Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion
2022 Weekly Check-Ins
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Week 48: 11/24 - 12/1
I'm reading In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: The Story of Leonard Peltier and the FBI's War on the American Indian Movement. It's very long. Parts of it are interesting, but I've found my mind wandering at other parts. I think I'm about halfway through. It's one of those books you feel like you'll never finish.I'm also reading A.D. The Bible Continues: The Book of Acts: The Incredible Story of the First Followers of Jesus, according to the Bible. Reading it along with my daily bible reading, so this will probably take me about a month.
QOTW: I started in 2018, but I diddn't find it until part way through the year, so I didn't do the advanced prompts. I'll answer the rest later, on my lunch break. When I'll have the list. Whoo-Hoo.
Happy Thursday! I reorganized my reading plans yesterday so I have a concrete idea of what I want to finish up by the end of the year, so I'm excited! Plus we have the added bonus of the new PS prompts dropping today - yay!!Husband and I have been catching up on some tv lately. We enjoyed the new Wednesday show on Netflix very much, especially when we weren't so sure about it in the beginning. We accidentally watched the Enola Holmes movies backward (2 and then 1), but they were wonderful. I also restarted Elementary since it's on Hulu (and I wanted to continue that Sherlock fix) - it's been ages since I watched this!
Thus it's no real surprise that I've only finished one book this week:
Braiding Sweetgrass - 5 stars, and I can easily see myself returning to it multiple times in the future. Kimmerer's audiobook narration was lovely.
Currently:
Bloodmarked
The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science and the Human Brain board game in the title
Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
and I may start Where the Crawdads Sing today.
PS 48/50
QOTW: How many years have you been doing the Popsugar reading challenge? Had you done other reading challenges before you started Popsugar? Which 2023 prompt jumps out at you? Which prompt do you think you’ll tackle first?
I joined this group in January of 2020, so it looks like I've been doing the challenge for three years now - 2020, 2021, 2022. Various other GR groups have hosted their own smaller reading challenges and I love those just as much; one group does bingo cards, another does a TBR/backlog reading challenge every summer.
I must admit, I'm a bit disappointed in the number of repeat prompts for this year - I may wait and see what BookRiot puts together and do their Read Harder challenge instead.
Nadine in NY wrote: "Happy Thursday! It's that most wonderful time of the year!! The day the new list comes out today!!! (It's scheduled to release on 9am PST, which is noon EST, 6 pm CET (Paris) time, 4 am AEST (Sydne..."Nadine! I don't know about you, but my Libby has updated to where it now more easily shows if/which of your libraries has a copy of a particular book available, and when you check a book out, it not only shows which library it's coming from & for how long, but also lists loans and holds from that particular library :) bit more streamlined this way!
Mod
YES I have that update too and I LOVE it!!! It's so refreshing when an app makes an update and it's an actual improvement :-)
Mod
Oh I forgot about that show!!! Just last night I started watching the first ep of Paper Girls because my daughter and I need a new show, but daughter announced that this show was CRINGE (and I know it was cancelled after one season, anyway). I'll add Wednesday to our rotation.
I've also been watching The Peripheral on Prime and I think it's amazing. I read the book years ago, and from what my memory holds, it's a faithful retelling, and possibly better than the book!
Happy Thursday, everyone!It has been an absolutely insane week, which hasn’t been helped by the fact that my water heater in my new house stopped working on Tuesday. I’ve got someone coming out to fix it (or possibly replace it entirely) tomorrow, but I have no hot water until they do.
We’re going to be closing on the condo on Monday morning though, so at least that will be off of my plate soon.
Despite the chaos, I did do a decent amount of reading this week. After finishing the Harry Potter series, I decided to dive back into Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot novels. I was able to read two books from that series this week, and currently have only six books remaining that I haven’t read before. My current goal is to finish the series before the end of the year.
Goodreads: 544/200
TBR Checklist: 414/990
Finished Reading (Fiction):
~Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
~Domino: An Alpha Male MC Biker Romance
~Hickory Dickory Dock
~Dead Man's Folly
Finished Reading (Nonfiction):
None
Finished Reading (Manga, Comic Books, & Graphic Novels):
None
DNFed:
None
Currently Reading:
~Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman
~The Complete Calvin and Hobbes - Book One
~Cat Among the Pigeons
QOTW:
I didn’t participate in the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge this year, but I think I’ve actually done the challenge for four years. Since I haven’t seen the prompt list yet, I haven’t made a decision about whether or not I will participate next year. If I do participate, I’ll probably start with “a book you meant to read in 2022,” since it will be very easy for me to find a book that fits the prompt.
Mod
It has been an absolutely insane week, which hasn’t been helped by the fact that my water heater in my new house stopped working on Tuesday. I’ve got someone coming out t..."
Oy!!! Why didn't that break back when you still had access to your condo shower???
Hey everyone,Well November was a great reading month for me. I managed to fit in 6 books, all nonfiction because of Nonfiction November so I feel proud of those goals.
How many years have you been doing the Popsugar reading challenge? Had you done other reading challenges before you started Popsugar? Which 2023 prompt jumps out at you? Which prompt do you think you’ll tackle first?
This year was my first time participating in the PS Reading Challenge. I had known of it before but rarely did the topics interest me so I didn't participate much in them. I'm really hoping 2023 will be a good year. This year (2022) was so much fun. I managed to get through all but 3 of them, but that was because I had a hard time finding the books and the topics didn't interest me then either.
