[2024] Poll 14 Voting

[Jill]

I went with 6 up and 2 down. But was very hard making my decisions this time.

[Jillian]

Jill wrote: "I went with 6 up and 2 down. But was very hard making my decisions this time."

I had a hard time also. There weren't any that I really disliked just a few that I found more limiting or personally confusing. This is the first poll this year that I didn't vote 4/4 and went 5/3, but will be happy with any that make it.

[Riley]

3 upvotes and 2 downvotes for me. For the most part, they all seemed perfectly good and doable prompts, so I only voted for things I felt more strongly about. And even for the 2 I downvoted, I still have an idea or two in mind for what I could read, so there really won't be any disappointments for me this round.

[Vicki]

Robin P wrote: "I upvoted 7, the only one I downvoted was the spice. I don't dislike it but it seems a bit narrow."

Maybe we should have included herbs, too.

[Harini]

Finally 7 up and 1 down. Such good set of prompts.

[Jillian]

Vicki wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I upvoted 7, the only one I downvoted was the spice. I don't dislike it but it seems a bit narrow."

Maybe we should have included herbs, too."

I think, it is hard prompt to get in this year due to having had the recipe word for 2023. Then we have voted in Ben & Jerry’s which could be used for many food/spice titled books if some wants too. We also have cozy mystery and many have food/spice titles.

[Pearl]

I like most of the ideas, so I’ll mention what I ruled out so far.

neutral or downvotes:
5 books. I liked it before but I was disappointed by my last searches.
Pets. It overlaps too much with Raining cats and dogs.

Gen X authors - is there a list?

[Mandy]

http://www.bornglorious.com/birthyear...

just change the date and choose the writer occupation. 1965 - 1980

[Tracy]

I thought I had all my choiced set yesterday, but then I went to the bookstore and looked at a book I thought I really wanted to read. I was disappointed to find out that yet again "great premise, but the actual book is not for me". And then I got stuck in the bookstore (I know, horrible!) because they had a visiting author and the space for that is limited, so the attendees TOTALLY blocked the door - no one in, no one out.

Anyway... I changed one of my picks because of that, so here is how I ended up, all 8 UP votes:

1. A book by an author from Canada, Australia or New Zealand: Mom was from Canada, so it just seemed like a good idea. Found some authors I like that I didn't know were Canadian, but I should probably look for new-authors-to-me as well.

3. A book involving a wild animal or endangered species: a book I REALLY want to read would fit here

7. A book by an author born between 1965-1980 (Generation X): it would be nice to use X, and I found an author in this generation (a harder search than I imaginged) who I haven't read in quite a while, but really loved the books I have read - Colum McCann

8. A book with a strong sense of place: one of my favorite book podcasts is Strong Sense of Place Podcast, plus I love that feel of "being" there.

9. A book with an anti-hero as a main character: my suggestion, several fun options I'm interested in (Starter Villain, Assistant to the Villain - I think Ellie flagged these as well, maybe a co-read is in order!)

10. A book over 500 pages: I could finish the 2nd half of Shogun (2nd half being ANOTHER 600 pages!), my new The Covenant of Water, or probably several dozen others on my TBR

12. A book involving Intelligence – AI, espionage or abilities: just like brain stuff. Maybe I'll read a synesthesia book here and leave the science prompt for something else science-y!

15. A book with an insect in the title or on the cover: this was one I ALMOST down voted. Usually searching covers is pretty easy, but because insects are small (and often pictured small on covers), it was hard to see. So I scanned the provided listopia and found MANY options on my TBR. And since we have Birds, Bees, and Bunnies this year, many of those are Bee options I didn't get to use yet. I also have the non-fiction option An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong that I may fit in if I don't have enough NF on my list for next year.

[Thomas]

Tracy wrote: "I thought I had all my choiced set yesterday, but then I went to the bookstore and looked at a book I thought I really wanted to read. I was disappointed to find out that yet again "great premise, ..."

If insects get in I will probably scower covers for something lurking about.

[Edie]

5 up and 3 down for me. Canadian, Aussie, NZ author, gen X author, sense of place, intelligence and 5 books were up.
X in title, insect in title and Masterpiece theatre were down. I always have trouble with books related to movies/tv and generally am tired of "xxxx in the title prompts"

[Jennifer W]

Hehe, I like the kitties, too.

I was kinda meh about most of these, I only upvoted and downvoted 3 each.

