Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

👋 Hello again ATY challenge! I've taken a break but returned after a year of very underwhelming reading. To be fair I did move, sell my house, and change jobs twice in 2023; no wonder I didn't feel like reading anything more challenging than YA and thrillers! Excited to get back on track.
I'm trying to stick (somewhat) to the challenge order, but since the majority of my books come from the library, I'm expecting to have to shift things around. Generally I hover around 40 books a year and I'm not going to be pushing myself to do more, so the goal is to use the challenge categories to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. Here's to a year of great books! 🥂

Completed: 49/52

Currently Reading: The Dark Forest

January
1. A book with a title that ends in A, T or Y - Mother-Daughter Murder Night, Nina Simon (1/11/24)
2. A book connected to something you read in 2023 - The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante (1/3/24)
3. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the final list (A book adapted by Masterpiece Theatre) - Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (1/18/24)
4. A book related to something mentioned in the lyrics of What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong - The Wonder, Emma Donoghue (4/24/24)
5. A book set in one of the 25 most beautiful cities in the world - The Old Capital, Yasunari Kawabata (2/7/24)

February
6. A book with wings on the cover - Starling House, Alix E. Harrow (2/20/24)
7. A book with a pronoun in the title - For Your Eyes Only, Ian Fleming (7/1/24)
8. A book by an author from Canada, Australia or New Zealand - Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (2/18/24)
9. A book with fewer than 2024 ratings on Goodreads - Summer of Betrayal, Hong Ying (4/20/24)

March
10. A history or historical fiction book - Outlander, Diana Gabaldon (11/18/24)
11. A book with an X connection
12. A book that has been on your TBR for over a year - A Season in Purgatory, Dominick Dunne (9/15/24)
13. A book that is on a Five Books List; reader’s choice of which list - A Kiss Before Dying, Ira Levin (5/15/24)

April
14. A book with a main character who is Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color - Lone Women, Victor LaValle (4/22/24)
15. A book whose author’s name includes one of the 4 least used letters in the alphabet (JQZX) - The Davenports, Krystal Marquis (4/17/24)
16. A book related to the phrase "It's Raining Cats and Dogs" - Track of the Cat, Nevada Barr (7/20/24)
17. A book involving intelligence - From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming (5/4/24)

May
18. A book with a botanical cover - The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff (5/13/24)
19. A book connected in some way to any of the flavors of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream - The Extinction of Irena Rey, Jennifer Croft (5/7/24)
20. A book with a single word title - Embers, Sándor Márai (6/13/24)
21. A book with a title containing 6+ words - River of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile, Candice Millard (6/2/24)
22. A book by an author from an African country - The Fishermen, Chigozie Obioma (6/25/24)

June
23. A book related to Boats, Beaches, Bars, Ballads, or Jimmy Buffett - The Elementals, Michael McDowell (6/18/24)
24. A book with a secondary color on the cover (orange, green or purple) - The Hunter, Tana French (3/14/24)
25. A book involving a crime other than a murder - Diamonds are Forever, Ian Fleming (6/10/24)
26. A book by an author known by their initials - Babel, R.F. Kuang (3/6/24)

July
27. A book related to land - Inland, Téa Obreht (7/14/24)
28. A book related to sea - In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, Hampton Sides (8/17/24)
29. A book related to air - Thin Air: A Ghost Story, Michelle Paver (8/4/24)
30. A book set in a country bordering the Mediterranean Sea - Bonjour tristesse, Françoise Sagan (10/28/24)
31. A book related to “Going for the Gold” - The Golden Spoon, Jessa Maxwell (7/15/24)

August
32. A book with a number in the title - Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (3/27/24)
33. A book involving travel - A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, Isabella Lucy Bird (9/9/24)
34. A book related to the name of one of Snow White's seven dwarfs - Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, Lisa Unger (7/30/24)
35. A science or science fiction book - The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin (10/28/24)

September
36. A book featuring a character in education - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark (9/30/24)
37. A book that is part of a series - Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (4/13/24)
38. Two books with similar covers: Book 1 - The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann (8/23/24)
39. Two books with similar covers: Book 2 - Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night, Julian Sancton (10/8/24)

