Play Book Tag discussion
Member Challenge Tracking 2025
>
Algernon/s challenge tracking 2025
date
newest »
newest »
so far, I've started on [1.] Flashman and [2.] The Ornament of the World
prompt 11: Read a book by an author who uses three names:✅ George MacDonald Fraser - The Flashman Papers 01 - Flashman - 4 stars
my review here
I was initially planning to submit this for prompt 1. on my list, because it is a historical adventure set in Afghanistan in 1842, but it is not really a mystery and parts of the story (the beginning and the end) are set in England.
prompt 6: A book where the setting or plot include a theatrical performance✅ Barbara Hambly - Scandal in Babylon (A Silver Screen Historical Mystery 01)
my review here
prompt 2: A Fiction book featuring a religious ritual✅ Maria Rosa Menocal - The Ornament of the World
my review here
note: yes, I know the book is non-fiction, but it has waited its turn on my shelves for several years.
prompt 12: Read a book set in Minnesota✅ William Kent Krueger - The River We Remember
my review here
Krueger is the obvious choice for me when thinking about Minnesota, and this stand-alone historical mystery checks multiple boxes in my first list, prompts 10. and 11. and 12.
As a bonus, there are three strong women among the main cast, so I think I will shelve it for the May tag also.
Prompt 1. Read a historical mystery not set in UK or US✅ Robert van Gulik - 'The Chinese Maze Murders'
my review here
I wanted to pick a straight historical book, before I noticed that I'm supposed to read a mystery, so I went back to one of the series that's been waiting its turn for several years.
Prompt 3. A book set in Australia or New Zealand.✅ Garry Disher - 'Day's End'
my review here
Fourth book set in small town Tiverton in the Outback. This one has a spring setting and a complex investigation that combines Covid denial, white supremacists, aboriginal cultural theft, drug use and violent militias. It's a heavy load to rest on the shoulders of one man, but Constable Hirsch is up to the task.
Prompt 4. Read a fiction bestseller from the year you were born.✅ Ernest Hemingway - 'A Moveable Feast'
my review here
Hemingway himself warns that his sketches are based on memories but are fictionalized accounts of events. And it is on the NYT bestseller list from 1964. Besides, I'm going to Paris in less than a week and I don't care about tags.
Prompt 10. Read a book about the Civil Rights Movement✅ Jennifer Lathan - 'Dreamland Burning'
my review here
Fiction anchored in real evens in the Greenwod District of Tulsa, 1921
Prompt 9. Read a book that a PBT member has on their top ten list of 2024✅ Percival Everett - 'James'
my review here
Well, it was the number one book of 2024, according to the number of votes from members, so I guess it must have been also in the individual lists of members.
Turns out, it deserves the position and the praise.
Prompt 5. A book published in the 1980's✅ Robin McKinley - 'The Blue Sword'
my review here
First published in 1982, I avoided it for along time, thinking it would be more romance than adventure. I was wrong, and McKinley proved to be a very skilled storyteller.
Prompt 7. A book where the main character is an author, writer, or journalist✅ Christopher Brookmyre - 'Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks'
my review here
Investigative journalist and renowned sceptic Jack Parlabane tackles psychic who claims being able to speak with the dead. To his own consternation, Jack's arguments are sabotaged by his own demise and ghostly presence in the novel. Isn't it ironic?
Prompt 8. A book by a BIPOC author✅ James Sallis - 'Eye of the Cricket'
my review here
I saved the best for last from my first list. This is my favorite book in the Lew Griffin series, about a private investigator in New Orleans because it ignores genre restrictions and crosses effortlessly into poetry and existentialism. And all in under 200 pages.
