Play Book Tag discussion
February 2021: Family Drama
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Announcing the February Tag
Nicole R wrote: "I am intrigued by Memorial, and may go with that.BUT, I know for sure I am going to read Bring Up the Bodies to continue with my reading of the Cromwell Trilogy. Who had more family drama than Henry VIII?!? Lol
I am in for Memorial, but need to break up the trilogy a bit. I'll do Bring up the Bodies in a few months.
I'm headed to Australia by reading Truly Madly Guilty and/or Nine Perfect Strangers.I'll be reading A Bend in the Road as part of my unofficial trim.
I have a few others on the list too... maybe Ask Again, Yes or The Family Upstairs...
I have read a lot on the list and have a handful of options.
A few recommendations:Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (Chile & California)
Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee (Ecuador & New York)
The Translator by Nina Schuyler (Japan)
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (China)
I have not checked the see if they have 5 or more tags, but I know they are set in these locations.
Book Concierge wrote: "I'm currently listening to the audio of John Boyne's A History of Loneliness .... it fits Historical Fiction (our bonus tag this month) ... but would be excellent for ..."Re: Long Petal... It does, and it fits for a country LibraryCin didn't mention, as well.
The first book on my list is ‘The Vanishing Half’ by Brit Bennet. I’m not sure where I will go next. I don’t have anything compelling after that right now. I will leave it up to the reviews I read and if anything hits a chord with me.
Here are some suggestions with countries for Fly challenge (although I cannot be sure they are tagged 5x).A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Chechnya
The Heart's Invisible Furies Ireland
The Great Alone Alaska
The Gift of Rain Malaysia (?)
Doctor Zhivago Russia
Sophie's Choice Poland
The Thorn Birds Australia
White Chrysanthemum Korea
Beartown Sweden
I will probably read
The House of the Spirits
I looked back at my reading history, and I found three more to recommend that might be hidden gems. When All Is Said - Good for an Ireland Trip. This was my favorite book in 2019. A man is looking back at interesting events in his life with his family and a neighboring family. He is toasting to the memory of key people. It was dramatic, smart and heartfelt, with a few twists. I loved the writing and audio narration. This author was recommended by John Boyne.
This Is How It Always Is - A few of us really liked this one a couple years back. This is about a family with a son who wants to be a girl. It's a beautiful story about accepting a trans kid, but they make some mistakes too. (I have fond memories of the reactions of a 90 year old woman in my book club,)
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - I enjoyed this book about an unusual family. There are some controversial topics which made it very interesting. This one got mixed ratings.
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YEA or NAY?
I have too many choices. Can anyone push me toward or away from any of these?
A Good Neighborhood
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
And the Mountains Echoed
The Marriage of Opposites
The Light Years
Queenie
The Lost Girls of Devon
As It Is in Heaven
Where the Line Bleeds, Jesmyn Ward
A Woman Is No Man
Salt Houses
Long Bright River: an intense family thriller
The Unseen World,Liz Moore
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
Shelly wrote: "Here are some suggestions with countries for Fly challenge (although I cannot be sure they are tagged 5x).A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Chechnya
[book:The Heart's Invisible F..."
Great choices! After 40 years, I still remember where I was when I read Sophie's Choice, and how hard I cried.
Gift of Rain doesn't have enough family drama tags, but it has enough tags for Malaysia, China, and Japan.
Hi Nancy, I loved "Long Bright River" and "The Unseen World" - two very different books, written by the same author. "Salt Houses" is another favorite book of mine and would work for "Play the PBT Skies"... I know that "A Woman is No Man" is very popular, but I hated it and gave it a 2 star rating. It's about domestic violence and is very grim.... I'll be interested to see what you choose.
For those of you who are interested in a humorous read about a family with psychic powers, I recommend Spoonbenders. I loved the book!
NancyJ wrote: "I looked back at my reading history, and I found three more to recommend that might be hidden gems. When All Is Said - Good for an Ireland Trip. This was my favorite book in 2019...."
Of your options, I liked And the Mountains Echoed and The Light Years (first book of a series but you can read it alone). The Overdue Life of Amy Byler is rather lightweight but entertaining.
Holly R W wrote: "For those of you who are interested in a humorous read about a family with psychic powers, I recommend Spoonbenders. I loved the book!"Robin P wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I looked back at my reading history, and I found three more to recommend that might be hidden gems.
When All Is Said - Good for an Ireland Trip. This was my favorit..."
Thanks Robin and Holly, I'll probably skip the domestic violence book for now, and include the lighter books to balance out the heavier ones. (I'm also reading Atonement and History of Loneliness).
Is anyone else trying to guess the Pursue it phrases for this tag?
And the Mountains Echoed also has domestic violence.
I personally loved the Marriage of Opposites. Sally just read it too. I thought the writing was beautiful. Then again, were talking about my favorite author.... Alice Hoffman.
