Rated YA-MA discussion

The second quarter challenge runs from April 1st to June 30th.

CREATE A CHAIN!


You are creating a chain of linking titles!

-Start by reading any book of your choosing.
-The next book that you read should have a word in the title that is the same (or at least has a similar root) as one of the words from the title of the first book that you read.
-Your third book should have a word that matches a word from the title of your second book.
And so on!

An Example of a chain:
Red Rising -> Red Queen -> The Queen's Thief ->The Book Thief -> The Book of Secrets -> Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe -> Discovering April

You get to choose how long you want your chain to be!!
When signing up for the challenge, just let me know how many books you plan to read in your chain (minimum of 6 books).

Super extra rock-star bonus points for anyone who closes the loop!

Meaning, anyone able to tie their last title back into the first title. In the example used above, the chain could be tied off with the book The Rise of April.

How it works:

♦ As this is Rated YA-MA, we are largely reading YA books for this challenge. However, you may read one non-YA (NA, Middle grade, or adult) book for every three books that you read.
So if you’re reading 6 books, 2 can be non-YA. If you’re reading 9 books, 3 can be non-YA. Ad infinitum.

♦ Audio books and New Releases are allowed. Re-reads are also allowed.

♦ All of the books MUST be at least 150 (paper) pages in order to qualify for this challenge. If the kindle or eBook pages are different than the paper count, please provide the correct number, so no books are left out unjustly. If you are reading an ebook only book, the word count MUST be a minimum of 45,000.

♦ Do not use the same word more than two times consecutively. If you absolutely get stuck, you will be allowed a single opportunity to unstick yourself by using one word a third time – but try to avoid this bailout!

♦ Articles and excessively basic words do not count, so please do not use words like “The” or “And” or “for” as your chain words. Use your best judgement for this rule.


I'll be keeping track of participant’s progress (as much as possible) in post #2. Participants will be listed alphabetically by their name and the number of their original post in the challenge.

When posting your progress, please remember to use the number attached to your original post as well (This will be especially useful to save me from mixing up folks with similar names).

And special thanks to Diane for the idea :)

***BONUS ROUND***
For those who successfully complete a chain, feel free to try a second round using a new chain! For the bonus round, try to create a chain of books that are all connected by one word!!

Here is Melanie's example using the word Magic :

The Magician's Nephew,
Magic Study,
The Magicians,
Bad Magic,
A Darker Shade of Magic,
The Color of Magic,
The Magic Thief,
The Master Magician,
Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic: The Thirteenth Rib,

Completed their Bonus Round! :
Kelly
*
Completed a Looped Chain :
Cissy
Gabriela
Diane

Completed One Chain :
Kelly
Amber
Christie
Jennifer
Casey
Gremlin

*Amber #47 - 6/6 Bonus Round: Princess, 5 read
Anna #21 -
Anna (Yoda is My Spirit Animal) #71 – 0/6
*Casey #16 - 6/6
*Christie #17 - 8/8 Bonus Round: Lie, 1 read
*Cissy #57 - 10/10
Day #45 - 2/6 -
Dee #7 -
*Diane #6 - 8/8
*Gabriela #18 - 7/7
*Gremlin #3 - 6/8
Hillary #15 -
*Jennifer #13 - 9/9
Kdbrand #4 - 1/?
***Kelly #54 - 9/9 Bonus Round: Queen, 7 read.
Kgprewitt #57 - 0/10
laurel [suspected bibliophile] #26 - 3/6
Linda #12 - 0/6
Melanie #11 - 5/9
Rachel #5 - 3/6

And, I'm in!

My chain might look like this (though I might switch things as i go):

FINISHED!!
I'll Give You the Sun
Since You've Been Gone
The Dead and the Gone
Pretty Dead
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Fifteenth Summer

Next up:

Girl, 15, Charming but Insane
The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

And I am going to "close the loop" with the word sun.

Count me in too!

Completed: 2/6
-finished 4/16
-finished 5/26
The Book of Lost Things-Non YA
Lost in You
I'll Give You the Sun
Midnight Sun or Gives Light

Too much fun! I want to try!

I am in!
- Night- finished 4/2/2016
- Crown- finished 4/9/16
-Embers- finished 4/11/16
-Ashes- finished 4/27/2016
-Like- finished 5/3/2016
Fire - finished 5/15/2016
Heir - finished 6/5/2016
Night to connect with the top finished 7-1-2016

i'm in...but i'm sure i'll get distracted #likealways

I'm having fun trying to figure out my chain! It hasn't been easy. Right now I'm grateful for figuring out three books in a row, haha

Rachel wrote: "I'm having fun trying to figure out my chain! It hasn't been easy. Right now I'm grateful for figuring out three books in a row, haha"

I know, right? It's half the reason I'm glad that I got this listing up a week before start time. Hopefully it gives folks some time to work on their lists!

