26 – A book with an oxymoron in the title

[L Y N N]

The Bridge Home could qualify since there is no way a bridge should be a home for humans! But it was… I would count Normal People in this category, since as we know there are truly NO “normal” people! 😊 Corduroy Mansions—mansions cannot be made of corduroy!

I used “happy Monday” as an example of an oxymoron to my students! LOL

What book do you want to read to fulfill this prompt?

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

[Lilith]

If only there were a book with the title Jumbo shrimp or military intelligence.

Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Eyewitness Account of Life at Guantánamo
Jumbo Shrimp

Didn't expect to find these on Goodreads lol!

[Janet]

Would this work?

[Pua]

Both Love, Hate & Other Filters and Small Great Things look good.

I'd add Sweetbitter to this list. Read it when it first came out!

[Sarah]

This one keeps tripping me up. I have a few from my TBR but Sweetbitter I was planning to use for the restaurant prompt.

Little, Big
Blindsight

What about Disappearing Earth? Does anyone think that would qualify as an oxymoron?

ETA:
American Elsewhere
The Gone-Away World
Super Sad True Love Story
Illumination Night

Guess I have more options than I thought I did!

[L Y N N]

Lilith wrote: "If only there were a book with the title Jumbo shrimp or military intelligence.

Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Eyewitness Account of Life at Guantánamo
[book:Ju..."

Too funny!

[Emily]

Big Little Lies would also work and has the bonus of being a really good book to read

[Nadine in NY]

Oxymorons are so common in everyday speech, but apparently not at all common in titles!! Back in 2015 the first challenge had "a book with antonyms in the title" and I read and loved Big Little Lies, but antonyms and oxymorons are not exactly the same thing, they are like close cousins.

Best thing I can find that I'm willing to read is The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye.


I'm also toying with whether Pretties counts since it is part of a series called Uglies. I think that's too much of a stretch for me. There's Pretty Ugly, Pretty Ugly Lies, & Pretty Ugly, none of which I've heard of before. And then there's All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, which maybe counts?

[L Y N N]

Nadine wrote: "Oxymorons are so common in everyday speech, but apparently not at all common in titles!! Back in 2015 the first challenge had "a book with antonyms in the title" and I read and loved Big Little Lie..."

I do think this is left to individual interpretation for the most part...

[Alexa]

This might sound offensive, but would All the Ugly and Wonderful Things work for this prompt?

[Charlotte]

Nadine wrote: "I'm also toying with whether Pretties counts since it is part of a series called Uglies. I think that's too much of a stretch for me. ..."

For what it's worth, I love this series and you should definitely try to fit it in somewhere! I lent the whole series to a friend who moved away while I was on maternity leave and I never got them back.

[Sarah]

This list has a lot of common oxymorons. I hadn't thought of "civil war" which probably appears in a lot of history titles.

[Charlotte]

The Perfect Witness by Iris Johansen

[Mandi]

Going to read Little Universes although it's apparently very sad and heavy.

[Angela]

I think that Solutions and Other Problems could work, here.

[Christine]

Angela wrote: "I think that Solutions and Other Problems could work, here."

Ooh yessss! I knew there was a good reason I didn't devour this immediately when it arrived!

[Christine]

Trying to come up with some other ideas to help people out - this is a frustrating prompt!

What do we think of Ancillary Justice (like, justice is of primary importance, not a side effect?)

The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More?

Axiom's End?

Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff (if the battle's never-ending, you can't win it?)

Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings

Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism

[Amy J.]

If you're feeling completely cynical: A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight could fit

[Nikki]

I was thinking of reading Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart, that should count right?

[Cynthia (Bingeing On Books)]

Just got Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner -- would that count?

[Tanu]

Reasonable Doubt - would this one count?

[Ellie]

Nikki wrote: "I was thinking of reading Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart, that should count right?"

Yes, I think that's a great example. Sadly, I've read it already.

[Ellie]

What do we think about these?
A History of What Comes Next
An Ordinary Wonder
A Desolation Called Peace
Plain Bad Heroines
Unsettled Ground
True Story
Kill Joy

[Ariel]

I think these work maybe?
The Ordinary Princess
Glory O'Brien's History of the Future
Up the Down Staircase
Inside Out & Back Again

[Tanu]

Ellie wrote: "What do we think about these?
A History of What Comes Next
An Ordinary Wonder
A Desolation Called Peace
Plain Bad Heroines
[book:Unse..."

First three would work, IMO. Not sure about the others.

[Jennifer]

I’m thinking Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse.

[Rachel]

Sarah wrote: "This list has a lot of common oxymorons. I hadn't thought of "civil war" which probably appears in a lot of history titles."

I love this idea! Wikipedia has a whole list of civil wars, so it doesn't have to be just the American Civil War. The War of the Roses was considered a civil war, so a book about the Tudors could work!

[Shannon]

The Gravity of Birds... stretching it? lol

[Caitie]

I've picked A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, I thought the idea of having a short book that covered the entirety of history a good oxymoron! There are loads of great ideas here.

