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Needle's Genre challenge


Needle

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After visiting past challenges, including Vodkafan's challenge which I was directed to, this idea really interested me.

I have the bad habit of sticking to the same genres, rotating through the same again, again and again and I like the idea of trying something different and new.

I decided to take my inspiration from Ooshie's 2012 Genre challenge (you can find it here) and to maky my final choice in Goodreads suggestions.

 

Here is my list so far :

 

 

 

Action / Adventure

Autobiography /Biography / Memoir

  • Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks as Anonymous

Children’s / Young Adult

  • Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Classic (pre-WWI)

  • The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Comedy / Satire

  • Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Crime Fiction / Mystery

  • Room by Emma Donoghue

Fantasy / Urban Fantasy

  • Half Bad by Sally Green

Graphic / Illustrated Novel

Historical Fiction (Pre-WWII)

  • Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Horror / Thriller

  • Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Mash-Up

  • Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Modern Classic (post WWI to 1980s)

  • 1984 by George Orwell

Newly Published in 2016

Romance / Erotica

  • Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

Saga

Science Fiction / Steampunk

  • The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent

Speculative Fiction

  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Supernatural / Paranormal

War

  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Western

 

  • True Grit by Charles Portis : I have decided to start the challenge with this one. The synopsis was interesting but I’d never have read it if not for this challenge. The story in and of itself is nothing new : a girl wants to avenge her father’s death and so, she decides to hire someone with “true grit” to help her do the job.

 

What is new to me, however, is how it’s narrated : in the first person and almost as a richly detailed memory (?) The main character is young in the memory but seems older in the way she shares her experience, mentioning a few times a later time in her life. Outside of my insight as a reader, I quite enjoy Mattie, the main character. She’s stubborn, independent, calculating and very pragmatic : she cried twice in the whole book, once out of frustration and another time because she was kind of dying. It’s quite strange to think of such a young girl behaving the way she does in such a time.

 

I feel I should also mention the vocabulary : I am used to contemporary English, I’m quite well-versed in urban slang and though I understand everything that is said in the book, I find that English a bit disconcerting. I think the author stayed true to the era, I can’t say for sure as my only foray in the western genre has been glimpses of bad Z-rated western movies translated in French.

 

All in all, I’m not sure how I feel about the western type, I’m not totally against it but I’m not totally crazy about it either. This book bored me at first. It’s probably the worst that can happen out of a book. People usually read to evade boredom, outside from the pleasure one gets from losing themselves in a good book, we also want to start a book and not notice time escaping us, we want to drown in it. However, I got sucked in about halfway through, I really didn’t notice time passing by and it was great. I liked the ending because it wasn’t all rainbows and flowers, none of the characters were left unscathed. So I’m a bit ambivalent about the genre but not the book. The book was good. Not great no, but good.

 

 

 

Up to now, I've made most of these choic es after reading synopsises on Goodreads but I'm having a bit of a problem with two genres, Saga and Mash-up. I don't really know what I'm looking for in those two instances. When I put "saga" in the Goodreads search engine, I come up with books like Harry Potter and I'm not sure that qualifies. It's the same with "mash-up" : to my understanding, it's a mix of two different books but I come up with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies...which totally puts me off :D but that's what this challenge is about after all. I might be surprised... I don't expect it but maybe ?

 

If you have read books in any of these genres, what would you recommend ? And is there something in my list that doesn't quite fit ? I'm trying to include books from my TBR pile in there as well because, while I'm well acquainted with my French "classics", it's not quite the case within the English language :) Also, can anyone help me fill in the blanks ? As most of these are new to me, I have a hard time making a choice ;)

 

I’ve decided to rate the books I read during this challenge :

I hated it : I wanted so badly to just give up and put it down.

I liked it : I didn’t mind reading it to kill the time and I wanted to know where it was going.

I loved it : I couldn’t put it down ! I’m overly excited about it and can’t really explain why.

Edited by Needle
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Looks like a really cool challenge!

Not sure what is meant by 'saga' to be honest, but Twilight is called saga, but I don't know if you're into vampire romance .. things.. :lurker: 

I looked up Half Bad. Did you like that? Because there are a lot of YA fantasy books available. Maybe something like Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder? It is a series and Im not sure how many books there are.

The Hobbit is about adventure..right?

 

 

Also looked up Mash-ups, and I found a lot of vampires, zombies and werewolves haha  :P Maybe Cinder by Marissa Meyer? It's a series based on fairy tales, but takes place in a futuristic world and contains cyborgs and stuff. Every book is based on another fairy tale. (series is called The Lunar Chronicles) .... I actually think Im going to read this. 

 

Oh! This is actually really hard, because with every genre I'm like; What kind of (paranormal/adventure/classics etc) do you like?
Im sorry if this didn't help you.. :blush2: 
 Curious about other replies and recommendations :3
 
 
Good luck!  :readingtwo: 
Edited by Shyora
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Looks like a really cool challenge!

Not sure what is meant by 'saga' to be honest, but Twilight is called saga, but I don't know if you're into vampire romance .. things.. :lurker: 

I looked up Half Bad. Did you like that? Because there are a lot of YA fantasy books available. Maybe something like Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder? It is a series and Im not sure how many books there are.

The Hobbit is about adventure..right?

 

 

Also looked up Mash-ups, and I found a lot of vampires, zombies and werewolves haha  :P Maybe Cinder by Marissa Meyer? It's a series based on fairy tales, but takes place in a futuristic world and contains cyborgs and stuff. Every book is based on another fairy tale. (series is called The Lunar Chronicles) .... I actually think Im going to read this. 

