2017 Popsugar Challenge

So, I failed at the 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. Am I going to let that keep me from taking on an even bigger challenge, like the 52 total tasks on the Popsugar challenge? Nope!

Half (ok, two thirds) of the fun is the scavenger hunt, finding books that fulfill the tasks, so, even though these are likely not the books I’ll read, here are my choices for the challenge.

1. A book recommended by a librarian: I have handed choosing the book for this task over to my librarian best friend. She’s awesome, and I’m sure she’ll pick something fabulous for me.
2. A book that’s been on your TBR for too long: A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace.
3. A book of letters: I am taking this as “read an epistolary novel.” Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer?
4. An audiobook – The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovich.
5. A book by a person of color – Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title: Summer by Edith Wharton, unless George R.R. Martin feels like releasing Winds of Winter.
7. A book that is a story within a story: Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood or  We Five by Mark Dunn.
8. A book with multiple authors – My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows.
9. Am espionage thriller: Something by John le Carré.
10. A book with a cat on the cover: Bedding Lord Ned by Sally MacKenzie. 
11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym – If Gail Carriger releases something in 2017, probably that. But maybe Daniel Deronda by George Eliot?
12. A bestseller from a genre you don’t usually read – I don’t really read murder books, so how about The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.
13. A book by or about a person who has a disability – The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith. I had the hardest time with this one.
14. A book involving travel – The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton.
15. A book with a subtitle – Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.
16. A book that’s published in 2017 – Solutions and Other Problems  by Allie Brosch.
17. A book involving a mythical character – The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker.
18. A book you’ve read before that never fails to make you smile – One of the Parasol Protectorate books by Gail Carriger on audiobook. They make me happy.
19. A book about food – Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
20. A book with career advice – I’m interpreting this broadly and going with The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective – Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie is, I think, narrated by an AI, so probably that.
22. A steampunk novel – Everfair by Nisi Shawl
23. A book with a red spine – My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer.
24. A book set in the wilderness – I really struggled with this one too. If I can’t come up with something exciting, I think I’ll re-read (via audiobook) A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.
25. A book you loved as a child – It will probably end up breaking my heart, cuz, you know, racism, but I’m thinking of reading one of the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
26. A book by an author from a country you’ve never visited – The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
27. A book with a title that’s a character’s name – Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
28. A novel set during wartime – The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
29. A book with an unreliable narrator – The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
30. A book with pictures – Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you – Swing Time by Zadie Smith
32. A book about an interesting woman – Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
33. A book set in two different time periods – Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title – Tenth of December by George Saunders
35. A book set in a hotel – A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
36. A book written by someone you admire – I don’t know, maybe Lafayette in the Somewhat United States because I heart Sarah Vowell.
37. A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017 – I’m weirdly indifferent to a lot of the books being adapted next year (at least the one’s I haven’t read yet). I’ll probably go with Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Speaking of adaptations, did you know they’re making a movie out of Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation?!? So excited.
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas – Ugh. I don’t know. I suspect I’ll end up going with a romance or cozy mystery set during not-Christmas.
39. The first book in a series you haven’t read before – Unveiled by Courtney Milan
40. A book you bought on a trip – Dear Life by Alice Munro (purchased at Munro Books in Victoria, BC, Canada)
41. A book recommended by an author you love – Under the Skin by Michel Faber (recommended by David Mitchell here)
42. A bestseller from 2016 – Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
43. A book with a family member term in the title – The Children of Men by PD James or The Son by Philipp Meyer
44. A book that takes place over a character’s life span – maybe I’ll give Life after Life by Kate Atkinson another try 
45. A book about an immigrant or refugee – Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
46. A book from a genre/subgenre you’ve never heard of
47. A book with an eccentric character
48. A book that’s more than 800 pages – 11/22/63 by Stephen King
49. A book you got from a used bookstore –  Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
50. A book that’s been mentioned in another book
51. A book about a difficult topic – The Round House by Louise Erdrich
52. A book based on mythology – The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood