[2021] Poll 13 Voting

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

It's now time to get ready to vote for our 13th set of prompts! The thread will be open for at least 24 hours before the poll gets posted. This is a good opportunity to ask any question you may have regarding the prompts, do some research or ask for recommendations.

Voting will open on Saturday September 12 and results will be posted on Wednesday September 16.

How it works:
- When the voting opens, follow the link to the mini-poll that will be added at the end of this post
- You have a total of 8 votes this poll to spread across your favorite and least favorite prompts (you can also use less than 8 votes) - You can find examples of acceptable voting practices on the Introduction thread.
- The prompts with the more favorable votes (comparing top votes to bottom votes, and looking at the overall number of votes it received) will be added to the final list (between 2 and 5 depending on how the votes are spread)

We are asking people to include their Goodreads profile address when they vote. To find this, just go to your own profile and then copy the URL/web address. If for some reason you can't link to your Goodreads profile, please post your full Goodreads name with enough identifiable information that we'll be able to access your profile. We’ve introduced this for two reasons:

1. On a few occasions in each poll, people have used more than the allotted number of votes, either because they aren’t familiar with the rules or just by mistake. When this happens our only option is to disregard the vote as we can’t identify the voter to ask them to resubmit. By asking for your profile address we’ll be able to message you and ask you to vote again if you’ve accidentally used more than the allotted number of votes.

2. Unfortunately a very small number of people have voted more than once per poll and so we are asking for this information to prevent duplicate votes.

As a reminder: You have a total of 8 votes to use among your top and bottom votes. The mods have access to each individual vote, so we can see if you use more than 8 votes. If you use more than 8 votes in the poll, your vote will have to be deleted, so please make sure to follow the directions so your voice can be heard.

Possible Prompts:

1. Reread a favorite book, but with a different perspective
2. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music
3. A book with a Muslim character or author
4. A book related to an endangered animal
5. A book with a non-human narrator
6. A book with a building in the title
7. An own voices debut
8. A book that deserves a second chance
9. A book with an ensemble cast
10. A book with a command in the title
11. Read a book that you consider 'unusual"
12. A book with at least one shoe on the cover
13. A book with one of the rainbow colors (ROYGBIV) in the title
14. A book with six or more words in the title
15. A book with an illustrated cover

Feel free to discuss the prompts below, but please remember to be respectful to the other group members.

VOTE HERE: https://www.surveymoz.com/s/NOV84L/

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Discussion, examples, and links

1. Reread a favorite book, but with a different perspective
We did this in book club reading To Kill a Mockingbird but read it looking for how fear changed in the book. And how prejudice has or has not changed. It was really great.

2. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music
a link to the lyrics: https://genius.com/Julie-andrews-my-f...


3. A book with a Muslim character or author
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://bookriot.com/2019-books-by-mu...
https://headscarvesandhardbacks.com/2...


4. A book related to an endangered animal
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species...


5. A book with a non-human narrator
Examples:

Animals (see https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/an...)

Objects/Things (cocaine in Delicious Foods, a coin and the color red in My Name is Red)

Human-like non-humans: gods, demons, supernatural beings, aliens, death (The Book Thief, various Discworld books), a corpse (various mystery/thriller books)

6. A book with a building in the title
any type of building such as house, cottage, castle, fort, palace, mansion, hall, abbey, shop, school etc. hut, cottage, mansion, castle, library, hotel, monument, casa, manor, store, palace

Titles that would apply:
House of Leaves
The Dutch House
The Haunting of Hill House
The House of the Spirits
Murder at the Vicarage
The Two Towers
The Dark Tower
The Yacoubian Building
The Glass Palace

Also building names:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
The Beast of Buckingham Palace

8. A book that deserves a second chance
This could be a book you DNF'd but may want to pick up again, a book you never picked up because you didn't like the cover/hype, a book you were supposed to read in school, a book you listened to on audio that you might appreciate more in text form, etc....

9. A book with an ensemble cast
"The plot and its narrative don't revolve around a single, most important main character. Instead, it shares a cast of characters with (almost) equal pagetime and importance to the plot."

https://www.epicreads.com/blog/books-...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...




10. A book with a command in the title
Examples:
Know My Name
Dare Me
Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
Do Not Say We Have Nothing

11. Read a book that you consider 'unusual’
Such as:
1. a type of book you don't normally read
2. a book with an unusual cover
3. a book with an unusual title
4. a book with an unusual author name (Lemony Snicket, Silence DoGood, Duchess of Northumberland, etc.)
5. a book you picked up in an unusual way (ie. bookcrossing)
6. and any other way you can think of a book being unusual :-)

13. A book with one of the colors of ROYGBIV in the title
ROYGBIV or Roy G. Biv is an acronym for the sequence of hues commonly described as making up a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet
Ex: Half of a Yellow Sun, Anne of Green Gables, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo

15. A book with an illustrated cover
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Nadja]

Jackie wrote: "Discussion, examples, and links

15. A book with an illustrated cover
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1..."

I added some more links to my suggestion. Would it be possible to add these here as well?

Yes these covers were my initial reasoning for suggesting the prompt but I don't want people to think that they must like romance to find something that would fit the prompt :)

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Kelly Sj]

Regarding the non-human narrator prompt:

I was thinking I should clarify my inclusion of Discworld novels for Death as a narrator - there are several Discworld novels in which Death is a character, but Death is not the narrator in all of those, there are only a couple in which enough of the story is told from Death's point of view that I would consider it a narrator of the story (and I can't think of which ones off the top of my head). I was going to edit that in my examples post in the suggestions thread, but got back here after it was already closed.

Short version: there's a difference between narrator and character :)

[Juliet Brown]

I have a problem with the ‘non human narrator’ prompt feeling very limited. To me ‘narrator’ is a character who is actively telling the story to the audience. By that standard, to use your example, none of the Death Discworld books count, because although he IS the main character, he is NOT the ‘narrator’

[°~Amy~°]

Kelly wrote: "Regarding the non-human narrReaper Manator prompt:

I was thinking I should clarify my inclusion of Discworld novels for Death as a narrator - there are several Discworld novels in which Death is a character..."

I believe you are thinking of Mort and Reaper Man. There may be others. I haven't read the entire series yet :-)

[Hannah]

Nadja wrote: "Jackie wrote: "Discussion, examples, and links

15. A book with an illustrated cover
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1..."

I added some more links to my suggestion. Would it be possible to add..."

I was just noticing this pattern in book covers yesterday! It's more than just illustrated covers, it's this specific, simple, solid color illustrations that are just everywhere! The cover of looks so much to me like it would be a book by Sally Rooney that I forgot it's by Fredrik Backman: or . And the specific romance novel thing of the two illustrated characters on the cover against a solid color background, interacting with the title in some way:

I'm fascinated! Someone could probably (or probably has, really) write a whole thesis analyzing the implications of this trend.

[Angie]

Does anyone have some good examples for "A book related to an endangered animal"--other than tigers?

[dalex]

The "at least one shoe" prompt amuses me.

I really like My Favorite Things lyrics, endangered animal, and building in the title.

I always seem to have a bazillion color titles on my TBR List so that's an upvote even though it's an oft done prompt.

I wish the non-human prompt was character instead of narrator. That seems rather difficult.

I'm kind of on the fence about the Muslim one since we already have BIPOC and black authors. It's starting to feel like a bit much.

I don't really like the second chance one but I could see using it for a book that's been super popular because frequently that popularity puts me off a book. Those types of books rarely live up to the hype for me but sometimes I'm wrong and that's always a delightful surprise.

My only definite downvote is a re-read. I do not like to re-read books and the few times I have it's almost been a disappointment.

[Beth]

I quite like the title and cover prompts this round.

My Favourite Things is a fun idea which has a good balance of not being too restrictive or too broad so I will probably vote for that.

Nothing jumps out as an immediate downvote except maybe the non-human narrator as I don't think I have anything on my TBR that fits. I will have to look through some lists to see if there's anything that interests me.

[Nadine in NY]

Muslim doesn't mean Black or BIPOC. G. Willow Wilson is a popular Muslim author, and she's white. I like this idea because it's a good way to include religion in the list in a very specific way that is not necessarily religious, and that makes it clear what kind of book I can look for (as opposed to more open-ended prompts like "a religion that is not yours" which means ANY book involving religion for me).

