Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2023] Wild Discussion
Oops! Added my comment to the wrong thread. I’ll copy and paste later on my PC.
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And in Irish English, it's an ethnic slur
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I used to bartend in western Ireland and when you heard it yelled, you knew there was about to be fight. (it's slang for people in the travelling community because they used to fix pots and pans as they went around).
Pam wrote: "Here are a few links to novels with characters who are journalists: https://booktrib.com/2021/07/29/break...
http://electricliterature.com/12-novels-..."
Thanks for posting these. I love Nelly Bly, I read about her as a kid and I never forgot her. And the dancer Isadora Duncan. I read Bly's story about the insane asylum not too long ago, and I have her around-the-world book on my tbr.
Every time I look at a journalism list my eyes go to the new non-fiction titles. Some are so weird or interesting.
Are you old enough to remember Go Ask Alice? 1971 ish. It was presented as the diary of a young girl who goes through some wild experiences with drugs, sex, etc. We were mesmerized, and parents were shocked and frightened. It turns out it was a hoax and there were others.
here it is: Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries
The 1996 books were two of my favorites. I still like Bridget Jones, and of most of my life I read every Jeffrey Archer book that came out. I didn't break the habit until I started doing challenges. I might even own a kindle of Queenie, and I didn't know it involved Journalism.Pam if you haven't already, could you post those links on the voting thread? I was asking about fiction options earlier. It's hard to keep up today. Every time I'm in the middle of something I get interrupted. like right now.
Nadine in NY wrote: But it's always funny for me when people identify him as Scar. As if he's not a famous actor and people might not know him - is that true? Do people not immediately know Jeremy Irons? "To be honest I've never heard of Jeremy Irons.....
NancyJ wrote: "Are you old enough to remember Go Ask Alice? 1971 ish. It was presented as the diary of a young girl who goes through some wild experiences with drugs, sex, etc. We were mesmerized, and parents were shocked and frightened. It turns out it was a hoax and there were others...."I'm the right age to have read that a few years after it was published. I always assumed it was FICTION and to see people shocked to find out it was a "hoax" is so confusing. It's like Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre, which we were talking about somewhere, is presented as if Max Brooks FOUND this diary and published it, but OBVIOUSLY it's fiction. I saw "Alice" the same way. (This is probably thanks to my mother who scoffed at just about everything.) Did people actually see it as nonfiction back then? I don't remember any of my friends talking about it. I'd be more shocked to find out it was real!!
A few years after "Alice" another diary of a drug-user came out, Christiane F., and I thought that was fiction too! Back then with no internet there was no good way for me to get more information. I sure was shocked recently to find out that she was a real person and that was a true story!!
Bec wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: But it's always funny for me when people identify him as Scar. As if he's not a famous actor and people might not know him - is that true? Do people not immediately know Jeremy ...To be honest I've never heard of Jeremy Irons.....
"
This has been eye-opening. Apparently I should not assume that people know the actors I think are commonly known!
Nadine in NY wrote: "Bec wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: But it's always funny for me when people identify him as Scar. As if he's not a famous actor and people might not know him - is that true? Do people not immediately ..."I remember him mostly from Reversal of Fortune. Didn't he win best actor for it? I forgot he was Scar.
Mod
https://booktrib.com/2021/07/29/break...
http://electricliterature.co..."
I was shocked to hear that about Go Ask Alice. At camp in the early 80s, it was the "forbidden" book passed around! We totally thought it was real!
Bec wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: But it's always funny for me when people identify him as Scar. As if he's not a famous actor and people might not know him - is that true? Do people not immediately know Jeremy ..."Uhhh he is sooooo amazing as an audiobook/radioplay narrator (dreamy eyes)
NancyJ wrote: "I'm not sure if I'll make the suggestion round. (I'm wired from a weird day.) If I do, I might try the Roaring Twenties idea again, though the Jazz age extends into the 1930's, which has some cool ..."I really like this prompt since I have a stack of Harlem Renaissance books I plan to read in 2023! :)
Pamela wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Oh no Pamela!"I used to bartend in western Ireland and when you heard it yelled, you knew there was about to be fight. (it's slang for people in the travelling community because the..."
i will certainly not use that meaning of it.
Dubhease wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "Bec wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: But it's always funny for me when people identify him as Scar. As if he's not a famous actor and people might not know him - is that true? Do pe..."yes Dubhease he won an Oscar for that
Pamela wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Tracy- thank you, in British English tinker can also mean a mischievous child, which would offer some more options for tinker, tailor, soldier, spy"And in Irish English, it's an et..."
Yes, the slur aspect was my first thought when I saw the prompt. I was pretty surprised to see it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker
Judy wrote: "I thought of journalism and con artists as topics, because of books written by journalists about con artists. It made me think that News about fakes is like the flip side of Fake News. That won't w..."I might take your con artist idea and run with it... I'm thinking about:
"A book with a con, deception, or fake"
I think this gives a lot of room for different genres, from heist to history to romance.
