Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Five Books is a website that compiles lists of five books - everything from the Best Comfort Reads (as recommended by Neil Gaiman) to Novels of the Rich and Wealthy.

This week, you are scouring the lists and finding a book to read that is recommended on one of the Five Books lists. You can approach this prompt a few ways: you can find a book you want to read and see if it's on a list, you can find a list that intrigues you and read a book off of it, or you can do a combination of the two.

Five Books website: www.fivebooks.com
ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading for this prompt, and what list was it featured on?

There are two books I saw on the site that sound really interesting. I was jumping around, hitting different links, so I don’t remember how I got there. I’ll spend more time on this site in the new year, as new topics catch my interest.

Pageboy by Elliott Page (aka Ellen Page).

The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight

I've started a 5 Books GR shelf based on books I see on their FB posts. I already have 29 books but the one I'm most interested in, that I don't own, is The Maniac by Benjamín Labatut. It was just published this month.

This is probably my least favorite prompt. There are so many old books on this site. I’ve already heard of them and I’m not interested. I know I only have to find one book to complete the prompt but it’s so limited.

This is the only list prompt I have ever liked. I have not Fe what I’m going to read, but am leaning towards an Audie Awards category.

dalex, there are tons of newish books to pick from. There are also several award categories, which you seem to like as well. I think, there a lot more variety than many list type prompts.

Re: Five Books - since picking a category and looking at the books on it to see if there are any you might want to read could take forever(!) I recommend this: Take a title you really want to read but haven’t found a prompt for (or it is a second option for a prompt) and use the search function on fivebooks.com. SO much faster, and the book may be in a category you hadn’t considered. I’ve found several options that way.

They also have lists of new releases each season, so that's another place to look for newer books! But I'll probably use an awards list... or a really random list.. or I'll need a break by the time I get to this prompt and I'll just use the search function like Tracy said lol.

I also like the idea of picking a book I know I liked and searching for it, then reading another book that's on the same list as that one. One would hope that books that are similar would be listed together.

Pam wrote: "I've started a 5 Books GR shelf based on books I see on their FB posts. I already have 29 books but the one I'm most interested in, that I don't own, is The Maniac

Oh this sounds good for artificial intelligence too. I really liked his book When We Cease to Understand the World. I thought a book about physicists would be boring, but it was fascinating.

dalex wrote: "This is probably my least favorite prompt. There are so many old books on this site. I’ve already heard of them and I’m not interested. I know I only have to find one book to complete the prompt bu..."

There are a lot of new books too, but the site is huge. I stumbled on a few that sound great already, but I won’t try to make a decision right away. I have a feeling I’ll discover a lot more interesting books over time. I’ll probably check the site - and this thread- every month or so.

Nancy - Thanks for the recommendation! I added that book to my TBR. I think when I originally saw The Maniac I was thinking it would work for the intelligence prompt but now I can’t remember!

I'm reading Origins: How The Earth Made Us for this. I found it on a list on the Five Books page, but though I found the book again through the page's search feature, I can't see what list it was from. Something about earth history/geology.

dalex wrote: "This is probably my least favorite prompt. There are so many old books on this site. I’ve already heard of them and I’m not interested. I know I only have to find one book to complete the prompt bu..."

There's literally a whole section on New Books 2023: https://fivebooks.com/books/best-book... Hope that helps.

I found Five Books quite a difficult site to navigate. I found a book I wanted to read (Shy) in Notable Novels of Spring 2023 . I found it by using the search function when the Five Books suggestion was made, but then, after it was voted in, it took me a while to find it again. Probably just me, but it didn't endear the site to me.

I'm also reading Pilgrims which was on the Medieval Historical Fiction list. It was recommended by someone (a biographer) I'd never heard of, though I had heard of the book. I'd rather just read reviews on here or in the paper etc. than rely on some obscure party's selection.

So, I've found two books, but I don't think this is a site that I will be returning to unless it comes up again for a challenge.

Jillian wrote: "dalex, there are tons of newish books to pick from. ."

NancyJ wrote: "There are a lot of new books too."

There are 28 lists in the science fiction section*. On these, 94 are old books (1999 or earlier) and 46 are newer publications. 67% old, 33% new. Point made.

And some of those newer publications are ridiculously obscure. For example, The Best Cli-Fi Books includes Polar City Red (31 ratings, average rating 2.97), Anchor Point (251 ratings, average rating 3.79), We Are Unprepared (1992 ratings, average rating 3.35), and a kid's book.

