Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I'm just over here inventing new challenges.

On New Years Eve, Barack Obama posted his list of best books & favorite songs of 2017 on Facebook (link). It's 10 books + 2 bonus books for basketball fans. Upon looking at it, I thought it would be really fun to make this into a challenge for 2018. Anyone else interested?

The Power by Naomi Alderman
Grant by Ron Chernow
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Five-Carat Soul by James McBride
Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Bonus for hoops fans (his words, not mine):
Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Basketball (and Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated by Shea Serrano

I've read (and highly recommend) Sing, Unburied, Sing and Evicted. Started Grant but had to return it to the library before finishing (trying to have less overdue fees!) so I will need to get that one again. Exit West and Five Carat Soul are on my list of to-reads.

This is really cool, Katie! I'm afraid to commit to anymore challenges though. My plan this year is to work through my ATY challenge first and if I have time I'll work on my secondary challenges. I've got to get my feet wet again after a year off. ;) But I love this idea!

Like Emm, I'm not prepared to commit to an extra challenge, but I love this list. I've already got Sing, Unburied, Sing and The Power on my challenge list. And I have Grant and Exit West in my TBR.

In the (very unlikely) event that I run out of ATY challenge books before the end of the year, I'll be all over this! 😊

We've got issues over here, lol.

3 of these are on my challenge plans for this year and another 3 are on my TBR/side reads list.

I could do a partial. I have to look into some of them I haven't heard of but the way I've been reading lately anything is possible.

Love his list! I've read Anything Is Possible already and have several others on my TBR for this year (Exit West, Sing Unburied Sing, Evicted). I don't want to commit to the full list - definitely not the basketball! ;) - but I would do a partial. Also, one book on my list for this year is Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, which might work well with this challenge. The book got mixed reviews and is controversial, but sounds interesting to me.

i'd like to mention the fact that one of barack obama's best songs of 2017 is havana omg

I don't think I can commit to a side read -- instead I'll just add all of the ones not on my TBR list to the list - which doesn't help my whittling down the list, but does add some really good titles!
It helps that I got a couple of them for presents recently, because these are large books!

I've already read A Gentleman in Moscow and Anything is Possible and five others were already on my TBR list so I'd totally be up for this side challenge.

I can try to add these to the other 3 challenges I am doing. Did you find a place for these in the Around the World in 50 Books challenge?