Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2022] Wild Discussion
Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Non-fiction - Are there prompts that would work for NF books on society, health, mental health, history, technology, environment, popular culture? ..."I dont' really see many cate..."
I think that some micro histories could work with the settings prompts, and food/drink prompt. I would definitely up vote a micro histories prompt too.
Jillian wrote: "Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Non-fiction - Are there prompts that would work for NF books on society, health, mental health, history, technology, environment, popular culture? ..."I dont' reall..."
you're right! food / drink lends itself perfectly to microhistories. My quick scan of the list missed that one.
Nancy wrote: "Oh I like two sets of double letters anywhere. ..."I like this one, too!
Dorothy Cannell is another author who qualifies.
Sunny wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Oh I like two sets of double letters anywhere. ..."I like this one, too!
Dorothy Cannell is another author who qualifies."
And Tressie McMillan Cottom - who has 3!
And Kim Liggett
And Mary Ann Shaffer
Jillian wrote: "Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Non-fiction - Are there prompts that would work for NF books on society, health, mental health, history, technology, environment, popular culture? ..."I dont' reall..."
Micro-history was on the sub-genre list. I might resubmit that in a couple weeks.
Please share what you're planning to submit today, so we can avoid some too-close duplicates. I want to submit a theme - environment, medical/health, neuroscience/psychology, etc.
1. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Read a book connected to the mind - neuroscience, problem solving, thinking, decision making, psychology, mental health, memory.
2. Read a book connected to health or medical science.
This could include:
*Non-fiction about any health issue, medical research, medical scandals, drug crisis, etc.
*Fiction with character(s) who are health care professionals, patients, or researchers.
*Memoirs, biographies of health care professionals or patients.
*Public health issues
Links for Health or medical science
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/health
3. Journalism theme. Read a book written by a journalist, about journalism, or with a journalist character.
*Many great non-fiction books are written by investigative journalists.
*The importance of a free press and what happens in countries without it. Journalism and politics.
*Criticism or social commentary about journalists, news, fake news, integrity.
*Journalist characters can be found in many fiction genres.
18 must-read books by journalists:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/th...
Journalist listopias:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/jo...
Journalism:
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/jour...
Journalists:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Feedback?
NancyJ wrote: "Feedback?"I'd love to see more prompts that can be filled by nonfiction, so I'd vote for any of the three, but #2 is my pick.
LindaLH wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Feedback?"I'd love to see more prompts that can be filled by nonfiction, so I'd vote for any of the three, but #2 is my pick."
Linda, would you like to submit it? I already posted the journalism idea because I had links. It should include mental health too I think.
Mod
For the journalism prompt, someone could also use anything written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, who started his writing career as a journalist.
Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Non-fiction - Are there prompts that would work for NF books on society, health, mental health, history, technology, environment, popular culture? ..."I suggested "A book with a child on the cover." I recently looked at one of those "Non-fiction you need to read now!" lists. I was surprised that there were quite a few books on the list that had a child on the cover.
Among them:
Coal: A Human History
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood
Diary of a Young Naturalist
Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner's Community
Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
The Diary of a Young Girl
I am sure there are many more that would work, too.
Shannon wrote: "Nadine wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Non-fiction - Are there prompts that would work for NF books on society, health, mental health, history, technology, environment, popular culture? ..."I suggested "A..."
Here are some more!
Don't Let Me Go
If You Find Me
Sold on a Monday
Three Little Words
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
Father of the Rain
I had a thought for a poll 14 prompt. 2022 marks the 100 year anniversary of the death of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Irish-born Antarctic explorer. What about: In honor of the 100th anniversary of the death of Sir Ernest Schackleton, a book with a theme of exploration. This could be space exploration, ocean exploration. It could even be a book about an internal exploration. An exploration of the soul. Anything with unchartered territory. I imagine this could be both fiction or non-fiction, and could encompass numerous genres. There are books about Shackleton himself. There are non-fiction books about great explorations. Fantasy book often have a group of characters on a quest of some sort. Science-fiction is often about the exploration of new planets. YA would be a great fit too, as young people are often exploring the world as a means of growing up. Even literary fiction often includes an exploration of some sort.
What do you think? Has this been suggested already?
Shannon wrote: "I had a thought for a poll 14 prompt. 2022 marks the 100 year anniversary of the death of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Irish-born Antarctic explorer. What about: In honor of the 100th anniversary of ..."I like this idea.
Shannon wrote: "I had a thought for a poll 14 prompt. 2022 marks the 100 year anniversary of the death of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Irish-born Antarctic explorer. What about: In honor of the 100th anniversary of ..."I like this and I would vote for it. I wish we had more "2022"-specific prompts.
I like it, but wonder if it is too close to the "There be Dragons" prompt which has lots of possibilities related to exploring.
Mod
Right now I’d really like at least one more character and one more genre
It seems like the problem with genre prompts is they are either very open (too easy for some) or pretty specific and limited and either way there isn’t much room for interpretation. I liked the idea of something like “a book from a niche sub-genre”.
I liked the idea of the fun sub genre prompt but I don’t consider any of the ones suggested as “fun” (honestly I’m not much fun so that might be the problem) but since they would not be included in prompt I remained neutral. I’d vote for a limited of sub- genre prompt to pick from kinda like how a few years ago we had the top five money making genres.
I like prompts that give members options though I know others dislike them.