Some other books that might fit:
The Uncommon Reader - An unusual thing to find around here!
House of Leaves - Someone else said mansions weren't made of corduroy, they're not made of leaves either!
All the Light We Cannot See
The Silence of the Lambs -The Glass Castle Lambs are notoriously noisy...
Howl's Moving Castle - Castles, in general, don't tend to move!
The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - In general, life is not immortal.
The Glass Castle - Another building that shouldn't exist...

[Chrissy]

The Last Days of Night has been on my TBR for a while, and seems like a good fit!

[Heather]

I have three on my list that I think will work for this prompt.

A Beginning at the End
Black Sun
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

[Sutirtha]

Pale Fire by Nabokov ?

[L Y N N]

Sarah wrote: "This list has a lot of common oxymorons. I hadn't thought of "civil war" which probably appears in a lot of history titles."

Yes. Civil war definitely qualifies, IMHO!

[Alex]

If you are religious Darkness Is As Light is a gothic Christian Women's devotional that is amazing (and not just because I helped write it! Lol). Definitely an oxymoron title.

[Jen K]

What about Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America?

[Nadine in NY]

Ellie wrote: "What do we think about these?
A History of What Comes Next
An Ordinary Wonder
A Desolation Called Peace
Plain Bad Heroines
[book:Unse..."


I like those a lot! I haven't been sure what to read for this, maybe I'll pick one of those.

"True story" and "killjoy" are common phrases, but maybe they are also common oxymorons, so common that we don't even see them as oxymorons any more?

I've decided I'm not going to think too deeply about this one!

[Nadine in NY]

Chrissy wrote: "The Last Days of Night has been on my TBR for a while, and seems like a good fit!"


That's one of the first titles that popped into my head for this, and I wasn't sure if it would work! But if you thought of it too, then that's two of us, and that's good enough for me.

[Katelyn]

Nadine wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "The Last Days of Night has been on my TBR for a while, and seems like a good fit!"


That's one of the first titles that popped into my head for this, and I wasn't s..."

I read this a couple years ago, it was great! Highly recommend.

[Ellie]

Falling down an internet rabbit hole now but I found this article on oxymorons in Romeo and Juliet which came up for kill joy...thought it might inspire some ideas:
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/o...

Also found enough people who think that true story is an oxymoron to make me think that counts.

[Ana]

I think A Love Hate Thing would work. And maybe Anger Is a Gift? And there is A Good Kind of Trouble. Not sure about Dance Upon the Air. I also have Dead Man Talking, but there are several books with that title (reminds me of the headline ‘Homicide Victims Rarely Talk to Police’.)

[Marie-Claude]

I will probably go with Change is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World (two oxymorons!) by Ben Orlin. I know, I know, it's calculus. Math was a nightmare for me in high school and college, but I read and thoroughly enjoyed Orlin's previous book Math with Bad Drawings. He's really great at explaining how and why things work without making your head hurt (and the drawings are not that bad either).

[SadieReadsAgain]

I'm going for Little Gods for this. Surely gods are usually all-powerful, huge entities, so I think it works.

[Pam]

I was thinking of reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene. I think that Americans have a reputation of being loud and outspoken. Maybe some non-American members can confirm this statement?

[Ali]

I think I might go with An Unnecessary Woman

[Ellie]

Pam wrote: "I was thinking of reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene. I think that Americans have a reputation of being loud and outspoken. Maybe some non-American members can confirm this statement?"

It probably would have been considered an oxymoron when he wrote it. The stereotype has died off a bit, I guess with more international interactions (and louder Brits).

[Beth]

[Flying Snow]

Some great ideas here which I will definitely look into, thank you.

I do think some of the examples are over-stretching the boundaries of the prompt, though. It is not enough that the combination be unlikely or impossible; the two parts of the oxymoron actually have to contradict each other, so "True Lies" is an oxymoron, but "True Story" is not (a story is a narrative - it does not have to be made up).

Anything with "and" or similar definitely doesn't count, e.g. "Angels and Demons," "A Love Hate Thing." Sorry!

All this is obviously just if you want to take the prompt literally. I appreciate that some people don't want to be so strict (and I may end up stretching the limits myself rather than reading a book that doesn't really grab me...)

[Flying Snow]

Tanvi wrote: "Ellie wrote: "What do we think about these?
A History of What Comes Next
An Ordinary Wonder
A Desolation Called Peace
Plain Bad Heroines
An Ordinary Wonder
A Desolation Called Peace
[book:Plain Bad Heroines|504968..."

Yes, agree that the first three work and not the others.

[Ellie]

Why doesn't Unsettled Ground work in your opinion? The definition of ground is the solid surface of the earth, so can you have an unsettled solid? I think once a solid becomes unsettled it's no longer solid... Or you say something is grounded because it's something that is fixed.

You can tie yourself in knot trying to prove something is impossible, so I will go with something that sounds to me like an oxymoron even if it technically could be true.

[Johanne]

Bittersweet is an oxymoron because it is two words put together that are opposites, in the original meaning of the two words, thus creating a paradox.
Bittersweet is at the same time a very real and possible taste, and feeling.
An oxymoron doesn't have to be impossible, just constituted of two words, whose original meaning are paradoxical when put together. Or at least that's how I understand oxymoron.
My friend Merriam-Webster says: a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel kindness).