Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I read Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.

An author I really enjoy.

Jodi Picoult –

I ended up reading The One Hundred Nights of Hero for this prompt. It's definitely not the most unique that I could have read, but it didn't fit any other category.

It's a graphic novel retelling of Arabian Nights, but put in a totally feminist context. I never read graphic novels, so I guess it is pretty unique when compared to the rest of my bookshelf.

I used the book list on goodreads for this category and cross referenced to my Nook library and found that this was in both so I chose it.Warm Bodies

- What are you reading for this category?
Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks

- What makes the format unique?
Much of the book is a traditional book but some stories are formatted as scripts, newsletters, diary entries, and also include text messages.

Sophie wrote: "I read House of Leaves last year, but didn't really enjoy it.

For this prompt I currently have 3 options: Six Stories, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and ..."

Hi Sophie - All 3 good choices. I haven't read these either, but The Invention of Hugo Cabret is one of my 4 choices, too. A friend recommended it then told me it's the book on which the 2011 drama/fantasy movie "Hugo" was based. I haven't watched that either, but I think it'd be fun to read the book, discuss it online, and borrow the movie from my library to marvel at the special effects! Good luck in your choice.

I've owned Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography for a couple of years now and haven't read it yet. It fits this prompt, so this might finally be the year when I read it.

Currently reading Family Skeleton for book club.
It's fiction written as the draft of a woman's memoirs. She keeps switching between referring to herself in third person and then telling the story through her eyes. It's not easy to follow.

Sesia wrote: "Hi Sophie - All 3 good choices. I haven't read these either, but The Invention of Hugo Cabret is one of my 4 choices, too. A friend recommended it then told me it's the book on which the 2011 drama/fantasy movie "Hugo" was based. I haven't watched that either, but I think it'd be fun to read the book, discuss it online, and borrow the movie from my library to marvel at the special effects! Good luck in your choice. "

I hadn't even heard of the movie before this challenge, but then I'm not really a movie buff. Since I tend to be disappointed by book adaptation, maybe I'll pass, we'll see.

- What are you reading for this category?
For my children's challenge, I read Catch You Later, Traitor by Avi

- What makes the format unique? It is a mystery, set in 1951, written in first person but every few pages the author narrates the story (differentiated by italics) in a 3rd person Sam Spade "hard-boiled detective" style. I felt that this writing technique really set the book apart from other children's books!

What are you reading for this category?
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

What makes the format unique?
It has a disjointed writing structure, jumping forwards and back between years.

Sophie wrote: "Sesia wrote: "Hi Sophie - All 3 good choices. I haven't read these either, but The Invention of Hugo Cabret is one of my 4 choices, too. A friend recommended it then told me it's the book on which ..."

I thought Six Stories was a really unique book-I'd n ever heard of podcasts and this one really sucked me in. Plus it's fairly short ;)

I read: The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

I think it was on the list because the chapters worked backwards, so the last chapter was #1.

I'll be reading What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund! I've had it for a while and I'll likely finish it in 24 hours or less. I also have House of Leaves but I'd probably need to be caught up before I even consider that puppy. And S. is absolutely on my wishlist.

I just finished Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd. This thriller features a unique format that utilizes period prose and nifty transitions. I suppose that this description is rather vague, but I do not wish to spoil the experience.

S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst was a fun read. I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as I did.

I’m starting theMystery.doc by Matthew McIntosh. It DEFINITELY fits this category! Even though it’s over 1600 pages, it’s not really THAT long of a read because of the unusual way it is written. The ebook is available for free via all retailers (Amazon, Nook etc.) until April 2 and there is a contest to win up to $1000 for writing a response to the book. See Grove Atlantic’s FB Page (March 2 post) for more info!

I went for The Engagements .

Goska wrote: "Guys, if you haven't read 4321 yet, this may be your option! It's so cool, my favourite book I read in 2017. Definitely fits the category - the story is about the boy, from the day ..."