[Dubhease]

One source of Gen X authors is Wikipedia's (insert year) in literature pages. At the bottom after books published is a list of authors who were born and died each year. It isn't complete, but it is a start.

[Karin]

Trish wrote: "dalex wrote: "A popular author from Canada that I've not seen anyone mention - Silvia Moreno-Garcia. (Unless you're being super strict and saying the author has to have been born i..."

I"m strict in that I think an author has to have been born in Canada or immigrated as a young child. One set of my grandparents were immigrants and became citizens, but it's a very different outlook than growing up there. This is for any country.

I've now lived in the States more than half of my life (not something I'd ever thought I'd do) but I am never going to really think like an American who was born or at least raised here, and I didn't even have to learn a new language.

[Pearl]

Mandy wrote: "http://www.bornglorious.com/birthyear...

just change the date and choose the writer occupation. 1965 - 1980"

I found one author I liked born in 1966, but I had trouble with the slow page loading.

I googled a few I thought might fit
Gabrielle Zevin was born 1977
John Green 1977
Kevin Wilson 1978
Colson Whitehead 1969
Elif Shafak 1971

[Jillian]

Dubhease wrote: "One source of Gen X authors is Wikipedia's (insert year) in literature pages. At the bottom after books published is a list of authors who were born and died each year. It isn't complete, but it is..."

Thank you!

[NancyJ]

Leigh Bardugo was born in 1975

[NancyJ]

Tracy wrote: "I thought I had all my choiced set yesterday, but then I went to the bookstore and looked at a book I thought I really wanted to read. I was disappointed to find out that yet again "great premise, ..."

I was thinking of putting Colum McCann on my author list next year, so this helps.

I really liked An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. I have to be in the right mood (curious about nature) to read books like this.

[Mary]

So my TBR is over 3,000 books. I'll never get to them all especially since I add to it a lot. So this week i decided to see if a few of the prompts were on my tbr. None or very few for pets, endangered species, and the theater one. So I guess I will pick ones other than those.

Possible Prompts:
1. A book by an author from Canada, Australia or New Zealand-I believe i have at least one author that fits that.
2. A book that has an X in the title-sure
3. A book involving a wild animal or endangered species-nope based on my searches
4. A book that is on a Five Books List; reader’s choice of which list-yup. voted for this before. will try again.
5. A book with a pet in the story-nope. see above
6. A book adapted by Masterpiece Theatre-nope see above
7. A book by an author born between 1965-1980 (Generation X)-ty pop i just read two from the 1970s. probably gonna avoid one.
8. A book with a strong sense of place-sure
9. A book with an anti-hero as a main characters-sure
10. A book over 500 pages-another ty pop with the longest book -i will skip this one too
11. A book with the name of a spice in the title another one that didnt have a lot on my tbr
12. A book involving Intelligence – AI, espionage or abilities-sure will try it
13. A book with a pronoun in the title sure i think have this too
14. A book with more than one main character i think i read a lot of these so ok.
15. A book with an insect in the title or on the cover-nah

[Tracy]

Mandy wrote: "http://www.bornglorious.com/birthyear...

just change the date and choose the writer occupation. 1965 - 1980"

Thanks for this great resource Mandy - wish I'd waited to do my searching. But now I have it for another time anyway :)

[Tracy]

Dubhease wrote: "One source of Gen X authors is Wikipedia's (insert year) in literature pages. At the bottom after books published is a list of authors who were born and died each year. It isn't complete, but it is..."

I tried Wikipedia, but apparently didn't have this better search term. Thanks!

[Tracy]

Here's another page in Wikipedia that allows you to sort for authors in several ways (genre, language, ethnicity/nationality, sorting out women within some of these groups, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_o...#

[Pam]

I didn’t vote either way on insect but today I found a new book at the library that looks good - Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda.

[Tracy]

Pam wrote: "I didn’t vote either way on insect but today I found a new book at the library that looks good - Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda."

Well, if Cover with an Insect doesn't get in, you could still use it for Botanical Cover!

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

Mary wrote: "So my TBR is over 3,000 books. I'll never get to them all especially since I add to it a lot. So this week i decided to see if a few of the prompts were on my tbr. None or very few for pets, endang..."

With 3000 books on the list, for sure some of them feature pets, but of course you won't know till you read them. I'm impressed, my list is in the hundreds and I get overwhelmed by that sometimes.

