Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

April showers bring May flowers, and we are dancing in the rain this week!

There are many different ways you could go with this prompt: this could be a book involving cats, dogs, or torrential rain, or it could relate to the whole phrase - such as a book about idioms, a book with the concept in the title or cover, or a creative interpretation.

35 Cat-Filled Books: https://www.rover.com/blog/cat-books-...
100 Best Dog Books of All Time: https://wesleybanksauthor.com/best-do...
7 Books that Use Weather to Enhance the Suspense: https://crimereads.com/seven-novels-t...
The Best Rain in Literature: https://lithub.com/the-best-rain-in-l...

If you want to make sure the pet doesn't die in the book you picked up, check out https://www.doesthedogdie.com/.

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

What are you reading for this prompt, and how does it fit the prompt?

Rain Cat for a gentle read. I feel pretty sure the cat will live in this one.

For something completely different, I'm reading Rain Dogs for the Edgar prizewinner and in Round 2, I have Rain

I think that covers all the bases.

I tend to like to go for the creative interpretations of prompts but this one I'm going for the super obvious & easy - rain in the title. The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

As I always need some picture books to get through I will be reading The Tale of Tom Kitten

I have so many options for this one! I want to do options for a dog, a cat, and rain. The book I’m the most interested in is Jon Scalzi’s new one Starter Villain. The cover has a cat’s face in a suit and tie! I don’t know what’s it about but I love the cover.
For rain - Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow (Also, works for wild animal!)
For cat - The Goodbye Catby Hiromi Arikawa

I'm reading Rain: A Natural and Cultural History,

I wasn't going to go with a rain connection but I just saw that Julia Armfield's next book's blurb starts with "It’s been raining for a long time now," and I loved Our Wives Under the Sea so maybe Private Rites. I also want to read The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark but I feel like the cat link might be tenuous.

dalex wrote: "I tend to like to go for the creative interpretations of prompts but this one I'm going for the super obvious & easy - rain in the title. The Ninth Rain by [author:Jen Williams|5403..."

I also have this one slotted here-been on my TBR since 2019!

I've got Dodger by Terry Pratchett lined up for this one. The first paragraph is a description of really heavy rain, and mentions cats and dogs, though disappointingly doesn't use the phrase, I'm hoping it might be in there later.

Just found this article with some beautiful descriptions of rain in literature: https://lithub.com/the-best-rain-in-l...

Thanks Fee!

Fee wrote: "Just found this article with some beautiful descriptions of rain in literature: https://lithub.com/the-best-rain-in-l..."

This is so helpful, Fee, thank you for sharing this!!

Adding this link to the top post. Thanks Fee!

Emily, I really love the links you found for this prompt! Doesthedogdie is so helpful. And Fee I love your list too.

My primary options are:

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein (climate: rain)

The Museum of Rain by Dave Eggers

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

A few random possibles for this one. First, I went with the water connection:
- Heavy Water and Other Stories by Martin Amis
- The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

Then I went with the idiom slant:
- Till the Cows Come Home by Sara Cox

And then I got silly - what would you need if it was raining cats and dogs?
-Duck Feet by Ely Percy

I am trying very hard to read books that I already have (because I have a ghastly number of them that I have not read and I keep buying...). So I am being somewhat literal here and looked for books with titles that included words in the prompt.

The Dogs and the Wolves by Irène Némirovsky

SadieReadsAgain wrote: "Then I went with the idiom slant:..."

This is genius! I didn't even think about using another book with an idiom as a title; I've been trying to find a book about cats or dogs or rain with no success. Thanks so much for sharing!!

@Gail, I'm the same way, and it's actually why reading new/recent releases is so hard for me!

My options for this prompt:

History of the Rain
Thereby Hangs a Tail
The Cat Who Played Post Office

Well, I will not be reading Starter Villain for this prompt since my library hold has already come in and I want to read it now! It's easy reading and I think it will be fun. At this time of the year, fun books are a good thing for me!

I have another cat-related book to include in my options - My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci. It also has a talking cat in the story!

I'm planning to read The Travelling Cat Chronicles for this prompt. I chose this book because the main character is a cat. I heard this book talked about on Booktube this past year (in passing) but I don't know much about it. Has anyone read this book who would recommend it?

