Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

We love mixing music with books, and this week, you are going to find a book inspired by a song lyric in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire"! This song is packed with historical events, important people, and pop culture references. Have some fun, and let others know what you are reading to serve as inspiration!

-----------------------------------
Suggestions:
"We Didn't Start the Fire" Song Lyrics
"We Didn't Start the Fire" Wikipedia with Events Broken Down by Year

There are a ton of directions you could go with this, but here are some options:

10 Books Inspired by JFK
13 Peter Pan Retellings for Adults
Fiction and Nonfiction about HIV/AIDS
10 Cold War Novels Worth Reading
6 Books about the Red Scare
15 Books about the Royal Family
Fiction and Nonfiction about the Space Race

ATY Group Listopia

-----------------------------------
Optional Questions
1. What are you reading for this category?
2. What part of the song inspired this pick?

I'm planning to read The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story for this one, which was inspired by the line about North and South Korea.

I'm considering Bellwether by Connie Willis (pop-culture, Hula hoops) and On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss (vaccine).

I had planned to read The Right Stuff for STEM this year, but with time running out, I might use the book for this prompt. (The song references John Glenn, who is featured in the book.)

My backup choice is 11/22/63. (The song references JFK's assassination.)

I plan on watching all three movies mentioned in the book, then read a book related to one of them.

I'm thinking either Full Disclosure or Like a Love Story, which both deal with AIDS

Going to go with The Catcher in the Rye for this prompt, about time I finally read it!

Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11 (the song says "moon shot")

Lots of choices for this one! My top choices right now are:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
Rosenbergs: The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow or The Public Burning by Robert Coover
James Dean: East of Eden I've read it before but it's so good it's worth a re-read!

I'm going to read Hemingway, I couldn't decide between The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls or A Farewall to Arms, but finally decided on The Sun Also Rises.

I've just started looking over the possibilities for this one but I just finished City of Girls today and wanted to suggest it for this topic. Walter Winchell who is mentioned in the song appears in the book and is involved in an important plot point. I highly recommend this book.

Suzanne wrote: "I've just started looking over the possibilities for this one but I just finished City of Girls today and wanted to suggest it for this topic. Walter Winchell who is mentioned in th..."

That's great to know, Suzanne! Thank you!

I am thinking I'll read My Long List of Impossible Things by Michelle Barker, which is set in post WWII Germany/ the Soviet bloc. For some reason it's not listed on Goodreads yet, but it's on Netgalley and B&N and Amazon. Releases in March 2020.
It could also work for a book with a silhouette on the cover.
If not, I'll finish The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

I have a long list of nonfiction about the topics in the song I wish I knew more about:
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
King Leopold's Ghost (Belgian Congo)
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs
An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962
Ho Chi Minh: A Life
Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion
Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War With Militant Islam

I’m grateful for a topic that lends itself so easily to nonfiction, since they can be hard to slot in sometimes.

I love that I heard about The Secrets We Kept just after we selected this prompt and I immediately thought, ooh Doctor Zhivago is mentioned in We Didn't Start the Fire! However I do have a long list of non-fiction that fits too, so I'll see when I get there.

I really think I'm going to go with The Secrets We Kept as well, Ellie. It just fits so well in here, and I've wanted to read it.

I was hoping to read The Chelsea Girls for this (it connects to McCarthy), but haven't managed to get a copy before finalising my plan, so I've chosen The Calculating Stars, it's a bit of a stretch, but it connects to "Moon Shot".

The Wikipedia article mentions James Dean starring in an adaptation of East of Eden, so maybe I'll read that. Either that or a book about North Korea, I've got a few of those.

Ann wrote: "I plan on watching all three movies mentioned in the book, then read a book related to one of them."

There are actually multiple movies based on books mentioned in the song.