But overall I enjoyed myself so I was more than thrilled to participate. Can't wait to see what '23 brings!
Wheee, new list day! I think Popsugar staff should go to work extra early so those of use further east don't have to wait all day. 🤣 I also finished the 2022 challenge this week, just in time. 🎉The French market came to town at the weekend and we ate lots of cheesy, garlicky food and pastries. They were even cooking croissants there in a van, so it smelled amazing. I didn't "win" at nanowrimo, the oompf just went out of me, but I'll be returning to my draft in a few weeks.
Finished:
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik for my second twin cities books. I started out feeling this would be a bit cheaty as it only had a portion in London (twinned with New York), but then there were bits in two other twin cities, so I felt it was super appropriate by the end. Anyway, I loved it, everything sort of clicked into place at the same time as surprising me. I would love a spin-off in this world, set after everything is over.
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys for set in the 80s. It's a decent over view of what was going on in Romania but it was written in a way that felt like it couldn't decide if it was told from the present or looking back with hindsight, and it just meant it infodumped at times. Anyway it was a quick read and meant I finished the challenge before the list came out.
QOTW:
I'll come back and answer the second part later. It always takes me a while to fully absorb all the prompts anyway. According to my Goodreads shelves, I started doing the challenge in 2018, and I've completed it every year since. I'd done a few blog challenges before, but never with such determination. I think I might have hosted a translated book and a sci-fi challenge before 2018...the past is all so murky!
I'm going to be kind to myself next year, and if there are a bunch of terrible prompts I'm going to switch them out with rejects from the ATY voting process. Fingers crossed for a good list though!
New here, but am wondering if this thread topic date needs to be updated? Books Read This Week:
An Apple for the Creature
Winter Counts
C is for Corpse
Murder of a Stacked Librarian
Board Stiff
Currently Reading:
X Marks the Scot
The Dressmaker's Gift
The Glass Key
QOTW
"How many years have you been doing the PopSugar reading challenge? Had you done other reading challenges before you started PopSugar?"
2023 will be my first year for both PopSugar and ATY. I joined GR in 2008 and started doing reading challenges with The Seasonal Reading Challenge. I am currently a participant in a total of 4 GR groups as well as the 2 new ones I just added.
I will come back later to answer these:
"Which 2023 prompt jumps out at you? Which prompt do you think you’ll tackle first?"
The first one that I had an immediate response to was #38 A book you read more than 10 years ago. I do not do re-reads, mainly because I remember the plot too well. I suspect I will skip this one unless I find a work around it. And #39 A book you wish you could read for the first time again is similar.
#27 A #BookTok recommendation jumps out at me as I do not know what a BookTok recommendation is. Oh, well. Something new to learn.
Bea wrote: "New here, but am wondering if this thread topic date needs to be updated?"I think the date refers to the previous week, as we are updating our progress for those dates? Otherwise it's been wrong all year!
2-week check-in and I only have 2 prompts left to go. A book with an onomatopoeia in its title
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. Interesting. I think Stiff is still my favorite book of hers but still a good read.
An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner
Bunk: The True Story of Hoaxes, Hucksters, Humbug, Plagiarists, Forgeries and Phonies by Kevin Young. Non-Fiction and the content was so interesting but the way it was presented made it kind of a slog and I feel like there were often times where thoughts and ideas weren't followed through. I would have given it a 2.5 if goodreads let you do half stars.
constellation on the cover
When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis. YA with romance elements. Enjoyable read, would recommend to my students. CW: depression, suicide attempt.
no prompts
All That's Left in the World by Erik J. Brown. YA Dystopia. It was on some list for man-made disaster but it's a virus that wipes out the population. This hit all of the familiar beats for a dystopian teen novel but it was also really good and one of my favorite books this year.
Bad Habits by Onley James and Neve Wilder. Contemporary romantic suspense. I love the Necessary Evil series by Onley James. This one was okay and I'll probably read the 2nd one.
Love Me Again by Max Walker. Contemporary romantic mystery. Honestly, the mystery was wrapped up way too slowly and too quickly at the same time, it took way too long to get there and just kind of ended. CW: homophobia, gay slurs
Undone by Kelly Rimmer. Contemporary romance. I really did not like the female lead in this as she was kind of annoying. CW: miscarriage.
QOTW:
I've done popsugar 3 or 4 years. I do the Read Harder challenge a couple of times but sometimes, their prompts are too niche, so I didn't do it this year.
Man, do I have to go into work today? I want to stay home and wait for the challenge to drop and then spend all day planning my reading for next year, haha...I've already resolved that I'm going to try to branch out and read more books not on my TBR list this coming year. In years past I've contorted prompts as much as possible to accommodate my TBR list, but last year I relaxed on that and read more books that weren't on my TBR, and I found it made for a more interesting challenge. Going to try that again this year.
Books read this week:
Into the Riverlands -- another delightful novella in the Singing Hills series. I love Chinh and Almost Brilliant, and am greatly enjoying their journey and the stories they hear along the way.
Bullet Train -- what a wild ride. Not great, but certainly a whip-fast enjoyable thriller with plenty of interwoven plot threads. (view spoiler)
Carrie -- I know, wrong time of year for spooky reads… but I found this one more tragic and heartrending than actually scary, though it was still good. Stephen King sure started his career out with a bang, didn’t he?