Anita wrote: "I think this is the closest vote I've seen yet on PBT, and an extraordinary number of votes were cast, but at the end of the day, we settled on:family drama
Please share your reading plans and r..."
Atonement is one of my all time favorites. Lots of good possibilities for this tag!
Jenny wrote: "I must be weird - most of you have planned your journey and fitting the books around where you want to go for Fly the PBT Skies. Whilst I am letting my books tell me where to go each month!"That's basically what I am doing, less stress for me to try to fit something in that isn't a book club read or planned read.
I have a bunch on my shelves that fit this tag! After spending some time calculating distances, I've found that The Vanishing Half takes me the farthest from my starting place in Antarctica. So, off to California for February for me!And, I checked first this time! The book has more than 5 tags for the place this time.
I am finding this planning by mileage to be really interesting. I've never picked out books this way before.
From Japan, I wanted to go back to US for PBT Skies, and I see Ask Again, Yes is labeled New York City by enough people, so I can use it for Family Drama also. I am starting to get the hang of this.
Apparently, I REALLY like family drama. I’ve read or attempted to read a third of the books on the first page of the bookshelf! LOL.
I'm really excited for this tag too (but not signed up for PBT Fly), and have a lot of Family Dramas on my TBR. I'll stick to just planning 5 cos there's no way I'll read more than that in a month.The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Todo nos sale bien by Julia Coria
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Have I missed the Pursue It! words for February? I just want to make sure I'm not looking in the wrong place.
Jenni Elyse wrote: "Have I missed the Pursue It! words for February? I just want to make sure I'm not looking in the wrong place."Was wondering that as well.
No you have not missed them. Nicole did say that they would come more than a few days after the tag as she and Anita had to confer about them-they will always come later-because the mods do not know what the tag will be
Joanne wrote: "No you have not missed them. Nicole did say that they would come more than a few days after the tag as she and Anita had to confer about them-they will always come later-because the mods do not kno..."I know they said it would come later, but I wasn't sure how much later. January's came very quickly ... maybe because it was easy to come up with the keywords. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed them.
Pursue it words:Divorce (exact)
Bigamy (exact or situation)
Sibling rivalry (exact or situation)
Come/coming/came out (exact, but with any form of the verb “come”) and must discussed in the context of coming out to parents
I recommend Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones.
I just realized that February 2021 is my five year anniversary with Goodreads and PBT. This has both enriched and changed my life! Thank you, mods, friends, and community. This has been awesome! I look forward to growing with you all!
NancyJ wrote: "YEA or NAY?I have too many choices. Can anyone push me toward or away from any of these?...."
Here are my ratings of those I have read, in case it helps:
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - 4 stars
And the Mountains Echoed - 3 stars
The Marriage of Opposites - 4 stars
Salt Houses - 4 stars
4 = I liked it a lot (I only give 5 stars to about 10-15% of what I read, so a 4-star rating is very good)
3 = I liked it but it had a few issues
Joy D wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "YEA or NAY?I have too many choices. Can anyone push me toward or away from any of these?...."
Here are my ratings of those I have read, in case it helps:
A Constellation of Vital P..."
Thanks Joy. This helps. Salt Houses was barely on my radar before this year, and now I'm seeing it everywhere. It reminds me that I still need to restart Apeirogon.
Amy wrote: "I just realized that February 2021 is my five year anniversary with Goodreads and PBT. This has both enriched and changed my life! Thank you, mods, friends, and community. This has been awesome! I ..."Love having you here and getting to know you for the past 5 years, Amy!
Happy 5th PBT Anniversary, Amy! When I joined in August 2018, your enthusiasm and welcome into 2 buddy reads, Circe and Weight of Ink, played a big part in bonding me to PBT and encouraging my active participation. I am forever grateful for that!
And forever grateful to KateNZ who had friended me in Popsugar group, and as a result, her review during the Espionage theme that month appeared in my newsfeed, sparked my interest and led me to explore. The banner used that month also spoke to me.
Congrats on your anniversary, Amy. I think mine is this month and it was back in 2008, but I haven’t always been active during that time. I’ve kind of been a passive PBTer that thought the idea was fun. I tried to be more active around the time Shelfari died and was here for the transition to GR. But, I slowly petered out until I left in 2018ish. But, now, I’m back and I’m really trying to be active. More active than I’ve ever been by doing yearly challenges and having a great time. Participation is where it’s at!Update: I went and looked. It was December 2008. My first book was Two Little Girls in Blue for the mystery tag.
Amy wrote: "I just realized that February 2021 is my five year anniversary with Goodreads and PBT. This has both enriched and changed my life! Thank you, mods, friends, and community. This has been awesome! I ..."Happy PBT Anniversary, Amy! Thanks for your heartfelt, warm presence and for sharing your thoughts and stories with all of us these five years and counting.
