Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I'm a very lapsed reader, but I'm going to try the challenge in 2026. If I make it to 12, I'll be delighted!

🎉 Finished - 0/52

🗒 What's Left?
1. A book from a genre that starts with A, T, or Y:
2. A book with a primarily red, green or blue cover:
3. A book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list:
4. A book by a new-to-you author:
5. A book you want to read because of something you read in 2025:
6. A book related to blood, sweat, or tears:
7. A book with a character who appears in more than one book:
8. A book set in Africa, Asia, or Australia:
9. A book with a number, ordinal, or iterative numeral in the title:
10. An award winning book:
11. A history or historical fiction book:
12. A book with cover text that is NOT black or white:
13. An author's second/sophomore book:
14. A book related to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh:
15. A book you've wanted to read for a long time:
16. A book featuring a character with a similar occupation to one of the Clue/Cluedo characters:
17. A book set in the wellness or beauty industries:
18. A book with a location in the title:
19. A book related to yesterday:
20. A book related to today:
21. A book related to tomorrow:
22. A book by a Korean or Korean-diaspora author:
23. A book with a road trip or long journey:
24. A book that is either frothy or gothy:
25. A book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list:
26. A book with a Z in the title and/or author name:
27. A nonfiction book:
28. A book related to a resistance, rebellion, or revolution:
29. A vacation book:
30. The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist: Frontlist Book:
31. The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist: Backlist Book:
32. A novella of 100-250 pages:
33. A book with an Indigenous character or author:
34. A book with a window on the cover:
35. A book where all or part of the action takes place in a library, a museum, a school, or another public building:
36. A book with a primary character who is a woman over 40:
37. A book that includes a science topic:
38. A book that's part of a series:
39. A book connected in some way to the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie:
40. A book that has a punctuation mark in the title:
41. A mystery or true crime book:
42. A book set in an isolated location:
43. A book involving survival:
44. A book with a symbol of death on the cover:
45. A book connected to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen:
46. A book that is not a novel:
47. A book with "this", "that", "these", or "those" in the title:
48. A book with something edible in the title:
49. A second book for your favorite prompt:
50. A book with a bird on its cover:
51. A book published in 2026:
52. A book related to the name of one of Santa's reindeer:

🔜 = Planned book
➜ = Reading

Covers, In Reading Order

Basic Challenge Stats
Non-UK/US author: 0/0
Non-white cishet male author: 0/0
Books in translation: 0/0

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2026 Reading Goals

Read 12 books: 0/12
Listen to 6 audiobooks: 0/6
Read 6 owned books: 0/6

What did I actually end up reading?

January (0)

February (0)

March (0)

April (0)

May (0)

June (0)

July (0)

August (0)

September (0)

October (0)

November (0)

December (0)

🎧 = Audiobook
★ = Non-US/UK author
📝 = Translated to English
👩🏼‍🎓 = Nonfiction
📚 - On my bookshelf
♀ = Woman author
✨ = Non-white cishet male author
🇦🇺 = Australian author or setting
💩 = needs no explanation

All the Pretty Covers : All of my 2026 reads, in cover form.

2026 Ratings : All of my 2026 reads, in star form.

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My List of Options: Part I

1. A book from a genre that starts with A, T, or Y:
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller (Autobiography)
Down the Drain by Julia Fox (Autobiography) 🎧
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Autobiography)
Me by Elton John (Autobiography) 🎧??
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Autobiography)
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay (Autobiography)

2. A book with a primarily red, green or blue cover:
The Blue Room by Georges Simenon (Blue)

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (Red)
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Red)

3. A book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list:

4. A book by a new-to-you author:

5. A book you want to read because of something you read in 2025:

6. A book related to blood, sweat, or tears:
Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

7. A book with a character who appears in more than one book:
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe)
Julia by Sandra Newman (Julia)
Lord Edgeware Dies by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot)
The Odyssey by Homer (Odysseus)
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (Penelope)

8. A book set in Africa, Asia, or Australia:
Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe (Africa)
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Africa)
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi (Africa)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Africa)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Africa)

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (Asia)
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (Asia)
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Asia)
Shōgun by James Clavell (Asia)

Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell by Louise Milligan (Australia)
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (Australia)
The Yield by Tara June Winch (Australia)

9. A book with a number, ordinal, or iterative numeral in the title:
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector's Story by Hyeonseo Lee
Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman
My Struggle, Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgård
One Day by David Nicholls
One Hundred Days by Alice Pung
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
The 39 Steps by John Buchan

10. An award winning book:
Alias Grace by Margaret AtwoodOlive KitteridgeOlive Kitteridge
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

11. A history or historical fiction book:

12. A book with cover text that is NOT black or white:
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Autobiography)

13. An author's second/sophomore book:
The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
The Magus by John Fowles
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

14. A book related to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh:
Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh

15. A book you've wanted to read for a long time:
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Book that's been on my TBR the longest)

16. A book featuring a character with a similar occupation to one of the Clue/Cluedo characters:
Conclave by Robert Harris
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

17. A book set in the wellness or beauty industries:
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

18. A book with a location in the title:
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector's Story by Hyeonseo Lee
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

19. A book related to yesterday:

20. A book related to today:

21. A book related to tomorrow:

22. A book by a Korean or Korean-diaspora author:
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector's Story by Hyeonseo Lee
Human Acts by Han Kang
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Vegetarian by Han Kang

23. A book with a road trip or long journey:
The Odyssey by Homer

24. A book that is either frothy or gothy:
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (Frothy)

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (Gothy)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Gothy)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (Gothy)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Gothy)

25. A book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list:
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

26. A book with a Z in the title and/or author name:
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Flesh by David Szalay
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

My List of Options: Part II

27. A nonfiction book:
Are You Mad at Me? by Meg Josephson
How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women by Claire Mitchell
The Nature of Alexander by Mary Renault
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
Vagabond: A Memoir by Tim Curry

28. A book related to a resistance, rebellion, or revolution:

29. A vacation book:

30. The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist: Frontlist Book:

31. The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist: Backlist Book:

32. A novella of 100-250 pages:

33. A book with an Indigenous character or author:

34. A book with a window on the cover:

35. A book where all or part of the action takes place in a library, a museum, a school, or another public building:

36. A book with a primary character who is a woman over 40:

37. A book that includes a science topic:
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

38. A book that's part of a series:

39. A book connected in some way to the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie:

40. A book that has a punctuation mark in the title:

41. A mystery or true crime book:

42. A book set in an isolated location:

43. A book involving survival:

44. A book with a symbol of death on the cover:

45. A book connected to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen:

46. A book that is not a novel:
And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of Her Daughter's Murder by Deborah Spungen
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall

47. A book with "this", "that", "these", or "those" in the title:
And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of Her Daughter's Murder by Deborah Spungen (This)
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R. Austin (This)
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall (That)

48. A book with something edible in the title:
The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories by Daphne du Maurier
Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim
The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy

49. A second book for your favorite prompt:

50. A book with a bird on its cover:

51. A book published in 2026:

52. A book related to the name of one of Santa's reindeer:

.