Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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2023 Reading in Order
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eta ~
I ended up reading What Happened to the Bennetts whi..."
I clicked on that book, thinking it would be Pride & Prejudice retelling! (far from it)
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I thought it was great! 5 stars
“Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift w..."
The movie of this was excellent. Reading the book I kept getting the different stories mixed up, but in the movie it wasn't a problem. I like pretty much all her books.
� Pat wrote: "I've gotten myself twisted around the axle by committing to a challenge that isn't helping me get anywhere at all. I'm going to go through and see what I can do about cleaning up some of my challen..."Uh oh, what challenge has you so kerfuffled?
I know that "whoops this is toooo much" feeling!!
Robin P wrote: "Kelly wrote: "I just finished The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan for the week 8 prompt - An author’s debut book. I thought it was great! 5 stars
“Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose his..."
A movie too! I love reading a book and then watching the movie, especially if its a good adaptation. I see Amy Tan is listed for #21: Asian Diaspora so I've slotted it in there and found I have access to the movie on Disney+
I love it when things work out like that :D
Jenna ✨is wearing her DNF Crown wrote: "Uh oh, what challenge has you so kerfuffled?I know that "whoops this is toooo much" feeling!!..."
No so much as "which one" but "how many."
When I decided last year to play ATY52, I'd made an early decision to read TWO books a week, with maybe a third, rather than the three books a week with maybe a fourth (and sometimes a fifth) that has been my usual reading pile.
That was working really well, until I handicapped myself with the By-The-Month Challenge at Pick a Shelf, which is a rolling over challenge with some wicked spec (which I normally like).
It's just too limiting to play with the more specific task challenges that I've signed myself up for, and I've discovered that I don't mind limited, as long as it's not TOO limiting.
I may try playing it next year along with this one, because I can see them fitting well together to get a nice number of books read.
I am right on track with this challenge, ready to start week 9 next after my current audio - The Last House on Needless Street which won the World Fantasy Award.
� Pat wrote: "Jenna ✨is wearing her DNF Crown wrote: "Uh oh, what challenge has you so kerfuffled?I know that "whoops this is toooo much" feeling!!..."
No so much as "which one" but "how many."
When I decide..."
I'm laughing a bit because I tend to do this sort of thing too... everything is going well, the carefully balanced pile of sticks is standing strong, and then I think "This is great, I'll add just one more" ... et voila, mayhem 😅
I love the "game" of fitting these challenges together like a very complicated puzzle but sometimes its just too much and you have to back off on something.
Jenna ✨is wearing her DNF Crown wrote: "I love the "game" of fitting these challenges together like a very complicated puzzle but sometimes its just too much and you have to back off on something...."Love the balanced sticks analogy, because that's exactly it! First few are easy, but the longer it goes, the more precarious things get!
I keep track of everything I'm doing in a private thread, and I just deleted five of the topics in that thread.
I feel like I just found my lungs and was able to fill them with some oxygen!
� Pat wrote: "Jenna ✨is wearing her DNF Crown wrote: "I love the "game" of fitting these challenges together like a very complicated puzzle but sometimes its just too much and you have to back off on something....."Brilliant!! Glad you took it upon yourself to prune it back hard and buy yourself some breathing room! ❤️
EDITED//UPDATED Feb 26th: I've finished The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory
Book 1 of The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels // Book 3 of Cousins' War
for prompt 31: A book found by inputting a favorite author on
I entered Kate Morton ---> got Philippa Gregory
It was the next thing available for me to listen to on Audible that fills an ATY prompt ❤️
This was my first Philippa Gregory book and I LOVED IT!! The narrator, Bianca Amato, was wonderful and had such clean articulation I was able to listen to the whole story at 1.7x speed which was fantastic; the book absolutely FLEW by and I found it immensely enjoyable.
Up Next//In Progress:
Prompt 5. A book with 4 or more colors on the cover
⚪️ American Colonial: Puritan Simplicity to Georgian Grace ~ home library/paperback
* I'm working on this slowly but its a physically giant book about architecture and to read it I have to literally lay it out on the dining room table and set a time block to do it haha. It's very interesting and I'm enjoying it, it's just cumbersome.
Prompt 6. A book where books are important
Ash and Quill ~ home library/hardcover
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Books already completed for this challenge: (view spoiler)
Wow! I am so off track. I have (on my desk) all of the planned books for this month that I still need to read ~ 3. I have actually started the second one...and the other two are due back at the library by 3/9 (one renewal available) and 3/14 (no renewals).
