Guest post by Kyle
Reading Challenge Continued
I am continuing with the POPSUGAR reading challenge and suggest that anyone who loves reading to join in the fun! This reading challenge is particularly good for people, like me, who struggle with choosing the next book to read. I often struggle without parameters, so I created a reading list for everything. (I might need to cover these one day in a post!). This reading challenge is a good way to incorporate books from those lists while including others that I never would have picked (e.g. The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) for the 2016 prompt: “A book at least 100 years older than you,” and The Doctor and the Dinosaurs (Mike Resnick) for the 2017 prompt: “A steampunk novel”). I’ve enjoyed this reading challenge so much that we created one for our kids (shared here!)
If you missed my initial post describing the books I chose for the first ten prompts, essentially, the POPSUGAR reading challenge provides a list of prompts (This year there are 40 main prompts and then 10 “advanced” prompts. I’m still trying to figure out what makes them “advanced”). The reader (that’s you!) researches books that fit the prompt description and then, you know, reads them.
Here are my picks for prompts 11-20 from the 2018 list.
*This post contains affiliate links. That means if you decide to follow a link here/buy an item from this post, I’ll receive a small commission – at no extra cost to you!
11. A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym
Last year’s reading list had “a book by an author who uses a pseudonym” as a prompt, which led me to The Cuckoo’s Calling by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Of course, this was the first book in a series, so I could have read the second book to satisfy this year’s pseudonym prompt. But as I mentioned in the last post, there are too many series, and I was not interested in continuing another series for this reading challenge. That was good in theory, but the book I ended up reading for this prompt was also part of a series. Even worse, there are 47 books in the series.
I found Naked in Death (Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb) suggested on Goodreads and decided that a New York City-based detective novel set in the year 2058 was too good to pass up. I told myself that I would just read the first one and walk away and leave the other 46 books in the series unread. I’m not sure how that will work out, but I can tell you that it was fun reading the first one. Lieutenant Eve Dallas investigates the death of a senator’s daughter in a world dominated by technological advances. It gets more complicated, though. She grows increasingly attracted to person-of-interest Roarke, one of the richest and most powerful men on the planet.
12. A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist
I deviated from the original book I chose when I saw My Point…And I Do Have One (Ellen DeGeneres) recommended at the end of an e-book I read. Ellen can be extremely funny, and I thought it would be good. Additionally, I remember watching her sitcom when I was younger (before and after she came out as a lesbian), and I remember it being really funny.
From time to time when completing the challenge, you will end up convincing yourself that a book actually “counts.” This book was published two years before Ellen famously came out at the airport in “The Puppy Episode.” So, while the book was about Ellen, it was not about LGBTQ+ Ellen, which was the purpose of the prompt. I convinced myself that because Ellen was probably LGBTQ+ when the book was published (albiet privately), it still counts because the publication of that information did not fundamentally change who Ellen was at the time.
13. A book that is also a stage play or musical
Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter) tells the story of the, well, revolutionary Broadway musical (you’ve probably heard of it). The book covers the unprecedented use of hip-hop and R&B on Broadway, which was never supposed to be successful. It also integrates the subject of Alexander Hamilton, the play’s topic, to emphasize the improbable rise of what would become the most sought-after ticket on Broadway.
14. A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you
If you subscribe to Amazon Prime (try it free here!), one of the features that comes with your membership is Kindle First. This gives you early access to a free e-book at the beginning of each month. Typically, you choose between five or six books from various genres. I like to search through the descriptions and choose books that I can use for this reading challenge or that fit in on another reading list of mine. A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea (Masaji Ishikawa) worked for both. I was able to use it for this prompt. It also works on my list of non-fiction books set in or about a person from each country in the world. This memoir tells the story of a boy taken by his father to North Korea from Japan in hopes of a better life; one they do not find. As a member of the lowest social caste, Ishikawa must overcome suffering, death, and poverty to make it home.
15. A book about feminism
The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) is another book that I would have forever ignored if not for this reading challenge. I had no idea what it was about. I thought it was going to be something like Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) – which was on my “Amazon’s top 100 books to read” reading list. Spoilers: it’s not. Nothing like it. Not even a little. A dystopian future in which the American government has been overthrown and women are only valued for their ability to reproduce, this story features Offred (read Of Fred, to whom she belongs), a handmaid. She remembers life before slavery. She thinks about it, she dreams about it. And she has found inspiration: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum (Don’t let the bastards grind you down).
16. A book about mental health
Here is another book for which I had already seen the movie. Zach Galifianakis stars in the movie adaptation of It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Ned Vizzini). The story centers around teenager Craig Gilner. On the morning he has decided to commit suicide, Craig checks himself into a psychiatric hospital instead.
This story is autobiographical; the author spent time in a hospital for depression. WARNING: if you want to be happy, do not look up any information about the author. Learn from my mistakes.
17. A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift
My parents used to run a campground on the Brazos River near Glen Rose, TX. A frequent camper brought my parents a copy of Goodbye to a River (John Graves) and guess what, I borrowed it. John Graves undertakes one last canoe trip down the Brazos River before a series of dams would change the river and landscape forever. The story centers on his trip down the river, but also includes his versions of stories that took place along various points along the way. Anybody who is from Texas must read this book, even if you have never dipped your toes in the Brazos. If you are not from Texas, you should read it too!
18. A book by two authors
The 5 Love Languages of Children (Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell) is probably a little cheesier than it needs to be, but parenting books have to be a little cheesy. It’s the law. This one wasn’t initially on my list, but Megan downloaded in from Overdrive, so I read it too. This book is based on the original love languages book written for couples. I have not read that one, so I won’t comment on it. This book is geared to help you find your child’s primary ‘love language.’ Megan wrote a much more meaningful post about her experience reading and adapting the suggested practices, so check it out here!
19. A book about or involving a sport
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (Michael Lewis) is yet another book for which I had already seen the movie. It’s the true story of Billy Beane, the Oakland Athletics general manager who seeks to defy the odds by building a winning team with cheap talent that other teams consistently overlook. The transition into the sabremetric era of sports, baseball in particular, changed the way rosters are built. Moneyball provides great insight into the organization that started the craze.
20. A book by a local author
In 2017, the city of Cleburne, Texas celebrated the return of professional baseball. The Cleburne Railroaders inaugural season ended in the 1906 Texas League championship. After that first season, the team moved to Houston. We are not from Cleburne, so a lot of the city’s history is unknown to us. But this tidbit was shared multiple times throughout the campaign to bring a team to town and during the lead-up to opening day. What I thought was a one-and-done baseball team actually had a deeper history with multiple years of existence. Furthermore, the team had a significant amount of success. Cleburne Baseball: A Railroader History (Scott Cain) was written by the city’s mayor, who played a large role in bringing a team back to Cleburne. And you can’t get much more local than that!
Share Your Reading List
Aside from the two books about baseball, this group of ten has a lot of variety. I’d love to hear your thoughts of my list. I’m also interested to hear which books you are adding to your reading list. You don’t have to start with prompt #1, but don’t forget to check out prompts 1-10 in this post, or head on to prompts 21-30. Leave a comment with your thoughts and let me know how you liked the books, and if you want to be the first to know when I post the rest of my picks, sign up for our mailing list here!
My Pick:
Here’s @oscarshead with my favorite book out of this set of prompts.
A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea (Masaji Ishikawa)