Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

The first of our multiweek trio "three books related to land, sea, and air"; you can find the other two here:
A book related to sea: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
A book related to air: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

How you connect the book to land is entirely up to you. It could be a book about geology or ecology, a book featuring overland travel like a road trip or a train, a book about people buying or working the land, or maybe the title or author's name contains land.

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

What book have you landed on reading for this prompt?

I plan to read The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization.

I shall finally read Landlines. Like most people who have read it, I loved The Salt Path, and now the library list has diminished, I'm very much looking forward to reading this sequel.

I'm also reading another book about walking through the countryside, this time from a natural history point of view: Nightwalk: A Journey to the Heart of Nature.

I am doing character occupations for the land/sea/air prompts.

Farmer for land - Go as a River by Shelley Read
Lighthouse keeper for sea - The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
Astronaut for air - In The Quick by Kate Hope Day

I have a bird theme:

Land: The Kalahari Typing School for Men (about ostrich rustling)
Sea: Death and the Penguin
Air: Hearing Birds Fly

I've had Underland: A Deep Time Journey on my TBR for years, so it might be time to finally read it!

I'm going to read Sisters Behaving Badly by Maddie Please, about two sisters in their 60s who inherit a farm.

I'm planning to read Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Moss grows on the land, of course, so I feel like this is a good fit.

Every year, with these multi-prompts, I plan to have a connecting theme but I never follow through! I’m going to wait and see what I read for the Sea prompt, which is the easiest for me, and then try to come up with a common thread for Land and Air. Like Joyce, I also have The Kalahari Typing School for Men and will keep that one in reserve.

I'm thinking I'll do a theme of animals who live in sea/air/on land and a book with a human interaction with those animals. That might totally change though.

I currently have The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating as an option, but will probably look for more.

I want to so something with geology, and I really want to tackle Annals of the Former World by John McPhee.

My other thought was something about people living off the land, like My Ántonia.

I would recommend Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane.

My plan is to read
Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill (also a land related sir name!). It's about saving a little girl who's fallen down into a mine shaft in Michigan. It also takes a look at her various interesting ancestors, from both China and Finland (and other Scandinavian countries).

I have other NF books I could also read if I need a break from fiction. There's another fiction book that sounds interesting, but for now it isn't available from my library/Libby: Sweetland by Michael Crummey — which could also be used for Canadian Author.

Update: I think I wasn't able to find Ursula, Under at my library, but in the mean time I found The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard. I like all sorts of books that involve time travel/loops/warps, etc., so this sounded like an intriguing idea.

I'm linking the 3 related prompts with natural disasters. For this I'm thinking earthquakes or volcanoes. The only one I can think of right off is The Nature of Fragile Things about the San Fran 1906 quake.

Anyone got any other earthquake or volcano books?

I'm planning to read And the Mountains Echoed for this prompt. I have read two other books by the author and bought this book at the store when it came out. That was several years ago. I tried reading this book once but stopped because it was written in a different narrative style than the author's other books. I think I should try it again because it's on my shelf.

Lots of options for this one!

TOPICS
- Just Another Mountain: A Memoir of Hope by Sarah Jane Douglas (hiking to heal)
- Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (hiking to heal)
- The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (living wild whist hiking)
- Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn (human impact on the earth, and nature reclaiming it)
- War Gardens by Lalage Snow (gardens in conflict zones)
- The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (Viet Nam land reform time period)

TITLES
- Red Dust Road: An Autobiographical Journey by Jackie Kay
- Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

COVERS
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I always LOVE to consider linking those multi-part prompts. Tadaaa, Enid Blyton's Adventure - Series... Oh, those memories!
Sea might be "The Ship of Adventure" or "The Sea.." or even "The Island...".
Air: "The Valley of Adventure"
Land: all others

leans back to enjoy tons of canned food

For this prompt, I read:
Landscapes by Christine Lai - 3* - My Review

I'm going to read Cheryl Strayed's Wild. Lots of hiking on land.

I read Sleeping Murder for this prompt. It doesn't fit the topic the way I was initially reading it. But I twisted it just a bit and found a good fit.

The book is about a young couple who have just purchased their first property.

I read Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz for this one. She was an Egyptologist and a feminist, so her views picked apart the male-centered, misogynistic, long-standing opinions of life in ancient Egypt. She also wrote novels under the names Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels.

Misty wrote: "I read Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz for this one. She was an Egyptologist and a feminist, so her views picked apart the male-centered, misogynist..."

Wonderful read!

I recommend Bernard Ollivier's trilogy telling of his walking The Silk Road.
First is Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road
Second is Walking to Samarkand: The Great Silk Road from Persia to Central Asia
Third is Winds of the Steppe: Walking the Great Silk Road from Central Asia to China

I am reading Gently Go Man by Alan Hunter. The book partly centres around a five-mile stretch of arrow-straight road that acts like a magnet to beatnik bikers using the road like a drag strip.

I decided to go with a nature/adventure/travel theme for Land, Sea, and Air:

Land: Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail

Sea: The Brendan Voyage: A Leather Boat Tracks the Discovery of America by the Irish Sailor Saints

Air: Wind, Sand and Stars

I read The Four Winds for this prompt and it perfectly fits it. It was my first Kristin Hannah book and it didn't disappoint!

I read The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.

I read Commune: Book Two by Joshua Gayou, about founding a settlement in the aftermath of the apocalypse

I Read:
Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845–1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

BIO: Three books with something in common (All non-fiction)
REJECT: A book related to one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Famine)

Finished: 04/07/2024
Rating: 4 stars

Actually a YA book, but very "adultly" written. I didn't even know it was YA until after I read it.

