The 52 Book Club: 2025 / 2026 Challenge discussion

WEEKLY CHECK-IN
December 24, 2023 -- Week 52

Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate! We are starting our very last week of 2023 and it's been such fun participating in this challenge alongside you all.

So what better way to close off another challenge year than by chatting about our FAVORITE and LEAST FAVORITE books of 2023! What were they for you? Why?

My favorite reads for the 52 Book Challenge were Beartown and Us Against You, both by Fredrik Backman. Backman is one of my all-time favorite authors. His characters are beautifully crafted and developed and his writing is lyric. I also had a few one-star reads for the challenge, and I think the biggest disappointment may have been Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. I had hoped for something along the lines of Rebecca but this one fell far short. Gothic melodrama at its worst.

Hard to choose a favorite (I had 10 books that were 10/10 on my rating scale), but The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin was one of my first 10s this year. Least favorite was A Survivor's Lens: A Metastatic Breast Cancer Survivor’s Focus on Faith and God’s Word by Sheila Marie Johnson, mostly because I was expecting a memoir of her life with metastatic breast cancer and the volunteer and advocacy work she has done even as she journeys with this terminal disease. Instead it was a highly religious, somewhat preachy, book that would not be helpful to women with mets who were of a different or no faith tradition. NOTE: the book was given to me by someone who knows that I know the author and she just told me the title, not the subtitle. If I had been paying closer attention, I would not have had the expectations I did.

My favorite challenge book was Little Big Man. I was really surprised about how much I liked this book. My favorite non-challenge was definitely The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. My least favorite book was Every Day. First of all, I hate present tense, and secondly, I thought the main character was just a BIT stalkerish. I was also kind of disappointed with Being Ethel: In a world that loves Lucy. I didn't think it was as good as the title.

Favorites were Mr. Wrong Number (epilogue), Teen Titans: Robin (siblings), and Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (book with a dedication). I found them very humorous. I got a great enemies to lovers romance that was cute but funny, while the other two were great graphic novels. Loved the art, and the stories had heart and humor.

Least favorites would be Nothing But Blackened Teeth (less than 200 pages), Bless Your Heart, Rae Sutton (doesn't fit any other prompt), and The Blame Game (published by Macmillan). Nothing But Blackened Teeth had a good premise but spent too much time building up to the meat of a story which lacked sustenance and left me with a short, rushed, and unsatisfying ending. Bless Your Heart, Rae Sutton was a major let down as it was slow and considering the ending hinted what would happen between the main character and her ex, I felt forgiveness was being pushed too far. There are limits to forgiveness given we're human, and it just left a sour taste in my mouth by the time I reached the end. As for The Blame Game, I felt no one in the novel made smart decisions, especially the main character. The story is all over the place and while my job has nothing in common with main character's, she made decisions that made me think "No one, especially in that profession, would do that. This seems unrealistic and if someone in her profession did do it, I feel they'd lose their license." I saw several reviews from people who were of the same profession and conveyed similar sentiments. Also, in trying to make the story such a big mystery, it just felt convoluted and strung together. It felt all over the place and that in trying so hard to be clever, it bombed.

My favorite book was No Land To Light On by Yara Zgeib. I thought the writing was beautiful and I will read this book again. I also enjoyed Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (alliterative) because of the engaging way the stories were woven together; and Before Your Memory Fades (workplace) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, the third book in the Before The Coffee Gets Cold series. It was darker than the the others but I thought the stories were the most powerful of the series.

I hated Verity by Colleen Hoover (related to murder)...I just couldn't stand any of it, the story, the writing, the "twist". Will not read any of her other books. I was not a fan of Freida McFadden's The Housemaid ("everyone" has read) or The Housemaid's Secret (cliffhangers)...but that's my fault it's just not a genre i enjoy (I read them for book clubs and then plugged them into prompts they fit)

Denise wrote: "My favorite book was No Land To Light On by Yara Zgeib. I thought the writing was beautiful and I will read this book again. I also enjoyed Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (alliterative) because..."
I hated Verity, too, for all the same reasons. And like you, I refuse to read any of her other books.

My favorite of the year is Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. I started the series a long time ago with The Rain Wild Chronicles and then started a the beginning. My absolute favorite series.

I have to many books this year that I DNFd and disliked to name. I had an extremely hard time with Caribbean author... Start many books before finishing Black Cake which was okay. I am still one short... Nordic Noir. Again, I have started many. Don't think I will be managing that one.

I had SO many favorites, but if I had to pick, it would probably be Falling Between the Pages by A.M. Heath. My least favorite was Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler.