Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

My 2019 challenge was better for not over-planning, so I'm trying it again. I have some ideas, but I will see what I want to read and I'll try to find a place for it in my plan. I have a lot of books that I already own/have pre-ordered that are possibilities. And of course, I'm sure I won't be able to resist buying new books this year! 😂

Legend
Ownership - Owned before 2020: 👍, Purchased: $, Received Free: 🆓, Borrowed: 👏
Format - Paper: 📖, Kindle/Electronic: 💻, Audio: 🔊
Re-Read: 🔁

52/52!!

[√] 1. A book with a title that doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y
Indexing 👍💻🔊

[√] 2. A book by an author whose last name is one syllable
Ark - Veronica Roth 👏💻🔊

[√] 3. A book that you are prompted to read because of something you read in 2019
Desdemona and the Deep 👍💻

[√] 4. A book set in a place or time that you wouldn't want to live
Feed 🔁👍💻🔊

[√] 5. The first book in a series that you have not started
Discount Armageddon (InCryptid Series) 👍💻

[√] 6. A book with a mode of transportation on the cover
Tricks for Free (roller skates) $💻

[√] 7. A book set in the southern hemisphere
Pocket Apocalypse (set in Australia) $💻

[√] 8. A book with a two-word title where the first word is "The"
The Deep 👍💻

[√] 9. A book that can be read in a day
Nevertheless She Persisted: Flash Fiction Project 🆓💻

[√] 10. A book that is between 400-600 pages
Deadline 🔁👍💻🔊

[√] 11. A book originally published in a year that is a prime number
Magic for Nothing (2017) 👍💻

[√] 12. A book that is a collaboration between 2 or more people
This Is How You Lose the Time War $💻🔊

[√] 13. A prompt from a previous Around the Year in 52 Books challenge
Minor Mage (A book that includes a journey (physical, health, or spiritual) - 2019) $💻

[√] 14. A book by an author on the Abe List of 100 Essential Female Writers
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body - Roxane Gay 👍💻🔊

[√] 15. A book set in a global city
The City We Became (New York) 👍💻$🔊

[√] 16. A book set in a rural or sparsely populated area
Us Against You 👍💻🔊

[√] 17. A book with a neurodiverse character
Come Tumbling Down 👍💻

[√] 18. A book by an author you've only read once before
Uprooted - Naomi Novik $💻🔊

[√] 19. A fantasy book
A Dead Djinn in Cairo $💻🔊

[√] 20. The 20th book [on your TBR, in a series, by an author, on a list, etc.]
Imaginary Numbers (20th new book read this year) $💻

[√] 21. A book related to Maximilian Hell, the noted astronomer and Jesuit Priest who was born in 1720
All Systems Red $💻👍🔊

[√] 22. A book with the major theme of survival
A Deadly Education $💻🔊

[√] 23. A book featuring an LGBTQIA+ character or by an LGBTQIA+ author
The City in the Middle of the Night (Trans author) $💻👏🔊

[√] 24. A book with an emotion in the title
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide $💻🔊

[√] 25. A book related to the arts
Chaos Choreography (main character is a dancer, setting is a dance competition) $💻

[√] 26. A book from the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards
The Twisted Ones (Nominee - Horror) 👍💻

[√] 27. A history or historical fiction
Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story About Women and Economics $💻

[√] 28. A book by an Australian, Canadian or New Zealand author
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 🔁👍💻🔊

[√] 29. An underrated book, a hidden gem or a lesser known book
The Imaginary Corpse $💻

[√] 30. A book from the New York Times '100 Notable Books' list for any year
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018) 👍💻$🔊

[√] 31. A book inspired by a leading news story
Are Prisons Obsolete? $💻

[√] 32. A book related to the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Japan
Where the Wild Ladies Are $💻

[√] 33. A book about a non-traditional family
Half-Off Ragnarok (many non-human family members) $💻

[√] 34. A book from a genre or sub genre that starts with a letter in your name
The Only Good Indians (Horror) $💻🔊

[√] 35. A book with a geometric pattern or element on the cover
You Have Arrived at Your Destination 👏💻🔊

[√] 36. *WILDCARD* A book from your TBR/wishlist that you don't recognize, recall putting there, or put there on a whim
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky $💻