Hayley wrote: "I'm planning to read The Travelling Cat Chronicles for this prompt. I chose this book because the main character is a cat. I heard this book talked about on Booktube this past year ..."

I read it this year and loved it. But keep kleenex handy. It had me sniffling.

Hayley - I second the recommendation! The author has a follow up to the book, The Goodbye Cat, which I’m planning to read for this prompt.

I LOVE this category and I really wanted to do something fun with it, but ... I've got several books on my TBR involving rain so I think I'll just end up being boring and reading a book with "rain" in the title. I want to read all of these equally so I have no idea which one I'll pick.

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke

I am going to read three cat books: Hemingway's Cats; The Traveling Cat Chronicles; and Literary Cats. One of them will go here

I've slotted Hemingway's Cats here

dalex wrote: "I tend to like to go for the creative interpretations of prompts but this one I'm going for the super obvious & easy - rain in the title. The Ninth Rain by [author:Jen Williams|5403..."

And cats have 9 lives, so I like this one a lot for the prompt

I’m reading “A Wolf Called Romeo” which is by Nick Jans and is based on a true story. It’s based in Juneau Alaska and is a tale of a wild wolf who comes to town, is very social with domestic dogs, and who causes a lot of controversy and conflict in the public eye.

The wolf loves interacting with dogs which is why I chose this book for this one

Kendra wrote: "Hayley wrote: "I'm planning to read The Travelling Cat Chronicles for this prompt. I chose this book because the main character is a cat. I heard this book talked about on Booktube ..."


...I read it this year and loved it. But keep kleenex handy. It had me sniffling.

Ditto that, for sure. It's a lovely short little book, but the story is huge.

I read My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell for this, and I thought it was a perfect fit. The family in question moves to the Greek island of Corfu, and by the end of the novel they (or at least the zoological-minded 10-year-old Gerry) have acquired four dogs, a tortoise, a gull, a dove, magpies, water snakes, goldfish, and a taxidermy bat (among other things).

I found this to be a light, humorous read, and I followed it up with a few episodes The Durrells in Corfu (Masterpiece Theater on PBS) which captures the characters and vibe nicely, though so far the episodes themselves don't follow the book.

My full review can be found here.

We watched “The Durrells in Corfu” during lockdown - one of our cozy things to do when the world was scary. It was lovely. I’ve been curious about Gerald’s books (and Larry’s).

Tracy, it is a lovely show! I think it captures the vibe and the humor of the book well. So far, the only parts I recognized from the book though were when Gerry befriends the convict, and then later there is an (unrelated) goldfish heist :).

I'm also interested in Larry's books, though I think I'll need to be in a particular mood for them.

I read Tails of the Apocalypse, an anthology about animals coping with the apocalypse.

I read A Villa in Sicily: Olive Oil and Murder by Fiona Grace. It's the first book in the series The Cats and Dogs Cozy Mysteries. The main character is a veterinarian.

I read The Leftover Woman the cover looks to me like it has a window with rain on it. This wasn't my favorite, great concept but the characters were all over the place and I felt like I was rolling my eyes at the inconsistencies.

I would recommend:
Before the Coffee Gets Cold (cat on cover)
Don't Look for Me (rain on cover and storm in book)
Good Bad Girl or Daisy Darker

I read:
Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust by Michael Hingson

BIO: Book has a weather-related word in the title (Thunder...also, author's middle name is Blizzard)
REJECT: A book related to a sensory disability (Blindness)

Finished: 02/27/2024
Rating: 4 stars

I read ARkStorm by Bobby Akart for this prompt. It is a fiction book about a one in a thousand year catastrophic rain event that impacts California.
Read 16th March; 3*

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa was a sweet read with a few inspiring messages, about both books and people. It reminded me of another feline classic, I Am a Cat by Natsume Sōseki.

The book I chose was

I used the prompt as an idioms

short and sweet review: 4.0
Honestly, this book just didn't resonate with me. Despite giving it a second read, my feelings remain unchanged, and I'm leaning towards skipping the third book. Even after reaching the end of this second attempt, my reaction was still lukewarm at best, leaving me thinking, "Alright, Tabb."

