Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Books books everywhere and not a novel to read...this week anyway! Anything is up for grabs as long as it's not a novel. Nonfiction, short story collections, plays, poetry, essay collections, memoir and biography...

Best memoir/biography/autobiography: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Best nonfiction: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Short story collections: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Best poetry: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
Best anthologies: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

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

What will you be reading for this prompt?

I have about 8-10 (auto)biographies on my TBR list, so I will read one of those.

Choosing a book that has been on my TBR for several years: This Way to the End Times: Classic Tales of the Apocalypse.

I am reading A Mind Spread Out on the Ground and All About Love: New Visions. The latter has been on my TBR for so long, it's practically built itself a nest.

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography by Rob Wilkins was the biggest priority on my 2024 priority TBR, and it's an easy fit for this prompt.

I will most likely be using Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg, a graphic novel about the Brontë siblings and their childhood imaginary worlds.

I'm also planning to read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation and two short story collections - The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr and Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez, so I could use those for this prompt also.

I want to read more non-fiction in 2024, hopefully something travel-related. One book of interest that I heard about on the Strong Sense of Place podcast is The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Canadian author Farley Mowat. Another one I've heard good reviews of - The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. Then there is the ultimate story about travel - Soviet Space Dogs! Laika, Belka, and Strelka. I still feel sad for Laika.

An anthology is my preference for this prompt and I have so many that I could select. I've narrowed it down to 2 anthologies of Australian writers with a songwriting basis as the theme.
"Minds Went Walking: Paul Kelly's Songs Re-imagined" published 2022 and "Into Your Arms: Nick Cave's Songs Re-imagined" published 2023
Both books are curated by different Australian authors and include short stories by some of Australia's finest writers telling tales based on the songs of both songwriters.
I will read both books & include one as the prompt selection. I will also have fun identifying the story to the song and listening to it again

I'm planning to read Letters on Life because on of my favourite Booktubers enjoys Rilke and one of his books is on the Rory Gilmore reading list. I don't have a favourite poet or read poetry often at all so this seems like a good chance to read it.

I have too many options for this one on my shelves. These were just the ones I picked out before I realised this was going to be waaaaay too many possibles to choose from!

Memoir/Biography
- Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
- Good Morning, Destroyer of Men's Souls: A Memoir of Women, Addiction, and Love by Nina Renata Aron
- Dream of Belonging: My Years in Postwar Poland by Janina Bauman
- Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
- Born Lippy by Jo Brand
- This Is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan
- Small Fry: A Memoir by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

Short Stories/Collections
- Heavy Water and Other Stories by Martin Amis
- Dancing Girls and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
- Amazonian: The Penguin Book of Women's New Travel Writing (eds) Dea Birkett and Sara Wheeler

Non-Fic
- Girl Up by Laura Bates
- I Am Not Your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite
- Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
- Sacred Bond: The Legacy of Baby M by Phyllis Chesler
- How to Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day

I may be the only person on the planet who hasn't read Spare, so I suspect that I'll read that one.


But I also have checked this one out from the library, and I'd love to be able to fit it in earlier...
The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth

I had so many to choose from in my TBR shelves, but I wound up reading My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand. I am reading the book and listening to the audio, which is a hoot because she ad libs a lot in the audio narration, probably adding more pages to the 989 pages of wonderfulness that this book is. Actually, in the last week of December, I read two books that would have fit this prompt as well: Dolly Parton's Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones and Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks by Stephen Davis. Both excellent.

Barbara wrote: "I had so many to choose from in my TBR shelves, but I wound up reading My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand. I am reading the book and listening to the audio, whic..."

I am listening to My Name is Barbra also. The library keeps taking it back because it's so long. Her narration is really fun. And it does not feel 48 hours long. I am really enjoying it.

I read Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End by Jennifer Worth, the third of her memoirs that inspired the TV series.

I read, well listened to, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. I grew up watching Friends so found this an open, honest, emotional and heartbreaking telling of Matthew Perry's life. It was great having him read it.

Would the book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse count for this?

Lisa wrote: "Would the book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse count for this?"

Yes, it's more of a picture book / illustrated parable.

Milena wrote: "Barbara wrote: "I had so many to choose from in my TBR shelves, but I wound up reading My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand. I am reading the book and listening to..."

She did so much ad libbing -- I was reading the book along with listening. It was like sitting in a room with her and listening to a conversation. Excellent!

For this prompt, I read non-fiction:
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant - 4* - My Review

I'm reading Dear California, which is a collection of letters and diary entires from Californians from the 1700's to the present. I will take the whole year reading it as it is organized by day and I am reading just that day's entires each day..I started on January 1 and read that day, today I will read January 19, etc...

