Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Summer is wrapping up (at least for me anyway...). What was your best read of July?

Answer the following questions:

- Title
- Author
- Rating
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio)
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable)
- Brief reason why it was the best

Title: Upgrade
Author: Blake Crouch
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Print
Brief reason why it was the best:
Action-packed, sciencey but not too sciencey, kept me entertained from the very beginning!

Emily wrote: "

Title: Upgrade
Author: Blake Crouch
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Print
Brief reason why it was the best:
Action-packed, sciencey but not too..."

I have this book on hold, and I can't wait!

Title: Rivals
Author: Katharine McGee
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Format: eBook
ATY Prompt you used it for: A book that involves alternate reality, alternate worlds, or alternate history
Brief reason why it was the best: I love this series of American Royals! With this 3rd installment, we know the characters and it is fun to see how they are growing into their roles.

- Title - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
- Author - Gabrielle Zevin
- Rating - 5
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio) mostly ebook but some Audio (narration was good)
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) - none but could be use for 22 or more letters in the title, woman in STEM, Jewish character or author, related to a game, published in 2022 and time-related word in the title.
- Brief reason why it was the best - I loved this, I can't quite put into words why. Even the parts that annoyed me worked. I think there is a chunk that is nostalgia but also Sam and Sadie at the start just grabbed me and it was hard to stop loving them even when they pissed me off.

I have had a very good July for books. So far, I have had four five star books, and honestly, the other books were quite good as well.

- Title: The Merciless Ones
- Author: Namina Forna
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 46 - A book with a non-human as one of the main characters
- Brief reason why it was the best: This book is the second in a trilogy of West African inspired fantasy. It is full of powerful female characters. She tackles a lot of social issues in her writing.

- Title: Siege and Storm
- Author: Leigh Bardugo
- Rating: 5 Stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): N/A
- Brief reason why it was the best: This book is also the second book of a fantasy trilogy. It is the second book in the Shadow and Bone series that is now a Netflix series. I love the characters and the world she has created.

- Title: All American Boys
- Author: Jason Reynolds and Brandon Kiely
- Rating: 5 Stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 42 - A book with a language or nationality in the title
- Brief reason why it was the best: I read this book with my 13 year old. Our church picked this as a summer discussion book. It is a young adult book, but I would highly recommend it to anyone. It is a very blunt look at an act of police brutality from two different viewpoints. Each author wrote one of the viewpoints. One is from the Black boy who was the victim of the police brutality. The other is from a white boy who witnessed part of the incident and who is connected to the police officer. It is a very good book.

- Title: Such, Such Were the Joys
- Author: George Orwell
- Rating: 5 Stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): N/A
- Brief reason why it was the best: George Orwell's fiction is good, but his non-fiction writing is spectacular. In this collection of essays he comes for racism, fascism, and colonialism. He spares no love for Rudyard Kipling, and his essay on Gandhi is absolutely fascinating. I have become a huge fan or Orwell's non-fiction writing.

- Title : Sea of Tranquility
- Author Emily St. John Mandel
- Rating : 5 star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Format : Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) : 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 2
- Brief reason why it was the best : This book is told in different timelines with different characters. It touches different points : pandemic; time travel...

I answered this question already because I had a fantastic month in books, but I had no idea it was about to get EVEN BETTER. Holy crap this book was good. Forget 5 stars - this was more like 8! I'm still basking in the awesomeness of this book and hoping I won't have a big book hangover. LOL. Okay.....

- Title: Duma Key
- Author: Stephen King
- Rating: 5 Stars (but only because I can't give it more!)
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 29 - A book set on or near a body of water
- Brief reason why it was the best: OMG - King is a genius. The book is fascinating and keeps you reading for well over half the book before it really picks up, but only after it picks up do you realize just how deeply you have been - well, the words that come to mind are pretty vulgar - LOL. Let's just say that there are layers upon layers. This book ended up being one of my very favorites of King's, and I am so freaking glad I read it! What a trip.

Title: The Quiet People
Author: Paul Cleave
Rating: 5 stars
Format (Print, eBook, Audio): ebook
ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): n/a
Brief reason why it was the best: Lots of twists and turns with a surprise ending

Emily wrote: "

Title: Upgrade
Author: Blake Crouch
Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Print
Brief reason why it was the best:
Action-packed, sciencey but not too..."