I read BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S AND THREE OTHER STORIES for this prompt. It was featured on one of the lists, and I had never read it (or any Truman Capote).

It did fit the prompt well, as the cat is key to both the plot and the theme of the main story. I don't recall any cats or dogs (or rain) in the other stories, though.

I read The Cat Who Saved Books. 5 stars

TASK #16 ~ A book related to the phrase "It's Raining Cats and Dogs"


~ ♞ ~

BOOK 1
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Read ~ 4.5.24
Pages ~ 212
Rationale ~ Dog

Review ~ ★★★★
The blurb would indicate that the dog plays a much more important role than it would appear in this book, but the book itself seems to be a focus on "writing" as art, and the grief process, and suicide. "The friend" referenced in the title is her writing professor / friend who has killed himself. The dog is his aging Great Dane whom she ends up with because nobody else can take him. The book progresses through her grief - the slow progress of overcoming and accepting an overwhelming loss and gradually moving on as life replaces and gradually softens the edges of the hole he has left in her life. Apollo, the dog, helps her do this, but by the end of the book he has become "the friend" and leaves a hole of his own. It's such a gradual process it's hard to pinpoint exactly when the shift happens, and I guess that's really how grief works. Pretty much brilliant writing here.


~ ♞ ~

BOOK 2
The Last Black Cat by Eugene Trivizas
Read ~ 4.9.24
Pages ~ 248
Rationale ~ Cat Book

Review ~ ★★★
I have a library passive program that I run called The Passport Club. Each month, my participants select a book set in a particular country or written by an author of the country. For April, the location country is Greece. This book, written by a Greek author, popped up on a search, fit this prompt, but wasn't available except through Amazon. I ordered it and waited. And waited. And waited. I was ok with waiting because things don't come here quickly from overseas. But the story wasn't really worth the wait. It was cute, but not much more than that. Basically all the "evil omen" black cats are being blamed for societies ills and a secret group of cultists are rounding them up and disposing of them. The hero of the story is "the last black cat." Told from the cat's point of view, it's not really a book for young readers, and in today's "helicopter drama parenting" it's probably not something you'd find on a junior reader bookshelf either. But it was tongue in cheek fun and I enjoyed it.

Hayley wrote: "I'm planning to read The Travelling Cat Chronicles for this prompt. I chose this book because the main character is a cat. I heard this book talked about on Booktube this past year ..."

Loved this one!

NancyJ wrote: "Emily, I really love the links you found for this prompt! Doesthedogdie is so helpful. And Fee I love your list too."

I have a funny story. I read the story I Am Legend and Other Stories by Richard Matheson, and when I was done, my daughter and I watched the movie. Okay - this is a spoiler, so I will hide it: (view spoiler)[ The dog dies in the book. When my daughter and I sat down to watch it, we asked my husband if the dog died in the movie. He had seen the movie previously. We were okay if the dog died because it died in the book, but we wanted to be prepared. Husband said, "No. The dog doesn't die." Well, the dog dies, and it's so freaking sad! We were so mad at him. We stopped the movie and kind of ripped him a new one. "I thought the dog lived! I forgot!" Neither of us has ever finished the movie! LOL. (hide spoiler)]

I read Killing Trail by Margaret Mizushima for this prompt. It is the first book in the Timber Creek K-9 Mystery series, so there is a dog who is a pretty important character. I also loved the book! I'm so excited to have found this series.

I read "The Man Who Vanished And The Dog Who Waited" by Kate High. There are plenty of dogs and cats in the story

To the Dogs

I read this book with Dogs in the title. The MC has a dog but his role in the book is minimal

For my second round of ATY, I read Pusheen the Cat's Guide to Everything by Claire Belton. Cute, but not spectacular. Lots of cartoons of cats!

I read The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashawai. It's a quick cozy read with food, Kyoto seasons, heartwarming nostalgia and also a cat.

Jacqie wrote: "I read The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashawai. It's a quick cozy read with food, Kyoto seasons, heartwarming nostalgia and also a cat."

I just read this too. Very sweet. And now I really want to go to Kyoto.

I read Henderson the Rain King.

I read If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura.

If they did...I would be devastated