*I excluded six lists that are specifically about newer books, like the Clarke award nominess. I’m quite capable of finding new releases and prize winners on my own so I would like to use this prompt for a category.

I have three of the 2023 Clarke shortlist books on my TBR so that's probably what I'll read, but I have some non-fiction options too. A lot of British books are obscure by Goodreads standards.

My three options:

Best Crime Classic - Gaudy Night
Best Mystery Books of 2022 - The Paris Apartment
Best Books by Nobel Prize in Literature Winners - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

dalex wrote: "There are 28 lists in the science fiction section*. On these, 94 are old books (1999 or earlier) and 46 are newer publications. 67% old, 33% new. Point made.

And some of those newer publications are ridiculously obscure. For example, The Best Cli-Fi Books includes Polar City Red (31 ratings, average rating 2.97), Anchor Point (251 ratings, average rating 3.79), We Are Unprepared (1992 ratings, average rating 3.35), and a kid's book.

*I excluded six lists that are specifically about newer books, like the Clarke award nominess. I’m quite capable of finding new releases and prize winners on my own so I would like to use this prompt for a category.
"

You can definitely limit the lists you will pick from and be unhappy with your lack of choices. That does not mean that the actual prompt is so limited or narrow.

Jillian wrote: "You can definitely limit the lists you will pick from and be unhappy with your lack of choices. That does not mean that the actual prompt is so limited or narrow."

I could give you the statistics for historical fiction also. Only ten lists (if you exclude the prize lists) and a lot of old books. Or mystery. So. Many. Old. Books.

Or look at the listopia. At the moment, 15 of the top 20 are old books.

I can find something. I just really dislike this prompt.

NancyJ wrote: "
Oh this sounds good for artificial intelligence too. I really liked his book When We Cease to Understand the World. I thought a book about physicists would be boring, but it was fascinating.

"

This book sounds interesting!

Dixie wrote: "There's literally a whole section on New Books 2023…”

First let’s break it down - 12 fiction, 10 nonfiction. I very rarely read nonfiction so that’s 12 lists to choose from. Eliminate romance because I never read it and the teens and kids lists because I don’t read hardly any of that. Now we have 9 lists to choose from.

Look at the list for sci-fi and fantasy, which are two of my favorite genres. Five books I’ve never heard of (and judging by the review numbers on goodreads pretty much no one else has either).

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Debuts of 2023
Bitter Medicine 425
World Running Down 166
On Earth as It Is on Television 521
The First Bright Thing 479
The Scourge Between the Stars 617

Compare that to Starling House, the October book for the Reese’s Book Club. It was released less than two weeks ago and has 1,453 reviews.

The group downvoted celebrity book club and chose Five Books instead. Why? I just truly do not understand.

I have lots of options with the Five Books and I’m guessing other members did as well. I like the layout and reading why certain books were picked.

The celebrity book club was in the last poll and only the top 2 prompts would get in. I voted the way I normally did but others may have voted different. I was neutral because I liked other prompts more. Celebrity book clubs are not something I’m interested in but I could find a book that would work. I think, there are people who don’t like reading books just because a celebrity endorsed them. Others would have preferred to read books from their own book club if the prompt was centered around book clubs. Five books was also picked in an earlier poll so it is not really like they went up against each other.

dalex wrote: "The group downvoted celebrity book club and chose Five Books instead. Why? I just truly do not understand..."

Well, Dalex, as you know, there is no explaining how the group votes! (Some people may associate celebrity book clubs with just best sellers. Others might feel like they don't care what Oprah is reading.) I voted for 5 Books because I follow the site on Facebook and see their posts every day. I'm interested in reading the best books from different countries, in particular. I do read SF but I also read classics, non-fiction, HF, graphic novels, and mid-grades. So, for me, there is a lot of variety to choose from. Re: the SF books, I found 11, not including the ones you listed, of personal interest. Two are recent publications - Metronome and The Anomaly.

If you don't like the choices, see what comes out in 2024 or wild card it. I am very interested to see what genres and books that other members pick. I have no idea what I will read because I have so many choices!

WRT your stats, keep in mind that once a book is on a celebrity list, it's heavily promoted and people go out and buy it but that doesn't make it a better book. It's probably easier to find, though.

dalex wrote: "The group downvoted celebrity book club and chose Five Books instead. Why? I just truly do not understand."