October
40. A book involving a wild animal or endangered species, in the content, title, or on the cover - Endangered Species, Nevada Barr (9/22/24)
41. A book with a chilling atmosphere - Cold Skin, Albert Sánchez Piñol (11/28/24)
42. A book with a sound-related word in the title - Listen for the Lie, Amy Tintera (11/10/24)
43. A book by an Edgar Award-winning Author - The Betrayal (and the rest of the Fear Street saga), R.L. Stine (8/25/24)
44. A book with a touch of magic - Dragonfruit, Makiia Lucier (11/25/24)

November
45. A book that is not a novel - The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World, Shelley Puhak (11/10/24)
46. A book related to night
47. A book with a two-word title beginning with THE - The Searcher, Tana French (3/12/24)
48. A second book that fits your favorite prompt - Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon (12/15/24)

December
49. A book with a senior citizen character
50. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2023 or 2024 - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk (12/22/24)
51. A book published in 2024 - The House of Last Resort, Christopher Golden (9/1/24)
52. A cozy mystery - A Superior Death, Nevada Barr (8/11/24)

This week I finished The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante for prompt 2, "a book connected to something you read in 2023." I read the first three in this quartet last year. While I enjoyed the book and am glad I finished the series, somehow I found this final volume less vibrant than the others. I found myself increasing getting irritated by Elena rather than sympathizing with her. I will say that stories about motherhood generally do not resonate with me, so that could be the issue. The ending was also rather abrupt. Nevertheless, this was a fantastic series overall and I would certainly re-read it sometime.
Now on to Mother-Daughter Murder Night, which I am buddy reading with my mom!

Kelly--I appreciate your candid comments about the books you read. I think we have similar tastes.

EILEEN wrote: "Kelly--I appreciate your candid comments about the books you read. I think we have similar tastes."

I will have to go find your own ATY thread and take a look at it!

I finished two books during this spate of incredibly cold weather we are having here in Chicago. First, Mother-Daughter Murder Night. This was a fun little mystery, I enjoyed the unexpected land trust and preservation angle the story took--I think I was expecting something a little more salacious, idk why. The mother and daughter characters were both sympathetic and frustrating by turns, which was a good mix, but the granddaughter mostly felt superfluous after the first quarter of the book. Although there were several suspects with plausible motives, we got less background on them than I would've liked--but then I am someone who loves loooong books. Mom hasn't finished yet, so I'm still waiting to get her thoughts.
Wuthering Heights was a very pleasant surprise! Because of its age I thought the language might be a slog to get through, but it wasn't at all, this was a proper page-turner. There was even some unexpected comedy in the second half, with Linton's dramatic flopping around and whining and fainting, so that even Cathy though he was a sad sack by the end. I also loved how Ms Nelly consistently downplayed her meddling when in reality I'm sure she was 👀 🍿 the whole time.
Now on to The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, which is not my normal sort of thing at all, but I'm trying to be a little more thoughtful about my reading this year. It's been readable enough so far, we'll see if that continues! I must say, though, that I'm looking forward to February when I have some fantasy lined up.

Long time no post! My laptop was on the fritz so I couldn't log in to update my list. Then I randomly tried to turn it on again today and it worked, so 🤷🏻‍♀️ Saved me a trip to purgatory the Apple store. It's an Easter miracle!
All this to say I haven't done tons of reading in my time off, I've been too busy with Stardew Valley 1.6 and March Madness (Boiler up!), but I did get the following books read in the last two months:

The Old Capital
Gideon the Ninth
Starling House
Babel
The Searcher
The Hunter
Harrow the Ninth

All fell into the decent-to-very-good category. Nothing awful, nothing amazing. Gideon the Ninth stood out pretty solidly as my favorite.
Unfortunately, just due to circumstance, I didn't actually get any of the March prompts read. Rather than backtrack I'm going to start fresh in April, and hope I can fill in the March ones later in the year.

So I finished Nona the Ninth, was not impressed. Gideon the Ninth I really enjoyed, Harrow the Ninth dragged a little in the first half but the author (mostly) pulled it back in the second, but Nona... ugh. Initially I appreciated seeing the affect that the Houses & Lyctors have on regular people, but it just didn't go anywhere. John's sections were dull and confusing, I could never figure out who was still alive or not, and I couldn't consult a cast of characters or anything because I was reading on Kindle. That isn't the author's fault but it was a frustrating experience. I liked Nona's friends from school, but the narrative abandons them 3/4 of the way through to reintroduce us to people who were sort-of mentioned in the last book but that we don't really know or have a reason to care about. From what I'm hearing this was originally intended to be a trilogy, and in my opinion it should've stayed that way. I probably will not read the fourth.