40 - A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR reading challenge

[L Y N N]

There are so many prompts to select from for this! I will probably select a favorite from 2021 that I have a perfect book to fulfill but didn't end up reading it in 2021!

Here is the listing of past POPSUGAR prompts for your convenience. We'll add the 2021 prompts as of January 1, 2022!

[Aleksandra]

I loooved the A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place! I'm doing that one again for sure!

[Alyssa]

I'm going to go with the prompt of Dark Academia and read The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

[Pooja]

I'm going with the prompt of A book set in your home state and Anya Seton's The Winthrop Woman - have the audiobook already!

[Charlsa]

Aleksandra wrote: "I loooved the A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place! I'm doing that one again for sure!"

I loved this prompt, too. I read Bel Canto for it and discovered a great author in the process.

[Sofia]

I'll go with a prompt from 2016 "A book that is published in 2016". I'll read Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

[Nicole]

I may use last year's "A genre hybrid" since that's an easy category.

[Marie]

This one is always a gimme for me, I usually go back and forth between picking a book that will fulfill a challenge and just whatever I feel like at the moment. So I will pick the prompt off of what fits the whim book.

[Nancy]

I almost always use "Next in a series" for this prompt as it helps me work through the many many series I have going.

[Ron]

I chose the topic "A book with a map" from the 2020 challenge.

For this one I picked The Wheel of Time Series 1-15 Books Collection Set Pack (Book 1-14) By Robert Jordan .

I've currently started the first book and it will take me all of next year to get through the other 14.

[Dana]

One of the faves is 13 A locked-room mystery:

The Guest List by Lucy Foley.

[Kelly]

Mainly because I couldn't fit it in anywhere else and it's another one of my book club's January read, I'm fitting The Lincoln Highway into a prompt from 2020: A book with a map. I do happen to love when books have maps in them! I'm constantly turning to it to imagine the story through use of the map :-)

[Kelly]

Nancy wrote: "I almost always use "Next in a series" for this prompt as it helps me work through the many many series I have going."

That's a great idea! I'll have to remember that.

[Alyxis]

I read The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I've had it on my shelf - it fit under the "A book published in 2021" from last year's challenge. Great book, I really enjoyed it. The Personal Librarian

[Jacqueline]

I read A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow. It was for a prompt from 2016....based on a fairytale. It's a fractured fairytale based on Sleeping Beauty. I was going to use one from last year....a book published in 2021....to slot one of the many I bought last year but haven't got around to yet into.

[JessicaMHR]

Just read Beach Read by Emily Henry using a prompt from 2015... Author you never read before.

[Beth]

I read Beautiful Exiles by Meg Waite Clayton for the 2021 prompt “a book set in multiple countries”.

[sassysistah]

I read Crooked HouseCrooked House by Agatha Christie. I used the closed-door mystery prompt from 2021. I had never read a closed-door mystery before and I read Murder on the Orient Express. I was blown away about how engaged I was and how clever the book was. Crooked House is written in the same vein and I was very amused by the story, characters and the surprise ending. I would highly recommend this book.

[Kelly]

Alyxis wrote: "I read The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I've had it on my shelf - it fit under the "A book published in 2021" from last year's challenge. Gr..."

Good to hear that you enjoyed it. I received this as a gift for Christmas from my mom!

[Kelly]

sassysistah wrote: "I read Crooked House by Agatha Christie. I used the closed-door mystery prompt from 2021. I had never read a closed-door mystery before and I read Murder on the Orient Express. I was blown away abo..."

Thank you for the recommendation! So far I've enjoyed all but 1 of Christie's books. I don't recommend Murder on the Links. It really dragged for me!

[LeahS]

I used the 2017 prompt 'An espionage thriller' and read The Late Train to Gipsy Hill by Alan Johnson, in which an innocent bystander becomes involved in the machinations of Russian spies and mafia in London. I gave this to and borrowed back from a friend who lives in Gipsy Hill. An exciting and somewhat worrying read.

[Kelli]

I chose a 2015 prompt for a book set in a different country and read The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth, which takes place in Australia!

[Heather L]

Kelly wrote: "sassysistah wrote: "I read Crooked House by Agatha Christie. I used the closed-door mystery prompt from 2021. I had never read a closed-door mystery before and I read Murder on the Orient Express. ..."

Kelly, if you haven’t yet read They Came to Baghdad, I highly recommend it. I used it for the “double life” prompt, but it would fit other of this year’s prompts (involves plane/train travel, is about a secret, book by an author read in 2021) and would fit many past prompts as well.

[Mandy]

I used the graphic novel one, which I believe was on two different challenges. I read volume 11 of My Boyfriend in Orange, Vol. 11. It’s about a girl who meets a firefighter. The tropes are age gap romance, om/yw, and finding yourself, guess. It’s pg 13 so there’s only awkward moments between them not physical stuff.

