7 and 8. 2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme

[Emily]

What are you reading for this category? (Both books)

The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock and The Moonstone

How are they connected?

The Art of the English Murder has a chapter on sensation novels, of which The Moonstone is one, and discusses the book at length (including partially spoiling the story so beware).

[Kim]

- What are you reading for this category? (Both books) Southern Living 2018 Annual Recipes: An Entire Year of Cooking, and Holiday Cookbook (Cooking Light) by Heather Averett (Editor)

- How are they connected? They are both cookbooks, but contain more than just recipes.

[Rachelnyc]

Christy wrote: "I'm reading two books about the experience of being incarcerated, though in very different circumstances:
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner is about a woman serving two life sentences..."

I am doing a prison theme as well and paired The Mars Room with American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment which is a non-fiction account of a journalist who went "undercover" as a prison guard. I haven't read the second book yet but I read the article it is based on and expect it to be horrifying.

[Christy]

Rachelnyc wrote: "Christy wrote: "I'm reading two books about the experience of being incarcerated, though in very different circumstances:
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner is about a woman serving tw..."

I'm intrigued by your nonfiction pick, and I hope you write a review! This is exactly the sort of subject I would like to read about to broaden my horizons, but I am sometimes incapacitated by the horrors of humanity, if you know what I mean. If you don't mind, please update with information on how graphic/horrifying your pick is once you've read it.

[Rachelnyc]

Christy wrote: "Rachelnyc wrote: "Christy wrote: "I'm reading two books about the experience of being incarcerated, though in very different circumstances:
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner is about ..."

I will definitely report back once I've read it and I know exactly what you mean. It is difficult to confront the evils of society but I have been pushing myself to do so.

I highly recommend checking out Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption if you want to broaden your horizons on this subject. It depicts some absolutely tragic cases but not graphic (that I recall) and there is a bit of hope mixed in. The author is a true inspiration.

[Alexx]

What are you reading for this category?
I read If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman

How are they connected?
The books are a 2 part series which are obviously written by the same author

[Jackie]

I did I, Robot & Exit Strategy. They both deal with AI that goes rogue.

[Veronica]

For these prompts, I read Heat Wave and Jeannie Out of the Bottle. They are connected as both are connected to a tv show: Heat Wave is the first book based on the show Castle while Jeannie Out of the Bottle is Barbara Eden's autobiography. Barbara Eden starred as Jeannie on I Dream of Jeannie.

[Rose]

I read about WWII: Sarah's Key and In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin -- during and the lead-up to it.

[Rachel]

What are you reading for this category? (Both books)
The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

How are they connected?
My theme was "mother".

[Rachel]

I'm currently reading Heir of Fire, and will eventually read City of Heavenly Fire for my second book in this pair. It bugs me a lot that I'm not reading them back-to-back, but I based it on the fact that they were both YA fantasy series and had the word fire in the title, so I didn't think about it at the time that I made my list.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

For this prompt, I read two books about North Korean defectors, one a biography, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, and the other a memoir, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom. I had also previously read A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea, but Ishikawa's life story was very different from the two I read this year. Ishikawa was born in Japan to a Korean father who moved the family to North Korea in the wake of the Korean war. Shin and Yeonmi are much younger, both close to my age, and had never known a unified Korea. It was very interesting getting these different perspectives on life in North Korea and what The Regime is like. Their escapes were also very different; the contrast between Shin and Yeonmi is especially jarring. Shin had a much easier time in China since he was a man and people were willing to pay him to work illegally; however, he had a very hard time adjusting to his new life owing to the extreme brutality of his childhood. Yeonmi seems to have adjusted much more quickly and easily, but her journey to freedom involved escaping sex traffickers.

I'm really glad I read these books, but I am also very much ready to read something a bit lighter.

[[deleted user]]

I read The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. These are the first two books in the Kingsbridge series by Ken Follett. I read the second book first which was a bit entertaining itself. Since these are large books I opted for the audio readings which helped the work commutes fly by.

[Adriana]

I read Written with Regret and Take This Regret for these challenges. I read written with regret first and absolutely loved it - 5 stars! I read take this regret second and it started out strong but seemed to drag on even though it wasn't that long of a book - 3 stars. Both of these books focus on the key obvious theme of regret, more specifically the two main characters both abandoned their children for separate reasons but obviously end up finding their way back.

[Marilyn]

- What are you reading for this category? (Both books)
*I just finished reading one book for #8, which is TOMORROW'S BREAD by Anna Jean Mayhew. I had a total of 4 books listed as possibilities for #8. There are 3 books as possibilities for #7 & haven't decided yet which one to go with. Am leaning toward THE WEIGHT OF INK by Rachel Kadish, but might just go with one of the books not selected for #7, FINDING DOROTHY by Elizabeth Letts.

- How are they connected?
*All books I selected as possible reads for #7 & #8 are historical novels, my fav genre.

I rated TOMORROW'S BREAD with 5-stars and wrote a review here on GR. Highly recommended!

[Ashley]

I ended up reading The Girl on the Train and The Woman in the Window. They have similar themes. Both of the main characters see something and are involved in what they see in some way.

[Marilyn]

Update to my June 17, 2019 post:

- What are you reading for this category? (Both books)
*Have now read both #7 & #8 books:
#7: FINDING DOROTHY by Elizabeth Letts
#8: TOMORROW'S BREAD by Anna Jean Mayhew

- How are they connected?
*Both are historical novels - my favorite genre

I rated both of them as 5-stars. Created reviews for both of them as well - hope you read them!

[Pam]

I've gone round and about on this one with different ideas but I think I'm going with 2 books in Ray Bradbury's Green Town series- Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes. I am almost finished with Something Wicked. And, come to find out, there is a 3rd book in the series (who knew?) which was published almost 50 years after the first book and a 4th which is a short story collection!

[Evelyn]

- What are you reading for this category? (Both books)
After the Kiss and Flirting with Scandal.

How are they connected?
Both of them are romance novels.

[Sarah]

Well I just rearranged things (again!) on my list.
I read Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick and Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly.
They are both books for middle school about friendship and bullying. I read them both to my grade 6 class.

[Angie]

- What are you reading for this category? (Both books)
The Institute by Stephen King and
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
- How are they connected? They both feature young people who have special abilities that make them targets. There is also a related theme that deals with (view spoiler)[a looming end-of-the-world threat. (hide spoiler)]

[Aine]

What are you reading?

Week7: The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood

Week8:

How are they related? Gilead