Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week's prompt is paired with last week's "a book that is dark", and you are looking for a way to lighten up your reading this week. Whether you take the route of going for a short book, or if you go for a lighter genre, this week will help you recover from the darkness that was last week.

19 Fun, Lighthearted Books: https://www.mindjoggle.com/light-page...
Books That are Light AND Smart: https://www.sarahsbookshelves.com/boo...
25 Light, Easy, and Breezy Books to Read: https://the-bibliofile.com/light-bree...
Try Up-Lit: https://arapahoelibraries.org/blogs/p...
45 of the Funniest Books Ever Written: https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/bo...
50 Must-Read Short Books Under 250 Pages: https://bookriot.com/best-short-books/

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

What did you read this week? Do you have any recommendations for others?

I decided to go with light genres/subgenres for this prompt. My possible choices:

Hopepunk - Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Uplit - Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
Love story - City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

"Love story" is more of a theme than a genre/subgenre and I'm pretty certain it's not a romance novel (which is a genre/subgenre) but I'm going with the idea anyway.

I have found the perfect book for this one. The Book of Luce. (I do not vibe with the idea of doing a light theme mood read really, but I am so excited about playing with the idea of light. My runner up was to read the Cass Neary series about a photographer, because that would give me both Hard Light and Available Dark to cover both prompts.)

I read I've Got Your Number this year and remembered how much I love Sophie Kinsella, and her books are definitely light. I've read most of the Shopaholic books but haven't read many of her others. The Undomestic Goddess has been on my TBR for a while, but The Party Crasher that came out last year looks good too.

I basically pulled from the ATY Listopia list for this one and narrowed to 12 books. I'll figure out which one(s) I want to read when I get to week 29, because a few of them may have been read by that point.

I struggled with this one a lot more than dark, though I think my favourites are a mix of the two.

I'll be reading Yes Man by Danny Wallace. It's a comedy book about someone saying yes, so I assume all that positivity is quite light.

For recommendations I'd suggest a couple of series - Discworld beginning with The Colour of Magic and Stephanie Plum, which starts with One for the Money. They're all fun, enjoyable reading and they're quite short.

I’d like to read something by Gerald Durrell, the author of the Corfu Trilogy. His books about animals sound fun, amusing, and light!

NF option: Humankind: A Hopeful History

Fiction options:
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
Remarkably Bright Creatures
The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success
The Murmur of Bees
The Reading List
The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
The Invisible Husband of Frick Island
The Story of Arthur Truluv

I'm also drawn to books with a mix of dark (sadness, grief) and light (hope, connection), such as Station Eleven, and Dear Edward. Many start dark, and get light. I might find a pair of books that have a light -dark mix, with an opposite overall mood.

I want to link this with the dark prompt so I will be reading:
All the Bright Places
(and for the dark one : Dark Places)

Some light reads I'm considering:
Edit: I read A Light in the Window (Mitford Years #2) - Jan Karon
Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt
How the Penguins Saved Veronicaa - Hazel Prior
Life Among the Savages - Shirley Jackson
Tempest in a Teapot (Teapot Collector Mystery #1) - Amanda Cooper (cozy mystery)
Coronation Summer - Angela Thirkell
The Geometry of Holding Hands (Isabel Dalhousie #13- Alexander McCall Smith

Recommended:
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill - Abbi Waxman
The Bookshop on the Corner - Jenny Colgan
One Italian Summer - Rebecca Serle
The Lager Queen of Minnesota - J. Ryan Stradal
The Keeper of Lost Things - Ruth Hogan

For the 'dark' prompt, I am re-reading Darkness at Noon. As this is set inside a prison, for this prompt I am going for a book about being able to walk freely in the countryside, The Stubborn Light of Things: A Nature Diary .

I'm reading The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America for the dark prompt, which has a pleasing irony to it, so I wanted to come up with a similar choice for light. After skimming this thread, I settled on Mort because the Discworld series has a light tone, but the book's main character is Death

Not sure I'm going to combine dark and light, but usually in the summer I don't feel like reading, so I'll pick something relaxing.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
The Queen's Assassin by Melissa de la Cruz
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking

Being very literal here but I will either read All the Light We Cannot See or We Are the Light because I own both and haven't read them yet.

Honestly, I don't like this prompt, and I was having trouble coming up with anything. Then, my daughter gave me Becoming by Michelle Obama for Christmas, and I figured I would read a book by someone who is a light in the world, so I am reading that one for this prompt.