I think for most people it might be as simple as one of the two prompts has more options in the genres they like. You don't like old books or romance, but classics and romance are two of my favorite genres. So just like how FiveBooks feels narrow for you because of types of books you like to read, I'm the same way with celebrity book club. I don't consider any influencer a celebrity, so for me there are mainly 3 celebrity books clubs with a total of 200-300 recommendations between the three of them, with no recommendations in my favorite genres or sub-genres.

On FiveBooks, I was able to make of list of 25 options that I like, which is 25 more than what I found on the celebrity book lists.

Here are 10 books I'm considering for the FiveBooks prompt, in case it's helpful for anyone else who likes fantasy, romance, mystery, and/or classics:

Empire of Sand - from The Best Mythopoeic Fantasy, recommended by Samantha Shannon
The Witch's Heart - from The Best Mythopoeic Fantasy, recommended by Samantha Shannon
Bitter Medicine - from The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Debuts of 2023
This is How You Lose the Time War - from The Best of Speculative Fiction, recommended by Ken Liu (who I love!)
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy - from The Best Romance Books of 2022
A Murder Is Announced - from The Best Murder Mystery Books, recommended by Stuart Turton & The Best Agatha Christie Books
Endless Night - from The Best Agatha Christie Books
The Once and Future King - from The Best Books on Fantasy, recommended by Lev Grossman
Rebecca - from The Best Classic Thrillers
American Gods - from The Best Books on How to Win Elections

Jillian, Pam, and Irene - Thank you for your responses to my comments about this prompt. I understand and appreciate that everyone has different tastes in books and you’ve helped me see this prompt from perspectives other than my own.

I realized I never posted my books ideas. I'm also trying to prioritize books I already own next year.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (The Best Audiobooks: the 2022 Audie Awards, recommended by Michele Cobb)
The Poppy War(The Best Mythopoeic Fantasy, recommended by Samantha Shannon)
The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec(The Best Mythopoeic Fantasy, recommended by Samantha Shannon)

dalex wrote: "Jillian wrote: "dalex, there are tons of newish books to pick from. ."

“Point made”
Thanks.

One thing I do like about this site is that because it is British, you get some other ideas for new books besides the ones heavily promoted by GR and Amazon, or by the best-seller promotion machine. I think I looked at the new sci-fi list and came up with 3 that looked good but most importantly that weren't already on my radar. So, even though I don't really like the site design and didn't vote for this prompt, it has already been successful for me in helping me find some promising new books I probably wouldn't have found otherwise:
Plutoshine
The Anomaly
The Red Scholar's Wake

I'm not a fan of list prompts, and I really didn't like this one. I found the website massively tedious to navigate, and I ended up just searching for books on my TBR because I got so frustrated working my way through the lists. So I have no idea which lists I chose from!

I was, however, a little bit inspired because I decided to use the ones I'd found to do my own Five Books list from Five Books, so I'll be reading:

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Broken Harbour by Tana French
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

For right now I'm planning on reading Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage by Rachel E. Gross. It came from the list for Best Literary Science Writing: The 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Book Award — recommended by David Hu.

One of my other considerations (which I'm now reading for another prompt) also came from this list: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong.

If my current choice doesn't work out I have 4 other books that aren't already slotted elsewhere.

I really struggled with this one, as I'm trying to read from my already owned books but I'm also wanting to give myself some options for each prompt. So trying to find a list that had at least two books I own and hadn't already read was tough! But Arifa Akbar's Best Novels of 2017 had three...and one other I don't own but would like to read, so that's sneaked on to my list too.

- Elmet by Fiona Mozley
- White Tears by Hari Kunzru
- First Love by Gwendoline Riley
- Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Tracy wrote: "For right now I'm planning on reading Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage by Rachel E. Gross. It came from the list for Best Literary Science Writing: The 2023 PE..."

Omg that title is so weird, I have to take a look at it.

I'm planning to read The Yacoubian Building for this prompt. I chose it because it was gifted to me and is on the list for five books by Egyptian authors. I've tried to read it before but was off-put by one of the male characters who talked about his exploits. I think it's worth trying again because I've never read any books from an Egyptian author and am intrigued by this book because it is from the perspective of a house and the book was banned in Egypt.

I'm going to read The Remains of the Day listed under "enduring love"

I read Shy, which was recommended as a Notable Novel of Spring 2023 (https://fivebooks.com/best-books/nota....

