Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A Book with a Title That Is a Complete Sentence

Wow. This is the sixth prompt posting I've done and I admit I am impressed with the creativity of this year's challenge! YAY!!

Okay, now down to business. I can imagine there are many nonfiction books that would work since many of them include subtitles that (IMO, at least) qualify as complete sentences. One I've really been wanting to read is Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty! That one goes on my plan!

There are three Goodreads listopias that should help:
"Titlemania III: Whole-Sentence Titles"
"Complete Sentences"
"Complete Sentences - Part 2"

Oh, how could I forget one of my favorite books ever! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn! Highly recommended!
Another that I recently read was Never Let Me Go which was scary, but IMO, very well-written!
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is a book I can only highly recommend!

Listopia is HERE

Such a fun scavenger hunt! I added a bunch to the listopia

Stephen king has a new one coming out next year (collection of short stories) that fits You Like It Darker: Stories.

I also recently read one from the GR choice awards that fits: I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself. I really liked it. More literary than SF and took awhile to grow on me, but good all around.

Woah what an easy prompt!

I've got loads so it's just a matter of narrowing it down.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies will probably be mine.

This one will be SUPER FUN to explore!!!

Off the top of my head, I've got Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone on my TBR, I was planning to read that in December but I could easily push it out to Jan.

For Poetry, Amanda Lovelace Books would work.
The Princess Saves Herself in This One
The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One
The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One
Break Your Glass Slippers
Shine your Icy Crown

The Secret Series books are all sentence titles

also this prompt can be stretched into titles that are just 1-2 words, this is just a lot of books to look through. we really gonna read our tbr in 2024 lol

I am super excited about this one.... Because I nominated it!!! I have never had that happen before.
There are like a jillion book with titles that are sentences. My problem will be narrowing it down!

Yeah, narrowing it down is a problem I have too. I have so many books that could fit this prompt. I just might end up doing a TBR jar with the ones I want to read most if I can't decide on one.

SarahKat wrote: "Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies will probably be mine."

Loved it on audio!

Going with Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars

I’ve got a few that qualify:
What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 1
I Hope You Get This Message
I Kissed Shara Wheeler
Long May She Reign

The problem will be narrowing it down to one.

I'm going with What You Are Looking For Is in the Library.

I'll read We Must Not Think of Ourselves: A Novel for this prompt. One of the very few in the upcoming year, where I can read somethig from my favorite historical fiction.

Just looking at one of my bookshelves:

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto
I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip. (bonus! this is TWO full sentences!)
Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music
My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety
I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up
We Will Always Be Here: A Guide to Exploring and Understanding the History of LGBTQ+ Activism in Wisconsin
Wait Till Next Year
We Are Not Free
You Should See Me in a Crown

Dang, that's already more than I thought I had! Also if anyone else is also trying to read all the Time top 100 YA books, there are a lot of those that fit this category as well.

Well, I've had a copy of We Need to Talk About Kevin on my shelf for ages. I guess this is the push I need to finally read it!

Deciding between I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness and The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America.

For those who prefer lighter fare, I enjoyed Do Ants Have Assholes?, a parody of "ask Dr. Science"-type books.

I'm going for I'm Glad My Mom Died as my pick, but I'd like to offer a few good contenders I've read in the past and enjoyed:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Don't Call Me Crazy
Remember Me?
This is How You Lose the Time War
This is Not a Test
We Are Okay

Here go my finds: basically all of these are good but could fit or not fit individual tastes. The ones that come with a rec, those are very likely to fit each and every taste, they're THAT great!

Amra Thetys series: , The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids The Thief Who Knocked on Sorrow's Gate, The Thief Who Went To War, The Thief Who Wasn't There,The Thief Who Spat In Luck's Good Eye (these are otherwordly in more meanings than one!)
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord
I Hunt Killers
The Brown sisters series: Get a Life, Chloe Brown Take a Hint, Dani Brown Act Your Age, Eve Brown
The Gargole Queen series: Capture the Crown, Tear Down the Throne, Conquer the Kingdom
Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
Carrie Soto Is Back
One Day All This Will Be Yours (insanely cool and hysterically funny)

Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
What Is Life?: Five Great Ideas in Biology
Civilization One: The World Is Not as You Thought it Was
The Men Who Stare at Goats
What I Wish People Knew About Dementia
I'm Sorry I Broke Your Company: When Management Consultants Are the Problem, Not the Solution
The Unexpected Spy: From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World's Most Notorious Terrorists (intriguing)
The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman's Fight for Justice
Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing
Buddha and Einstein Walk Into a Bar: How New Discoveries About Mind, Body, and Energy Can Help Increase Your Longevity
Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us (yes!)
I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59
Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place (interesting and weird and fun! highly rec'd)

Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing (stellar)
How to be Your Own Genie: Manifesting the Magical Life You Were Born to Live
Angels: How to See, Hear and Feel Your Angels
Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution
Don't Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason (fun!)
Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds (excellent read!)
Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most (terrific!)
The McKinsey Edge: Success Principles from the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm
How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life (this one is existentially phenomenal, btw, I can't rec it enough!)
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It (wonderful, useful even for the non-CIA ones of us)
You Will Find Your People: How to Make Meaningful Friendships as an Adult

Again, many of these suggestions are not complete sentences.

Here are a few from the first few pages of my TBR.

