Pick Your Poison 2024

 

I've been anxiously awaiting the new Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge for 2024. I first found Gregory's challenge in 2020 and have enjoyed the prompts that he devises.  As I have in the past, I'm going to commit to a Baker's Dozen (13 books). I'll probably do more, but my commitment will be met at 13.

The Standards

~A Thriller: Red Bones by Ann Cleeves (3/24/24)

~A Classic: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (3/21/24) [classic mystery from  1923]

~A Mystery: Death, My Darling Daughters by Jonathan Stagge (1/1/24)

~A Fantasy: The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa (2/14/24)

To Coin a Phrase

~Coins on the Cover:

~Author Known for Introducing a Phrase:

~Title Based on a Well-Known Phrase: There is a Tide (aka Taken at the Flood) by Agatha Christie ["There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." ~from Julius Caesar by Shakespeare] (1/14/24)

~Book About Language:

Our Amazing World

~Book About the Ocean

~Memoir About Living with Nature

~Book About an Explorer

~Book About a Lost Species

Classic Computer Games

~Oregon Trail (characters might die of dysentery): Man of Two Tribes by Arthur W. Upfield (2/22/24)

~Legend of Zelda (protagonist is not the title character): The List of Adrian Messenger by Philip MacDonald (5/4/24)

~Pacman (maze on the cover)

~Space Invaders (book with aliens): Q-Squared by Peter David (3/17/24)

Roadkill

~Book About Something You Might Find Dead on the Road:

~Mystery Set During a Vacation: The Puzzle of the Blue Banderilla by Stuart Palmer (4/18/24)

~Hotel on the Cover: The Widow of Bath by Margot Bennett (8/18/24)

~Something Flat on Cover: Miraculous Mysteries by Martin Edwards, ed (2/9/24)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

~Author with Plant/Flower Name: Murder on Deck! by Rosemary Herbert, ed (7/17/24)

~Coming of Age Story:

~Three Main Characters: Death Takes a Bow by Frances & Richard Lockridge [Mr. & Mrs. North and Lt. Weigand] (2/24/24)

~"Silver" or "Shell" in Title:

Bright & Shiny

~Book Released in 2024: What Cannot Be Said by C. S. Harris (5/22/24)

~Memoir/Biography of Someone with a Hollywood Star: Making It So by Patrick Stewart (4/10/24)

~Book with Gold or Silver Cover: Sepulchre Street by Martin Edwards (5/8/24)

~Picture of the Sun on Cover: Doom in the Midnight Sun by Eunice Mays Boyd (6/4/24)

Things That Are Good For Us

~Vegetable in the Title:

~About Walking Away:

~Lots of Fresh Air on Cover: A Fete Worse Than Death by Dolores Gordon-Smith (2/20/24)

~About Positive Changes:

Shhh...

~"Secret" in the Title: The Secret of High Eldersham by Miles Burton (7/3/24)

~Someone Sleeping on the Cover:

~About a Secret Society: The Moneypenny Diaries by Kate Westbrook (2/29/24)

~Book You Hope Will Quiet Your Mind:

Reasons a Book Might Be Banned

~About Gender Identity:

~Written by a POC: The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton (4/25/24)

~Offensive Language: Think Twice by Harlan Coben [lots of swearing]  (9/22/24)

~Talking Animals: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (3/22/24)

Reflections

~Mirror on the Cover: The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie (8/29/24)

~About Looking Back: Zombies of the Gene Pool by Sharyn McCrumb (3/27/24)

~Book You Know Will Make You Think:

~Antonyms in the Title: The Silent Speaker by Rex Stout (3/5/24)

Book Cliches

~The Butler Did It (book with a butler): Murder & Mendelssohn by Kerry Greenwood [a butler named Mr. Butler] (1/27/24)

~It Was a Dark & Stormy Night (great first line): Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney ["I was born with a broken heart."] (3/26/24)

~Once Upon a Time (fairytale retelling): It's Not Little Red Riding Hood by Josh Funk (7/4/24)

~There Can Only Be One (book pits characters against each other): Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang (4/14/24)

Swashbuckling

~Book with Pirates: The Dragon Boat Mystery by John Bechtel (6/19/24)

~Sword on the Cover: The Song of Roland translated by Dorothy L. Sayers (2/2/24)

~Daring Adventure Graphic Novel:

~About a Stowaway:

New Year's Resolutions

~Read Anything--Goal Is to Read More: The Emperor's Snuff Box by John Dickson Carr (1/3/24)

~Title That Sounds Like Exercise: Dance of Death by Helen McCloy [Dancing = exercise] (8/21/24)

~About Cleaning House/Getting Organized:

~About Getting Away From It All: Pieces of Justice by Margaret Yorke [several of the stories about getting away on holiday] (9/2/24)

How Do You Want Your Eggs?

