Play Book Tag discussion
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Time to Vote for the May Tag
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I can work with any of these. I'm using the bare minimum of votes since I don't care which one wins. What a change from last month! I guess it is feast or famine.
I'll be good with all of them, though they are all very broad (generally very broad is not my preference). It will be easy to find things.
I looked at Strong Heroines and many of them are fantasy, so I wouldn't prefer that right after this month. I was surprised, but I guess people think of heroines more in fantasy than in historical novels or biographies, which might be tagged Strong Women or something else.Some might object to Crime because we had Historical Mysteries in January. Personally, I am ok with it because I read a lot of mysteries.
Robin P wrote: "I looked at Strong Heroines and many of them are fantasy, so I wouldn't prefer that right after this month. I was surprised, but I guess people think of heroines more in fantasy than in historical ..."I was thinking the exact same, Robin! There also seem to be quite a lot of romance books later on in the list as well, so it might be another month of reading very similar books if Strong Heroines wins.
I have just done my research and I have the similar thought to Robin. While arguably many of my books contain strong women, particularly in historical fiction and WWII I came up with nothing on my TBR up to page 25 which had 8 or so tags. So in terms of books with friends, I did find one lone book that is near my TBR that I could read with a T. But all the rest were fantasy, and it would take hours to figure out if anything else on my TBR happened to match a letter and have 5-8 tags.Family was also tough but I found a good two or three that I could use, and I suspect if I put the time in I would find more, as the 25 pages ended up somewhere around 50 or so tags. I will likely vote that way. I haven't looked up Crime yet, but I really don't like Crime as a genre. I would hope if it wins that one of my Hank Phillipi Ryan books will work, or that I happen to have something that matches.
I did find a few things for Crime. Could vote that way too. Robin was right that quite a few of the mystery thrillers would fit. Likely my HPR books will as well. Its true crime that un-nerves me. So we shall see. I don't quite know which tag to prioritize just yet.
Robin P wrote: "I looked at Strong Heroines and many of them are fantasy, so I wouldn't prefer that right after this month. I was surprised, but I guess people think of heroines more in fantasy than in historical ..."Oh, that's unfortunate. I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking more along the lines of "Strong women", as you suggest.
I am averse to Strong Heroine - not as a genre as I read plenty of both fantasy and romances - but too much same as this month and frankly, I'm already tired of them and I have hardly read any! Crime is my preference - not just because mysteries are my genre, bit because so much of my TBR, and not just the mystery/detective genre, but across the board of genres. NF fans - check out Fact Crimes and Criticism/Biographical categaries of Edgar Award nominees and winners at https://edgarawards.com/ - you will be surprised at what you find and they all fit.
Historical fiction, especially ones set during any of the wars, will often be tagged CRIME because there usually is some appropriate theme in the book.
Family is ok too but again a lot of the books that popped up (and I did not get to) for Coming of Age and Authors of Color are on the list. I want a change.
Oh, that’s uncanny. All three of those topics were discussed in a recent discussion on the bwf chat thread. I agree that strong heroine and strong women have too much overlap with the books on this month’s tag.
I don’t like the crime tag very much either Amy. I think mystery is a much friendlier topic, and I think many of us were expecting or hoping to see a mystery tag later this year. There are three crime or mystery authors that I really want to read, and none of those books fit the letters for the crime tag. Weirdly enough, many of those books fit the family tag.
I discovered the same thing as others, I don't have many books for Strong Heroine and I have plenty for the other 2.I do have one for Strong Heroine which I may not manage this month so that would work out for me.
The bottom line is that it is all good and I will manage with whatever is chosen.
I like either crime or family. Either of those topics give plenty of room for both challenge players (who have to think about tags) and non challenge players (who don’t need to worry about whether something’s already tagged) to pick up a range of genres that they might want to read. I’d have liked a ‘strong women’ topic, but reference to ‘heroine’ does push me to think of more fantasy, romance or YA books. Nothing wrong with any of those but we’ve had several related tags this year already and it would be nice to have a change.
