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Alpha, Tango, Yankee.

This week, we are reading a book inspired by the NATO codewords that make up the English alphabet. These words include:

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu

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Suggestions:

There's a lot of different ways you could take this prompt. Over in our Outside Challenges folder, there is a thread specifically for people using this prompt as a whole challenge, and they have great ideas for how to tackle each letter. You can find that thread here.

ATY Group Listopia

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Optional Questions:
1. What are you reading for this category?
2. What codeword did you choose?
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?

I'm going to read Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.

I love this prompt!!! I am definitely doing the full alphabet as a side challenge. I had so much fun researching all the letters.

Did you know...an x-ray is a chess tactic....lucy is a golf term...there is a genus of butterflies called zulus....the oldest church building in North America is in Quebec...Lima is the Roman goddess of doorways?

I think I only have one book planned that has the word in the title or the author name. Lots of fun and creative letter twisting!

Whatever book I do first for the side challenge will be the one I use for this prompt.

I'm the opposite of dalex and using books with the code words in the title, either The Glass Hotel or The Heart Echoes.

I wasn't going to do the side challenge, as I'm doing a close calls challenge, plus PopSugar. But looking through that thread has me considering doing it. It's a lot of extra books.

Nancy, I'm the same. I keep looking at the side challenge thinking I could do it, especially since I'm not reading ATY in order or anything. But then that means that 52+26 of the books I read next year would have to be challenge books, and since I read around 100 books a year, I don't want to commit 78 to a challenge.

But maybe if I overlap them between challenges? See how the ATY books would fit in to the NATO challenge? Hm... very tempting.

I'm going with Gold Diggers : A Novel which is partially set in India and revolves around Indian and Indian-American characters (and is written by an Indian American).

I like the side full alphabet challenge, it seems both difficult and creative. But being that I didn't finish the main challenge last time, I am focused on that first plus a limited rejects/close calls challenge. Maybe if I am well ahead I could consider doing it.

Patricia Briggs has the new book in her Alpha & Omega series Wild Sign due out next year. I am planning to do the full Nato challenge, but I'm allowing overlap between the regular challenge.

I'm doing the side challenge instead of a rejects challenge (which I never finish anyway) and definitely going to allow some overlap. I think not overlapping on my rejects challenge is the reason I never get far with it.

I decided to read Siddhartha for this prompt.
My other options were The Glass Hotel, A Gentleman in Moscow, And the Mountains Echoed and The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters.

I'd recommend:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

I won't be doing the side challenge, unless I decide to use books from the main challenge and PS for it.
But I'll think about it after I finish my planning for the main challenge.... these days I'm spending more time with google sheets, than with my book :D

My options are:
The Weight of Ink - Rachel Kadish (kilo)
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell (Yankee - north)
The Garden of Small Beginnings - Abbi Waxman (alfa - beginning) (golf- garden is green)
The Gods of Tango - Carolina de Robertis (tango)
Hotel Paradise ( Emma Graham #1) - Martha Grimes
Grand Hotel - Vicki Baum
The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan #4) - Elena Ferrante (bravo is an Italian word, author is Italian)
Now in November - Josephine Winslow Johnson (November)

I recommend:
At Bertram's Hotel - Agatha Christie (Miss Marple mystery)
My Brilliant Friend - Elean Ferrante (#1 of Neapolitan novels, author is Italian, use for bravo)

Emily wrote: "Nancy, I'm the same. I keep looking at the side challenge thinking I could do it, especially since I'm not reading ATY in order or anything. But then that means that 52+26 of the books I read next ..."

I was planning to overlap, using the same books for the regular ATY and the NATO alphabet where possible. This year I did the whole ATY twice but I don't think I can do that and a separate 26 books.

dalex wrote: "I love this prompt!!! I am definitely doing the full alphabet as a side challenge. I had so much fun researching all the letters.

Did you know...an x-ray is a chess tactic....lucy is a golf term...."

phonetic alphabet for L is LIMA not Lucy

Marie (UK) wrote: "phonetic alphabet for L is LIMA not Lucy."

G is golf. Lucy is a golf term. So a book by an author named Lucy or with a character named Lucy would fit for golf.

I happen to ahve a book that fits on my tbr The Distant Echo

dalex wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "phonetic alphabet for L is LIMA not Lucy."

G is golf. Lucy is a golf term. So a book by an author named Lucy or with a character named Lucy would fit for golf."

Oh wow I never knew that thanks you learn something new every day

I'm choosing to go with Quebec and pick an author that was born in Quebec, Canada!

