Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Bimillah! Today we are singing, oops reading, books that are related to one of the most banned karaoke songs of all time.

If you need them. here's the lyrics https://genius.com/Queen-bohemian-rha...

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

What are you reading this week and what is the link? Did the song get in your head while you planned it?

I'll probably read Oliver Twist.
"I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me..."

I'm using this for a fantasy book ("Is this just fantasy?"). Some of my current options:

King Sorrow
The Color of Magic
Prince Caspian
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
His Majesty's Dragon

I'm using Rhapsody In Green and Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Thankfully this song wasn't in my head while I planned - I don't like Queen and really don't like this song (though not as much as I hate Radio Ga Ga!).

I am happy with my connection though. Fandango is the movie listings website I use when I visit the US, so I decided to choose a book that was being released as a film in 2026, and to read it when the film is released, as if I looked on the website for something to watch. I don't have many books on my TBR that have definite movie release dates yet, People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry will be out on 9 January, so that's my pick for this prompt.

I don't care for the song either, it's not melodic and the words are grim. But there is lots of scope for "related" books.

Scaramouche is a classic adventure book sort of like The Three Musketeers or The Scarlet Pimpernel.

The first line says, Is this just fantasy? So you could read any fantasy book.

Thunder and lightning - lightning on the cover

Any book with Queen in the title

I will probably read a fantasy, too. I’m new to the genre but I’m thinking about

Six of Crows / Crooked Kingdom #1-2 or

The Everlasting

I'm thinking of connecting to "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me" by reading The Devil's Rose by Brom - I read Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery this year and loved it, been meaning to get back to this author!

I've enjoyed Sujata Massey and her Perveen Mistry series, I'm reading next year's release, The Star from Calcutta.

I have been searching for possible books for ATY on my own book shelves. I came across The First Fig Tree. I am wondering if it would work.

Bea wrote: "I have been searching for possible books for ATY on my own book shelves. I came across The First Fig Tree. I am wondering if it would work."

I don't see how that would fit, unfortunately. But I noticed in your Wild Discussion post that you like fantasy? The first lines of Bohemian Rhapsody are: "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?", so any fantasy book would work!

Dixie wrote: "Bea wrote: "I have been searching for possible books for ATY on my own book shelves. I came across The First Fig Tree. I am wondering if it would work."

I don't see how that would f..."

Thanks, Dixie.

I was confused as to how this would work, but seeing as how we can go based off the lyrics that certainly helps.

Here's what I'm going with then.

"Any way the wind blows (Ooh, the wind blows)"

The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind

I have to say, I don't love the connected to a song prompts (and I'm not sure why we seem to feel the need to have one every year).

But I really really love all the different directions people are taking with the interpretation of this one, it's a lot of fun and makes me think it won't be that hard to fill.

As a fantasy reader the 'Is this just fantasy' line would let me fill this easily, but I also love the interpretation proposed elsewhere in either wild discussion or the voting thread of finding a book with a little silhouetto of a man on the cover. I forget who suggested that, but props!

I’d like to read a book that plays with perceptions of reality, which could be in fantasy or another genre. I’ll wait to decide.

Ron wrote: "I was confused as to how this would work, but seeing as how we can go based off the lyrics that certainly helps.

Here's what I'm going with then.


"Any way the wind blows (Ooh, the wind blows)"..."
Ooh, that one looks good, Ron.

Joanna G wrote: "II also love the interpretation proposed elsewhere in either wild discussion or the voting thread of finding a book with a little silhouetto of a man on the cover. I forget who suggested that, but props!..."

👋! Thanks! That was the first thing that hit me when running through the lyrics in my head :D I haven't found one yet that I want to read but I'll keep an eye out next year, while holding Oliver Twist in reserve ("I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me")

I plan to read The Long Walk - "Very, very frightening".

I think I'm just going to use the line "Mama, just killed a man" and read a mystery, as is my wont.

For some odd reason, my friends and I became very into this song in high school and sang it all the time. Couldn't tell you how that started.

Alesha wrote: "I'm thinking of connecting to "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me" by reading The Devil's Rose by Brom - I read Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery thi..."

I'm going to use this connection too, and read The Devils by Joe Abercrombie.

Jackie wrote: "I think I'm just going to use the line "Mama, just killed a man" and read a mystery, as is my wont.

For some odd reason, my friends and I became very into this song in high school and sang it all..."

Same, though many of my friends were theater people in high school, so there's a certain logic to their latching onto that song. I was delighted the first time I saw the scene in "Wayne's World" when the carful of guys sings it. Brought high school days right back.

I might read one of T Kingfisher’s horror novels I haven’t gotten to such as or to fit the line “very, very frightening”.

I am thinking about this book: Winter in the Blood. The blurb says, "Sensitive and self-destructive, he searches for something that will bind him to the lands of his ancestors but is haunted by personal tragedy, the dissolution of his once proud heritage, and Montana's vast emptiness."

It seems that "sensitive and self-destructive" and "haunted by personal tragedy" fits with the Queen song of a young man who killed someone and recognizes that he did wrong and must suffer the consequences. What do y'all think?

I'm going to read Queen's Ransom by Fiona Buckley.

I think I will use the line, "Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?" to read one of Janet Evanovich's Fox/O'Hare mysteries. Fox is a conman who was caught by FBI agent O'Hare. He is pressed into helping the FBI solve heists and cons around the world.

I'm loving all the different lines people are pulling out of the lyrics for this prompt. So creative!

I can't stand this song lol.... but there are a lot of ways the Tarot and its meanings, use, and lore can connect with many of the lyrics. So... I'll be reading Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness by Rachel Pollack and using it to advance my tarot study. Lemonade from lemons or something like that...

LeahS wrote: "I'm using Rhapsody In Green and Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots."
Thanks for reminding of this one -- I have a copy on the shelf!

Going very obvious with this: The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Thanks for your input on this one. I will go with "I just killed a man" and read the first Dexter novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter

I think I'll go with Mercury for Freddie's last name.

Britany wrote: "I think I'll go with Mercury for Freddie's last name."

What a great idea Britany!

Lol, I actually like the song. My first thought was to link it to The Muppets- if you haven't seen their version of the video, it's good Muppet silliness.

But my next thought was to link it to the musical Rent, which is based on the opera La Boheme. If I go that route, I might read Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical 'Rent', written by one of the original Rent cast members.

However, looking up bohemians, I came across 2 other books that look awesome, The Bohemians or The Bohemians: The Lovers Who Led Germany's Resistance Against the Nazis.

Jennifer W wrote: "Lol, I actually like the song. My first thought was to link it to The Muppets- if you haven't seen their version of the video, it's good Muppet silliness.

But my next thought was to link it to th..."

I thought Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical 'Rent' was quite good. I loved Rent, and have been lucky enough to meet Anthony Rapp several times, at both Rent- and Star Trek-related events.

I want to read Spaceman of Bohemia

I love Queen. I am surprised so many don't lol I inherited my love for the band from my mom, who is a huge Freddie Mercury fan.

I am most likely reading a mystery for the "Mama, just killed a man" part of the lyrics. Maybe Murder Past Due where the victim is a man.