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FROM FICTION TO REALITY
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2016

We thought it'd be cool to learn more about the people, places, or time period in the fictional books we read! This challenge lets your fictional reading inspire you to read nonfiction books or vice versa.

You'll read books in pairs. Read any fiction book. Then, read a nonfiction book about any part of that fictional work. Or read a nonfiction book, then find a fictional work that's related to it.

If you were to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, your nonfiction book could be about witches, boarding schools, alchemy, or anything else related to the world of Harry Potter.

If you were to read Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, you could read a fictional book that includes a submarine, takes place during WWII, or is about a ship that sinks.

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Example

Let's say I decided to read five pairs (ten books total).

1. Memoirs of a Geisha (fiction) and Geisha of Gion: The True Story of Japan's Foremost Geisha (nonfiction) - one is a fictional account of geisha in Tokyo while the other is a nonfiction version
2. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (nonfiction) and Breathless in Bombay (fiction) - both take place in Mumbai (formerly Bombay)
3. Modern Romance (nonfiction) and Match Me If You Can (fiction) - the first is about dating in this technological age while the second is about a matchmaking agency
4. Black Beauty (fiction) and Seabiscuit: An American Legend (nonfiction) - both about horses
5. Jane Eyre (fiction) and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (nonfiction) - Jane is an introvert

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°ä³ó±ô´Çé came up with this really cool challenge. Thank you, °ä³ó±ô´Çé!

How to Participate
1. Post here telling the challenge leader that you'd like to join the challenge. You can choose your books for the challenge at the beginning, or add them as you go. You can join a challenge at any time, as long as the challenge is still active.

2. Whenever you finish a book for the challenge, post here and let the challenge leader know so they can update your progress.

Some members choose to update their original post with their progress to keep track of their challenge more easily, but make sure to also post a new message so the challenge leader knows to go look at your original post. You can look at how other members report their progress to find a strategy that works well for you.

For more information about how challenges work, check out this thread or ask your challenge leader.

Participants
Adria | 8/10
Adriana | 0/8
Alicia | 0/12
Alex | 3/6
Amanda | 0/6
Amanda R | 4/10
Amba | 0/10
Anissa | 0/4
Bobbi | 4/4
Brianna | 0/20
Candiss | 10/10
Carol | 8/10
Carri | 0/6
Carrie | 2/4
Cheri | 22/24
°ä³ó±ô´Çé | 6/10
ChrisP | 0/20
Claire | 0/14
Clare | 6/10
Colin | 12/12
Cosmic | 1/8
Daye | 0/4
Deborah | 2/10
Delitealex | 0/6
Diana | 0/10
Eva | 8/8
Gail | 4/4
Grace | 0/10
Gretchen | 10/10
Heather | 2/20
Holli | 0/6
Jacki | 0/10
Jackie B | 4/6
Jacqueline | 0/10
Jane | 5/6
Janine | 14/12
Jenny | 4/12
Jill | 0/6
Jo | 0/10
Jodi | 0/8
Julie [Webb] | 0/10
Kadijah Michelle | 12/20
Kara | 0/8
Karina | 0/12
Katharine | 10/10
Kim | 0/10
Kme_17 | 0/10
Kylie | 0/6
Laurie | 10/10
Lindsay | 0/10
Lindsey | 0/40
Mandy | 0/10
Lindy-Lane | 0/12
Lulu | 0/12
Maria | 7/10
Marina H | 2/10
Mary Pat | 3/6
Maureen | 0/20
Maureen de Wit | 0/10
Meg | 10/12
Megan | 8/10
Megan [LahaiRoi] | 14/12
Melissa | 2/6
Michelle | 0/6
Missy | 0/10
Nandini | 0/8
Ozcose | 0/6
Pat | 0/10
Patricia | 1/4
Prerana | 0/6
Sam F | 11/14
Renee | 0/10
Robyn | 0/24
Ronja | 1/4
Sara | 0/4
Sarah | 0/6
Sarah [Isenegger] | 0/10
ScarlettMi | 0/10
Sharon | 6/12
Sherry | 10/10
SibylM | 0/10
Sky | 0/10
Stephanie (R-A) | 4/10
Susan | 6/10
Susan C [sacorwin] | 10/10
Teresa | 0/10
Theresa~OctoberLace | 0/20
Tina | 0/10
Tuck | 4/12
xo Jules | 0/6
Yvonne | 2/12

Will think about it....read more non-fiction this year because of the challenges but my own reality more than enough most of the time!!!