[Sandra]

I can't shut up about how much I love The Travelling Cat Chronicles (which features a pet as the main character). The author was born in 1972 and the English translation of her latest book The Goodbye Cat is coming out in a few weeks.

[Jillian]

Sandra wrote: "I can't shut up about how much I love The Travelling Cat Chronicles (which features a pet as the main character). The author was born in 1972 and the English translation of her late..."

The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a book I hope to read next year.

[Pam]

Sandra - I loved The Travelling Cat Chronicles also and have her new book on my 2024 TBR shelf!

[Charlsa]

dalex wrote: "A popular author from Canada that I've not seen anyone mention - Silvia Moreno-Garcia. (Unless you're being super strict and saying the author has to have been born in Canada and i..."

I didn't realize she lives in Canada. I like her books.

[Charlsa]

For a New Zealander author, I would recommend Meg Mason. Sorrow and Bliss is fantastic. It's a book that kind of sneaks up on you.

[Siobhan]

Quite a good week! Another one where I’m only super passionate about one or two prompts atm, but could very easily end up extremely excited for a lot of them. 7 upvotes, only 1 downvote.

Up:

2. A book that has an X in the title - I do like an X prompt, and this one would be a fairly fun challenge.

4. A book that is on a Five Books List; reader’s choice of which list - When this was originally suggested it was a downvote, then I saw discussion about it and found it neutral instead. But I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and now it’s an upvote! I think it’s very flexible, and thus very good as a lists prompt.

7. A book by an author born between 1965-1980 (Generation X) - Again, I do like an X prompt. And this would probably be a fairly easy one to fill.

9. A book with an anti-hero as a main character - I do love a good anti-hero, especially when it comes to a romance book. I think I have a few on my tbr that’d fit this.

11. A book with the name of a spice in the title - I don’t entirely know why I like this so much, but it just tickles me! It might be a little hard to find something that fits, but I think it’ll be an interesting challenge.

12. A book involving Intelligence – AI, espionage or abilities - I like the flexibility involved here. I’d probably read a book involving an intelligent character, but the wording leaves it open to a wide range of non-fiction too.

14. A book with more than one main character - As I said the last time this was suggested: as a romance reader this’d be a really easy prompt for me, and I like that.

Down:

6. A book adapted by Masterpiece Theatre

[NancyJ]

Charlsa wrote: "For a New Zealander author, I would recommend Meg Mason. Sorrow and Bliss is fantastic. It's a book that kind of sneaks up on you."

I absolutely adored this book! I found it stunning. My friends didn’t love it as much as I did though. The same thing was true of Migrations.

[Kayleigh]

I am planning to BIO next year by having all my reads connected to the letter X, so I am definitely up voting the X related prompts. I hadn't even thought of 'Generation X' authors before, so thanks to whoever suggested it, that's opened up a whole new avenue for me to go explore.

Up to now I'm planning on up voting the following

2. A book that has an X in the title

7. A book by an author born between 1965-1980 (Generation X)

9. A book with an anti-hero as a main character

12. A book involving Intelligence – AI, espionage or abilities

15. A book with an insect in the title or on the cover

[NancyJ]

Jillian wrote: "Sandra wrote: "I can't shut up about how much I love The Travelling Cat Chronicles (which features a pet as the main character). The author was born in 1972 and the English translat..."

I loved this book. I read it for a Japan theme along with 4-5 others. I would love an Asian book prompt next year too.

[Shannon SA]

Charlsa wrote: "For a New Zealander author, I would recommend Meg Mason. Sorrow and Bliss is fantastic. It's a book that kind of sneaks up on you."

Just bought this for my Kindle on your recommendation :) thank you
It's only $1.14 on amazon us at the mo if anyone else is interested :)

And your comment helped, NancyJ :)

[Bec]

Shannon SA wrote: Just bought this for my Kindle on your recommendation :) thank you
It's only $1.14 on amazon us at the mo if anyone else is interested :)

Hmm showing up at $11.49 on amazon us for me and $16.99 on Aust.

[Nike]

Sandra wrote: "I can't shut up about how much I love The Travelling Cat Chronicles (which features a pet as the main character). The author was born in 1972 and the English translation of her late..."

"The Travelling Cat Chronicles" is truly a wonderful book.

[NancyJ]

Shannon SA wrote: "Charlsa wrote: "For a New Zealander author, I would recommend Meg Mason. Sorrow and Bliss is fantastic. It's a book that kind of sneaks up on you."

