Summer Reading Challenge Discussion

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

A space to chat about what you're reading, which prompts you're doing, and collect ideas!

[Trish, Annular Mod]

I have a quick question on the "borrowed from a library" one for August. Does that include things like Kindle Unlimited?

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Trish wrote: "I have a quick question on the "borrowed from a library" one for August. Does that include things like Kindle Unlimited?"

Sure, that's fine.

[Ciara]

Does it still count as a pen name if the author has legally changed their name? Not because of marriage or a gender transition or anything. It's something they made up & used for art stuff, & then they decided to make it legal. (I did the same thing with my name, & I tell people that I just made my pen name/"punk name" official, & my "real name" is my birth name, even though literally no one in my life calls me by it, except as a joke--most people don't even know it.)

[Dubhease]

Question about pen names - Surrender by Bono. "Bono" is more of a stage name than a pen name, but since it isn't his real name, does it still count?

Or would you count it under A book whose author's initials appear in CURVEBALL because he used to go by Bono Vox when he first started playing gigs.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

For pen names, when in doubt, use the name on the book that the author wrote. I think what Jackie meant in that FAQ is that you can't use J.K. Rowling for a Robert Gailbraith book, or you can't use an "also known as" when the book was penned under a different name.

Another example is that you *should* use Christina Lauren for a book written by "Christina Lauren", even though that is a penname for two authors who write and publish together.

Although we are requiring first and last initial, so I don't know that Bono (or Madonna, or Prince, etc.) would work since we need two initials there.

Basically, when we are checking to see if a book fits a prompt, we are using the author name on Goodreads, not any other names the author may have that would fit.

EDIT: Realizing that I thought y'all were asking about the FAQ where it talks about author name prompts.

For the pen name prompt, I think any author who writes books under multiple names, OR writes a book under a name that is not their legal name, would count. Use your discretion, and if we have a question about it, we will ask you to clarify your reasoning.

Ciara, if they wrote the books under the name before they legally changed it, then it would count. But if they legally changed their name and that's the only way they are known to the literary and outside world, it would not.

Dubhease, I'd say Bono is not a pen name... it's the only way he is known in the world, so it would not count. Think of a pen name as a difference between the literary world and the regular world.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

^ I agree with Emily's explanations of the pen name situation.

[Karin]

Jackie wrote: "^ I agree with Emily's explanations of the pen name situation."

A pen name has always meant an author name that is not someone's given and/or legal name that is only used for their writing, so I thought it meant that you could use Ellis Peters, which is a pen name, but not books she published under her own name of Edith Parteger.

Names like "Christina Lauren" also count, because two authors opted to write under a combined name and not their full names, so it's also a pen name, but for a pair.

Is this what you mean, in the final definition?--it got a bit winding in the discussion above and I once read something about either or any name an author has :)

[Ciara]

Emily wrote: "For pen names, when in doubt, use the name on the book that the author wrote. I think what Jackie meant in that FAQ is that you can't use J.K. Rowling for a Robert Gailbraith book, or you can't use..."

I was specifically thinking of Miranda July. That's the name she's always used for her art stuff, but it's not her given name. She had her name legally changed when she was in her 20s, but she was pretty well-known in certain circles before that (I knew her personally) & we all knew that wasn't her real name. But she's gotten WAY more famous since then & a lot of people don't know (though it's Google-able). She also only got famous as an author in the last ten or fifteen years, since Miranda July has been her legal name; she was famous for her other art stuff before that. But she has always written in addition to other things & I knew her as a writer as well as a filmmaker in the 90s.

In any case, I have other ideas.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

When I wrote this, I put the prompt as "an author who has a pen name"; I'm going to update it to "a book written under a pen name" because I think that is a little clearer. The point is the author's name on the book cover is not the name that use for their day to day life. If we have instances where the author's name has since changed, I would accept that with the explanation that it was a pen name at the time of publication.

[Mary]

Can a book about a writer be a fiction book where the character is writing a book about someone? (Low pressure by Brown

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Yes! Fiction or nonfiction is fine!

[Mary]

thx you

[Mary]

Ok another question-i hope that's ok "Why Fish Don't Exist"-it's about fish collections being destroyed after 1906 San Fransisco -would this count for "a book with an element of survival?" I haven't read it yet.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

If it's just the museum collections being destroyed, I'm going with no. I need people to be in danger, or living animals. That sounds wrong, but you get it.

[Mary]

got it-thx-It works under the blockbuster prompt so i am good.

[Bea]

I am looking for a cover with purple on it and using TinEye. Does violet count for purple?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes!

[Bea]

Emily wrote: "Yes!"

Thank you.

[Bec]

Okay this sounds like fun.....despite the fact I'm undertaking a winter reading challeng in the Aussie goodreads group and it seems very weird to do a summer reading challenge in the middle of winter, I'm going to give it a go!

[Misty]

Okay - I have a question about this prompt: c. A book about a writer, bookseller, or librarian

I am reading a memoir by an author where she is writing about her life for a year after the death of her husband who was also a writer.

Yay or nay? TIA!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Sounds like we would accept it, but can you link the book so we can read the description?

[Misty]

Certainly! Here it is: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. TIA.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes, I'd say that since she is a pretty well-known author and it's her memoir, it would count, since it is a book about a writer!

[Misty]

Cool. Thanks!

