Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I have two big plans for 2023: to simplify my life and to read all of Shakespeare.

The goal of simplifying my life will have many aspects. For one, I plan to get rid of clutter and excess possessions in our home and to stop buying things I don't need.

As far as books go, despite the fact that most books I buy are ebooks or audiobooks, I still have far too many that I have purchased and not read. While I will still preorder and buy books by favorite authors and in on-going series, I will try to limit purchasing books just because they seem interesting and they are on sale. I will make greater use of my library for reading books that I don't currently own.

The Shakespeare goal is very daunting, but I have a reading plan and I am fully prepared to scale back if it seems to be too much or doesn't allow me to read other things. At the very least, I plan to read one play per month and finish the sonnets by the end of the year.

I am excited to see what the new year brings!


Legend
Ownership - Owned before 2023: 👍, Purchased: $, Received Free: 🆓, Borrowed: 👏
Format - Paper: 📖, Kindle/Electronic: 💻, Audio: 🔊
Re-Read: 🔁

52/52!!!

[√] 1. A book set in a location that begins with A, T, or Y
As You Like It (Arden) $📖

[√] 2. A book by an author you read in 2022
Sleep No More (Seanan McGuire) $💻🔊

[√] 3. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the 2023 list
The Tempest (A book with a two word title, one of which is "The") $📖

[√] 4. A book with an interracial relationship
Othello 👍📖

[√] 5. A book with 4 or more colors on the cover
A Mirror Mended 🆓💻

[√] 6. A book where books are important
Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution $💻👍🔊

[√] 7. A book with ONE of the five "W" question words in the title
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain 👍💻$🔊

[√] 8. An author's debut book
All the President's Men 👏💻🔊

[√] 9. A book nominated for an award beginning with W
The Black God's Drums (World Fantasy Award - Nominated 2019) 👍💻🔊

[√] 10. A book related to one of the Spice Girls' "personalities"
Night of the Mannequins (Scary) 👍💻👏🔊

[√] 11. A book about a person/character with a disability
Solutions and Other Problems 👍📖

[√] 12. A book connected to birds, bees, or bunnies
A House with Good Bones (vultures) 👍💻$🔊

[√] 13. A book that has an object that is repeated on the cover
Rogue Justice (columns) $💻🔊

[√] 14. A book with a con, deception, or fake
Much Ado About Nothing 👍📖

[√] 15. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 1
All's Well That Ends Well (14th century) $📖

[√] 16. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 2
Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (17th century) $📖

[√] 17. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 3
The Innocent Sleep (21st century) $💻🔊

[√] 18. A book related to science
The Mimicking of Known Successes 👏💻🔊

[√] 19. A book related to the arts
Daisy Jones & The Six 👏💻🔊

[√] 20. A book with a cover or title that includes a route of travel
Over the Woodward Wall 👍💻🔊

[√] 21. A book by an Asian diaspora author
Into the Riverlands (Nghi Vo) 👍💻$🔊

[√] 22. A book with a faceless person on the cover
Even Though I Knew the End 👏💻🔊

[√] 23. A book with a body of water in the title
Along the Saltwise Sea 👍💻$🔊

[√] 24. A character that might be called a Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy
A Midsummer Night's Dream (tinker) $📖

[√] 25. A book with a tropical setting
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau 🆓💻👏🔊

[√] 26. A book related to pride
Romeo and Juliet 👍📖

[√] 27. A book by an author from continental Europe
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry 👏💻🔊

[√] 28. A book that is dark
Manhunt 👏💻🔊

[√] 29. A book that is light
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times 👏💻👍🔊

[√] 30. A book related to a chess piece
King Lear 👍📖

[√] 31. A book found by inputting a favorite author on https://www.literature-map.com
Station Eternity (Mary Robinette Kowal -> Mur Lafferty) 👏💻🔊

[√] 32. A book set in a UNESCO City of Literature
Hollow Kingdom (Seattle) 👏💻🔊

[√] 33. A book by an author with a first name popular in 1923
Anne of Green Gables (Lucy) 🆓💻👍🔊

[√] 34. A novella
Lost in the Moment and Found 👍💻

[√] 35. A book with a school subject in the title
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity $💻🔊

[√] 36. A book that has been translated from another language
My Brilliant Friend (Italian) 👏💻🔊

[√] 37. A book with the theme of returning home
Carrie Soto Is Back 👏💻🔊

[√] 38. A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover
The First Bright Thing 👍💻$🔊

[√] 39. A western
Tread of Angels 👍💻🔊

[√] 40. A book with a full name in the title
Julius Caesar $📖

[√] 41. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists
High Times in the Low Parliament 👏💻🔊

[√] 42. A book related to a ghost, spirit, phantom, or specter
Hamlet 👍📖

[√] 43. A book that involves a murder
Macbeth $📖

[√] 44. A book where the cover design includes text that is not completely horizontal
Hi Honey, I’m Homo! 👍💻

[√] 45. A book whose author has published more than 7 books
Backpacking Through Bedlam (Seanan McGuire) 👍💻$🔊

[√] 46. A title that contains a word often found in a recipe
Measure for Measure $📖

[√] 47. A book related to a geometric shape
Project Hail Mary (triangles on the cover & in story) 👍💻🔊

