Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Don't be a square when it comes to this prompt... join our circle and find a fun book to read!

Some ideas for your brainstorming pleasure:
- Could be a word in a title
- A shape depicted on the cover
- A setting like The Pentagon, Egyptian pyramids, The Louvre, Trafalgar Square, Union Square, Tiananmen Square, Red Square, Times Square, Main Market Square, obelisk as a link to a monument such as Washington D.C.
- A topic such as a Love Triangle or Closed Circle Mystery

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

What are you reading for this prompt? How does it fit?

I realized I have The Diamond Eye on my bookshelf that I haven't read yet, so I'll probably be using that one for this prompt!

If you like mystery, The Decagon House Murders is enjoyable and strikes me as the perfect fit for this prompt.

I have The Kingdoms slotted here for now for the spiral on the cover.

There are several book awards that have geometric names or logos or other connections!

Some books I'm considering for this prompt:

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (Clarke Award nominee - the logo is a triangle inside a circle)

Elmet by Fiona Mozley (Publishing Triangle Award nominee)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (National Book Critics Circle Award nominee)

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "If you like mystery, The Decagon House Murders is enjoyable and strikes me as the perfect fit for this prompt.

I read and enjoyed that for the autumn challenge. I don't remember where I came across Maud's Line, but as it's been on my TBR for yonks, I am using it for this prompt.

How about a character that is a shape? From one of my favorite childhood books. The Dodecahedron from The Phantom Tollbooth.

I'll be reading The Affair by Lee Child because Reacher gets sent on a mission by the Pentagon. It was so satisfying when I made that connection!

I'm already planning to read Catching Fire so I'll use it for this prompt.

I'm debating putting Once Upon a Broken Heart for this one, but I'm not completely convinced that a heart counts as a geometric shape. Especially in this context, where the title is obviously referring to the organ....but it's a book I really want to read and I'm having some trouble squeezing it in anywhere else, so I might just go for it anyway.

Possibilities:
Smaller and Smaller Circles
The Diamond Eye

I like Dalex’s awards interpretation too. National Book critic’s circle award: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Middlesex, Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home , Everything inside. Know my name.

The first book that came to mind for this prompt was definitely Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott. It's a satire about Victorian conventions, but literally the characters are geometric shapes.

I'm probably going to read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez from a love triangle angle!

@ Jordan - Flatland sounds interesting, and the first page at least is high readable, especially considering it was written in 1880! And surprisingly my library actually has the Kindle edition :) Thanks!

Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy is a good book for this prompt.

From my TBR:
4000 de săptămâni. Time management pentru muritori by Oliver Burkeman
Jocurile Foamei by Suzanne Collins
Cufărul lui Skye by Cathy Cassidy
Iernile sufletului by Katherine May
Toate cele șapte valuri by Daniel Glattauer
Bărbatul care se credea Riemann by Stefania Piazzino
Cartea pierdută a vrăjitoarelor by Deborah Harkness
Stockholm Delete by Jens Lapidus
Convocarea by James Frey
City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare
The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross
Necunoscuta din congelator by Rodica Ojog-Braşoveanu
Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
Ceasurile by Agatha Christie
Spune-mi tr3i lucruri despre tine by Julie Buxbaum
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Șefa - un roman culinar by Marie NDiaye
Monstrul by Walter Dean Myers

So for this one I think I'm going to use Cell: A Novel. It has a picture of a cell phone on it and I'm going with that it's a rectangular shape. I'm trying to get in as many Stephen King books as I can this year and I couldn't really find anything else that was fitting this prompt.

Just finished Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond for this one. I think SF and science books in general work quite well for this challenge thanks to their covers.

I’m leaning to a very literal interpretation 😅. I received https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... An Illustrated History of Numbers for Christmas and I’m leaning towards using it here. It has a heavy focus on Geometry in the book, it may be a little left field but it felt right?

I’ll probably end up reading other books that fit too, as I have a few love triangles in my TBR that I’m not planning to slot in this challenge.

Messed up that hyperlink! Sorry!

For this prompt I just finished reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This fits because all the A's on the cover have been stylized to be triangles. There is also a circular NYT Best Seller sticker for his previous book, The Martian. These are reasons I chose the book before I had read it. As it happens there are plenty of geometric references in the book as well.

I know this book is very popular (at least given the VERY long wait list at both of my local libraries), so I need not sing its praises, but... this was a fabulous read! Who would think that a book about problem solving in space would keep me on the edge of my seat through the ENTIRE book, and also make me laugh AND cry?!

The other books I considered for this prompt were:
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott
Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See
Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
When the Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

I read The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose that has two circles.

I’m reading Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. There is a square/Diamond in the middle of the cover and the As in the author’s name and title are represented with triangles.

I read

I am reading the trilogy, it is so good!

