Play Book Tag discussion
2025 Activities and Challenges
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Play Harder General Discussion
Speaking of favorite authors: I know I had a list of favorite authors that was separate from the favorite shelf for books. It was ranked, and it was very prominent on my profile page. Now it looks like it's missing.
Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Hello, I need a little help with prompt 5. from my new list:Read a book by an author with the same last name as one of your favorite writers
Isn't this much too difficult? Shouldn't the choice ..."
I agree, there have been several tasks that I would never have submitted because I think they are too hard. I like those favorite authors too!
But I think you'll have to stretch your definition of "favorite", to be an author you like, not just your very favorites. Some author names I have multiple first names for:
Adams
Alexander
Anderson
Baker
Barry
Bennett
Brooks
Brown
Clark
Collins
Davis
Edwards
Evans
Ford
Frank
Franklin
George
Gilbert
Graham
Gray
Green
Hall
Harper
Harris
Hughes
Jackson ( I read 2 this week with that last name, didn't realize it till now!)
James
Johnson
Jones
King
Lee
Lewis
MacDonald
Marshall
Meyer
Miller
Moore
O'Conner
Peters
Quinn
Reid
Ryan
Scott
Smith
Sparks
Stevenson
Stone
Sullivan
Taylor
Thomas
Walker
Wells
West
White
Wilson
thank you, your list is very helpful and I'm sure I can pick something useful from itupdate with the shortlist. I could restrict myself to favorite authors in the end:
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy can be replaced by Richard Adams, Robert Adams
John Williams - Stoner can be replaced by Tad Williams, Walter Jon Williams, Paul Williams, Sean Williams
David James Duncan - The Brothers K can be replaced by Dave Duncan
I have a lot on that list too! Great list, Robin! I'd add Thompson
Barr - fiction is Nevada Barr but NF is Luke Barr - food histories
I have a recommendation for anyone getting an archeology prompt here: Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan. It's a memoir written by Agatha Christie about her time over 5 years in the mid_1930s on digs in NE Syria with her husband Max Mallowan, a noted archeologist, They are much about life on a dig, but also learn a lot about archeology and about the funny intrepid Agatha Christie herself. I would so love to have dinner with her and Max were it possible! It's also illuminating on just what a melting pot that area of the Middle East is, how ancient and deeply rooted the conflicts are in the Cradle of Civilization. I read it because it's the July read for this year's Agatha Christie reading challenge. But it is perfect for an archeology prompt!
I'm thinking that the next swap will be in August. Does August 11th generally work for everyone? If so, please submit the prompt you want to swap on the form:
https://forms.gle/BLDzkoFma6gkkitC8
I'm close to finished on my current list. I have something for all of those, but I will probably have a new list before Aug 11, is there a deadline for when we have to submit our request?
Aug 11 works for me and I have same question as Robin for same reason.
I am close to finishing my first list too, so the deadline is what I need to know
I have a question about the task “ Read two books with similar covers”.
Does this mean two books that have, for example, the portrait of the same President on the cover or may it be something more subtle like the Penguin classics that have the black band and some kind of painting on the front?
I gravitate towards the Penguin Classics portrait covers.
Does this mean two books that have, for example, the portrait of the same President on the cover or may it be something more subtle like the Penguin classics that have the black band and some kind of painting on the front?
I gravitate towards the Penguin Classics portrait covers.
Mary wrote: "I have a question about the task “ Read two books with similar covers”. Does this mean two books that have, for example, the portrait of the same President on the cover or may it be something mor..."
Mary, I had this last year in Aty. Your idea should work if you have two you want to read now, There are also many cover trends that make this easy. There must be hundreds of historical fiction books with a picture of a woman from the back. You wouldn’t need the same president -two men in a similar pose would be close enough, I’ll find a link for you.
This is fun to scan through:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
These two books have a lot of fans here.