 

Oh! This is actually really hard, because with every genre I'm like; What kind of (paranormal/adventure/classics etc) do you like?
Im sorry if this didn't help you.. :blush2: 
 Curious about other replies and recommendations :3
 
 
Good luck!  :readingtwo: 

 

 

Thanks for your recommendations :) I've already read Twilight and the Study series by Maria V. Snyder is one of my favourites :) As for The Hobbit, I have tried (and failed) to read it more times than I can count so I think I'm done with that one for a little while :D

 

I have heard a lot of good things about the Lunar Chronicles and I really hadn't thought of it as mash-up, but it fits if the mash-up genre is what I understand of it :) I think I'll add that to my list...It was in my TBR pile...actually has been in it for almost two years now. So many books, so little time :sigh:

 

This is a really interesting sounding challenge, good luck with it :D I have the same habit of sticking to the same genres.

 

Thanks ! I'll try to finish it and if I fail...my beloved genres will welcome me back with open books, I'm sure ;)

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Thanks for your recommendations :) I've already read Twilight and the Study series by Maria V. Snyder is one of my favourites :) As for The Hobbit, I have tried (and failed) to read it more times than I can count so I think I'm done with that one for a little while :D

 

I have heard a lot of good things about the Lunar Chronicles and I really hadn't thought of it as mash-up, but it fits if the mash-up genre is what I understand of it :) I think I'll add that to my list...It was in my TBR pile...actually has been in it for almost two years now. So many books, so little time :sigh:

 

Really?! Study is def on my TBR list ^^

Hobbit; Ya, I know, I've tried a few times as well XD BUT!! 2016 is going to be year for me! I don't know much about 'Mash-up genre' to be honest  :blush2: But though the Lunar might suit it. I mean.. if Alice & Zombies are allowed, than why not Cinderella & Cyborgs? ;)

 

But most of all: Enjoy it!

And I would like to know what you thought of the books you read  :D 

Edited by Shyora
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Great challenge, I hope you read a lot of great books :). It's a great idea! I wish you lots of reading fun :readingtwo:.

 

I don't know what kind of genre 'saga' is, isn't it like an ancient fairytale? Wikipedia says "Sagas are stories mostly about ancient Nordic and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during the voyages, about migration to Iceland and of feuds between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, mainly in Iceland.[1]"

 

As for 'mash-up', I presume that's a book that has 'multiple' genres? The Lunar Chronicles would fit I think, since it's a dystopian series but also fairy tale retellings. I haven't read them yet but I have a couple of books in the series on my TBR.

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Hi Needle, That's so great that you are throwing yourself into a challenge!

Of the books you have chosen so far, I have read True Grit, 1984 and Brave New World. , which are all excellent. I look forward to reading your reviews on some of your other choices, which I haven't heard of.

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Really?! Study is def on my TBR list ^^

Hobbit; Ya, I know, I've tried a few times as well XD BUT!! 2016 is going to be year for me! I don't know much about 'Mash-up genre' to be honest  :blush2:   But though the Lunar might suit it. I mean.. if Alice & Zombies are allowed, than why not Cinderella & Cyborgs? ;)

 

But most of all: Enjoy it!

And I would like to know what you thought of the books you read  :D 

 

You should really try the Study series :) I remember reading that one until the wee hours of the morning just to finish it, I tried to put it down but not knowing what was going to happen next was keeping me awake, next thing you know, I had finished it and it was four in the morning :blush2:

 

Great challenge, I hope you read a lot of great books :). It's a great idea! I wish you lots of reading fun :readingtwo:.

 

I don't know what kind of genre 'saga' is, isn't it like an ancient fairytale? Wikipedia says "Sagas are stories mostly about ancient Nordic and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during the voyages, about migration to Iceland and of feuds between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, mainly in Iceland.[1]"

 

As for 'mash-up', I presume that's a book that has 'multiple' genres? The Lunar Chronicles would fit I think, since it's a dystopian series but also fairy tale retellings. I haven't read them yet but I have a couple of books in the series on my TBR.

Thanks :) I'm already enjoying myself :D It seems to be a great way to get back into reading when you have a taste for nothing in your TBR :)

 

As for the saga genre, I came to a similar conclusion but after failing to find smething that fit that description, I went with something else. According to this dictionary, it's what you said but also "any narrative or legend of heroic exploits" as well as "a form of the novel in which the members or generations of a family or social group are chronicled in a long and leisurely narrative" which makes me come to the conclusion that it doesn't have to be Nordic but it has :

a) to be a series : it has to be long, so it spans many volumes ?

b) to contain a hero : someone does heroic actions ? Like, saving a country or a king ?

To be honest, I think it woud also be easier to find for me xD The only thing that comes to my mind has been the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce as well as the Farseer trilogy and the Tawny Man trilogy, both by Robin Hobb. I'm also influenced by what is considered "saga" here, in a French speaking country.

 

Hi Needle, That's so great that you are throwing yourself into a challenge!

Of the books you have chosen so far, I have read True Grit, 1984 and Brave New World. , which are all excellent. I look forward to reading your reviews on some of your other choices, which I haven't heard of.

 

You've read True Grit ? I finished it and I was a bit skeptical at first, I couldn't really get into it but in the end, I enjoyed it :)

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As for 'mash-up', I presume that's a book that has 'multiple' genres? The Lunar Chronicles would fit I think, since it's a dystopian series but also fairy tale retellings. I haven't read them yet but I have a couple of books in the series on my TBR.

 

Interesting, never heard of those and just looked them up. Very polarized reviews on Goodreads. Might give it a go myself!

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