Can someone confirm for me that Three Bags Full is narrated by the sheep? (I confess I'd missed the "narrated by" wrinkle at first and thought it was just a non-human main character.)

[Nancy]

The re-read and second chance are downvotes for me. I'm not a big re-reader at all, and there are very few books I want to give a second chance to.

I definitely like My Favorite Things and the ensemble cast. I'm leaning toward the Muslim one, building in the title, and non-human narrator, which I would use a Murderbot for. I do agree that narrator is somewhat limiting but I'll still vote for it because I already know what I'd read.

[dalex]

Nadine wrote: "Muslim doesn't mean Black or BIPOC."

I didn't mean that they're the same but it's kind of in that same category - defining author by race/religion/etc. I'm kind of tired of considering someone's skin color or ethnicity or religious affiliation or whatever just to fill a prompt. I'm more interested in what a book is about and how well written it is than who/what the author is.

[dalex]

#7 "An own voices debut" is missing from the post for Discussion, examples, and links.

Wouldn't a lot of books that would work for the BIPOC and black author prompts also work for own voices?

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

dalex wrote: "#7 "An own voices debut" is missing from the post for Discussion, examples, and links.

Wouldn't a lot of books that would work for the BIPOC and black author prompts also work for own voices?"

That post is just a copy of stuff that has been listed in the suggestion thread for those who don't read this discussion. If nobody lists anything in the suggestions thread for a particular prompt, I don't have anything to copy over for it.

[Ann]

Angie wrote: "Does anyone have some good examples for "A book related to an endangered animal"--other than tigers?" I just finished How the Penguins Saved Veronica

[Traci]

Angie wrote: "Does anyone have some good examples for "A book related to an endangered animal"--other than tigers?"

I had The Eye of the Elephant: An Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness and Secrets of the Savanna: Twenty-three Years in the African Wilderness Unraveling the Mysteries of Elephants and People as possibilities for prompts this year. I think they would work (no clue if they're good!).

[Juliet Brown]

I think most wolf species are on the endangered list at some level, and there are no shortage of books related to them.

[Beth]

Could we possibly spell out or clarify the rainbow acronym prompt within the prompt itself? Like some others in the suggestions thread I had no idea what the acronym was referring to. It might put some people off voting for it if they don't know what it means.

[Kat]

Books that immediately come to mind for endangered species are Jaws, Moby Dick, Life of Pi and Jungle Book.

Here are a few lists that might help.
Elephants
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
Gorillas
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Sharks
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Marine
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

[Wendy]

Angie wrote: "Does anyone have some good examples for "A book related to an endangered animal"--other than tigers?"

- Last Chance to See (various)
- Moby-Dick or, the Whale
- Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures
- American Wolf
- River of Teeth (hippo)
- Winter Counts (bison)
- Water for Elephants
- The One and Only Ivan (gorilla)
- Rhino Ranch

[dalex]

Angie wrote: "Does anyone have some good examples for "A book related to an endangered animal"--other than tigers?"

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent (character named Turtle)
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver (character named Turtle)
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman (features bonobos monkeys so it sort of works for monkeys/chimpanzees/gorillas/etc.)
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (features a chimpanzee)
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
The Bear by Claire Cameron
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (features a polar bear)
Happiness by Aminatta Forna (about foxes)
Midwinter by Fiona Melrose (fox on cover and in story)
Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden
The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison
The Sealwoman's Gift by Sally Magnusson

I can keep going.... :)

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Beth wrote: "Could we possibly spell out or clarify the rainbow acronym prompt within the prompt itself? Like some others in the suggestions thread I had no idea what the acronym was referring to. It might put ..."

Do you have any suggestions for the wording?

[Hilde]

Jackie wrote: "Do you have any suggestions for the wording?"

‘A book with one of the rainbow colors in the title’.

[Beth]

Jackie wrote: "Beth wrote: "Could we possibly spell out or clarify the rainbow acronym prompt within the prompt itself? Like some others in the suggestions thread I had no idea what the acronym was referring to. ..."

Maybe something like:
A book with one of the colors of the rainbow (ROYGBIV) in the title ?

If anyone has any better suggestions then please go ahead.

[Chrissy]

Nadine wrote: "Can someone confirm for me that Three Bags Full is narrated by the sheep?"

