The 52 Book Club: 2025 / 2026 Challenge discussion

WEEKLY CHECK-IN
June 18, 2025 -- Week 25

Who's a new-to-you author that you've discovered this year and would highly recommend to the rest of us?

Sad to say I don’t have any new-to-me authors that I liked enough to recommend. I mostly have been reading authors whose books I’ve read before & enjoyed.

Elif Shafak

I hadn't wanted to read any of her books as I felt they wouldn't be my thing, perhaps a little too much magical realism, too long winded, too 'literary'....

Then I listened to There Are Rivers in the Sky with a book group & was absolutely enthralled. I could not put it down, I dreaded finishing it (the ending is fine, I didn't want it to end!) & I think about it frequently. I used it for #14 climate fiction.

It's one of those books that I wish I could have the experience of listening to again for the first time, & I'm almost jealous of people who haven't yet read it.

It's the only book in many years that everyone in the book club loved - high praise indeed.

I'm going to savour her other books.

Ransom Riggs for sure! I finally read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children in January after years of putting it off due to a soft dnf in like 2016. I still have to finish that series, but I also read The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry and loved it!

New authors I’ve enjoyed and want to read more books from have been Carley Fortune and Charlotte McConaghy. And Suzanne Collins because I haven’t read the Hunger Games series until now.

Isabel Wilkerson author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Very well written and researched.

Adrienne wrote: "Isabel Wilkerson author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Very well written and researched."

That was a very thought-provoking book.

Stuart Turton! My book club read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and I loved the twisty plot. I'd never have picked it on my own, but I immediately put the rest of his books on my TBR

Adrienne wrote: "Isabel Wilkerson author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Very well written and researched."

Love her books!

For me that would be Tamora Pierce.

I read Alanna: The First Adventure for prompt 28. That was the first book of four. I read those in one holiday ;-)

For prompt 29 I will read Terrier

Jen wrote: "Elif Shafak

I hadn't wanted to read any of her books as I felt they wouldn't be my thing, perhaps a little too much magical realism, too long winded, too 'literary'....

Then I li..."
This book is on top of my TBR!

Eiren Caffall - I read All the Water in The World. While I took issue with some of the ways she got around food gathering (the ability to still find any canned goods for example) I thought she did a great job of building her dystopian world.

Jennifer Hillier

Liz Moore

Jen wrote: "Elif Shafak

I hadn't wanted to read any of her books as I felt they wouldn't be my thing, perhaps a little too much magical realism, too long winded, too 'literary'....

Then I li..."
I agree with your recommendation of Elif Shafak. This book was excellent!

Aside from Elif Shafak that I co-signed above, I would also add Karissa Chen (Homeseeking) and Michael Finkel for non-fiction (The Art Thief).