Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

It is now time to vote for our ANNIVERSARY LIST: Throwing it back to 2024! (lol)

For more information about this special Anniversary List, see this thread.

Voting will open in the morning of Sunday, September 15 and results will be posted in the morning of Friday, September 20 (CDT time).

How it works:
- When the voting opens, follow the link to the mini-poll that will be added at the end of this post
- You have a total of 8 votes this poll to spread across your favorite and least favorite prompts (you can also use less than 8 votes)
- You can find examples of acceptable voting practices on the Introduction thread.

We are asking people to include their Goodreads profile address when they vote. To find this, just go to your own profile and then copy the URL/web address. If for some reason you can't link to your Goodreads profile, please post your full Goodreads name with enough identifiable information that we'll be able to access your profile.

As this is an ANNIVERSARY LIST poll, only ONE prompt will make the final list. Use your votes wisely!

Poll Prompts:
5. A book set in one of the 25 most beautiful cities in the world
6. A book with wings on the cover
8. A book by an author from Canada, Australia, or New Zealand
9. A book with fewer than 2024 ratings on Goodreads
11. A book with an X connection
12. A book that has been on your TBR for over a year
14. A book with amain character who is Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color
15. A book whose author’s name includes one of the 4 least used letters in the alphabet (JQZX)
20. A book with a single word title
26. A book by an author known by their initials
31. A book related to “Going for the Gold”
34. A book related to the name of one of Snow White's seven dwarfs
45. A book that is not a novel
44. A book with a touch of magic
49. A book with a senior citizen character

VOTE HERE: https://forms.gle/7ebaeGp3Lmf3bFKH9

I like lots of these...more upvotes than downvotes!

This was a great year for prompts so the choice is hard.

I’m struggling with the “less than 2024 ratings” prompt. I don’t read a lot of super popular books so I’m surprised how hard it is to find a qualifying book. So, that’s a downvote.

I’m not a fan of setting prompts. London makes the beautiful cities prompt very easy unless you force yourself to choose something else. That’s another downvote.

But my six upvotes? That’s a difficult choice.

I love the prompts this year. It is going to be the first year I actually finish the challenge! My favorites are a touch of magic, wings on the cover, and a book on my TBR over a year.

It’s so convenient to have the current year’s listopia to look at. This would be a great time to update our votes on the listopias, and to look at the comments about those prompts.

It's helpful that there are numbers listed in the poll, can we do that for the regular ones as well?

I always make a note with all of the prompts when they are announced and divide them up into ups and downs (and mehs). I find I'm able to find the right boxes to tick in the poll much easier now the prompt numbers are listed there as well.

Yep!

I read through these and thought, wait, but there were a lot of prompts I enjoyed this year, right? It just happened that none of my favorites made this list. So I downvoted 8 that I really didn't care for or that were pretty much "read any book" prompts for me (I have dozens of books with fewer than 2024 ratings and over 600 that have been on my TBR list for over a year!), and left the rest neutral.

In spite of being a downvoter this round, I'm really happy we have this side challenge and I want to thank the mods for creating it. Extra work for them, extra fun for us! You guys rock!

I plan to downvote ratings, Snow White and magic. The rest I like. One of my favorites this year is “not a novel”. I keep moving books in and out of this prompt. I’m reading more non-fiction so that’s a good one for me. I thought it would be so easy to read an author from Canada, Australia or NZ, which it actually is, but I still haven’t this year! That makes me realize that those are not my go-to countries for authors.

Didn't we just do these? They all feel so familiar (kidding!)
I'm still moving things around a bunch....and having an impossible time with the most beautiful cities cause I'm trying to avoid London/Paris/NY

Pamela wrote: "having an impossible time with the most beautiful cities cause I'm trying to avoid London/Paris/NY

For that prompt I read A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome. I recommend it.

I did The Architect's Apprentice, set in Istanbul.

I read Roman Stories.