I'll be picking up either Traitor's Blade or Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell

I'm either going to read The Tin Flute (originally Bonheur d'occasion) or Barney's Version.

Other good Quebec books are:
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz or anything else by Mordecai Richler
The Favourite Game or any of Leonard Cohen's books of poetry
Lullabies for Little Criminals

1. What are you reading for this category?
Three Women
2. What codeword did you choose?
Well, for me there are three women's names in the alphabet - Charlie, India and Juliett (you could also say Echo [I actually knew an Echo] and Sierra too...)
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Scenes of a Graphic Nature (main character is called Charlie), In the Time of Foxes, Life After Life (has a fox on the cover), Hotel World, books set in India (The God of Small Things, Interpreter of Maladies, The Storyteller's Secret, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, The Widows of Malabar Hill).

1. What are you reading for this category?
I'll be reading Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas.

2. What codeword did you choose?
Papa. The protagonist becomes a father during the course of the book.
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand (set in India)

I shouldn't be doing this but I am very tempted to do the NATO challenge as a side challenge. I am also doing Popsugar along with ATY so that is a lot of prompts. However, I am not very particular about overlaps because I simply cannot commit to that amount of books as challenge books. I like to read sometimes stuff that I randomly want to that doesn't fit any prompt so I will anyways be reading more than my challenge books.

So, yes, I think I will do all the 3 challenges but will keep overlapping an option wherever possible.



Okay so for this particular prompt, I used a random alphabet generated for 3 letters and got Y, S, G that means Yankee, Sierra and Golf. So I'll be choosing either of these for this prompt.


Foursome is a Golf term. And it also means a group of four people. I recently read Clockwork Boys by T. Kingsfisher. It is a story about a paladin, an assassin, a scholar and a ninja accountant set on a suicide mission.

I went with Alpha Female by April Christofferson which is a really fun mystery/thriller set in Yellowstone. It isn't amazing, but it was an entertaining read.

Since I live here, I definitely saw a few dubious facts, but she does a pretty good job overall so I enjoyed it a lot.

It's entertaining to see the creative ideas people have for this one!

I plan to read:
The Satapur Moonstone -set in India
The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free

Other possibilities include:
A Moveable Feast by Hemingway - nicknamed Papa
The Gods of Tango
The Book of Negroes - set in Sierra Leone
books by authors named Juliet, Victor, Oscar or Mike
A book given to me by Mike.

For historical fiction, cultural, and mystery readers, I highly recommend:
The Widows of Malabar Hill (set in India about 100 years ago)

1. What are you reading for this category? Station Eleven
2. What codeword did you choose? So it could either by Bravo or Charlie. The book opened with a play being performed and there was also a traveling symphony. There was a character named Charlie but they weren't prominent in the book.
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt? I'm not sure. I kinda picked Station Eleven because it was in the Listopia. I had to read to figure out why it was placed on the listopia. I wasn't a fan of this prompt so I'm kinda glad I knocked it out first.

1. What are you reading for this category? The Last

2. What codeword did you choose? HOTEL - the book is set in a hotel where guests are trying to survive following a nuclear war that happens during their stay.

3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt? The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is one of my all time favourites.

EchoI read Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan.
Pam Muñoz Ryan

My code word was Echo.

I think that this was a nice book for the prompt. It is a juvenile historical fiction book. My children and I listened to it together and enjoyed it very much. It was a dip into WW2 for them which is a topic they did not have a lot of previous knowledge of. It is suspenseful but not overly dark.

I picked Heartbreak Hotel by Jonathan Kellerman.

For this one, I've decided to reread the The Hunger Games (which I've been meaning to reread for a while now!) The winners are referred to as "victor."

I read All The Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #16) by Louise Penny. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec

I read Howliday Inn and decided to squeeze it in here using the word 'hotel'. Technically it's about a kennel, not a hotel, but the title is clearly a play on the name of a hotel chain, so there is some connection.

I feel like there are way too many options to begin figuring out what I'd recommend!

1. What are you reading for this category?
Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs
2. What codeword did you choose?
Alpha, this is the most recent novel in the Alpha and Omega series.
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?
Alien: Echo

1. What are you reading for this category?

Delta of Venus by Anaïs Nin. Looking at reviews, this is a very Marmite book, and I can see why. It is explicit and some of the sexual deviations described are not pleasant, to put it mildly. However in the later stories in the book, Nin's writing is sensual and evocative.

2. What codeword did you choose?

Delta - mainly because this was a book I'd heard about for years, and wanted to read.

