Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Participated in the 2020 list making process and watched one of your favorite prompts just miss the mark? This is the week for you! There are so many ways that you can tackle this one, so let us know how you plan on being creative.

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Suggestions:
List of Suggestions that Didn't Win
This is broken down by poll and designation.

There are a couple ways you can attack this prompt. Here are a few suggestions:
- Choose one prompt before 2020 starts and stick to it
- Limit yourself to only prompts you voted for
- Limit your prompts to close call or polarizing prompts
- Choose a prompt that you downvoted
- Allow prompts from the 2021 list making process as well

ATY Group Listopia

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Optional Questions
1. What are you reading for this category?
2. What prompt does this book fit?
3. How did you choose the prompt?

Since this category has the potential to be way too open, I've decided to pick one prompt and just with it. The prompt I have chosen is xenofiction. My list is:

Artificial Condition
Rogue Protocol
A Night in the Lonesome October



I chose the prompt because I really liked it, and it fit with my reading goals for next year.

I'm doing the same, Angie, but I picked "A book recommended by a celebrity or public figure". I'll probably go with a Reese Witherspoon, Oprah, Obama, or Emma Watson pick.

I'm going to do a "book with horses on the cover or in the story". Just not positive which one, yet! :)

I plan to use the “marine animal” prompt and read Galore by Michael Crummey. It’s been on my TBR for awhile! It’s got a great cover with a whale on it. 🐳

A book related to Earth Day:
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World

or

A debut novel by a person of color:
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

or

A book with more than 20 letters in the title
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay - Elena Ferrante

I am doing a rejects challenge so I'm already planning to use prompts that didn't win and have several options for what to use here. I will probably use "A book by one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 authors," which was a bottom vote in Round 5. I have read and enjoyed many of these authors and have several more on my TBR List.

I rolled the genre generator (twice as according to the prompt) because I wanted a difficult prompt this year. I got fantasy poetry. I have no idea what that would even entail, but I'm definitely excited.

I'm already doing a rejects challenge with prompts I voted for that didn't make it, so I'm probably going to pick a prompt that just barely missed out on a vote for me, which will probably be a book with at least a 4.4 average rating.

Shelley wrote: "I rolled the genre generator (twice as according to the prompt) because I wanted a difficult prompt this year. I got fantasy poetry. I have no idea what that would even entail, but I'm definitely e..."

Maybe something by Amanda Lovelace?

I'll be reading Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran, for the prompt A book about a natural disaster or where a natural disaster is central to the plot.

When the voting process is going on I look for what books I have for all the suggestions, to see what I want to vote for. Usually there's a few options, but sometimes there's a prompt that I have one book that is a perfect fit for, it's so satisfying to find that exact match. This is one of those, it would have been a waste to not use it, and that's why I chose it for this week.

I'm also using a wildcard, which means I'm doing this prompt twice, and that's another one that I had a perfect fit for: A book on a topic we've been told to avoid: sex, politics or religion - A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin

I decided to go with a book related to a tarot card, and used an app to pull a card yesterday since I thought it would be apropos to have a "2020 card". I drew the Nine of Wands - Reversed, which maybe isn't the most positive card to have as your year, considering its implications of needing to double-down on hard work to overcome obstacles or to finish a goal. I could maybe go in a direction of finding say the 9th book in a fantasy series, or I could go more interpretive seeing it as choosing a 'difficult' book to push through to the end of the challenge.

I was hoping for one of the major arcana, but this poses some interesting possibilities. Luckily I'm doing the challenge in order so I'll have lots of time to figure it out.

1. What are you reading for this category? Sam's Letters to Jennifer
2. What prompt does this book fit? A book with the main character's name in the title
3. How did you choose the prompt? I was looking for a slot to fit this book so I could get in on my challenge. It was the number one book off of my tbr list.

1. What are you reading for this category?
2. What prompt does this book fit? A book found on a friend's TBR list (49. A book that fits a prompt from the list of suggestions that didn't win)
3. How did you choose the prompt? Looked for a prompt to fit this book - to be honest.

I read The Gates by John Connolly for this prompt. It was a book written by an Irish author, which was a task that did not win the first mini-poll. I chose this suggestion after looking at the first set of eligible suggestions and comparing it with the books that I have not yet read in my house.

What are you reading for this category? The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.

What prompt does this fit? 49. A book that fits a prompt from the list of suggestions that didn't win. I chose "A book published the year you were born." which is 1961.

