Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

52 / 52

✔ 1. A book from the Goodreads Choice Awards 2016 :
The Trespasser by Tana French

✔ 2. A book with at least 2 perspectives (multiple points of view) :
Swimming to Elba by Silvia Avallone

✔ 3. A book you meant to read in 2016 :
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

✔ 4. A title that doesn't contain the letter "E" :
Pinocchio & Robinson : pour une éthique de la lecture by Alberto Manguel
(no "E" in the main title! ;-))

✔ 5. A historical fiction :
Reunion by Fred Uhlman

✔ 6. A book being released as a movie in 2017 :
The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

✔ 7. A book with an animal on the cover or in the title :
Just so Stories by Rudyard Kipling

✔ 8. A book written by a person of color :
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

✔ 9. A book in the middle of your To Be Read list :
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

✔ 10. A dual-timeline novel :
Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra

✔ 11. A category from another challenge :
Ein perfekter Kellner (A Perfect Waiter) by Alain Claude Sulzer
(Read Harder Challenge, an LGBTQ+ romance novel)

✔ 12. A book based on a myth :
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

✔ 13. A book recommended by one of your favorite authors :
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (recommended by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

✔ 14. A book with a strong female character :
Angela Merkel: Une Allemande (presque) comme les autres by Florence Autret

✔ 15. A book written or set in Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland) : Invisible Links by Selma Lagerlöf

✔ 16. A mystery :
A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

✔ 17. A book with illustrations :
Dans les coulisses de la Comédie-Française by Laetitia Cénac and Damien Rondeau

✔ 18.. A really long book (600+ pages) :
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Done! ;-)

✔19. A New York Times best-seller :
The Dry by Jane Harper

✔ 20. A book that you've owned for a while but haven't gotten around to reading :
Briefe an einen jungen Dichter by Rainer Maria Rilke

✔ 21. A book that is a continuation of a book you've already read :
The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

✔ 22. A book by an author you haven't read before :
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

✔ 23. A book from the BBC "The Big Read" list :
Matilda by Roald Dahl

✔ 24. A book written by at least two authors :
Conversations à Buenos Aires by Jorge Luis Borges, Ernesto Sabato and Orlando Barone

✔ 25. A book about a famous historical figure :
La Rose dans le Bus jaune by Eugène Ebodé
(about Rosa Parks)

✔ 26. An adventure book :
Waltharii Poesis, Vol. 1: Das Waltharilied Ekkehards I. Von St. Gallen Nach Den Geraldushandschriften Herausgegeben Und Erlautert + Waltharii Poesis, Volume 2

✔ 27.A book by one of your favorite author :
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

✔ 28. A non-fiction :
Long Walk To Freedom: The Autobiography Of Nelson Mandela

✔ 29. A book published outside the 4 major publishing houses (Simon & Schuster; HarperCollins; Penguin Random House; Hachette Livre) :
Camille Claudel, la sculpture jusqu'à la folie by Rolande Causse

✔ 30. A book from Goodreads Top 100 YA Books :
Tintenherz (Inkheart) by Cornelia Funke

✔ 31. A book from a sub-genre of your favorite genre :
VIP: roman by Laurent Chalumeau
(a "vaudeville" thriller)

✔ 32. A book with a long title (5+ words, excluding subtitle) :
Le féminisme en sept slogans et citations by Anne-Charlotte Husson and Thomas Mathieu

✔ 33. A magical realism novel :
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

✔ 34. A book set in or by an author from the Southern Hemisphere :
The Killer Koala by Kenneth Cook

✔ 35. A book where one of the main characters is royalty :
Maria Stuart by Stefan Zweig

✔ 36. A Hugo Award winner or nominee :
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

✔ 37. A book you choose randomly :
Wangari Maathai:
[The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees by Franck Prévot and Aurelia Fronty
(I choose it for its beautiful cover)

✔ 38. A novel inspired by a work of classic literature : Meursault, contre-enquête (The Meursault Investigation) by Kamel Daoud after The Stranger by Albert Camus

✔ 39. An epistolary fiction :
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

✔ 40. A book published in 2017 :
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

✔ 41. A book with an unreliable narrator :
The Life Before Her Eyes by Laura Kasischke

✔ 42. A best book of the 21st century (so far) :
Le Grand Marin by Catherine Poulain
Very powerful book about a woman who goes fishing in Alaska - Hope it will be translated in English soon!

✔ 43. A book with a chilling atmosphere (scary, unsettling, cold) :
Fatherland by Nina Bunjevac

✔ 44. A recommendation from "What Should I Read Next" :
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

✔ 45. A book with a one-word title :
Persuasion by Jane Austen

✔ 46. A time travel novel :
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

✔47. A past suggestion that didn't win :
A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel
(a book that takes place in more than one country)

✔ 48. A banned book :
Les damnés de la terre (The Wretched of the Earth) by Frantz Fanon

✔ 49. A book from someone else's bookshelf :
Nouvelles graphiques d'Afrique by Laurent Bonneau

✔ 50. A Penguin Modern Classic - any edition :
Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges

✔ 51. A collection (e.g. essays, short stories, poetry, plays) :
Stories 1,2,3,4 by Eugène Ionesco and Etienne Delessert

✔ 52. A book set in a fictional location :
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (set in Three Pines, Quebec)

Thank you Katie! I agree with you about Things Fall Apart. This book gives food for thought...

I love the Just-So stories. We had the record when I was young and listened to it constantly. I would live to know if you have a favorite after reading them.

The poisonwood bible was one of my all time faves really loved that book!!!

Anastasia wrote: "I love the Just-So stories. We had the record when I was young and listened to it constantly. I would live to know if you have a favorite after reading them."

Hi Anastasia! I read these stories with my children (6 and 9), and they were both fascinated (So was I!) . I think our favorite one is "The Cat That Walked By Himself", because the cat is so clever!

Anastasia wrote: "I love the Just-So stories. We had the record when I was young and listened to it constantly. I would live to know if you have a favorite after reading them."

I recently heard the reading of the one about the kangaroo on BBC Radio 4. Very fun.

I've just been reading your Readers Choice post for the third quarter but thought it more appropriate to comment here. A lot of the books you mention sound really interesting and I will probably add a few of them! I was particularly interested in Swimming to Elba and have just added it to my TBR. Interested that the original title translates as 'Steel' I think?