The 52 Book Club: 2025 Challenge discussion

WEEKLY CHECK-IN
October 22, 2023 -- Week 43

What's one "new-to-you" author that you've discovered and loved so far this year?

For me, that would definitely be Taylor Jenkins Reid. I've read 3 by her this year and gave them all 4 stars

Lisa See
I read Island of Sea Women and loved it. Can’t wait to read more of hers.

Adrian Tchaikovsky

I've read 53 "new-to-me" authors so far this year, and have at least 5 that rise to the very top. So I'm going to base it on the book that has stuck with me the longest:

All Your Children, Scattered by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse

I know I like Graphic Novels, but this year has been exceptionally good. Don't get me wrong, some have been okay, but I'm surprised how many new ones I've found and read that I'm obsessed with. I'm ready for each new volume and chapter to be published. Most of the originals are in another language, so I have to wait for the translated versions to be released, which I'm noticing is about a 6 month difference. That means I can't do anything but wait and be at the mercy of publishing for release dates. 😥
The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife by Iwatobineko
Blood Stain Volume 1 by Linda Šejić
Another Typical Fantasy Romance by Wolhet
Me and My Beast Boss, Vol. 1 by Shiroinu

Barbara Kingsolver and Elizabeth Acevedo
I've been aware of Barbara Kingsolver for ages, but had not read any of her novels. I've read one novel by Alizabeth Acedevo, and have another on my reading list.

Octavia E. Butler
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Catherine Ryan Howard

Several others, but here are a few off the top of my head and one where I want to read more books by them.

I’ve become a big fan of Emily Henry. Light reading, but always well done.

I discovered Meg Shaffer through her debut novel: The Wishing Game. I can't wait to read more books by her.

I read Wellness by Nathan Hill, but it was after I completed the challenge. I picked up The Nix at a library book sale and hope to fit it into one of the 2024 prompts.

Taste: My Life through Food by Stanley Tucci
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
And I read Agatha Christie for the first time and really enjoyed the story.

Carol wrote: "I read Wellness by Nathan Hill, but it was after I completed the challenge. I picked up The Nix at a library book sale and hope to fit it into one of the 2024 prompts."

Carol, I read the NIx a few years ago and loved it. Hope you enjoy as well.

I only learned about this list yesterday, that's why I set my goal at 25 books this year. I have read 17 promts so far, the latest being Pirater: Fra mord til moro: Hvordan bildet av piratene har endret seg by Jan Bjarne Bøe for the prompt #1 A book with a subtitle that I finished yesterday.

I have picked 9 of my own books and a library book for 10 more promts I hope to finish. They are:

André Bjerke: I kampens glede by Peter Normann Waage #9 A book with a dedication. This is a biography of a Norwegian author. I already have a buyer for the book when I finishes it.

Dark History of Hollywood: A Century of Greed, Corruption and Scandal behind the Movies by Kieron Connolly #16 Featuring one of the “seven deadly sins” - Greed

Napoleons fälttåg by Magnus Olofsson #18 Set during a war other than WWI or WWII

Karl den store by Dick Harrison #26 Has an epilogue. Several of my books have an epilogue, but this is line up for the near future.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien #27 Newbery Medal Winner - 1972. I have read this twice before, but not the two sequels by his daughter, so I have those 3 at the top of a stack to read by the end of the year.

Norsk Film A/S En kulturhistorie by Tore Helseth og Jo Sondre Moseng #30 An author with a same name as you since my last name is Helseth. I have read another book that he - Tore Helseth has co-edited with another author for the same reason before. This is the one from the library.

The House on Cold Hill by Peter James #32 Published by Macmillan

World Famous Murders by Colin Wilson #45 First word in the book is “The”. Both the ch1 heading and the text starts with "the".

En lykkelig mann by Arto Paasilinna #46 Script font on the spine, at least the title

Liftarens parlör till galaxen: En berättelse om 101 språk som egentligen inte finns by Yens Wahlgren #49 Books on the cover

Of course I can never choose just one!

S.A. Cosby, Blacktop Wasteland. Ready to pickup everything he has written.

And Stephen Spotswood the Pentecost and Parker series. I just love his (feminist and inclusive) spin on the hardboiled detective.

Sequoyah Branham. I was on the launch team for her first book, In The Company Of Cows, which actually released yesterday! I really loved it.

Some of them are Yevgeny Zamyatin, Diana Wynne Jones, Nicola Yoon, Soren Sveistrup, Coleen Hoover, Cecelia Ahern.

Heather Fawcett. I read Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries and The Grace of Wild Things.

Hard to pick. Just one? Paula Brackston, Namina Forna, Harini Nagendra...
Brad Thor, William Kent Krueger...

This year I have discovered Kresley Cole starting the Immortals after Dark series. I hope the rest is as good as A Hunger Like No Other.

I also read This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger and plan on reading more from him.

Priscilla Morris! I absolutely loved Black Butterflies and will read anything else she writes.

I started reading much more this year and Taylor Jenkins Reid and Holly Jackson both became auto-buy authors for me.

Even though she's long dead, I finally got around to reading Dorothy Hughes this year. Definitely plan to read more.

Seishi Yokomizo - Japanese mystery author with a dork lead whose quirks are intriguing rather than annoying. Yeah--that's my jam.

Lee Min Jin - Pachinko hit every reading bone I had. Can't wait to discover more by her.

Claire Keegan - I'm not much of a short story reader, but Ms Keegan's changing my mind about that.

Qiu Xiaolong – Death of a Red Heroine was on my TBR pile for close to two decades. I finally got past the first few chapters, and now I'm hooked. He's always good for filling a Q or X author on challenges, too, LOL.

M Ruth Myers - The Maggie Sullivan series was fantastic. Think Kinsey Milhone with better fashion sense and not so moody--a real dame, in the best sense of the word. The setting was so unique that it was refreshing--Depression Era Ohio.

Elizabeth Acevedo--Poet X completely blew me away. I'll read anything Ms Acevedo writes now.

Olivia Butler--May be one of the best sci-fi writers, skill-wise, since Ursula K Le Guin. She was that good.

Yara Zgheib, author of no Land To Light On. I will read this book again and can't wait to find her first novel to read also.

Thanks to this challenge I have read some fabulous authors that I never would have read otherwise. At times it has really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Among my favorite new authors are Kevin Kwan, Steig Larsson and Richard Osman.