Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

The 24th Book of an Author

I think the easiest way to identify books to fulfill this prompt is to locate a series with at least 24 books. Here are some of those:
X (Kinsey Milhone #24) by Sue Grafton (will also fulfill prompt #50 for double dippers)
Cross the Line (Alex Cross #24) by James Patterson
The 24th Hour (Women's Murder Club #24) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Expected publication date February 29, 2024)
From a Far and Lovely Country (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #24) by Alexander McCall Smith
Blood Orange (China Bayles #24) by Susan Wittig Albert
Lark! The Herald Angels Sing (Meg Langslow #24) by Donna Andrews
Going Rogue (Stephanie Plum #29) by Janet Evanovich

Listopia list is HERE

Oh boy this is going to be a bit difficult!

But the prompt doesn't say the 24th book in a series. If the author has written any other books that won't work. The way I read it, it would have to be the 24th book published by an author. It can be challenging to figure that out, but doable.
My plan is to read One Last Secret by Adele Parks.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I'm going to use this as a starting place to even think of authors with that many books

According to one website I found, The Plague of Doves is Louise Erdrich's 24th book, the picture book Moondog is Alice Hoffman's 24th book, and The Handmaid’s Tale is Margaret Atwood's 24th book.
The website is mostrecommendedbooks.com but I'm not sure if it is all accurate. Good enough for me, though.

VC Andrews: Rain
The Cat Who Smelled a Rat is a cozy mystery
Thinner is Stephen King's 24th unfortunately

This could be an interesting one to research. I'm going to update this post as I go.

Tanya Huff - Smoke and Ashes - 3rd in a series, but happens to be one I haven't read.
Mark Twain - The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories - collection available for $4 on Kindle
Joe Haldeman - Forever Peace - listed as a sequel to The Forever War, but other than a parallel title, they are entirely unrelated.
Frank Herbert - Direct Descent - Available on Kindle for $2.
Joseph Conrad - Chance: Joseph Conrad (Novel, Commercial, Fiction, Classics, Literature) Annotated - $1 on Kindle.

After some research and lots of counting, I got:

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (John Grisham)
The Wish (Nicholas Sparks) -- I included his two nonfiction books in my count; you could just go with his fiction books and the newest book would be #24.
The Foretelling (Alice Hoffman) -- I didn't count Water Tales: Aquamarine & Indigo (omnibus edition) (2003) as a book since it is just two previously written books combined. Shrugs.

Honestly, no idea if these are 100% accurate but I'm going with it.

I think this prompt may have to come down to interpretation. I looked at several different lists of Stephen King's, Agatha Christie's, and Dean Koontz's books, and each time I found a different book at #24.

you could also find a list of authors that have written more than 25 books and see who is on it and find those authors' 24th book

It definitely gets messy, depending how you count it. I make Stephen King's 24th to be It, published in September 1986. No matter how you count it, it requires a judgment call.

Matt wrote: "It definitely gets messy, depending how you count it. I make Stephen King's 24th to be It, published in September 1986. No matter how you count it, it requires a judgment call."

So messy! I had thought about reading a Rick Riordan book but then wasn't sure if graphic novel versions of his other books should count so I bailed on that idea. :)

For Louise Erdrich, I came up with The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008 as her 24th book if you pool all genres (novels, children's, nonfiction, poetry, short stories) and count the two books she co-wrote and put it in order of year of publication. Very messy indeed!

The Bone Collection by Kathy Reichs is the 24th book she published

I asked chatgpt 5 times what Stephen king's 24th was and got 5 different answers

Matt wrote: "It definitely gets messy, depending how you count it. I make Stephen King's 24th to be It, published in September 1986. No matter how you count it, it requires a judgment call."

The list I looked at had Pet Semetary as his 24th book.

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger is his 24th book. Highly recommend! Was a fantastic read!

Shawna wrote: "The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger is his 24th book. Highly recommend! Was a fantastic read!"

This is such a fantastic book, highly recommend! I read it for the 2023 challenge (set on a holiday) and wish I could read it for next year!

I think French Braid is Anne Tyler's 24th

I thought about Nicholas Sparks. I own every single book and I know he has a lot of them.

Turns out that his most latest release, Dreamland is the 24th novel he's written.

ANN CLEEVES FANS! (LYNN, I know you're one):

Based on the bibliography listed in Wikipedia, Cleeves' 24th book seems to be Silent Voices which is #4 in the Vera Stanhope series. Can I read that book if I haven't read any of the other Vera books?

There's already a lot of romance categories in this year's list, but romance authors are a good route to go, since they're expected to release books so often, they usually have a large catalog. Double check on these, but I'm pretty sure each is the author's 24th:
Eloise James-The Duke Is Mine
Tessa Dare- When She Was Naughty

Haven't read either, so not vouching for quality, but the Tessa Dare one is only 70 pages, so it's a quick way to check off the prompt

Not counting anthologies with multiple authors and novel omnibus editions, either the short story collection Working for Bigfoot or The Aeronaut's Windlass is the 24th book chronologically published by Jim Butcher. I wasn't inclined to count the bigfoot stories since it's only 3 shorts, and they're collected again in Brief Cases, but YMMV.

