Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Very curious about The Mezzanine. Can't wait to hear what you think of that one!

It sounds very interesting and short enough not too be too annoying, if I don’t like it.

I love that you've chosen Absalom, Absalom!. It's my all time favorite book.

Yes? So glad to hear you loved it, Katie. Now I really can’t wait to read it!

Katie wrote: "I love that you've chosen Absalom, Absalom!. It's my all time favorite book."

Just finished - and loved it. Hard to get through (I never read Faulkner before), but it was so very worth it. And what a powerful novel to be reading about race relations during this unfortunately turbulent time in US history.

Tammy wrote: "Very curious about The Mezzanine. Can't wait to hear what you think of that one!"

I finally read this, Tammy. It was brilliant! Lots of funny insights about the tiniest of life's inanities, ca. 1988 and beyond. I laughed aloud through the whole thing and I can't wait to read it again.

The 2018 List

✔ = read
★☆☆☆☆ = ratings

✔1. A book with the letters A, T & Y in the title The Wordy Shipmates ★★★★
✔2. A book from the first 10 books added to your To Be Read list The Poisonwood Bible ★★★★
✔3. A book from the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards (link) The Rules Do Not Apply ★★★
✔4. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #1 Earth (in title, cover, content, setting, author...) Island Bluffs ★★★★
✔5. A book about or inspired by real events The Autobiography of Malcolm X★★★★★
✔6. A book originally written in a language other than English A Tale of Love and Darkness ★★★★
✔7. A gothic novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ★★★★★
✔8. An "own voices" book* Children of Paradise ★★★★
✔9. A book with a body part in the title (heart, bones, teeth, skin, blood, etc) A Heart So White ★★★★
✔10. An author's debut book (their first book to be published) In the Language of Miracles ★★★★
✔11. A literary fiction A Farewell to Arms ★★★★
✔12. A book set in Africa or South America We Eat Our Own ★★★★
✔13. A book with a plot centered around a secret (forbidden love, spies, secret societies, etc) American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst ★★★★★
✔14. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #2 Fire City on Fire ★★★★
✔15. A book with an unique format/writing structure The Mezzanine ★★★★
✔16. A narrative nonfiction Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith ★★★★
✔17. A book you expect to make you laugh The Portable Veblen ★★
✔18. A book with a location in the title A Town Like Alice ★★★★★
✔19. A book nominated for the Edgar Award or by a Grand master author (books & authors) Before the Fall ★★★★
✔20. A book rated 5 stars by at least one of your friends A Man Called Ove ★★★
✔21. A book written in first person perspective Leaving the Atocha Station ★★★★
✔22. A book you have high expectations or hope for I Am Pilgrim ★★★★
✔23. A medical or legal thriller Small Great Things ★★★★★
✔24. A book with a map The Wind in the Willows ★★★★
✔25. A book with an antagonist/villain point of view Out ★★★★
✔26. A book with a text only cover The Love Song of Jonny Valentine ★★★★
✔27. A book about surviving a hardship (war, famine, major disasters, serious illness, etc) The Year After ★★★★
✔28. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #3 Water Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook ★★★★
✔29. A book with a "Clue" weapon on the cover or title (lead pipe, revolver, rope, candlestick, dagger, wrench) The Dining Car ★★★
✔30. A short book The Tree ★★★★★
✔31. A book set in a country you'd like to visit but have never been to My Last Continent ★★★★★
✔32. An alternate history book The Plot Against America ★★★★★
✔33. A book connected (title, cover, content) to a word "born" in the same year as you (link) The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterward ★★★★
✔34. A suggestion from the AtY 2018 polls, that didn't win but was polarizing or a close-call Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg ★★★★★
✔35. A book featuring a murder Nineteen Seventy Seven ★★★★
✔36. A book published in the last 3 years (2016, 2017, 2018) by an author you haven't read before Siracusa ★★★★
✔37. A Women's Prize for Fiction winner or nominee The Power ★★★
✔38. A science book or a science fiction book Lab Girl ★★★★
✔39. A book with a form of punctuation in the title Absalom, Absalom! ★★★★
✔40. A book from Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime list Interpreter of Maladies ★★★★
✔41. A book by an author with the same first and last initials The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood ★★★★
✔42. A book that takes place on, in, or underwater Ring of Bright Water ★★★★★
✔43. A book with a title that is a whole sentence Paris, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down ★★★★
✔44. A ghost story House of Leaves ★★★
✔45. A book that intimidates/scares you Bird Box ★★★★
✔46. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #4 Air Battleborn ★★★★
✔47. A book where the main character (or author) is of a different ethnic origin, religion, or sexual identity than your own Under the Udala Trees ★★★★
✔48. A book related to one of the 7 deadly sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth) Crazy Rich Asians ★★★★
✔49. A book from one of the Goodreads Best Books of the Month lists The Book of Strange New Things ★★★★
✔50. A book with a warm atmosphere (centered on family, friendship, love or summer) Prudence ★★★★
✔51. An award-winning short story or short story collection Thunderstruck & Other Stories ★★★★
✔52. A book published in 2018 The Château Damn, I love this cover! ★★★