Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

An obvious choice is Go Set a Watchman. I stand corrected ;)

What other books have been published after the death of the author?

I am going to choose between these:
Northanger Abbey
Wives and Daughters
Sleeping Murder
The Mysterious Stranger

As far as I know they should all be good for this prompt.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Weren't all three The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, found and published after Steig Larsson passed away?

Alicia wrote: "Weren't all three The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, found and published after Steig Larsson passed away?"

Yes I think so...

I'll Be Gone in The Dark - Michelle McNamara

I found a listopia for this

A couple that came to mind right away were:

First 3 of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series
Part of The Wheel of Time series
The Children of Húrin
The Silmarillion

Jillene wrote: "I'll Be Gone in The Dark - Michelle McNamara"
I'm reading this right now. Good, but so creepy.

Alicia wrote: "Weren't all three The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, found and published after Steig Larsson passed away?"

Yes. I'm reading The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest for this prompt and the 'set in Scandinavia' prompt.

Thanks for Stieg Larsson! I still have a couple of his in my TBR! I could only think of A Confederacy of Dunces which I have never managed to get past the first chapter!

Sara wrote: "An obvious choice is Go Set a Watchman.

What other books have been published after the death of the author?"

Sorry Sara, but Go Set a Watchman was published in 2015. Harper Lee died in 2016. I remember the controversy when the publication was announced in 2014 because there was real concern that any approval for publication given by Lee was invalid as her competancy and capacity to give consent was seriously in question.

Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking

Most of Emily Dickinson's poems were published after her death, so I plan on reading a volume of her poetry for this prompt.

Wives and Daughters would definitely be an easy pick for me, so I think I'll count it for now. :-)

(I was also wanting to count it for ATY's 'book from multiple perspectives'--hoping the list that had it on there was accurate.)

I'd recommend The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, a classic of working class literature, and The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, a classic anti-war satire from WWI. The latter is in the same anomalous position as Wives and Daughters above (I second this recommendation — it's among the best novels I've read this year). The book came out in volumes during Hašek's lifetime, but he died while writing it (leaving it unfinished, like Gaskell's novel), so the full thing wasn't published until after he was dead.

For this, I'm thinking of reading 2666 by Roberto Bolaño or History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides if I feel like revisiting a favorite.

I actually really liked A Confederacy of Dunces, but that's just me. Since I already read that one (for the 2015 challenge for a Pulitzer Prize winner), I think I'm opting for The Pale King for this one.

Raquel wrote: "(I was also wanting to count it for ATY's 'book from multiple perspectives'--hoping the list that had it on there was accurate.)"

It wasn't, I'm sorry to say. The book follows the fates of several characters, but it's all told in third-person omniscient form. What we can infer from the interior states of the characters is only what we're told by the narrator or what they reveal when they speak. It's in no way a book told from multiple perspectives, which would be an innovation unheard of at the time Gaskell was writing. I don't want to drift from the purpose of this comment section by responding with suggestions, so I'll go post them in their proper thread, because this challenge also has a category for books told from multiple perspectives.

Nullifidian wrote: "Raquel wrote: "(I was also wanting to count it for ATY's 'book from multiple perspectives'--hoping the list that had it on there was accurate.)"

It wasn't, I'm sorry to say. The book follows the f..."


Ah, well. For ATY I'm specifically trying to fill the prompts with books I already own, so I may just have to wait and see what I read over the course of the year that counts. Thanks!

Miss Marley: The Untold Story of Jacob Marley’s Sister by Vanessa Lafaye. She died in february 2018.

Before I Say Goodbye: Recollections and Observations from One Woman's Final Year by Ruth Picardie.
From wikipedia - Her memoir of living with breast cancer, Before I Say Goodbye, was published posthumously, culled from five columns written for the Observer's magazine Life, and from her personal correspondence. These were collected and edited by her husband, Matt Seaton and her sister, Justine Picardie.

Anna wrote: "I think Wives and Daughters was a serial published weekly(?) in the newspaper. So the majority of the instalments had been published in print prior to Gaskell's death. It wasn't published as a whole book though until after her death so you could probably count it! Either way, it's excellent so I'd definitely recommend reading it..."