Bridge on The River Kwai
Ben Hur
Psycho
Lawrence of Arabia
Peyton Place
Dr. Zhivago
On the Road
17 based on Hemingway books (LIST)

Plus there are musicals mentioned in the song that are also movies and books

Peter Pan
South Pacific (Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener)
The King and I (Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon)

Weirdly, there seem to be several books coming out in 2020 that fit this prompt:

Red Letter Days by Sarah-Jane Stratford (McCarthy)
The Girl in White Gloves by Kerri Maher (Gracy Kelly)
The Grace Kelly Dress by Brenda Janowitz (Gracy Kelly)
The Queen's Secret by Karen Harper (Queen Elizabeth)
And They Called It Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton (Jackie Kennedy)

As well as a few recent-ish publications:
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott (Dr. Zhivago)
Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor (Grace Kelly)
The Gown by Jennifer Robson (Queen Elizabeth)

I'm going for a spy story, inspired by the mention of The Rosenbergs

The Secrets we Kept offered great insight into what was going on at the time that Dr. Zhivago was written

I have always loved this song. What a brilliant prompt!

My choices are:
The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan (for "Russians in Afghanistan")
The Great Believers (AIDS)
While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement (numerous civil rights mentions)
White Ghost Girls (Vietnam war)

America Was Hard To Find seems written for this prompt. I found it on LitHub's Top 50 for 2019 but I've never heard of it before viewing that list.

Whoooo this is a good prompt! I think I'll either go with Man's Search for Meaning - bonus points for this book literally having fire on the front, ha - or The Secrets We Kept... so many possibilities!

Someone suggested Summer of '49 to me as it relates to Joe DiMaggio. As a Yankees fan, I’m leaning to it but there are so many good choices for this prompt!

Hi 👋🏻 would The First Lady by James Patterson count for this 😊

I'm thinking of The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution by Peter Hessler.

It is about the recent Arab Spring mostly, but he talks about both Nassar and the Suez Canal crisis, which get mentions in separate parts of the song.

First, what a great prompt! "We Didn't Start the Fire" is so underrated—so much history and culture in just three minutes. Thank you!

If you want something rather offbeat, check out Angels in America by Tony Kushner. Part one is Millennium Approaches; part two is Perestroika. I read it in theatre class in college. From Wikipedia:

The play is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s. Certain major and minor characters are supernatural beings (angels) or deceased persons (ghosts).

It's definitely not run of the mill, and it wasn't really my thing, but it has won numerous awards. But it really resonated with about a third of my class, which is pretty remarkable.

Roy Cohn (second verse of the song) is a significant character.

ZeeJane wrote: "Going to go with The Catcher in the Rye for this prompt, about time I finally read it!"
LOL Me, too. Though there's a lot here...

Though Tales of the South Pacific, Anna and the King of Siam, Peter Pan, Peyton PlaceDoctor Zhivago, On the Road, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, Stranger in a Strange Land, Psycho...

Reckless takes place during 50s
One could say that Strong Medicine was inspired by the Thalidomide children, Thalidomide Kid most certainly was
Planet of the Apes fits the "space monkey" theme
Ceremony in Lone Tree, and Outside Valentine are based on the Starkweather murders
Sputnik's Child is very interesting novel about a woman born the day Sputnik was launched...
The Chelsea Girls is about McCarthy era
Coronation is about Elizabeth II's coronation
The Book of Daniel, The Hours Count and The Bell Jar fit the Rosenbergs.
Next Year in Havana... perhaps The Distant Marvels, The Book of Lost Saints, Telex from Cuba, Before Night Falls, When We Left Cuba
The Poisonwood Bible set during the Congo Crisis
The Doris Day Vintage Film Club feels like something light as a counterweight to all this seriousness

I read , in which Ernest Hemingway was a major influencer, and the subject of five chapters.

I'm reading Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood for this one ("Ayatollah's in Iran"), and it is absolutely living up to the glowing reviews I've been hearing about it for years! You could also count it for "inspired by a leading news story", depending on how you interpret that prompt.