I am reading A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde. It is a collection of short stories.

LIke most of us, I have MANY books I could use for this prompt. For now I'm planning on reading The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye. Now that this is a topic open for discussion, I'm hoping to learn a lot from this book, and gain a new perspective. Last year I read Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig which gave me a new perspective on what being "disabled" is really like and what it actually means to be disabled. I'm hoping for a similar eye-opening experience with this book.

I read Where the Light Gets In: Losing My Mother Only to Find Her Again by Kimberly Williams-Paisley. It was very good. I bawled through a large portion of it.

I also read Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living For. As the title suggests it is a recipe book (and I found some very good recipes there) but also a memoir. As in the first book, the author's mental health plays a large part in what she writes, but it is, despite darkness, a hopeful book.

I read The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories for this prompt, as I had been looking for a reason to read it.

It's a book of short stories.

Biography / Memoir -


✔ - 26Jan24
First Gen – Alejandra Campoverdi– 3***
Campoverdi’s memoir details her experiences and that of her family, particularly the women. From growing up poor in a single-parent household with her grandmother, three aunts, and mother, the author writes about her path to success as a “First and only.” Her story is an interesting one, but I didn’t really identify with her experiences, and felt she was not fully identifying the causes of her feelings of inadequacy.
LINK to my full review

The book I chose for this prompt

short and sweet review: 5.0
This book was really good. A true shocker. Cup went through A LOT. She experience the worst at a young age and had to really make a life to survive. The look is very graphic and will teach you all about the life of addiction. I gave this book four stars because it started to really give more details than needed and literally just dragged.

Edited 2nd READ:
I listen to the audio book AGAIN, just days after the 1st listen. I gave it a 4 stars at first. But the 2nd listen was just what I need. Cup cup cup, I dnt even know you but I love your story. Only if my mom had the will power you held.

I read The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham & the Making of a Masterpiece by Simon Winchester.

I read:
Wrestling for My Life: The Legend, the Reality, and the Faith of a WWE Superstar by Shawn Michaels

BIO: A memoir, biography, or autobiography
REJECT: A biography, autobiography, or memoir

Finished: 06/15/2024
Rating: 4 stars

Very inspirational. Shawn is very open about his struggles in his walk with Christ. Really touched my heart.

I read In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom.

I read Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell (non-fiction, linguistics/social science)

For this prompt, I read: Tiger by Tash Aw.
It was a short literary piece and I appreciated the writer's prose.

3 stars
My review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I read Minds Went Walking: Paul Kelly’s Songs Reimagined It is a book of short stories by various Australian authors re-interpreting in literary form the songs of Paul Kelly

I read The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War. 5 stars

For this prompt, I read The Cherry Orchard, the last play written by Anton Chekhov. It was first performed in 1904.

I love this prompt. I found some great memoirs for challenges this year, plus nonfiction, plays, and a dictionary that was lovely on audio: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

A few favorites this year
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell
Red Notice / The Spy and the Traitor / Where the Crawdads Sing
Plastic: A Toxic Love Story
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
When they call you terrorist.

Search is down atm

I read Fourteen Days set in first couple of weeks in the pandemic supposedly flat dwellers come together on the roof of flats to tell stories. IMO if this book wasn't edited by Margaret Atwood it would never have seen publication

I ended up not reading the book I'd intended, as it didn't turn out to be what I was looking for. Instead I read Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems by Nikki Giovanni. I'm not generally a fan of poetry, but I came across some of her work last year and was intrigued, so I bought a used copy of this book. Turns out it leans heavily on the "not quite poems" part of the title. Yes, there were poems, but there were also many short stories, essays, letters, and what I'm calling a "narrative recipe". I really enjoyed some of the work, but was less of a fan of other pieces. I still gave it an overall 4*, which is pretty good for a collection of short works, because they can be all over the place.

Most of the work held up (it was published in 2002), but a couple of pieces were obviously old... Rudy Giuliani was still a 9/11 hero, and Bill Cosby was still someone you would choose to cast in a movie.

I will probably read Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury by Sam Weller. It is a commemoration of Ray Bradbury's works with contemporary authors writing stories in his style. Authors in this anthology include: Margaret Atwood, Joe Hill, Alice Hoffman, Neil Gaimon, Robert McCammon, etc.

I had mentioned elsewhere that I've been working my way through geology classic Annals of the Former World by John McPhee, and I slotted In Suspect Terrain, the second installment of this nonfiction series, into this "not a novel" category. The first book, Basin and Range, I read for the "Land" category. I found this second book a bit more over my head in terms of science, but still an edifying read.

My review for In Suspect Terrain can be found here.