I'd really like to see another cover prompt. I hope that the one about the font that looks like handwriting (it was worded better by someone else) is suggested again. I thought that was interesting and creative.
I was planning to read a book with Dragons for the Dragons prompt, not maps. I think the explorer prompt is different. I like it. It can fit fiction or nonfiction. I like the subgenre prompt because I don't know about all of them, so it would be fun to explore types of books I never heard about. I want to try some of the -punk sub genres.
Maybe it could be sub-genres that end with "punk."
Subgenres that end in -punk is a fun idea! ...though I'm extra into it because I'll definitely be reading the hopepunk novella A Prayer for the Crown-Shy next year when it comes out 😅Seconding Shannon (and several others) on hoping the handwriting font prompt makes it into another poll, I really liked that one - it seemed open enough to span lots of genres and kinds of books, without feeling at all like a freebie, and it isn't a prompt I've seen on other challenges.
Mod
I didn't vote for fun sub genre because I got stuck on the word "fun". Grimdark was given as an example and to me that is the opposite of fun. 🤣I had been thinking about coming up with something punk if I won the prize of choosing a prompt, because I agree it's unlikely to get through voting. I've seen a lot of people soften to science fiction by reading Becky Chambers and her books are the epitome of hopepunk.
Yeah I struggled with what was a fun sub-genre and the ones listed didn’t sound fun to me.
I also struggled with the sub-genre because, honestly, I am not even sure what most of them mean. I love Becky Chambers, but had no idea she was "hopepunk." I've never even heard of that before. I tend to read fiction. I read anything that appeals to me, so genres are sort of a moot point with me. I would be open to a sub-genre prompt, but might need more examples and to have the sub-genres explained a bit.
I couldn't see any of the fun in the examples given. I would probably have chosen steampunk if it got through. I agree with Shannon, the handwriting on the cover was so different to the usual cover prompts that come up.
Shannon wrote: "I also struggled with the sub-genre because, honestly, I am not even sure what most of them mean. I love Becky Chambers, but had no idea she was "hopepunk." I've never even heard of that before. I ..."Don't feel too bad Shannon, most of the authors themselves don't know that they fit into these genres because they are made up by readers, not publishers or authors. It's just another way of labelling groups of books that have similarities. I like how the article below explains it. As the author says over and over, the punk labelling has just gotten out of control. I think that carries over to a lot of the "sub-genres" people talk about as well. It can be fun for some people to classify and label groups of books but it's a bit overwhelming for the rest of us.
https://litreactor.com/columns/punkpu...
Honestly, I think part of the problem with getting genre prompts on the list is that many people don't understand genres. For example, I've seen alternate history come up as a prompt on various reading challenges and people have no clue what it is and a lot of books used for the prompt are very not alternate history. I agree with what others have said about the "fun subgenre" prompt - it was not worded well. And I think the suggestions offered with that prompt, as well as the idea of punk subgenres, is just far too esoteric for most people to upvote them.
Finally, I love the explorer prompt and definitely do not see much, if any, crossover between that and the dragon prompt.
I would vote for handwriting and explorer prompts. I have a mid-grade Antarctica series that I was going to read this year for the Ice prompt but will hold off in case Explorer gets through.
°~Amy~° wrote: "they are made up by readers, not publishers or authors."This made me chuckle, because earlier I was reading about silkpunk, which Ken Liu made up to describe his own books.
https://kenliu.name/books/what-is-sil...
I only know about hopepunk because it is a shorthand for something I really like, so if I see a book described that way, I'll pounce on it. I probably don't know all the sub genres of say crime fiction because I don't read so much if it.
Thanks Ellie for the link on silkpunk! Very interesting but I’m not sure I completely understand it. I just finished reading Ken Liu’s collection The Hidden Girls and other Stories. I love his writing so maybe I like this silkpunk subgenre!
Mod
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Poll 14 will open around 8am Central Time Friday, Sep 17.
Ellie wrote: "°~Amy~° wrote: "they are made up by readers, not publishers or authors."This made me chuckle, because earlier I was reading about silkpunk, which Ken Liu made up to describe his own books.
https..."
Oh that is funny! I don't think the author of the article I posted knew about that one because he certainly would have mentioned it! lol
°~Amy~° wrote: "Shannon wrote: "I also struggled with the sub-genre because, honestly, I am not even sure what most of them mean. I love Becky Chambers, but had no idea she was "hopepunk." I've never even heard of..."I liked it because it had up-lit and hopepunk, which both sound good to me. It also covers Regency romance. I don't think any of them have a chance to get in by themselves. Someone recommended Cinder for me to try cyberpunk. It is also in Women in Stem.
It's funny how some people want to research new ideas and others want to stick with what they already know.
Please someone suggest the handwriting on the cover prompt again. :)
Does anyone have an updated list of the number of prompt types we have so far (character, author, genre, lists, etc.)?
Title - 5Cover - 3
Theme - 3
Setting - 6
Character - 5
Genre - 3
Author - 5
Publishing - 2
GR & Recs - 3
Awards & Lists - 3
Other - 5
Mod
Does anyone remember what week that was suggested? I know there were examples and I would like to copy them.
Mod
Mod
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I dont' really see many categories that I could choose non-fiction for! The Monopoly token one will probably be NF for me (Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am has a plane on the cover)
I like to read microhistories, and I'd love to see another category that lends itself to that. This year we had "you read WHAT?"