1. What are you reading for this category? Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir
2. What part of the song inspired this pick? I actually didn't originally have it slotted here but realized it would work and I didn't like what I had in the spot. The book was really good. I listened to it on audio and it was the secret service agent that covered Mrs. Kennedy. He was her agent from when JFK got elected and until a year after the assassination. It gave a lot of insight that I haven't really heard before and I have read a few books on JFK and Jackie. Parts of the book were definitely heartbreaking. I'm planning on reading his other books now. He wrote another one on all the Presidents he covered as well as another book just on the assassination of JFK.

Steve wrote: "Someone suggested Summer of '49 to me as it relates to Joe DiMaggio. As a Yankees fan, I’m leaning to it but there are so many good choices for this prompt!"

I loved that book. It made me a fan of baseball!

My kid gave me Doctor Who: Twelve Doctors of Christmas for this last Christmas because we watch Doctor Who together all the time. No spoilers, but the Doctor encounters several of the events in the song.

I read Ban This Book by Alan Gratz. It is a middle years novel that I
will be reading my class when we finish the current read-aloud.

I connected to this prompt because it discusses banning books and Peyton Place was banned in places and apparently considered 'indecent' here in Canada. Which is weird because I read it as a teen, my mom's copy from the 1970's.

I read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

I read Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand which connected to the song by Nixon, Moonshot, Ho Chi Minh, Woodstock and maybe more.

I will be reading The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

For this prompt, I read Naked Lunch: Modern Classic Collection by William S. Burroughs. I selected it because Jack Kerouac, a pioneer of the Beat Generation along with Burroughs, appeared in the assigned lyrics and was responsible for the title of this book.
It was not an easy read. It contained crystal snippets of insight and a pounding sense of urgency, but I think that it stretched its satire to the point where much of its importance was probably lost to many a trash bin before imparted.

There were so many ways to go with this prompt, but in the end I chose The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J. Church. The story includes bold themes like science, ambition and revolution and takes place in the 1940s. The title alludes to the development of the H-bomb mentioned early on in the song.

I read China in Ten Words by Yu Hua. Throughout the essays, the author refers to the period of time when China was under martial law, specifically June Fourth 1989 - the Tiananmen Square protests. Side note: In order to get around the censorship of the date June 4th, people started calling it May 35th, until the officials got wise to the meaning of that date and banned it also.

A fun multimedia book is Countdown which takes place at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. The print book has mockups of newspapers and other memorabilia and the audiobook has sound effects and recordings.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence

2. What part of the song inspired this pick?
There's a line about the h-bomb, and the book is about nuclear war and it's aftermath.

I read Noble House by James Clavell.

It is set in Hong Kong in 1963. Major motiff is the capitalist society of Hong Kong vs. the Communist mainland (Red China from the song). Also, briefly mentioned in the book is the Profumo scandal, which is also mentioned in the song (British politician sex) the Suez scandal (trouble in the Suez)

Katalin Street by Magda Szabó was my choice for this category.

Set in Budapest, Hungary from 1938 through 1969, it follows the events during World War II and after.

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev,
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez

Andrea wrote: "For this prompt, I read Naked Lunch: Modern Classic Collection by William S. Burroughs. I selected it because Jack Kerouac, a pioneer of the Beat Generation along with Burroughs, app..."

I read Naked Lunch for another prompt. I had the same feeling about it. Difficult to read and enjoy. I can see why it would have been shocking in its time, and why that was important, but outside of that, it did not feel much like a great book to me

1. What are you reading for this category?

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoğlu - nonfiction
Interesting, but it's quite a serious and academic read.

2. What part of the song inspired this pick?
I chose the book before looking for a prompt for it to fit into. This actually covers a lot. From what I've read of the book so far:
- Red China
- North Korea, South Korea
- Belgians in the Congo
- China's under martial law

I just read The Mexican Flyboy, by Alfredo Véa. Reading it for this prompt, I would describe it as a main character who decides to put out the fire. By flying, time travelling, and rescuing everybody referred to in the song who suffered and died. And everybody else who is part of the world burning, ever since the world's been turning.