03. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the list this year

[Marie (UK)]

Using prompt "a book that is 2nd or 3rd in a series" I read The Bullet That Missed

I have really enjoyed these books and await the next one in the series

[Rachel]

A book I wanted to read in 2022: Phosphorescence: On Awe, Wonder and Things That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark by Australian journalist, broadcaster and author Julia Baird is a self-help book and memoir about how to find beauty and awe in the small things in life to buoy us through the tough times. Here is my review

[Mahi]

My favorites:
- A book with a secret passage
- A book that shifts point of view with each chapter or section
- A book set underground or underwater

Not sure which one I'll use

[Rose]

I'm going to do a character who time travels. I love nothing more than time travel books. Currently planning to use The Paradox Hotel or How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.

[Kathy]

I chose the prompt:"A book from the Totally Biased List of Tookie’s Favorite Books" and am currently reading Regeneration by Pat Barker. It's historical fiction and I highly recommend it. I'm about half-way through.

[Bea]

I am re-thinking this prompt choice. I think that I will go with "In honor of Queen Elizabeth II, a book set in Kenya, South Africa, or Scotland". My goal is to visit Scotland this year or next, so I am putting a lot of planning into getting there. I listened to Scotland with a Stranger as part of my prep. I think I will count Prompt 3 done.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

I went with a book from the 2022 goodreads choice awards. I always have a bunch of books I want to read that are nominated, and then the lists themselves also give me more to read. I'm on the 6-month long hold list for I'm Glad My Mom Died, so eventually I'll get to read last year's Big Book. For right now though I grabbed Huda F Are You? and read it in one sitting. Very cute and sweet graphic novel memoir.

[Kristin]

I recently became a part of an online subscription service called Book of the Month. Well, back in December I received my first book, and even started reading it. Life got busy, and I ended up putting it down. I remembered how great it started off and wanted to fit it in the list somehow. So, with this in mind, I scrolled through the multiple polls that were rejected and found the perfect one. This is the prompt I chose:
Poll 6-No Designation-A book written by an author that is a different race and gender than you are.

[♞ Pat]

I had a plan for this week all laid out, and then my net galley book popped up and another challenge debut book that I want to read, and I didn't get my book #4 read for last week, and I had to haul a horse from OKC to Hot Springs over the weekend, and now it's TUESDAY NIGHT and I'm just now trying to figure out what I want to read and how the books I've picked out for this week might fit into this prompt. So I've sort of had to twist myself around the axle and make a couple of adjustments ...

My four-book list for this week


Week 3 ~ JAN 15/21
My Post


A Book That Fits a Suggestion that Didn't Make the List This Year


Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls
Read ~ 1.18.23
Pages ~ 368
Relevance ~ POLL 2 ~ A book with a two or three word title
5★

The Strawberry Hearts Diner by Carolyn Brown
Read ~ 1.21.23
Pages ~ 286
Relevance ~ POLL 2 ~ A book with a color in the title or author’s name
carolyn BROWN
3★

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
Read ~ 1.20.23
Pages ~ 573
Relevance ~ POLL 3 ~ A book to which you didn't have instant access .
This book had a very long wait list at my library. It took me about three months to get it.
5★

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman
Read ~ 1.20.23
Pages ~ 224
Relevance ~ POLL 10 ~ A book from the NPR "Books We Love" lists
3★

[Jill]

How are you planning on approaching this prompt?
I went with the suggestion in the pre-poll to read a book I wanted to read in 2022.
I read The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman Having read the two previous books I couldn't wait to read this

[Sara]

I read A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor for the rejected prompt--related to Set, Game, Match.

Terrific book, as all her books are.

[Jana]

I used the failed prompt A winner or nominee from the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards and chose the book Take My Hand. I really enjoyed the book, although it was pretty horrifying to know this happened in my lifetime.

[Dana]

I just finished The Witch Must Burn by Danielle Paige, the second novella in the Dorothy must die series.

I used this one for the prompt: A book related to the characters in The Wizard of Oz.

[NancyJ]

I read Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future this month, and I highly recommend it for Genetics or Environment. It’s a book of fascinating essays. If you don’t like a chapter, don’t DNF, skip the chapter. My favorites were toward the end. I was surprised by how scientists are using new genetics techniques.

[Maple]

I picked a book not set on earth and have two books slated for this prompt.

Ancillary Justice


Dead Moon

[Samantha]

I had hoped to figure out how to do a multi week prompt for this but wasn't able to find a way to make it work and probably due to my lack of planning. Sea of Tranquility came of hold from the library and I knew it fit the goodreads choice award so just went with it.