[√] 37. Two books that are related to each other as a pair of binary opposites: Book #1
Rising Strong (Rise) 👏💻🔊

[√] 38. Two books that are related to each other as a pair of binary opposites: Book #2
Things Fall Apart (Fall) 👏💻🔊

[√] 39. A book by an author whose real name(s) you're not quite sure how to pronounce
The Empress of Salt and Fortune - Nghi Vo $💻

[√] 40. A book with a place name in the title
Un-Trumping America: A Plan to Make America a Democracy Again 👍💻

[√] 41. A mystery
My Sister, the Serial Killer 👍💻👏🔊

[√] 42. A book that was nominated for one of the ‘10 Most Coveted Literary Prizes in the World’
Midnight Blue-Light Special (Series nominated for Hugo) $💻

[√] 43. A book related to one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse
Blackout (Pandemic - Zombies) 🔁👍💻🔊

[√] 44. A book related to witches
That Ain’t Witchcraft $💻

[√] 45. A book by the same author who wrote one of your best reads in 2019 or 2018
Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema - Lindy West $💻🔊

[√] 46. A book about an event or era in history taken from the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire"
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America ("Roy Cohn")👍💻$🔊

[√] 47. A classic book you've always meant to read
Their Eyes Were Watching God $💻

[√] 48. A book published in 2020
Winter Counts $💻

[√] 49. A book that fits a prompt from the list of suggestions that didn't win
A Killing Frost (A book with a weather element in the title) 👍💻$🔊

[√] 50. A book with a silhouette on the cover
Themes and Variations 👏💻🔊

[√] 51. A book with an "-ing" word in the title
The Vanishing Half $💻🔊

[√] 52. A book related to time
Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day 👍💻

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

Fiction:
The Poet X
Children of Virtue and Vengeance
Americanah
Half of a Yellow Sun
Purple Hibiscus
The Handmaid's Tale
The Testaments
Us Against You
Jane Eyre
My Sister, the Serial Killer
Parable of the Talents
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Closed and Common Orbit
The Water Dancer
Desdemona and the Deep
Vox
Winter Tide
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
An Untamed State
Symbiont
Rise - The Complete Newsflesh Collection
In the Shadow of Spindrift House
Homegoing
When the Moon is Low
The Fireman
Last Night in Twisted River
The Inheritance Trilogy (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, etc.)
The City We Became (pre-order)
The Dreamblood Duology
The Twisted Ones
Ophelia
The Fated Sky
The Poppy War
The Dragon Republic
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ancillary Justice
Pachinko
The Three-Body Problem
Wolf Hall
A Storm of Swords
Discount Armageddon
Indexing
Reflections
Come Tumbling Down (pre-order)
Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day
A Killing Frost (pre-pre-order)
A Blade So Black
The Serpent of Venice
Nexus
The Refugees
Into That Forest
Under the Udala Trees
The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror
The Astonishing Color of After
Skinny Legs and All
The Priory of the Orange Tree
The Deep
Seveneves
Artemis
All Systems Red
The Underground Railroad
The Small Backs of Children


Non-Fiction:
Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change
Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream
Grant
Washington: A Life
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
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
War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
Bad Feminist
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
King Leopold's Ghost
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Obviously: Stories from My Timeline
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
When Breath Becomes Air
How to Be an Antiracist
The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America (pre-order)
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America (pre-order)
UnTrumping America: A Plan to Defeat Trumpism and Make America a Democracy Again (pre-order)
Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House
Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead
Everything's Trash, But It's Okay
Cosmos
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Calypso
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race

I did it! For the second year in a row, I finished my challenge by reading A LOT on NYE. This year I finished my last book at 11:00 PM PST.

So, how did I do?

This year I read all of Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series novels and some of the novellas/short stories. Still several stories to read and a new novel coming out in a few months.

In the last few weeks, I subbed in some short books/novellas so I could finish up, which is fine but not ideal.

I did use one wildcard this year for prompt 36: a book you don't recognize on your TBR.

Favorite books of the year:
The City We Became
The Vanishing Half
Feed (re-read)
All Systems Red
Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema
Magic for Nothing
That Ain’t Witchcraft

I didn't read anything I hated this year. Most of my books this year were 4 stars, a few 5s and a few 3s.

Woohoo, on to 2021!