3. What is a book that you'd recommend for this prompt?

Hotel: A Gentleman in Moscow; Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
India: A Passage to India
Juliett: Juliet, Naked
November: Now in November

I chose The Western Star by Craig Johnson which takes place in November.

1. What are you reading for this category? The Sun Down Motel
2. What codeword did you choose? I decided that hotel and motel were close enough
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt? Destination Wedding takes place in India

1. What are you reading for this category?
The King's Justice

2. What codeword did you choose?
Yankee. (The female protaganist is an American raised agent for England during WW2)

1. What are you reading for this category Tangerine by Christine Mangan.

2. What codeword did you choose? Golf. One of the main characters' names is Lucy - also an obscure golf term. The closest definition found: "Lucy Locket = socket or shank. Arguably the worst shot in golf."

3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt? A Gentleman in Moscow (hotel), The Atomic Weight of Love (kilo) and Deep River (India).

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read Archangel's Sun by Nalini Singh

2. What codeword did you choose?
Alpha. (It's about an archangel, which is about as 'alpha' as one can get.)

3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?
I really enjoyed the hotel at the corner of bitter and sweet by Jamie Ford

1. What are you reading for this category? Station Eleven

2. What code word did you use?
None, I pulled it from Listopia. The title suggests the military.

3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?
Anything from Oscar Wilde, Romeo and Juliet, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The last one not only for "Charlie", but also because Roald was a spy.

I changed my mind and went with a book from India - [book:The Henna Artist|50607466 by Alka Joshi.

India

Changing my mind on this prompt and using Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras. The book is set in Colombia during the 'reign' of Pablo Escobar, and is the story of the relationship between a wealthy young girl and her maid from the slums. A major plot line concerns the girl's father, who is always called 'Papa'.

What are you reading for this category?
I read Richardson Scores Again by Basil Thomson
What codeword did you choose? Uniform. Richardson is a policeman working at Scotland Yard, and this is a police procedural book.

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Echo Killing

2. What codeword did you choose?
Echo

3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?
Oscar: Sunny Days
Quebec: Still Life
Delta: Walking the Nile
India: The White Tiger
Bravo: City of Girls

What are you reading for this category?
I've just read The Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury
2. What codeword did you choose?
The code word was "Juliett", the novel is French so the protagonist is called "Juliette". I was having great difficulty finding something to read for this prompt but when I randomly chose to listen to the audio version of this novel, as it was available via Borrowbox at my library, the name Juliette fitted the bill. This is a light, fairly whimsical read about books but although it starts well it sort of peters out in a slightly unsatisfying way. Excellent English translation by Ros Schwartz.
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?
Sticking with Juliett you could read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which iIm using for the book set on an island prompt.

I feel like this might be a bit of a stretch, but would it work to use One Life by Megan Rapinoe, since she wears a uniform as a soccer player?

@ Alison yes. You could also use M for Mike since she uses her fame to speak for social justice.

1. What are you reading for this category? Incense and Sensibility
2. What codeword did you choose? India- the main character's name
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt? This one!

Grasping at straws here, but I really want Plain Bad Heroines to fit this category. Based on the description of the book (which I am also reading for the PopSugar challenge) the only category I think it would fit is Yankee because the book takes place in Rhode Island, which by definition means a citizen of the New England area which includes Rhode Island.

If anyone has read it and can find other NATO letters this would work for I am all ears (or eyes or whatever). I was also thinking Uniform if the Brookhants School for Girls has uniforms?

I will read Still Life, set in Quebec.

I think I'm going to read The Old Man and the Sea for this one, by "Papa" Hemmingway.

Something by *Victor* Hugo was my backup, but I'm going for the short read!

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
2. What codeword did you choose?
TANGO - it takes 2 to Tango I read a book with the names of two people in the title
3. What is a book you'd recommend for this prompt?
I cannot think of anything

I used the word Papa and decided to go with a Spanish children's book Mi papi tiene una moto. (Papi translates to Daddy.) I don't normally count picture books but am with this one since it's more than just reading. I'm writing down and learning unfamiliar words and phrasing plus translating it to English for my grandson. He wants me to read it to him in Spanish also! So, I will be spending a lot of time with this one book. It will be interesting to see how much of the language he picks up just from the little bit I expose him to.

The book I had planned to read was The Deadliest Echo by Reese Hogan, a local NM author. I still plan to read the book but maybe in 2022.

Books I recommend:
Hotel; A Gentleman in Moscow and The Dead Mountaineer's Inn
Papa: Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin (one of the main characters has the nickname Papa)