Time to explore the options for my second list and dig through the TBR mountain:1. A book that includes a religious character or setting
Herman Hesse - Siddhartha
Chitra Banerje Divakaruni - The Palace of Illusions
Anita Diamant - The Red Tent
Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow
2. Read a celebrity memoir (any kind of celebrity - actors, chefs, sports stars, royals, etc)
Susanna Kaysen - Girl, Interrupted
Joan Didion - The White Album
Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods
3. A book featuring first contact
Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow
Octavia Butler - Dawn
Elizabeth Moon - Remnant Population
4. Read an essay collection
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
Jean Paul Sartre - Existentialism is a Humanism
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, or Life in the Woods
Georges Bataille - Literature and Evil
5. Read a book by an author with the same last name as one of your favorite writers
Smith? , Duncan?
6. Read a book set in a country, territory, province, or state you have always wanted to visit
Jon Kalman Stefansson - Heaven and Hell [Iceland]
7. A book published in the 1980's
James Crumley - Dancing Bear
Don DeLillo - White Noise
8. A book that has a comma in the title (or sub-title)
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, or Life in the Woods
Susanna Kaysen - Girl, Interrupted
Sofia Samatar - The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
9. Read a book set in a country with a coast on the Mediterranean Sea
Lawrence Durrell - Justine
Italo Calvino - The Non-Existent Knight
Elsa Morante - Arturo's Island
Marguerite Duras - The Sailor from Gibraltar
10. A book with a title that references a nursery rhyme or fairy tale.
Georgette Heyer - Friday's Child
Christopher Fowler - London Bridge Is Coming Down
11. Read a book nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction or Non-Fiction
Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
Louise Erdrich - The Sentence
Barbara Kinsolver - Demon Copperhead
Hannah Kent - Burial Rites
Kate Atkinson - Life After Life
12. A book with an Asian main character
Gregory David Roberts - Shantaram
Chitra Banerje Divakaruni - The Mistress of Spices
Eiji Yoshikawa - Taiko
Prompt 10. from my second list: A book with a title that references a nursery rhyme or fairy tale. ✅ Georgette Heyer - 'Friday's Child'
my review here
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on Sabbath day,
Is bonny and blithe, good and gay.
Prompt 9. from my second list: Read a book set in a country with a coast on the Mediterranean Sea ✅ Elsa Morante - 'Arturo's Island'
my review here
Takes place on the island of Procida, in the Gulf of Naples
Prompt 3. from my second list: A book featuring first contact ✅ Elizabeth Moon - 'Remnant Population'
my review here
Octogenarian Ofelia stays behind when her colony is abandoned. A remnant population of 1. Then she meets the aliens that are the original inhabitants of her planet.
Prompt 5. from my second list: Read a book by an author with the same last name as one of your favorite writers favorite author picked: David James Duncan
✅ Dave Duncan - The King's Blades 02 - 'Lord of the Fire Lands'
my review here
So, I managed to find both the first and the last name twins for this prompt.
Prompt 1. from my second list: A book that includes a religious character or setting ✅ Herman Hesse - 'Siddhartha'
my review here
Not a biography of the historical Gautama Buddha, but the personal journey to revelation of one of his contemporaries, a young man named Siddhartha who sets out on a journey of self-discovery.
Prompt 7. from my second list: A book published in the 1980's ✅ James Crumley - 'Dancing Bear'
my review here
Second book in the Milo Milodragovitch series, but can be read as a standalone. First published January 1, 1983
Prompt 8. from my second list: A book that has a comma in the title (or sub-title) ✅ Henry David Thoreau - 'Walden, or Life in the Woods'
my review here
Could have gone also with prompt 4. Read an Essay Collection, but I thought I have more interesting choices there. Anyway, Thoreau was a close fit for my own love of the woods.
Prompt 2. from my second list Read a celebrity memoir (any kind of celebrity - actors, chefs, sports stars, royals, etc)✅ Woody Allen - 'Apropos of Nothing'
my review
Not an easy choice, because I don't dig celebrity culture, but I like Allen's movies
Prompt 4. Read an essay collection ✅ Italo Calvino - 'Six Memos for the New Millenium'
my review here
Essays about the values to be pursued in the literature of tomorrow.