Unplugged and Unpopular -- graphic novel. Wow, the anti-technology message couldn’t be any less subtle if the author had used a sledgehammer. And the story felt really juvenile even by YA graphic novel standards.
DNF:
Simon Ships Out A heroic cat at sea. Based on a true story -- I like xenofiction (fiction told from the point of view of an animal) and I like true stories about animals… but combining both didn’t really work well here. Also the cat’s view of the world didn’t ring true for me.
Pines -- it’s hard to remain invested in a book when the main character is an A-hole.
Currently Reading:
The Unicorn in the Barn
Animals Don't Blush
8-Bit Christmas
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
QOTW:
I stumbled onto the challenge in 2015 thanks to a co-worker who was also doing it, and ended up beginning that challenge in August, haha... I finished that challenge in 2016, missed the actual 2016 challenge, and then picked the challenge back up in 2017 and have been doing it every year since. 2023 will mark my eighth reading challenge!
I have NOT done any other reading challenges... however, our library did an Extreme Book Nerd Challenge this year that was quite similar to the PopSugar challenge (though it used different prompts), and they're going to try again for 2023. Maybe I'll try that challenge too this year...
I'll let everyone know what prompts I'm looking forward to once the list drops!
Mod
Welcome!! The date in the header refers to the week that just ended, so 12/1 is today. We talk about what we've read in the week from 11/24 until today.
Why we do it on a Thursday is something that's lost to the murky past - I think when the idea for a weekly check-in first started, Thursday was the first of a month (like today!) so they chose Thursday as the "check-in" day but I'm really not sure! Admins come and admins go and I was not the group admin back then!!
I just looked up what day January 1, 2015 was, and it was a Thursday! So that might be why our check-ins are on Thursdays.
Happy drop the new list day everyone. I read 3 books & listened to 2 audio books for the week. I finished my last nonfiction book for November yesterday so Nonfiction November is finished for me. 1.Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. 5 stars.
2. A Merry Little Meet Cute. 3 stars. Definitely read the synopsis before reading. This starts my month of Christmas reads.
3. Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe. 5 stars. This is a good read for Native American Heritage Month.
4.Santa Clawed. 3 stars
5. The Bookstore Sisters. 3 stars. This was a free audio download from Amazon Prime. Very quick listen. A little over one hour.
QOTW: I'll answer the one about the prompts later. I have been doing Pop Sugar since 2019. I have done BR Read Harder since 2017. I have done ATY since 2020. I have done Nonfiction November since 2018. I don't know if I can read for a year anymore without prompts to fill.
Happy Thursday! I cannot WAIT to see the new list. I think I roped someone into doing it with me! Of course, I'm nowhere close to finishing this year's. Too many long war novels, lol. But I'm hoping I can at least finish the general prompts before the New Year even if I can't complete the advanced.Currently Reading
The Shadow Rising for "book set in a matriarchal society". Another long book, but it's WoT so I can't resist. I'm nearly done!
QotW
I think I joined in 2020, so this will be my third year. I used to do a reading challenge in a private fan group, but it got too catty so I opted for something else which is how I found this one! I haven't seen the new list either yet, but I am very grateful for the "book you meant to read in 2022" because I have a ton of those, lol. I try to go as "in order" as I can with the prompts. I'm participating in the Year of Sanderson too, so I'm absolutely going to be filling that "book released in 2023" prompt that's always there with one of the secret projects! Hopefully I'll actually be able to complete the challenge this year!
Ellie wrote: "I think the date refers to the previous week, as we are updating our progress for those dates? "OH! See, I said I was new!
Mod
A book with an onomatopoeia in its title
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. Interesting. I think Stiff is still my..."
That's funny that you read books titled Bonk and Bunk!!
Happy Thursday. I too am in the middle of watching the new Wednesday TV series.I finished my 13 series books for the year - I actually did 15. However I finished one series and started two more, so I did not gain anything.
I finished all the PS prompts that I'm going to do. This year, I attempted the full ATY. I put myself down for 35 PS prompts, thinking I could also match books up. I was thrilled that I accomplished 41 out of 50 PS prompts.
I only really cheated or stretched with 2 books since they were what I considered important books.
I only "planned" one of them. One ATY prompt was a list prompts. I noticed Hench was on the list and thought that would be could for the mobility aid prompt.
The prompt that I was most surprised that I got was the recipe prompt. The copy of We Were Liars that I read had recipes to recreate a Sinclair family 4th of July. Which if you read the book is down right weird.
Finished:
Size 12 and Ready to Rock
ATY prompt: 3 books set on three different continents - North America (NYC)
Popsugar prompt: A book about a band or musical group
ATY - 50/52
PS- 41/35
Series - 15/13
Clearing my TBR list: 39/40
Currently reading:
The Remains of the Day -5% done
QOTW:
How many years have you been doing the Popsugar reading challenge? I only joined Goodreads and began to track it in 2020
Had you done other reading challenges before you started Popsugar? In 2017, I began giving myself a monthly prompt to diversify my reading. Most of my monthly prompts were PS prompts. I'd look at the list in December and pick 11-12 of the prompts I thought were the most fun and use them. I still have an official "monthly prompt" which I encourage my family and friends to do. I know people in this group read 40-100 books a year, but there are people for whom a book a month is a stretch. This used to be me. I hope I never become such a book snob that I forget to encourage the person who went from not reading to reading 5 books a year.
