Book Tag: The Book Blogger Memory Challenge

I was tagged by Emma (Turn Another Page) to do this challenge. It’s quite old by now, which is actually very cool that it’s still going. The creator (Laura’s Book Reviews) doesn’t seem to still be blogging.

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Rules:

• Prompts have to be answered without use of the internet or looking at bookshelves (so I need blinkers on, given there are bookshelves pretty much everywhere save for my laptop screen!) It’s called a memory challenge for a reason!
• Link to the person who originally tagged you and then tag up to five others

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The Prompts:

I’m going to quickly list all the prompts here, so that (if you want to do it) you can take the prompts without seeing my answers (in case that influences your answers!)

• A book written by an author called “Michael”
• A book with a dragon on the cover
• A book about a character called George
• A book set in Australia
• A book with a the name of a month in the title
• A book with a knife on the cover
• A book with the word “one” in the title
• A book with an eponymous title
• A book that was turned into a movie

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A book written by an author called “Michael”

This one was very easy for me: MICHAEL MAMMAY

At the time of writing this, he is about to release a new book I’m very much looking forward to, THE MISFIT SOLDIER, which is more space heist-y than the military sci-fi bent of his debut trilogy (though I’m sure it will skill contain elements of that.)

I loved his debut PLANETSIDE, and the sequel SPACESIDE, which a military sci-fi thrillers. I do still need to finish that trilogy off with COLONYSIDE (it’s high up my list for my holiday reading!)

A book with a dragon on the cover

Another quite easy one to answer (I suspect they are about to get a lot harder!) What other option was there than the great big, sapphic tome of dragons that is THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE, by Samantha Shannon?

A feminist reimagining of George and the Dragon that points out the many flaws and sheer awfulness of George. Inspired by the Elizabethans and the world at that time, this book is certainly hefty, but it is very much worth reading.

A book about a character called George

This one took me a while to work out, as I’ve interpreted this prompt as requiring the main character to be called George, and I was spinning through books with secondary characters called George (lots of historical!)

Then I remembered THE FAMOUS FIVE. I would argue that the four characters are all main characters, so the fact that one is called George (Georgina) lets any book in the 21-book long series count for this prompt. It just so happens that the first book is the one already loaded in my media library from another post!

A book set in Australia

This one was hard. At first, the only book that came to mind was HOLES (Louis Sachar, I believe?) and I wasn’t sure if that was set in Australia or America (I’ve never never read it, but it was being talked about a lot while I was in school.)

But then I had to deal with something else, and remembered that SABOTAGE ON THE SOLAR EXPRESS, by M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman, is set in Australia. This is the fifth (and at time of writing latest) entry into this incredible UKMG mystery series set on trains around the world.

A book with a the name of a month in the title

I confess, I saw this answer when collecting the prompts from Emma’s post, but as I cannot think of anything else, it’s going to have to stand! Also it’s now the answer in my brain so I’ll probably struggle to think of something else.

THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANAUARY, by Alix E. Harrow, is her debut. I did vastly prefer her second book, THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES (which I was so glad I read even though I was very hesitant about picking up after JANUARY.)

A book with a knife on the cover

Thank goodness that there’s a very stereotypical fantasy cover type: a weapon on a vaguely textured background. In fact, most fantasy covers contain weapons, I’ve found. It certainly absolutely spoilt me for choice when trying to answer this particular prompt.

In the end, I chose to go with EMPIRE OF SAND, by Tasha Suri. This is the author’s debut, and the best example of both a strong female protagonist who doesn’t fight and a protagonist with a lot of agency despite very few choices that I’ve read in years.

A book with the word “one” in the title

There are many books I could have picked for this, but the fact I’d spent the weekend before writing this post binging the adaptation when it dropped onto UK Netflix meant there was only one in my mind: ONE OF US IS LYING, by Karen M. McManus.

This YA thriller has probably been the best selling YA thriller for the last four years, and it doesn’t look like it’s popularity is about to diminish anytime soon. The pitch (like most of the author’s books) is brilliantly catchy in its simplicity, which I think really helps. Five students walk into detention, but only four come out alive.

A book with an eponymous title

OK, as the use of Google is forbidden by the rules, I’m working off the assumption that I’m right about “eponymous” meaning the main character’s name is the title (or that their name forms at least part of the title.)

Given that I vaguely remember this from a school English lesson on JANE EYRE, by Charlotte Bronte, so that’s my pick for this one. (I have recently done a post full of books where the character’s name forms at least part of the title.)

A book that was turned into a movie

How many books am I allowed to pick? There are so many adaptations of books (with varying levels of success), though the rise of TV adaptions/shows on platforms like Netflix means making sure I pick a film (one long program) vs a series!

The first one that came to mind was TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE, by Jenny Han. All three books in this contemporary YA romance trilogy were made into Netflix films, with a spin off series in the works.

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I am tagging anyone who wants to be tagged!