I have not read that yet, but this means that my present read would fit Swiss author, original title in German means "The Tender Indifference of the World". It is a story within a story, with first person narrator Christopher still complaining the split-up with his beloved Magdalena. Christopher meets both Chris and Lena, some sort of seemingly younger versions with some sort of history repeated but varied - rather strange so far. If any of you know those parts of Star Trek with parallel universes, that is not even half the way there ;-)

I'm reading Waking Gods, the second in the Themis Files series. The book is made of many things: journal entries, reports, interviews, news articles, etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and am excited to see what the second brings!

Inherit the Dead
By Jonathan Santlofer
It's writing by 20different authors

What are you reading for this category?
I read Knockout by K. A. Holt

What makes the format unique?
It is a middle grade novel-in-verse, so it was a fast read and also had pictures made of words throughout the book.

If you're into sci fi, Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel is really good. It's told in alternating chapters of personnel log files, news reports and other media. It's particularly interesting on audiobook because it's voiced by different people for the different characters. I'm waiting for the 3rd in the series (Only Human) to come out in May for my pick for this topic.

- What are you reading for this category? I read Wonderstruck

- What makes the format unique? There are two stories in the book, separated by 50 years between them, One tell the story of a girl just with drawings, the other , with words, tell the story of a boy.

I think is interesting to see this stories with an unique format, but sometimes, I have this idea that the author is more preoccupied looking for original ways to tell the story, than the story itself.

The story in Wonderstruck was just ok, so the unique format added beauty to the story. A couple of years ago I read this other: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that gave me the idea that the story more that a novel was a gallery of modern art... I liked it anyway :P

Shannan wrote: "If you're into sci fi, Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel is really good. It's told in alternating chapters of personnel log files, news reports and other media. It's particularly in..."

I just received this book a few weeks ago from a GR Giveaway. That was my first thought, when I opened it, that it would be perfect for this prompt! I will most likely read it for my 2nd book for that week.

Just finished Songs of the Humpback Whale. Talk about unique format. Five voices is not uncommon, but in this book; three people tell the story from start to finish, one tells it from end to beginning and one writes it in letters. Whew, a real mixup at times.

I'm reading Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters for this one - I've wanted to read it for a while now. It's epistolary, which isn't that unusual, but what makes it unique is that as the story progresses, letters become "forbidden", and consequently aren't used in the book.

I read The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

It's unique because the author is pretending he's a semi-fictional character himself, abridging someone else's book, rather than writing his own novel. He includes a lot of his own thoughts about the "original" and stories about his own "life" interspersed with the actual story of the The Princess Bride. It made me wonder if maybe some things are unique because they aren't a good idea!

Marie wrote: "It made me wonder if maybe some things are unique because they aren't a good idea! "

I hear you! That book didn't entirely work for me either, although I don't know if it was the structure or the fact that I am so familiar (and in love with) the movie that the interruptions were extra-jarring.

Like some others, I read Dear Committee Members for this task and really enjoyed it. I'm currently reading You for the perspective of a villain task, and think it could work well for the unique structure task as so much of it is written in the 2nd person. Definitely unique because, as I used to teach my English students, you rarely see 2nd person point of view outside of directions and choose your own adventure books!

Oh, and that made me think of another one that could be good for this task: Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography. An autobiographer with a choose your own adventure structure.

If anyone is looking for a fun unique format, I recommend The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer, it is a graphic novel with a bunch of footnotes and endnotes and occasional flip-around - odd formats. It is fun and educational, although the format sometimes gets in the way.

I am wondering if The Fifth Season counts? There are three storylines that join in a very unexpected way, one of which is in second person. Without giving spoilers it is hard to explain, but I have never read anything like that before, that must mean it is unique?

What are you reading for this category? House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

What makes the format unique? Where to begin? Some pages are typewritten, some pages have multiple columns, some pages have just a few sentences, and I see one that appears to be Braille. So I would say this definitely fits the category!

Have now finished. Found it to be pretentious and over-wrought.

So I requested a bunch of books from the library for this theme after reading the list of suggestions. AND THEY ALL CAME ALMOST INSTANTLY! Not sure how I am supposed to go to work this week...haha

What are you reading for this category?
More Village Idiot Reviews by Pete Sortwell

What makes the format unique?
It is written as different peoples reviews of purchases they have made from Amazon.
This was a poor follow up to the previous book written in the same style.

I just finished Time's Arrow: or, The Nature of the Offence

The book tells the life story of a doctor using a reverse chronology. But the narrator (and reader) experience time passing in reverse, as this main character becomes younger during the course of the story. The narrator is a seperate consciousness living in the doctors body, but with no access to his thoughts or control over him or events. The doctor turns out to be a (view spoiler)[Holocaust doctor and we spend quite a large section of the book at Concentration camps experiencing all this entails - but backwards so the narrator believes he is giving life not destroying it (hide spoiler)] (I've used spoiler tags here because I didn't know this having not read the 'blurb' before hand and I enjoyed the slow realisation of what his future/past was, but most discriptions of the book say this up front )

Not an easy read but I got used to the structure quite quickly.

I'm reading Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters for this one -- where the town (and this book) gradually lose the use of various letters in the alphabet. I must admit to being quite impressed with the author's ability to say things that actually mean something without most letters available.
I am also picking up Dear Committee Members from the library this afternoon -- so I may finish two for this prompt.

I ended up going with The Tough Guide to Fantasyland for this. It's a encyclopedia-style guide to the world in which all fantasy books take place. If you ever come across this book, read the horse entry.

For some reason, this week was the unusual format week, so i have a few other options for people who are still looking
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: trying a little too hard to be clever for my taste and I lost exactly how the format works into the book, but others may enjoy it.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: composed entirely of letters
Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World: very short (whole book is only 175 pages) summaries of interesting women. Good starting point for further research of things that catch your fancy.

I ended up reading for this. I read a lot of Ellen Hopkins other books when I was younger, but somehow never realized this one existed. Her books are written in stanzas, and there are several pages in which a page can be read multiple ways, such as reading directly up and down as opposed as from left to right

- What are you reading for this category?
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

- What makes the format unique?
It is written in 3rd perspective, where the book tells you the reader what you are doing. seems interesting so far

I'm reading Dept. Of Speculation for this topic. it's ok.

the format is that the book is made of letters

I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It is written as a series of letters from Charlie to an unknown friend.

I too am reading Dear Committee Members, very easy to read and overall enjoyable. It really is a unique format.

I am reading Gemina for this category. It's written in the format of a case file and if you flip through the book, you'll see how different the pages look. There are some chat logs, some journal entries, some illustrations, some video transcripts etc.

I read Illuminae for this one. It's the first in the series that Gemina belongs to, and I really want to jump into Gemina next, but I have like a ton of other books to read first >.<

In any case, it's made up of chat logs and interviews and lots of different things like that. It really tells the story well. Can't recommend it highly enough.

I just finished House of Leaves and it was awesome. The story is told through an academic commentary of a film/documentary in which a family moves into a house which has strange/impossible dimensions. The commentary is heavily annotated by 'Johnny Truant' (who mainly writes in poetic streams of thought) as well as some unnamed Editors who mostly just helpfully provide translations of various foreign languages.

Many people describe this as a horror book, but as a major scaredy cat, I would not describe this book as scary. Or even necessarily frightening. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on here, and it definitely earns its place among 'ergodic literature'. I recommend keeping a pencil handy for notes, and being prepared to google something every once in a while.

Jackie wrote: "I just finished House of Leaves and it was awesome. ... Many people describe this as a horror book, but as a major scaredy cat, I would not describe this book as scary. Or even necessarily frightening...."

Well that's good to know! I've been NOPE about that book because I always see it described as horror, and I don't do scary, but I am fine with creepy, or zombies, or mysteries, etc.

Nadine wrote: "Jackie wrote: "I just finished House of Leaves and it was awesome. ... Many people describe this as a horror book, but as a major scaredy cat, I would not describe this book as scary. ..."

Yeah, I would put this in the 'creepy' category, but not 'horror', and definitely not like a thriller. The format of the book actually does a good job of distancing you from the immediacy of the action.

Does "Magpie Murders" (book within a book) fit in this category?

I think Magpie Murders definitely fits this category. It's a story within a story.

Kathy wrote: "I think Magpie Murders definitely fits this category. It's a story within a story."

Thank you :)