[√] 48. A book with an unusually large version of an animal in the story
The Kaiju Preservation Society 🆓💻$🔊

[√] 49. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2022 or 2023
Above Ground 👍💻

[√] 50. A second book that fits your favorite prompt
Ogres (34. A novella) 🆓💻

[√] 51. A book published in 2023
Thornhedge 👍💻$🔊

[√] 52. A book with an unusual or surprising title
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy 👍💻🔊

Books I own/pre-orders I might want to read - Fiction:

Children of Virtue and Vengeance
Americanah
Half of a Yellow Sun
Purple Hibiscus
Internment
Victories Greater Than Death
The Testaments
Over the Woodward Wall
Along the Saltwise Sea
Into the Windwracked Wilds
If Beale Street Could Talk
Going to Meet the Man
The Sellout
Jane Eyre
Lilith's Brood: Adulthood Rites, Imago
Parable of the Talents
Wild Seed
Bloodchild and Other Stories
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Closed and Common Orbit
Record of a Spaceborn Few
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
The Dragon Stone Conspiracy: A Strowlers Novel
The Bone Witch
The Black God's Drums
The Water Dancer
Vox
The First Bright Thing (pre-order)
Bloodmarked
Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
Washington Black
Winter Tide
Girl, Woman, Other
We Hunt the Flame
Ardulum: First Don
Mythos
Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures
Magic for Liars
Upright Women Wanted
Anansi Boys
The Sleeper and the Spindle
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
An Untamed State
The Reanimation of Edward Schuett
Call Us What We Carry
Parasite
Symbiont
Chimera
Fed
Feedback
Rise - The Complete Newsflesh Collection
In the Shadow of Spindrift House
Kingdom of Needle and Bone
Homegoing
The Once and Future Witches
When the Moon is Low
The Girl on the Train
Catch-22
The Fireman
Redemptor
Deathless Divide
Last Night in Twisted River
In One Person
The Inheritance Trilogy: The Broken Kingdoms, The Kingdom of Gods, The Awakened Kingdom
The Dreamblood Duology: The Killing Moon, The Shadowed Sun
The World We Make
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
Night of the Mannequins
The Thirty Names of Night
Fairy Tale
The Hollow Places
A House With Good Bones (pre-order)
Thornhedge (pre-order)
Ophelia
Catfishing on CatNet
Chaos on CatNet
Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
The Poppy War
The Dragon Republic
The Heart of the Circle
The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ancillary Justice
Weave The Lightning
Jade City
Pachinko
The Three-Body Problem
A Memory Called Empire
A Desolation Called Peace
Lost in the Moment and Found (pre-order)
Backpacking Through Bedlam (pre-order)
Reflections
Laughter at the Academy
Carniepunk: Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea
Any Way the Wind Blows
A Crown So Cursed (pre-order)
The Serpent of Venice
Shakespeare for Squirrels
Gideon the Ninth
Harrow the Ninth
1Q84
Like a Love Story
The Refugees
The Last Graduate
The Golden Enclaves
Hamnet
There There
The Astonishing Color of After
Detransition, Baby
The Color of Magic
Tread of Angels
Fevered Star
Hamlet
King Lear
Much Ado About Nothing
Romeo and Juliet
Othello
The Priory of the Orange Tree
The Truthseer and the Goose
Above Ground (pre-order)
The Signal Out of Space
On the Come Up
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
Into the Riverlands
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Project Hail Mary
Rogue Protocol
Exit Strategy
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory
Network Effect
Fugitive Telemetry
The Underground Railroad
The Small Backs of Children

Books I own/pre-orders I might want to read - Non-Fiction:

Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change
Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
The Origins of Totalitarianism
Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living
Notes of a Native Son
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir through (Un) Popular Culture
Solutions and Other Problems
I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement
An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream
Grant
Washington: A Life
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
Women, Race & Class
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America
How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
Save Yourself
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
A Short History of Reconstruction Updated Edition
Somebody's Daughter
Naturally Tan
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
Bad Feminist
Surviving Autocracy
Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.
Wow, No Thank You.
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work
All Boys Aren't Blue
How We Can Win: Race, History and Changing the Money Game That's Rigged
When Breath Becomes Air
Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks
How to Be an Antiracist
The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America
They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
Heavy: An American Memoir
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy
On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times
Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
Citizen: An American Lyric
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House
Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead
Everything's Trash, But It's Okay
Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes: Essays
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor
Cosmos
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture
Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
Why We Swim
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South
Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love
The End of Policing
Beautiful Country
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race
This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class
The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well
Brown Girl Dreaming
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays

2023 Wrap Up:

This is the 8th year I've participated in the Around the Year challenge and the 4th time I've completed it.

While I didn't accomplish all of my goals (surprise! lol), I did read 13 Shakespeare plays and about 70 sonnets. I am taking a bit of a break, but I may read some more later in the year. I have to say, some of the lesser known plays are completely bonkers (I'm looking at you Measure for Measure, lol)

Just as the Shakespeare goal is better for me as a multiyear project, ridding myself of clutter and unnecessary possessions will be one as well.

On the whole, happy enough with how this reading year turned out and looking forward to a great 2024!