~Hardboiled Crime:

~About Finding the Sunny Side of Life:

~Book with a Poacher:

~Devil as a Character: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

Doing It "Old School"

~Stamp or Rotary Phone on Cover: One by One They Disappeared by Moray Dalton (3/2/24)

~Author Old Enough to Be a Grandparent: Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell (2/7/24)

~About Someone Traveling by Foot

~Set Before You Were Born: The Passenger from Scotland Yard by H. F. Wood (1/11/24)

Generational

~Written by Someone Same Generation As You: Mad About the Boy? by Dolores Gordon-Smith (3/13/24)

~Multigenerational Story: Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter (9/10/24)

~Set When the Boomers Were in Their Prime: A Guilty Thing Surprised by Ruth Rendell (1/28/24)

~Book That Generates Hope:

Food Groups

~Dairy (a cheesy book):

~Meat (book you can sink your teeth into):

~Fruit (fruit in the title): The Case of the One-Penny Orange by E. V. Cunningham (11/14/24)

~Grain (Set in a farming community):

Love Them Pockets!

~A Key or a Pocket on the Cover: Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz (3/16/24)

~Read a "Pocket Guide":

~Purse on the Cover:

~Book That Might Have Been Carried in a Soldier's Pocket: The Blue Geranium by Dolan Birkley [has "send this book to the soldiers when you're done with it" blurb at the back] (3/3/24)

Just Desserts

~Book About Revenge: The Cambridge Murders by Glyn Daniel (1/24/24)

~Something Sweet on the Cover:

~Book You'd Like to Settle in With an After Dinner Drink:

~Author Who Has a Good Reputation With Fans:

Color Me Up!

~Color Word in Title: Mystery at Greenfingers by J. B. Priestley (4/23/24)

~Favorite Color on Cover: 

~Author with Color Name: Playing with Myself by Randy Rainbow (1/31/24)

~Book That Looks Like Someone Went Crazy With Crayons:

Seems Sketchy

~An Illustrated Book: Amphigorey by Edward Gorey (5/24/24)

~Unreliable Narrator: The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton (8/28/24)

~Sketchbook/Notebook on Cover:

~"Fake" in Title:

TBR Busters

~Meant to Read Last Year:

~Any From TBR Pile: Murder in C Major by Sara Hoskinson Frommer (1/15/24)

~Gift You Haven't Read Yet: Cold Bed in the Clay by Ruth Sawtell Wallis [Xmas 2018] (4/30/24)

~Has a Dusty Cover:

Fakes

~About a Monster Nobody Believes Exists: Seance for a Vampire by Fred Saberhagen (4/9/24)

~Author Who Uses a Pseudonym: When Blood Lies by C. S. Harris (Candice Proctor) (2/18/24)

~Fiction Based on True Story: The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff (10/10/24)

~About Something Counterfeit: Find a Crooked Sixpence by Estelle Thompson (10/16/24)

Spice It Up

~Nonfiction About a Controversial Person:

~A Spice in the Title:

~A Spicy Cover:

~Set Somewhere Known For Its Cuisine: The Unicorn Murders by Carter Dickson [France] (2/28/24)

The Long & the Short of It

~Over 500 Pages:

~Under 150 Pages: Grand Cru Heist by Jean-Pierre Alaux & Noël Balen (3/28/24)

~Title At Least 7 Words Long: Murder by the Book: Mysteries for Bibliophiles by Martin Edwards, ed (1/20/24)

~Author Whose Last Name Has No More Than Five Letters: The Blood-Dimmed Tide by Rennie Airth (2/16/24)

Wild Cards

~Gothic Novel:

~A Geeky Character: Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb [a whole convention full of them] (1/21/24)

~About Prophecies:

~Book Someone Says "Changed Their Life": The Midnight Library by Matt Haig [several people have said so in reviews--but I didn't think it was that astounding] (4/24/24)

~About Someone With a Disability: Kill the Boss Good-by by Peter Rabe [the boss has a loyal sidekick with disabled leg/foot] (9/11/24)