Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

We all love a romance or family drama, but sometimes it can be fun to switch it up. This week, you are looking for a book that involves a group of 4 or more people who are not family members. Some ideas include a book club, a sports team, a gang, a military unit, a jury, an organization, a faculty, or the cast of a play or movie.

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

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

Either One of the Girls or Somewhere Beyond the Sea

I'm going to read Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman and Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. I'm driving my friends crazy that I hadn't read it yet, but I just knew it would fit somewhere for '25!

I haven't read either book in this series yet, but I have the 1st one slotted here and the second one slotted on this same prompt on the 2025 anniversary list.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

I'm planning Skylight, set in a block of flats, and The Girls, set in a cult.

For the anniversary prompt, I have a 2025 book Mere, which looks as if it should work; it's set in a nunnery. I also have The Rejected Writers' Book Club, which looks fun.

I'll be reading Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. I loved The Expanse and those four characters that made up the crew, so I've been desperate to fit this in somewhere, and am hoping that the usual rule of book being batter than the adaption holds true.

As part of getting through some of the longer-standing books on my TBR, I had slotted One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in here. Can anyone who's read it advise if the inmates are enough of a group, or is it more individual experiences?

Also thinking about the next in the Thursday Murder Club for the anniversary version.

Probably will read The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club #4)

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

A group of disgraced ex M-15 agents band together to try and redeem themselves.

Contact has been languishing on my TBR longer than any other book. It seems to be perfect for this prompt!

Joanna wrote: "As part of getting through some of the longer-standing books on my TBR, I had slotted One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in here. Can anyone who's read it advise if the inmates are enoug..."

It's been a few years since I read it, but to the best of my memory, it works.

I was going to slot something from my planned binge read of the Murderbot series in here, but your description reminded me of If We Were Villains, and now I'm leaning toward that.

The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman
The Feast - Margaret Kennedy
A Hobby of Murder - Elizabeth Ferrars

My ideas for this from my TBR are:
Three Bags Full and Utopia Avenue

Joanna wrote: "I had slotted One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in here. Can anyone who's read it advise if the inmates are enough of a group, or is it more individual experiences?"

That book is a great fit for this prompt and also, I would highly recommend it.

Currently, I'm probably going to read the following:

-The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff. (I anticipated reading it during this year but another book struck my fancy.)

I found this on the listopia and since I have it maybe I'll finally read it:
The Art of Fielding

I am trying to read books that I own. I found Ya-Yas in Bloom, which is about 4 friends over time. I am thinking it fits this category.

I will be reading Christmas for the District Nuses by Annie Groves, although not sure yet if there are 4 in the nursing group.

I have decided to read The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan for this prompt instead. It is about a sewing group in the second world war in UK.

I am reading William the Detective by Richmal Crompton for the anniversary list. It is a childrens book about a group of 4 boys always getting into trouble.

✅Orbital - Tob list , award winner, astronauts
Network Effect - murderbot
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn - a group of women in Washington DC, 1950’s?
Silverborn - magic school
Enter Ghost - Palestine, actors

Many books by Nalini Singh, Louise Penny would work too.
Also could be Found families or work settings
Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station - a small tour group traveling in China
✅The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica - researchers living together on an isolated island.

For this prompt, I read:
The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk - 4* - My Review (a group of men being treated for tuberculosis and living in a guest house near the sanitorium)

Joy D wrote: "For this prompt, I read:
The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk - 4* - My Review (a group of men being treated for tuberculosis and living in ..."

I just purchased this earlier this week. I never thought about reading it for this prompt. Thanks for the recommendation.

I read The Hollow Boy from the Lockwood & Co. series. Lockwood & Co. are an agency that fights ghosts. The members are Lockwood, Lucy, George and Holly. Holly is a new member and the book shows the changes in the dynamics of the team now she has joined.

I really enjoyed this instalment and can’t wait to see where the story goes.

I read Murder in the Locked Library whilst there is a family in this
The Cover girls are a book group of friends who are involved in the mystery Jane, Eloise, Anna,Mrs Pratt Anna and Phoebe are all part of the group

I just went with the next book in The Expanse series Abaddon’s Gate, as I'd love to be able to finish the series, this year.

Any of those books (so far) should work here.

For this prompt I read Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris - it is a small town (very small) with an eclectic cast of characters that includes a witch, angels, a vampire, and a psychic.

I read The Briar Club for this prompt.

I read Toto for the anniversary prompt. It’s a retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from Toto’s perspective.

I've pulled The Holdout.

The story revolves around a jury deliberation and decision, which then one member decides to dig a little deeper into. It looks like it fits, so I'm going to go with it.

LoriLovesBooks wrote: "I read Toto for the anniversary prompt. It’s a retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from Toto’s perspective."


