Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

For those of you who have been around for the voting portion of our year, you know we have a beloved Wild Discussion thread that gets thousands of comments over the course of voting.

This is your 2025 year-round Wild Discussion! It can be prompt brainstorming, chatting about life, and catching up with other group members. Use this as a space to hang out.

As always, please be respectful of all group members, and assume good intent.

Emily, thanks for creating this thread!

I’ve become hyper focused on reading the short list for ToB, which has helped me get out of my fall reading slump. I do best getting out of my comfort zone when in a slump.

I miss the wild discussion from the voting time, although of course. I didn't have time to post in it for the latter part of voting. It's nearly time to start our new list :)!

Not sure if this goes here - but I want to know how other members tackle books from prompts they couldn't finish in the previous year's challenge?
I couldn't complete the 2024 challenge and have 7 books from it left.
I can't decide if I should try to use them in the 2025 challenge prompts, or read them separate from the 2025 prompts (so I'm completing the left over of 2024 and not including them in 2025 challenge), or just forget about them altogether and start afresh. (If something I want to read fits, I'll add it. And if it doesn't, I'll shelve it in my TBR)

I'm curious as to how other tackle this!

Starry wrote: "Not sure if this goes here - but I want to know how other members tackle books from prompts they couldn't finish in the previous year's challenge?
I couldn't complete the 2024 challenge and have 7 ..."

I’ve always finished this challenge, but there are other challenges I didn’t finish within the schedule time. If it was a challenge I wanted to finish then I finished it and ignored the original time. For the challenges I was no longer interested in, I called them done.

I think, it also depends on why you didn’t finish for what you might want to do going forward. If you read around 52 books or less a year you could count a book read this year towards both the ATY ‘24 and ‘25 challenge. If you weren’t interested in the prompts you didn’t finish then I’d call it done or just completely the ones your interest in.

Starry wrote: "Not sure if this goes here - but I want to know how other members tackle books from prompts they couldn't finish in the previous year's challenge?
I couldn't complete the 2024 challenge and have 7 ..."

The first two years I was here I did not finish. I just started fresh the next year. I think I used some of the books I was going to use in the previous challenges for the new year's challenge.

I'd probably end up double dipping - counting a book for both a 2024 prompt and a 2025 prompt - if I was someone who read around 52 books in a year and needed all the books to count for this year.

As I generally read around 100 a year, I'd probably just finish 2024 before moving to 2025, since I know I would have the flexibility.

I would say let them go! If they are books you WANT to read, keep them on your TBR and work them in. But you shouldn’t feel obligated to read them!

I have been able to finish every year, but I’m nervous about this year. I’m shooting for the full 62, but I recently took over a self-contained special education classroom when the teacher resigned with two days notice. I’m not always great at work/life balance. I’m hoping I can keep my reading a priority because it is a bucket filler for me!

I don't stick to what books I've decided so if I have prompts left over, I just figure I'll get to them when I can. For every book I read, I first look at whether it fulfils a prompt from one of this year's challenges, then, if it doesn't, go back through the years until I find an open prompt it matches. So I figure I'll get to the missed stuff eventually.

I'm thrilled to see this thread!

I'm in the last few days of a 16 day winter break. I work in the theater department of a liberal arts college, and one of the perks is a long winter break and summers off! I've had loads of time for all my hobbies (including reading) and spending time with friends. A group of us go to an AirBnB for several days every winter break and it's endless debauchery, laziness, and shenanigans. Ha. On Monday I go back to being adult.

dalex, I'm incredibly jealous. I am buddy reading an ARC of Fredrik Backman's new book right now with some teacher friends, and since I'm no longer a teacher, I am currently at work while they are all at home blowing through it. Trying to remind myself that if what I miss most about teaching are all the days off, it was probably a good time for a job switch for me lol.

I'm very impressed by the amount of reading some of our members do while working and often raising kids or dealing with other family responsibilities.

Being retired is THE BEST! I mostly liked my jobs over the years, but not having to do something at a certain time or in a certain way is terrific. My reading more than doubled once I retired.

Of course, I always wonder how much more I could read if I spent less time on GR!

Emily wrote: "dalex, I'm incredibly jealous. I am buddy reading an ARC of Fredrik Backman's new book right now with some teacher friends, and since I'm no longer a teacher, I am currently at work while they are ..."

Haha! I love my job but it is very busy and time consuming, especially when we’re running three shows in one weekend! I often work 10-12 days without a day off (and no overtime pay) and life is pretty much nothing but work and sleep.

100% agree, Robin! This is year 3 of retirement for me and now reading is a priority. My job included a lot of reading - but nothing I got to choose. I no longer have to push my reading down below food prep, housework and other obligatory chores.

Robin P wrote: "I'm very impressed by the amount of reading some of our members do while working and often raising kids or dealing with other family responsibilities.

