Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

We are throwing it back to before maps knew all the places on Earth. This phrase, "Here Be Dragons", famously appears on the Hunt-Lenox Globe, one of the oldest maps of the world, to denote blank spots/unchartered territory. Medieval maps were often illustrated with sea serpents and other mythological beasts in places that had not yet been explored. Later, the phrase "Here Be Dragons" has entered the English language as an idiom warning against (potential) danger. This week, we are reading a book that touches on one or more of these themes, whether it's a dragon in the book, or a book about mapmakers and uncharted territory.

Suggestions:
10 Books for Map Enthusiasts: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/06/03/...
4 Books that Make Use of Maps: https://bookriot.com/4-books-that-mak...
10 Best Maps from Fantasy Novels: https://www.bustle.com/p/the-10-best-...
20 Dragon Books: https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/dra...
100 Must Read Books About Monsters: https://bookriot.com/100-must-read-bo...
GR Shelf - Exploration Adventure: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading for this prompt, and do you have any recommendations?

I could easily read a fantasy novel for this category but I think instead I'll go with a book with "dragon" in the title - Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang or Dragonfly by Leila Meacham.

Or maybe I'll use this prompt for The Cartographers, a 2022 publication by Peng Shepherd. I'm really excited about this book because I loved her debut The Book of M.

I love me some dragons, so I'm planning for His Majesty's Dragon.

I'm going to finally read Eragon.

So many good dragon books. I loved The Hobbit, or There and Back Again and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

I'm leaning toward Burn by Patrick Ness for this one.

I marked down The City We Became for this. But I'm not sure the connection is strong enough for me, and I kind of want to read a book about dragons, so maybe Eragon or Burn. Or I could go a third route and read The Eyes of the Dragon as I'm working on reading King's older stuff that I never read.

Throne of Jade or the next book in the Temeraire series/ His Majesty's Dragon - this fits other prompts too.
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
Where the Lost Wander - also fits handwriting, historical fiction, others
Dragonflight - I own this

From the listopia
Uprooted - same author as Temeraire
The Invisible Library
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time


Recommendations:
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik - I loved this book. I'm not a big fantasy reader, but this was smart, grown-up, historically interesting (Napoleon era), with character, teamwork, organizational politics, and great cultural nuances.
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - riveting series.

My choices are:
Here Be Dragons (Welsh Princes #1) - Sharon Kay Penman
Medieval historical fiction

The Map of Salt and Stars - Zeyn Joukhadar
Part of the summary from Goodreads -
It is the summer of 2011, and Nour has just lost her father to cancer. Her mother, a cartographer who creates unusual, hand-painted maps, decides to move Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family.

Circe - Madeline Miller

Recommended:
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey (Amazon River)

As a children's librarian I read and enjoyed:
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Kathy, I have been wrecking my brain trying to figure out which book I had read that featured a mapmaker and YES it was The Map of Salt and Stars. That book was AMAZING and also soul achingly beautiful.

I seem to have a host of Welsh books on my ATY plan for this year and there definitely be dragons in Wales. I’m going with Celtic legend in The Mabinogian for this prompt but also have;

The Meat Tree - Sci-fi retelling of a legend
The Welsh Girl - WW2 historical fiction
The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still - Detective spoof

Fantasy is not my thing so I'm probably going to go for a book with a map in it.

My options:
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

I like the idea of a Welsh connection too - I hadn't thought of that before. I will have to see if I have any Welsh authors on my TBR.

I'm planning to read the next book in the Incryptid series bySeanan McGuire - Spelunking Through Hell. The whole series is about a family that deals with creatures that have been declared to be imaginary (Dragons, Big Foot, Chupacabras etc.) And this book will be about the one character exploring multiple dimensions looking for her missing husband. So exploration and monsters. The first book in this series (Discount Armageddon) does feature dragons if anyone is interested.

I’d like to start a reread of Robin Hobb’s The Realm of the Elderlings Series next year. I’ll be using a book from the series but I’m not sure which book.

I'm a huge fantasy fan and have so many dragon books on my TBR, so I'll probably go with The Dragon Keeper because it has 'dragon' in the title too.

If you would prefer to go down the 'map' route rather than 'dragon', I really enjoyed The Girl from Everywhere which features magical maps that allow the MC and the crew of her dad's ship to travel in time and to fictional universes.

I originally thought I'd be doing a dragon book for this for sure, but now I'm looking over the map section of my TBR and I may be tempted over to that!

Map: Collected and Last Poems
Palimpsest
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Mapping the Deep: The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science
The Map and the Territory
September: A Map

On the other hand, I really do kind of want to read this one dragon book:
The Dragon Griaule

Emily wrote: "Kathy, I have been wrecking my brain trying to figure out which book I had read that featured a mapmaker and YES it was The Map of Salt and Stars. That book was AMAZING and also sou..."

Emily, I'm completely blanking on why a bunch of us read that for 2020's list... Now I have to look....

Ah, here we go: "A book related to Maximilian Hell, the noted astronomer and Jesuit Priest who was born in 1719"

I have these on my list for this prompt:
The House in the Cerulean Sea
The Invisible Library
Maps for Lost Lovers

I plan to read Here, There Be Dragons.

I am reading Dragon Assassin by Arthur Slade. My youngest is reading it, and I told her I would read it as well, so we could discuss it. It fits the prompt, so it works for me! :)

my husband loved How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero's Guide to the Real Middle Ages. I'm also considering Awaken the Dragon or The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True.

I recommend Even the Darkest Stars by Heather Fawcett if you like YA fantasy. It takes place in the Himalayas and involves maps and catographers.