This is definitely one that you should figure it all out first!

Here is my plan...

Title Chain! (5/9)
1. DONE Clockwork Prince: Infernal Devices by Cassandra. Claire
2. DONE A World Without Princes: School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
3. DONE This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
4. DONE Who Could That Be at This Hour? By Lemony Snicket
5. DONE The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
6. YA- Underland Chronicles: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
7. YA- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
8. YA- Dream Treaders by Wayne Thomas
9. YA- Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

I'll try this one. I'm not sure if I'll make it, so for now, I'll go for 6 books.

1. Never Fall "Down" - Finished
2. All "Fall" "Down" - Finished
3. "Before" I "Fall" - Finished
4." Before" "We" Were Free - Finished
5. "We" "All" Fall Down - Finished
6. To "All" the "Boys" I've Loved Before - Finished
7. "My" Life With the Walter "Boys" - Finished
8. Cross "My" "Heart" And Hope To Spy - Finished
9. "Fiery" "Heart" - Finished

Question: May I use Heir of Fire and then for my chain Fiery Heart or does it have to be exact?

Im in.

Alright, my possible chain:

Wow, this one sounds really hard. But I'm in!

Here's my plan:

Silver Shadows (Completed)
Silver in the Blood (Completed)
Days of Blood & Starlight (Completed)
The Starlight Crystal (Completed)
The Dark Crystal (Completed)
Dark Life (Completed)

This sounds awesome! I am in! I am going to try for an 8 book chain.

Here is what I am planning. Let me know if there are any issues.

Finished 8/8

As White as Snow Finished 4/10
The White Queen (adult) Finished 4/14
Beauty Queens Finished 4/28
Beautiful Days Finished 5/14
13 Days of Midnight Finished 5/16
The Mirk and Midnight Hour Finished 6/7
The Secret Hour Finished 6/8
Manor of Secrets Finished 6/13



Mini Bonus Round: "Lie"

Love it!!! I'm in.

My chain:
Living Dead Girl *
Masque of the Red Death *
When the Sea Is Rising Red *
Sea of Shadows *
The Way of Shadows *
I Want It That Way * (New Adult)
Smart Girls Get What They Want *
(closing the loop with the word 'girl')

Finished: *7/7

Jennifer wrote: "Question: May I use Heir of Fire and then for my chain Fiery Heart or does it have to be exact?"

I would say if it is a form of the word it counts.

This was quite hard to set up. It was easy to make chains of 3 or 4 but getting higher than that was quite the challenge. There are a lot of books with just 1 or 2 word titles.
I posted a plan above. We'll see how it goes from there.

PS: If we were allowed to use the same word more than three times, I could get a full cycle just on the word magic/magician: The Magician's Nephew, Magic Study, The Magicians, Bad Magic, A Darker Shade of Magic, The Color of Magic, The Magic Thief, The Master Magician, Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic: The Thirteenth Rib, etc.

I'm in.

Completed 5/6

The Summer Prince
The Sword of Summer (MG)
Glass Sword
The Green Glass Sea (MG)
Salt to the Sea

Jennifer wrote: "Question: May I use Heir of Fire and then for my chain Fiery Heart or does it have to be exact?"

Yes, that's totally fine :)

Melanie wrote: "This was quite hard to set up. It was easy to make chains of 3 or 4 but getting higher than that was quite the challenge. There are a lot of books with just 1 or 2 word titles.
I posted a plan abov..."

It IS a hard challenge - you're totally right! But I think that's part of what makes it fun.

However, I do really like your "make a chain using one repeating word" idea, too. Maybe we should add this as an alternate chain form - or maybe something that folks can do as a round 2. (Can you imagine how easy something like "love" or "girl" would be? It would be interesting to try for harder words!).

What do ya'll think - should we add that as a second round option?

I do like that idea!

I think it sounds like a fun idea as an alternate chain form or for a round 2. I don't know if I will do it myself, but sounds like a good option.

I'm in!

THE LIST

The Girl from Everywhere
Girl in the Shadows
A Shadow Bright and Burning
Is Paris Burning? (adult)
One Paris Summer
...And something with Summer and Girls!

Completed 3/6:

I need a judgement call on this one!

I was thinking All Our Yesterdays to All the Birds in the Sky to (this is what I need a judgement call on) Starflight (I was thinking 'sky' and 'star' sort of the same thing? Maybe?) to The Star-Touched Queen to The Orphan Queen

Is it okay to use the word "You" or is that too basic?

Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
The Book of Lost Things-Non YA
Lost in You
I'll Give You the Sun
Midnight Sun or Gives Light

Funny story, I was talking with my girlfriend abuot this last night and she actually dreamed about it! I was trying to do a chain where I needed the word "almost" and told her about it while she was watching Star Trek Voyager.
So in her dream the ship was being attacked by the Borgs and the only way to save it was to find a book with the title of Almost in it.
HAHAHa.

lolol

OK question... I think I have figured out my chain do I have to read them in order or can they all match up in the end? I am thinking of getting a few from the library but it may take more time and sometimes the e- books take a long time to become available. Out of order will work better in that case.

I hope we don't have to read them in order because I've figured out the middle but not the ends.

I would think it wouldn't be a chain if not read in order? That's part of the challenge and why it's hard. I have same concern though as some of mine come from library. I'm going to start with 6 and hope to find a way to do more.
Here's my plan:

Silver Shadows
Silver in the Blood
Days of Blood & Starlight
The Starlight Crystal
The Dark Crystal
Dark Life

Is it okay to re-read books to get your chain to work? For example, if I read then go on to , which I've already read then read will that work?

Brandi wrote: "I need a judgement call on this one!

I was thinking All Our Yesterdays to All the Birds in the Sky to (this is what I need a judgement call on) Starflight (I was thinking 'sky' and 'star' sort of the same thing? Maybe?) to The Star-Touched Queen to The Orphan Queen."

Sadly, Brandi - that wouldn't count. While similar in nature of meaning, "star" and "sky" do not contain the same root word. Different things!

If it was a title with the word "sky" followed by another title with the word "skies" - that would work. Does that make it more clear?

Kdbrand wrote: "Is it okay to use the word "You" or is that too basic?"

I think "You" is a perfectly acceptable word to use :)

Linda wrote: "Is it okay to re-read books to get your chain to work? For example, if I read then go on to , which I'v..."

Re-reads are totally fine. I'll even add that to the rules, to make it more clear!

Casey wrote: "I would think it wouldn't be a chain if not read in order? That's part of the challenge and why it's hard."

I'm agreeing with Casey on this one. The chain should be read in order (yep! A challenge!).

And Casey, I'm doing similar to you - aim for 6 with the hopes of growing it as I go. My plan is to have my "starting" books be things I already have from the library or on my shelf. I'll have a plan for where the chain is going, but I'll also allow myself to veer off (and/or come up with alternates) as I go, in the event that things get tricky with finding copies.

Casey wrote: "Funny story, I was talking with my girlfriend abuot this last night and she actually dreamed about it!"

Bwaahahaha! That's hilarious!

Also, I feel like that's some sort of achievement unlocked for our book challenges :)

Gremlin wrote: "Kdbrand wrote: "Is it okay to use the word "You" or is that too basic?"

I think "You" is a perfectly acceptable word to use :)"

Thanks Gremlin! Now to find all of the books in my chain...

Another quick question. Can we use the series title? I.e.: Angelfall is part of the Penryn and the End of Days series. Could I use "End" or "Day" as my words or am I limited to some variation on "Angelfall"?

Grem-thanks for answering my question! Once I rework my books, I'll repost on the thread.

Rachel wrote: "Another quick question. Can we use the series title? I.e.: Angelfall is part of the Penryn and the End of Days series. Could I use "End" or "Day" as my words or am I limited to some variation on "A..."

I'm going to say that you can only use the series name (or subtitle) if it's listed on the front cover of the book. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's the case with Angelfall.

However, I feel like the words Angel and Fall both have some definite possibility to work off! :)

Thanks Gremlin!

Ok, here I go:
Crown of Crimson
Crown of Midnight
The Midnight Queen
Red Queen
Red Rising
The Stars Never Rise or Under the Never Sky

if I stick with The Stars Never Rise, I'll keep going with:
The Star Thief
The Child Thief

That's my list, but we'll see if I happen to find something else along the way to change it up or extend it :) My personal goal is to do at least 6.

Ok I started and finished my first in just over 24 hours! It was awesome I literally could not put it down. I will be using the word Night for my next book - updated post 6

I'm joining! Not sure how far I'll make it, but I'll try.

-Complete 4/21
Six
-Complete 4/22
Thing
-Complete 5/2
Stolen/Stole
-adult-Complete 5/11
Woman/Women
-Complete 5/23
Little
-Complete 6/6

BONUS ROUND

Common word: "Princess"

Complete:
(Adult)

Amber wrote: "I'm joining! Not sure how far I'll make it, but I'll try.

Six of Crows (I know this is last month's group read, but I swear I didn't start it until today).
Six Impossible Thi..."</i>

[bookcover:Stolen: A Letter to My Captor would be a god next title in your chain

Amber wrote: "I'm joining! Not sure how far I'll make it, but I'll try.

Six of Crows (I know this is last month's group read, but I swear I didn't start it until today).
Six Impossible Thi..."</i>

[bookcover:Stolen: A Letter to My Captor would be a good next title in your chain

Grem, what about Crown and Crows? Would that count?