I know Seanan McGuire has published over 24 books, but it might take some effort to sort out among all her pen names which was #24. I'll update if I can figure it out.

I'm fairly certain that Her Last Flight is the 24th book of Beatriz Williams. I'm including the books she wrote under the name Juliana Gray and the ones she co-wrote with Lauren Willig and Karen White.

Chelsea wrote: "I'm fairly certain that Her Last Flight is the 24th book of Beatriz Williams. I'm including the books she wrote under the name Juliana Gray and the ones she co-wrot..."



I had NO IDEA Williams used a pen name!!! That's funny, because I love Williams' books, but I read (well, DNF'ed) one book by Julianna Gray and I hated it. (Maybe I should try a more recent one and use it for "pen name"!)

That's too bad for me, because I already read Her Last Flight. I feel like this category is penalizing us for keeping current with favorite authors!

It seems like it could be quite tricky to figure out the chronological order for a writer's books, unless they only have one series. I may go with Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold, which is the 24th Aunt Dimity book (not sure if Nancy Atherton has written anything else)

Trish wrote: "It seems like it could be quite tricky to figure out the chronological order for a writer's books, unless they only have one series. I may go with Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold,..."



It is quite tricky! I've been looking up complete bibliographies in Wikipedia (GR is not great in this aspect because they list all sorts of other editions and muddy the waters), pasting them into a spreadsheet, excluding anything that's not a novel (but including novels that were collaborations - these are my own random rules, may not apply to others), and sorting by year, then counting them.

Megan wrote: "Matt wrote: "It definitely gets messy, depending how you count it. I make Stephen King's 24th to be It, published in September 1986. No matter how you count it, it requires a judgment call."

The l..."

And Wikipedia has his 24th book as The Stand. Why is this so hard?!

I am trying to determine what Cassandra Clare's 24th book, I am counting her mg series with holly black as part of her catalogue, and the short story collections as well as complete books and not each story individually, and not counting the manga or graphic novel adaptations, idk if i should count the Shadow Hunters codex.
I have Magisterium Series (5), The Mortal Instruments (6),The Infernal Devices (3), The Dark Artifices (3), Short Story Collections (4). So I am sure it is one of The Last Hours Books(3), if The Shadow Hunter's Codex counts it would be Chain of Iron, if it doesn't count it would be Chain of Thorns. Does anyone have any ideas, differing opinions or a different count criteria?

For Timothy Zahn, I am getting Dragon and Soldier in mid-2004 when I count up his prose novels. If you include short story collections and graphic novels, it is something earlier, but this is a book I own that I have not read before, so I am happy with my counting system.

Jen wrote: "I know Seanan McGuire has published over 24 books, but it might take some effort to sort out among all her pen names which was #24. I'll update if I can figure it out ..."

Good luck, I had a few tries at counting but she has written so much! I have a feeling it's gonna be one of the InCryptid books, and I don't want to start that series until I'm caught up on October Daye.

I might have luck with Karin Slaughter as I think her 24th might be one of the standalones and I've only read her series books.

The 24th book written in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is The Fifth Elephant so I think I'll reread that.

So, not counting comics, omnibus editions of collected novels, or multi-author anthologies/single short stories (but counting novellas and short story/essay collections), I believe Seanan McGuire's 24th published work across all pen names is:

Rolling in the Deep (a novella)

Counting only novels (not short story/essay collections or novellas), it would be:

Once Broken Faith (October Daye #10)

I had to break out a spreadsheet to sort this out (lol) so hopefully it's right.

Based on publication date, Jodi Picoult's 24th book is The Storyteller. I counted her 2 Wonder Woman comic books. If you don't count the WW books, I get Off the Page. Either way, I've read both of those. The Storyteller is probably my least favorite book of hers that I've read... Off to think of someone else.

Jen wrote: "So, not counting comics, omnibus editions of collected novels, or multi-author anthologies/single short stories (but counting novellas and short story/essay collections), I believe Seanan McGuire's..."

Curses! I've read both of those.

I get Calico Joe by John Grisham
The Drop by Michael Connelly
A Pocketful of Crows by Joanne Harris

I haven't read any of them.

https://www.mostrecommendedbooks.com/...

I found this site that lists all an author's books by year and ranks them so you can easily see which one is the 24th book. The site lists authors and books.

Monica wrote: "https://www.mostrecommendedbooks.com/...

I found this site that lists all an author's books by year and ranks them so you can easily see which one is the 24th book. The site lists authors and b..."

Thanks for that. I was way off on my estimates, I think:
https://www.mostrecommendedbooks.com/...