Which 2023 prompt jumps out at you? Which prompt do you think you’ll tackle first? To be answered later.
Mod
I've already resolved that I'm going ..."
Last year I took a vacation day and had no regrets, so I did it again this year, and again I have no regrets - it's like a little holiday that only we know about !!!
Hello! I finished National Novel Writing Month yesterday, hitting the 50k word count mark and also finishing the story. It was not one of my better stories, but I kept at it and finished. I didn't even have to blow up a bus stop or have Vikings attack (which happened in my novels in 2012 and 2015, respectively). I have also learned for next year that I need an actual plot to have any hope of caring about what happens. A name is not enough. The only reason I finished this one is because I made the main character college roommates with a side character of the 2020 story, and then used those characters a lot to add word count.Now it is December and I can get back to reading. And video games. I promised my husband we'd work on specific characters we hadn't played in a few years once NaNo was over, and he reminded of that just Monday. There is also much World Cup soccer I need to watch. I have two Canadian games saved on my DVR, plus a Netherlands one that I'll have to watch before Saturday.
Finished This Week:
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I finished my mom's copy of the book during breakfast the morning my parents left, so I was able to give it back to her. It was not what I was expecting, and a very easy read. I'm glad I read it. I bought my mom the movie as a gift, which she said is very true to the book, so I'll probably watch it as well. Not for PS prompt.
PS: 49/50 RH: 17/24 ATY: 51/52 (Just need a book with a recipe!)
Currently Reading:
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2020 by Michio Kaku. I finished three more articles in this. One was about the Camp Fire and how quickly it overwhelmed Paradise, California. There were some grueling first person accounts. Now I'm not sure I want to read Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire like I've been planning, as I'm sure she talked to some of the same survivors. Eight stories to go, and the next one is about dinosaurs!
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. Started reread to prepare for the new one, not very far yet.
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik. Audiobook due back Sunday and everyone is still in London. Not sure I'll be able to finish.
QotW: How many years have you been doing the Popsugar reading challenge? Had you done other reading challenges before you started Popsugar? Which 2023 prompt jumps out at you? Which prompt do you think you’ll tackle first?
I started participating in PopSugar in 2020. In June of that year, I had accepted (but also not) that I was not going to have a wedding in August like I had thought. We'd just gotten our deposit back from our venue. So to distract myself from everything, I did a web search for reading challenges. I found one from a blog by someone calling herself Booklist Queen. Then another from a blog called Mommy Mannegren (now The 52 Book Club here in GR.) Another blog book challenge from Linz the Bookworm. I found Read Harder. Then Reading Women. Finally, in August, I found PopSugar here in Goodreads and joined. My first post was two weeks before the wedding that wasn't. (I found ATY after PS, likely because of how many members participate in both.) I finished all seven challenges that year. I technically hadn't done reading challenges before PopSugar, because I started all of them in 2020, but I also technically had, because I found PS after all the others.
Edit: as the current cheerleader for NaNo books, I love the prompt to read one written during the contest. I'll be reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. As for which prompt I'll be reading first, it'll probably be meant to read in 2022, since it's very likely I'll have a stack of library books that I didn't get to.
QotW: My first year trying to do the challenge was 2020, but I looked at some of the most interesting prompts on Goodreads for 2019.Finished:
Dune: The Heir of Caladan by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (3/5)
I am now caught up again on all the Dune prose stories. The Caladan trilogy is passable entertainment. It exists mainly to set up the beginning of Dune and let people spend more time in this universe with the characters they know and love. Jaxson Aru does not hold a candle to Manford Torondo in the villain department.
Only 30 minutes to go before the new list! I don't plan ahead but I'm really interested in looking it over, plus I must IMMEDIATELY post it to my Pop Sugar Brunch Book Club -- a collection of friends who all participate in some fashion. It was named "Pop Sugar Brunch" because the initial 4 of us reading the Challenge each year would meet quarterly for brunch (we are in NYC) to discuss how we were doing, what finds we had for what prompts. Oh and we also pulled in via video on my phone a friend in Alaska. Eventually I set up a group home on FB where we grew and grew and discuss what we are all reading and help with prompts. Not unlike here! Just much smaller. And all friends known for decades.
I still have 2 to read in 2022 - both awaiting my attention and should be quick.
Finished:
The Time for Love - I needed an historical romance fix
Miss Delectable - another historical romance fix -- and this was really delightful! First in the Mischief in Mayfair series.
Persuasion - a reread - my audiobook listen during Thanksgiving driving to/from NYC - PA plus time driving to/from LGA dealing with car rental. I only needed about 20 minutes to finish it at home. Pretty close to the perfect length as I only like listening to audiobooks when I am driving. it's still my favorite Austen.
Currently Reading:
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt -only about 3 hours reading left!
Miss Delightful - after this one, my historical romance cravings will have been sated. It's the second in the Mischief in Mayfair series and even more delightful than the first.
Murder in the Marais - a quick re-read so I can read the 2nd in the series. First read this in 2000...memory isn't what it once was.
Once I finish the one about Teddy Roosevelt, I can start Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, one of my 2 remaining PS reads. I can't read 2 non-fiction for leisure at once.
