Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week, we are reading books that are set either underground, undersea, or in the underworld, either physically or metaphorically.

Some ideas to start your search:
Underground: Could be nature, caving, and other exploration, books set on underground transport systems, resistance groups, underground railroad
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

Undersea: Climate emergency, wrecks, fantasy worlds, submarines.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Underworld: Myth and legend, fairy worlds, or completely different, the criminal underworld, or the underworld of poverty
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
https://crimereads.com/new-york-under...
https://explorethearchive.com/organiz...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

What are you reading this week and where is it set?

I've found 2 middle grade books that look really good, but I'll keep an eye here for adult books.

Boy underground set under Paris

The Fort set in an old bomb shelter

I have about 9 contenders at the moment, but the three that are of primary interest are:

Underland: A Deep Time Journey (I can't explain this one, but the premise includes this: 'an epic exploration of the Earth’s underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself.')


The Truffle Underground: A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus (both that truffles grow underground and that the business of truffles is sort of a blackmarket "underbelly" of business.)


Ursula, Under (Been trying to get to this for 2-3 years. The "under" part is that a little girl falls down a mineshaft.) This is the one I'm most drawn to at the moment

I’m going to read Wool by Hugh Howey, in which people live underground in a silo.

Tracy wrote: "I have about 9 contenders at the moment, but the three that are of primary interest are:

Underland: A Deep Time Journey (I can't explain this one, but the premise includes this: 'a..."

I recommend sampling this book before you decide. I tried to read it last year but I just could not get into the writing style. Maybe it was the audio, but my reaction was so strong I wasn’t willing to give it even 10 more minutes. Maybe I’ll try it again, because it sounds great.

I want to read something about the deep ocean, with a focus on animals. There are so many possibilities, but here are some I’m considering. Feedback is very welcome.

Fiction
✅Playground by Richard Powers (I doubt I can wait for 2025)
✅The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor
✅Pod by Laline Paul

Nonfiction
Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins by Susan Casey
The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey
What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean by Helen Scales
The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
Deep Water: The World in the Ocean by James Bradley
The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works by Helen Czerski
The Lost Whale: The True Story of an Orca Named Luna
Emperors of the Deep: Sharks--The Ocean's Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians

The Underground Library - Jennifer Ryan
Murder Underground - Mavis Doriel Hay
One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston

My tentative choices are
Ground: Underland: A Deep Time Journey
Sea: What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
World: Little, Big

dalex wrote: "I’m going to read Wool by Hugh Howey, in which people live underground in a silo."

That sounds interesting.

I might do The Pit and the Pendulum

I spotted this book at Fabled Bookshop last year, and it looks great. It fits the underground option.

Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City by Andrew Lawler

Wool is really great, and I liked Underland pretty well. I’ve got a range of options, from literal (Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures) to deep ocean ( The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean) to the mythological underworld (Katabasis).

I'm intrigued by Coup de Grâce set entirely in an underground station, and I also have One Last Stop on my TBR. And then there's Katabasis for underworld. I'm on the fence about reading A Letter from the Lonesome Shore. The formal epistolary format of the first was a bit much for the whole book, but if it diverges from that I'm interested enough in carrying on the story. A Letter to the Luminous Deep was almost entirely from underwater settings.

Another Underland: A Deep Time Journey here, but also What Belongs to You, which features an underground toilet, but also the underground life of being a homosexual in an unaccepting world.

Charlsa wrote: "dalex wrote: "I’m going to read Wool by Hugh Howey, in which people live underground in a silo."

That sounds interesting."

Chrissy wrote: "Wool is really great."

I’ve owned the series for awhile and I’m glad this prompt is making me push it onto the To Read Pile.

Happy to hear you enjoyed it Chrissy!

I've gone for Midnight, Water City by Chris McKinney, a murder mystery in a city under the sea.

One of these. Probably Mira Grant's.

I have The Underground Railroad or Underground Airlines so they are the most likely choices

My current thought is Journey to the Center of the Earth.

I found The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives which sounds interesting.

I will say that I tried to do a rewatch of the first season of Silo (based on Wool) in advance of season 2 release, but it was too stressful and dark for right now.

For now, I’ve slotted My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor into this spot. It’s the first of a promised trilogy based on a true story of a priest in the Vatican who smuggles Jews out of Italy during WWII. It likely will fit the idea of a metaphorical underground.

NancyJ wrote: "I want to read something about the deep ocean, with a focus on animals. There are so many possibilities, but here are some I’m considering. Feedback is very welcome.

Fiction
[book:Playground|2054..."

i couldnt get into playground gav up at about page 30

i have this Water Moon

i think the description "Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds."

might suggest an underworld

I will be reading The Thieves' Opera by Lucy Moore. It is a true story set in the London underworld of the early 18th century.

I suggest
20 Minutes On The Tube by Daniel Hurst

First book in an addictive series (I just finished #18)

I read Coup de Grâce set in a subway station

I read Safe at the Edge of the World by Jean Grainger. Part of the Tour series, it deals with the criminal underworld but from the perspective of a man on the verge of leaving the priesthood. I love Jean Grainger and this book had her customary warmth as well as compassionate insight into people who are pulled between two worlds.

