Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week it's time for a cover hunt! Botanical elements (leaves, flowers, trees, vines, etc) have become really popular on covers lately. Plants must be on trend.

Some listopias to get you started:
Botanical motif: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Plants on the cover: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Flowers on the cover: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
Leaves on the cover: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

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

What are you going to be reading? Do you like the cover?

The Darling Dahlias and the Red Hot Poker by Susan Wittig Albert is my planned book.

I'm reading , both for its Addams family links and because I think this cover is beautiful. I'm fan of those overblown Dutch flower and fruit paintings. It's a short story collection which will be a break from reading longer books.

I'm also reading -luckily I had a botanical cover on my TBR list, and I've been wanting to read this for a while.

I have so many options for this prompt!

Right now I think I'll be counting The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey.



The botany on the cover isn't just pretty artwork but is central to the plot - "a world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you." Yikes.

A few choices but I may do a cover search at the library instead.

Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop
Pearl by Siân Hughes
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

I'll be reading Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize by Margo Rabb:



I do like the cover, it's a good scavenger hunt cover as well as fitting this prompt.

I chose The Ghosts Of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms for this.

So many beautiful covers!


My first choice is:
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy

I'm planning on reading Soil too, probably for the Related to Land prompt. We're reading this book next May for my book club at my suggestion. The author is a faculty member at the university in my town (Fort Collins Colorado) where I also work.

@Jacqie — I actually decided to read Soil because the author is a transplant to Fort Collins. It seemed like an interesting way to learn about the area. We are considering relocating there when we no longer have family obligations where we are. Our younger son lives in Denver now, so it would be nice to be a lot closer.

I've lived here ever since my college days and love this town!

Here are my possibles for this prompt:


*


*I am thinking that the blackberry as well as its nearly invisible leaf will qualify since it is a fruit of a plant.

I was quite surprised that I didn't have more options for this, but my possibles are;

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The Foundling by Stacey Halls
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The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
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Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
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The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

I'm planning to read As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow for this prompt. I chose this book because its website lists two authors that I plan to read next year as being similar. In addition, the author is Syrian-Canadian and I read a lot about the Syrian Civil War when I was doing my undergraduate degree. I was disappointed by The Beekeeper of Aleppo that I read this year and this book seems to be about a similar topic but has better reviews. It was also recommended by CBC and I've heard it discussed on Booktube. I'm looking forward to reading this one in the new year.

I'm going to read In The Time of Our History

The Jinn Daughter

For this prompt I was able to release a book from my old TBR. . It had been on my TBR since 2015.

I read The Prince and the Troll by Rainbow Rowell.

I went with The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

For this prompt, I read:

River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon by Buddy Levy - 4* - My Review

I picked up When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà entirely based on its gorgeous mountainous cover. The book is set in the Pyrenees and every chapter is narrated from a different perspective, to include a mountain thunderstorm, a deer, chantarelles, a murdered man's ghost, and many others, and the overall natural theme is conveyed well on the cover.

My review can be found here.

I decided to read The Autumn of the Patriarch for this due to having enjoyed One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is another book with a botanical cover.

I read and .

The first book was a reissue of a book first published in the 1990s. Since then, far more has been published or televised about the life of black people in Britain before the twentieth century, so some of the information in this book was already known to me. Still lots of interesting stories ranging from people kept in slavery to those who had done well.

I loved the second book. A fascinating plot, bittersweet love story and a real evocation of life in the 1950s.

I read

The average rating is 4.09, but because I've read so much scifi and have read this plot/story before in a minimum of one other scifi book and for a few other reasons, I rounded it up to 3. The cover is botanical because the protagonist is trained to be a botanist.

I read We Are All the Same in the Dark

I read:
Sisters of Shiloh by Kathy and Becky Hepinstall

BIO: A book with only a plant or part of a plant on the cover
REJECT: A book with a relative in the title

Finished: 03/09/2024
Rating: 4 stars

I chose for this prompt

short and sweet review: 4.0
"It took me a while to get into this book. I started reading it over a year ago, but then I put it aside. However, I picked it up again recently, and I managed to finish it in just one day. In my opinion, if Tab was more outspoken about her thoughts and feelings, she would be in a much better state."

I read It Is Wood, It Is Stone by Gabriella Burnham.


I liked the book. It was a short literary fiction I read during the Readathon.

I read The Homecoming by Kate Morton for this prompt. (Read April 3; 4*)

I read The Measure. 5 stars

Flowers and plants on cover


✔ - 31Mar24
Give Me a Sign – Anna Sortino – 4****
Lilah and the other counselors at Camp Grey Wolf are in many ways typical teenagers. But, they must also navigate a hearing world as Deaf or hearing-impaired individuals. I really enjoyed this book. Sortino is Deaf and passionate about seeing diverse characters portrayed in the media. This is her debut novel.
LINK to my full review

TASK #18 ~ A book with a botanical cover

~ ♞ ~

BOOK 1
The Late Bloomers' Club by Louise Miller
Read ~ 4.13.24
Pages ~ 325
Rationale ~ Green shrubbery behind bike with corner floral stenciling

Review ~ ★★★
Classic Chick-Lit. The kind of book you read when you just want to sit in your recliner with a cup of coffee and a smile. Cute book, but not a memorable one.


~ ♞ ~

BOOK 2
Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner
Read ~ 4.16.24
Pages ~ 400
Rationale ~ red floral framework on cover

Review ~ ★★★★
I don't think this was Susan Meissner's best book - but it was a good solid read. I read the one-star reviews, and wonder if those people read the same book I did. I like that the narrative of the two main characters literally split the book in half, with Roseanne's story taking the first half and Helen's the second. Both of those narratives are split into different time frames, and trying to keep it straight if it were a "chapter split" story would have been incredibly hard, so this choice for story telling was perfect. A handful of triggers, but history - and historical fiction by default - is always going to have triggers because history is both beautiful AND brutal. And true. Always true.

I read lots of the narrative involves botany too

I will be reading a non fiction book 'More for your Garden' by Vita Sackville -West.

This is a strong contender for 'clunker of the year'.
I read , a quasi-memoir. Vaye Watkins' writing is usually terrific, but not this time. I could've ended my torment early on, following the part about her intriguing father.

I read Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths
Enjoyed it . A lesbian woman of colour, who is promoted within the police force, investigating and solving a murder

Jacqie wrote: "I'm planning on reading Soil too, probably for the Related to Land prompt. We're reading this book next May for my book club at my suggestion. The author is a faculty member at the university in my..."

No way. That's cool. I'm a transplant living in the Denver metro area, and I love reading Colorado authors.

I read Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson for this prompt. The book is amazing. It is a total slow burn until the end. It's a thriller or maybe a horror book - maybe both. LOL. It's so good. The cover is so cool.

I read A Death at the Party

I matched due to the title words thorns and roses being on the cover. Does title count? Because upon an actual look at the cover, it has neither thorns nor roses. Is the book a "cheat"? Thanks for your thoughts.

I read Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, my copy has Anne and Diana walking through flowers