Alicia’s Comments (group member since Dec 25, 2019)

Alicia’s comments from the Around the Year in 52 Books group.

I really like the song prompt! Especially as it’s not tied to just one song. Maybe a book “closely related” to a song. Or something along those lines.

Then it doesn’t have to be an exact match in title, but also doesn’t cause confusion with a book being inspired/written because of a song.

I actually don’t think the communist prompt is too limiting, especially since it includes China. That opens it up to so many more books than if you just had say Laos and Cuba.

Also, I have some excellent N Korea book recommendations that I’d be excited to add to the listopia.

Sara wrote: "If you wouldn't consider it communist what would you classify it as?"

A monarchy cult. But if I had to be more political speaking, I would say socialism. N. Korea is all about the purity of N. Koreans and how they should be against others, which is different from the standard Marxist ideology of all races uniting.

But my opinions aside, N. Korea rejected the idea of communism awhile ago and identifies itself as "juche" which is more similar to socialism and has a big emphasis on how amazing the original Kim Il was.

Also, this is certainly not a scholarly citation, but Wikipedia limits communist countries to 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communi....

Hmmm I wouldn’t consider N Korea a communist country. Maybe it used to be, but now it isn’t.

I’d prefer 3 or 4 lists (with the fourth being general)

Roxana wrote: "I guess I'll be doing a rejects challenge next year, cause I love multi-week prompts and really liked several of these. Oh well."

Same! I actually think this was the best group of suggestions so far.

Kim wrote: "As I was reading a cozy mystery today, the idea for a prompt - written by an author who uses a nom de plume occurred to me, and I don't remember seeing it before. A quick check on Wikipedia provide..."

I like this idea! I just research briefly and it led me to the incredibly interesting fact that Anne Rice's real name is....

Howard Allen Frances O'Brien

Would have never guessed that. Also her parents may have been expecting her to be a boy?

Haha I do love lists, which is probably why now I feel confused about how my last few months will be without another book list!

I also like too many of the multi-week prompts, so I know next year I have to at least knock those out, if nothing else.

Thanks Sara and Rachel! I think I'm going to do that next year. I'm going to finish up both this and the PopSugar challenge in the next month or two and now I need/want more challenges!

Steve wrote: "Emily wrote: "So many author prompts this round! We already have quite a few author/publishing prompts (3 out of the 8 prompts already on the list), so I'll be strategic in voting those in this rou..."

Hey Steve, I tried to nominate it for you. However, before I did the confinement or freedom one was nominated and seconded.

I think they end up being very similar. Confined in a house, in your mind, prison, etc. Versus freedom in space outside, freedom in letting go in your mind

Rachel wrote: "I loved the BBB idea last year, but I'm doing it already this year as part of my rejects challenge so I'm likely not going to vote for it again. I also kind of like Past, Present and Future, but th..."

What's your rejects challenge? This is my first year being part of the voting process and there are a lot of prompts I'm sad won't make it on the list

I really the example for 4 card suits: "read 4 mysteries where there's a romantic side plot for hearts, the motive is greed for diamonds, the cause of death is stabbing for spades, and there's a group of conspirators for clubs."

This is definitely going to be an upvote for me.

I feel like I enjoy these prompt suggestions so much more than I have the single-week suggestions. This is the first week I'm going to use all my upvotes.

I actually love a lot of these multi-week prompts. Personally, I wouldn’t mind having a good amount of these. I’ll likely be using all my upvotes.

Also, reading the comments more fully, I think in the Wild Discussion we talked about the concept of confinement (prison, in your mind, etc) versus freedom as ways to interpret indoor/outdoor.

Steve in the Wild Discussion thread talked about nominating this prompt, but now I’m worried he may not make it in time.

Steve’s prompt: a two week challenge where “one book is set primarily indoors and “one books is set primarily outdoors”.

Chrissy wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Can the mods clean up the Listopia then to accurately reflect the prompt? Or maybe create a separate KIS listopia for those looking to do an easier version of the prompt?"

If the mo..."

Thanks Chrissy! It may just be me. I've always been the annoying family member re: color and alphabetical organization. If others are fine with it, I'll ignore.

Jackie wrote: "dalex wrote: "Hi everybody! I’ve pretty much disappeared from gr over the last few months but have been following the ‘21 voting process.

I’m super confused by the monochromatic cover prompt. Tha..."

Can the mods clean up the Listopia then to accurately reflect the prompt? Or maybe create a separate KIS listopia for those looking to do an easier version of the prompt?

Also, I know voting has ended, but should the monochromatic color be changed to add "primarily" one color. Looking at the listopia, most of them would need to be removed due to lettering being a different color or small additions of other colors popping up.

Sorry about being so OCD on this.

For the new-to-you BIPOC author, if you haven't already I HIGHLY recommend Roxane Gay.

She has a lot of great fiction and non-fiction books.

Avery wrote: "Still obsessed with the BBB prompt... I feel a little bad suggesting repeat prompts, but I love it. Here are my examples for that one, plus some added ideas if someone else wants to suggest it!

Be..."

Thank you for these examples Avery, it made me really excited for this one!

How will voting for multi-week prompts be this year?