Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Death. War. Famine. Plague. If you're looking for uplifting books, this might not be the week for you! We are taking on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, reading books about the end of the world as we know it.

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Suggestions:
Fiction and Nonfiction Confronting Death
Death as a Character
30 Greatest War Novels
Nonfiction Books about War
WWII Historical Fiction
Plague Books
Books about Plagues and Pandemics
Listopia: Death and Dying
Listopia: War
Listopia: Irish Potato Famine
Listopia: Pandemics

ATY Group Listopia

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Optional Questions
1. What are you reading for this category?
2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?

I think this is my favorite prompt :) I'm going to read The Bone Houses (Death)

My possibilities include The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (assuming famine/war), American War, Scythe, The Boy on the Bridge (pestilence), Doomsday Book.

I will probably do In the Shadow of Blackbirds, which is set during the World War I-era influenza epidemic (plague/pestilence).

I will most likely do My Sister's Keeper, which has an element of death.

I plan on using Riders, which is about the main character becoming War and meeting up with the other three horsemen. I came across it researching another prompt, but it fit so well right here. I usually plan a ton of options, but this one is set, I think.

I'd like to read non-fiction for this week - Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic Of 1918 And The Search For The Virus That Caused It or Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World

Some fiction options: Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett and Death Without Company by Craig Johnson

I’m probably reading Scythe. I believe A Little Life would work here as well. It fits so many prompts that I feel its a sign I must read it next year.

I think most of my bookshelf options relate to the death horseman. I'm fresh out of famine, war and plague...

All This I Will Give to You
Her Fearful Symmetry
Still Alice
The Great Believers
When I'm Gone
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

If you like romance, Laura Thalassa has a series called "The Four Horsemen". Currently only 2 books are out, Pestilence and War

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch is an excellent choice as it features the four horsemen in modern form.

Would The Girl With All the Gifts work well for this? Or is that too oblique a take on it?

Tanvi wrote: "Would The Girl With All the Gifts work well for this? Or is that too oblique a take on it?"

I don't think it's too oblique. There is death, there is plague - most definitely. And a good story to go with above. Really enjoyed it when I read it a few years ago.

I have these options for my reading:


Edit: I read

ZeeJane wrote: "I think this is my favorite prompt :) I'm going to read The Bone Houses (Death)"

This was such a good read. It was on my list for 2019. I finished it in 24 hours. Hope you enjoy it too.

Lucifer's Daughter - includes all four of the horsemen as characters!

I actually read this book for another challenge (all words in the title have the same number of letters), knowing next to nothing about it. Encountering the four horsemen was a happy accident!

I read A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton (for war). It is about an elderly woman remembering the bombing of Nagasaki and the impact that incident had on her life. It was a heartbreaking story with strong cultural and historical context. A readable 3 Star book for me.

1. What are you reading for this category?
My son borrowed the ebook of Scythe from Libby thinking it was an audiobook. He then asked me to read it to him and I realised it fits this weeks theme.

2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
Death. The Scythes job is to kill people as people no longer die of natural causes.

How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child

I Read How Dare the Sun Rise, Memoirs of a War Child. It relates to both War and Death.

1. What are you reading for this category?


2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
This book take place after a plague and has killed most of the population.

What are you reading for this category?
I read Death of a Nag by M.C. Beaton

Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
Death But I also thought the word Nag being another name for a horse was very apt.

This was easy for me as the newest book in a fantasy series I have been reading is Age of Death. It's the 5th of 6 books, so I wouldn't recommend anyone start with it.

Plenty of mysteries, including cozies, include the word "Death". Plagues figure not only in Station Eleven but also Year of Wonders and Doomsday Book. Famine and war both show up in Half of a Yellow Sun.

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1. What are you reading for this category?
The Demon Next Door

2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
Death. It's the true story of a serial killer in a small Texas town.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I just finished Half of a Yellow Sun.

2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
It could fit either War or Famine. It's about the Biafran War, and many of the characters undergo starvation and malnutrition.

I finished All Systems Red. The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. I am using it for Death.

1. What are you reading for this category?
Jingo by Terry Pratchett.

2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to?
It's Terry Pratchett's take on War.

For this task, I read Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton. I initially intended to apply it to the fantasy task but had to reassign it upon reaching a blatant four horsemen reference.

The story actually addresses all four of the horsemen. A viral plague infects humans and utterly decimates the population, while rabies destroys a number of surviving animals. The humans attempt to wage war against the virus but fail to destroy it. Other species wage war to lay claim to new territory. Domestic animals, dependent upon humans for their sustenance, fall victim to famine. Yep, I think the apocalyptic graffiti reference was appropriate!

I read Death In A White Tie by Ngaio Marsh, which fits the horseman of death - in the title and of course there was a murder in the story.

1. What are you reading for this category?
Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic Of 1918 And The Search For The Virus That Caused It

2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
Death and Plague. It's a little too close to home right now but it is fascinating.

I just finished Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond for this category.