Amy wrote: "I did find a few things for Crime. Could vote that way too. Robin was right that quite a few of the mystery thrillers would fit. Likely my HPR books will as well. Its true crime that un-nerves me. ..."I'm another that won't read True Crime. Although I was surprised that some books about pirates and sailing like The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, which I loved, were tagged that, since there was a mutiny. But modern books about serial killers and domestic violence are out. If that one gets in, I assume enough of my detective books would work, I'll have to check. I hadn't thought of Family being close to Coming of Age. I guess it depends, some are about adult family relationships, even older adults.
Lots of mystery series books start with "Murder in" or "The Case of"., which have the letters for BWF.
Librarynerd wrote: "Some of the books I was thinking of reading such as These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 and The Invention of Wings may be more “strong women”..."These two books have a lot of family tags. I really like both of these authors - Nancy Turner and Sue Monk Kidd. I’d guess that most of their books have family tags.
Kevin wilson, Lianne Moriarty, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Fredrik Backman, and Kate Morton are other good bets for family tags. Big Little Lies, and Forgotten Garden have both crime and family tags. I think we’ll find other M books like that.
Game of Thrones has 100+ family tags too.
Really, of all three, I'm hoping for "crime", but that's because I read a ton of mysteries, suspense, thrillers, true crime... all of it!
Just a reminder to all of us, me included, to limit discussion here to a general one, not specific to BWF or other challenges. There is a separate chat thread for BWF, for example. I can for sure find something to read for each. Crime though has my heart and excites me.
Such an interesting choice!
That's funny, GOT as Family. Family makes me think of suburban settings or historical sagas, but not ruthless empires, though of course they were all based on family!
Robin P wrote: "That's funny, GOT as Family. Family makes me think of suburban settings or historical sagas, but not ruthless empires, though of course they were all based on family!"I thought you’d appreciate that. There are always some surprises in every list. There was a Mario Puzo book on both lists.
I found quite a few books with both crime and family tags. I guess it makes sense because crime victims, criminals and detectives could all have families, and they might be important characters. I’ve been surprised a couple times when a mystery had more family tags than crime tags. There are a couple books with sisters on both sides of the law.
LISTOPIAS
I set up listopias for the crime and family tags. If anyone wants a strong heroine listopia, I can set that up too. The crime list needs more books.
Crime
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Family
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Anita wrote: "I am posting one day early since I am travelling tomorrow and am not sure how much internet access I will have nor when I will have it. Please vote for the tag you would most like to read for May a..."Hi Anita ~ Safe travels! My last initial is K so you can list me as Kim K if you want to differentiate me from the other Kims in the group. It’s not often I am in a group with other Kims!
This is the opposite of last month! However I notice that one is closer to this month's tag than others.I'm off to attend my mother's celebration of life, but ideally can check in a couple of times since being a troglodyte I only use desktops or, in a pinch, laptops. This is primarily because my passwords are horrible to do on cell phones--long, complicated and partly memorized by motor memory. Even if I bring them I've had a lot of trouble, especially with sites that count key strokes.
At least I finally got a plan with data for emergencies.
I voted since I only have a few minutes since I do have a preference even though there is more than one that I want.
Well who knew apparently I read a lot of crime. I don't think of myself as a crime reader but when I look at the books on the list I get that I am. So crime would be my first choice because I really want to read The Thursday Murder Club. I have a fair few for family so could do that too easily but not with as much motivation. For strong heroine I have a couple but most notably The Red Queen which is the last book in a series (The Obernewtyn Chronicles, I think it is set up differently in the US). I loved the rest of the series but but they gradually got longer and longer until this last one is 1108 pages and tbh if it is as good as the rest I will be completely useless from the start to the end as far as anything else is concerned. This is a worry in the middle of term. However she is the epitome of a strong heroine so.......
I checked out Obernewtyn-and I can get it through my library system-thanks for the lead, I usually love old fantasy like this!