Books about scams, frauds & hoaxes, fiction & non-fiction, including books that turned out to be hoaxes themselves:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6...
Art fraud & theft, fiction & non-fiction:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Con artists & hustlers:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Not what they're pretending to be:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
Books about fake news:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Con artists in romance:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
Fake Dating/Engagement/Marriage romances:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Fake children's books (Don't really read these to kids!):
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
@Lailah, this is sounding more and more interesting.
Lailah wrote: "Judy wrote: "I thought of journalism and con artists as topics, because of books written by journalists about con artists. It made me think that News about fakes is like the flip side of Fake News...."This is great. I love the idea.
When you said "including books that turned out to be hoaxes themselves" - are you referring to the new book about Go Ask Alice? It sounds so strange. I remember that book vividly and it really did get people worked up. We all read it. I never knew it was a hoax. There are other books like that -"... cups of tea." (Do non-fiction books really sell better than novels?)
I have a new-found respect for the kinds of journalists who dig and dig to get the truth. Most of the traditional newspapers had a lot of ethical rules and procedures about verifying facts. Now they're competing with companies that don't even pretend to care about the truth. Being first get clicks, and ad revenue, etc. I might pick a book about an investigative journalist working on a story about a hoax. I like a good whistle-blower story too. Or something in the art world.
Mod
There's also Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities which turned out to be fake (according to Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case.)Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker would be good for this too. Molly Bloom went to the same high school my son goes to.
Nadine in NY wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Are you old enough to remember Go Ask Alice? 1971 ish. It was presented as the diary of a young girl who goes through some wild experiences with drugs, sex, etc. We were mesmerized, ..."Strangely, I have such a memory gap for Go Ask Alice. I know that I read it at least 3 times, but I have absolutely no memory of any of the contents of the book. I had a phase (when I was around 12-14) where basically all I read was these kinds of "issues" books, so I read it along with a few of the other fake diaries by the same author.
I was a bit surprised to see people shocked over the new book revealing that Alice was a hoax. I definitely thought it could be real when I first read it at 12, but within a couple of years, I somehow found out that it wasn't. I thought that was well-known by now, but I guess not.
I actually hadn’t heard of it till you mentioned it. Have just looked it up
Nancy wrote: "There's also Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities which turned out to be fake (according to [book:Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind t..."I was just thinking about Sybil too! That one intrigued us even more than Alice.
“Sybil” was fake?! I remember being so intrigued by that story as a kid, but my mother wouldn’t let me watch the TV mini-series version with Sally Field.
NancyJ wrote: "Lailah wrote: "Judy wrote: "I thought of journalism and con artists as topics, because of books written by journalists about con artists. It made me think that News about fakes is like the flip sid..."For a book that turned out to be a hoax, I was actually thinking of Sarah by J.T. LeRoy. There ended up turning out to be this wildly complicated scheme around this author who didn't actually exist. I was working in an independent bookstore when it all came to a head and it was a scandal that rocked the literary world.
Another interesting one could be (view spoiler)
I'm glad to hear the con, deception, fake idea has appeal to others as well! There are so many directions I could imagine taking this in my own reading.
I've never posted a suggestion, does anyone know what time the thread usually goes up?
It varies with the mod's schedules, and to accommodate different time zones. It's usually announced the day before, but weekends are less predictable with travel/life. The last one was early morning (US Central Time), labor day was at dinner time. You can look at some of the suggestions threads to get a sense of how it works. If you don't know if you'll make it you can repost your suggestion with all the links with it, and let us know you might need someone to post it for you.
You have a lot of listopia links but some of them don't have many votes, so you might want to change the order to put the best ones at the top of the list. The journalist links have a lot of them too.
Oh! I just thought of another well-known fake/exaggeration - Running with Scissors. I like this prompt, but it has the feeling to me of one that wouldn't get through.
Nancy wrote: "Oh! I just thought of another well-known fake/exaggeration - Running with Scissors. I like this prompt, but it has the feeling to me of one that wouldn't get through."I know this book, but I have not heard that it is a fake - what's the backstory here?
I could vote for something involving fake if it includes fake memoir but I would either not vote or downvote if it’s specifically “ fake memoir”
Nancy wrote: "Oh! I just thought of another well-known fake/exaggeration - Running with Scissors. I like this prompt, but it has the feeling to me of one that wouldn't get through."I think that how Lailah wrote the idea "A book with a con, deception, or fake" it opens up the book selections enough to get votes. I am not interested in reading some of the books that have been mentioned but I do enjoy reading about art fraud and con artists and would vote for con, deception or fake.
RachelG. wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Oh! I just thought of another well-known fake/exaggeration - Running with Scissors. I like this prompt, but it has the feeling to me of one that wouldn't get through."..."
I like this phrasing too. I wouldn't like it to get more specific than that.