Anita wrote: "I'm thinking that the next swap will be in August. Does August 11th generally work for everyone? If so, please submit the prompt you want to swap on the form:
https://forms.gle/BLDzkoFma6gkkitC8"
That’s fine. I’m hoping the new tag will help me finish my current list.
Last year when this promot popped up somewhere I used 2 HF books with covers of backs of women walking away. I agree that the Penguin Classics books would be fine.Basically if you need to read the title to know which book is which, they work for the prompt.
I just received a new prompt list and one of them is:Read a book that a GR friend or PBT member has DNF'd
Sue and Booknblues kindly provided me links to their shelves. If anyone else has a DNF shelf, please let me know.
I think August 11th is fine. I have my 12th book to read for List Two, but its a doorstopper!!! I plan to start it July 20th, so that gives me three weeks to finish it and get a new list going...
Joy D wrote: "I just received a new prompt list and one of them is:Read a book that a GR friend or PBT member has DNF'd
Sue and Booknblues kindly provided me links to their shelves. If anyone else has a DNF s..."
I don't have a DNF shelf, usually I just take that book off all my shelves. I famously just DNF'd My Friends, but I know you just read that one.
I have two books left to read and several reviews to post. And then I’ll have my first list done!!
MelanieJoy wrote: "I have two books left to read and several reviews to post. And then I’ll have my first list done!!"Congrats to you, and everyone who has finished, or is close to finishing!
Joy D wrote: "I just received a new prompt list and one of them is:Read a book that a GR friend or PBT member has DNF'd
Sue and Booknblues kindly provided me links to their shelves. If anyone else has a DNF s..."
Here is mine - very short and almost all are books I will return to and read - timing was bad at first try: Theresa's DNF shelf
Warning: the book New York Exposed: The Gilded Age Police Scandal that Launched the Progressive Era was the most excrutiatingly slow and boring 40 pages I have ever read, especially given the subject. I think it has to be someone's published thesis. The other to avoid as painfully unreadable is the YA The Maple Murders, but you would not pick that anyway.
Thanks so much! (I don't have a DNF shelf, since I rarely DNF.)
I figured our DNF Queen JoAnne had a chubby and varied list, LOL, that would readily help you out!I very rarely actually DNF a book either. But I started parking as DNF books I had started but didn't get far or finish for one reason or another - usually a timing issue. At least one is an essay collection of New Yorker columns I keep picking at for a bit, then set aside for a few months, repeat. I do go back and read those I just parked there eventually and happily.
I moved a few of my paused books to dnf. I intended to go back to them but I haven’t yet. The Unseen World and a Helen Scales book might interest you. They are the two I might restart someday. A few NF were partial reads because I only needed the info in a chapter or two. https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Robin P wrote: "I'm close to finished on my current list. I have something for all of those, but I will probably have a new list before Aug 11, is there a deadline for when we have to submit our request?"If you submit a prompt by August 10th at say noon EST, it should still be fine to be included.
Joy D wrote: "I just received a new prompt list and one of them is:Read a book that a GR friend or PBT member has DNF'd
Sue and Booknblues kindly provided me links to their shelves. If anyone else has a DNF s..."
I only have two books on my DNF shelf and one of them is Ducks, Newburyport. Bet you read that already.
The other is The Regency Years: During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern
Hopefully you have better options.
p.s. I also have Americanah as paused, but would be happy to move it to DNF should you so desire, lol.
Anita wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I'm close to finished on my current list. I have something for all of those, but I will probably have a new list before Aug 11, is there a deadline for when we have to submit our re..."great, I only have one more to finish my current list
(Ok, what sadist suggested "a book that includes a penguin"? Not that I don't like them, but it's so specific. Luckily, I have Call of the Penguins on audio, since I enjoyed the earlier How the Penguins Saved Veronica. If anyone else has this, there's also the charming nonfiction The Penguin Lessons.)
Robin P wrote: "Anita wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I'm close to finished on my current list. I have something for all of those, but I will probably have a new list before Aug 11, is there a deadline for when we have to..."There's also a classic mystery called The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer that was made into a classic movie with Edna May Oliver as Miss Withers.
