Around the Year in 52 Books is a Goodreads group that creates a user-generated reading challenge each year. This listopia is dedicated to one of our 2023 prompts. Please do not vote on these lists unless you are participating in our reading challenge!

Prompt: A book related to a chess piece

The chess pieces are:
The Pawn
The Knight
The Bishop
The Rook
The Queen
The King
1

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4.09 avg rating — 64,451 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 117,197 ratings
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3.97 avg rating — 44,323 ratings
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6

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4.33 avg rating — 1,387,457 ratings
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3.67 avg rating — 13,385 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 158,601 ratings
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9

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4.33 avg rating — 1,052,565 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 241,016 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,197,679 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,831 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 564,554 ratings
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14

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4.24 avg rating — 216,289 ratings
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15

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4.16 avg rating — 82,222 ratings
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16

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3.76 avg rating — 1,896,512 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,067,083 ratings
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18

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3.65 avg rating — 15,216 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 682,908 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,504,576 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 849,863 ratings
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22

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4.26 avg rating — 182,910 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,710 ratings
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24

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 48,157 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 80,650 ratings
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26

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4.28 avg rating — 460,590 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,073,436 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 59,519 ratings
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29

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3.81 avg rating — 132,367 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,776,641 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 40,546 ratings
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32

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 144,886 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,192,247 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,191 ratings
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35

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4.33 avg rating — 1,006,260 ratings
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36

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,406 ratings
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37

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,436 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 28,027 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,116,656 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,036,788 ratings
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41

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3.87 avg rating — 106,244 ratings
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42

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3.88 avg rating — 28,790 ratings
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43

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3.91 avg rating — 77,960 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 214,118 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 61,944 ratings
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46

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4.27 avg rating — 142,278 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 31,050 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 845,208 ratings
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49

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4.06 avg rating — 120,034 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 401,467 ratings
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51

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3.84 avg rating — 3,659 ratings
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52

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3.84 avg rating — 28,653 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 99,365 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 33,586 ratings
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55

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3.70 avg rating — 49,985 ratings
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56

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3.84 avg rating — 66,745 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 699,924 ratings
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58

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3.83 avg rating — 79,159 ratings
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58

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3.43 avg rating — 12,219 ratings
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60

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3.90 avg rating — 6,174 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 184,087 ratings
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62

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4.49 avg rating — 371,472 ratings
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63

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3.98 avg rating — 208,927 ratings
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64

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3.99 avg rating — 139,053 ratings
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65

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4.06 avg rating — 17,961 ratings
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66

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4.04 avg rating — 6,148 ratings
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67

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3.87 avg rating — 14,780 ratings
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68

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3.73 avg rating — 19,357 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 164,096 ratings
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70

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4.51 avg rating — 1,154,911 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 1,040,175 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 46,894 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 12,192 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 56,749 ratings
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74

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3.81 avg rating — 6,473 ratings
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76

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4.12 avg rating — 1,118,734 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,747 ratings
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76

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3.82 avg rating — 16,274 ratings
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79

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3.92 avg rating — 4,616 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 10,516 ratings
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79

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4.26 avg rating — 424 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 62,619 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 76,008 ratings
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84

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3.69 avg rating — 22,401 ratings
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84

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3.95 avg rating — 26,909 ratings
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84

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3.75 avg rating — 80,551 ratings
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84

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3.72 avg rating — 2,888 ratings
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88

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4.18 avg rating — 648,169 ratings
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88

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3.91 avg rating — 2,055 ratings
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90

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4.13 avg rating — 71,423 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 485,239 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 7,706 ratings
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93

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4.36 avg rating — 80,297 ratings
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94

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3.87 avg rating — 305,181 ratings
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94

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3.78 avg rating — 9,856 ratings
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94

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4.08 avg rating — 9,469 ratings
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94

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4.04 avg rating — 5,593 ratings
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98

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4.25 avg rating — 162,209 ratings
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98

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4.16 avg rating — 17,236 ratings
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100

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3.64 avg rating — 4,482 ratings
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720 books · 101 voters · list created August 29th, 2022 by Emily Bourque (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


dalex 570 books
52 friends
Louise 4551 books
104 friends
NancyJ 13418 books
230 friends
Sydney 554 books
17 friends
Hélène 3069 books
35 friends
°~Amy~° 2645 books
66 friends
Pamela 2327 books
95 friends
Marie 3962 books
8 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Mandy (last edited Aug 29, 2022 09:47AM) (new)

Mandy here are some other names for pieces.

Minister, top, lady, tower, vizier, horse, officer

A link for finding international piece names. unfortunately, unless you can read the language, google translate will be your friend.

www. schach-chess. com / chess-pieces .htm


message 2: by NancyJ (last edited Aug 29, 2022 12:43PM) (new)

NancyJ I think it's too big a stretch to include words with "king" imbedded in a title word or author's name - eg. working, mockingbird, looking, Kingfisher, etc. This prompt is already very broad.


message 3: by Dubhease (new)

Dubhease Rooks are sometimes called a castle, a tower, and an elephant in various cultures.


message 4: by Emily (new)

Emily Bourque NancyJ wrote: "I think it's too big a stretch to include words with "king" imbedded in a title word or author's name - eg. working, mockingbird, looking, Kingfisher, etc. This prompt is already very broad."

Totally understand if you don't want to include those books in this prompt, NancyJ (I personally don't plan to) but I'll allow them to remain on the listopia for people who may want to broaden the prompt to that.


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Dubhease wrote: "Rooks are sometimes called a castle ... in various cultures."

Agreed


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Mandy wrote: "here are some other names for pieces.

... horse ..."
I so agree


message 7: by Ketutar (new)

Ketutar Jensen OK... The Count of Monte Cristo?
A Discovery of Witches?
11/22/63?
Writers and Lovers?
Euphoria?
The Uncommon Reader?
Rosemary and Rue?
How are these related to chess pieces? People should be motivating their votes here, too.

And, no, words with -king on them shouldn't count. I know this is just a reading challenge and not serious or so, but why would people join a reading challenge if they don't plan to challenge themselves in any way? I mean, I can accept "royals", and "rookie", but there are TONS of books with "king", "queen", "horse" and "tower" to choose from, without needing to go that far out to fish. One could just as well select any 52 books and then come up with far-fetched motivations.

BTW, in Finnish the pieces are called the King, the Queen, the Messenger, the Horse (Steed), the Tower and the Soldier
in Swedish: king, lady, runner, horse, tower, peasant
in Estonian: king, flag, spear, horse, wagon, forerunner


message 8: by Emily (new)

Emily Bourque A reminder, Ketutar, that everyone approaches the challenge in a different way. We encourage people to put notes on their votes explaining how the book fits, but at the end of the day, it is up to each person using the listopia to decide if a book fits for them or not. We aren't here to judge how or why someone chooses to complete our challenge.

I appreciate your listing the different words used in different languages! That's very helpful!


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