Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week, we are turning to a deck of cards -- the Tarot Major Arcana cards. The Major Arcana card meanings are deep and complex, and they are said to represent the structure of human consciousness and hold the keys to life lessons passed down through the ages.

About the Cards:
Also known as the Trump Cards, the Major Arcana cards include 21 numbered cards and 1 unnumbered card (the Fool). The Fool is the main character of the Major Arcana and makes his journey through each of the cards, meeting new teachers and learning new life lessons along the way, and eventually reaching the completion of his journey with the World card. This is known as the Fool's Journey and is a helpful way of understanding the story line of the Major Arcana Tarot card meanings.

Some of our members have decided to start a side challenge of reading one book per card, and they have some great ideas! You can find their plans and explanations here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading for this prompt, and do you have any recommendations?

I'm planning to go with The Boys : A Memoir of Hollywood and Family. Bec gave me the idea of relating it to The Star. The book is about the Howards, a family of Hollywood actors/director, and Ron Howard is definitely a star.

My initial reaction to this prompt is to use keywords for finding books. I am thinking of using for the Fool A Death in the Venetian Quarter: A Medieval Mystery which is the 3rd book in the Fool's Guild series.

It sounds like others are using what the cards represent as a way to match a book to the card. I am curious to see how everyone goes about this challenge.

I'll be doing the side challenge and am still coming up with options, so I'll be leaning on that thread heavily.

A few I have already pinned down:

The Fool - Shakespeare for Squirrels
The Lovers - The Golden Couple or Book Lovers
The Chariot - Christine
The Star - Stardust
The Moon - How High We Go in the Dark (moons on the cover)
The Sun - Klara and the Sun

I will be overlapping with the main challenge as well.

Pam and Lori provided many descriptive words that really help match a book with a card. I matched some of my 2021 books to cards, take a look and see if you agree.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Angie, Ron Howard is very successful, and I get the impression that he is also a very positive person. Based on the descriptions I think this book will also fit The Sun, and maybe even The World.

I plan to use The Priestess of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I originally drew the Priestess card so I want to stick with it. I am really looking forward to the Tarot side challenge!

I might use Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach, which has a spaceship named The Glorious Fool. Or I might use the card meanings to make some other book fit the prompt.

Devil, Pope, High Priestess - chosen by generatorland.com 9/4/21
Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer
Pope Joan - Donna Woolfolk Cross
Zelda Fitzgerald: The Tragic, Meticulously Researched Biography of the Jazz Age's High Priestess - Sally Kline

I'll be doing the Tarot Major Arcana Challenge also.

I'm going to try for the side challenge, but so far I only have 2 books picked out:

Cinder book 1 in the Lunar Chronicles = The Moon
Book Lovers = The Lovers

Ooh, I found an article linking tarot cards to authors.
It's on bookriot.com / authors-as-tarot-cards/
https://bookriot.com/authors-as-tarot...

I posted the list on our side challenge page. I definitely agree that Rivers Solomon books fit The Moon.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

NancyJ wrote: "Ooh, I found an article linking tarot cards to authors."

This is super cool! Thanks for sharing!

I'm planning to read The Devil's Harvest: A Ruthless Killer, a Terrorized Community, and the Search for Justice in California's Central Valley since not only is the Devil a card, but the book also deals with Justice and Death and Judgement, which are Major Arcana as well. True crime about a very prolific serial killer for hire in the Central California agricultural region.

I'm planning on The Devil and Mary Ann by Catherine Cookson

I am going to read The Magician. Other magician books:

The Magicians; The Magician's Nephew.

These are books I've enjoyed that fit the category:

The Fool
Fools and Mortals
Conspiracy of Fools

The Magician
The Night Circus
The Winter King (Merlin)

The High Priestess
The Queens of Innis Lear
Matrix

The Empress
The Queen of the Night

The Emperor
The Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard
The Garden of Evening Mists

The Lovers
Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet
The Only Story
The Course of Love
Shotgun Lovesongs
The Japanese Lover
Love and Other Consolation Prizes

The Chariot
The Painted Veil (a woman is carried in a sort of chariot for many miles over mountains)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (actual chariot races)

Strength

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Resistance Women

The Hierophant
The Queens of Innis Lear
Death Comes for the Archbishop (Special Annotated Edition): by Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather
The Book of Strange New Things

The Hermit
The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
Norwegian Wood
An Island
Suttree
Convenience Store Woman

Wheel of Fortune
Pachinko
The Great Believers
Daughter of Fortune
The Colour
The Luminaries

Justice
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

The Hanged Man
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down

Death
The End of Your Life Book Club
Imagine Me Gone
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
The Immortalists
Grief is the Thing with Feathers, On Grief and Grieving, Mindset Carol Dweck, The Art of Happiness 10th Anniversary Edition 4 Books Collection Set
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

Temperance
Desperation Road
The Whiskey Sea

The Devil
The Master and Margarita
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

The Tower
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
The Keep
Madam
The Bird Artist

The Star
A Bend in the Stars
The Map of Salt and Stars
The Sun Is Also a Star
Bewilderment

The Moon
Moon Tiger
Seasons of the Moon

The Sun
The Sun Is Also a Star
Klara and the Sun

Judgement
Burial Rites
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Sentence

The World
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
To The Bright Edge of the World
News of the World

Joy D wrote: "These are books I've enjoyed that fit the category:

The Fool
Fools and Mortals
Conspiracy of Fools

The Magician
The Night Circus

The High Priestess
[..."