I read Last Summer at the Golden Hotel. For these mulit week prompts I am going with books where the cover is a fit and the letters of the word are in the title. This one has the added bonus of land being spelled out in the last name of the author :)

Set during the DUST bowl of the great depression, "land" is a key issue in

✔ - 23Mar24
Out Of the Dust – Karen Hessse – 5***** and a ❤
Hesse can say so much in so few words. This is an extraordinary work of fiction, written entirely in verse. It's an emotionally evocative story of growing up in the harshness of poverty and tragedy, set during the Oklahoma Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. Won the Newbery Award.
LINK to my full review

I read The Dig by John Preston
An historical fiction of Sutton Hoo, a well known landmark in Suffolk England.

For this prompt, I read The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District by James Rebanks. It's an autobiography, travelogue and 'how-to' guide to shepherding all rolled into one. Rebanks proudly relates his and his family's experience as sheep farmers going back generations in the beautiful Lake District in Northern England. It's a way of life he loves, which is lovingly expressed through his writing.

I read Cry of the Curlew by Peter Watt for this prompt. The book tells the greed of European settlers (in the northern part of Queensland in the latter part of the 19th century) claiming land from the indigenous people. The book has indigenous characters who tell of their treatment through the systematic removal from their tribal lands and sacred sites. (Read May 14th; 4*)

I read Nine Last Days on Planet Earth and Landlines.

The first is a sci-fi novella (though possibly novella is a stretch) - alien plants gradually take over the land. The story is told with reference to one human life. Although short, I thought this was beautifully written and moving.

Raynor Winn was made homeless at the same time that her husband, Moth, was diagnosed with a degenerative disease. In desperation, they embarked on a walk along England's South West coastal path, and this was the basis for her excellent first book, The Salt Path.

At the start of Landlines, Moth's mental and physical condition is becoming much worse and the two begin a bucket list walk across the north of Scotland, a walk which eventually turns into a trek down the length of Britain. I love Winn's combination of nature writing, memoir, social and environmental comment. The end is an amazing tribute to the power of walking the land.

I read X Marks the Spot: The Story of Archaeology in Eight Extraordinary Discoveries. 5 stars. I enjoyed it.

I'm reading El llano en llamas (The Plain in Flames) by Juan Rulfo. I'm reading both the original Spanish and the English edition.

I read something else for this already, but whatever it was I would replace it with my new favorite of the year:

North Woods by Daniel Mason. It spans more than 400 years of time on a piece of property in New England with luscious apples.

Pam wrote: "I'm reading El llano en llamas (The Plain in Flames) by Juan Rulfo. I'm reading both the original Spanish and the English edition.

[bookcover:El llano en llamas|20753..."

I thought this book was very well-written, Pam. Hope you enjoy!

the book I chose for this prompt

short and sweet review: 5.0
This book was just so beautifully written. I have a NEW book crush ROME is the man. The way he attended to her every need and I mean EVERY need just had me saying damn I want a ROME. Janell took a lot from her mom and sister. Happy dad was there!! P.S the sister and the ex boyfriend can go straight to you know what.

I read
The Glass-Blowers

This is set during the french Revolution and features a family of glass blowers . - Glass blowers of this period used Quartz in their firing mix - mined from the earth.

The family also farmed the land and raised animals around their glass factories in order to feed themselves and their workers

TASK #27 ~ A book related to land


~ ♞ ~

27. A book related to land
The Change by Kirsten Miller
Read ~ 6.14.24
Pages ~ 480
Rationale ~ Harriet uses the plants from her garden to wreck havoc on those who have betrayed her and those she loves.
Rating ~ ★★★★☆

I read Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski. We play baseball on land

I listened to A Zoo in My Luggage by Gerald Durrell. The author and his wife travel to the British Cameroons to explore the land and collect animals to bring back to Great Britain to start their own zoo.

I read A House Like a Lotus. Although a lot of the book takes place on islands. the author describes the buildings, houses, and scenery far more than she describes the sea.

For this prompt, I read The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton.

This story takes place on an island, where the inhabitants have had to (re)learn how to live off the land after an apocalyptic event that destroyed the rest of the world.

Generally, when I finish a book, I'm quite clear on whether I like or dislike it and why. But for this novel, it took a bit of time to figure out why I hadn't engaged with the story. In short, it boils down to the lackluster characters and the weird AI bot that serves little purpose.

Overall, I was disappointed with this novel, especially because I had enjoyed Turton's previous book so much.

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

I found a fun way to connect these three prompts - three books featuring adventurous heroines voyaging in alternate locales that are rather like 19th century Europe, but with dragons/steampunk/magic:
Sea: The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan, featuring Isabella Camhurst on a ship going around much of the world so she can research dragons.
Air: Agatha Awakens by Phil Foglio, volume one collecting the Girl Genius webcomic, features Agatha Clay aboard a steampunk airship city.
Land: Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede has Kim becoming the apprentice to a travelling magician who realizes she's not the boy she's pretending to be.

I read The Spanish Daughter. It relates to land as Puri, the main character, inherits her late father's cocoa estate in Ecuador. There is contention among estranged siblings about the inheriting of the land which leads to a murder.

I had ambitions to read geological classic Annals of the Former World by John McPhee for this category, but at almost 800 pages I kept putting it off, at at this point in the year I doubted I could fit the whole thing if I want to finish. However, at least 4 of the 5 sections in Annals were originally published as separate books, so I decided to at least tackle the first one titled Basin and Range. I'm so glad I did! I expected something of a dense, technical slog, but the author has a literature degree and writes beautifully about science in a manner that took me completely by surprise. I may still try to fit the other books into my remaining categories now!

My full review can be found here.