Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Prolific authors, unite! This week, you are looking for authors who have written more than 7 books. How you define "7 books" is up to you -- you can include novellas, or allow a stretch between pen names.

21 Most Prolific Authors of All Time: https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-...
10 Authors with Tremendous Range: https://bookriot.com/authors-with-tre...

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

What are you reading for this prompt, and how many books has the author written?

I'm planning to read an author who I know I enjoy, and who writes "stand alone" series books.

I plan to read the prompts in order, so I've narrowed each prompt to twelve choices, and I'll figure out which one fits best when I get there!

Here's my narrowed down select twelve.

Stephen King for this one, for sure. I will be reading Cujo or 'Salem's Lot next year, and possibly Firestarter, so just need to figure out which book to use for which prompt that each fits (chess piece and Spice Girls both fit Stephen King, as well as possibly using Cujo for the large animal prompt).

Weirdly, I have several authors who I'd like to read who have published exactly seven books, not more than seven.

Still, I have plenty of choices for this prompt and have written these down as possible options:

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
God's War by Kameron Hurley

Fantastic Fiction is a great resource for viewing an author's publications. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/ (Things can get weird with how titles are listed on Goodreads, imo.)

I plan to read one of the following “classic” authors: Dumas, Dostoyevsky, Hugo, Nabokov, Tolstoy, Mario Vargas Llosa, or Iris Murdoch. Or, maybe sci-fi - Asimov or Philip K. Dick. I’ll see who doesn’t fit elsewhere. Lots of choices!

I've decided to go with author Larry McMurty and his 7th novel: Terms of Endearment

I'll be reading Tana French for this one, by my count she's written eight books. I've been working my way through her Dublin Murder Squad series, but instead of carrying on with that I decided to go for her seventh book, The Wych Elm, which is a standalone.

I have been reading books by Barabara Kingsolver and Marge Piercy. Both have written many more than 7 books. I would like to see both of them listed for 2023 for any book(s) which you choose. They are both American writers. Their stories are enveloping, encompassing and some are even lifechanging. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Diane Stevenson Schmolka
P.S. IF you really feel the need to have me choose a book for each one, then: Gone for Soldiers by Marge Piercy and for Barbara Kingsolver: her newest book which has just been published: Demon Copperhead.

Possibilities

Louise Erdrich, many choices
Maggie O'Farrell -The Marriage Portrait (I liked Hamnet)
Margaret Atwood - many choices
Alice Hoffman -The Dovekeepers (I liked The World we Knew, Marriage of opposites, many)
Elizabeth Strout - Lucy by the Sea (I liked Olive Again and Oh William)
Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead (I liked all her books, including The Bean Trees, Flight Behavior, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life)
new author: Yiyun Li -The Vagrants, The Book of Goose
Lessons
Amy Harmon - The Unknown Beloved (I liked What the Wind Knows)
Barbara O'Neal - I liked When we Believed in Mermaids
Jeffrey Archer - Nothing Ventured (art theft)

NancyJ wrote: "Possibilities

Carolina De Robertis - [book:Th..."

I looked up de Robertis on Fantastic Fiction because I loved The Gods of Tango and Cantoras and would love to read more by her and didn't realize she fit this prompt. According to FF, she doesn't. The listing for her on there has five novels and one work on nonfiction.

dalex wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Possibilities

Carolina De Robertis - [book:Th..."

I looked up de Robertis on Fantastic Fiction because I loved The Gods of Tango and Cantoras and would love to rea..."

Thanks. I didn't realize my long list included books she translated.

NancyJ wrote: "Thanks. I didn't realize my long list included books she translated."

It's very hard to count author's books on Goodreads because they get all wonky with extra stuff. I highly recommend Fantastic Fiction as a resource to get book info.

Every year I read the next book on my list in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear and also a book by Alexander McCall Smith so this will be an easy one!

I would like reading something from Agatha Christie or J.K. Rowling, or even re-reading Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, but here are other options as well:

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas or A Court of Thorns and Roses
What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon
The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer
Gallant by V.E. Schwab
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

I'm starting The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. La Guin.

She has written hundreds of stories (according to GR, 753 distinct works) and everything I've read so far has been amazing.

It's time for me to get back to the Earthsea series.

The Tombs of Atuan

Amongst Our Weapons

This is the second year I've made myself a little list of authors I'd like to prioritize — I did it last year and really enjoyed it and found a lot of great books that way. Most of the authors on the list are ones I've read only one book from and want to encourage myself to read another, and two are authors I haven't tried yet. So I think this will be a good prompt to help me work on that list. It turns out that (almost) every author on my list would work: Ki Longfellow, China Miéville, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kazuo Ishiguro, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Olga Tokarczuk, and Jo Walton.

Wrapped up a goodreads giveaway book by finishing The Advent of Jesus by Peter DeHaan

I've just finished Valerie; or, The Faculty of Dreams a novel about legendary Valerie Solanas by Swedish author Sara Stridsberg. She has written well more than seven novels and has won several literary prizes. I'm overwhelmed.

I read The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris

The GR page says Harris has written 14 novels

For this tag I read:
The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester - 4* - My Review

I read Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher who is an extremely prolific author! She writes fantasy that's unusual and amusing. I'd call a lot of her stuff cozy but there's a bit of darkness in it too.

I was feeling those January blues and decided to go back to my teen years with an old favourite Jude Deveraux. Yep, I was one of those who read copious amounts of romance as a teen.

The Girl from Summer Hill

⭐⭐⭐
I liked the sunny cover. It was uplifting all on it's own. It does have some over the top moments that made me cringe.
BTW it is published before the #metoo movement so has one name dropped that I hope the author would not have included if she had known their background.

I read a delightful little book called Thale's Folly by Dorothy Gilman. Ms. Gilman is the author of the equally delightful Mrs. Pollifax series.

I read The Invention of Wings

I'll probably slot in a Craig Schaefer book here; the Daniel Faust series is currently at 10 books, the Harmony Black series at 6 or 7, the Revanche Cycle complete with four, and several others besides.

I read Flight of Magpies by KJ Charles for this one. She has 30 books listed on her Goodreads page.

I am reading Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith. He has written 22 books in this series (The No 1 ladies detective agency)

He has written 135 Books - 14 Series

I got an ARC of Isabel Allende's The Wind Knows My Name, so that counts! She's written, per google, 27 books. She's one of my favorite writers and I don't think I've read more than a dozen!


edited 5/18: Change that! Moved that to translations and so am now counting Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for this week

I am reading Blood Promise by Richelle Mead and the author has written more than 15 books.

What are you reading for this prompt, and how many books has the author written?
I read Maxwell's Island by M.J. Trow This was book 16 in this series of which there are 20. He has also written another couple of series and various history books

I was stuck finding a book written by someone from San Marino for my reading 'trip' round Europe. I did find History of San Marino: Finding, Beginning of the nation, Culture and Cultural Policies. Tourism by Paul Has. Couldn't find anything about him, but according to his Goodreads page, he's written nine books.

This one was pretty dreadful. It started off ok with a brief history of the country and then we suddenly found ourselves in San Marino CA, with no warning for a bit about food. The rest of the book read like a download of info from the local ministry of culture - it was badly edited and a real struggle to get through. At least Oxfam got some money out of it.....

I read Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie, who wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections.

The Sentence - 4 stars

For this I read A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner.

I'm reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Dickens wrote 15 novels, 5 novellas, and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles.

I had been wanting to read this for a long time and this prompt sealed the deal for me. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray was a dark, dark, comedy set in a Dublin boarding school. Highly recommended if you like that sorta thing. Author Murray just makes it over the seven book count and his latest, The Bee Sting, is due for release in August.

I read Sister of My Heart by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

U Is For Undertow – Sue Grafton – 4****
Book # 21 in the mystery series starring private investigator and former cop, Kinsey Millhone. Grafton sure could write a compelling mystery! The plot moves forward at a steady pace, and the series includes a couple of wonderful side characters. Grafton purposely set the series in a time before cell phones and the internet, so Kinsey needs to use the old-fashioned resources of reverse directories and pay phones.
LINK to my full review

I read The Marriage Act by John Marrs. I really enjoyed The One and this new book is set in the same world. Just like The One this often seemed unrealistic but if you can get over that is was fun.

Just finished When Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams for this one. If I counted correctly, she's written 8 books (including nonfiction and children's picture books) under her real name and another 8 as Selena Montgomery. Might read the sequel for "published in 2023."

I read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Originally I was going to read her The Bean Trees, but someone in my IRL book group picked Demon Copperhead last month. Luckily I love this author. I'll read The Bean Trees some other way.

If you haven't read Demon Copperhead, I'd definitely recommend it, but only if you are in a good headspace. It is quite heavy — but as always, very well written.

It is a great book.

I read A Postcard from Capri, the fourteenth book written by Alex Brown.

A summer read - light romance, with a bit of not very mysterious mystery. If you enjoy romances and are looking for an ATY setting, then the author has written a number of books set in the fictional Yorkshire village of Tindledale.