[Ron]

I ended up going with How to Read Novels Like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form

This one fits the 2020 category of 'A book about a subject you're passionate about."

The main thing I'm passionate about is books. It sounds cliche on a reading site but it's been a passion of mine since way back in kindergarten. There's nothing greater for me than reading.

[Nina ( picturetalk321 )]

Popsugar 2020: 'great first line'. Amélie Nothomb, Le Crime du comte Neville: "Si l'on avait annoncé au comte Neville qu'il se rendrait un jour chez une voyante, il ne l'aurait pas cru."

[Britany]

I used the prompt for a book published in 2021. Finished Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sherri]

I used a book of short stories, 2015. My Monticello

[Ron]

I decided not to count that 'How to' book.

There were many other topics that were even more fascinating:

2015

-More than 500 pages
-Female Author
-Book based on cover
-Trilogy
-Hometown

2016

-Haven't read since high school
*-Written by a celebrity*
-Road Trip

2017

-Cat on the cover
-Author who uses a pseudonym
-Set in the wilderness
-Title that is a character's name
-Set during wartime

2018

-The next book in a series
-A book about a villain or antihero
-Involving a sport
-Set at sea
-Tied to your ancestry
-Microhistory
-Problem facing society today

2019

-You think should be turned into a movie
-About a hobby
-Set on a college campus
-Debut novel

2020

-With a map
-Recommended by blog, vlog, podcast, online book club
*-About or involving social media*
-Set in a country beginning with 'C'
-The title caught your attention
-By a WOC
-Pink cover
*-By or about a journalist*
-Book with more than 20 letters in its title

*****

Now it's a matter of narrowing them all down.

[Sarah]

Aleksandra wrote: "I loooved the A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place! I'm doing that one again for sure!"

Yeah, I love all those sorts of prompts. I think I'll be doing the similar one of "a book mentioned in another book." I've started to trying to list the ones mentioned in my current 2022 reads as I find them. (Lots of Agatha Christie mentioned so far, so it will likely be one of hers!)

[Ron]

I've chosen:

In Defense of a Liberal Education

I'm using the 2020 prompt of 'By a journalist'. Fareed Zakaria works for CNN and this topic in particular sounded pretty cool so when I found out it was by him, it was a must.

[Ron]

Okay I tried the 'Defense of Liberal Education' but that one was kind of hitting too hard, not to mention depressing, especially since I did get a degree in liberal arts which turned out to be useless.

*****

I decided to go a different route and do the 2017 challenge of a book with a disability. And for this I have gone with:

Navigating Bipolar Country: Personal and Professional Perspectives on Living with Bipolar Disorder

*****

UPDATE

Finished. Really enjoyed this book. I rate it 4 stars (8/10). There were quite a few things I annotated as I could relate to them.

It's so refreshing to have a book that was published so recently.

[Dana]

I read The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken for the 2015 prompt Became a movie.

[Ashleigh]

I can't say I have a favourite prompt haha, but I scrolled through the list and searched for the first one that would match Wizard's First Rule. Turns out that is Terry Goodkind's first book, so I am using the 2015 prompt: 'Popular author's first book'.

[Soelo]

My favorite prompt is "An Author with flora or fauna in their name" (Listopia) and I used an author named Robin for both 2020 and 2021.

[Kaia]

I picked the 2017 prompt "author from a country you've never visited". I was going to read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich for this, as I picked it up at a second hand shop. However, Resistance: A Graphic Novel by Val McDermid caught my eye at the library and I read it last night in one sitting. Thankfully, since I've never made it to the UK, it still fits the same prompt. Great story, beautiful art, but content warning - it's about a pandemic.

[honeyfolds]

Ron wrote: "I decided not to count that 'How to' book.

There were many other topics that were even more fascinating:

2015

-More than 500 pages
-Female Author
-Book based on cover
-Trilogy
-Hometown

2016

..."
after reading this list, i think i am going to take one of these prompts instead of the one i chose (an audiobook)

[Teri]

I read Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. I didn't have a place for it in the challenge but it was too good to leave out, so I used the 2021 BLM reading list prompt.

For the past few years, I have picked a prompt from each of the years, but it is getting too many so I'm not doing it this year.

[Anshita]

I am reading . It fulfils the prompt 'A book with a book on the cover'. It's from the Popsugar Reading Challenge 2020.

[Vaish]

I scrolled through the list, and found an old prompt "The author you've never read before". I chose Camilla Isley and I've read the whole series of "first comes love". I thoroughly enjoyed her writing process. It was smart, witty and fun to read. I'm glad I came across her books.

[Kirby]

A book set mostly or entirely outdoors - Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah. The main character is a researcher studying a specific species of bird, and she spends her days outdoors monitoring bird nests.