Which prompt has wings on the cover? Did we really upvote that? Which number is it, can't find it.

Nike - Wings on the Cover is #6, the second one on this list.

Tracy wrote: "Nike - Wings on the Cover is #6, the second one on this list."

Aha, yes - and I read a book with a bird on it! Thank you 🙂

Pamela wrote: "Didn't we just do these? They all feel so familiar (kidding!)
I'm still moving things around a bunch....and having an impossible time with the most beautiful cities cause I'm trying to avoid Londo..."

I have a side challenge for the beautiful cities. I liked the books set in these cities

Buenos Aires
Edinburgh
Amsterdam
Tai Pei
Istanbul

Pam wrote: "I plan to downvote ratings, Snow White and magic. The rest I like. One of my favorites this year is “not a novel”. I keep moving books in and out of this prompt. I’m reading more non-fiction so tha..."

I think “not a novel” was my favorite too. This was a great year for me with interesting memoirs, nonfiction , plays, and even a dictionary (which read more like poetry) - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Short stories too.

I would prefer multiple prompts for these formats, but I love that this one has so much flexibility,

NancyJ wrote: "I have a side challenge for the beautiful cities. I liked the books set in these cities

Buenos Aires
Edinburgh
Amsterdam
Tai Pei
Istanbu"

I agree. This prompt allows international reading, not just a couple of the usual suspects (Paris/NYC/London).

I've got a book where the setting is Istanbul and another one set in Kyoto so I would manage - because I don't want to use this prompt for London and Paris either - but I'd love to read a book that is set in the Vietnamese city Hoi An. But Istanbul and Kyoto is great options as well.
The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk and The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata

NancyJ wrote: "Pamela wrote: "Didn't we just do these? They all feel so familiar (kidding!)
I'm still moving things around a bunch....and having an impossible time with the most beautiful cities cause I'm trying..."

Which books have you read for those cities?

Definitely more up votes than downvotes for me this time.

For the beautiful cities prompt, if you want to avoid London/Paris/NYC but still not go too obscure, may I recommend Rome :)

Conny wrote: "Definitely more up votes than downvotes for me this time.

For the beautiful cities prompt, if you want to avoid London/Paris/NYC but still not go too obscure, may I recommend Rome :)"

Have you got any suggestions for novels set in contemporary Rome? Apart from one of Dan Brown's books I only find novels set in historic times.

Nike - try this. I just skimmed it, but seems to be a mix of fiction and non-fiction, modern, ancient, and more recent historical. (Set in Rome)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Pamela wrote: "Didn't we just do these? They all feel so familiar (kidding!)
I'm still moving things around a bunch....and having an impossible time with the most beautiful cities cause I'm trying to avoid Londo..."




I read If I Had Your Face, set in Seoul. There are a lot of other books set in Seoul too. (I'm not sure which list I found that included Seoul, but I found it somewhere!!)

Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour is set in a variety of locations in Viet Nam including (I'm pretty sure) Hai An, which I found on a list of beautiful cities. (It's also partly set in San Francisco, another beautiful city!)

I haven't gotten to beautiful city yet, but my plan for it is Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul

I also have How It All Blew Up on my TBR, set in Rome.

Chrissy wrote: "I did The Architect's Apprentice, set in Istanbul."

This is what I read also!

Tracy wrote: "Nike - try this. I just skimmed it, but seems to be a mix of fiction and non-fiction, modern, ancient, and more recent historical. (Set in Rome)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list......"

Oh, thanks a lot! Great 🙂

Nadine in NY wrote: "Pamela wrote: "Didn't we just do these? They all feel so familiar (kidding!)
I'm still moving things around a bunch....and having an impossible time with the most beautiful cities cause I'm trying..."

Thank you 🙂

I would have loved to have seen Ben and Jerry's on this list.

X connection and Going for Gold were because this was 2024 and an Olympic year, so I don't need to see those in 2025.

Snow White is the most creative prompt on the list, so that's an upvote.