This is a really cool challenge idea. I'm definitely in, I think for 12.

0/12

1. Warm Worlds and Otherwise (fiction) and James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon (non-fiction) - one a collection of short stories by James Tiptree Jr/Alice B. Sheldon, the other an account of her life
2. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (non-fiction) and Blindsight (fiction) - the first is a book about neurological disorders, and the second has neurological disorders spring up during the course of the novel
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This is a very cool challenge. I will try for 5 pairs which I will add as I go.

10/10 read
5/5 pairs complete

1a What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (memoir about Murakami as a runner)
1b Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder (fictional account of a gold medal runner from Canada in 1928 Olympics)

2a Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (letter to his son about race)
2b Native Son by Richard Wright (classic novel about race)

3a 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (classic N/F correspondence between a book buyer in New York and a bookseller in London over a 20+ year period)
3b My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (The search for the killer of an illustrator who was working on a book about the current Sultan)

4a Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
4b All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane by Amy Elizabeth Smith (a college professor travels to Latin America for a year and discusses various Austen novels with Latin American reading groups)

5a Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet (memoir by an autistic savant man)
5b The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (story of a 15 year old autistic young man)

I will sign up for 5 pairs (10 books). I might get to more but nonfiction tends to take me longer than fiction. It's harder to focus on nonfiction with a pair of three year olds running around and I really like to take notes.
Non-Fiction
1.) The Letters of the Younger Pliny
2.) Tudors: Volume II: A History of England
3.) The Rival Queens: Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal that Ignited a Kingdom
4.) Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France
5.) Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth, 1527-1608

Fiction
1.) The Blood of Caesar: A Second Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger
2.) The Dark Rose (story focuses on a family living during the reign of Henry VIII)
3.) Médicis Daughter: A Novel of Marguerite de Valois
4.) The Rivals of Versailles
5.) The Girl in the Glass Tower

I will go for 3 pairs. I am not a big non-fiction reader, but this will give me a chance to read some more!

1 Navy SEALs
The Unsung Hero � 5.1.16 ★★★★�
No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden � 31.1.16 ★★★★
2.
3.

I'll try to do 5 pairs as well. We'll see how it goes once I start gophering.

Cool idea! I'm in for 6 pairs.

1. Helen Keller:
a. Helen Keller in Love: A Novel by Rosie Sultan (completed January 2016)
b. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (completed April 2016)

2. Baking/Cooking:
a. Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way through Great Books by Cara Nicoletti - completed July 2016
b. A Beauty So Rare by Tamera Alexander - completed August 2016

3. North Korea:
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo Lee - completed June 2016
b. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson - completed September 2016

4. Eviction in America
a. The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain - completed March 2016
b. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond - completed September 2016

5. Cancer:
a. When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker - completed September 2016
b. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi - completed September 2016

6. Female Authors:
a. Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon - completed October 2016
b. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll - completed October 2016

7. Ambassadors Targeted:
a. 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi by Mitchell Zuckoff - completed June 2016
b. Ransomed Dreams by Sally John - completed November 2016

7/6 pairs - challenge completed!!!

I'm in for 10 pairs

1. The Lake House by Kate Morton and Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London by Matthew Beaumont (both deal with London)

2. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker (both deal with a serial killer)

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown (both set in the 1930s)

Read: 0 of 20 books, 0 of 10 pairs.

I love this! I'll start with 5 pairs and go from there.




1. Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo & China in Ten Words by Yu Hua (Both deal with people coming to terms with changing lives in modern China.)

2. Slade House by David Mitchell & Tiny Houses Built with Recycled Materials: Inspiration for Constructing Tiny Homes Using Salvaged and Reclaimed Supplies by Ryan Mitchell (Both deal with unusual houses with unexpected properties.)

3. The Vegetarian by Han Kang & The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture by Euny Hong (Both deal with aspects of tradition vs change in South Korea.)

4. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Both are about a searching quest for an illusive predatory bird.)

5. The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley & Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson (Both have black holes as a central theme.)


Read: 10/10

I really shouldn't, but this is a great challenge and I ought to read some non-fiction books once in a while, so maybe this could give me that little push in the right direction :)
I'll sing up for 5 pairs.

1. The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story vs. The Orphan Master's Son
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Read: 1/5 pairs

Love this challenge! I'll sign up for 12.

0/12

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An absolutely terrific challenge, very creative and interesting. I'm going to sign up for 5 pairs, which given my other lists seems a bit much -- but hey, that's why they call it a challenge! Thanks so much to °ä³ó±ô´Çé for suggesting it and to Cassandra for moderating. Edit: Raising my challenge to 9 pairs (18 books). Edit 2: Raising my challenge to 12 pairs (24 books).

Completed:

1 & 2) Asperger Syndrome pair
Fiction: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (5 stars) - a man with Asperger's looks for a wife
Non-Fiction: The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband by David Finch (4 stars) - a married man with Asperger's tries to improve his marriage

3 & 4) Pandemics pair
Fiction: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2 stars), in which a virus, planted by a bioterrorist, sweeps the world.
Non-Fiction: Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna (4 stars), about those who are trained to deal with epidemics, including bioterrorism.

5 & 6) Modern China pair
Fiction: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (4 stars)
Non-fiction: China in Ten Words by Yu Hua (5 stars)
Both books take place in China from the Cultural Revolution through the present.

7 & 8) Margaret Mead pair
Fiction: Euphoria by Lily King (5 stars), historical fiction based on entries in Margaret Mead's diaries while she was doing field work.
Nonfiction: The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy by Paul Shankman (5 stars), which examines the allegations made by Derek Freeman that Margaret Mead had been the victim of a hoax while doing her field work in Samoa.

9 & 10) Book Burning pair
Fiction: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (2 stars), a classic dystopian novel about book burning.
Nonfiction: When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II by Molly Guptill Manning (4 stars), a book about the US program to send books to soldiers in response to the book burnings taking place in Europe during World War II.

11 & 12) Women in the Civil War pair
Fiction: The Union Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini (2 stars), which is historical fiction about a group of women quilters and their contributions to the war effort.
Nonfiction: The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe by Elaine Showalter (5 stars), a biography of the author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" that tells how difficult it was for her as an ambitious woman in that time.

13 & 14) Race in the U.S. pair
Fiction: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4 stars)
Nonfiction: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (5 stars)
Both books deal with the experience of being black in America.

15 & 16) Sign Language pair
Fiction: We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge (4 stars), which features a family that shares their home with a chimpanzee to teach him sign language.
Nonfiction: Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals about the Mind by Margalit Fox (4 stars), which discusses how languages develop by examining a newborn sign language. It also briefly discusses the research on attempts to teach sign language to chimps.

17 & 18) 1969 pair
Fiction: The Girls by Emma Cline (5 stars). This book takes place in the summer of 1969.
Nonfiction: 1969: The Year Everything Changed by Rob Kirkpatrick (3 stars)

19 & 20) Genealogical Pair
Fiction: Deadly Pedigree: A Nick Herald Genealogical Mystery by Jimmy Fox (3 stars)
Nonfiction: The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome by Alondra Nelson (4 stars)
Both books deal with the personal/social impacts of discovering one's geneaological heritage.

Here are pairs I am considering:

A. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, a novel about a young Irish woman seeking a new life in Brooklyn, and The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by Colum McCann about all aspects of building the Brooklyn Bridge, including the social aspects of the city at that time.

B. Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones, a novel about a 1930's musician who goes to Shanghai to lead a jazz orchestra of African-American expats, and But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz by Geoff Dyer, about the music and the men who shaped modern jazz.

C. Arabian Nights and Days, a retelling of Scheherezade's stories from 1001 Arabian Nights by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, and the nonfiction The Slave Girls of Baghdad: The Qiyan in the Early Abbasid Era by Matthew Caswell that breaks through the myths of Abbasid harems to discuss what we actually know about the life of women at that time.

D. The Relic Master: A Novel by Christopher Buckley, a satire about a relic purveyor at the time Martin Luther posted his 95 theses, and the book by noted historian Roland Bainton, The Reformation of the 16th Century.

THIS IS AWESOME! *ahem* Pardon me. I didn't mean to yell.

I just recently did something like this (A Nancy Drew book inspired me to read a non-fiction book).

I will think on this and come back later with my goal.

Wow! So many fantastic challenges! I will be busy with the books next year.

Im in for 5 pairs (total of 10 books!)

I will do four. Thanks, Cassandra!

I can't wait to start this!!!
10 pairs for me:)

Welcome to the challenge, everyone!

I've decided to track your progress by books (so if you finish one book from a pair, I can reflect that progress).

A couple of you didn't specify whether your goals were pairs or books, so please take a look and correct me if I didn't get it right.

Perfect--thanks, Cassandra!

I'm going to do 5 pairs (10 books) for this challenge.


� Non-fiction: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End read 2/20/2016
� Fiction: A Dirty Job read 1/1/2016
Being Mortal is about end-of-life care. In A Dirty Job, Charlie is a Death Merchant.

� Non-fiction: Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art read 9/25/2016
� Fiction: The Improbability of Love read 5/28/16
Both books take place in the London art world

� Non-fiction: The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics read 6/19/2016
� Fiction: Necessary Lies read 2/25/2016]
The Speechwriter is a memoir of life as a speechwriter in South Carolina's Governor's office. Necessary Lies takes place in North Carolina in the 60's, and a shameful state policy in effect at the time plays a profound role in this book. The Carolina's and state politics are the ties between these two books.

� Non-fiction: Called for Life: How Loving Our Neighbor Led Us into the Heart of the Ebola Epidemic read 2/27/2016
� Fiction: The Power of One read 3/12/2016
Called for Life is the story of Dr. Kent Brantly, who contracted Ebola while on a medical mission in Liberia. The Power of One is a coming-of-age story that takes place in South Africa. The continent of Africa is the tie between these two books.

� Non-fiction: Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church read 8/14/2016
� Fiction: The Shelter Cycle read 4/24/2016
Both of these books have a central theme of cult-like religions

5/5 pairs
10/10 books
Challenge completed!

I initially had 12 pairs of books in mind, but, actually, let's say 12 books total, it's probably more reasonable. :p

Karina, are you sure? I don't want to sway you just based on what I wrote. Yours was one of the goals I wasn't sure about. :P

Cassandra: No, please - I always underestimate my own inevitable "Don't wanna!"-reflexes when overcommitting even to absolutely voluntary challenges, hah. Six pairs / twelve books is good!

Okay! I know the feeling. I always try hard not to overcommit myself to yearly challenges, but I still haven't had a year where I've been able to finish all of them.

Hi Cassandra, I like the sound of this challenge so I will join. I'll go for 6 pairs/12 books

I'm in for 2 pair. I don't read a lot of nonfiction, but I can certainly try out something new

American Ghost: A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest and The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen

Please add me for 2 pair. It's not much but 2 nonfiction for me is 2 more than I usually do!

Candiss wrote: "I love this! I'll start with 5 pairs and go from there. I own both books in pairing #2 and 1 book from each of the other pairs.

1. Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo..."

Candiss, your list looks great! I'm going to add your first pair of books about China to my own list -- they look fascinating!

Cheri wrote: "Candiss wrote: "I love this! I'll start with 5 pairs and go from there. I own both books in pairing #2 and 1 book from each of the other pairs."

And I am going to use your 4th and 5th ideas as they are all books I want to read!

Count me in!

Goal : 0/10

1.
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5.

I would like to also join. Right now, I will say 5 pairs/10 books.

1 pair/2 books

1.Griots
-Fiction- Sundiata
-Nonfiction- African Music: A People's Art
2.Gay Stuff
-Fiction- Curious Wine
-Nonfiction- Calling Dr. Laura
3.Ancient Cultures Through Choose Your Own Adventure Books
-Fiction- Mystery of the Maya
-Nonfiction- Ancient China: An Interactive History Adventure
4.
5.

7/10

a.The Girl You Left Behind read 1-20-16
b. World War One: History In An Hour

a. The Grapes of Wrath 1-26-16
b. The Great Depression by Edmund O. Stillman

a. Like Water for Chocolate 1-28-16
b. Chocolate Master Class: Essential Recipes and Techniques by Ecole Grand Cholat Valrhona and Frederic Bau


a. Ready Player One 1-1-16
Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: new Perspectives on Gender and Gaming 6-21-16

a. Still Alice 1-5-16
b. Surviving Alzheimer's by Paula Spencer Scott 4-9-16

Cheri and Meg - Cool! I hope we all enjoy them! :)

May I change mine? I'd like to try for 7 pairs this year (14 books) - once I started gophering, I had a hard time stopping. There are so many great pairs!

1. � Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant and � Love Anthony - a story of a mother whose son is born with autism

2. Born Adventurer: The Life of Frank Bickerton, Antarctic Pioneer and � Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea which also takes place in Antarctica.

3. � Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now and � Frog which is a fictional account of a woman from China during the same time period.

4. � The Sugarless Plum a non-fiction memoir and The Painted Girls - both dealing with ballet.

5. The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History and The Goldfinch - both dealing with the underworld of art.

6. � The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and � Bending Toward the Sun: A Mother and Daughter Memoir- both detailing the harrowing experiences of Jewish people during World War II

7. � Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and � The Circle where the main character is also a significant female executive in an Internet company.

Certainly, Sam! I updated your goal. I love your pairing of The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History and The Goldfinch, it's a great idea.

I would like to try for 3 pairs. I may add more, but I'm starting off small.

3/6 books completed
1/3 pairs completed

�MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER
1a- When Rabbit HowlsNonfiction. 1/31/16; 2 stars.
1b-Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls Fiction. 3/20/16; 4 stars.

CULTS
2a-Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple Nonfiction. Cults.
2b-The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly Fiction. 3/23/16; 5 stars

TBD
3a-
3b-

I am happy to see that the idea made it and that you guys seem excited about it. I tried to come up with a non fiction challenge that was different than previous years.

I hope that people who usually do not read non fiction will find this one easier than previous challenges. I think it flows from interests you have instead of making you read categories you might not have much interest for.

Cassandra I'll also join for 5 pairs or 10 books. Thank you :)

Great challenge idea, °ä³ó±ô´Çé! I will go for 5 pairs (10 books).

It's a really wonderful idea, °ä³ó±ô´Çé!

OMG I keep finding ones I'm keen to read - may I change my numbers again to 14? I'll update my list in message 35. Thanks!

I think this is a really cool challenge! I am in for 6 books, three pairs for now but that may go up.

Is it okay if we don't know what the non-fiction book would be until after we read the fiction book? I have lots of fiction books to choose from (a couple of non-fiction books already on my list) but finding co-ordinates or even really what is involved in the book is going to take me reading them first.

If I don't have to pick the non-fiction book right away, I can probably swing around 5, 10 total. This is a really cool challenge, but I don't think I could fit more than that in with all the other challenges I am doing.

Sign me up for 5 pairs. I prefer non-fiction, so my challenge will be finding good fiction to go along with it. This sounds fun!

Stephanie - that's completely fine! You can pick (or change) your books at any time.

What a cool idea! I'm in for 2 pairs.

Cheri, I'm curious about your pairs #5 & 6. Think I'll check out those books independently of this challenge.

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Completed 1/4 books

1a- (Non-Fiction) The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria -currently reading
1b- (Fiction) A Hand Full of Stars -finished

2a-
2b-

The Jazz Bird-Craig Holden.
Prohibition-Thirteen Years that changed America.

I will do 3 pairs, with a total of 6 books, leaving room for other yearly challenges and monthly challenges throughout the year :)

5/6

1a. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
1b. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley
Both books have elements of utopia in them. Atwood's novel features a couple that enters a utopian society, while the Ridley book explains why the world isn't going completely down the drain like the media would have us believe It's a bit more complicated than that.

2a. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor
2b. Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living by Bailey White
Both books are southern fiction and nonfiction.

3a. All the Sad Young Men by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3b. One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
Fitzgerald's book was written and published in the 1920s and the Bryson book is about a particular summer in the 1920s.

This sounds like an interesting challenge. Please sign me up for 2 pairs (4 books). Thanks!

1a. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
1b. A Widow's Walk: A Memoir of 9/11
Both books are about lost loved ones on 9/11

2a. An Equal Music
2b. The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany
Both books are about musicians needing to overcome obstacles to their love

Cassandra, could you please update my goal to 12 books/6 pairs? I found another pair of books I own one of that will work.

(Thanks!) :)