I read:
Blood of the Sons: A Mafia Crime Thriller by Vincent B Davis II

Setting: Criminal underworld of the 1930's

REJECT: A book related to blood, sweat, or tears

Finished: 01/11/2025
Rating: 3 stars

A very good book, but lots of typos, which are a distraction. 2nd book in the series. Hopefully, there will be a #3.

Debating ..
&
,.. both have been on my TBR forever!
This would make a good side challenge, so might look for a undersea as well and do all three??

I read by Richard Wright. Highly recommend. Did you know Harper declined to publish when Richard Wright offered it the full novel in 1942? Much shorter versions were published later, but according to the notes were quite different from the full novel.

Dominant setting: a sewer
Finished: 1.19.2025
5+ stars

I read Startide Rising by David Brin for this topic. It is futuristic sf where undersea cities are inhabited ( Read Jan 23;3*)

I am planning on reading A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St. Clair for this prompt. This is the third book (sort of) of this series (Hades and Persephone), and it is set in the mythological underworld.

I read The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See.

WARNING: This book contains graphic violence, multiple child deaths (one of them graphic), and a graphic depiction of SA. Do not read if you're sensitive to violence, child death, or SA.

In fact, I'd argue you need a strong stomach to get through this book. I think I mixed up this book and To the Lighthouse in my head. I started both around the same time and this one caught my interest more. I say this because I thought that The Island of Sea Women jumped over the WWII bits and Korean war bits, just showing Young-sook and Mi-ja's lives as kids and their lives as older women. It does not skip the war. At all.

In fact, through the lens of the book, (view spoiler)[you witness the Bukchon massacre, a tragedy in which the army rounded up an entire village and shot between 300 to 400 people. During that massacre, the narrator sees her child brutally killed in front of her and her friend / sister-in-law, who has a mental disability, is raped and her breasts are cut off. She also loses her husband to the massacre. (hide spoiler)] If you didn't read the spoiler, just know that some very dark stuff happens. There are multiple deaths starting very early in the book and violence is everywhere. This includes all the tragedy that comes with being a haenyeo -- women divers who risk their lives every day in the ocean to feed their families. If you're sensitive to drowning, just walk away.

That being said, it's well written. You'll find yourself sympathizing with Young-sook and on the edge of your seat about what happens to her next. If you want something that's intense and doesn't shy away from the darker stuff, this is the book for you. If you're very into Korean culture and ok with violence and dark subject matter, then I highly recommend this.

I do not recommend this if you thought, as I did, that this would be an interesting look at haenyeo and their culture without much of a war focus. It does have that aspect early on, but I'd say the culture is about a third (maybe a fourth?) of the book and the rest is war.

@NancyJ Thank you so much for listing Playground by Richard Powers. Wow. I was a bit hesitant bc I didn't love the second half of Overstory, but MAN. I'm already looking forward to re-reading and I'm not typically a re-reader.

I read A Letter to the Luminous Deep for this one (set under the ocean). A very charming, original book, I enjoyed it a lot - can't wait for the sequel, which comes out this spring!

Tracy wrote: "I have about 9 contenders at the moment, but the three that are of primary interest are:

Underland: A Deep Time Journey (I can't explain this one, but the premise includes this: 'a..."

Thanks for reminding me about this one. It's been on the TBR for a while.

It may be that or either Underground London or London Underground's Strangest Tales: Extraordinary but True Stories

I wondered about 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other Classic Novels but it looks longer than I expected.

I read Dark Dive by Andrew Mayne. Much of the book deals with underwater cave diving in a hunt for a missing man.

What about under a lake? I’m currently reading A House At The Bottom of a Lake.

I finished The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan.

Erica wrote: "What about under a lake? I’m currently reading A House At The Bottom of a Lake."

I'd say "under a lake" works, Erica.

I'm planning on The Rooster Bar by John Grisham. Topic is Underworld.

I’m using Pod by Laline Paull for this prompt. I also read Playground, which also fits other prompts.

I re-read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. (fantasy underworld)

A Letter to the Luminous Deep
5⭐
Underwater
I love the cover on this book.

The classic: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other Classic Novels by Jules Verne or his Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Majority of the great thriller The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy are on submarines at sea.

Also Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield is modern gothic but also a beautiful love story and in part under the sea.

I am starting the year mood reading from my TBR, and I am pretty sure The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea will count? I just got it off hold from my library.

Another one that would work well for this prompt is Sphere by Michael Crichton. I really enjoyed it.

I read Underland: A Deep Time Journey, which also had a bit of undersea as well in the shape of maelstroms. A very poetic piece of non-fiction which explored limestone caves, the Paris catacombs, Greenland ice, and a Finnish storage chamber for nuclear waste. Some beautiful writing, but some of it left me feeling very claustrophobic.

My 2016 read was A Country Road, A Tree is the story of Beckett's life in France during World War II, where he works 'underground' for the Resistance in Paris and southern France. I've read Longbourn, also writtten by Jo Baker, which was good, but I thought this book was better, with wonderful descriptions.