So the memoir I was thinking of was James Frey's A Million Little Pieces that had the controversy. However, while Googling, I found that there was a lawsuit against Burroughs as well for defamation, and while they settled, he agreed to change "memoir" to "book" so take that as you will.
Nadine in NY wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Oh! I just thought of another well-known fake/exaggeration - Running with Scissors. I like this prompt, but it has the feeling to me of one that wouldn't get through."..."
It's complicated but basically, the author admits now that the book is only "loosely" based on his own life. He and the publishing company have changed the book to be categorized as a novel rather than a memoir, and the author had to add a LOT of chit chat in the book to let people know that the Turcotte family are not in fact bad people.
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news....
Mod
Thomas wrote: "I could vote for something involving fake if it includes fake memoir but I would either not vote or downvote if it’s specifically “ fake memoir”"I agree with that. I love the proposed wording ("A book with a con, deception, or fake") because it doesn't steer me to have to read a book that is itself a hoax. I just want to read one of the heist books I've been meaning to get to.
Another nice one for Europeans ( if I can still call England that)
Lailah wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Lailah wrote: "Judy wrote: "I thought of journalism and con artists as topics, because of books written by journalists about con artists. It made me think that News about fakes is li..."I'm not usually a person who likes cons or fakes, but I'd vote for this since your listopia includes fiction books with art forgeries. I like the art angle to this prompt.
Lailah wrote: "... I'm thinking about:"A book with a con, deception, or fake"...."
I love this.
It would also satisfy whoever keeps trying to get The Wizard of Oz (or similar) into the Challenge.
I love the idea about a con, deception or fake. I could read My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress
What does everyone think about: 'A book which includes addictive behaviour?'
- This could be alcohol or drug addiction
- Smoking
- Gambling
- Video games addiction
- Food addiction or eating disorders
- Shopping addiction
-Any other addictive behaviour
I think this could suit both fiction and non-fiction readers.
Nancy wrote: "Oh! I just thought of another well-known fake/exaggeration - Running with Scissors. I like this prompt, but it has the feeling to me of one that wouldn't get through."I was not a fan.
Addiction could work. I certainly wouldn’t downvote it
Lindsay wrote: "I love the idea about a con, deception or fake. I could read My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress
What does everyone think about: 'A book which includes addictive beh..."
Yes, especially with all the books on the Opioid crisis (and heroin, fentanyl, etc) in the last couple years. These work well for the Journalism Topic too.
Audible is featuring Beth Macy (a journalist) who wrote Dopesick and others. I want to read Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty about the pharmaceutical companies that made billions by knowingly lying about how addictive they were.
Long Bright River seems like a good fiction option.
Stephen King wrote Shining when he was an alcoholic, and some of his books might reflect his battle with it.
Ooh -Battle - for this week's poll. A battle with addiction, alcoholism, smoking, etc.
Lindsay wrote: "I love the idea about a con, deception or fake. I could read My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress
What does everyone think about: 'A book which includes addictive beh..."
it can include battle junkie too!
Tracy wrote: "“Sybil” was fake?! I remember being so intrigued by that story as a kid, but my mother wouldn’t let me watch the TV mini-series version with Sally Field." I know, right!? My teenage self is crushed! LOL.
NancyJ wrote: "It varies with the mod's schedules, and to accommodate different time zones. It's usually announced the day before, but weekends are less predictable with travel/life. The last one was early mornin..."Nancy, could you please say more about your Listopia advice? I am very new to using Listopias so I don't know what you mean and how to fix it. Would it be better to find links for articles and posts with lists outside of Goodreads?
I'm glad people here like the idea for con, deception, or fake; I am getting excited about it, too, as I delve into the options. Unfortunately 8am CST will be 6am where I am so I'm not sure if I will be awake. I will repost the prompt and list of links here Friday night and see if someone in a more conducive time zone is willing to take up the mantle.
Lailah wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "It varies with the mod's schedules, and to accommodate different time zones. It's usually announced the day before, but weekends are less predictable with travel/life. The last one w..."You're in good shape! You have plenty of listopias covering the key parts of your concept. Some people might only look at the first one though, so if you have one link that is clearly better than the others put it first. Especially if you find an article that pulls together all the different subtopics under one umbrella.
Ask people who like the topic to vote on some of the lists to add new books. They might have suggestions. I'll be back Friday. Good luck with your first submission!
I was thinking “a book written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II” obviously I won’t submit if honoured by the Queen gets in as two wouldn’t be fair
Mod
Maybe save that one for a future week if the first one doesn't get voted in. It would be pretty easy considering the 70+ years to choose from, but people might want that as one of the later choices.
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Around the Year in 52 Books
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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https://booktrib.com/2021/07/29/break...
http://electricliterature.com/12-nove...
https://pressgazette.co.uk/18-pandemi...
I will vote for this one just because it gives me something to research. I have Nelly Bly but I’m sure there are lots of other interesting choices!