A novella told from the point of view of a disturbed teenager, it manages to convey his isolation, anger and imagination while also giving glimpses into the difficulties he causes those around him.

I also read The Satsuma Complex, which was recommended as one of the funniest books of 2023 (https://fivebooks.com/best-books/funn...). I didn't intend to read it, but I gave it to my husband for Christmas as he enjoys the author's Gone Fishing programme, and then found it on Five Books. I liked this gentle and yes, sometimes very amusing, centred around crime and corruption! in South-east London.

Thanks to those who did the Listopia! I started there instead of pulling up all the lists and found 3 books I own - Birnam Wood, Slow Horses and The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. So I'll pick one of those.

I reread The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky for this one. By far one of the best and most relatable books I have ever read. I remember really relating to the main character when I first read it as a teenager though this time around I had totally rewritten the ending in my memory and was shocked to realize how close to home it really was and that I had blocked that ending out of my memory just as well as I had blocked the memories of my own childhood trauma for many years. I felt so much anger and sadness realizing just how much I related to Charlie and in ways I didn’t even remember and wonder if that’s why I felt so close to him as a teen. Hard but amazing book.

This is my least favorite prompt because the 5 books site is so ...awkward. I was seriously considering using a wild card for this prompt. Thank goodness for the Listopia. I have found several books on my TBR that I had shelved for ATY24 but wasn't sure where to put them. Now at least one will have a home.

I read The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. The list was The Best Books by P.G. Wodehouse.

When I first looked at this site, I felt like there was a lot to choose from but when trying to actually find something I kind of struggled to find anything that I hadn't already read or considered. Heartstopper: Volume One is a graphic novel that I have contemplated reading on several occasions and was easy to get from the library so that is what I ended up reading. It was cute and a nice day before valentines day read.

Without even trying for this one, I read The Red Palace, an Edgar award winner (for young adult) which is on the Best Young Adult Books of 2022 on the 5 books website. Going to the website was going to be my last resort, since I figured that I'd end up reading something from there before the year was out :)

I read:
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

BIO: A book that appears on multiple Five Books lists
REJECT: A book involving a wild animal or endangered species, in the content, title, or on the cover

Finished: 02/18/2024
Rating: 4+ stars

I read The Woman in the Window, which was on a Best Thrillers list.

What are you reading for this prompt, and what list was it featured on?

I read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and it was featured on the 5 essential dark academia novels list. I liked it but it was very whimsical and it fatigued me a bit, so I gave it 3 stars. But they're like the good 3 stars.

I basically let everyone else do the hard work and just pulled a couple from the ATY listopia for this prompt.

I'll be reading ~

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and
Birnam Wood

I read Wergen: The Alien Love War by Mercurio D. Rivera. It's from the Arthur C. Clarke Award nominees list. The cover is hideous but it's actually pretty good science fiction.

After a quick look through the Five Books List website (which I had never heard of before), I found a bunch I had already been planning to read this month!

I am happy to add a book I was reading for my western prompt from a different challenge (24 in 24). I couldn't figure out a place to fit it in for the 52 book challenge until I saw it on the Five Books list for The Best 20th-Century American Novels, ranking 4th, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy. YAY!

I'm gonna be sneaky with it and make this my "second book to fit my favorite prompt" for prompt 48 so I can also read an owned book, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke which is in the Five Books list for The Best Ergodic Fiction, ranking 5th.

I also saw The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson in The Best True Crime Books, ranked 3rd. I own this and am already reading it for prompt 10, "a history or historical fiction book."

Tracy wrote: "Re: Five Books - since picking a category and looking at the books on it to see if there are any you might want to read could take forever(!) I recommend this: Take a title you really want to read ..."

Please explain further. I'd never heard of Five Books. Where can I find this search function?

www.fivebooks.com

Have fun searching, Allegra!

NancyJ wrote: "Tracy wrote: "For right now I'm planning on reading Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage by Rachel E. Gross. It came from the list for Best Literary Science Writin..."

I just finished this NancyJ. It was really interesting and very illuminating. I'd say it's a class on science, scientific history, and cultural history about "lady bits".

Tracy wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Tracy wrote: "For right now I'm planning on reading Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage by Rachel E. Gross. It came from the list for Best Literary..."

Maybe I’ll suggest it to my local bookclub. That’ll surprise them. 🤣