Theresa wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Anita wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I'm close to finished on my current list. I have something for all of those, but I will probably have a new list before Aug 11, is there a deadline for..."I forgot, I read that one too!
Joy D wrote: "I just received a new prompt list and one of them is:Read a book that a GR friend or PBT member has DNF'd
Sue and Booknblues kindly provided me links to their shelves. If anyone else has a DNF s..."
Joy, if you're still reading for this prompt, I have two shelves for you:
DNF
DNF in 2025
There's about 350 books between the two, so I'm sure you could find something :)
Robin P wrote: "Ok, what sadist suggested "a book that includes a penguin"?..."I just read Bleaker House: Chasing My Novel to the End of the World
and it has penguins in it. I liked it but I'm on an island adventure right now.
As it's a book that just has to include a penguin, perhaps the answer is to look for books that include travel to or around those places where penguins are found because the characters will report seeing at least one. Obviously, Antartica but there are other arctic areas with penguins (I have a friend who has used his interest in photographing the world's penguins to take cruises that include visits to all sorts of remote islands and tips of continents where penguins are found). I can't remember for sure but I'm pretty sure Bernadette encounters penguins in Where'd You Go, Bernadette, for example.
Books where someone visits a zoo or Aquarium -- not always but often the penguins frolicking in the penguin pool are mentioned. Central Park Zoon has one that is often a location where characters meet, so I'd look for books where a Central Park Zoo setting is included. Or books set on or including cruises to arctic areas.
I keep thinking of that classic movie, The Man Who Came to Dinner, where someone sends a crate of live penguins from some remote arctic location to the famous critic while he's recuperating in the middle class midwestern home of his hosts and they take over the house. Wonder if that was based on a book???
But I agree this is a very specific item hard to identify before reading a book, especially if you can't use a children's picture book for it.
Thanks, Pam and Anita, for the DNF suggestions/links!Btw, even though I enjoy books set in the extreme cold, I am not responsible for the "penguins" prompt.
:-)
Here's a suggestion for penguins that I enjoyed very much:Empire Antarctica: Ice, Silence, and Emperor Penguins
Robin P wrote: "Anita wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I'm close to finished on my current list. I have something for all of those, but I will probably have a new list before Aug 11, is there a deadline for when we have to..."Someone mentioned Penguin classics earlier. Maybe that would work.
I didn’t submit the prompt either but I do like penguins.
Did you read Wild Dark Shore yet? I’m 99% percent sure they mentioned penguins on the island (or something similar).
The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica was pretty interesting to me. They were like the scientists in the Veronica novel.
I read it for compass this year.
I'm wondering if anyone remembers if Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy has her character encountering penguins when she reaches Antartica or at any point in her journey or even the end at the the place she ends up working. If anyone has an ebook copy, a quick search will tell you. I loved that book and found it ultimately quite hopefull.
As an aid to my bout of procrastination as I mentally work out some wording in work documents... I went to my friend Google and found this: https://ginlemonade.com/2019/01/20/12...
Also this: https://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/s...
Some of these are likely mentioned in these articles:
Penguin Gentlemen
The Penguin and His Love
Penguins—-Who Is Vera Kelly? - set in Argentina. Penguins are mentioned several times. Near near the end the MC sees them for herself, and learns how a local woman cooks them.
Theresa wrote: "I'm wondering if anyone remembers if Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy has her character encountering penguins when she reaches Antartica or at any point in her jou..."Gee Theresa after all this searching, you and I will be ready for the penguin prompt. Migrations is one of my favorite books. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think she saw penguins in the book. Many other animals and birds were already extinct at the time of the story, I asked googles AI several different ways. The first answer was yes, but the answer was clearly describing Wild Dark Shore. The other answers were no.