Canadian books are dead easy, so that's an upvote.

I wasn’t thinking that the 25 most beautiful cities prompt was one I would vote for but, after reading the comments, I did! I read 2 books set in Buenos Aires this year and have a few more I’m interested in and also one in Istanbul. Plus, Paris and London are just fine for me. I have some classics to catch up on plus a book about the Seine. Now, this one is my top choice!

Nike wrote: "Have you got any suggestions for novels set in contemporary Rome? Apart from one of Dan Brown's books I only find novels set in historic times.

Nike, I quite like the Nic Costa series by David Hewson, which is a thriller series centered on a Detective with the Roman Questura.

This is the first in the series:
A Season for the Dead

@ Nike and others - for Rome I really liked Call Me By Your Name. It’s set partly in Rome, partly nearby in a house on the Italian Riviera.

This was a great side challenge. I’d love recommendations for cities I missed.

Highlights:
Amsterdam - Girl in Hyacinth Blue
Rome - Call Me By Your Name
Tai Pei - The Astonishing Color of After
Buenos Aires -
The Gods of Tango
Elena Knows

Paris -
The Paris Novel
The Red Notebook
The Paris Library
The Elegance of the Hedgehog

New York -
The Spectacular
The Chaperone
The Alienist

London
A Curious Beginning
Shrines of Gaiety
Bridget Jones’s Diary

Edinburgh -
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Istanbul -
Singapore-

I read The Secret in Their Eyes for a book set in Buenos Aires. Elif Shafak has a number of books set in Istanbul; so does Orhan Pamuk. Barbara Nadal has a dectective series also set in Istanbul. I read The Maid's Room for Singapore, and there is also The Frangipani Tree Mystery.

25 beautiful cities is my favorite. We had two different lists of 25 beautiful cities.

Not the usual subjects -
The Seven Sisters - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fifty Words for Rain - Kyoto, Japan
The Fault in Our Stars - Amsterdam, Netherlands

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

Conny wrote: "Nike wrote: "Have you got any suggestions for novels set in contemporary Rome? Apart from one of Dan Brown's books I only find novels set in historic times.

Nike, I quite like the Nic Costa series..."

Thank you! Seems really thrilling! 🙂

I loved X connection, even though it was a 2024-specific prompt. My last name starts with X, so I have a soft spot, but I also kept finding books that related to X in various interesting ways. I think I used Chain-Gang All-Stars for that prompt (if you've read it, you know why).

I found the 25 beautiful cities prompt difficult because I was trying really hard not to use a super-easy city like London. I think I went with Green Dot, which is set in Sydney.

Ciara wrote: "I loved X connection, even though it was a 2024-specific prompt. My last name starts with X, so I have a soft spot, but I also kept finding books that related to X in various interesting ways. I th..."

I managed to read a lot of X books this year. Many more than I expected. They still pop out at me all the time. Y doesn’t seem as much fun, though I might vote for a generation y author.

LeahS wrote: "I read The Secret in Their Eyes for a book set in Buenos Aires. Elif Shafak …
Pearl wrote: "25 beautiful cities is my favorite.

I’m loving all the books from cities I haven’t read yet. Thank you to everyone who suggested books from new cities. I’m going to have to extend this into next year whether it makes the new list or not.

My top upvotes were
25 Beautiful cities
A book that is Not a Novel - includes NF, poetry, memoirs, short stories.
A book with a main character who is Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color - this one works for Asian, Latin, Middle Eastern, Black, African and indigenous characters from all over the world.

Upvotes:

8. A book by an author from Canada, Australia, or New Zealand
14. A book with amain character who is Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color
15. A book whose author’s name includes one of the 4 least used letters in the alphabet (JQZX)
34. A book related to the name of one of Snow White's seven dwarfs
45. A book that is not a novel
49. A book with a senior citizen character

Downvotes:

5. A book set in one of the 25 most beautiful cities in the world
6. A book with wings on the cover