QOTW: My first PS was 2016. A friend with whom I always talk books had found it and asked if I was interested in joining her in doing it. I'd never done a reading challenge before and I really didn't participate in book clubs because I don't like having the book I read at a given moment dictated or have a monthly time frame (one exception: Feminerdy but then I have a lot of say in what is chosen to be read, LOL). Thus was Pop Sugar Brunch born. It's a reading challenge that fits my life and reading and pushes me outside my well-tread rut of reading which was where I was in 2016. And it pushed me to read more and more from the purchased but unread books piled up around my apartment and in ebook. I have a monstrously large TBR. I eventually went back and did 2015, spreading over 2 or 3 years by plugging in books I read that didn't fit the current challenge. So I've been doing it for 8 years and have no reason to stop.
In fact, PS is why I finally put my GR account to use - I needed someplace to track the books read for the challenge that wasn't a piece of paper or spreadsheet and also to put possible reads. That also led me here...and then my use of GR and involvement in the groups grew and grew.
As for the 2023 list - which will be released in 8 minutes - I am not a planner. Whatever book I start January 1, for whatever reason, I'll see where/if it fits a prompt and go on from there. That method has been very successful for me. I only have to start targeting books to read for prompts when I get to the final 5 or 6 prompts.
Although if there are prompts for really long reads or slow reads or to read a series, I will make a note so I start those earlier in the year.
Only 6 minutes left!
Update - my favourite prompt is:A book about or set in Hollywood
2023 is the 100th anniversary of the Hollywood sign. I proposed a similar prompt twice in ATY and it wasn't voted in. I was doing this prompt for my ATY prompt of "A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the 2023 list". Double win as the book I'm going to read will count for 2 prompts.
And I still want to see L.A. one day and the Hollywood sign.
I have no idea what nanowrimo. There are a lot of categories that I like or have no issue with. However, not crazy about the fact that they have 2 books published in 2023. My library doesn't get new books that fast which means I'll definitely at least half to buy the one that comes out in the second half. A book that started out as Fan fiction? Please tell me we have more choices than just 50 Shades.
As far as I can tell there are at least 3 romance books and I feel like a bunch of us complaiend that there were 2 this year.
I definitely think I'm going to give a hard pass to the self-published book. But, we'll see what happens.
So, to be positive, the categories I like are: book you mean to read, first time author, mythical creatures, modern retelling of a classic (we had that a couple of years ago and I didn't like what I ended up reading, so I'm hoping for a better pick this time), I generally like the animal themes, but I can really only thinkof Watership Down for a rabbit cover book. I'm sure there are others. May be fun to look. A book about a family. A book about a sport, mostly because I've been meaning to read Friday Night Lights and/or Soul Surfer for eons and this is my chance.
I'm also semi-exicted about the book you read more than 10 years ago. I didn't like a lot of books that I read in high school and I was thinking I should give a couple of them another shot. Books I can remember not liking were Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, Cry the Beloved Country, and Lord of the Flies.
QOTW part two!I can tell you now I'm not even gonna attempt to do all 50 of these. What jumps out is the book set in your birth decade AND a book published year of birth. I had a hard time finding 1980s books this year, so boo to them. Plus repeats from this year.
I have loads of rabbits books lined up thanks to ATY. I think Hell Bent is a hare but that's probably close enough! I guess I'll have to start with something else though. Maybe the meant to read in 2022.
Katy wrote: "I have no idea what nanowrimo."NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It just finished yesterday. The basic idea is to encourage writers who've always said they're going to write a novel "one day." NaNo says that why not make "some day" today, and more specifically, in November. Here's a deadline - write your novel by November 30th.
The most famous book written during NaNo is Water for Elephants. There have been many more since.
Congrats on finishing NaNo, Melissa!
Melissa wrote: "Katy wrote: "I have no idea what nanowrimo."NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It just finished yesterday. The basic idea is to encourage writers who've always said they're going to write..."
I'll have to remember this for next year. I've had a novel idea for years. I'm sure it will come out terribly, but if I set myself down with a month to write it, I probably will.
Melissa wrote: "Katy wrote: "I have no idea what nanowrimo."NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It just finished yesterday. The basic idea is to encourage writers who've always said they're going to write..."
Wasn't The Night Circus also a product of NaNoWriMo? As you say there are many more of all types and lengths. I actually have Water for Elephants in my TBR Towers. Time to read it!
Finished: Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help Poorly edited, thesis not flesh out, but interesting.Both Can Be True Re-read. Love this book!
War in Ukraine Short primer on cause of war including US responsibility.
Paradise Lost This book is so dense, I feel like I need to read it again to get more out of it. I was inspired to read it because His Dark Materials is based on it, so I wanted to find connections to that. It helps that the frame story is so familiar, but Milton does a really bad job of naming who he's referring to (uses a lot of pronouns.)
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times Michelle is so likeable! Not a self-help book in any traditional sense, but full of down-to-earth advice she has gathered during her lifetime.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold This book was underwhelming.
Started: The Origins of Totalitarianism I've been meaning to read this book for years now. Not a fun read, but an important one.
QotW: I've been doing the Popsugar Challenge for two years now. Before, I did the Read Harder Challenge for one year. I'm not sure if I'm going to do 2023. I love our community, but this year's prompts are disappointing. I'm serious when I say Nadine can come up with better prompts. For example, PopSugar advanced prompts are not themed. I loved Nadine's creativity in her '23-themed prompts. So many repetitions, not just with recent years, but within the challenge itself. I'll have to sit with the list a bit longer... Ones I like: a book by a first-time author, a book you wish you could read for the first time again, a book by an author with the same initials as you, a book that takes place entirely in one day, a book that's been banned or challenged in any state in 2022. Ok, I guess it's not entirely disappointing.