Yup, that’s my winner, too. I liked it more than Recursion and Dark Matter!

- Title: When the Moon Was Ours
- Author: Anna-Marie McLemore
- Rating: 4/5
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 39. TIME's list of 100 YA books
- Brief reason why it was the best: I didn't know what to expect since magical realism can be hit or miss for me, but this was such a tender book packed with feelings (and clearly very personal to the author)

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
by C.A. Fletcher
Rating: 5 Stars
Print format
ATY Prompt: Book set in or near a body of water.
Adventure, Fantasy, and Dystopian, this book has it all. The writing is very well done and the plot twist really fooled me.

Title: A Lady for a Duke
Author: Alexis Hall
Rating: 5 stars
Print format
ATY Prompt: didn't use it for an ATY prompt, but it would work for #23, a book involving a loving LGBTQIA+ relationship
Brief reason why it was the best: Great historical romance of a trans woman and her childhood best friend who reconnect and fall in love several years after the friend thought she had died in combat

I think this is my first time posting in one of these threads, and I'm doing it because I just loved this book so. freaking. much. and I want to scream about it from every mountaintop.

Title: Hamnet
Author: Maggie O'Farrell
Rating: 5 stars
Format: Print
ATY Prompt you used it for: 5. A book by an author with two sets of double letters in their name
Brief reason why it was the best: It has been a long while since I read a new book that I loved as immediately as this one. It's all my favorite things: a compelling female lead, a character-driven story, complex characters who love each other deeply, and- of course- SHAKESPEARE. I spent the week after I finished it just wanting to crawl back inside it. Favorite book of the year so far and I don't think it'll be topped.

Funny reading what Amelia wrote above, because I am posting for similar reasons. I loved this book immensely.

Title: Spear
Author: Nicola Griffith
Rating: 5 stars
Format: ebook
ATY Prompt you used it for: Still considering, but would fit: #15, book without a person on the cover; #23, book featuring loving LGBTQIA relationship; #25, a book less than 220 pg or more than 440; #30, a book related to mythology; #40, a book related to one of the 22 major arcana; #43, a book set in a small town or rural area; #51, a book published in 2022
Brief reason why it was the best: Excellent retelling of one of the Arthurian legends, thoroughly researched, beautifully written, hitting a sweet spot length of 184 pages with out losing the storyline. Plus the Author's notes (always one of my favorite parts of a book) are absurdly informative and add even more depth to the story.

I read a few goodies in July:



The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (paperback). This was a beautifully written historical fiction by award winning Turkish author Elif Shafak, set on Cyprus in the 1970s and in England in the 2010s. Here is my review

Aya: Life in Yop City by Marguerite Abouet ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (ebook). A YA graphic novel set in Côte d’Ivoire which focussed on everyday life rather than war and trauma. Here is my review

The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (audiobook). A smart and sassy book about religious and political life in a small village in Tunisia and was also about the lives of bees and human impact. Here is my review

- Title: Life After Life
- Author: Kate Atkinson
- Rating: 4.5 stars
- Format: eBook
- ATY Prompt you used it for: It would work for several, but I will probably be using it for the alternate worlds/history/reality prompt.
- Brief reason why it was the best: The concept was intriguing and the execution was marvelous.

- Title: Witch Princess
- Author: Dorothy M Johnson
- Rating 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): ebook
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): related to mythology
- Brief reason why it was the best: This book was ahead of its time. It's a 1967 feminist retelling of the story of Medea and Jason.

Title: The Ends
Author: James Smythe
Rating: 5 stars
Format: Paperback
ATY Prompt you used it for: 33. The next book in a series

One of those books that's hard to talk about without giving too much away for the series, but if you enjoy his themes of memory and what makes us us, this is an excellent addition. Can be read and understood as a standalone but would probably take the edge off the earlier books if read out of order.

- Title The Great Alone
- Author Kristin Hannah
- Rating 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio) Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) - not read for this challenge
- Brief reason why it was the best - This is about living in the wilderness of Alaska. This is a book I keep thinking about.