[Irene]

Love this challenge! Just as a nerdy update/fun fact, Vesuvius erupted in autumn (October or November), not August! The eruption date was thought to be in August until 6 years ago (2018) when they excavated an inscription in Pompeii dated October 17, which made that the earliest possible date of the eruption.

(Prior to this, a lot of historians placed the eruption in fall anyway due to the fall fruit and cold-weather clothing that was found.)

[Bec]

Can I incude books that aren't published yet? I've got an advanced reader copy of By Any Other Name which I think fits under c. A book about a writer, bookseller, or librarian. It's not due to be published until 20 August.

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Bea wrote: "I am looking for a cover with purple on it and using TinEye. Does violet count for purple?"

Good old TinEye. Always causing as many problems as it solves! :-)

[LeahS]

I also have a question about the 'writer, bookseller, librarian' prompt.
I'm reading Jessie's Journey: Autobiography of a Traveller Girl by Jess Smith.

She is an author and storyteller (https://www.jesssmith.co.uk/) but the book is about her childhood, when obviously she wasn't a writer. Would that count for this prompt?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Irene, that's a very cool fact!!

Yes definitely Bec, as long as it has the description that tells us what it's about.

And yes LeahS, we would count it.

[LeahS]

Thanks, Emily.

[Bec]

Great thanks Emily.

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Irene wrote: "Love this challenge! Just as a nerdy update/fun fact, Vesuvius erupted in autumn (October or November), not August! The eruption date was thought to be in August until 6 years ago (2018) when they ..."

Wow! The site I was looking at must have been *out of date*...thank thank you I'll be here all week

[Mary]

Ok another question
Author's initials can be found in BLOCKBUSTER FILM
Do I count a Taylor Jenkins Reid book? The T and R are in the prompt but no J.

Or is a movie is planned for it...does it count for "has adapted into a movie"? It's Carrie Soto is back

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

You only need to use the first and last initials, so you can count TJR for that prompt! And yes, I'd say if the movie has a release date (even if that date hasn't passed), you're ok. Nothing that doesn't have a release date though.

[Mary]

Thx you

[Marie (UK)]

can you use books that you are also using for the main challenge?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes, definitely!

[victoria marie]

if anyone is looking for a really great book for the first prompt:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[LeahS]

That feeling when a book of poems has 194 pages.....

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Ughhhh so closeeee

[Joanna G]

So I just finished Baudolino, which I slotted in for the prune prompt, but realized it fits two of the options (writer over 60, book over 500 pages). I realize I only need one, but it got me thinking, just for fun, does anyone have any suggestions for books that would meet more than one of the ways to fulfil each prompt?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Back to School Sales is an easy one for that - Educated or any memoir featuring a kid in school could hit "from the library", "nonfiction", and "featuring a character in education"

I'm using Calypso, which fits the library and nonfiction prompts... but I'll probably slot it in for nonfiction in case I want to do the challenge a few different times with different prompts.

[Ciara]

I've got a question about the prompt "involving an ancient civilization". I'm reading You Dreamed of Empires right now, which is set shortly before the fall of the Aztec Empire. This has historically been described as an "ancient civilization," I guess because it was the last of the Mesoamerican pre-Columbian empires. Ie, the last hurrah for indigenous people ruling themselves without European interference. The first great Mesoamerican civilization (that we know of) arose in 2300BC, which I think we can all agree is ancient. But the book I am reading is set in 1519. That was more than 500 years ago, but it was considered the Early Modern Period in Europe.

The dynastic powers of Tenochtitlan at the time derived a huge amount of their power by claiming to be directly descended from the rulers of these previous civilizations, & of course there was a certain degree of continuity as far as architecture, religion, language, etc (as much as there realistically can be across a spread of 3800 years). So an argument can be made that I'm reading a book that "involves an ancient civilization". But historically, defining the Aztecs specfically as "ancient" even though they were in fact contemporaneous with the European Early Modern Period strikes me as racist & colonialist.

Next on my TBR is The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook & I kind of have the same questions about that one. Polynesian explorers settled the Hawaiian islands possibly as long ago as 400CE. I think that qualifies as pretty ancient. But the specific events of the book take place in the mid/late 1700s. Definitely not ancient. Both books are specifically an indictment of colonialism & imperialism, examining the way in which European exposure & domination impacted a different kind of civilization that had been extant into antiquity, so in that respect, the history of the impacted people's ways of life is very relevant to the story, even if neither story is specifically set in ancient times. So...???

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Yeah I see your problem, but I would count either of those. It might be easier to define this prompt as set not in modern civilization. The word civilization itself is of course complicated and rife with racist/elitist implications. But this is a reading challenge not the AP World History exam and I trust everyone to be respectful in their choices.

[LeahS]

I've just finished Fourteen Days, where characters are locked down in a New York apartment building during the early days of the 2020 Covid pandemic.

Could this count as 'a book with an element of survival', given the very high death rate in New York at that time?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Sure!

[LeahS]

Thank you, Emily.

[Mary]

Ok hoping for a moderator. I just finished "The Little Paris Bookshop" by Nina George. I believe the word "Bookshop" is in purple. Can any confirm that for me? Hoping to use it for challenge? If that doesn't work, I will use "Hello Beautiful" if that works

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes that is purple and you can count it.