I loved this one - very campy and fun. And that Toto swears. A lot.

I’m reading Toto right now too! I’m using it for “2 books with a connection but different genres”. The other is “After Oz” and is a murder mystery.

I read this one for the Anniversary part of this challenge. It focuses on the seven astronauts of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham - 5* - My Review

I read Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones (group of school friends)

I went with Orbital by Samantha Harvey for this one, involving a group of astronauts in orbit. My full review can be found here.

I read:
The Cincinnati Red Stalkings:: A Mickey Rawlings Baseball Mystery by Troy Soos (a baseball team)

REJECT: A book that is number 2, 5, or 25 in a series

Finished: 02/28/2025
Rating: 4 stars

Book #5 in the Mickey Rawlings series. Set in the 1920's, this series is packed with baseball trivia. A must read for baseball fans

The book I chose for this prompt was

Short and sweet review:
No this is a good short read. Tori Tori Tori, girl you fought hard to go out like that. This book has the drama, frenemy, gaslighting, fake love you name it. The fact that she had 2 bodies by the age 18 and was training for that life style is wild. I just wasn't expecting the end.

I read It by Stephen King for this topic. The book features a group of friends known as "The Losers Club" (read March 3rd; 4*)

I read Orbital. Six astronauts on the space station.

I started The Briar Club and I’m loving it. It fits this prompt well.

The Other Bridget by Rachael Jones (has a book club)

I just finished up for this prompt. I mostly wanted to fit it in one of the prompts before the movie came out, and this prompt seemed to be the most fitting.

He is a part of a crew during his missions which works for me :)

I read One Girl in All the World by Kendare Blake, and the Scoobies 2.0 definitely qualify.

I reworked this prompt, and used My Dear Kabul: The incredible and courageous diary of an Afghan women's writing group during the Fall of Kabul, which I would certainly recommend.

For my 2016 round, I read The Girls. The MC becomes involved in a cultish set-up obviously inspired by the Manson Family. The feel of the cult's ranch, the evocation of the period, and that adolescence angst/boredom were well done. It suffered slightly by making the 14 year old narrator a bit too literary in her descriptions, but a powerful book overall.

Anniversary list:

I read Mere, set in a Saxon convent, isolated in the marshes. There were some family relationships, but enough unrelated characters to fit the prompt. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the convent and the fear of whatever was lurking outside was very well done. Not so sure about the mystic part, but in general I enjoyed this book. It would be a very good fit for the 'witches, goddesses or nuns' prompt.

I also read The Archipelago of Another Life, where a group of five soldiers go in pursuit of a prisoner escaped from a gulag - I thought this was a very good book, both in the descriptions of the landscape, and the interactions between the characters.

I read Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return


For the Anniversary 2025 (no separate link available) I read:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I read Big Little Lies

I guess we are also using this page for the second time we use this prompt (the Anniversary List for 2025):

For one use I just finished Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Love it, but make sure you are in the right mood for a book that is poetic and philosophical (and features 6 astronauts/cosmonauts on the International Space Station).

For the second use I'm going to try Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli (how it fits is obvious) OR The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve (4 strangers who time travel together). The weird thing about The Memory Collectors is that it is set in Ventura, California, where I went to high school (not the weird thing). When I still lived there, I saw a classified ad in the local paper for someone looking for someone to time travel with them—no guarantees of return and some other caveats I don't recall. Is Ventura a time-traveling hot spot that I wasn't aware of?!

Tracy wrote: "I guess we are also using this page for the second time we use this prompt (the Anniversary List for 2025):

For one use I just finished Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Love it, but ma..."

I agree about Orbital. I like to listen to poetic writing in small doses. Otherwise my brain treats it like music and I don’t take in the meaning. It was very pleasant to listen at bedtime. I just had to back it up the next day.

Maybe the ad was an inspiration for the book (or setting). Or maybe the author wrote the ad while writing the book - as a promotional effort to spur conversations like this? Let me know if you liked it.

I read a book about the founding mothers of America years ago. I’m pretty sure it was by Cokie Roberts. If so, I like the reference echo (or whatever it’s called).

NancyJ wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Maybe the ad was an inspiration for the book (or setting). Or maybe the author wrote the ad while writing the book - as a promotional effort to spur conversations like this? Let me know if you liked it...."

NancyJ — re: the connection between The Memory Collectors and the ad in the Ventura newspaper... it's possible that the ad was inspiration for the book, but definitely not a promotional ad for the book. I saw the ad at least 40 years ago! Maybe it was an ad just for me who sometimes remembers odd tidbits like this? Anyway, hopefully I'll read it soon enough to remember to let you know how it was :)

Tracy wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Maybe the ad was an inspiration for the book (or setting). Or maybe the author wrote the ad while writing the book - as a promotional effort to spur conversations like ..."

Great memory!