And, here we are...nearly to March! I do have the book for prompt #10 also on my desk as well as the book for #12.
SO...I just need to read! Problem is that I am so interested in so many other things...and my attention span for sitting and just reading is interrupted by all I want to do...that I am not plowing through books like I was. Oh, well.
Bea wrote: "Wow! I am so off track. I have (on my desk) all of the planned books for this month that I still need to read ~ 3. I have actually started the second one...and the other two are due back at the l..."
I would be in this boat if Audible hadn't come riding to my rescue!😂
Two month in and I'm pretty much on track both reading in order and reading a book a week for the main challenge and I LOVE reading this way. I'm planning a few options per prompt a couple months ahead and making final choice closer to reading time which is allowing me to read what I'm feeling rather than feeling locked into something chosen ages ago. I've finished prompts 1-8 except 7 (waiting on a hold) plus #14 (hold came in early)
I'm currently reading my Plot Jump prompt (Twenty Years Later: A Riveting New Thriller) for Winter Challenge then going to start my #9 W Award winner, probably Jade City. I'm hesitant to start another series (SAGA) but it sound so good I think I'm going with.
MARCH 1st UPDATE: I've just picked up a proper truckload of library books (my hold literally said "Oversized" 😂) so I'm rejigging my reading order a bit. I also made a change to Prompt 5 "A book with 4 or more colors on the cover" (the next in numerical order for me) as my previous pick, American Colonial: Puritan Simplicity to Georgian Grace, just wasn't happening for me.
I've swapped in An Affair with a House, one of the aforementioned library books, and also completed The Gardens of Bunny Mellon for prompt 6. A book where books are important for its surprising but very welcome discussion of her INCREDIBLE rare books collection and personal library at Oak Spring Farm.
That's me updated for now!
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Books already completed for this challenge: 11/52 (view spoiler)
I'm on track for this week, but getting a very slow start! Reading The Buried Giant for the W award nominee/winner.
World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel
Well, two books yet to read for February, but I have this week's and prompt #12 on my desk. Now if I could just read 3 this week, I would be caught up!Edited 3/4: Starting prompts #8, 9, and 10. Still haven't selected a book for this week.
Jenna ✨is wearing her DNF Crown wrote: "MARCH 1st UPDATE: I've just picked up a proper truckload of library books (my hold literally said "Oversized" 😂) so I'm rejigging my reading order a bit. I also made a change to Prompt 5 "A book ..."
Haha - that's awesome!! I've had some oversized hauls home from the library in the past but they've never been tagged. Love it.
Slow going reading for me this week too! I really like my book, I'm not particularly busy and read every day but I just don't seem to get very far with it. Works been complicated so I think I'm just mentally drained. Oh well ... hoping to finish tonight and finally get started on this week's books.
Sheena wrote: "Jenna ✨is wearing her DNF Crown wrote: "MARCH 1st UPDATE: I've just picked up a proper truckload of library books (my hold literally said "Oversized" 😂) so I'm rejigging my reading order a bit. I..."
I was weirdly proud lol!! 😂
I’m still working on my book for week 9, W prize, Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds, and also started Demon Copperhead for week 10 (ginger spice). I have slotted in a few random books in future week because they didn’t fit any of my other challenges, so I’ll have a little breathing room in future months when those prompts come up.I’m trying to finish books for the ToB as well, so I have a lot of books checked out all at once. Busy weekend coming up!
I finally started my week 9 book late last night. I didn't get far but hooked on the beginning already so sticking with Jade City for World Fantasy Award. I was originally thinking to maybe swap it out for something shorter but it makes more sense to read what I like, rather than to just tick of a list. (right?? ;) )
My February readingFor this months goals:
ATY 6: The Shadow of the Wind
ATY 7: Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know
Read in previous months:
ATY8: The Night Circus
For future goals:
ATY 10 (baby): The Chalet School Wins the Trick
ATY11: What Alice Forgot
ATY 21: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
ATY40: The Diary of a Young Girl
ATY45: Dragonfly in Amber
Not for this challenge: Moranifesto
Weeks still to be completed:
ATY3 - plan to read this in March
ATY9 - plan to read this in March
For ATY10 I'm planning to read all 5 of the Spice Girls personalities but I probably won't manage to read them all this month.
Week 10! A book related to one of the Spice Girls' "personalities" Love this prompt and if I have time, I'll go back and do them all. I've hit a bit of slump so going with something I know I'll love! Us Against You for Sporty.
I've deviated from my original March plan - I was going to read The Taste of Ginger for the Spice Girls prompt (Ginger Spice, obviously) but then my library reservation for Booth came through earlier than indicated and it's a slow paced book so I knew I wouldn't manage to fit in both. I decided to put Booth down for Spice Girls on the grounds that the Booth family have ten kids (!) so I figured that would work for Baby. There are several scenes of babies being born too.I've actually already started next week's prompt too; I usually have a physical and an audiobook on the go at the same time and on audio I'm currently working through the Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom. The whole series works for the disability prompt as the main character, Matthew Shardlake, has a curved spine - it's set in the 16th century so the modern medical diagnosis isn't given, but he is described by other characters as a "hunchback". It's first person narration and he often describes the pain his back causes him, and how he uses unguents and exercises to mitigate the pain and discomfort. There are also scenes showing how he is mistreated and discriminated against for his disability.
I read 
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulleythis week.
Daunis seemed to me to be the image of both Sporty and Scary Spice. She's brave and bold and nothing stops her, and she's also very athletic - so much that she was on a boy's hockey team in high school.
Still playing catch-up.#8 (Debut): The Kitchen House 60%
#9 (W award): Flight Behavior 17%
THIS WEEK'S BOOK ~ #10 (Scary): completed
#11 (Disability): Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him - picking up from library today
#12 (Bees): The Beekeeper of Aleppo 35%
#13 (repeated object) - not yet chosen
This list finishes Feb and gets me through March.
I'll be out of order for March but should stay within the month. I've started 'Salem's Lot for Spice Girls (scary, obv) and am also listening to Only When It's Us for character with a disability. I've read like 3 pages of 'Salem's Lot because it's been a busy week. I plan to dedicate Sunday to getting caught up though.I may have to change my pick for birds/bees/bunnies and find something available on audio or I'll really fall behind, since the wait for The Music of Bees is 24 days.
Sheena wrote: "I finally started my week 9 book late last night. I didn't get far but hooked on the beginning already so sticking with Jade City for World Fantasy Award. I was originally thinking ..."YES. 💖
� Pat wrote: "I read Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulleythis week.
Daunis seemed to me to be the image of both Sporty and Sca..."
I really liked this story and am looking forward to Warrior Girl Unearthed's release in May.
Almost done week 10 (Us Against You) and starting The Ink Black Heart for week 11! I'm staying on track in order with the main challenge but everything else is off the rails, LOL I either need shorter/easier to read books or way more reading time.
� Pat wrote: "I read Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulleythis week.
Daunis seemed to me to be the image of both Sporty and Sca..."
One of my good highschool friends was like this�. She played on both mens and womens hockey teams all through highschool (and more than held her own�) AND was invited to the Olympic women’s team when she was in college� at Princeton law, so she couldn’t go 😂 She later went to ref women’s Olympic hockey at Sochi which is a HUGE honor with its own tryouts and training. #powerhouse 💕
✨🌬MARCH ~ Prompts 10-13 🌬�10. A book related to one of the Spice Girls' "personalities"
Posh: Any books featuring rich people or families
Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon ~ library
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� My Darling Duke ~ MC badly injured in a Fire; details in spoiler (view spoiler)
Read in JANUARY � � � �
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12. A book connected to birds, bees, or bunnies
Watership Down
(Reading in APRIL as part of a Group Read)
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13. A book that has an object that is repeated on the cover
There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse: The Vermont Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe ~ home library/paperback
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Books already completed for this challenge: 13/52 (view spoiler)
Finished February planned prompts!March planned prompts:
#10 COMPLETED
#11 (Disability): Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him Starting today.
#12 (Bees): COMPLETED
#13 (repeated object) - All the Birds in the Sky requested from library
Yay! Caught up!
I'm not sure if I'm caught up or not. I've been fighting a very serious strept infection in my face - and it was questionable whether or not I was going to have to be hospitalized. Off work the whole week and too sick to even pick up a book, much less turn a page. Today, for the first time in over a week, I finally felt like eating something. I would not recommend this method of weight loss to anybody, but if you really want to know more ...
Turns out today, it looks like yes.
� Pat wrote: "I'm not sure if I'm caught up or not. I've been fighting a very serious strept infection in my face - and it was questionable whether or not I was going to have to be hospitalized. Off work the who..."PAT OMG 😱😰
I've treated patients with that (RN)... OUCH OUCH OUCH
YIKES lady. I'm so sorry.
Thrilled to hear you felt well enough today to eat, and maybe read a little.
Pat, I really hope you feel better soon.
Last weeks plans went a bit off. I did finish Us Against You (#10), but instead of starting #11 as planned decided I need to read The Winners first.I've now completed the Beartown series, and finished my last book for the Winter challenge My Name Is Lucy Barton and read 225 pages of #11 but since I picked The Ink Black Heart for the disability prompt, I still have another 1200 pages to go!! (nts: pick SHORTER books!!)
For Week #12 - I'm still waiting on my hold on Where the Forest Meets the Stars so may look for something else for the birds and bees prompt??
Sheena wrote: "I still have another 1200 pages to go!! (nts: pick SHORTER books!!) " Whoa! 👀 that's impressive! I hope the commitment has at least been worth it!
Sheena wrote: "...may look for something else for the birds and bees prompt"
The 2023 Reading Challenge Group is doing a group read of Watership Down in April, I've decided I'm going to join as it's been about 15 years since I read that and it fits the #12 prompt. It would put me back a week but I think it will be enjoyable. I still have my original paperback copy ♥️🐇
I've started to lag behind due to side-reads and another reading challenge, but I've found a short book for the bunnies and bees prompt that should help me catch up. It's Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher, I've had it on my Kindle for ages and only last week realised that there is a bee on the cover.
I'm caught up! Finally.Now I have to decide on week #13.
I had changed my mind from The Keeper of Lost Things to All the Birds in the Sky. But, now I have both on my desk! Which to read?
Aimee wrote: "I've read both and vastly preferred All the Birds in the Sky because of the beautiful writing and great character depth, but it takes a while to get going so if you're looking for a quick read then The Keeper of Lost Things might be a better option."Thanks for the advice, Aimee. That is helpful.
Aimee wrote: "I've started to lag behind due to side-reads and another reading challenge, but I've found a short book for the bunnies and bees prompt that should help me catch up. It's [book:Bryony and Roses|255..."Hmm, maybe I'll see if I can get a copy of this as well. I love Kingfisher and have weeks yet to wait for my original pick.
I'm also completely stumped on what to do about the multiweek century books coming up. I must get over to weekly thread and get some ideas.
I'm on track for March, 'Salem's Lot (week 10) is long and not a fast read either, but I jumped ahead and finished weeks 11-13. So as long as I finish 'Salem's Lot by 3/31, which I should do, then I will still be on track for reading by month.
Sheena wrote: "Aimee wrote: "I've started to lag behind due to side-reads and another reading challenge, but I've found a short book for the bunnies and bees prompt that should help me catch up."I'm only a few chapters in but it's already gripped me. Bryony is a great main character, very T. Kingfisher (she reminds me of Mona from A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, only a few years older).
So, I'm officially behind - this infection really kicked me in the hindparts and my brain is still really foggy, so I'm having a lot of trouble concentrating. I've picked up about seven different books trying to stay focused long enough to read one. I went back to work this week (probably not the smartest move on my part, but I was going stir crazy at home), so trying to get caught up there through the brain fog has been a project.
However, I did manage to finally finish my book for my Library Book Club - which is a Passport to the World activity where we read a featured country each month, and for March, obviously, it's Ireland. It's an activity I personally designed - I made cardstock passports and I stamp them for everyone who finishes a book for the month - so I felt like I had to do that one, since I'm the driving motivator for everyone who is participating.
Anyway, at this point, I'm officially two weeks behind. I need to get a book for last week (#11) and this week (#12) and #13 is just sitting there glaring at me.
Hopefully I'll be able to get at least #11 read by the end of the weekend. Which will still put me at two to read, but only one behind.
I'm on it, but this brain fog is REALLY getting to me.
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I will be traveling for two weeks this month, so my books might be slightly out of order as I meet library due dates before leaving.#14: Heist Society starting today
#15: The Siege Winter FINISHED
#16: Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker Will probably take this with me on my trip
#17: not yet obtained
I'm caught up through week #12 with Other Birds - which was ok, but not great. My current read is ~
#13 ~
Unlikely Animalsand then I'll have to see what I can do about the "Con Deception Fake" book pick. I haven't made a choice about that one yet, but it will most likely be
#14 ~
Dodgeror
#14 ~
The Boy from the Woods
That's awesome Pat! I finished #14 early (library hold) so am already done this week.
But still have to finish #7 because I was waiting on a hold which is has since come in so I'll get that crossed off next and be caught up too. woot!
This week, I'm trying to cross off a few of the spring challenge books too. Hoping for lots of read time over the long weekend.
Around the Year in 52 Books
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I thought it was great! 5 stars
“Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift w..."
I've had Joy Luck on my TBR for ages! I really should slot it in somewhere soon.