I read The Guncle. 5 stars. I listened to an audio book. That brought it to life.

The delightful tale that I chose for this prompt was Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang.

I read In a New York Minute readable romance

I have started Day Shift

For this prompt, I read:
Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard by Tom Felton - 4* - My Review

I read . It ended happily, thank goodness, but it was filled with heavy topics, so I'm going with the light of fire for this one.

I would recommend:

I read a 2nd book for this prompt, using the word "Light" in the title:

Light Years by James Salter - 4* - My Review

I read A Touch of Magic by Annabel Chase, a paranormal cozy mystery in the Spellbound series

I read Book Lovers. It has a light blue color for a cover and it is light romance theme. I liked this book but based on the bookish elements, close relationship with her sister and who the main character was I feel like I should have enjoyed this more. I think I am often a mood reader with romance so might have just been bad timing.

I would recommend:
Book Lovers - light cover, fun plot, and it isn't long so light on pages.

The Office of Historical Corrections - Light cover, short stories and not to many pages, it has some heavy themes but told in a way that doesn't drag you down.

Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride - light cover, funny graphic novel, easy to read!

I have paired this with my last book and taken a light cover with light material reading. It is also by the same author. All that Glitters by Danielle Steel. The Tanglewood Teashop by Lilac Mills is light reading that I can recommend.

I read .

I chose this book partly because the title referenced my dark choice of book, . It is a novella, so is a light book in terms of weight; I also liked the kaleidoscopic colours on the cover. It is an episodic account of a couple living in a Soviet era block in Bratislava; they and their friends are writers and artists and spend much of their time drinking coffee and wine and dealing with their love life. I enjoyed it.

It also went with my 'dark' choice in that some of the actions in that - living somewhere without much hope of escape and wandering the streets- also happened in a lighter way in this book.

Emma: A Modern Retelling - 4.75 stars

For this I read The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

I read

The Narrowboat Summer – Anne Youngson – 4****
This was a charming coming-of-middle-age book. As Eve and Sally help out Anastasia by taking the boat through a series of canals and locks to dry dock for servicing, they get know one another and, more importantly, themselves. I’m not sure this would be the life for me, but I sure enjoyed spending some time with them, and imaging myself lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of waves, or feeling the sun on my skin as we gently moved through the canals.
LINK to my full review

I just started The Authenticity Project

Uplit and a bit twee .. loving it so far :D

What did you read this week?
I read The Light of Day by Eric Ambler

I spent a frustrating amount of time looking for something that fit. I don’t read a lot of “light-hearted” books, and i gave up trying to find one. The books in my tbr with “light” in the title are really dark content-wise and I couldn’t find something to fit my mood there.

I looked in my library’s digital selection of books with that word in the title and found A Time of Light and Shadow: To Asia, Africa, and the Long Way Home and I’m really looking forward to reading it!

He's cute, one of our favorite contemporary actors and on top of that, a talented author. I read David Duchovny's latest book, Truly Like Lightning, a novel set in and around the pristine Joshua Tree desert that takes on (among many themes) family life, Mormonism, climate change and greed. Although it's billed as a modern western, I felt the novel was more of a commentary on modern life as experienced by those living on vs. those living off the grid.

I also took a long time to find the right book for this prompt, and had a few false starts. At long last, I landed on the right book for the right time: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. It's certainly a light read, set among the upperclass milieu of 1930s Britain, but it's got just enough of a dark edge to balance it out. I've had this one on my shelf for far too long (as well as the follow-up Love in a Cold Climate which I may need to slot in for next year...)

Just wanted to recommend Elevation by Stephen King for this prompt. It's light in pretty much every way you could interpret it except for the weight (pun not intended) of the story, which is poignant and heartfelt.

- It's physically light because it's a novella
- It's about a character who mysteriously becomes lighter with each passing day despite not changing in appearance
- There's light on the cover
- Lights are an important symbol in the story

(I'd classify it as magical realism, so disregard all the "horror" and "thriller" tags because there isn't the slight bit of horror in this story despite that being what Stephen King is most known for.)

I read
Round 1 - A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
Round 2- The Princess Bride

I also really liked
Light from Uncommon Stars - one of favorites for the year
Front Desk - a feel-good middle grades immigration book with substance.

Irene wrote: "Just wanted to recommend Elevation by Stephen King for this prompt. It's light in pretty much every way you could interpret it except for the weight (pun not intended) of the story,..."

Great choice for this prompt!