Being retired is THE BEST! I mostly liked my ..."

I participate in several big challenges and try to cross plan books to make it easier. If I have not finished a challenge, I will, if possible, plan the unread books for other challenges to help me complete the leftover books.

Could the mods reorganize the folders so 2025 is closer to the top?

Right now Weekly Topics 2024 and 2024 plans are the 3rd and 4th folders. While the 2025 folders start at the 6th place.

Thanks for considering.

Did it this morning before checking my notifications! Thanks for pointing it out!

Hi, everyone

I can't find the 10 year anniversary challenge. I mean I know the prompts but I can't find the thread where we shall post our reading lists.

Nike wrote: "Hi, everyone

I can't find the 10 year anniversary challenge. I mean I know the prompts but I can't find the thread where we shall post our reading lists."

I don't think we have a separate one. I just added to the end of my thread where I am tracking the 52 regular books. - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Robin P wrote: "Nike wrote: "Hi, everyone

I can't find the 10 year anniversary challenge. I mean I know the prompts but I can't find the thread where we shall post our reading lists."

I don't think we have a se..."

Aha, then I get why I can't find it! Thank you ◉⁠‿⁠◉

Nike, the anniversary lists are in the same thread with the yearly one. Both are using the same thread.

I'm not sure if this is the place, but I have a serious question about triggers in books and completing this challenge.

If I'm not in the right place to ask those questions, please let me know so I can move to the correct discussion.

Alistair wrote: "I'm not sure if this is the place, but I have a serious question about triggers in books and completing this challenge.

If I'm not in the right place to ask those questions, please let me know so ..."

You can ask your question here and we can try and answer it. This group is very flexible with each member personalizing their reading challenge.

Alistair wrote: "I'm not sure if this is the place, but I have a serious question about triggers in books and completing this challenge.

If I'm not in the right place to ask those questions, please let me know so ..."

This thread is fine. If there are prompts that seem like they are disturbing, we can probably offer creative ways to fulfill them. In ATY the rule is, "if you say it fits, it fits." For example if "a monster book" sounds like it has to be horror and someone doesn't read that genre, it could be interpreted as a long book, or a dense book that is challenging to read.

If you have specific books in mind but aren't sure if they have triggering content, people here might have read them and be able to answer.

There is also the Wild Card option for a prompt that just doesn't work at all for you. The point of ATY is to read books you want to read and will enjoy.

Robin P wrote: "Alistair wrote: "I'm not sure if this is the place, but I have a serious question about triggers in books and completing this challenge.

If I'm not in the right place to ask those questions, pleas..."

Well, this has partly answered my question already, but I'll go into a bit more detail. I can't read anything with SA or attempted SA. I just finished Dawn by Octavia E. Butler (originally for the women in sci-fi prompt and then for the "noun in the name" prompt). It turns out there's a lot of attempted SA in the final chapters of that book. (And I would argue a successful version at one point. "Your body said yes" is not a valid response to anyone saying "no," even if the person who said "no" is a man. I guess "men can't be r*ped" was the accepted line of thought in the 80's since the aggressor is never called out for their assault and is portrayed throughout the rest of the book as a force for good.)

Shaken, I tried to look through the listopedia books for different prompts and ran them through triggerwarningdatabase.com. Almost every book that was well recommended came back with a warning for SA, attempted SA, or graphically described SA.

Now, I'm at my wit's end. Particularly for things like "NPR Books We Love" and other prompts that involve the validation of critics or other people, it seems like so many of them have an SA aspect to them. I don't want to skip those prompts because it seems like part of the fun of the challenge is to read things that you wouldn't normally pick up. That being said, I can't take another surprise SA scene or even one I know about and have to grit my teeth through.

Any thoughts?

By the way, for those less sensitive to SA, I highly recommend Dawn. It's a magnificent story to the point where I arguably missed a few signposts that I should stop reading because I was so invested.

I just looked through the NPR list. There are several books by Emily Henry, which are humorous romances. Also, A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a totally gentle story. The Martian is mostly one guy on his own, so no problem. Search is a satire of committee work. Tress of the Emerald Sea is more like the movie of The Princess Bride, than the book of Princess Bride is!

Then there are nonfiction books, like The Library Book, Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, and Becoming.

You are totally right, though, that so many lauded books are about dysfunctional families, mental illness, war, oppression of minorities, and other grim topics. That can lead to "The Book Club Blues", getting depressed after reading a bunch of them in a row.

For the NPR list, there are a bunch of cookbooks and picture books Chrissy Teigen's Cravings: Hungry for More has a lot more than just recipes and Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes is half memoir half cookbook.

If you want SFF - The Starless Sea & All Systems Red are both books I would rec.