My best book this month was The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley, which I used for the mythology prompt and gave 5 stars. It’s a memorable twist on Grendel and his mother from Beowulf, which I also recently read. Lots of tension, great sentences and imagery, and characters that are a bit fantastical but still feel real.

I have two this month - one non-fiction and one fiction.

Non-fiction:
- Title: Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World
- Author: Simon Callow
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format: Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) n/a (but would fit "a book without a person on the cover")
- Brief reason why it was the best: Biography of Charles Dicken by British actor Simon Callow, focused on Dickens’s love of the theatre. It provides excellent insight into what Dickens was like as a person. If you have never read a biography of Dickens, this book is a great starting point. It made me want to read more of Dickens’s books. I loved it!
My Review

Fiction:
- Title: The Immortal King Rao
- Author: Vauhini Vara
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format: eBook and audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): n/a
- Brief reason why it was the best: It is a creative speculative novel about a Corporate Board that runs the world. It contains deeply drawn multifaceted characters. It provides social commentary on a wide variety of topics, such as power, globalization, materialism, class status, and social media, all woven together into a compelling story. I could run out of superlatives in describing how much I enjoyed this book. It is beautifully written and addresses relevant worldwide concerns.
My Review

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare

Just the perfect summer mystery

Title Sass & Sorcery (Rat Queens Vol. 1)
Author Kurtis J. Wiebe
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Format Graphic Novel (print)
ATY Prompt you used it for Nonhuman MC
Brief reason why it was the best The humour in this really got me. It even provided a quote that I love -> "This is my party. This book. The book is good. It asks no questions. The book lets me engage it on my terms.”

- The Farthest Shore
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- 5 stars
- Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for: author's initials in the Summer challenge
- Brief reason why it was the best: the two main characters have several philosophical discussions about life and death, self and identity. Oh, and there are wizards and dragons. I was only about 1/3 of the way through it when I decided to add it to my "need to reread it someday" list.

- Title One Last Stop
- Author Casey McQuisten
- Rating 5/5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio) eBook
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) 23. loving LGBTQ+ relationship
- Brief reason why it was the best: This is such a joyful queer story and has weird time travel train things? and the writing is good and I just cannot recommend it enough

- Title: Magpie Murders
- Author: Anthony Horowitz
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): eBook
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 22. A book with a Jewish character or author
- Brief reason why it was the best: I love the way this story layers and blends two good mystery stories.

- Title: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
- Author Agatha Christie
- Rating: 5/5
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): ebook
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 12. A book related to glass
- Brief reason why it was the best: I've never read this Christie before, and I absolutely love it. A slow build up to an absolutely fantastic conclusion that I loved to bits. Really interesting, dark and not at all what you'd expect!

- Title: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
- Author: Marjane Satrapi
- Rating: 4.75 stars.
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 39. A book from the TIME list of 100 Best YA Books of All Time
- Brief reason why it was the best: A graphic novel talking about history, war and the author's childhood. But it's not boring at all! It's funny at times and it made me cry. And that ending!! Can't wait to continue with book 2.

- Title The Couple at Number 9
- Author Claire Douglas
- Rating 4⭐️
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio) ebook from library
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) all the vowels
- Brief reason why it was the best
I read this for an online book club be just joined. I probably wouldn't have read it otherwise, but glad I did. I've listed as my best book of July even though I also read The Midnight Library (which gave 5 stars), because despite its faults I just felt it was something very interesting about the nature of memory and family relationships

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Title: Pretty Girls
Author: Karin Slaughter
Rating: 5 stars
Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Print
ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics (leftovers challenge)
Brief reason why it was the best: This book was so compelling, even with some very graphic/dark content, and I love this author's writing style.

- Title Istanbul Noir
- Author edited by Mustafa Ziyalan
- Rating 4 stars
- Format (Print)
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) The next book in a series
- Brief reason why it was the best: one of the best balanced books I have read in the series - several of the short stories touched me or made me go online to learn more about the locations and/or history of Istanbul

Updated the listopia through here! https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Title: Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths
Author: Natalie Haynes
Rating: 5 stars
Format: ebook
ATY Prompt: Book related to mythology
Brief reason why it was the best: Highlighted the women of Greek drama and tragedy and it was comical at times.

The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
I read the hardcover print version of this book and gave it 5 stars.
I used it for the "prompt that did not make the list" prompt: A woman overcoming systemic obstacles.
This book is about a female artist whose frustration at not being acknowledged by the art world leads her to create a series of artworks that she presents by having a series of male artists named as creators of the works. Her plan is to expose the hypocrisy of the art world, but guess what? Things don't go as planned.

- Horse
- by Geraldine Brooks
- Rating 5
- Audio
- Flora/Fauna
- It told a bunch of interlinking stories- about an antebellum race horse and the enslaved trainer who cared for him, Jackson Pollock's art dealer, a woman who puts together animal skeletons at museums, a Black art PHD student who finds a portrait of a horse in the trash. She weaves them all together so well and you keep going cause you want to see how they are all connected and you love the horse so much (I will admit, I went to wikipedia v early on to read about the horse and see the portraits they talk about so I knew what was ahead for that storyline at least.)

- Title: Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers
- Author: Deborah Heiligman
- Rating: 4
- Format: Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for: Name starting with A, T or Y (I might change it to handwriting on the cover. I am counting cursive font as handwriting since that's what I assumed it meant when I voted for it.)
- Brief reason why it was the best: There were a lot of interesting facts about Vincent Van Gogh's life, and especially his relationship with his brother Theo. It was easy to read (YA) and included photos of his works. I read it right after going to the Van Gogh Immerison Experience and I felt that it provided more insight to the artist's internal struggles.

Title: The Overstory
- Author: Richard Powers
- Rating: 5
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) : 35. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 1 It is also would work for 16. A book related to Earth Day
- Brief reason why it was the best: A wonderful mixture of facts about trees (there is so much to know about trees) and engaging stories of nine very unique individuals, stories grounded in their varying relationships to trees.

Note: this is the first time I have read through a "best books of the month" conversation. WHAT A MISTAKE! I do not need another 20 books to add to my TBR list.

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Edie wrote: "Note: this is the first time I have read through a "best books of the month" conversation. WHAT A MISTAKE! I do not need another 20 books to add to my TBR list."

LOL! Right?!?!

Updated the listopia through here! https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

- Title: Peanut Butter Panic
- Author: Amanda Flower
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): eBook
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): A book published in 2022
- Brief reason why it was the best: This is my recent of one of my favorite series because it can be LOL funny and this book didn't disappoint. I am excited for the next one.

- Title In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
- Author Nathaniel Philbrick
- Rating 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio) print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) NA
- Brief reason why it was the best - Philbrick interweaves his account of the loss of the whaleship Essex, an extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature, drawing on a remarkable range of archival and modern sources, including a long-lost account by the ship's cabin boy.

Title: Malibu Rising
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Rating: 5 stars
Format (Print, eBook, Audio): print
ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): A book set on or near a body of water


Title: Reign of a King
Author: Rina Kent
Rating: 5 stars
Format (Print, eBook, Audio): ebook
ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable):

- Title : The Reading List
- Author: Sara Nisha Adams
- Rating: 4 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Kindle
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 47. A book with handwriting on the cover
- Brief reason why it was the best: Reading about people who enjoy books is always nice! This was kind of a 'cozy read'. It was slow at first, but then when people who don't normally read started to be influenced by a list created by an unknown person, it was very heartwarming. Everyone's lives were improved.

- Title : To Kill a Mockingbird
- Author: Harper Lee
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Kindle
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 39. A book from the TIME list of 100 Best YA Books of All Time
- Brief reason why it was the best: This was a book that I felt "I should have read by now", which meant I wasn't totally enthusiastic. I didn't have bad expectations, just a feeling of "this is an old book that we would have read in high school if we hadn't read something else". I had recently read "Catcher in the Rye" for the same reason and HATED IT. Luckily that was not my experience with ...Mockingbird. I loved the characters. I loved that the kids subtly learned to appreciate people who were different from them. I loved the court scene(s?), although they were QUITE different from what I experienced recently as a juror in a very long case. Having the technology we have today certainly changes the amount and kind of evidence used in court! The book had the vibes of a more serious/sober version of Mayberry RFD (for those old enough to have watched Ron Howard as a small boy).