Theresa wrote: "Wasn't The Night Circus also a product of NaNoWriMo? As you say there are many more of all types and lengths. I actually have Water for Elephants in my TBR Towers. Time to read it!"It was! I mentioned Water for Elephants because it was the first book that got traditionally published that was written during NaNo by an author who'd never been published before. (Isn't that a mouthful!) In short, Sara Gruen was the first debut author to get published with a book written during NaNo.
I found this GR article from a few years ago with a good list. https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1...
I see that Fangirl was written during NaNoWrMo so I think I'll most likely go with that one unless I can find nonfiction books.
Not too crazy over the topics. I've highlighted the ones I'll be doing. So many gear towards fiction again so that's a bit of a disappointment.There are several I do like though so we'll see. I certainly won't be completing it though that's for sure.
I'll come back and post my list of ones I'm looking forward to.
Hi all! Funky week around here. Lots of appointments and dumb stuff and I'm feeling cranky- except the new list just dropped! Took my daughter to get her first covid shot and a flu shot this morning. She was so great! Not a tear or tantrum or anything (she's 4)! I've also spent the week fighting with The Weather channel app on my Roku- I couldn't get it to work, then it did, now it says it's canceled, but it also says my account will renew Nov 25th next year... I'm sending cranky emails to customer service, and I usually try to be nice to customer service, cause it's not their fault, but I'm annoyed.
Anyhoo, nothing you guys can do about my piddling problems!
I didn't finish anything this week, but I'm bound and determined that I will get through The House in the Cerulean Sea before it's due back next week and will continue to post in the discussion thread. It's well written and the characters are great, but almost 200 pages in, I summed up the plot to my mom as: DSS-type guy goes to check out an orphanage of strange mutants that (shocker) "normal" people don't like. *Something* needs to happen!
I also started the audiobook of Stay Gold for gender identity, an hour in and it's OK.
With lack of plot in House, I decided to pick up a murder mystery and went with City of Veils, not far enough in to know if it's going to be good or not.
QOTW: I started doing PS in 2020. I had tried to do the Seasonal Reading Challenge on GR prior to that, but it's too many prompts in too short of a time (though they have good ones, I recommend browsing them sometime).
I actually like almost all the prompts this year, I just don't like that so many of them are repeats of prompts we did this year or in the previous 2 years (since I joined). However, since I never come close to finishing the challenge anyway, I guess it doesn't much matter.
I'm looking forward to banned book (no surprise there! :D ), historical fiction, and actually a book in my decade-the 80s, because I started a book for that this year, but didn't get very far, so easy excuse to go back to it (The Bonfire of the Vanities if you're curious).
My concern areas are self-published, fan fic, and Nano, so I'm going to be needing help from the group!
Melissa,Thank you so much for posting the GR NaNoWriMo book recommendations! I'm pretty sure I can find one that works from that list.
Happy new list day! Although... I'm a bit underwhelmed, to be honest. Still, I'll see what I can fit into the new set of prompts for next year (and be thoroughly distracted from work).Congrats on finishing NaNo, Melissa! My partner and I finished as well, although we pretty much lost the plot and wound up just writing random scenes and character interactions to fill the word count. We'll have to go back and clean everything up and probably rewrite a lot of it, but we've got something!
Finished:
Cursed - 3.5 stars; I enjoyed the story in the end, but it could've been more tightly plotted, and about 100 pages less, and that would probably have felt a bit better paced to me.
Currently reading:
A Snake Falls to Earth - I'm only about 25% into this. It's cute so far, looking forward to seeing how the two story threads come together.
Planned:
Tread of Angels
Well Traveled
Illuminations (I might have to save this for a 2023 prompt, as it was self-published)
QOTW:
I started in 2020, when I wandered over here after seeing Sheri talk about the challenge in another group. I didn't really do any formal prompt-based challenges previously, just the general Goodreads number-of-books challenge.
It kind of jumps out at me that there seem to be so many repeats. The "published in 2023" prompts are also more specific this year (in spring, in the second half, etc.). The list feels very cobbled together and lacks any kind of feeling of theme or cohesiveness. I'll probably do the challenge this year, but I think if the prompt list is this... well, thoughtless, next year, I might have to skip.
I think I'll probably tackle the "book you meant to read in 2022" prompt first, as a "free space" for whatever I'm reading on January 1 (assuming it doesn't fit another prompt).
So now I have an inhaler. Not because of all the 2023 list excitement (which turned out to be a little turn-off). My airways are tightened since I had covid, so my physician told me yesterday. I walked around with it for 10 weeks without knowing. Or noticing. Except for the coughing. Luckily, reading is no problem with asthma. Or filling in prompts for the list.PS: 19/40
Total 2022: 57
Finished
De vlucht van de familie Simon by Rafael Cardoso⭐⭐⭐
I missed parts at the end. Like how Rafael’s grandfather, grandmother and great-aunt experienced the end of WW2. And why they stayed in Brazil. And how they tried to get back their identities.