You are right it was originally published in a newspaper. I forgot about that fact but will probably still be reading it as the book was after :-)

Our Souls at Night fits this prompt. Short, beautifully written, and bittersweet; written after the author was diagnosed with cancer, and published about 1 year after his death.

The Caregiver by Samuel Park is my choice.

iI'm reading Último caderno de Lanzarote.

Loved I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

I plan to read Solace of the Road for this prompt.

I haven't read it since high school but I will reread The Diary of a Young Girl

I think I'll go for an audio version of Persuasion.

Shannon, I'd recommend the recordings of Persuasion by Elizabeth Klett (version 2) or Karen Savage (version 4) from LibriVox. I've listened to them both and they're excellent, plus all LibriVox audiobooks are public domain so they're free to download, burn to CD, and whatever else you want to do with them. You can also stream them via the Internet Archive's built-in program by clicking the link to go to each version's specific IA page.

A Moveable Feast counts here.

Was Y is for Yesterday posthumous?

Kenya wrote: "I actually really liked A Confederacy of Dunces, but that's just me. Since I already read that one (for the 2015 challenge for a Pulitzer Prize winner), I think I'm opting for [book:T..."

Oooh The Pale King has been on my TBR for ages. I think I'll be reading that as well. And I also enjoyed A Confederacy of Dunces though it took a little while to get into it.

Sorry Nadine, Y was published a few months prior to Grafton's death.

Nadine wrote: "Was Y is for Yesterday posthumous?"

No, it's not. Sue Grafton died a few months after it was published. She didn't get to write the Z novel.

I am planning on reading Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton. He died about 10 years ago and this book was only published a few years ago. I have read most of his books and I prefer them to the many film adaptations. Not that they are not great too - who doesn't love Jurassic Park, Westworld or even ER.

I am sucking at reading the perfect books for next year's prompts this year. I just finished The Shepherd's Crown, which I didn't realise was the last Discworld book published after he died.

There seems to be some other non-traditional books that have been published posthumously, so i might go with that.

I think I'm going with The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan.

I did not know about Steig Larsson! Well I have The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on the prompt for over 1 million ratings so now I can continue the series! The Girl Who Played with Fire

Nullifidian wrote: "Shannon, I'd recommend the recordings of Persuasion by Elizabeth Klett (version 2) or Karen Savage (version 4) from LibriVox. I've listened to them both and they're excellent, plus all LibriVox aud..."

Thanks Nullifidian! I will definitely look into those.

I will probably read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A Monster Calls is a story started by one author and finished by another after the first author died. I *think* that would count? If so, it was phenomenal!

I'm going to read Lady Susan by Jane Austen. Her Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were also published posthumously.

Would something by V.C. Andrews count?

Yes! I just remembered that The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition by Fernando Pessoa was published posthumously. I have wanted to read this forever, and planned to read it anyway next year, but glad to have the extra push.

Maurice is posthumously published and I've been meaning to read it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Lexi wrote: "Maurice is posthumously published and I've been meaning to read it."

A great choice! Read it earlier this year. Loved it...brilliant and my copy had a couple of forwards andtor that added a lot, especially about when it was written vs. published.

The complete uncensored The Master and Margarita was not published until 1970s. Bulgaku died in 1940 I think.

Suite Française
A Death in the Family
Poodle Springs - published after my Raymond Chandler phase so I have not read it! This might be my choice.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood - been trying to think of this one for days...was inspiration for a fun Broadway show where audience chose ending every night.
The Ivory Tower
The Man With the Golden Gun- Bond, James Bond
The Love of the Last Tycoon - Fitzgerald
The Mysterious Stranger - Mark Twain
The Lighthouse at the End of the World - classic
The Islands of Chaldea - children's fantasy
The Way of All Flesh

A Long Fatal Love Chase - first published in 1995, but Alcott wrote it before Little Women

Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

I'm just going to do a re-read of The Diary of a Young Girl. I think its been a few years since Ive picked it up.