Prompt 6. from my second list: Read a book set in a country, territory, province, or state you have always wanted to visit Country I want to visit: Iceland
✅ Jon Kalman Stefansson - 'Heaven and Hell'
my review here
As a new member , I welcome advice if I misunderstood the rules and if somebody has a good suggestion for what to include in a certain theme.[in particular no. 10]
Challenge no.1 list of 12
1. Read a historical mystery NOT set in the US or UK
possible candidates:
- George MacDonald Fraser - Flashman; book one in the Flashman series, starts in England but moves soon to Afghanistan in the XIX century
Amitav Gosh - Sea of Poppies; first book in the Ibis trilogy about the Poppy Wars in China
2. A fiction book featuring a religious ritual
possible candidates:
Robert Harris - Conclave; because I notice the movie adaptation was at the Oscars this year and I've liked other books by Harris
Maria Rosa Menocal - The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain; because I've had it on my tablet for several years, and I loved my visit to Al-Andalus
Graham Greene - The Power and the Glory; this one would be a re-read because it is the best on the subject of religion in modern times that I tried
3. A book set in Australia or New Zealand
possible candidates:
Garry Disher - Day's End; because this is an onging series I'm interesting in. book four
Tim Winton - Dirt Music; because the blurb sounds interesting
Nevil Shute - anything by him would be a re-read, because he is at the top of my favorite authors and I've already read everything he wrote about Australia.
4. Read the fiction bestseller from the year you were born.
I've checked the New York Times bestseller list and the only titles I have not read yet are:
Ernest Hemingway - A Movable Feast;
Saul Bellow - Herzog;
Ken Kesey - Sometimes a Great Notion;
5. A book published in the 1980's
possible candidates:
James Crumley - Dancing Bear; another ongoing series
Don DeLillo - White Noise; he has been on my TBR for many years
Robin McKinley - The Blue Sword; because I like to include some fantasy each month
6. A book where the setting or plot includes a theatrical performance
possible candidates:
Barbara Hambly - Scandal in Babylon;
Silvia Moreno Garcia - The Seventh Veil of Salome or Silver Nitrate;
David Nicholls - The Understudy; because I loved Sweet Sorrow by him;
Newton Thorburg - Dreamland; noir about Hollywood film industry
7. A book where the main character is an author, writer, or journalist
possible candidates:
Christopher Brookmyre - Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks; book six in an ongoing series about an investigative journalist
Andrew O'Hagan - Mayflies; the narrator is an author, but I already finished the book in March before the challenge started
Saul Bellow - Herzog; it fits in two categories on the list
8. A book by a BIPOC author
possible candidates:
James McBride - The Good Lord Bird; Percival Everett - James;
James Sallis - Eye of the Cricket; ongoing series about a New Orleans private investigator
9. Read a book that a PBT member has on their top ten list of 2024;
possible candidates:
Percival Everett - James;
Abraham Verghese - The Covenant of Water;
Kaliane Bradley - The Ministry of Time;
10. Read a book about the Civil Rights Movement
possible candidates:
Richard Brautigan - Trout Fishing in America;
Percival Everett - The Trees;
Tony Morrison - Song of Solomon;
Jennifer Latham - Dreamland Burning;
11. Read a book by an author who uses three names
possible candidates:
William Kent Krueger - Thunder Bay; ongoing series about a half-native private investigator/cop in Minnesota
Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Prince of Mists; Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Leaf Storm;
Mario Vargas Llosa - The Storyteller or The Green House or The Bad Girl;
Michael Scott Rohan - Chase the Morning;
George MacDonald Fraser - Flashman;
Jorge Luis Borges - The Widow Ching;
Manly Wade Wellman - John the Balladeer
Lois McMaster Bujold - a Penric & Desdemona novella
Silvia Moreno Garcia - she is in another topic on the list
12. Read a book set in Minnesota
possible candidates:
William Kent Krueger - Thunder Bay;
John Sandford - Rules of Prey;
Jonathan Franzen - Freedom;
J Ryan Stradal - Kitchens of the Great Midwest;
Emma Bull - War for the Oaks;
Craig Thomson - Blankets; this would be a re-read