The 52 Book Club: 2025 / 2026 Challenge discussion

Note: this challenge must be completed in order

12) Non-fiction inspired by something in previous book: The only requirement for this prompt is that it must be non-fiction (based on facts, real events, real people, etc) and be inspired by your previous read. This may be related to an event that occurred in your previous book, a historical character mentioned, the setting, something the character experienced, a fact you learned, etc.

Books chosen for this prompt may be any genre of non-fiction (history, biography, true crime, self-help, travel, etc.) and may be any length.

Sample Challenge: My previous book featured WWII and female resistance spies working in France. So, for this prompt, I’ll choose The Last Secret Agent: My Life as a Spy Behind Nazi Lines by Pippa Latour, a non-fiction memoir featuring Pippa’s time as a female operative in France in WWII.

For prompt #11 I chose Världens sju underverk by Dick Harrison, and for prompt #12 Egyptens pyramider by the same author.

Previous Book: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Current Book: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
Inspiration: Space and Astronauts

Previous Prompt: Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

This Prompt: How To Be A Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals

Voyage of the Damned is a fantasy book about a place that is split into 12 provinces all named for animals. There are mentions of traits the heirs of those provinces have in common with their animal. So a memoir that used 13 animals in the author's life that taught her lessons - I thought was a good match.

My previous book was The Most Dangerous Animal of All. I didn't want to read another book about the Zodiac killer, so I decided to read Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II by Liza Mundy, since the Zodiac was known for his coded messages.

Both books cover social and economic disparity.

Last book: Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations by Arnold van de Laar - 8/12/25.
Current book: The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura - 8/24/25.
Both books are about the history of medicine.