Kendra wrote: "For the NPR list, there are a bunch of cookbooks and picture books Chrissy Teigen's Cravings: Hungry for More has a lot more than just recipes and [book:Cook Korea..."

Yes, I adore Murderbot from the series that starts with All Systems Red, but it took me a couple of books to get into it- and there is some violence, mainly offstage and not particularly targeted towards women.

Such a good point, Alistair, and one I have struggled with for years.
After being assaulted myself, all I wanted to do was sit alone and read. But I quickly found that I couldn’t read anything but cookbooks and children's lit.
I don't have suggestions for you but I understand the incredible frustration at the prevalence of SA in adult fiction and how lightly/unseriously the topic is addressed.
It sickens me.


Alistair wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Alistair wrote: "I'm not sure if this is the place, but I have a serious question about triggers in books and completing this challenge.

If I'm not in the right place to ask those ..."

Martha☀ wrote: "Such a good point, Alistair, and one I have struggled with for years.
After being assaulted myself, all I wanted to do was sit alone and read. But I quickly found that I couldn’t read anything but..."

Thank you. Books have been a refuge for so much of my life, and then my assault happened. I went through a similar thing. Suddenly, I couldn't read anything other than children's books and some select YA. (I've never read cookbooks so much as flipped through them for what I need or I'd probably have turned to those as well.) If I tried reading anything else, there'd be some scene or something a character said and I'd end up flashing back. I felt like such a wimp. This used to bring me joy! Why couldn't I just be a man and plow through it?

I'm working on it, but I highly doubt I'll ever be able to read about violence and assault without some part of me going back to that day. I'm... Well, "glad" isn't exactly the right word. I wish this didn't happen to anyone. I find some solace in the idea that I'm not alone in having to dodge SA in books. I just get so damn tired, you know?

StoryGraph lists content warnings for books. They can be added by the author or readers. I'm sorry this is an issue for you, Alistair.

I want to acknowledge your courage in sharing this with us, Alistair!

My daughter fought cancer for 3 years and eventually lost the fight. During that time and even today, I don't want to read anything featuring cancer. Of course, you don't always know when it will come up, but for instance, I started the book Crying in H Mart but when I realized what it was about, I just couldn't.

I also can't read about torture and other extreme cruelty. I have quit some books in the middle because of this. I am fortunate to have had a sheltered life, so it's not that this happened to me, I just can't deal with it.

We have people in the group who can't read anything about children in danger or hurt, and animals being hurt or killed. It's fortunate that there are websites that will tell you about various triggers.

Romances have changed a lot. In the '70's, the idea that a woman would fall for a forceful man who didn't have her consent (for instance a pirate, cowboy, knight who kidnaps her) was supposedly romantic, now it's disturbing.

You could try the recent boom in Japanese Lit - they do deal with death and illness so you'll probably need tissues, but generally no violence or SA.

The Housekeeper and the Professor
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
The Travelling Cat Chronicles
Mina's Matchbox - I'm pretty sure this was a NPR book.

And if you want a rec for any other specific topics, feel free to ask! I'm sure between us all, we can come up with some safe options.

Robin P wrote: "I want to acknowledge your courage in sharing this with us, Alistair!

My daughter fought cancer for 3 years and eventually lost the fight. During that time and even today, I don't want to read any..."

I'm so sorry, Robin. So many books use cancer as a tension device for their plots partially because it has affected so many real people. I'm glad you have the courage to know what your hard boundaries are and can just walk away. Drawing that line is what I'm fighting with currently with the SA issue. (And not being surprised by it like you were with the cancer in Crying in H Mart.)

For anyone else with this problem, a friend of mine recommended:
https://triggerwarningdatabase.com
https://booktriggerwarnings.com

They don't have every book listed, but between the two sites they have a lot of them.

And thank you. I may ask in here or wherever is most appropriate if a book I've found is SA free if I can't find it on any lists. I find some authors like to get dodgy about triggers because they fear listing them will spoil the plot. I always want to respond: "If you wrote something so flimsy that you need the surprise of a triggering subject to make your plot work, you need to go back to the drawing board."

Your courage is commendable, Alistair. In addition to the above comments, I would add that you can ask for help in the individual topic threads; particularly if one or two are being especially hard to fill! You could either ask for recommendations of books that don't contain SA, or say, 'hey, I'm thinking of reading X for this prompt, does anyone know if it has SA in it?' (if you haven't been able to find out in other ways). I hope you find many enjoyable books to read for the challenge! :)

dalex wrote: "StoryGraph lists content warnings for books. They can be added by the author or readers. I'm sorry this is an issue for you, Alistair."

Thank you for this! I just looked up some of the books I'd planned on reading. Turns out Daughter of the Moon Goddess has some SA in it. I was a third of the way into that one! It's listed as "minor" so I might be able to handle it after the shock from Dawn has worn off, but that was going to be an awful surprise for me if I hadn't run it through StoryGraph!

