Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

This is the thread where we ask questions, discuss, and make suggestions for the challenge.

1. November: Read a book which title starts with 'N"

2. Birthday: Read a book from a November B-day celebrant

3. Geography: Read a book whose author, setting or character is from New York.

4. Fall Theme: Read a book that has a predominantly orange color, has leaves on its cover, or has the word Fall or Autumn as part of its title.

5. DST Change: Read a book that has a "time element" word in its title (ex. midnight, dawn, noon, morning, day, etc)

6. Native American Heritage Month: Read a book that has a Native American character or features the culture.

7 - 8 Read two books written by the same writer under different names (Ex. Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor; Amanda Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle; JR Ward/Jessica Bird, etc)

9. Explore-a-genre: Read a book categorize as romantic suspense (Romantic suspense involves an intrigue or mystery for the protagonists to solve).

10. Group's Shelf book or if you joined the Pick-It-Form Me Challenge, your recommended book.

Birthdays are listed in this thread: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

Oh, and any suggestions for the 7-8 category are most welcome. I have no clue what to read for that...

Well, I know a few that will be good for 7-8 but they are mostly romance writers:

Nora Roberts/JD Robb
Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle
Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor
JR Ward/Jessica Bird
Larissa Ione / Sydney Croft (with Stephanie Tyler)
Sylvia Day/S.J. Day/Livia Dare


I'll add more as I discover more.

You can also check this Amazon thread called:

Your Favourite Authors Writing Under Other Names Those Names Revealed!

Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Favourite-Autho...

I need help coming up with Native American :)

Link to GR popular Native American books shelf

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show?p...

For the 7-8 category, you can also check AAR's Authors Aliases list.

Here's the link:
http://www.likesbooks.com/alias.html

Check out this thread on myunicorn.com for romance author pseudonyms.

http://www.myunicorn.com/pseudo/pseud...


BTW, great list this month again Yz. Thanks for all your work on doing these. They are so much fun but I know they must take up some of your precious reading time, so Cheers to you moderators.

FlibBityFLooB wrote: "I need help coming up with Native American :)"

Check out this Listmania! at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-books-N...

I hope it helps. :)

For the Native American category any western should work (cowboys and Indians, right?). So stuff by:

Larry McMurtry
Louis L'Amour
etc.

Best Westerns http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/12...
Native American Fiction http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/20...
Native American Writers http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/14...

I'm going to go for something by Louise Erdrich, because I want to try her out and she writes mostly about Native Americans. But I know that her stuff is rather dark, so that's not going to work for everybody.

Thanks LibraryLass, Yz, Dina!!! You guys rock.

LibraryLass wrote: BTW, great list this month again Yz. Thanks for all your work on doing these. They are so much fun but I know they must take up some of your precious reading time, so Cheers to you moderators.


..."

Thanks, LL.

I have to admit the monthly challenge for this group is a little tougher to put together than the one in the PNR group. Maybe because I go by category instead of a theme.

Still, I enjoy puttting them together although having the suggestions thread really helps me.

So thank you for all of those who stops by once in awhile in that thread and suggests somthing. I visit that thread often to get ideas.

No probs, have to say sometimes the categories are a little harder to fill to, Lol!!! But that makes it a challenge and also has got me thinking outside the square so-to-speak sometimes. Also has got me reading books I probably would never have picked up otherwise, so it's all good (not for Mount TBR tho =))

LOL...I hear you.

It's just that this group's members have pretty eclectic reading tastes, so I try to keep the categories so, that it will not focus really on a certain sub-genre.

My fave activity is visiting the group's bookshelf and seeing the different type of books the group members have read. I enjoy exploring other types of materials, although, I'm pretty much a "romance" girl.

Ditto for me!

Quite disappointed, in fact, if a book is labeled 'romance' anything and they have just thrown in the relationship as an afterthought. Some of my favourite rom/susp authors seem to be heading in this direction which is a real bumma.

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter should work for the native american category. It's supposedly a dark urban fantasy. This also works well for anyone in the PNR group looking for a challenge book for X/Y/Z because the main characters name is Jane Yellowrock.

For the authors with different names, can I count Lilith Saintcrow and Lili St Crow? Her young adult book is under Lili but everything else is under her full name. It's a bit obvious it's her on both books, but I thought I'd ask!