Currently reading
The Inheritance of Lion Hall by Corina Bomann
Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton
QOTW
Since 2019, so 2023 is gonna be my 4th year because this year I didn’t read for the challenge. Popsugar was my first and as with first loves, you always get back to them. I also do a challenge with a Dutch Goodreads group (Fanatieke Nederlandse Lezers).
Well, actually I’m a bit disappointed with this year’s list. It’s a lot of repeats and nothing ‘2023-special’. I wait for the FNL-list and decide which one is going to be my main challenge.
HAPPY THURSDAY!I just saw the challenge. There are a couple that i'm not jiving with. (i'm looking at you book about divorce). the other's aren't so bad. let's get those listopias going! Woot!
Work and the world have finally calmed down. My niece and mom are doing fine. Big brother is doing well with the new baby (so far). Mom and I get pics and facetime with them so we get to see her pretty frequently.
i'm still in the forged in fire kick. haven't been reading much.
i have 4 ps prompts left and 1 aty left.
QOTW:
this year was the first time actually doing the list. i've flirted with it for 3 or 4 years but never committing.
I haven't done a reading challenge before this and aty (first year there too). I think i needed to be in a group to keep me motivated.
Of the list, I only have 23 that stand out for me. Kind of a shame but oh well. My favorite though is the one "a book bout or set in Hollywood."I already have a choice for that one. I'll be reading Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film for a school assignment but I suppose I might end up reading it again for that prompt since it sounds like a good book.
*****
On another note, I got Covid last week. Total drag. I'd been doing what I was supposed to but at least the vaccines work so I'm able to ride it out. Definitely no joke. Days 1-3 I slept most of them and had a 101 degree fever. Now my only issues are a runny nose and a persistent cough. I am so over the cough already though. I just want this done with.
Mod
Lynn has been without Internet again! She's getting it restored now, so she'll be able to unlock the second half of the prompts later tonight hopefully.
Melissa wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Wasn't The Night Circus also a product of NaNoWriMo? As you say there are many more of all types and lengths. I actually have Water for Elephants in my TBR Towers. Time to read it!"..."I can recommend both Night Circus and The Calculating Stars - I did not even realize it was! It won a Hugo award too I believe. Also, for those born in the 1950s, like me, it's set in that era - it's an alternate history.
Good morning everyone! Happy new list day to everyone who celebrates. I finished the challenge yesterday, just in time for the new list. PopSugar 50/50!!!!
Finished
Of Women and Salt. A lot of it's set in Miami, which is a twin city of Lima. A short read, but very powerful.
Currently Reading
A Dog in the Cave: The Wolves Who Made Us Human
The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York
QOTW
I started doing PopSugar last year and this is my first year to finish it. No other reading challenges, at least not since the MS Read-a-thon at school.
I think I like the book I wish I could read for the first time again the best. I reread Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy this year and have been wanting to read the other (four?) books of the trilogy, so that seems like a good fit. I may tackle that one first, since all the books are sitting on my bookshelf.
Also, the book with the rabbit on the cover. I was expecting it because it's the year of the rabbit. I discovered Rabbits by Terry Miles last this year and decided to wait to read it in case this prompt turned up.
I've read the 2023 list and it is a tad bland and too familiar. Feels like whatever staff member was assigned to make up the list during the recent shake-up at Popsugar Entertainment didn't know what to do and just tossed the prompts from the past challenges into a box and pulled out as may as needed. Maybe tweaked a couple. Too many very similar ones too. Several give me pause shall we say. I always hate any that relate to movies or tv series. I struggle with those and just wish they would drop it already. At least one is in every year's list and this year we get TWO! I also don't like the song lyrics title one. I don't remember lyrics, ever, and while I'm sure I have a 100 books right in front of me in my TBR, I'm not going to recognize they match lyrics. Hmmm - I do know lyrics to Christmas Carols - so maybe I read a book entitled Deck the Halls on New Years Day? There has to be a Christmas Romance or Cozy with that title and I probably own it.
I'm also not thrilled that the longest book on my TBR showed up again. This time looks like I'll be reading Les Miz. In English though I have a copy in French around here somewhere. Not doing 1300 pages + in French.
I don't like BookTok either for a lot of reasons - but there are at least 3 books I spotted when I googled that I have in my TBR. Phew.
It also occured to me that you could pair this with other challenges to find books - i.e. if you are doing an around the world challenge to read a book from every country, then maybe you decide to read a celebrity Memoir of a French or Australian Celebrity, or have a friend recommend to you a book set in South Africa.
The truth is that while the prompts as written are uninspiring (they could have reworded them all and made them fresh), as books popped into my head from my TBR Towers that would fit, I got excited because the BOOKS are awesome! diverse! Exciting!
Look at the books not the prompts...
Theresa wrote: "I also don't like the song lyrics title one..."Pick a 1 or 2 word titled book. Chances are any 1 or 2 words will have been in a song somewhere! ;)
Nadine in NY wrote: "Oy!!! Why didn't that break back when you still had access to your condo shower???"Timing is everything, isn't it? Fortunately, my dad lives pretty close to me, so I was able to shower at his place this morning.
Happy December! We have just a skiff of snow on the lawns, and lots of snow in the mountains (happy ski resorts!). First Christmas party is on Saturday. Let the holidays begin!Finished
Head On by John Scalzi - 4 stars, PS #45 Duology #2
I have loved everything I've read of Scalzi's, so should read more. Happy I picked this for my duology after agonizing about it for ages.
