The King of Crows by Libba Bray fulfills the category “Book Set in the 1920s” for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. It is the fifth in the Diviners series and takes place in the Summer of 1927. (See the previous blog) I love it when I do things by accident. I’d planned to read this …
One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson fulfills the “Book on a Subject I Know Nothing About” for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. I felt the category called for non-fiction. I usually go to my favorite Erik Larson for historic books. But for this one, I hit up Bill Bryson and I’m so glad I …
Less by Andrew Sean Greer fulfills the category “Book with an Upside-Down Image on the Cover” for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. The cover has our hero, Less, plummeting from the sky while writing and wearing his iconic suit. The novels won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2018. A satirical comedy about being a …
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley fulfills the category “Book with a Bird on the Cover” for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. The cover is a muted green featuring a dead Jack snipe bird with a stamp on his beak. The novel is a cozy mystery featuring amateur detective Flavia …
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks fulfilled the “Book with More Than Twenty Letters in Its Title” category of the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. In fact, it has fifty-one letters. And that’s the best thing I can say about the book. We all know I’m …
The Host by Stephenie Meyer fulfills the “Book with a Main Character in their Twenties” category for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. Wanda, the symbiont, is well over a hundred, but the body she inhabits, Melanie, is twenty-one years old. I’ve used quite a few Young Adult books on the blog. I’m sorry if that’s …
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones fulfills the category “Book with a Great First Line” in the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. The first line of the novel is “In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the …
A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman fulfills the “Book that Won an Award in 2019” category of the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. This story won an Agatha Award for Best First Novel in May 2019. The Agatha is an award for mysteries that fall under “cozy” guidelines—no sex, not much violence, …
Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon fulfills the category “Book Set in a City that Hosted the Olympics” for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. Honestly, the city setting for the story turned out to be irrelevant. So, perhaps not the best choice for the category. BUT it is a great choice for the world situation of …
Becoming by Michelle Obama fulfills the “Book about a World Leader” prompt for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. Some may question my choice on this prompt. As First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Obama labored to create new programs for healthy living for children. She worked very hard to be a mother, wife, and …
Ginny Frost