know if there are any dragons in In the Lives of Puppets by the same author? It’s my Nov book club book."

I don't think so, but I haven't read it. I'm pretty sure it doesn't though.

I have no idea on Le Guin beyond the fact that I saw several other books in the Earthsea series on the dragon tag list. I think there are five or six books in that series.

For anyone who does like fantasy, I really enjoyed The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells. I started reading her fantasy books after I finished The Murderbot Diaries, and this series is probably my favorite (although I've like all of her stuff so far)

Amy wrote: "Can I admit I wasn’t expecting that one at all? Total surprise! I assumed magical realism was a lock. Fine to be surprised. I will be reading either Fourth Wing or the Priory of the Orange Tree. Pl..."

I'd rather have dragons than magical realism, so I voted for dragons.

For those who like alternate history and are into the Napoleonic war, there is His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, but it is still fantasy of course. It was 3 stars for me, but has a greater than 4 star average rating, but I have given 4 stars to a few of the other books I've read in the series.

The only 5 star dragon book I have is a picture book, but ones I've given 4 stars to besides a couple that come after the book above that are not picture books are:

Eragon and

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

and the middle grade book The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit

I'm also happy it's dragons. I was planning to start reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon today and just realized it has the dragons tag so I'll put it off until November. It might be good for people who aren't that excited for the tag as it's a Newbery award winner, so maybe a faster read. I also am planning to read The Invisible Library.

The Hobbit fits and is on the pbt 100 fiction list if anyone is still looking to blow out that candle.

Wow! Even though we've had this tag before (though it was a completely different way of choosing our tag), this is a surprise!

LibraryCin wrote: "Wow! Even though we've had this tag before (though it was a completely different way of choosing our tag), this is a surprise!"

I actually just went back and looked -- the only time 'dragons' has been read as a tag was in 2008 - long before I was a member.

The last time it was up for a vote was June 2022 - and it lost to 'LGBT' - it was also up against 'modern'. [PSSST - whoever updates that thread, LGBT is misspelled}

That's the only other time it has been a contender -- although the very early years don't show the tag options voted on.

I say it was WAY overdue to be picked!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and The Name of the Wind both have dragons and are also on the new top 100 Fiction list if anyone needs to blow out that candle yet.

Karin wrote: "For those who like alternate history and are into the Napoleonic war, there is His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, but it is still fantasy of course. It was 3 stars for ..."

I don’t mind fantasy at all, but dragons is a very narrow subset of the category. I already read the ones that interested me. ( I really liked His Majesty’s Dragon but not book 2.)

I might go with Dragonflight if I don’t get Iron Flame in time. I’m happy to have a light tag month after this busy year.

I have a few options (leaning toward one of the Terry Pratchetts):

- The Magician King / Lev Grossman
- The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents / Terry Pratchett
- Reaper Man / Terry Pratchett
- The Sandman. Vol. 3: Dream Country / Neil Gaiman

I plan to continue the Anne McCaffery series-next up for me is Nerilka's Story and I am sure I will fit in in one or two more

Joanne wrote: "I actually screamed! LoL..."

LOL!

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight #1 -a mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and fun!

The first time we did dragons, I wasn't impressed, but I read a different one by Anne McCaffrey... and I finished the trilogy. Let me figure out what it was...

Ok, it was Dragonsong (Harper Hall #1). I believe it was a YA one, so probably why it appealed to me more.

Joanne wrote: "Thanks Robin, did not even check the link-which I know better-someone could appreciate the GN though..."

The GN is tempting! (And knowing I enjoyed a different series by McCaffrey...

Theresa wrote: "Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons - regency era with a twist -- Miss Percy is the poor relation, a woman of a certain age, who one day inherits a dragon egg. It's just a delight on every level -and really just a fun regency historical adventure tale. ..."

This one sounds fun (I see Joanne mentioned it, as well). Since I do have others on my tbr that fit, I won't likely read this one, but it's tempting to potentially add it to the tbr.

Another dragon book for those that are not sure they want to read about dragons is A Natural History of Dragons. It is fantasy world that is very similar to Victorian England. The main character is a woman who wants to be a naturalist in a time when women were expected to get married and leave stuff like natural history and science to men. The dragons in this book are the animals she studies, but they are very much animals that behave like wildlife, not like magical creatures.

Theresa wrote: I actually just went back and looked -- the only time 'dragons' has been read as a tag was in 2008 - long before I was a member. ..."

Yup! It was in the summer of our first year of existence. In August, I think (why I remember that, I have no idea! LOL!)

At the time, one of our members was randomly chosen to choose the next month's tag. There wasn't any voting (I don't believe we had participation points at the time), so it was all up to one person. They might have had to choose from the top 200 tags on shelfari, though.

I remember the 2008 tag. It might well have been the first time that I participated in this group. As I remember, there was a lot of moaning and groaning about it. Wish I could remember what I read for the tag. I didn't keep very good records at that time.

Cora wrote: "Another dragon book for those that are not sure they want to read about dragons is A Natural History of Dragons. It is fantasy world that is very similar to Victorian England. The m..."

Oh, that sounds good, too!

This was a surprise. I voted for it but only used one vote since I was sure magical realism was going to win.

I'm going with Fourth Wing

Me too OliverLynda!!!!! I am trying it out and seeing if it "catches!"

I just saw that Nora Roberts has a book (out 2020) called the Awakening, and its one of her trilogies. This one is called the Dragonheart legacy. This surely counts.

Theresa wrote: "Robin P wrote: "The copy of Dragonflight linked above is a graphic novel version. I think I linked the book here."

That has tripped me up endlessly! My Feminerdy Book Club read it and..."

Just realized Dragonflight works for my last Birthday candle, book written in my 15th year. I hope it is ok that, since my birthday is in July, I decided to count any book that came out during the 12 months I was 15 years old, not the calendar year when I turned 15.

Just realized Dragonflight works for my last Birthday candle,...

Now, there's a thought. My Birthday is in November. If I look at the year that I was 15 rather than when I turned 15 I have a different set of choices. (I really have small hope of blowing out all of these candles ... I spend more time looking at lists than reading any of my choices.)

Jgrace wrote: "Just realized Dragonflight works for my last Birthday candle,...

Now, there's a thought. My Birthday is in November. If I look at the year that I was 15 rather than when I turned 15 I have a diffe..."

My daughter's birthday was Nov '79, so she always used 1980 to figure her age because it was easier and she only had 6 weeks in the 1970's.