Yep, and it’s delightful.

[Entropia]

Angie wrote: "Does anyone have some good examples for "A book related to an endangered animal"--other than tigers?"

I recently read The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—And Us and it featured behaviour of Bonobos, Chimpanzees and Gorillas, Black Spider Monkey was also mentioned. I remember Gorillas being mentioned also in Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic.
I haven't read it yet, but I have on my tbr Memoirs of a Polar Bear (written by author of The Emissary), which would work both for endangered species and non-human narrator potential prompts.
The Elephant Vanishes would work too :)

[Kelly Sj]

°~Amy~° wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Regarding the non-human narrReaper Manator prompt:

I was thinking I should clarify my inclusion of Discworld novels for Death as a narrator - there are several Discworld..."

Yes, Reaper Man was the one I was thinking about!

And thanks Juliet, I do realize that in my world of ignoring literary rules, I have lumped my idea of narrator and point-of-view character together, which I'm sure others would disagree with for good reason. If narrator doesn't get through I could try point-of-view character in a future round.

Edit: the other examples I listed previously are narrators

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

All the Chet and Bernie mysteries by Spencer Quinn are narrated by the dog.

[Chelsey]

Right now, Reread and second chance are down votes for me. I just don't really reread that often. Muslim character and own voices are also down votes for me.

My up votes are going to be endangered animal, I'm especially loving everyone's suggestions already, and my favorite things.

Still undecided on my other two votes.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Hilde and Beth I'm going to combine what you did into:

A book with one of the rainbow colors (ROYGBIV) in the title

I want to retain the acronym as part of the prompt's wordings since I think the idea is to stick to those words (as opposed to using any color word). I agree that ROYGBIV by itself isn't going to mean anything to people who were not taught that acronym as kindergartners. Now that I think about it, why is that taught at all?

[Steve]

Jackie wrote: "Hilde and Beth I'm going to combine what you did into:

A book with one of the rainbow colors (ROYGBIV) in the title

I want to retain the acronym as part of the prompt's wordings since I think the..."

I always wonder why it's important that we teach kids what animals sound like at a very young age. Why does the 1-2 year old need to know that a cow says moo and a duck says quack?

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Ooh I know this one! It's not about knowing cows say moo, it's about teaching toddlers how to talk better! That's why all the animal sounds are like very easy syllables. It's diction practice wrapped in the fun of animals.

[Juliet Brown]

Jackie wrote: "Ooh I know this one! It's not about knowing cows say moo, it's about teaching toddlers how to talk better! That's why all the animal sounds are like very easy syllables. It's diction practice wrapp..."

Likewise ROYGBIV seems weird ( why Indigo?) but it's because they are the seven colors that make up a a lot of western color theory going back to Aristotle

[Kelly Sj]

For endangered species, there are different classifications (critically endangered, endangered, threatened, vulnerable, and least concern). If this prompt is voted in (and I hope it is), I would suggest a BIO of sticking to species specifically listed as "endangered" or "critically endangered" and a KIS of including the other classifications (which are species of concern, but not technically endangered).

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

dalex, in regards to your question about the own voices debut, yes, both the Black authors list and the BIPOC could work for this prompt. But you could also incorporate sexuality into it, and it's a debut book, so that does limit the options. It's also a good way to get to an author's backlist (you could read Alice Walker's The Third Life Of Grange Copeland, which was her debut novel and is own voices, or The Bluest Eye, which was Toni Morrison's first novel).

I'll probably vote for this one, and I'll probably use it to read an LGBTQIA+ book (most likely one I added to my TBR when research the nb/trans prompt lol).

[Jen K]

Emily wrote: "dalex, in regards to your question about the own voices debut, yes, both the Black authors list and the BIPOC could work for this prompt. But you could also incorporate sexuality into it, and it's ..."

I also would consider #ownvoices for physical or mental health challenged books such as Eliza and Her Monsters though her debut was Made You Up.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Oh yes! That too! Also would include Challenger Deep, as it was written by Neal Shusterman and his son, who went through an episode of schizophrenia and helped write and illustrate the story.

EDIT: That was not his debut book. But yes! Mental health and physical disability books would be great options for own voices as well!

