Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

2026 Rejected prompts - Awards and Lists challenge.

You are welcome to join me. You can do as few or as many as you like. Feel free to add to the list. We can share links and ideas.

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues - Dayton, Orwell, pulitzer.
Dayton Listopia:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Dayton: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
Orwell: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
I plan to read Martyr! in 2026 or sooner.
The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award
Dublin: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
Nominees page 3: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

3. A book that won an international literary award -international Booker, women’s prize Aspen, Pen.The Safekeep Enter Ghost, The Beekeeper of Aleppo

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026 - martyr, My Friends - Hisham Matar

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists . (The new list is expected in late November or early December.)
NPR: https://apps.npr.org/best-books
There Are Rivers in the Sky
Tell Me everything
Poor deer

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists
Land of big numbers
Help wanted
Stolen pride…
Anxious generation
He democracies die

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025.

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year. 2026 list in expected late November

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice. (I might use the Time100.).


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I’m also doing Dixie’s challenge and a few more.

Plus just for fun 🎶
A book suggested by one of the song titles from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

A book that deals with REM's It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine). (Light pirate would fit)

I will be doing:

1. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026

Possibly:

2. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year

3. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists

Well since I already have them in my humongous rejects challenge, I’ll do them all and show separately here. I had a funny feeling this was going to happen. Thanks!

0 / 10

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues - Dayton Peace Prize: The Underground Railroad
2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award: Apeirogon OR Arthur & George
3. A book that won an international literary award -Neustadt International Prize for Literature-2020: A Girl in Exile by Ismail Kadare
4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year: I Have Some Questions for You, 2023
5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026
6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists: The Vanishing Half
7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists: Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025: New York Times 100 Notable of 2024: Colored Television OR Wild Houses
9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice: PBS Great American Read: Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Awards and Lists Challenge
I'm also doing most of these in my Rejects Challenge. I'll record my possibilities here. ✅ = finished
0/10

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues (Poll 6)
There Are Rivers in the Sky- Elif Shafak (Orwell)
Dream Count - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Orwell)
The Colony - Audrey Magee (Orwell)
The Hours - Michael Cunningham (Pen/Faulkner)
Intimacies - Katie Kitamura (Pen/Faulkner)
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (Pen/Faulkner)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson (Anisfield-Wolf Book Award)
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr (Dayton Literary Peace Prize)
The Light Pirate - Lily Brooks-Dalton (Dayton Literary Peace Prize)
Go, Went, Gone- Jenny Erpenbeck (Dayton Literary Peace Prize)

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award (Poll 8)
https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-li...
North Woods- Daniel Mason (2025)
Apeirogon - Colum McCann (2021) (Booker Longlist)
The Spinning Heart - Donal Ryan (2014)
Brooklyn - Colm Toibin (2011)
Arthur & George - Sebastian Barry (2007)
The Master - Colm Toibin (2006)
Any Human Heart - William Boyd (2004)
Away - Jane Urquhart (1996)

18. A book that won an international literary award (Poll 15)
Goodreads Choice Awards
The Help - Kathryn Stockett (Fiction 2009)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - Susan Cain (Nonfic. 2012)
Truly Madly Guilty - Liane Moriarity (Fiction 2016)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin (Fiction 2022)
The Women - Kristen Hannah (Historical Fiction 2024)
The God of the Woods - Liz Moore (Mystery & Thriller 2024)

Women’s Prize for Fiction
The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obrecht (2011)
How to be Both - Ali Smith (2015)
The Power - Naomi Alderman (2017)
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke (2021)
The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki (2022)
Brotherless Night- V.V. Ganeshananthan (2024)

Nobel Prize for Literature
The Vegetarian - Han Kang

Aspen Words Literary Prize
The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri (2020)
The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich (2021)
Enter Ghost - Isabella Hammad (2024)

Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
The Years - Annie Ernaux (2019)
Kairos - Jenny Erpenbeck (2024)

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year (Poll 13)
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness - Jonathan Haidt (Winner, Nonfiction, 2024)
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore - Evan Friss (Winner, History & Biography, 2024)
Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age - Kathleen Sheppard (Nominee, History & Biography, 2024)
Poverty, by America - Matthew Desmond (Winner, Nonfiction, 2023)
The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obrecht (Nominee, Fiction, 2011)
Carrie Soto Is Back - Taylor Jenkins Reid (Winner, Historical Fiction, 2022)

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026 (Polls 15, 17, plus more)
Great Circle; Martyr!; Still Alice; Miss Morgan's Book Brigade; The Frozen River; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed; The Moor's Account; The Jackal's Mistress; The Elements; The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists (Poll 14)
Kantika - Elizabeth Graver (2023)
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett (2023)
North Woods - Daniel Mason (2023)
Brotherless Night - V.V. Ganeshananthan (2023)
This House Is Haunted- John Boyne (2013)
The Husbands - Holly Gramazio (2024)
Still Life with Remorse - Maira Kalman (graphic novel memoir) (2024)
Cloistered: My Years as a Nun - Catherine Coldstream (memoir) (2024)
Table for Two - Amor Towles (2024)
Adrift on a Painted Sea - Tim Bird, paintings by Sue Bird (art graphic novel) (2024)
There Are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Shafak (2024)

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists (Poll 12)
The God of the Woods; Martyr!; Poverty, by America; The Vaster Wilds; Cloud Cuckoo Land; American Spy; One Hundred Years of Solitude; Gilead

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025
New York Times 100 Notable Books 2024
All Fours; Good Material; Martyr!; The God of the Woods; Modern Poetry: Poems;
Be Ready When the Luck Happens; The Bluestockings: A History of the First Women's Movement
Barnes & Nobles Best Books of the Year 2025
Mona's Eyes; Guilty by Definition; Katabasis;History Matters

