Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Here we go again. I haven't really made a plan for this year. There are some some books I really want to read, some I've had for a while that I would like to finally finish, and I'm sure there will be many that come to my attention over the course of the year. I'm flying by the seat of my pants and trying to be ok with it. 😂

Legend
Ownership - Owned before 2019: 👍, Purchased: $, Received Free: 🆓, Borrowed: 👏
Format - Paper: 📖, Kindle/Electronic: 💻, Audio: 🔊
Re-Read: 🔁

52/52!!

[√] 1. A book that was nominated for or won an award in a genre you enjoy
Late Eclipses (Series nominated for Hugo) $💻🔊

[√] 2. A book with one of the 5 W's in the title (Who, What, Where, When, Why)
Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House 👍💻👏 🔊

[√] 3. A book where the author’s name contains A, T, and Y
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor 👍💻👏 🔊

[√] 4. A book with a criminal character (i.e. assassin, pirate, thief, robber, scoundrel etc)
Ashes of Honor $💻🔊

[√] 5. A book by Shakespeare or inspired by Shakespeare
The Unkindest Tide $💻🔊

[√] 6. A book with a dual timeline
The Map of Salt and Stars 👏💻🔊

[√] 7. 2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme: Book #1 (Me Too, etc.)
She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement $💻🔊

[√] 8. 2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme: Book #2
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators $💻🔊

[√] 9. A book from one of the top 5 money making genres (romance/erotica,
crime/mystery, religious/inspirational, science fiction/fantasy or horror)
Chimes at Midnight $💻🔊

[√] 10. A book featuring an historical figure
They Called Us Enemy 👏📖

[√] 11. A book related to one of the 12 Zodiac Chinese Animals (title, cover, subject)
A Red-Rose Chain (Dog character) $💻🔊

[√] 12. A book about reading, books or an author/writer
The Library Book $💻

[√] 13. A book that is included on a New York Public Library Staff Picks list
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower (Winter 2019) $💻🔊

[√] 14. A book with a title, subtitle or cover relating to an astronomical term
Stardust 👍🔊👏 💻

[√] 15. A book by an author from a Mediterranean country or set in a Mediterranean country
Circe 👍💻$🔊

[√] 16. A book told from multiple perspectives
Girls Burn Brighter 👍💻$🔊

[√] 17. A speculative fiction (i.e. fantasy, scifi, horror, dystopia)
Night and Silence $💻🔊

[√] 18. A book related to one of the elements on the periodic table of elements
Spinning Silver $💻🔊

[√] 19. A book by an author who has more than one book on your TBR
Once Broken Faith $💻🔊

[√] 20. A book featuring indigenous people of a country
Storm of Locusts $💻🔊

[√] 21. A book from one of the polarizing or close call votes
In an Absent Dream ( A portal fiction) 👍💻

[√] 22. A book with a number in the title or on the cover
One Salt Sea $💻🔊

[√] 23. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #1 Something Old
Norse Mythology 👍🔊

[√] 24. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #2 Something New
Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family $💻

[√] 25. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #3 Something Borrowed
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration 👏💻

[√] 26. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #4 Something Blue
Becoming 👍💻$🔊

[√] 27. A book off of the 1001 books to read before you die list
The Bluest Eye $💻

[√] 28. A book related to something cold (i.e. theme, title, author, cover, etc.)
The Winter Long $💻🔊

[√] 29. A book published before 1950
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz $💻🔊

[√] 30. A book featuring an elderly character
A Man Called Ove 👏 💻

[√] 31. A children’s classic you’ve never read
The Wind in the Willows 👏 💻

[√] 32. A book with more than 500 pages
Middlegame 👍💻

[√] 33. A book you have owned for at least a year, but have not read yet
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown 👍💻

[√] 34. A book with a person's name in the title
Binti $💻🔊

[√] 35. A psychological thriller
The Grownup 👏📖

[√] 36. A book featured on an NPR Best Books of the Year list
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger (2018) 👍💻$🔊

[√] 37. A book set in a school or university
American Street 👍💻$🔊

[√] 38. A book not written in traditional novel format (poetry, essay, epistolary, graphic novel, etc)
How Long 'til Black Future Month? 👍💻

[√] 39. A book with a strong sense of place or where the author brings the location/setting to life
Beartown $💻🔊

[√] 40. A book you stumbled upon
Trail of Lightning 👍💻$🔊

[√] 41. A book from the 2018 GR Choice Awards
The Calculating Stars $💻🔊

[√] 42. A book with a monster or "monstrous" character
Rosemary and Rue 👍💻$🔊

[√] 43. A book related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) [fiction or nonfiction]
A Local Habitation $💻🔊

[√] 44. A book related in some way to a tv show/series or movie you enjoyed (same topic, same era, book appeared in the show/movie, etc.)
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride 👏🔊

[√] 45. A multi-generational saga
A Woman Is No Man 👏📖

[√] 46. A book with a (mostly) black cover
An Artificial Night $💻🔊

[√] 47. A book related to food (i.e. title, cover, plot, etc.)
Heart Berries $💻

[√] 48. A book that was a finalist or winner for the National Book Award for any year
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Winner - Nonfiction 2016) 👍💻$🔊

[√] 49. A book written by a Far East Asian author or set in a Far East Asian country
Go 🆓💻

[√] 50. A book that includes a journey (physical, health, or spiritual)
The Brightest Fell $💻🔊