[Ellie]

My chosen prompt was a book related to Animal Crossing and I read The Mountain in the Sea which is set on an island, has octopuses in, is about communicating with another species and there's kinda a Tom Nook connection (view spoiler)[characters are kinda working for their evil corporate overlord without any hope of escape (hide spoiler)]. If you like the concept of Arrival you should give this one a go, it works for plenty of other prompts including tropical location (Thailand).

[Evelyn]

I choose the prompt a romance novel and read The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams.

[Joy D]

For this prompt, I read:
Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang - 5* - My Review (related to linguistics)

[Joanne]

I went with the old standby: A winner or nominee from the Goodreads Choice Award and read All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir which was nominated for Best Young Adult Fiction for 2022

[LeahS]

I read Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present by Yanis Varoufakis for 'A book involving power or politics'.

It is a discussion of how economics might work, set within a fictional framework. Some of the ideas are already around, like a basic income for everyone, some were new to me. There were some good ideas there, but I can't see the current status quo being as easily overturned as in the book.

[viemag]

I used the suggestion that was the bottom in the first poll: A book of poetry or free verse. I chose the book Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman.

[Lizzy]

I am also using "A book from the Totally Biased List of Tookie’s Favorite Books“. I read The Door by Magda Szabó, and loved it, and know I will keep thinking about this one, it’s hard not to think about the character Emerence!

[Tracy]

I wanted to read The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Because it fit into SO many prompts (9 others by my count), rather than bumping something else out that I also wanted to read, I used it for this prompt — "A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the list this year," with the unchosen prompt "A book that could be used for at least five of the 2023 challenge prompts."

[Tracy]

I wanted to read The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Because it fit into SO many prompts (9 others by my count), rather than bumping something else out that I also wanted to read, I used it for this prompt — "A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the list this year," with the unchosen prompt "A book that could be used for at least five of the 2023 challenge prompts."

[Severina]

I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman for the prompt "a book where a person is captured, taken hostage, trapped or imprisoned". Three of the four happen in the book. :)

[Anne]

I am approaching this prompt by fitting a book in. Poll 2 no desigation - a book whose author goes by three names. I am reading Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Styevenson.

I notice I have also put the above book on a different prompt now so I will be reading The Miracle at Speedy Motors by alexander McCall Smith.

[Stacey]

The book I chose, Peeling Oranges by engaging author James Lawless fit two unchosen prompts for the year: one, a book related to Ireland and the other, a book with orange on the cover. The location also included Spain, so I liked everything about the story and the setting.

[Sherri]

I read Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver. The prompt that didn't make it is a book of poetry or free verse.

[Tabitha]

Going with this prompt "A book about crossing over to another world" and gonna read

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

[Tiffany]

As I do with most prompts, I checked Listopia for any "Want To Read" books and took it from there.

I read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer using a Nonfiction Nature book. It's one of the books recommended by Louise Erdrich in The Sentence. Every person in the United States should read this book. It's one of those "I didn't know that I didn't know" works of art.

[Pam]

I plan to use Magical Realism for this prompt. Recently, I won a bundle of books including Salman Rushdie’s latest Victory City. It looks so interesting!!

[Denise]

I read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius on Project Gutenberg

[Pam]

I found the perfect book for a suggestion I found intriguing but had no idea what I could read for it - a book involving genetics, genealogy, traits, heredity, or heritage. I’m reading The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for a science fiction book club. Dr. Moreau’s experiments with human animal hybrids continue!

[Book Concierge]

I chose "a memoir"

Candy And Me – Hilary Liftin – 3.5***
Hilary Liftin has had a lifelong addiction to candy. I can relate. As she recalls her childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, she reflects on the many candies she consumed, adored, sought, hoarded and absolutely without guilt enjoyed. We have, both of us, learned to live with a sweet tooth, and moderate our consumption. But it was sure nice to take a walk down memory lane, when penny candy was plentiful, and I had a whole DIME to spend on it!
LINK to my full review

[LeahS]

The Drago Tree by Isobel Blackthorn.

To be honest, just fitting this book into this category with the failed prompt from Poll 3: A book with named chapters.

I'm not sure what I made of this book. It has some wonderful descriptions of Lanzarote which made me immediately want to book a flight there. However, probably not a good to do, as the book contains attacks on tourism. A lot of what is said is sensible, but a bit annoying from the mouth of a character who is basically a tourist herself.

The MC is not particularly likeable, but I didn't find that a problem. The book skips between the MC's present and her past, but also skips around the viewpoint of another character. The former was readable, but I found it difficult at times to work out where I was with the second character.

The ending was rather pat, but it did keep me reading.

[Dixie]

I used "A book by a writer honored by Queen Elizabeth II" and reread a book I love and hadn't read in decades, The celestial omnibus, and other stories 1923 Leather Bound . The author, E. M. Forster, was the first to be honored by Queen Elizabeth II.