Excellent examples Joy! Thanks. I have several of those books on my long tbr. I think I have Shotgun Lovesongs as a possibility for small town/rural area. I'll be reading The Sentence this month (I hope). I really loved Bewilderment.

What do you think about Bel Canto? I think I put it in three different spots based on different subplots/characters.

NancyJ wrote: "What do you think about Bel Canto? I think I put it in three different spots based on different subplots/characters."

I loved it - it was 4.5 stars for me. I would probably put it under "Wheel of Fortune"

Another book where one of the main characters is a magician:
The Immortalists

Earlier in 2021 I enjoyed The Runaway Wife which would work for The Hermit.

I enjoyed Serpent & Dove for this category.

I used Black Sun because there is a High Priestess.

This time we draw the Tower.

Reading The Dark Tower.

I read You Can’t Be Serious for the Fool. First because as a comedic actor, Kal Penn is a modern day jester/fool. Second, the meanings behind the card (vulnerable, naïve, adventurous, open, purity, innocence, risk) all work wih his journey, especially risk.

Some choices that I have read and enjoyed

DEATH-
The Death of Jane Lawrence
Mort

DEVIL
Silver on the Road
Dance with the Devil

FOOL
Fool Moon
Shakespeare for Squirrels

EMPRESS
The Empress of Salt and Fortune

I think I will read one of these
The City We Became (Magician)
Death vs. Cupid (Death)
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies
Working for the Devil (Devil)
Fool (Fool)

Emily wrote: "Some of our members have decided to start a side challenge of reading one book per card, and they have some great ideas! You can find their plans and explanations here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

I love reading how others interpret the prompts and all the cool ideas everyone thinks up. It's one of my favorite things about this group. :)

I am reading Sisters & Husbands by Connie Briscoe for The Lovers.

I read Later by Stephen King for the Death card. my husband recommended it to me...it is a short book (250 or so pages) and the premise is a boy/teen can see and talk with dead people.

I read Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which fits for multiple cards. One of the main characters is a Hermit living in a Tower, until he is visited by a young royal who thinks he is a Magician that can save her kingdom.

The Ex Hex not only has a magician but a tarot card deck is used with the characters as the various cards.

I read Just Like You by Nick Hornby, for the Lovers card

Do you all think Hell of a Book would work here?

I will be reading The Innocence of Father Brown relating it to the Heirophant ( high priest).

Related to The Emperor, I have read Ruined by Amy Tintera. 3.5 stars

I started the Stalking Jack the Ripper series this year. I got to the third book Escaping from Houdini and noticed that cards are being held on the cover, the top one being the death card. I'm reading in order so I'm going to hold off on the series for now so I can read it here.

I read The Magician by Colm Tóibín for The Magician card.

What are you reading for this prompt?
I read Death of an Airman by Christopher St. John Sprigg
This was for the Death card

I am using City of Girls for this. It is for the Devil card based on the description given in the outside challenge.

Devil: Temptation,indulgence in sensual pleasures

I read Code of Honor by Alan Gratz for the Death Card

For this prompt I read Star Daughter for card 17 - The Star and it was quite engaging overall. While the pacing was a bit off in some places it was still an enjoyable read and I'll be checking out further books by the author.

I read The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.

I used



because the cover vaguely reminds me of the Lovers.

I read The Maid for this one based on a description of the Fool posted in the Tarot Major Arcana Challenge (thank you Pam).

The Fool - vulnerable, naïve, adventurous, open, purity, innocence, risk

Its always hard to say if perception before reading is going to be a true fit but I think it worked perfectly for the main character.

I read The Ex Hex. There were tarot cards in the book. They used the fool, emperor and the star. It was a cute book to read for the prompt.

I read The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd for the card "The World." I recommend this fun book which is about the power of maps.

I read The Magician by Colm Tóibín a biographical novel about the writer Thomas Mann. The card is partly about creation and willpower, which suits the book, also the reverse about hesitation and loss of opportunities also works. The book was a slow read but interesting.

I read Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner for the death card.

I'm reading a lot of older mysteries this year. This week I finished

Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke

One of the characters is obsessed with the card The Hanged Man and it plays into the plot on several occasions.

I read Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. The obvious Justice Card covers this one, but I can also see 12-The Hanged Man, 17 - The Star (since a movie was based on the book). And I would not be surprised if cards 4 or 5 followed Bryan Stevenson his whole life. He is walking among us doing the best work.

I'd also recommend The Book Thief, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Middlesex

I read Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Tarot card The Lovers).