L Y N N’s Comments (group member since Nov 10, 2018)

L Y N N’s comments from the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group.

Miranda wrote: "I have Judy Heumann's autobiography Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist that I'll be using for this prompt. And the audiobook is read by Ali Stroker..."
Protagonist also includes any major characters, not just the leading character. I really enjoyed Me Before You and plan to continue the series next year. I thought it was a nice departure to depict a character who dealt with his disability in a different way.

I know nothing about them, but there is a series written by Paul Gallico. The first book is Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris and the second is Mrs. 'Arris Goes to New York!! :)

I’m rather disappointed in that I have yet to obtain a copy of Malibu Rising. I should have one by mid-month, but I’m anxious to read it NOW!! LOL Teri is leading the discussion and I want to participate!

I’m over the virus I had, so that’s a good thing. It felt good to teach at the gym again tonight since I had to cancel last Wednesday’s class! And I had a new male student who is quite the hoot! He caught on very fast, too!

Admin Stuff:
I want to begin this Thursday’s Check-In with a shout-out to the talented and dedicated volunteers who led our Monthly Group Read Discussions in 2021! Know that you have our gratitude and appreciation for all your efforts! Please stand and acknowledge the sustained applause from the Popsugar members. 👍🤗🎈🎇🎆✨
Teri began and ended the year by leading in both January for Dear Edward and December for Malibu Rising!
Jessica picked up the leadership role in February for Binti!
Erica facilitated our March discussion of The Song of Achilles!
Brandy B gets the prize for leading three different months: April for The Midnight Library, May for Ayesha at Last, and August for Catherine House! (And what an eclectic trio!)
Terri guided us in June for Dear Martin!
Lindsey oversaw discussions in both July for The Guest List and November for Firekeeper's Daughter!
Theresa led September’s discussion for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue!
Allie guided discussion in October for Anxious People!
I am so grateful to each of these Popsugar members for making our Monthly Group Reads so much more enjoyable and enriching!! But…if not for each of the Popsugar members who read the book and participated in these discussions, there would be NO Monthly Group Read at all! So kudos to everyone who participated!! And, boy, we selected such an amazing list of books as 2021 Monthly Group Reads! Here’s to another great year of books ahead in 2022! 🍻🍷🍸🍹🥂

******December's Monthly Group Read is Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid and that discussion is here. Teri is the most gracious volunteer who will facilitate this discussion. As always, there is also a thread for you to post any books you have finished reading to fulfill prompt #1 A book published in 2021 as well.

We have two (Not one, but two!) polls for you this week!

Here is the poll for the January 2022 group read. NOTE: This is the NOMINATION round, which is step one. We will select the top results from this round to create a new poll for a Final Vote to choose ONE book for the January 2022 group read. The final selection poll will be posted in next week’s Check-In. We’ll also have a nomination poll for the February 2022 group read at that time.

And…here is the poll to select a prompt for the November 2022 Monthly Group Read! We offer five prompts for your consideration!

Here is the full listing of 2022 Categories and Books for your perusal and consideration! Be thinking of books you would like to nominate and/or vote for!

Question of the week:
Which 2022 prompt are you most excited about?
I know. I know. I know. I should keep my focus on finishing the 2021 challenge, but…but…but…I just can’t resist planning for 2022 now that the prompts have been released! Though I try my best to limit the time spent on 2022 and get back to actual reading!! Plus I’ve got to obtain a copy of Malibu Rising for this month’s group read!!

I am most excited about prompt #10 An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner. I got stuck on that site recording titles for at least 20-30 minutes the first time I accessed the listing! So many great books that I really want to read! And so many that will work for multiple prompts! I want to read them all!! (Of course I am just as realistic about the quantity of books I can read as ever!)

How about you?

Popsugar: 46/50
ATY: 52/52 DONE!
RHC: 19/24
Reading Women: 15/28
Only finished one book this week!🙁 But I am almost done with three others, so I should have at least those for next week! 😊 And this weekend should be relatively calm with LOTS of reading time!

I do realize that I won’t be able to finish all 4 of these challenges by the end of December, but I will be able to finish up Popsugar and maybe Read Harder. As long as I finish the two big ones, I’m happy with that. I will continue reading into January to finish! And the next book I finish reading will be #130 for this year! Absolutely amazing! I realize I must work at fitting in Reading Women challenge books throughout the year better than I’ve done this year!

FINISHED:
There There by Tommy Orange ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ was heartbreaking yet compelling. The Prologue alone was maddening. To read about the extreme abuse, torture, and annihilation of Native people by “whites” was sickening, depressing, and always makes me very sad and angry. I realize it was a different time, but how can one human terrorize another human and then celebrate in such macabre ways? *shaking my head* Orange interwove these people’s lives in extraordinary ways and I would LOVE a sequel to follow-up in the aftermath of the powwow.
POPSUGAR: #16, #18-Recognizing and eliminating the alienation of people based upon their skin color, ethnic heritage, etc., #19, #21-Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Native American, Race, #27, #30-California, #37, NEW #49!
ATY: #19-Trying to resurrect ceremonial events from the past to place them in the present and hopefully maintain them in the future, #22, #23-Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Native American, Race, #24, #27-Death, Temperance, Judgment, The World, #49, #52-Tragedy was the end result.
RHC: #5

CONTINUING:
Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan is just as good as I expected it to be!
Almost finished with The Summer Wives: A Novel by Beatriz Williams and think I know the ending/mystery...
Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair is so informative!
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

PLANNED:
Gold by Chris Cleave
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende to fulfill the 2020 Reading Women prompt #26 A book written by Isabel Allende.
Paradise by Toni Morrison to fulfill the 2020 Reading Women prompt #25 A book written by Toni Morrison.
In the future sometime, G.Willow Wilson's books I want to read:
The Bird King
Alif the Unseen

Nadine in NY wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I assume books set in places such as Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle-Tacoma, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Akron-Canton, and Raleigh-Durham in the US, and Leeds-Bradford in the UK.