Ellie wrote: "I might have luck with Karin Slaughter as I think her 24th might be one of the standalones and I've only read her series books. ..."


By my count (which counts collaborations but excludes collected short stories and anthologies), After That Night is her 24th book. It's in the Will Trent series, and I have not read all of those, so I'm not sure if it's okay for me to dive in or not. Reviews seem really focused on the characters so I think I can't read this one without reading the previous books in the series.


Then I counted up Laura Lippman's books and I came up with Dream Girl, which I admit I've never been excited about reading, but at least it's not in a series so it's a possibility for me.

I'm still wondering if I could read Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves - no one has answered my question on that one yet!!

So then I checked Harlan Coben, and I got Six Years which is a stand-alone from him and I have not yet read it. It's my best choice so far.

I also went old-school, excluding all non-fiction and anthologies and short stories, but including collaborations, I got The Renegades of Pern for Anne McCaffrey and The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov.


It's a huge task but I think I'm going to check Andre Norton next.


I feel like my method of including collaborations but excluding non-fiction and anthologies and children's books is not in-line with everyone else's method, so I haven't added any of these to the Listopia.

Monica wrote: "https://www.mostrecommendedbooks.com/...

I found this site that lists all an author's books by year and ranks them so you can easily see which one is the 24th book. The site lists authors and b..."



I got excited when I opened that site, but ... it lists individual short stories when they are released as Amazon originals, and also anthologies, etc. so their count does not agree with mine at all.


But you know what? I don't care. I'm tired of counting!! They list Secret of the Lost Race as Andre Norton's 24th book. Good enough. ...

Of course my library does not have that book, and Gutenberg doesn't have it either. UGH!!!

https://www.mostrecommendedbooks.com/...

I like the idea of the site, but it got some basic facts wrong in my double checking of Zahn's chronology. For instance, it swapped two books in a duology, and it had him as the author for practically every single Star Wars book instead of just the ones he worked on.

Nadine in NY wrote: "By my count (which counts collaborations but excludes collected short stories and anthologies), After That Night is her 24th book...."

Bah, I'm up-to-date on that series. And yeah, I think it would be a hard one to just jump into as it's very personal to one of the recurring characters. I'll count shorts/anthologies if it gets me to a book I can read though!

Thanks for the site, Monica!

I also have a couple questions about it's accuracy from what I saw, but this is going to be a hard prompt to fill so I may just take it and go. Some browsing got me The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene (which I could cross use for ATY's Ben and Jerry's prompt for the flavour An Eclair Affair), Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire, which I own but haven't read yet, or Fuzzy Nation, by John Scalzi, which I also own but haven't read.

So I'll likely go for one of those.

Krissy wrote: "I am trying to determine what Cassandra Clare's 24th book, I am counting her mg series with holly black as part of her catalogue, and the short story collections as well as complete books and not e..."

I was trying to figure this one out, as well. But I gave up when I realized it would probably end up being one of The Last Hours books, which I've already read. I'd say pick either one of those and go for it!

Dedra ~ A Book Wanderer wrote: "Krissy wrote: "I am trying to determine what Cassandra Clare's 24th book, I am counting her mg series with holly black as part of her catalogue, and the short story collections as well as complete ..."

I haven't read Chain of Thorns yet so I think I will go for that one thanks for co-signing my idea, I feel more confident about going for it now

With all the confusion about what counts and what doesn't, if I read a book believing in good faith it's the 24th book of that author and find out later that I was wrong, oh well, that's good enough for me.

Jen wrote: "With all the confusion about what counts and what doesn't, if I read a book believing in good faith it's the 24th book of that author and find out later that I was wrong, oh well, that's good enoug..."

S-A-M-E :)

Jen wrote: "With all the confusion about what counts and what doesn't, if I read a book believing in good faith it's the 24th book of that author and find out later that I was wrong, oh well, that's good enoug..."



Hell yes

I'm not going to worry too much about accuracy regarding novellas, shorts, etc. and go on good faith about what an author's 24th book is.

Following that... It looks like The Four Winds is Kristin Hannah's 24th book.

Judy's Blume's is Summer Sisters (By: Judy Blume) published: June, 1999

R.L. Stine's looks to be Instant Millionaire

Dean Koontz's is Hanging On

Marissa de la Cruz is either Witches 101: A Witches of East End Primer or Witches of East End depending on whether you want to count the primer book or not.

As best as I can count, Michael Crichton's is The Lost World.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Monica wrote: "https://www.mostrecommendedbooks.com/...


I got excited when I opened that site, but ... it lists individual short stories when they are released as Amazon originals, and also anthologies, etc. so their count does not agree with mine at all..."

Yeah, it had something else for John Grisham. It didn't have the book I listed for Joanne Harris even on the list! But it did have the same Michael Connelly and Jodi Picoult books. I think I'll try to go with Connelly. I haven't read one of his in years.