21. A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u"

[Bryony]

If you’re reading in order this prompt will fall in the 21st week of 2021, and it’s all about the 21st letter of the alphabet: U.

You’re looking for a book with a “u” in the title by an author with a “u” in their name.

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Suggestions
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Recursion by Blake Crouch

ATY Listopia

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Optional questions

1. What are you reading for this category?
2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt?

[Serendipity]

A quick scroll through my TBR revealed plenty of contenders including

All Adults Here - Emma Straub
The Two Lives Of Louis and Louise - Julie Cohen
If You Come Softly - Jacqueline Woodson
Daughters of Erietown - Connie Schultz
The Beauty of Your Face - Sahar Mustafa
When They Call You a Terrorist - Patrice Khan-Cullors
I am Not Your Slave - Tupa Tjipombo

I’m sure there are more so I should be able to find something to suit whatever mood I’m in at the time.

[Kristina]

I keep my owned TBR list in a spreadsheet (in addition to my Goodreads shelf) so it was easy to just search the letter U and see which books had it in both title and author name.

My options are:
Mars...with Venus Rising - Hope Toler Dougherty
The Question of Red - Laksmi Pamuntjak
The Witch's Daughter - Paula Brackston
Integrative Nutrition - Joshua Rosenthal
Make Something Up - Chuck Palahniuk

I'm using Mars...with Venus Rising for this prompt since I'm reading the other books for different prompts.

[[deleted user]]

Kristina, that's a great trick! i searched for 'u' on my goodreads shelf to narrow it down but it took me a bit of time to weed them out.

1. What are you reading for this category?

i have Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud marked down for this one! i'm hoping to wrap up all of my series over the next months though. if i read it too early, i might go for

Pride and Prejudice by Jane [book:Truly DeviousAusten|1265]
Autoboyography by Christina Lauren
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?

relatively. one of the easier prompts to research, for sure!

3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt?

- if you enjoy sports romance, slice-of-university-life and want a graphic novel, i highly recommend The Avant-Guards, Vol. 1! it has a fully BIPOC & queer cast, and the mc has anxiety.
- The Young Elites! i can't rave about this series enough. it's a ya fantasy about an anti-heroine's spiral to darkness. there's an ensemble cast, rebellion, political intrigue, magic abilities and sisters. it's brilliantly done
- Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist. a unique dystopian-but-its'-a-western with zombies, brother-sister relationships, a 'quest' and emotive writing
- Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. the ultimate boarding school mystery! i highly recommend to agatha christie fans. it's about a girl obsessed with true crime who gets into an exclusive, prestigious school for prodigies to solve an infamous cold case from the 1920s. there's flashbacks to the original case and so much intrigue and a new murder mystery and a ragtag group of misfits becoming reluctant friends. it's so much fun!
- The House in the Cerulean Sea. i could not recommend this book more! it's one of my favourites of the year and it's literally a warm hug in book form.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Kristina, I did the same thing with my TBR on Goodreads and came up with a TON of options. I've narrowed it down to these five for my 2021 plan, but I'm not going to force myself to stick to them:

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

I'll probably go with one of the first two since I own both of them, or with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter because it's on my 40 Before 40 list. I'm definitely going to read The House in the Cerulean Sea at some point this year because it fits a million prompts and comes so highly recommended!

[Heather]

I'm going to read Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde. I have a big tbr so I just scrolled until I found one that fit.

[Sam]

I'm pretty sure I am doing The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue. I really liked Room and The Wonder, so I think this will be an easy, new, enjoyable read for me. BUT I also have been wanting to read Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri for awhile... I might end up reading both?!

It was pretty easy for me to find these, mostly because they are featured titles in the listopia and on my TBR! For other recs that haven't been mentioned yet:

Persuasion by Jane Austen - it's my personal favorite Austen, the pathos, the growth, the star crossed lovers, the CONFESSION! Ugh the feels.
If you want more Dumas and aren't doing it for a long book, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers both work
The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman for anyone doing a His Dark Materials re-read or first read, or likes dark YA fantasy with some Milton-ian connections
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud, some more slightly dark YA (and an obnoxious but clever and thoroughly enjoyable first person djinn narrator)
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui, a moving illustrated memoir about a refugee family from Vietnam
The Sellout by Paul Beatty - this one is polarizing and the satire didn't always work for me, but very much worth reading

[Kate]

I tend to order my TBR by what has been there the longest, and pick in descending order. That gives me Slaughterhouse-Five.

[Chrissy]

A few more possibilities that haven’t been mentioned yet:
A Burning
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker
The Burning God
How Beautiful We Were
The Mountains Sing
We Ride Upon Sticks
Last Train to Istanbul

[Ellie]

This is a surprisingly uncommon combination in my TBR, but I do have some if I dig back far enough, and Leigh Bardugo's next Grishaverse book fits, Rule of Wolves.

The Turn of the Key, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematorium, The Hunting Party, Slay on Tour, How Do You Like Me Now?, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, Discount Armageddon

[Pam]

If I don’t read Dumas, I have 2 other choices from my bookshelves- one is very long, Foucalt’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco, and the other is short, The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart. Foucalt’s Pendulum has been on my bookshelf since at least 1990 so I feel like I need to read it or donate it. Urquhart wrote one of my favorite books, The Stone Carvers, and I’ve been very interested to read another one of her novels. I might use Pendulum for the long book prompt instead. We’ll see! Lots of good choices!

[Kathy]

My options are:

The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley
The Painted Drum - Louise Erdrich
Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
The House on the Strand- Daphne du Maurier
The Unhoneymooners - Christina Lauren
Bless Me, Ultima- Rudolfo Anaya
Last Train to Istanbul- Ayse Kulin

I'd recommend:
The Beet Queen and The Round House, both by Louise Erdrich.

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

Persuasion by Jane Austen

[Nancy]

I have Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo planned for this. This year I started moving books I had slated for a prompt but didn't use to a new tab in my spreadsheet, and I start there when looking for books. It was surprisingly easy to find books that fit.

[Anna]

I have finally found five books that can fit this prompt. I want the book/author to fit the prompt in the language I read in and I read most books in Swedish and some in English. It was a bit trucky to find suitable books in Swedish, I think the letter u is used more in English.

So the ones I am considering is:

Barnbruden by Anna Laestadius Larsson
Fjärilsrummet by Lucinda Riley
Du, bara by Anna Ahlund
Män ur mörkret by Håkan Östlundh

[Viktoria]

I haven't decided yet, but it will be one of these five:

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

I would recommend The Hunger Games, Pride and Prejudice, Recursion

[Roxana]

I'm trying as much as possible to plan for arcs I already have for 2021 releases, so I went down my arcs spreadsheet first to find options and came up with only a couple--

Death of the Vazir-Mukhtar by Yury Tynyanov (it's a new translation)
The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous (but this one comes out so early in 2021 that I will probably be reading it while it's still 2020)

I thought it'd be hard to come up with more options, because thinking through my favorite authors I basically only had one (Jane Austen) whose name even included a U at all. But going through my actual tbr list, I found more... so, in addition to some of the previously mentioned ones like Jane Austen and Umberto Eco, I had listed

Brown Album: Essays on Exile and Identity by Porochista Khakpour
Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren (their book The Unhoneymooners would also work, but I've read it already)
The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton
The Buried Giant or The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
Dangerous Remedy by Kat Dunn
The Dust That Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières
Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

[Kathryn]

I've got a heap on my TBR list:

Struck: One Christian's Reflections on Encountering Death by Russ Ramsey
The Mountains Have a Secret by Arthur W. Upfield
Stolen Beauty by Laurie Lico Albanese
The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton
The Story of Us by Susan Wiggs
A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger
Four Fires by Bryce Courtenay
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

And quite a few in my 4★ and 5★ reads that I would recommend:
The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn
Sanctuary by Judy Nunn
Out of the Ice by Ann Turner
The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter (beware: it's a bit gory!)
Everything You Told Me by Lucy Dawson
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Oranges and Sunshine: Empty Cradles by Margaret Humphreys
Return to Me by Lynn Austin
Mrs Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

[Wendy]

I (re-) discovered Louise Erdrich this year, so I may have to read something by her (The Painted Drum, The Plague of Doves, The Master Butchers Singing Club)

I'm also intrigued by
- In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt
- The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
- Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

[Thomas]

Following a discussion about adding kids picture books for balance i am thinking maybe Lucy and Tom at School by Shirley Hughes

[Gem ~ZeroShelfControl~]

I have the following books that will work:
Ape House by Sara Gruen
I Wanted You To Know by Laura Pearson
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

[dalex]

My top choice for this prompt is The Muse by Jessie Burton.

Other options from my Owned & Unread List:
The Burning Girl by Claire Messud
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier
The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys
The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman
House of Glass by Susan Fletcher
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
Our House by Louise Candlish
A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer duBois
Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

[Marie (UK)]

I don't think it will be difficult to find a book for this prompt

I am considering A Burning but it is an ARC and I might read it before the week it is planned for

I could recommend

The Librarian of Auschwitz I hate World war and Auschwitz fiction but OMG

[SadieReadsAgain]

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
Really hard! I got the idea from this thread after working through about 12 others of my books that didn't fit!

3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt?
Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between to Amrou Al-Kadhi, The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud, Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O'Donoghue

[LindaLH]

It was pretty easy to find a book for this prompt! I'll be reading:

The Outer Banks House by Diann Ducharme (my book club is reading it)
or Spiritual Bypassing: When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters by Robert Augustus Masters (I've had it on the shelf for a while).

Plenty of "u"s in both!

[Ann]

I’m planning on reading Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart

[Calvin]

There are MANY on the Listopia I would recommend:

The Virgin Suicides
One of Us Is Lying
One of Us Is Next
Our House
Columbine
How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference
How Do You Like Me Now?
My Name Is Lucy Barton

And that's just from the first two pages! My pick for this one is Truly Devious though. I do have some others which also work, but this is the winner.

[Valerie]

I looked for an author with a U and looked at that author's books.

I am reading The Muse by Jessie Burton.

[Kate]

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas selected and completed for this task.

[Angela]

1. What are you reading for this category?
A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, by Jesse Tu


2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
It was surprisingly easy - I had this book in my To Be Read pile.

3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt?
Lady Susan, by Jane Austen. Surprisingly tart.

[Sherri]

I used The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

[Tiffany]

I read A Burning. It was a little challenging to find, mainly because I had the prompt of "an author whose name doesn't contain A, T or Y" stuck in my head. I'd recommend: , , and .

[Elaine]

What did you read for this category?

by Lucy Lennox

Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
Surprisingly so. I opened my TBR list and the second book on it qualified. The fact that I enjoyed reading the book and am looking forward to more from this author is the cherry on top!

What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt?

by Shelly Laurenston

[Laura]

1. What are you reading for this category?
Kiss Me Like You Mean It by J.R. Rogue

2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
It was actually more difficult than I thought. I didn't have many books on my TBR that fit this category.

3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt?
I like the Leah Nash mystery series by Susan Hunter and all of those titles have the word "Dangerous" in it

[Len]

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

[Nikki]

Just finished this one! Not particularly well written, but a great page turner and who doesn't love a wedding for drama?!?

[Jill]

What are you reading for this category?
I read The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude

Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
Yes. I did have a few to choose from, but this was chosen by another group to read.

[Anne]

I am reading 'Young Henry - the rise of Henry VIII' by Robert Hutchinson. I don't know if it's easy to find a book like this but I do happen to have two on my shelves. I can recommend My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier.

[star_fire13]

1. What are you reading for this category?
Cursed

2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
Yeah, I had a few options, some of which I actually ended up reading at the tail end of 2020, because I was so excited!

3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt
The "Trust Me' duology by Mary Elizabeth Summer

[Donna]

Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

[Tânia]

Para onde vão os guarda-chuva (where the umbruellas go) by Afonso Cruz. Unfortunately I think it is not translated to English, I'm reading in Portuguese

[Marie]

1. What are you reading for this category?
On Dublin Street by Samantha Young
2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
I really expected it to be hard, but then I just found one on my to-read that fit no problem!
3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins I know a lot of people have read this series, but if you haven't I would urge you to! It really stomps on your heart a few times but it's worth it.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

I read I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted for this prompt.

It wasn't at all hard to find because I just decided to read the book, and then discovered a prompt to fit it into. :-)

Recommendations:
Illuminae
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey Into Christian Faith
Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life
Five Equations That Changed the World
Persuasions: A Dream of Reason Meeting Unbelief

Picture book:
Sadie Sprocket Builds a Rocket

[Samantha]

1. What are you reading for this category? Slaughter House-Five
2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt? Not too hard.
3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt? Recursion

[Severina]

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt?
It was surprisingly easy.

3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt?
I would recommend Soldier of Fortune: Gideon Quinn Adventures Book One by Kathleen McClure. It's a super-fun action/adventure that kept me entertained throughout.

[Leah]

1. What are you reading for this category? I read Thirteen Months of Sunrise by Rania Mamoun. It is a short, very poetic, collection of stories, and would also be a good read for the translation prompt.

2. Was it easy to find a book that works for this prompt? There are many more examples than I would have expected.

3. What book would you recommend to others for this prompt? . The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter; Persuasion.

[SueAnn]

The Duke and I (Bridgertons #1) by Julia Quinn

[Joan]

1. What are you reading for this category? The Butterfly Garden
2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt? I had a few others that are on my list to read. The Wonderful World of Oz: The Wizard of Oz / The Emerald City of Oz / Glinda of Oz and The Guest List
3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt? Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, The Hunger Games, and Columbine

[Misty]

I'm reading Heretic Queen: Queen Elizabeth I and the Wars of Religion by Susan Ronald for this prompt.

[Andrea]

For this prompt, I read The Golden House by Salman Rushdie. I spent longer than expected searching my shelves for a book that would meet this challenge's parameters.
Other qualifying and popular books that I recently added to my shelf but have yet to read are Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley.

[Marie (UK)]

1. What are you reading for this category? The Pull of the Stars
2. Was it easy to find a book that works for the prompt? Yes
3. What book would you recommend to other people for this prompt? Suffragette: My Own Story