See below from W...

I was confused by that. The way Popsugar wrote the category, it's as if "twin cities" and "sister cities" are the same thing. But they are two different things! I am assuming that both work for this category, since Popsugar included both terms."
I assume either would work. I also thought they were the same thing, which sent me searching to see... :)

Tania wrote: "Oh I never did finish the Kinsey Millhone series - do we think the later books in the series were still set in the 80's? I made it through M."
Yes! (As far as I remember!) This is one of my favorite series!! Grafton purposefully didn't change the setting or time of the series much at all.

Beth wrote: "I feel like I'm about to be salty looking at the Listopia and seeing that most of it actually doesn't fit, but the Victorian period is the reign of Victoria in the British Empire, so it would only ..."
Your point is well-taken. I guess I didn't interpret it that specifically. To me, "Victorian times" simply restricts the time period during which the book is set. Not the location. But...I tend to interpret prompts loosely...

Caity wrote: "Hello! Emergency/disaster management specialist here. I've got a Master's degree in emergency management and I just wanted to pop in and leave a few ideas here about this prompt for anybody who may...

One such book is Five Days at Memorial, which was something of a miniature disaster on its own during Hurricane Katrina. It's a bit of a bend, but many within my field would probably argue that it works."
I'm so glad you mentioned that book. I own a copy and have been wanting to read it in forever! Thank you for lending your expertise!

Megan wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Popsugar lists Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham.

I've always been interested in reading [book..."

I just finished the Chernobyl book and can highly recommend it."
Great!

Simone wrote: "Titanic books would work too, e.g., this one A Night to Remember"
Oops, sorry, I hadn't seen this post when I posted about the same book!

Meredith! wrote: "It can be a fictional man-made disaster, right?"
I wouldn't know why not!

Anything about the Titanic should work, shouldn't it? It was man-made and after reading the enthralling nonfiction book A Night to Remember it seems to me there was a lot of "human error" as well? At least I would count it...

Amy J. wrote: "https://www.bustle.com/articles/15963..."
Excellent suggestions! The Art of Racing in the Rain is one of my favorite books ever!

Theresa wrote: "A Brief History of Seven Killings is anything but brief or restricted to 7 killings...

I think this is one where once you read the book, you will know if title is misleading or not."
I totally agree!

Angie wrote: "I've been told The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo fits this category."
I would agree. I love that book!

Crystal wrote: "A lot of thrillers would probably qualify for this, things like My Lovely Wife that have titles that sound sweet but are super dark.
I'm going in the opposite direction, though, and planning to read How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days, which is a romcom about a woman who goes on a road trip to meet Keanu Reeves but ends up in love with the friend who went on the road trip with her. or something like that. it is definitely not directions on how to marry Keanu."
DARN! 😂

Leonie wrote: "I’m interpreting it as on vacation. Going to indulge in guilty pleasure chick lit!"
That is brilliant!

Nadine in NY wrote: "Did you all see the new Book Riot list for 2022?

https://bookriot.com/read-harder-2022/

It's very "BookRioty." Two of the categories are similar to two Popsugar categories this year: Women's Prize (although they include the longlist) & the book that's been on your TBR the longest. And one is a book with an asexual or aromantic character.

Some are SO specific!! Like, a nonfiction YA comic, or a political thriller by a marginalized author. The one that would give me the hardest time is " a book that won a literary award the year you were born."
Saw it yesterday (Once Goodreads was finally online again!) and that last one you listed scared me. I don't know what awards were even given then. Maybe the Pulitzer? LOL In case you were wondering, yes, there were printing presses...even back then! 😁

The good news is that virtually every book published then is in the public domain now and I can read through Google Books!

This is the January Monthly Group Read discussion for People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry to satisfy prompt #11. A #BookTok recommendation. Something new and different for a new year!

Our "fascinating facilitator" for this month is Erica!! YAY!!!

Every person reads at a different pace, so please use spoiler tags if you are sharing any plot-related surprises. This allows others to decide whether this information might reveal surprising information they have not yet read.

It can also be helpful to other readers if you post the location within the book noting your progress (chapter and/or page number) with the spoiler. That way, if someone else has read that far they can go ahead and open the spoiler, but if not, they'll know to skip it for now and return later...

TO ADD SPOILER TAGS:
Use this for spoilers, just remove the spaces:
< spoiler > write your spoiler here and close with < / spoiler >

Posts here should only be contributions to discussion about this book.

The Jade Tiger (Penelope Harris Mysteries #1) by E.W. Cooper looks very interesting. Just spotted it on another group's Listopia!

This is the February Monthly Group Read discussion for Get a Life, Chloe Brown (Brown Sisters #1) by Talia Hibbert to satisfy prompt #18. A romance novel written by a BIPOC author. Honoring Black History Month in Canada and the US, and Valentine’s Day is celebrated around the world on February 14th!

Sherri is the "gracious gifted guide" who will lead this discussion! Thank you, Sherri! 😁

Every person reads at a different pace, so please use spoiler tags if you are sharing any plot-related surprises. This allows others to decide whether this information might reveal surprising information they have not yet read.

It can also be helpful to other readers if you post the location within the book noting your progress (chapter and/or page number) with the spoiler. That way, if someone else has read that far they can go ahead and open the spoiler, but if not, they'll know to skip it for now and return later...

TO ADD SPOILER TAGS:
Use this for spoilers, just remove the spaces:
< spoiler > write your spoiler here and close with < / spoiler >

Posts here should only be contributions to discussion about this book.