Melissa wrote: For the authors with different names, can I count Lilith Saintcrow and Lili St Crow? Her young adult book is under Lili but everything else is under her full name. It's a bit obvious it's her on both books, but I thought I'd ask!
.."


Obvious or not, it's still two different names, so that works.

Cool, Yz! Thanks! I love her and have been meaning to get back to her books that are sitting here on my bookshelf, but as always, I blow off my purchased books for library borrows. I've been forcing myself to stay out of the library and read more from my own shelf and this will help me behave!

Would Hunting Ground by Patricia Brigg's count as Native American?

Something more for 7-8 category which isn't on the lists: G.A. Aiken (Dragonkin series) and Shelly Laurenston (Magnus Pack series; Pride series) is also the same author.

FlibBityFLooB wrote: "I need help coming up with Native American :)"

Linda Howard's MacKenzies are all Native-American, even the adopted Chance.

In two (Obsidian Butterfly and Skin Trade) books by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake series) appears Bernardo Spotted Horse - he's American Indian.

For #7/#8 -- one of my favorite authors:

Katie MacAlister (paranormal / historical / contemporary romance)
= Marthe Arends (historical romance)
= Kate Marsh (mystery paranormal)
= Katie Maxwell (ya paranormal books)

For the "time element", do you want to stick with words for time elements within a day, or does it extend to words like 'forever', 'eternity', and so on.

BJ Rose,

I think those words would work, too.

This is the first challenge I'll join since I'm new to the group.. but let me say this - excellent themes and I already have some good ideas :) My question is, since my library will be closed for some of November so I'll have to use whatever books I have at home or I can borrow from friends so some might be re-reads. Is that cheating?
Also, can I read in Danish? I read pretty much all my books in English but I have some Danish books (by Danish authors I mean) that might work.
Just wondering :)

Lotte,

Welcome to the challenge. It doesn't matter where your books come from (you owned it, you borrowed it, you stole it...LOL) as long as it fits the category, its fine.

Rereads, ebooks and audiobooks are also acceptable. I haven't really have somebody read something in a different language but I guess, it'll be okay.

Hope that answers your questions.

I have a question for the challenges. Should we have different books for each category or can we repeat books? For example, I am thinking of reading Northern Light for my "N" book but it also is based in New York. Am I allowed to put this novel for both of these or should I not repeat!?

Ari,

No, it has to be a different book per category.

However, you can cross-challenge books. Meaning a book you read for the monthly challenge can also be read for other challenges.

Thanks a lot Yz. That's what I figured but as it's my first challenge I just wanted to make sure - cheating is no fun LOL

Yz wrote: "LibraryLass wrote: BTW, great list this month again Yz. Thanks for all your work on doing these. They are so much fun but I know they must take up some of your precious reading time, so Cheers to y..."
What is the PNR group?

Lindy-Lane wrote: "What is the PNR group? "


PNR = paranormal

Sometimes some of us see how many challenges we can get one book to fit. My personal best so far is for one book to count on 5 different challenges. :)

I'm having trouble with category #3...New York local. Does anyone have any suggestions?

southpaw285,

I see that you are reading Ward's Dark Lover.

If you want to continue to the second book, the BDB books are set in Caldwell, NY.

Yz....you are absolutely right! I'm only in the first few pages of Dark Lover and I'd completely forgotten about it being in NY. I'm sooooo looney. LOL

LOL...no problem. Hey, its a crazy, interesting world that could have been set anywhere anyway.

I love Ward's BDB books. I hope you'll enjoy the series.

J D Robb's books are all set in New York, if anyone's stuck with no. 3

Jackie Kessler's Hell on Earth trilogy (urban fantasy)
is set in New York, too.

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I have a question. Is there a minimum number of pages a book must be for this challenge?

No, no there isn't. So even novellas, children's books and short stories are fair game.

Not to mention audiobooks and any rereads.

oh hey we can use re-reads, too? You know, I didn't know that. It never occurred to me to ask LOL

Yup, you can use re-reads for any of the categories.

Thanks, Kasia - will keep that in mind :) Although, I must admit, I get that feel-good feeling from meeting all challenges with a totally new-to-me book!