Just bought this for my Kindle o..."
I hope you love it too. It involves mental health so it’s not for everyone. Send me direct message if you want to discuss it while you’re reading it. There is one issue that everyone wanted to talk about first. The blank diagnosis.

[Shannon SA]

Bec wrote: "Shannon SA wrote: Just bought this for my Kindle on your recommendation :) thank you
It's only $1.14 on amazon us at the mo if anyone else is interested :)

Hmm showing up at $11.49 on amazon us fo..."

Oh that's such a pity, I'm sorry! I buy on Amazon US via South Africa, so that may explain it.

[Shannon SA]

NancyJ wrote: I hope you love it too. It involves mental health so it’s not for everyone. Send me direct message if you want to discuss it while you’re reading it. There is one issue that everyone wanted to talk about first. The blank diagnosis.

I will, NancyJ, thank you. If the New Zealand author gets in I may hold it over for that, but I'm sure you'll still remember it :)

[NancyJ]

Bec wrote: "Shannon SA wrote: Just bought this for my Kindle on your recommendation :) thank you
It's only $1.14 on amazon us at the mo if anyone else is interested :)

Hmm showing up at $11.49 on amazon us fo..."

Here it’s showing up on kindle unlimited, which you can sometimes get for a free trial (or a please come back offer) for the kindle only, not the audio.

[Bec]

Yeah I have a kindle unlimited membership in aust and it’s not on ku in aust but I did see it was in the US (I have both an Australian and US Amazon account!)

[Pam]

I think I will read Sorrow and Bliss, also! I found it on Libby and Hoopla. I’ll probably wait until I finish this year’s challenge. Thanks for the recommendation!

[dalex]

Out of curiosity, I calculated the author nationalities for the books I have tentatively planned to read next year. I used their current place of residence, not their birth country. This is not something I usually pay attention to so I found the results interesting.

US - 70%
UK - 15%
Australia/New Zealand - 9%
Canada - 3%
Other - 3%

[Harini]

Sorrow and Bliss has been on my TBR for a while now. This discussion might finally push me to pick up the book.

[Karin]

Charlsa wrote: "For a New Zealander author, I would recommend Meg Mason. Sorrow and Bliss is fantastic. It's a book that kind of sneaks up on you."

Interesting--tastes vary so much :) That was a dnf for me. There are Kiwi author's I've read and liked of course.

[Bec]

I changed my mind many times on these ones.

A book over 500 pages was in then out then in and then out again. There are quite a few long books on my TBR, but my rational was I can read a book over 500 pages for any of the categories and don't need a specific prompt to do it and I wanted some others instead. So I left this one neutral.

my upvotes were:
* A book by an author from Canada, Australia or New Zealand - As an Aussie my goal this year was to read more Aussie authors, which I hadn't necessarily been focussing on - so would like to continue this next year
* A book that has an X in the title - In my Aussie readers group I do the A-Z challenge where I read a book starting with each letter of the alphabet (X, Z and Q can be anywhere in the title). So this will help me with that challenge too.
*A book with more than one main character - I love dual character books
* A book involving Intelligence – AI, espionage or abilities - sounds interesting
* A book that is on a Five Books List; reader’s choice of which list - I've been following them on Facebook after they were first recommended in the wild discussion and like what they suggest

Downvote
* A book adapted by Masterpiece Theatre - really don't want to do this...Never heard of Masterpiece Theatre to start with (and I love theatre and musical theatre) and I've looked at the info and it just doesn't interest me
*A book with a strong sense of place - have done this in the past. Really only way to know is to read the book, I know I've read all the comments about how to pick, I would just pick one from the listopia if it gets through
* A book with a pet in the story - similar to raining cats and dogs

[Alicia]

My friend just sent me the a post for the new Leigh Bardugo novel and it's perfect for an insect on the cover.

[dalex]

Alicia wrote: "My friend just sent me the new Leigh Bardugo novel and it's perfect for an insect on the cover.

"

Do you mean they sent you information about the new novel? Or are there already ARCs available? It doesn't publish until April of next year.

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Vicki wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I upvoted 7, the only one I downvoted was the spice. I don't dislike it but it seems a bit narrow."

Maybe we should have included herbs, too."

What about salt? Not really a spice, not really a herb, but often in the same mouthful as pepper, which would be a spice. I have multiple "salt" books on the TBR, but mighty few spices.