How did you choose the prompt? I liked the challenge of looking for books published the year I was born. I looked for books published in 1961 and picked one that appealed to me.

What are you reading for this category? A Mother's Wish by Debbie Macomber.
What prompt does this fit? no 32, a suggestion for a book with China or porcelain in the cover . How did you choose the prompt? I had a book which didn't fit the other topics and luckily this was one of the first that popped up!

I like reading translations from languages other than English so I chose "A book originally written in a language that is NOT one of the 10 most spoken worldwide". So my choice for this has been Quicksand: What It Means to Be a Human Being, a memoir by the Swedish author Henning Mankell best known for his Wallander novels. This was an interesting read, written following a cancer diagnosis in 2014.

I read The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest for this, fulfilling the prompt for a book about revenge. I chose this prompt because I meant to read this book last year, and didn't get time, and because I really enjoyed this series and wanted to finish it.

Jackie wrote: "I decided to go with a book related to a tarot card, and used an app to pull a card yesterday since I thought it would be apropos to have a "2020 card". I drew the Nine of Wands - Reversed, which m..."

I love this idea!! I might have to do the same...

I finished My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, which fulfilled the prompt, "a debut novel by an author of color." A great read, different from books I've read.

I am currently listening to Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb.

Mini Poll 11 - an audiobook

This is only the second audiobook I have listened to. I am challenging myself a bit, I am not a huge fan of audiobooks. Yet I ask my class to listen to me read novels all the time. The ability of the reader makes a huge difference.

My next audiobook will be Home by Julie Andrews Edwards, she reads it herself!

I read I Was Anastasia for Historathon, and it fit the prompt for a book with the MC's name in the title. It's a well crafted dual-timeline book with one timeline going forward from 1917 and the other backward from the 1960s.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read Red Dragon by Thomas Harris for this prompt.
2. What prompt does this book fit?
It fits the prompt 'A Crime Fiction Book' from the second posted mini-poll.
3. How did you choose the prompt?
I went through the list, saw a prompt that inspired me, and chose accordingly. I am planning to read at least the first three of Harris's Hannibal novels (I enjoyed enough of the first one, and the second one has the iconic adaptation pulling for it).

I chose a book set on an island topic for this one.
I am going to read Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.
I remember reading this book in elementary school. I have re-read quite a few books that were assigned reading after leaving school. I find I enjoy them more when I don't HAVE to read them.

I chose the prompt: 'A book featuring a child being raised by someone other than their biological parents' and read Jane Gardam, Faith Fox. The book is beautifully crafted, funny, clever and ruthless. Each character, even each minor one, is clearly delineated. I seek out Jane Gardam's novels, and haven't ever been even slightly disappointed.

I chose the prompt to fit the book.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read Emergency Skin by NK Jemison.

2. What prompt does this book fit?
I chose the prompt "non-human POV".

3. How did you choose the prompt?
I made a list of all the possibles that I thought I could likely find a book to fit, and then discovered this book.

1)The Color Purple by Alice Walker
2)A Story you are familiar with but in a different format
3)To be honest when I picked this book out I forgot to write down the prompt it was for and had to go back through them. That didn't help, I still don't remember which prompt I originally picked. Thankfully this book could fit a couple different prompts. I picked this prompt bc I've seen the movie but have never read the book.

I read Undeath and Taxes 30/03/2020

The prompt i used was "title initial letters in AROUND THE YEAR"
I picked the prompt at the beginning of the year using something I thought i could get a fit for

I really enjoyed this book it is the second in a series and i will probably read more

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cryby Mary Higgins Clark

A book with a theme of discrimination, persecution or prejudice (eg. race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity) was the prompt it fit into.

https://titlesurfingwithtraci.blogspo...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

1. What are you reading for this category?

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

2. What prompt does this book fit?

A book with more than 20 letters in the title

3. How did you choose the prompt?

I was looking for a prompt that this book would fit because I wanted to read it and this one was the first I came to that worked.

1) I read Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

2) It fit "dark comedy or satire"

3) I rather like the genre and had a different book penciled in for it originally, but after the first page decided I wasn't in the right mindset for that particular book. I ended up stumbling on this one on my library Overdrive app and flew through in two days. The book looks like an Ikea catalog and each chapter starts with a new "product" image/description (like the Lirippip Wardrobe, which ends up a major plot point btw). Over all, I wish the satire had been a bit more subtle, as half-way through it devolves into a bunch of horror cliches that don't feel all that related to the Ikea-like Orsk theme. But I laughed, and cringed, and was diverted from quarantine so there's that.

