Steve's ABCs - need help!

[Steve]

Right now I need to find books to cover J, K, Q, V, and X. I'm looking to double dip with Around the Year challenges I haven't met yet.

Here's what I have left.

3. A book from the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards (link)
7. A gothic novel
11. A literary fiction
13. A book with a plot centered around a secret (forbidden love, spies, secret societies, etc)
14. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #2 Fire
19. A book nominated for the Edgar Award or by a Grand master author (books & authors)
20. A book rated 5 stars by at least one of your friends
22. A book you have high expectations or hope for
24. A book with a map
27. A book about surviving a hardship (war, famine, major disasters, serious illness, etc)
28. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #3 Water
31. A book set in a country you'd like to visit but have never been to
32. An alternate history book
33. A book connected (title, cover, content) to a word "born" in the same year as you (link)
34. A suggestion from the AtY 2018 polls, that didn't win but was polarizing or a close-call (link)
35. A book featuring a murder
40. A book from Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime list (link)
42. A book that takes place on, in, or underwater
43. A book with a title that is a whole sentence
45. A book that intimidates/ scares you
46. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #4 Air
49. A book from one of the Goodreads Best Books of the Month lists (link)
50. A book with a warm atmosphere (centered on family, friendship, love or summer)
51. An award-winning short story or short story collection



Any ideas that fit these categories?

[Brittany]

If you're into true crime at all I read Jeffrey Dahmer: A Terrifying True Story of Rape, Murder & Cannibalism which would fit #13 and #35, but I know that's not for everyone. I'm reading Valley of the Dolls which is on Amazon's 100 books to read in a lifetime list

[Marie]

I'm bored while we wait for the latest round of voting for next year's list to end, so...

Is it cheating to just use Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone books? It's a series, but they work as standalones too. She's on the Edgar Grand Master list, so any of them work for #9. J is for Judgment and X both fit for #3, K is for Killer and Q is for Quarry fit #35. I've not figured out another prompt for V is for Vengeance yet. If you didn't want to overload, I'd go for X - it's the hardest letter to get and I just read it and it was one of the best in the series.

Killing Floor and Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI would both work for #35 too.

Some of the covers of Jingo have water on them, so you could count that for #28. It's also about war, so it could work for #27, though I suspect it's more lighthearted than the prompt was intended to be.

The close call and polarising list has A book whose title or author's last name starts with Q, X, Y, or Z so you could use that for any of the Q or X titles.

I'm never sure what counts as literary fiction, but maybe Vernon God Little or Village Books?

I've not read Joyland yet, but it says it's set in summer and features a murder, so that's potentially #35 and #50.

Not sure where they'd fit, but there's also Johnny and the Dead (are ghosts air?) and Johnny and the Bomb (bomb = fire?).

Just looking through the Best Book of the Month lists and there's Jim Henson: The Biography, that's going on my TBR now.

[Steve]

Marie wrote: "I'm bored while we wait for the latest round of voting for next year's list to end, so...

Is it cheating to just use Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone books? It's a series, but they work..."

Thanks for the insights! I was thinking about Grafton's X because I saw it as an audiobook from Overdrive. If I've never read any of the first 23, would I be okay picking this one up?

Joyland counts for #19, too, since it was both an Edgar nominee and King is a Grand Master! I'll have to look into that one.

I've never read A Visit from the Goon Squad; I wonder if that counts as a literary fiction. I'd never heard of Valley of the Dolls until I was looking at the Amazon list earlier! I'm surprised to have never heard of it and it's on the top 100.

[Marie]

Steve wrote: "If I've never read any of the first 23, would I be okay picking this one up?"

Definitely, she seems to write with the assumption that the reader hasn't read the other books. There are links between the books, but they're all individual cases that can stand on their own.

[Kathy]

I read A Visit From the Goon Squad this year and I'd say it qualifies as literary fiction. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011.

[dalex]

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

7. A gothic novel
13. A book with a plot centered around a secret (forbidden love, spies, secret societies, etc)
19. A book nominated for the Edgar Award or by a Grand master author (books & authors)
35. A book featuring a murder

Quintessence by David Walton

28. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #3 Water
42. A book that takes place on, in, or underwater

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

3. A book from the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards (link)
11. A literary fiction
50. A book with a warm atmosphere (centered on family, friendship, love or summer)

Vigil by Angela Slatter

13. A book with a plot centered around a secret (forbidden love, spies, secret societies, etc)
35. A book featuring a murder