[√] 51. A book published in 2019
The Witches Are Coming 👍💻$🔊

[√] 52. A book with a weird or intriguing title
Emergency Skin 👏💻🔊

Books from my 2018 list that I didn't read:

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
A Man Called Ove
Homegoing
Under the Udala Trees
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Storm of Swords
Artemis
When the Moon is Low
Ancillary Justice (started in 2018)
Moby-Dick or, The Whale


Books I own/pre-orders I might want to read:

Fiction:
In an Absent Dream (pre-order)
Children of Virtue and Vengeance (pre-order)
Middlegame (pre-order)
Storm of Locusts (pre-order)
Discount Armageddon
Spinning Silver
Circe
Pachinko
The Refugees
The Inheritance Trilogy (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, etc.)
The Underground Railroad
American Street
The Serpent of Venice
Beartown
Parable of the Talents
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown
How Long 'til Black Future Month?
The Three-Body Problem
Vox
Girls Burn Brighter
Trail of Lightning
Binti
Stardust
Seveneves
Invisible Man
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror
Rosemary and Rue
Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day
Indexing
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
The Small Backs of Children
The Fireman
Americanah
Wolf Hall


Non-Fiction:
The Witches Are Coming (pre-order)
King Leopold's Ghost
The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America
An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love
Calypso
Grant
Becoming
Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change
Everything's Trash, But It's Okay
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger
War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope
Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
The Souls of Black Folk
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America
Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
Bad Feminist
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
Washington: A Life
Yes Please
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
The Library Book
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
Heart Berries: A Memoir


Books I don't own that I want to read:

Fiction:
The Map of Salt and Stars
Alias Grace
There There
The Wind in the Willows


Non-Ficton:
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Good luck this year! I never get all the books I want to read finished--I always manage to find others to add to my never-ending list. :)

January Wrap Up


Completed: 4 books

30. A book featuring an elderly character
A Man Called Ove - 5 stars
This was a really lovely book. I was really worried I would hate it, in part because it is so popular. And I think in the hands of a lesser writer, I would not have enjoyed it so much. This story could have been very maudlin or heavy-handed, but Bachman keeps it from drifting into that territory. I laughed, I cried, etc.

Ove is 59, so not elderly in my book, but this was where I originally planned for this book to go. I decided I didn't want to give up another one of my prompts. I'm not happy about it, but I don't want to move it.

21. A book from one of the polarizing or close call votes (A portal fiction)
In an Absent Dream - 4 stars
Book 4 in the Wayward Children series and my favorite so far. I had this pre-ordered and I was so excited to see it pop-up on my Kindle. This one tells the story of Lundy who we meet in the first book, Every Heart a Doorway.

14. A book with a title, subtitle or cover relating to an astronomical term
Stardust - 4 stars
Did this one as an audiobook, read by the author. Neil Gaiman is a fantastic narrator. He can read to me anytime. :)

3. A book where the author’s name contains A, T, and Y
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love - 4 stars
Very powerful book. I own the ebook and I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Did about 50/50 reading/listening. I'm glad I own a copy, as I am sure I will reference it many times in the future.


Currently Reading: 3 books

Ancillary Justice
I started this at the end of the last year. It's good, but I'm having a tough time focusing on it. I borrowed the audiobook, so I'm hoping that will help suck me into it.

How Long 'til Black Future Month?
Book of short stories by N.K. Jemisin. So far, so good. Trying to read one a day.

The Wind in the Willows
This is fine. I'm not loving it, but I'm not hating it either. Not sure what prompt I will use it for. I originally planned for 31. A children’s classic you’ve never read, but it could easily be used for 11. A book related to one of the 12 Zodiac Chinese Animals (Rat) or 29. A book published before 1950. Or even the Something Old prompt.

Not a bad start to the year, although I had hoped I would be finished with all of the current books before the end of the month. On to February!

February Wrap Up
So, I'm starting to fall behind :( I am hoping March is the month I catch up (and maybe get ahead!) I've got lots of short or average length books planned so hopefully I can make it happen!


Completed: 3 books

31. A children’s classic you’ve never read
The Wind in the Willows - 3 stars
Maybe I'm too old or maybe it is too old, but I thought it was just ok. Some of the chapters were sweet and funny, but some of them felt like a slog. It took me shocking amount of time to read a ~150 page book. I might move to a different prompt if necessary to find spots for other books I want to read this year.

26. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #4 Something Blue
Becoming - 5 stars
This was great. An interesting and inspirational personal story compellingly told. I ended up buying the audiobook because I missed hearing Mrs. Obama's voice. I also watched probably every interview she has given in the last 6 months! This could fit a number of different prompts (Something New, NPR best books, Goodreads Awards, a journey, etc.) and I will move if need be.

46. A book with a (mostly) black cover
How Long 'til Black Future Month? - 4 stars
I really enjoyed this. As with any collection of stories, some are better than others. None are bad, some are great. Again, several other prompts this could be moved to if necessary (non-traditional format, spec fiction, etc.)


Currently Reading: 2 books

Ancillary Justice
Yes, still. I haven't made much progress, maybe one more chapter since January. I keep getting distracted by other things. But I will finish this book, hopefully this month, even if it kills me. 😂

The Map of Salt and Stars
I'm about a quarter of the way through this, and I am really enjoying it. I plan to use it as my dual timeline book, but it could work for the Mediterranean book (set in Syria by a Syrian-American author), or a journey, or Something Blue, etc.