38 & 39. Two books with a connection from different genres

[Andrea]

I just finished Words in Deep Blue and the whole time I kept thinking, Why does this feel so familiar? Then it hit me—I read PS: I Hate You earlier this year! Both books follow a sister mourning the loss of her brother, who left behind notes after his death. One is YA, and the other is an adult romance, so I'm counting them for these prompts! I didn’t plan it this way, but I love when these kinds of serendipitous moments happen!

[Wendy]

I think I'm going to do Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy (memoir) and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris & Mrs Harris Goes to New York (novel) as involving women who travel and find whatever pleasant things one finds while traveling abroad. Both books were jostling on my list as the potential comfort read, but then I realized they could both fit here instead!

[J]

I read The Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom, the latter was considerably better than the former.

[NancyJ]

I found this one accidentally:
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore - Historical fiction - about Edison and the early days of electricity
Chasing the Sun: How the Science of Sunlight Shapes Our Bodies and Minds by Linda Geddes - Nonfiction - about the sun and light. It includes sections on Edison, and the history of electric light, and its effect on us.

[Sibylle]

Historical Fantasy:



and

Memoir:



The connection is in the themes of jewish culture/history in both (very different) books

[Tracy]

Tracy wrote: "I just found another intriguing pair:


Connection: Offshoots/retellings of The Wizard of Oz

After Oz (historical fiction/mystery/crime, suspense)
Dorothy returns to Kansas after ..."

I DID end up reading this pair, and enjoyed them both. Toto was not just a retelling from Toto's point of view, but also took the story in a slightly different direction. After Oz was a particularly interesting take (although note, my comment about Miss Gulch is just a little off, as this character was given a different name in this book, but I think was still an inspiration). The author did a great job of taking the story out of the Fantastical area, and made it truly a historical mystery.

[Anne-Shirley]

Hello - I’m struggling with this one. Can anyone help me.

I really want to read the book “A man called Ove,” but I can’t work out what book is listed that is meant to match with it across a genre. Do any of the mods know which other book was meant to match with this one?
Thanks

[Tracy]

Anne-Shirley wrote: "Hello - I’m struggling with this one. Can anyone help me.

I really want to read the book “A man called Ove,” but I can’t work out what book is listed that is meant to match with it across a genre...."

Anne-Shirley, one of the people who voted for "...Ove" as part of a set paired it with "The Map of Love". I'm not sure which one though since there are at least two books by that name. Hopefully by reading the summaries of them you can figure out which one.

Of course, you are not limited to what other people chose as pairs. If you find another book with a connection to "...Ove" you can use that, as long as the genre is different. Is there another book about a curmudgeon that's a mystery? Or a book set in Sweden that is a thriller? etc.

Good luck!

Edit: After I was able to look while on my computer, I found that the book suggested as a pair was this version of The Map of Love: The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif

[Dixie]

David wrote: "I'm going to read Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) by Jerome K. Jerome, a humor novel written in 1889 and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, a time ..."

I love both of these books!

[Denise]

Anne-Shirley wrote: "Hello - I’m struggling with this one. Can anyone help me.

I really want to read the book “A man called Ove,” but I can’t work out what book is listed that is meant to match with it across a genre...."

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good is a curmudgeonly woman in Sweden who has a unique way of dealing with people who tick her off. It is a mystery and short story collection but also funny. I read this one and Ove both and they can work for this prompt.

[Mel]

I used Sunrise on the Reaping (dystopian) and The Sunbearer Trials (fantasy) for this prompt. Both feature a deadly competition where the main character is the underdog and didn't expect to be chosen to compete. Plus they both have Sun in the title, which is another neat connection!

[Severina]

My connection is books featuring dogs, one fiction and one non-fiction.

Book 1 - Toto by AJ Hackwith
Book 2 ; Arthur: The dog who crossed the jungle to find a home by Mikael Lindnord

[LeahS]

I planned other books, but ended up reading Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life, a biography of Eileen O'Shaughnessy, married to George Orwell, and Girl in a Blue Dress, a historical fiction based on the marriage of Charles and Catherine Dickens.

