Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion
2021 Challenge - Regular
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07 - A book where the main character works at your current or dream job
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Natalia
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Dec 04, 2020 03:59PM

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If you like mysteries, Gerald Elias has a series about a blind violin teacher that is quite good.


One of the main characters owns a flower shop

I recommend The Calculating Stars.

If you like historical fiction, try

It is set at medieval Cambridge and the main character teaches medicine. Very Good!

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
Angels & Demons or any of the other Robert Langdon books by Dan Brown
Can't think of anything current.

Try this one:

The author volunteered at an animal rescue in Ecuador and it's great.

My o..."
Mr. Penumbra's is good!

I used to work at a hotel and I enjoyed this book!

I saw Ordinary People mentioned when I was looking for books about counselors (I'm in a niche field too - voc rehab counselor.) Have not read this book, but it seems like the main character kid went to therapy.

Anyone has a suggestion?

There’s a cozy mystery series by Kate Collins that features a florist. First book is Mum's the Word.

I also teach at a college, and found this list. Maybe there will be something on it that you like.
/list/show/2...

I also read this for the 2019 Challenge and it was an interesting:
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
/book/show/3...

The book I just finished had a main character who wants to be a school counselor and applies for a job as one. Does that count? It's Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis.

I'm not sure how different the jobs are or if this would qualify, but one of the two protagonists in New Waves by Kevin Nguyen is a programmer.
On a more fantastical note, I believe the protagonist of Ted Chiang's The Lifecycle of Software Objects is a software developer.

The main character in The Boyfriend Project is an app developer; I think that's pretty similar

Queen/Princess - American Royals and the sequel Majesty
Matchmaker - Playing with Matches
Assistant to a pop star - Limelight
Spy - The Alice Network
Antique furniture appraiser - A Paris Apartment
Admissions counselor - Small Admissions
Stylist - The Wedding Party

What is your dream job? Or your current job? What book has a co..."
I also chose a bookstore owner, Lydia in American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

Edit: actually I just remembered at some point I also dreamed about being a librarian.


Dan Brown's character Robert Langdon is a professor

There’s a cozy series that features a lit agent, would that be close enough? The series is by Lucy Arlington, first book is Buried in a Book.
There’s also a series by Julia Buckley featuring a writer’s apprentice. First book is A Dark and Stormy Murder.

* The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
* Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod, first book in the Peter Shandy series
* The Square Root of Murder by Camille Minichino (orig. published under Ada Madison)


- Assassin: Jhereg
- Cat (being a cat is a GREAT job and these cats take it very seriously): For He Can Creep, Varjak Paw
- Cavalier and/or necromancer: Gideon the Ninth
- Criminal mastermind: Six of Crows, The Gilded Wolves, The Lies of Locke Lamora
- Demon hunter: City of Bones and the rest of the Shadowhunter books
- King: King of Scars (would also work for spy or royal mage)
- Mage: A Darker Shade of Magic (royal mage), The Poppy War (military mage)
- Murderbot: All Systems Red
- Paladin: Paladin's Grace
- Revolutionary: The Final Empire
- Supervillain: Vicious
And some more regular jobs:
- Bookstore owner: Carter & Lovecraft
- Film director: Radiance
- Librarian: Strange the Dreamer
- Linguist: The Library at Mount Char
- Teacher: Senlin Ascends, Permafrost, Confessions

I mentioned this but it might be kinda buried in my post, so: Catherynne Valente's Radiance is about a famous director, Severin, and her father, who is also a director. It's told in document format, so you get excerpts from documentaries, film clips, interviews and journal entries from movie stars, etc.
Kelly wrote: "Can anyone think of books where the character works in a museum?"
If you're into urban fantasy, the main character of Kraken works at London’s Natural History Museum.

The Other Black Girl is out next year and the blurb says they are editorial assistants. The main character in The Flatshare works in publishing but I think she's in publicity, I can't remember now.

Magpie Murders
Moonflower Murders
The Eighth Detective

Newer
Plain Bad Heroines
Interior Chinatown
The Electric Hotel
The Fade Out: The Complete Collection
Penny Nichols
Design for Dying
Older
The Player
The Last Tycoon
The Day of the Locust
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Moving Pictures
Novelizations of Reality
The Only Woman in the Room
The Girls in the Picture
West of Sunset
Anthony Horowitz is an actual screenwriter (more for TV than movies) who wrote himself in as a sidekick to the detective in these books, which I really enjoyed
The Word Is Murder
The Sentence is Death

Ellie I'm a software tester too! I have Microserfs on my TBR, last time we had this prompt (without the dream job part) I read one with a character who works at a software company. I still haven't decided if I'm doing Microserfs or going with the dream job aspect and reading about a librarian.

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's
McDonald's: Behind The Arches

What about a book about art/precious items theft? There are a ton of options.
Or, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

/to..."
Ya know, I've had this little, persistant feeling in the back of my mind all year that I should be logging books I read in the jobs and locations folders in case they came up again, but I didn't do it. I'm playing in there now, though! Weeeee!!
/topic/group...

Maybe something about person who works with students, but isn't a professor?

Medical/ Health Care professional
Unnatural Causes: The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologists by Richard Shepherd
The Prison Doctor by Amanda Brown
Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s Story by Leah Hazard
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh
Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table by Stephen Westaby
Emergency Admissions: Memoirs of an Ambulance Driver by Kit Wharton
Life in His Hands; the True Story of a Neurosurgeon and a Pianist by Susan Wyndham
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay
Journalist-
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War by Asne Seierstad
Musician
The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939�45 by Wladyslaw Szpilman
Royalty
My Husband and I: The Inside Story of 70 Years of the Royal Marriage by Ingrid Seward
Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words by Andrew Morton
Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow by Lucy Worsley
Politician
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts
Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader by Madeleine Chapman
Jo Cox: More in Common by Brendan Cox
Fashion designer
The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe by Angela Kelly
Chef
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain
Spilling the Beans by Clarissa Dickson Wright
Sport/ Athlete
Open by Andre Agassi
Vet
Listening to the Animals: Becoming the Supervet by Noel Fitzpatrick
Lawyer
The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
In Your Defence: Stories of Life and Law by Sarah Langford
Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee
Police officer
Catching a Serial Killer: My hunt for murderer Christopher Halliwell by Stephen Fulcher
The Secret: A shocking true story of adultery and murder by Deric Henderson

I found it quite dated when I read it in 2009, so I'm not sure if it will have aged well, but it was fun to see a tester in a novel at least. I'm probably going to pick an unrealistic dream job this time round, thankfully someone at PS was listening to those of us with jobs novelists don't like writing about!

Daisy Jones & The Six! Get the audio version.


There’s a cozy series that features a lit agent, would that be close enough? The series is by Luc..."
Oh a lit agent also sounds fun! Thank you!

Magpie Murders
Moonflower Murders
[book:The Eighth Detective|53..."
Oh wow The Eighth Detective sounds awesome. Thank you!

Grown
Bel Canto
We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep
A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing
The Subtweet
Echo
I'll Be the One

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