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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3.91 avg rating — 284,166 ratings
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4.18 avg rating — 135,262 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 62,849 ratings
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4

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3.99 avg rating — 114,272 ratings
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5

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3.97 avg rating — 42,578 ratings
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6

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4.33 avg rating — 1,342,633 ratings
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7

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3.68 avg rating — 12,893 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 155,925 ratings
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9

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4.32 avg rating — 1,006,440 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 234,847 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,149,709 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,171 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 549,641 ratings
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14

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4.24 avg rating — 197,969 ratings
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15

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4.16 avg rating — 79,440 ratings
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16

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3.75 avg rating — 1,851,441 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,021,406 ratings
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18

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3.66 avg rating — 14,811 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 631,477 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,332,888 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 824,075 ratings
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22

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4.27 avg rating — 165,342 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,219 ratings
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24

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4.01 avg rating — 46,901 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 76,276 ratings
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26

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4.29 avg rating — 436,649 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,033,283 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 54,309 ratings
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29

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3.82 avg rating — 130,043 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,701,199 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 39,976 ratings
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32

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4.01 avg rating — 142,581 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,100,996 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,058 ratings
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35

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4.34 avg rating — 936,404 ratings
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36

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,218 ratings
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37

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,303 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 27,785 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,038,598 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,010,057 ratings
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41

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3.87 avg rating — 99,212 ratings
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42

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3.89 avg rating — 28,173 ratings
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43

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3.92 avg rating — 73,764 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 212,078 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 59,125 ratings
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46

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4.25 avg rating — 111,850 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 29,390 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 819,206 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 117,119 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 391,400 ratings
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51

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3.85 avg rating — 3,608 ratings
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52

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3.85 avg rating — 27,245 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 98,540 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 32,658 ratings
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55

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3.70 avg rating — 49,306 ratings
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56

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3.84 avg rating — 65,804 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 646,808 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 77,460 ratings
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58

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3.43 avg rating — 12,113 ratings
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60

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3.90 avg rating — 5,846 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 181,635 ratings
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62

by
4.49 avg rating — 356,968 ratings
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63

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 164,926 ratings
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64

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3.98 avg rating — 135,209 ratings
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65

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4.05 avg rating — 17,550 ratings
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66

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4.04 avg rating — 5,974 ratings
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67

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3.87 avg rating — 14,550 ratings
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68

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3.74 avg rating — 18,526 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 160,044 ratings
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70

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4.50 avg rating — 1,103,246 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 1,004,504 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 45,809 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 11,870 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 55,178 ratings
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74

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3.82 avg rating — 6,207 ratings
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76

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4.13 avg rating — 1,038,839 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,537 ratings
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76

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3.83 avg rating — 15,686 ratings
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79

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3.91 avg rating — 4,443 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 10,382 ratings
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79

by
4.28 avg rating — 411 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 61,315 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 73,204 ratings
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84

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3.68 avg rating — 21,704 ratings
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84

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3.96 avg rating — 26,425 ratings
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84

by
3.75 avg rating — 79,088 ratings
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84

by
3.73 avg rating — 2,864 ratings
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88

by
4.19 avg rating — 599,278 ratings
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88

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3.89 avg rating — 1,988 ratings
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90

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4.13 avg rating — 68,977 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 444,775 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 7,642 ratings
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93

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4.35 avg rating — 78,483 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 292,375 ratings
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94

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3.78 avg rating — 9,756 ratings
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94

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4.09 avg rating — 9,217 ratings
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94

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4.04 avg rating — 5,542 ratings
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98

by
4.25 avg rating — 158,578 ratings
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98

by
4.16 avg rating — 16,007 ratings
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100

by
3.66 avg rating — 4,228 ratings
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720 books · 100 voters · list created August 29th, 2022 by Emily Bourque (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


dalex 560 books
52 friends
Louise 4428 books
105 friends
NancyJ 13168 books
230 friends
Sydney 594 books
14 friends
Hélène 2899 books
34 friends
°~Amy~° 2673 books
66 friends
Pamela 2181 books
93 friends
Marie 3937 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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