I like all of these tags like so many of you. I also agree that the Strong Herione books are heavy with fantasy. Why is that strong women/heroines only show up in fantasy - I believe there are a lot of strong women in all kinds of fiction and real life! I guess we just don't think of that tag when we read more realistic fiction.I am a big reader of books that fit the crime tag, often because so many books of other genre have crimes in them. I have a lot on my list and The Thursday Murder Club is one of them Jen!
I think if the tag were Strong Women, it would include more biographies, literary fiction, history, etc. Somehow "heroine" makes people think of fantasy and fairy tales.
Robin P wrote: "I think if the tag were Strong Women, it would include more biographies, literary fiction, history, etc. Somehow "heroine" makes people think of fantasy and fairy tales."After reading your post, I wondered if the same would fall true with Strong Hero
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Many fantasies on the first page.
I think it is also because the terms 'heroine' and 'hero' primarily align in conversation and minds as 'fantasy characters or images'. Think of when you may casually tell some body 'your my hero!' because they helped you by coming up with some long sought bit of info. Or you say 'he's a hero to die for' - what books do you use that term with? Ditto Heroine -- I keep thinking of the movie The Holiday where Iris, the Kate Blanchett character says "I need to be the heroine of my own story" and she's talking not just about her life but about romance in her life.Heros and Heroines are in stories. While literary fiction and realistic fiction are also stories, they are not ones where you think automatically and first 'hero' or 'heroine'.
Could turn that around (as of the past 4 years) and say nurses, doctors, EMTs, etc have fairly commonly been called heroes lately.
Barbara M wrote: "I like all of these tags like so many of you. I also agree that the Strong Herione books are heavy with fantasy. Why is that strong women/heroines only show up in fantasy - I believe there are a lo..."Strong women show up in many books across many genres--it's a shelf I've used for years, but "heroine" isn't used as much outside of fantasy even when there are heroines; I don't use either hero or heroine in any shelves.
So I'd vote for strong women but not strong heroine on the heels of romantic fantasy. This is the strong women shelf https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/... and you can see what I mean :)
At first I was rooting for family and hoping it wouldn't be crime until I saw that The Moonstone has been tagged crime. I've been wanting to read that for a long time!
Sallys wrote: "At first I was rooting for family and hoping it wouldn't be crime until I saw that The Moonstone has been tagged crime. I've been wanting to read that for a long time!"If you read The Moonstone, I'll read it with you :-) It's been on my TBR for ages, but I keep putting it off.
Definitely. Whether or not Crime is thr tag I'd like to read it for my next book.
Moonstone also has 6 family tags, so it looks like you’re safe either way. I haven’t read anything by him yet.
I liked The Woman in the White Dress, but DNF Moonstone--some people like both, but they are quite different from each other :)
For The Woman in White (the title I have always seen), I was listening to the audiobook, and at one point I gasped out loud at a sudden surprise in the plot. I liked that one more than Moonstone.
If there is a buddy read for either the Woman in White or Moonstone, I'll join in. As I think that I may have mentioned at one time, I saw an Andrew Lloyd Webber production for the Woman in White in London in 2005 (not sure if it ever made it to the USA). I hauled a hardback copy of the book with me on the trip, but never read it (too many other interesting things to do LOL). I learned enough about this author - a contemporary and friend of Dickens if I remember correctly - that I am intrigued enough to read either book.
But I guess I'll give it a shot Are you ready to start Doughgirl?
But I'll give it a shot. Are you ready to start Lynne?
Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
The Thursday Murder Club (other topics)The Red Queen (other topics)
These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (other topics)
The Invention of Wings (other topics)
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (other topics)
https://forms.gle/kKeEYyHib9PqVPRM8
Here are the lists of books for each tag:
crime: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
family: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
strong heroine: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Remember, you may cast up to a total of 10 participation points for your choice. Every PBT member gets one vote for free so please vote even if you don't have any participation points!
You can see how many participation points you currently have in the spreadsheet below.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Happy voting! Please cast your votes by Noon EST on 4/22.