This book works more or less for all four horsemen. It's a social science/history that sets out to explain why Eurasia won the "tech race" and colonized other countries, and not the other way around with a number of fascinating (and somewhat depressing) answers. Continents with longer x-axis, more/bigger domesticable wild plants and animals, more variable resources, and fewer geographical barriers between pockets of civilization tended to spread/accumulate technology more quickly. Also (and this hit a little close to home), societies with higher urbanization and more domesticated animals tended to accumulate (and build antibodies against) diseases. And spread them more widely too.

Anyway, it was a highly thought-provoking read that really altered my viewpoint about the grand clash of cultures over history and the "race" to get guns, germs, and steel.

Being as how we are now in the grips of a pandemic, this book seemed timely.

I read
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) 27/04/2020

This is about the end of the world, war and conquest

I read Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh. It has Death in the title, and it's a murder mystery. Well written and a good read with a surprising twist. 4/5

I read Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War and I was applying it to War, but I guess it could also be used for Death.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read No Dominion by Louise Welsh

2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
Plague. It is the third book in Welsh's "Plague Times" trilogy, in which a new disease labeled 'the sweats' kills most of the world's population.

What are you reading for this category?
I am currently reading Seasons of War by Derek Landy. Halfway through the book, I realised this would be perfect for this prompt.

Honestly, before I started the book, I had planned this one for the prompt featuring an LGBTQIA+ character. But then as I read the book, I decided to change the category for this one because I read a lot of books with LGBTQIA+ characters so that won't be a problem but this particular prompt might require me having to search for a book that fits the criterion later on. And this one already fit so well so yeah...

Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
I would go with Plague and Death for this one. So in the book (fantasy novel), there is a plague going on which is similar to a zombie apocalypse but slightly different but I am not going to go with the specifics because the term "zombie" for now will be enough to give a general idea. So there is the plague bit, and there is definitely death as well because there are undead corpses killing and infecting the last remaining few.

I was thinking there might be war too because of the title, but I am 73% in and although there are a hell lot of fights, I haven't really seen any proper war per se.

Nanette wrote: "I'm reading Lovely War - related to War (WW1)"

I'm reading Lovely War for a book related to the Arts since music plays such a large part in the book.

For this prompt I read the War that Saved My Life

My hold on Overdrive finally came up and I've just finished Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. This more than fulfils the brief having all four horse-persons on motorbikes: War, Famine, Pollution (having replaced Pestilence in the first half of the 20th century) and of course Death who meet in a greasy spoon café on their way to the Apocalypse. So should I admit to never having read anything by Neil Gaiman before? I do have Coraline on my "to-read" list and I've read a number of Terry Pratchett's Disc World books. Adam Young and his friends reminded me of Richmal Crompton's Just William and his gang of Outlaws, especially in the way that Adam talked. I read in the interviews at the end of the edition I read that this had started out as a short story about 'William the Antichrist'. Lots of nods to so many other cultural institutions I'm familiar with (as a Brit of a certain age). Very cleverly written, it didn't feel to me that there were two authors, still so topical and a real page turner, even though I knew what was coming from having seen the TV adaptation starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant. Highly recommended.

I read A Pilgrimage to Death by Alexa Padgett

Death is the horseman related to the book and there are a lot of deaths in this mystery.

Ruth wrote: "My hold on Overdrive finally came up and I've just finished Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and [author:Neil Gai..."

I loved the 4 horsemen in that book, how Famine was people who were so trendy that they only eat oxygen, or something like that.

1. What are you reading for this category? The Postmortal

2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
The main concept is that a cure for aging is found so that no one can die of old age. It's a non-humorous approach to dystopia complete with famine, gangs, and forced deaths. It's bleak.

To cover plague, death, and war, I read Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter -- it's set during the flu pandemic of WWI.

I also recommend The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry. It's outstanding, and now timely and uncomfortable.

I read W.G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction for this prompt, which includes his lectures on air war and literature. He also discusses literature in the light of WW2. Provocative, insightful, disturbing and excellent.

I picked it up assuming it would relate to War, but it relates equally to Death.

MN wrote: "it would relate to War, but it relates equally to Death."

weird how those go together

Jackie wrote: "MN wrote: "it would relate to War, but it relates equally to Death."

weird how those go together"

Hm, my comment wasn't exactly enlightening, was it? :( Sorry!

1. What are you reading for this category? The Plague
2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so? Well, plague so matched because... plague

1. What are you reading for this category?
Light Years

2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
It's about a respiratory viral plague (lolz), so it applies to Plague.

Hi I’m struggling with this prompt. Would the book the two lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver fit this (death)?? Thank you

1. What are you reading for this category?
Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures
2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? How so?
Death, obviously and so far some things related to Plague were mentioned too. :)

1. What are you reading for this category? Thunderhead
2. Which of the horsemen did it apply to? Death
How so? Natural death has been eliminated so in order to control population there are Scythe's who decide who dies. The series revolves around scythes and death.