Eileen was a major support in Orwell's writing, in the process eclipsing her own life. She contributed to his creative process, and also played an important part in the Spanish Civil War, while separated from the writer by the fighting. I learned a lot about both Orwell and Eileen (sadly his attitude towards women and sex was disappointing), though not as disappointing as that of Dickens. Girl in a Blue Dress gave insight into both parties to the marriage and managed to give the 'Catherine' character some final agency.

For my published in 2016 round, I read Trees: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Structure, (not as dry -or wooden - as it sounds), and The Trees, which had an interesting premise, but didn't seem quite sure when it wanted to be an eco-dystopia or a magical fantasy. I enjoyed it whatever it was!

[Robin H-R]

I read:
The Kid by Ron Hansen

REJECT: A book with a title that is only a name or nickname

Finished: 06/06/2025
Rating: 4 stars

Fictional account of the life of William H. Bonney aka "Billy the Kid". Well researched; excellent prose

AND

The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid by Pat F. Garrett

REJECT: A book about a historical figure

Finished: 06/07/2025
Rating: 3 stars

Non-fiction; Originally published in 1882

Common subject is Billy the Kid

[Trish, Annular Mod]

I'm also doing the PopSugar one this year, although I'm finding it hard going.

However, it occurs to me that potentially, the same books could be used for the PS 37/38 Two books with the same title could also be used for these two, as long as, say, the first (and therefore primary) MPG was different, as the connection would be the same title.

For example,
Tooth and Claw, Craig Johnson - Mystery, Westerns, Thriller
Tooth and Claw - Fantasy, Dragon, Romance

Heist Society, Ally Carter - Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, Romance
Heist Society, Leighann Dobbs - Cozy Mystery

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

Oh that's a good point Trish. I might take the same strategy because I also haven't done either of these 2-week prompts

[Phil]

For these topics I read a non fiction book Let Me Be Frank: A Book About Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren't Supposed to Do by Tracy Dawson and a fiction book based on a real person Mr Smith to You: A novel based on the true story of Australian jockey Bill Smith – a life lived in secret by Kerry Anne Taylor These books relate stories of women who lived their lives/or dressed like men to achieve their work/life goals

[NancyJ]

I love this prompt and I really wish we thought to propose a similar one this year. My biggest challenge at first was that most of the books I wanted to pair up were needed for other prompts. But now I have more room to shuffle.

✅1. Connection: Both are set on wildlife research stations near the North or South Pole
The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica - Nonfiction memoir
Girl in Ice set in the arctic - Thriller

✅2. Connection: Both relate to light, science, and both discuss Thomas Edison and the history of electric light,
The Last Days of Night - Historical fiction
Chasing the Sun: How the Science of Sunlight Shapes Our Bodies and Minds - Nonfiction

✅3. Connection: Both focus on events in 1969
Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul - Nonfiction
Summer of '69 - Fiction

✅4.Connection: Lost Generation writers in Paris during the jazz age. They were friends (and rivals). Hemingway writes about FitzGerald in this book.
A Moveable Feast byErnest Hemingway - memoir
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald - short stories
Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons (98) by Fitzgerald, F Scott Paperback (2008)

✅5. Both involve a group of astronauts in space together for a very long time
Orbital bySamantha Harvey - Literary fiction
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton - post-apocalyptic fiction

Potential
Connection: Both relate to rivers and declining water levels.
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane

[Wendy]

I have changed my plan again! I wanted to find a place for The Stepford Wives (dystopian/horror) and am pairing it with Revolutionary Road (literary/historical). Both are set in suburbia.

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

I'm so obsess with this prompt!! I keep changing my mind... I was going with the theme of Silent -era Chinese-American actresses-- Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong and Siren Queen. But I've decided I want credit! So I combined Moby-Dick or, The Whale and Dayswork-- a memoir of writing a book about Melville writing Moby Dick. Proud of me!

I want to do this prompt more!!

[Tracy]

I loved this prompt too! I wish I had enough time to do some of my other book pairings.

[Pamela, Arciform Mod]

The other combo I was going to do and am bummed I forgot about it--- The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family and The Invention of Wings