Watch Me Disappear
It Ends with Us
Elizabeth Is Missing

Linda wrote: "Again, many of these suggestions are not complete sentences." Then we need a set criteria for what a complete sentence is. The one we've been using all along is whether the sentence could be used as a standalone thingy? If yes - then it's a go.

If there are different criteria then we would need them spelled out, explicitly and in detail, and approved by the challenge mod, I believe.

I think most of us are just looking for a subject and a verb. For example, the Invisible Women and Interstellar books mentioned above do not have a verb, so the titles are just fragments.

Here are some of the books I read last year that have complete sentence titles:

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good
The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories
I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House

The Summer I Turned Pretty fits for those who read YA. Although I cannot say that I recommend it. I listened to it last year and it was just meh to me.

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee.

For those who like page-turner suspense, quite a few of Mary Higgins Clark's titles are complete sentences, for instance
Where Are the Children?
You Belong To Me
Where Are the Children Now?
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
I've Got You Under My Skin
Pretend You Don't See Her
A Stranger Is Watching

Best Friends Aren't Forever by Jillian Dodd
Popularity Isn't Easy

The Woman Who Couldn't Scream by Christina Dodd
Because I'm Watching
The Prince Kidnaps a Bride

All the Demons Are Here by Jake Tapper

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
I Know This Much Is True
The Hour I First Believed
We Are Water
I'll Take You There
You Don’t Know Me: The Incarcerated Women of York Prison Voice Their Truths

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada. Inspired by a true story, a gripping tale of an ordinary man's determination to defy the tyranny of Nazi rule.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Brandon wrote: "I think most of us are just looking for a subject and a verb. For example, the Invisible Women and Interstellar books mentioned above do not have a verb, so the titles are just fragments."
Hey, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - Designed is a verb in a past tense.

☘Misericordia☘ wrote: "Brandon wrote: "I think most of us are just looking for a subject and a verb. For example, the Invisible Women and Interstellar books mentioned above do not have a verb, so the titles are just frag..."



that's a great example of a group of words that includes a noun and a verb but is still not a sentence. It's all object. "in a world designed for men" is qualifying the "data bias."

I'm no English major so I can't come up with the right words to explain, but I know it's not a sentence.

Brandon wrote: "I think most of us are just looking for a subject and a verb. For example, the Invisible Women and Interstellar books mentioned above do not have a verb, so the titles are just fragments."

Thank you! Yes, subject and verb are needed to make a complete sentence.

Nadine in NY wrote: "☘Misericordia☘ wrote: "Brandon wrote: "I think most of us are just looking for a subject and a verb. For example, the Invisible Women and Interstellar books mentioned above do not have a verb, so t..."

Designed is a participle.
So "Data bias in a world designed by men" is just a noun with a great descriptor.

"Data bias in a world designed by men bakes brownies" is a complete sentence. The "data Bias" is the subject, and does something - it bakes. It doesn't make any sense, but it is a complete sentence.

This is not an actual book title, but I would read it if it were!

I enjoyed both of these:

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

I read A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie.

As I've read all of the Poirot mysteries, I've started reading Miss Marple now. This was a great mystery and a nice introduction to Miss Marple.

What about Patrick Stewart's MemoirMaking It So: A Memoir

"Making it so" is a complete sentence, but the full title is "Making it So: A memoir" so I'm not sure?

Ruth wrote: "What about Patrick Stewart's MemoirMaking It So: A Memoir

"Making it so" is a complete sentence, but the full title is "Making it So: A memoir" so I'm not sure?"

Technically, making it so is not a complete sentence. Make it so would be.

That's Not My Name may be my pick for this, depending which book of my two choices becomes available at my library first.

Would you say "A Fragile Enchantment" counts for this prompt?

I'm going with Say You're one of Them; I eliminated a few others after reading these posts because I realized they had no predicate (The Girl Who Reads on the Metro seems like a complete sentence but....Is it really? What about her?)

It seems a grammar lesson is needed for this prompt... Even the bookseller in my town didn't seem to understand what a complete sentence is as he was pointing at titles that weren't that...

For those who read YA and J Fiction:

Stella Díaz Has Something to Say
The Wild Robot Escapes
This Book Is Not Yet Rated

Caitlin wrote: "Would you say "A Fragile Enchantment" counts for this prompt?"



No. That's just an adjective and a noun.

Doni wrote: "Ruth wrote: "What about Patrick Stewart's MemoirMaking It So: A Memoir

"Making it so" is a complete sentence, but the full title is "Making it So: A memoir" so I'm not sure?"

Tec..." Good point. I'll choose something else.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman

How about When We Were Vikings orThe Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend? I just finished reading them.

Reyna wrote: "How about When We Were Vikings orThe Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend? I just finished reading them."



those are both sentence fragments, not complete sentences. They do not express complete thoughts.

When we were Vikings [something happened, but what?]

The readers of Broken Wheel recommend [ what? what do they recommend? a book? a movie?]

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is a complete sentence, just an unusual one. If you said that to someone, you would come away thinking that those readers just like to recommend things in general. The Vikings title is a fragment but would be a sentence if "When" were removed.

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide works if you ignore the subtitle and can suspend a bit of disbelief.

I read Don’t Swipe Right and wanted to use it for this. But now I'm not sure that it's a complete sentence. Thoughts?

Kaia wrote: "I read Don’t Swipe Right and wanted to use it for this. But now I'm not sure that it's a complete sentence. Thoughts?"



Yes I think that one fits, it's a full sentence and a command.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Yes I think that one fits, it's a full sentence and a command."

Thanks, Nadine!