Edit: And so does Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?. Two mines dodged. Thank you so much!

Edit after the edit: And The Unbearable Lightness of Being. That one I'd looked up on other lists and I read the plot summary for it. They all said no SA. Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative apparently has a graphic instance of SA in it. I was going to start that one today.

I may have to go do something else for a bit. Four of my books had landmines in them.

Alistair wrote: "By the way, for those less sensitive to SA, I highly recommend Dawn. It's a magnificent story to the point where I arguably missed a few signposts that I should stop reading because I was so invested."

I haven't read Dawn but I couldn't finish Kindred because of the horrors of slavery, or Parable of the Sower because it was so bleak. Then I gave up on her. I know it's important for us to understand the bad behavior of the past, but it was just too hard for me. I also can't read anymore books about Nazis.

Alistair wrote: "Martha☀ wrote: "Such a good point, Alistair, and one I have struggled with for years.
After being assaulted myself, all I wanted to do was sit alone and read. But I quickly found that I couldn’t r..."

I owe you an apology, Alistair, or at least a confession of my unconscious bias. Our group is overwhelmingly female and the topic led me to assume a gender for you (names on GR can of course be anything), which plays into the assumption that "this can't happen to men". I'm not great with details and jumped in before reading your earlier posts carefully. I probably also assumed that only women would share their personal feelings.

Robin P wrote: "Alistair wrote: "Martha☀ wrote: "Such a good point, Alistair, and one I have struggled with for years.
After being assaulted myself, all I wanted to do was sit alone and read. But I quickly found ..."

I get it. Not a lot of guys talk about SA. I probably wouldn't either if you had my first and last name.

Honestly, what you're probably sensing is the Queer. I'm bi, but of the sort that everyone around me goes "You like women?" I'm also exactly as butch as Aziraphale in the "Good Omens" mini series, which is to say, not very butch at all. Since I long ago gave up the idea of being a true "man's man," I do things that are unexpected of men like sharing personal feelings or asking for help in tough situations. And I talk a lot, as is evidenced by this whole conversation.

That being said, thank you for the apology. I admit my hackles did start to go up a little when people started referencing "violence against women" as though that were the issue I was talking about. SA happens to men too and, unfortunately, the risk is higher for those of us who are "gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide" (Good Omens 194).

There are many books out there with no SA, but it's quite common in many of the best books list. Sadly, most people don't put trigger warnings in their reviews. Also, you can read a funny children's book about monsters if you like kids' picture books if you want to take it more literally.

I won't read Octavia Butler anymore because her books are so very dark despite her excellent writing. I've had enough of that and primarily read to escape stress. This is one of the reasons why I've recently stopped playing reading games and do flexible challenges such as this one.

More press is given to SA against women since it happens more often, but of course it doesn't only happen to women.

I'll take monsters very figuratively when that time comes, along with a few of the other prompts I didn't vote for.

The weekly topics 2025 category is a good place to ask for recommendations. If you're looking for something to fit a particular prompt ask in that prompt's discusion with whatever limits you are looking for. I've gotten some very creative suggestions when I ask for a nonfiction book for a fiction prompt. I'm sure someone can come up with something not containing SA.

I'm reading what will probably be my first 5 star read since late November. When I was only about 5% in I already loved the characters and the tone of the book. Now I'm actually happy that I found out that the page count in Goodreads is off. I was expecting a book just over 400 pages, but happily it's almost 600 pages in reality!

I'm reading Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. I read her Dear Edward last year and really enjoyed that as well. This will be for the 2 week prompt, "Two books with a pair of opposites in their titles". I'm pairing it with Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

Tracy, I like that opposites pairing!

Thanks Emily!

Alistair wrote: "Honestly, what you're probably sensing is the Queer. I'm bi, but of the sort that everyone around me goes "You like women?" I'm also exactly as butch as Aziraphale in the "Good Omens" mini series, which is to say, not very butch at all. Since I long ago gave up the idea of being a true "man's man," I do things that are unexpected of men like sharing personal feelings or asking for help in tough situations. And I talk a lot, as is evidenced by this whole conversation."

Alistair - thank you for your bravery. My former partner/current roommate is pan, and he receives the exact opposite reaction you do when people find out, he gets the "you like men/trans???" questions. He, too, suffered through SA, and is one of the few "manly men" I have ever met who will talk about it and speak up about men's experiences in working through the trauma.

I'm glad you have opened up, and I am truly happy to see everyone's kind responses to you as well.

Do we know when the first read-a-thon will be? I think it's usually in February...??

It will be end of February/beginning of March! Exact dates will be announced in the February newsletter.

Yay! Thanks!