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Jackie wrote: "Hilde and Beth I'm going to combine what you did into:

A book with one of the rainbow colors (ROYGBIV) in the title

I want to retain the acronym as part of the prompt's wordings since I think the..."

So a title would have to say violet, not purple? Not sure how any of this would work for other languages.

[Jillian]

Robin, I would imagine that they would just use the equivalent word in their language. Though, I think this prompt will have a hard time making the top because color prompts come up quite often in challenges.

[Nancy]

Didn't they drop the indigo? And yes to be true to the prompt it would be violet, not purple.

Other languages have names for the colors of the rainbow, no? So like in Spanish, it would be rojo, naranja, amarillo, verde, azul, indigo, violeta. It's not so much about using the acronym ROYGBIV but about using the colors in the rainbow.

[Jillian]

I’m not sure I understand the illustrated cover prompt. I’m only coming up with covers with photos not counting. What am I missing???

[Harini]

The prompt that interests me the most is the endangered species one (I hope it gets selected). There already have been great recommendations for the prompt but if someone wants to go the non-fiction way and read more about the animal kingdom, here are few books that have been on my TBR that fit perfectly with this prompt.

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina

When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Susan McCarthy

Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison

The Unexpected Truth About Animals: A Menagerie of the Misunderstood by Lucy Cooke

Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves by Farley Mowat

Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey

The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society by Frans de Waal

A Life with Wildlife: From Princely India to the Present by M.K. Ranjitsinh (might be hard to find for readers outside India)

An Elephant in My Kitchen by Françoise Malby-Anthony, Katja Willemsen

The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony, Graham Spence

My Life with the Chimpanzees by by Jane Goodall

Adventures of a Young Naturalist: The Zoo Quest Expeditions by David Attenborough

The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures by Lawrence Anthony, Graham Spence

Hope this helps.

[Angie]

As it stands right now, I have 4 downvotes, 3 upvotes, and one extra vote I don't know what to do with...

I really love the "My Favorite Things" prompt. The song has lots of cool imagery to work with. I'm also definitely voting for ensemble cast, as I love those. I also love the building cover prompt. I have several good ones on my list.

Like Jillian, I'd like some clarification about illustrated cover. Is it any cover that has an image that isn't a photo, or is it a specific type of illustration? I've looked at the lists, but I'm still unclear.

[Beth]

I could be wrong but I'm interpreting the illustrated cover to be an image that isn't a photo. I would include any type of 'created' image but exclude text-only covers if that makes sense.

[Roxana]

I think I missed the conversation about this prompt, sorry, but could someone explain further about the “reread but from a different perspective” prompt? I don’t think I understand what’s intended with that one.

[Ellie]

For Muslim author/character I highly recommend the Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty which I just finished yesterday and I love so much. Starts with The City of Brass.

I am happy with most of these except the re-read ones...I do occasionally re-read but I don't want to pick apart a favourite (or what if I have exactly the same opinion of it this time?). I liked previous wordings of the second chance prompt which allowed the book to be about second chances. I don't have the time or inclination to go back to books I don't want to finish.

Incidentally I had the rainbow song at school to learn the colours. I didn't know way ROYGBIV was initially either.

[Joyce]

Kelly wrote: "For endangered species, there are different classifications (critically endangered, endangered, threatened, vulnerable, and least concern). If this prompt is voted in (and I hope it is), “

Also creatures can be nationally or regionally endangered. For instance the hazel dormouse is critically endangered in the UK but not in the rest of Europe. I will probably read The REAL Mad Hatter's Tea Party if this prompt gets in.

[Pam]

Thank you Harini for the animal examples! I’m definitely voting for that one plus building, unusual, and My Favorite Things. With the song, you could take a more liberal approach and read something that is about your personal “favorite thing”.not necessarily something mentioned in the song.

Also, I don’t get the illustrated cover. That would include almost every book except ones with photos and the rare cover with just words.

[Nadine in NY]

I'm looking for clarification on the illustrated cover, also. I asked in the voting round but I think my question was missed. From the way it was introduced and the first examples given, I'm under the impression that the intention was to choose a book with the "vector art" style cover, such as:


instead of covers like


but the three lists included here are confusing. Two of them are just "best of" lists.

Maybe Nadja will see our questions and come back to clarify!