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year
Playground - Richard Powers
Beautyland - Marie-Helene Bertino
Snow Road Station - Elizabeth Hay
Search - Michelle Huneven
The Tsar of Love and Techno - Anthony Marra
Brooklyn - Colm Toibin
The Accidental - Ali Smith
The Husbands - Holly Gramazio
The Other Black Girl - Zakiya Dalila Harris
The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obrecht

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice
Full List of Booker Prize Winners, shortlisted and longlisted authors and their books
Flesh - David Szalay (Winner, 2025)
The Land in Winter - Andrew Miller (Shortlist 2025)
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead (Shortlist 2021)
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak (Shortlist 2019)
The Mars Room - Rachel Kushner (Shortlist 2018)
The Moor's Account- Laila Lalami (Longlist 2015)
The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt (Shortlist 2009)
NPR Books We Love
The Women - Kristin Hannah (2024)
Anita de Monte Laughs Last - Xochitl Gonzalez (2024)
The Bog Wife - Kay Chronister (2024)
The Power - Naomi Alderman (2017)

I like the book titles so far! I have a feeling some of the books from these lists will make it to the regular challenge

Awards and Lists Challenge 0/10

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues (Poll 6)
The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years (Dayton)

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award (Poll 8)
https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-li...
All the Lives We Never Lived

3. A book that won an international literary award (Poll 15)
The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
Three Summers

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year (Poll 13)
Crosstalk

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026 (Polls 15, 17, plus more)
Wild Dark Shore

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists (Poll 14)
The Stardust Grail

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists (Poll 12)
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025
The Bluestockings: A History of the First Women's Movement

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year
Playground

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice
Hugos
The Tainted Cup
Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories

My "just for fun" rejects will be
1. Name/nickname of a professional sports team (Poll 5)
Brentford FC "The Bees" The Bees

2. Two books, where the second book's title provides a response to or continuation of the first book's title (Poll 4)
Zorba the Greek Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli

3. A book that is related to one of the group’s moderators (Poll 3)
Jackie H20: A Biography of Water
Robin: Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist
Pamela: The Great Big Book of Museums: A visit to 13 spectacular museums from around the world
Trish: London Orbital
Emily: All Our Wrong Todays

Thank you for sorting this one, Nancy. I don't read separately for Reject challenges, unless I'm truly stuck; I like to see what I have planned for ATY anyway that fits.

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues
Smoke and Ashes: A Writer's Journey through Opium's Hidden Histories [British Academy Book Prize 2024]

2. A book long-listed for a Dublin Literary Award
Stone Yard Devotional
(as it's a reject challenge, I've cheated a bit)

3. A book that won an international literary award
Question 7 [2024 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger]

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year
The God of the Woods [2024]

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Book of the Month threads in 2025/6
Sandwich [9/2025]

6 A book from the NPR ‘We Love Books’ list
The City and Its Uncertain Walls [2024]

7 A book on one of Obama’s reading lists
Black Cake [2022]

8 A book listed in any best books list of 2024/5
Caledonian Road [Waterstones Best Books of 2024]

9 A book long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year
Margo's Got Money Troubles [2025]

10 A book from any widely accepted list of your choice
Moon Tiger [Booker prize winners]

NancyJ’s list

2026 Rejected prompts - Awards and Lists challenge.

You are welcome to join me. You can do as few or as many as you like. Feel free to add to the list. We can share links and ideas.

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues - Dayton, Orwell, pulitzer.
Dayton Listopia:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Dayton: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
Orwell: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
I plan to read Martyr! in 2026 or sooner.
The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award
Dublin: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
Nominees page 3: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

3. A book that won an international literary award -international Booker, women’s prize Aspen, Pen.The Safekeep Enter Ghost, The Beekeeper of Aleppo

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026 - martyr, My Friends - Hisham Matar

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists . (The new list is expected in late November or early December.)
NPR: https://apps.npr.org/best-books
There Are Rivers in the Sky
Tell Me everything
Poor deer

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists
Land of big numbers
Help wanted
Stolen pride…
Anxious generation
He democracies die

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025.

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year. 2026 list in expected late November

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice. (I might use the Time100.).


=====
I’m also doing Dixie’s challenge and a few more.

Plus just for fun 🎶
A book suggested by one of the song titles from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

A book that deals with REM's It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine). (Light pirate would fit)

NancyJ, your Message 1 showed up again at Message 8, unless there's a difference I'm not seeing and you want them both here.

I'm going to set this up a as a challenge that overlaps with my ATY52 challenge.

Completed: 0/10

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues - Dayton, Orwell, Pulitzer.
Dayton:
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (2025)
The Women by Kristin Hannah (2025)

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 92013)
A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk (2017)
Apeirogon by Colum McCann (2021) (2011)
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Away by Jane Urquhart (1996)

3. A book that won an international literary award -Booker, Dublin, others
International Booker Prize 2024- Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year
2024:
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
Playground by Richard Powers
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
Long Island by Colm Tóibín (Book 2. Read Brooklyn first)

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026
Jan-June 2025 posts:
The Ladies' Paradise, Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780, The Women, A Room with a View, The Auschwitz Photographer: The Forgotten Story of the WWII Prisoner Who Documented Thousands of Lost Souls (doublecheck the entry in May. More than one book with this name), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Playground, My Friends by Fredrik Backman, Death of the Author

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists .

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025.

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year.

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice
Ties by Domenico Starnone - Winner of the 2015 Bridge Prize for Best Novel