For this prompt, I read:

World's Fair by E.L. Doctorow - 5* - My Review

I read Lion in the Valley the whole book is about excavating the pyramids - pyramid is a geological shaoe.

This series is easy to read and listen to

I read The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews. It's a modest Regency romance. There were books and horses in it, but I don't think I'll be pushing it on anyone- it was fine and diverting for an afternoon.

"Geometric" always has me scrabbling for something to use, but on the definition "characterised by or decorated with regular lines and shapes", I figured this was a pretty geometric , so this is what I've used for the prompt. Thought provoking and definitely not wrong.

I've moved Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk to this prompt (only the second time I've moved it!) as I wasn't happy with my original choice.

Primeval is a fictional Polish village - it is in the shape of a square, with four roads running through it and a guardian angel at each corner. The book is a poetic combination of realism and magic realism telling the story of Poland in the twentieth century. I would recommend.

LeahS wrote: "I've moved Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk to this prompt (only the second time I've moved it!) as I wasn't happy with my original choice.

Primeval is a f..."

I really want to read this book. I think I have it somewhere......

I read My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee for this prompt. My copy of this book features geometric shapes on its cover and slipcase.

Silly questions, but is a heart a geometric shape?
I'm trying to work out if I can use Ironheart for this prompt.

I started reading No One Is Talking About This because it has an abstract ring shape on the cover. Unfortunately, I got about 25% in and realized this was not the book for me. YMMV however.


It may be a bit of a stretch, but I picked up The Door by Magda Szabo instead. I figure the titular "Door" is a rectangular shape, and the cover of the NYRB edition features the abstract intersecting lines of a wall and floor converging in a corner. It's a much better fit for me so far.

I read The Circle by Dave Eggers.

For this prompt, I read Square³ by Mira Grant.

Tracy wrote: "For this prompt I just finished reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This fits because all the A's on the cover have been ..."

Oooh ... thanks for this suggestion and for sharing your thinking on how it fits. I'm reading it now and was kinda bummed that I had already read a book for the science prompt. Good to know I can still use it.

The Pyramid Of Mud by Andrea Camilleri.

I wanted a book set in Sicily and thought of the Inspector Montalbano series - and there was a book to fit a prompt! I'm not a great fan of the series and watch the TV adaptations mainly for the Sicilian scenery. However, this was a good read about corruption in the building industry, although the ending felt a bit rushed.

I read The Starless Sea

It had stars and hearts and the entire book was pretty circular.

About to start Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini. Really hoping that, since it's a prequel, I won't regret not having read To Sleep in a Sea of Stars first. It's apparently about the discovery of a pit on another planet that, based on its shape, appears to have been created rather than naturally formed. Fingers crossed it's as perfect for this prompt as it looks!

Project Hail Mary – J – 5***** and a ❤
Earth is threatened with an extinction-level event. Ryland Grace has just awakened from a coma while aboard a spaceship sent to fix the problem. But the rest of the crew is dead and now he has to do it all alone. Or does he? The book jacket promises “an irresistible interstellar adventure” and that is exactly what Weir delivers.
LINK to my full review

The "A's" in the title are triangles. LOTS of geometry involved in the text from hexagons to cones.

I read Cover Story, the circle in the sunglasses being my geometric shape.

I will be reading Oh William! by Eizabeth Strout. It has geometric shapes on the cover in the form of oblong skyscrapers.

I read Stardust by Neil Gaiman, it was an illustrated version with a lot of diamond shaped stars on the cover and in illustrations

The best thing about this novel is the beautiful cover design and that glowing orb.

I just finished this prompt after reading the graphic novel O Human Star (link to first volume: O Human Star, Volume One). I had read this as a webcomic but it wasn't complete at the time, I've always wanted to go back and finish it. It was lovely through and through. It's science fiction that starts with Alastair, an inventor who was a pioneer in artificial intelligence, waking up in a strange room. He remembers that he died, and soon becomes aware that while his mind feels like himself, his body is in fact a sophisticated robot body that matches his old one perfectly.

He goes to find his old business partner and lover, only to find 16 years have passed and the world looks very different now, in large part thanks to the technologies he and his partner pioneered. It's such a warm story about identity and the families we create for ourselves.

I read Washington Square by Henry James for another group’s August group read, which — obviously — fits here. Loved it!

What are you reading for this prompt?
I read The Circle by M.J. Trow

How does it fit? The title of the book

I finished my round two with A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2013.

I highly recommend it. It’s set during the Chechnyan wars, but it’s a wonderful story and the writing is beautiful.

I thought I was really creative choosing a book with a love triangle, but then I came in here and it is one of the main recommendations - LOL.


Shared By Two Orcs

I read Attack of the Black Rectangles

People have had so much fun with this prompt! I read The Circle by Dave Eggers and recommend it!