Theresa wrote: "As it's a book that just has to include a penguin, perhaps the answer is to look for books that include travel to or around those places where penguins are found because the characters will report ..."There's [book:Mr. Popper's Penguins|61549, which is a children's book but not a picture book.
I have a friend/former coworker who had the penguin for her totem the way BC has elephants. She liked them and collected items related to them way before they got popular with the March of the Penguins documentary some years back.
@NancyJ - 2 of the books mentioned as having penguins are on my TBR - the Vera Kelly and Veronica. I think I will make sure I don't read either until I have my last Play Harder list this year. But yes, we are primed! Migrations is a book I loved, still think about.
Theresa wrote: "@NancyJ - 2 of the books mentioned as having penguins are on my TBR - the Vera Kelly and Veronica. I think I will make sure I don't read either until I have my last Play Harder list this year. But ..."I just listened to the last three chapters of Migrations to see if she mentioned Penguins when she got to Antarctica. She didn’t. But I kept listening. It’s so good. If I get S or SE next spin, I’ll need an Antarctica book.
I just finished Vera Kelly. It moves fast and held my attention. I’ll probably give it 3 or 3.5 stars. I have a few new ones tagged.
@Nancy and @Robin - you will not believe what I just came across in The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Just as I settle into the last 20% or so of the read, one of the characters now living in NYC visits Central Park and ends up at the Central Park Zoo to spend time with her favorites - PENGUINS!🤣.
BTW I am reading this for PH - a winner of the Bram Soker,
My new list looks great. #11 looks especially fun. My grandmother came of age in the 1920’s and was very fun. She looked like Bette Davis. In the 1970’s she had some very mod outfits. I might find something about fun young women from the 20’s or 30’s. I think she would have liked Mrs Pollifax too.
1. A memoir - I have lots
🔹2. The book's title or author's name contains a gemstone (diamond, ruby, sapphire, etc.) - hmm. If I can’t find something better, there is a Kate Quinn book,
🔆3. A book that involves a mother--daughter relationship - Timely!
4. Read a book found on PBT's Subdue the Shelf shelf - easy
5. Read a book from the 1001 books you must read before you die list. Should be easy
Q- 6. Read a collection of any year's best short fiction or stories edited by a favorite author - question
🔆7. Read a book that features at least three generations of a family - love this. Timely!
8. Read a book that won the Pulitzer Prize. - excellent
9. Read a book that fits the tag of Contemporary Romance - again
10. The title contains the letters P, B, and T - (I just remembered we have peanut butter ice cream in the freezer. Mmm.)
🔆11. A book you would recommend to your grandmother (or someone of her generation) -YES! I love this
12. Read a book that celebrates (or mentions) the summer or winter solstice. - I saw this a few times recently.
——-
QUESTION about
6. Read a collection of any year's best short fiction or stories edited by a favorite author.
Do you think a single author collection would work? Or does it need to be stories curated by a panel or another author?
🔆 I love these themes. They are great for the family drama tag too. I know I’ve seen comments in PBT reviews. Suggestions of favorites will be very welcome.
🔹I might need a suggestion later for gemstones. So far my two possibilities include a WWII book and space smut.
Play Book Tag
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Read a book by an author with the same last name as one of your favorite writers
Isn't this much too difficult? Shouldn't the choice ..."
That's tricky, especially since it specifies 'favorite authors'. This isn't a prompt I suggested, but I'd probably look at some families where generations have written, not just at common names:
Hillerman- Tony and his daughter Anne both publish mysteries.
King - Stephen and his wife Tabitha are both authors, and so are one or more of their children. Then of course there's the excellent mystery writer Laurie B. King.
Lee Child and his son Andrew are co-writing though I think Andrew is mostly writing them now.
I'd put some last names of authors whose work I enjoy into Fantastic Fiction and see who pops up -- for example, a favorite author is Lindsey Davis who writes mysteries set in Ancient Rome. Davis is common enough I am sure I could find another author - besides Lydia Davis, the translator.
I'd also use a very loose definition of favorite author.