The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian by David Dyer - 4 stars, PS #31 Man-made disaster
Finally this book is off the stacks on my floor. Historical fiction of the sinking of the Titanic from the perspective of those on the Californian, the nearest ship to the Titanic that did nothing to help. I really enjoyed reading it, even if it made my heart sick for those that might have been saved.
Bob by Wendy Mass - 4 stars, PS #43 Palondromic title
Glad someone in this group recommended this, because this was another one I agonized over. This was adorable and was able to read in one evening.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - 3 stars; PS #26 Misleading title
I expected to like this more than I did, probably had too high of expectations since I've been meaning to read it for years. Glad I finally got to it.
Goodreads: 83/90
Popsugar: 37/40, 10/10 (so close)
QOTW:
I had never done a book challenge before Popsugar. My sister-in-law sent me the 2015 Popsugar list, and I filled in 39 books that year. For 2016 it was 24 books, and for 2017 it was 41 books. 2018 was the first year I got serious about it and completed the challenge, not coincidentally the year I discovered this group.
I haven't looked too closely at the list yet, but will probably finish #1 first. It doesn't appear there is a lot of creativity in the prompts, and many we've seen before, but I don't care. I'll go wherever they lead me.
OMG Look! It's me! (Mario) I'm still alive and kicking! I'm also still being held captive by the K-pop pirates, but now we are in an alternate dimension preparing to fight an oppressive government. I mean, captive is no longer applicable since clearly Stockholm Syndrome is in full effect. I genuinely thought A) that this would be a fun phase and then I'd go back to normal or B) I'd level out and get back to reading and challenges during the slow bit, but they apparently do not have a slow bit. Ever. Last month I few to another state for concerts, alone, and it was fantastic. YAY!
I had a weird feeling today but couldn't tell why. I thought maybe it was the sudden threat of snow, but CLEARLY it was my Spidey senses telling me the new list dropping! I haven't even checked this year's list to see how far I was when I fell off the Earth. Hopefully the fun of the New Prompt Scavenger Hunt will snap me into more balance, because dude it is embarrassing to have read 343 books last year and then stop dead right as I start to work with them. Also, yay books!
So I'm now working in two, that's right two, independent bookshops. The new one is very tiny but is moving to a larger location next month, so that is exciting. Plus of course the big 'ol beauty where I've been. I need to write up a copy of the list to keep in my pocket so I can watch for titles as I work!
I've missed you guys. Sigh. But I've also been having tons of fun. Now I need to have both both places at once! I can do it!
Finished:
HAHAHAHA Just joking. I haven't finished a book since May 5th.
QOTW:
I joined this group in mid-2016, so since early 2016. I don't remember doing others before that. Which prompt jumps out at me? The one about an independent bookstore, of course, and set in Hollywood. Honestly that's about it. The list is really dull this year. Been there, don't that, didn't necessarily like it the first time. No idea what I'll do first!
Edit: Oh! I'd already completed 31 prompts before I disappeared into the void. Go past me!
Am... I the only one who's not disappointed by the challenge list for 2023? Yes, there are a lot of repeat prompts, but there's still a lot of fun ones. And I dunno how I managed to predict the rabbit one when I was talking to someone yesterday (I said it would be cool to have a rabbit prompt, since 2023 is the year of the rabbit)...Ah well. I'm a little iffy about a couple of the prompts, like celebrity memoir, but the point of this challenge is to push me out of my comfort zone. So I'll read one!
Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (other topics)Festival Days (other topics)
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (other topics)
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (other topics)
Bailey's Story (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Audre Lorde (other topics)Jo Ann Beard (other topics)
James Patterson (other topics)
Annette Gordon-Reed (other topics)
Becky Chambers (other topics)
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Admin stuff:
It's also the first of a new month, and new month means new group read!! For December, the group is reading Book Lovers, and you can join the discussion here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
For all of you group readers, polls will be set up as soon as we can manage for the next group reads in January & February! Stay tuned for more info soon :-)
I don't think I'm going to be able to join in with the December group read, BUT it looks like my book club is going to choose Book Lovers for their January read, and I've been meaning to read this book all year because everyone gives it a great review, sooooo I think I may have found my "book I meant to read in 2022."
With the recent holidays and family visits and transporting my college kid back and forth, this week I finished NOTHING! I did a lot of driving, and I'm listening to a fun audiobook (Elizabeth Peters!), but it's a somewhat long book so I'm only 3/4 through it even after hours of driving. I'm done with Popsugar, and I still have my last two books for AtY sitting at my nightstand, more or less untouched.
Question of the Week
This week's question is about the NEW LIST, of course ;-) (Which means those of us who are early birds won't be able to answer it in full just yet, so I thought about coming up with a different question, but ... nah. Who will want to talk about anything else later today??)
How many years have you been doing the Popsugar reading challenge? Had you done other reading challenges before you started Popsugar? Which 2023 prompt jumps out at you? Which prompt do you think you’ll tackle first?
Right now, several hours BEFORE having seen the list, all I can say is that I've been doing Popsugar since 2015 (somehow I got lucky and stumbled upon it in its first year, I'd never done a reading challenge before that one), so 2023 will be my ninth year. I'll probably tackle the first prompt first: "book you meant to read in 2022" will be any one of the books I borrowed from the library in 2022 but didn't read yet.