Happy PBT anniversaries to those having them! January marks my fifth GR anniversary (January), and 8th PBT anniversary (Jan, 2013 for that).
Next month will be the 13th anniversary of PBT! May will be my 13th anniversary as a member and this fall will be my 13th anniversary as an admin!
I had quite a few choices for this tag, but after careful consideration, decided to start with The Forgotten Garden. The story sounds very appealing to me and the book has received high marks from several of my reading friends. Plus, it will take me from London to Australia in February!Some recommendations for some very good family drama books that may get you where you want to go in February for Fly the PBT Skies Challenge:
Educated - tagged Idaho
Still Alice - tagged Boston
Homegoing - tagged Ghana
Beach Read - tagged Michigan
Cutting for Stone - tagged Ethiopa
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic - tagged Pennsylvania
The Leavers tagged China and New York
Garden Spells - tagged North Carolina
As of this posting, all of these are tagged with the destination listed well over the requisite 5 times
With everyone talking about PBT anniversaries, I checked mine and I joined and read my first tag, social commentary in January 2011, so it is my 10 year anniversary. While I had joined Goodreads, before they closed Shelfari, I was pretty much inactive until the transition was forced.
Goodreads was an acquired taste and if PBT hadn't migrated as well, I would have most likely not used it much.
Booknblues wrote: "While I had joined Goodreads, before they closed Shelfari, I was pretty much inactive until the transition was forced.Goodreads was an acquired taste and if PBT hadn't migrated as well, I would have most likely not used it much."
Yup. This. 👆🏻
Jenni Elyse wrote: "Yup. This. 👆🏻 ."They really could use a like button.
Nicole R wrote: "May will be my 13th anniversary as a member and this fall will be my 13th anniversary as an admin!"I joined at the end of that first month! I don't remember when I started as an admin. I took over from Kristal, who'd been doing the shelving for a bit before. I don't know for how long, though.
Thank you guys so much for the love! And for so many this is an achievement of friendship along with books! We should make sure to do something special for Nicole and Anita's fifteenth!
I joined GR in May 2010, I was surprised it's been that long. I think at first all I did on GR was record my books and look at recommendations and reviews. I have been a Mod in The Readers Review for several years, but it is way less work than the mods do here. We generally lead one book discussion every few months. There are no games or challenges to track. I am in awe of how much the Mods here do and how creative they are!I have been in and out of multiple groups because some of them didn't really discuss books or hardly had any participation. BookConcierge, who is in several other groups with me, recommended this one to me last summer because it is so active. I really appreciated the Zoom calls that let me get to know some of you so quickly!
I can't remember when I joined Goodreads but I joined PBT in February 2017, my first review was for In the Woods by Tana French for Ireland (March's tag).
Congrats on the 5 years, Amy! And almost 13 years, Nicole!? Holy Canoli :O
I am not sure my anniversary. I started a while ago, abandoned it, then came back with a vengeance maybe 3-4 years or so ago. So my real anniversary will look like I've been here longer than I actually have.
Nicole R wrote: "Next month will be the 13th anniversary of PBT! May will be my 13th anniversary as a member and this fall will be my 13th anniversary as an admin!"
Wow 13 years! I joined May 2008 too so we've been active members the same length of time :-)
Rachel, more than just 13 years of books, I feel like we have been through so many life events together, both good and bad! We have had members come and go over the years and their reading waxes and wanes as it competes with other interests, but the really long term PBTers like yourself (and others! I see you people floating around!) bring a welcome sense on continuity throughout our lifespan!
But, whether you have been here one month or 13 years, you check in daily or occasionally, or whether you have had some hiatuses or not, the admins are constantly amazed and humbled that such intelligent, prolific readers choose to spend their time with PBT. It makes it so much fun for us.
When I initially joined, I was in college- and the tag was 'Social Commentary'. I took a look and that was January 2011- I was probably "active" for a year or two. I then went MIA for a long time, then re-joined when the group moved to Goodreads in January 2016 when it was the 2010 tag.
So I guess that makes this month both my 5 and 10 year anniversary! How fun!
Joi wrote: "When I initially joined, I was in college- and the tag was 'Social Commentary'. I took a look and that was January 2011- I was probably "active" for a year or two. I then went MIA for a long time..."
Joi, we joined at the same time because, I started with Social Commentary as well.
I am a youngster here :) 3 year anniversary will be in March-So glad I found this outstanding group of people . You are my daily Chicken Soup For the Soul!
I can't remember exactly when I joined PBT on Shelfari. I know I lurked for a while before participating. The earliest review I have that I know I wrote for a tag seems to be in December of 2008. Just a little more than 12 years! Time flies.
Play Book Tag
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That's what I'm doing, too. If I wasn't an admin, I'd probably be a bit more competitive with the planning and make sure to choose places that would get me more miles and bonus points, but I'm just playing for fun.