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

I have found more map books. The Steerswoman series is centered around navigation (apparently) and the Kindle editions also have really beautiful map covers. The fourth one also has a dragon on it! But I don't know if I'll manage to down a whole series for one prompt. I may just use the first book. (Assuming this is what I settle on.)

What are you reading for this prompt?
I read Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
This is a long read (803 pages) so I started before the end of last year. Set in the reign of King John 1100-1216, and is about the Welsh people not wanting to be part of England. I didn't know a lot about this period so found this helpful and was able to look up information as I read. The main characters are an illegitimate daughter of John who has been made the wife of a leader of one of the Welsh lords.
I did like the book and found it informative, also the relationship between the main characters was interesting, but felt the book was longer than it needed to be.

I read a book about the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition, which set out to map a previously uncharted river in Brazil in 1913-1914:
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard - 5* - My Review

If you are ever looking for "non-fiction that reads like fiction" this one definitely fits! I loved it.

Kendra wrote: "I'm planning to read the next book in the Incryptid series bySeanan McGuire - Spelunking Through Hell. The whole series is about a family that deals with creatures ..."

Thank you for reminding me this is coming out, Kendra! I'll definitely be reading this the instant it drops on my kindle, and it will likely be my read for this prompt.

Other options I've been considering:
A Natural History of Dragons - reread
Dragonflight - reread (also works for the 2 sets of double letters prompt)
The Dragon and the George

My choices for this prompt
The City of Brass
The City We Became
The Awakening
The Book of Dragons

Reading Beowulf.

Mighty warriors and the monsters who fall to them.

Reading

I am reading Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.
There is no actual dragon in this book, but it is about a perilous journey into unknown territory and survival. Plus, it has a map.

I read Damsel by Elana K. Arnold.

I'm on a wait list for the new novel The Cartographers by Peng Shephard. It would fit well with the Maps approach to this prompts. If anyone here has read it yet, I'd love to know what you thought.

Someone in marketing is paying attention. Today, the ad at the top of the page of the dragon listopia is for When Women Were Dragons, I haven't noticed it anywhere else yet.

I read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, which fits in the sense of "dangerous, uncharted territory." It's a science fiction book about humans discovering that an alien planet exists and first contact being made by a team put together by the Society of Jesus. You know from the very beginning of the book that things did not at all go according to plan and the mission ended up being much more dangerous and tragic than anyone had expected, as the story is told through two timelines. I thought it was the perfect match for this prompt, though it would have fit several others as well! The author is very deliberately drawing parallels between the history of exploration and missionary work on earth and this new kind of mission to another planet.

For a dragon related book, I have to recommend one of my old favorites: the extremely charming Dealing with Dragons series by Patricia C. Wrede. It's YA or maybe even middle grade, but well worth a read as an adult. But I'm really enjoying the idea of interpreting this prompt as an opportunity to read a space exploration book, so I'll also add Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, another book about humans setting off into space, not knowing what they're going to find out there in uncharted territory (hint: it's not dragons, but it is a different kind of giant creepy-crawly).

NancyJ wrote: "I'm on a wait list for the new novel The Cartographers by Peng Shephard. It would fit well with the Maps approach to this prompts. If anyone here has read it yet, I'd love to know w..."

I have (and used it for this prompt). One of my favourite books of the year so far, because it really captured my geeky childhood love of maps and dreaming about exploring places (that I sadly couldn't turn into an adult career).

I just finished The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd as well!! I am a cartographer/geographer for work and I LOVED THIS BOOK! A love letter to maps! It would work so well for this prompt, as well as many other: source of light on cover, women in STEM, Earth Day, Asian American author, without a person on the cover, and published in 2022.

Avery wrote: "I just finished The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd as well!! I am a cartographer/geographer for work and I LOVED THIS BOOK! A love letter to maps! It would work so well for this prompt, as well as ..."

Kahlia wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I'm on a wait list for the new novel The Cartographers by Peng Shephard. It would fit well with the Maps approach to this prompts. If anyone here has read it yet, I'd..."

Thanks, that's great to hear. My husband worked as a cartographer early in his career, so it caught my attention right away.

I'm reading The Cartographers right now and I'm loving it.

I've decided to go a different direction with this prompt, and I'm reading The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule. The most frightening dragons are the ones in deceivingly human form.

The The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar was great.

I’m thinking of Dragon Bones by Lisa See which is a mystery set in China.

Or The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb if I go the fantasy option.

The Great Race by David Hill is about the race between the English and the French to be the first to map Australia

I read Truly Devious it has a map, it was mostly enjoyable.

I read My Best Friend's Exorcism.

I'm thinking I'm going to read Jurassic Park for this one in the spirit of the new movie coming out next week.

I did not use this book for this prompt, but it fits with the idea of exploration and maps:
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton - 5* - My Review

For this one I read and totally loved The Tea Dragon Society.

Uhh I love dragon related picture books!

Louise wrote: "Uhh I love dragon related picture books!"

Trust me, this one is soooo sweet! Also the second one, although I enjoyed this one much more.

I can recommend When a Dragon Moves In & The Dragons are Singing Tonight

On this note I can recommend The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash. All my (grown) kids still know it by heart.

Only one of the short stories actually contained dragons but seeing as it's the one the book was named after I'll take it :-)

I read The Death of King Arthur, a poem written around 1400, brilliantly translated by Simon Armitage. Forget Celtic warriors and Pre-Raphaelite damsels, this was (gory)medieval warfare - there was even a forerunner to Monty Python's Black Knight.

Dragon connection: Arthur is Arthur Pendragon, he has a dream about a magnificent dragon, and a dragon appears on flags.

Think I prefer Tennyson, though.