Book Suggestions for Your 2020 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Posted by Eric Jensen on

Page Chasers! I had some fun with POPSUGAR’s 2020 Reading Challenge and thought I would share with you all, my homies, my page chasers, the only people who love to nerd out with the best technology ever invented. I answered all the ones I could, and it gets pretty eclectic. *he says, smiling with self-satisfaction. Let’s do it:

A book that’s published in 2020

It’s January, you are trying to be the best you while dealing with the gaping hole and large belly the holidays gave you. Take it easy on yourself, pick up Megan Harper Nichols', All Along You Were Blooming. It’s filled with her relaxed, easygoing, and uplifting poetry - not to mention the soothing artwork that comes with it. Out January 21st, this is a poetry collection so you can take it bit by bit and ease into the year.

A book by a trans or nonbinary author

This is a popular choice I think, but also one of my favorites. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi is a wild ride and a beautiful book. It is the debut novel for the Nigerian non-binary transgender author, and this book will challenge you to grow and inhabit minds that, for me at least, are entirely different from my own.

A book with a great first line

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” – The Hobbit, next question.

A book about a book club

I am so ready to put the gloves on if anyone challenges me on this and have a nerd-off, Little Women is my pick here. I love it, there’s a new movie and a gorgeous Winter Seasons Edition. Try to tell me the March family is not a book club in and of itself!

A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics

A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe is a daunting novel due to it’s sheer size and girth. I love it so much and it is mostly in Atlanta host of the 1996 olympics.
Other favorites of mine is Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and 1984 by George Orwell both based in London.

A bildungsroman

My next suggestion takes the foot of the gas while losing none of the excitement. The Warrior Maiden by Melanie Dickerson is a YA version of the classic Mulan tale set in Europe and as you may have struggled through the earlier novels you will fly through this one.

A Book with an upside-down image on the cover

Nonfiction coming at ya! The classic It’s Not supposed to Be this Way by Lysa Terkeurst gives you strength when your expectations are shattered.

A book with a Map

The Eye of The World by Robert Jordan. I just finished this 14 book fantasy series and am desperately looking for people to talk to about it. This is the first one and the map is awesome, the world is spectacular and it left me with a gaping hole in my life when I finished. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Amazon is making it into a show coming in 2021!

A book recommended by your favorite blog…

I’ll stop there, see above and below!

An Anthology

Poetry collection coming back at ya! The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry is one of my absolute favorites.

A book that passes the Bechdel test

Jane Eyre probably in my top five all time. Beloved by the late great Toni Morrison. Can’t go wrong with either of those.

A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name

Third-Class Ticket by Heather Wood (do both count?) awesome book about a whole village going on vacation.

A book about or by a woman in STEM

Jane Goodall: The Woman who Redefined Man by Dale Peterson.

A book that won an award in 2019

Another quick shout out to The Warrior Maiden it won a well deserved Christy. And so I am not cheating David Rawlings debut novel The Baggage Handler is fantastic.

A book on a subject you know nothing about

Beth McCord’s enneagram journals! I am a 4 wing 5 and have no idea what that means…

A book with a pun in the title

The Origin of Feces , by David Waltner-Toews. Everybody does it and this one is…illuminating.

A book with only words on the cover

The Opposite Life by Alex Seeley

A book featuring one of the seven deadly sins

This is three books but together they make up my favorite book of all time, The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies, probably has all seven….

A book with a robot, cyborg, or AI character

Synapse by Steven James! A Page Chaser favorite for a few months now.

A book with a bird on the cover

A great time to bring in some classics…writer’s love birds… To Kill a Mockingbird, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Raven, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (go Fawkes!), The Help….

A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader

We consider Bob Goff a world leader….

A book with gold, silver, bronze, in the title

The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons (just recently read this Russian novel around the Bolshevik revolution and it is SO GOOD!); Tales from the Silver Lands is a collection of folktales from central and south America told through Charles Finger’s voice and is probably the first of its kind, it is a neat read from 1925.

A book by a WOC

I know a repeat but ya’ll really need to read Beloved by Toni Morrison

A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads

I don’t like this category and will not participate, rating books with stars?!?!

A book you meant to read in 2019

Around the World on 50 bucks by Christopher Schacht, I need to read more nonfiction and this title just grabs me every time.

A book about or involving social media

To Hell with the Hustle by Jefferson Bethke is vaguely concerning this and I am picking up everything Jeff puts down.

A book that has a book on the cover

Woah…inception but with books. Ya’ll need to help me with this one, I am drawing a blank!

A medical thriller

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton is well…v Michael Crichton.

A book set in a country beginning with “C”

What’s Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies, part of the Cornish Trilogy I mentioned was my all time favorite and it still is. Also set in Canada.

A book you picked because the title caught your attention

My name is Tani and I Believe in Miracles… Awesome new book about a chess prodigy!

A book with a three-word title

Another favorite of mine: The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham.

A book with a pink cover

My copy of Anna Karenina has some pink on it and it’s a favorite.

Read a banned book during banned books week

Ooooooooh I like this one! TheCatcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, The Kite Runner, The Color Purple, Slaughterhouse-Five...read em all!

A book written by an author in his 20s

The book I have probably read the most in my life: The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway

A book with 20 or twenty in the title

Uhhhh Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea? Never read it but might have to to fulfill this one! Or an easier read, Twenty-Two by Allison Trowbridge.

A book with a character wth a vision impairment or enhancement

As a citizen who has some serious visual impairment I am going to go with the former, All the Light We Cannot See will make you cry so hard you have to buy another copy.

A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 olympics

Anything by Haruki Murakami!!! Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore

A book set in the 1920s

The GreatGatsby if you haven’t yet, The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner, All Quiet on the Western Front, A Passage to India by E.M. Forester (it’s becoming clear what I specialized in college eh?) To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (anything by her really, she’s the GOAT)

A book by an author who has written more than 20 books

Stephen King, Robert Jordan, Leo Tolstoy, Paulo Coelho, Louis L’Amour, J.R.R. Tolkein, Ken Follett, Max Lucado, and Herman Hesse are some of my favorite prolific authors.

So what are you waiting for? Get a jump start on your 2020 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge, and comment below with your favorite picks for any of this year's prompts!

2020 popsugar book recommendations Category_Blog Posts POPSUGAR Reading Challenge Reading Challenge

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