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Gambler by Denise Grover Swank

2. What prompt does this book fit?
Book with flowers on the cover

3. How did you choose the prompt?
I chose a prompt that fit a book I had already planned to read

I read Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas,Alison Layland (Translator)
#49 A book that fits a prompt from the list of suggestions that didn't win. I picked the prompt A book originally written in a language other than English or your mother tongue. The original language was German.
I went about picking the prompt backwards. I read the book first for World Book Day. I was going to use it for prompt #10 a book between 400-600 pages. Then once I finished the book I read through all my unfinished prompts & pick #49 as the hardest to fill at this point. Also I wanted to take advantage of the fact I read a book in translation.

I'm choosing 'A book from a child's perspective' cause it's not on the list and I'm reading for the prompt.

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Family Upstairs
2. What prompt does this book fit?
A book with flowers or greenery on the cover.
3. How did you choose the prompt?
I had a few books that I wanted to definitely read this year so I found a prompt that it would fit with.

I read Step brother with benefits 1 by Mia Clark

the prompt I used was a title with more than 20 letters in the title

I have really gotten into this series

I read The Dragon in the Sea by Frank Herbert. I had planned on sticking with a prompt I picked in Dec but I read a book that doesn't fit anywhere else, without rearranging several books, so it's going here! The prompt I used was "A book in which one of the main characters is involved in an experiment". I read the book first and then looked for a prompt. I chose this one because it is a prompt I've never seen in all of the challenges I've done.

A book originally written in a language other than English or your mother tongue- Britt-Marie Was Here

For this week I read Recipe for Persuasion. I chose the prompt "A book that is a retelling of another work (classic lit, ancient lit, mythology, fairy tales, etc.)" because I needed to find a place for the book! That is a prompt I love though

This week I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The book fit the prompt "a book by an author whose last book you didn't like". Since so many people loved this book, I thought I'd give it a shot, since I really loathed last year's fan favorite 'Daisy Jones'. I gave EH three stars, since I found the plot more engaging than DJ, but still overwritten and preachy. This author is just not for me.

22 letters for a book I picked up at the library on a whim: The Hidden World of the Fox by Adele Brand. This was for the prompt "A book with more than 20 letters in the title."

49. A Book that Fits a Prompt from the List of Suggestions that Didn't Win - A Book with the Main Character's Name in the Title

I read Circe by Madeline Miller.

I chose this as from the list of possibles I was pretty sure it would be easy to find a book that had the main character in the title. basically, it was an 'easy' prompt to complete :)

Emily wrote: "49. A Book that Fits a Prompt from the List of Suggestions that Didn't Win - A Book with the Main Character's Name in the Title
...
I chose this as from the list of possibles I was pretty sure it would be easy to find a book that had the main character in the title. basically, it was an 'easy' prompt to complete :)"

Great idea! Picking a prompt to use for this prompt has been overwhelming, but this one I can make work. Thank you for making this easier for me!:-)

1. What are you reading for this category?
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
2. What prompt does this book fit?
A book you picked just for the cover
3. How did you choose the prompt?From a list of books becoming movies this year.

1. What are you reading for this category? The Guardians of Erum and the Calamitous Child of Socotra by A. Ali Hasan Ali
2. What prompt does this book fit? A book with more than 20 letters in the title
3. How did you choose the prompt? I kept changing which book/prompt I would use for this challenge, and when I finished this, I wanted to use it for ATY and the title led me to the prompt.

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Raven King
2. What prompt does this book fit?
A book with sad, depressing or dark elements.
3. How did you choose the prompt?
I picked this in order to fit the book I read under one of the prompts.

1. What are you reading for this category? Stardust
2. What prompt does this book fit? A book whose audiobook is read by the author
3. How did you choose the prompt? I picked it to fit the book.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read The Last Passenger by Charles Finch
2. What prompt does this book fit?
"A book with a theme of discrimination, persecution or prejudice..."
3. How did you choose the prompt?
Went through the lists and picked the one I liked the best

1. What are you reading for this category? The Toll
2. What prompt does this book fit? Non-human POV
3. How did you choose the prompt?
I didn't plan very well for what I was needing to read next and suddenly this prompt needed to be filled. Reading through the discussion I noticed Severina mentioned it and thought of the Thunderhead in the Scythe series and looked to see if book 3 was available at the library and it was - decision made.