Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Sometimes it's tough to find a good book for a prompt. There are some great posts in the progress post section but now's another chance for you to seek some extra support for those hard-to-fill prompts.

Just list the prompt you need a little help with and maybe someone in the group can lend you a hand.

Read a fantastic book lately? Drop a general recommendation because we're all always looking for the next great book.

From what I've read this year I'm going to throw a recommendation out there : The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder. This book blew my mind. I think its a great read for anyone who's into non-fiction and/or works in the healthcare field, or is interested in law in general.

What I loved most about it was that it wasn't the Killer that had me saying "OMFG"!!!!!!!!

I read this for prompt #5 a book about or inspired by real events.

I recommend 11/22/63

I recommend Sing, Unburied, Sing

I recommend A Walk in the Woods

I loved the mix of humor and seriousness. Would fit the nonfiction category too if someone still needs that prompt.

Does anyone have a recommendation for #46. 4 elements Air?
I currently have When Breath Becomes Air slated in but I'd like a good fiction alternative.

I highly recommend The Great Alone Warning: This book delves into domestic abuse in case that is a trigger for anyone. It is distressing but handled in such a realistic manner and the relationships are written so beautifully. The descriptions of the Alaska setting are incredible.

Any recommendations for science or science fiction?

I'm typically not a fan of the genre so something that is a little heavier on thriller, horror, or adventure would be preferred.

I agree with Laura. I am not a science fiction fan so I could,use something that is sci-fi but not sci-fi. Kind of like disguising vegetables as something else! LOL

I recommend Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. You could use it for the author's debut prompt or the "title that is a complete sentence prompt."

For the science or science fiction I have the book slated Ready Player One

That's too funny, Debra. I was actually going to say I liked Ready Player One so another book that is strong on adventure. It is a good book!

For those of you looking for sci-fi recs, I'm copying my post from the sci-fi topic thread...

For those of you think they don't like sci-fi these are a few books I love that are very light sci-fi that you might want to check out:

The Unseen World by Liz Moore
Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson
Snake Ropes by Jess Richards
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer
When She Woke by Hilary Jordan
The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
The Bees by Laline Paull
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Sci-fi doesn't have to be space ships and aliens and blow-stuff-up. If you just add a wee bit of time travel or futurism or end-of-the-world or astronomy or whatever to a "normal" book....well, then it counts as sci-fi (imo).

Hope this helps someone!

I've probably mentioned this book before, but I highly recommend Enter Title Here. The synopsis really doesn't do it any justice, and it is one of the most unique YA books I've read.

Also, if anyone is looking for a good graphic novel, I'd recommend Seconds or Strong Female Protagonist. Book One

I posted this in my battleship group so I thought I'd share it here. For my book recommendation, I read this book during the last read-a-thon and really enjoyed it, 44. A ghost story-
A Sudden Light/Garth Stein 2/4/18 ★★★★.

A good non-fiction book I read this year that seems to be underrated and not popular was Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield. I learned a lot in this book. It was very interesting.

Some of my favorite fiction from last year were:
Dark Matter
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
It Ends with Us
The Handmaid's Tale
Frankenstein
Cinder

Laura wrote: "Any recommendations for science or science fiction?

I'm typically not a fan of the genre so something that is a little heavier on thriller, horror, or adventure would be preferred."

My 2 recent Sci-fi favorites are:
Kindred and The Sparrow . For those of you doing an around the world challenge, The Sparrow is set in Puerto Rico, Italy (Rome), and on another planet.

The Binti series is fun and the books are short! I classify them as YA.

Rachelnyc wrote: "Does anyone have a recommendation for #46. 4 elements Air?
I currently have When Breath Becomes Air slated in but I'd like a good fiction alternative.

I'm having a tough time finding a book I'm interested in for this prompt too. I can't say if it's good or not, but right now I'm considering The Cloud Roads. It's got nearly a 4* average, and from the synopsis sounds like it would fulfill the "air" aspect (the protagonist can fly).

For science fiction I cannot recommend Ancillary Justice enough. I would love to be able to discuss it with someone, but it's also not an easy sci-fi read. It's extremely well written but it requires a fair bit of effort on the reader's part to make it through the first half which is quite difficult to understand right away.

For some lighter sci-fi I'd recommend:
11/22/63
Jurassic Park
Timeline
Red Rising (heavy sci fi setting but not a difficult read and similar pace to Ready Player One)
Artemis

I hope those help!

Lock In is a sci-fi murder mystery without spaceships I highly recommend!

I recently read Little Fires Everywhere and I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed it. The pace is somewhat slow but I liked how the different characters were described. So that's my newest recommandation.

My recommendation for the Air element task is The Shadow of the Wind. I loved this book.

I recommend This is Where it Ends for the author’s debut novel if you haven’t read it yet! Solid 4.75 Star for me

These are my favorite books of the year (so far); I definitely recommend all of them.



1) The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar fantasy ATY Week 41 A book by an author with the same first and last initials
2) An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon sci-fi ATY Week 8 An "own voices" book
3) Stray City by Chelsey Johnson fiction ATY Week 1 A book with the letters A, T & Y in the title
4) Borne by Jeff VanderMeer sci-fi ATY Week 3 A book from the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards
5) Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey fiction ATY Week 49 A book from one of the Goodreads Best Books of the Month lists
6) The Last to See Me by M. Dressler magical realism ATY Week 25 A book with an antagonist point of view
7) Paradise City by Elizabeth Day fiction ATY Week 11 A literary fiction
8) Solar Bones by Mike McCormack fiction; magical realism ATY Week 15 A book with an unique format

This book would fit the #10 Debut Novel or #35 featuring a Murder
Girl in Snow

I loved this book. The story, the way is was presented and most of all the writing. I was completely engaged from start to finish. The themes of teenage angst can be very trite and very boring but this author described the human conditions of love, longing, sadness, hurt and abandonment in beautiful prose-like structure. It was not a light read, nor was the ending tied up with a big bow. I am left with a feeling of hope for the characters. The only thing that I found slightly distracting was the skill and depth that the main teenagers were able to articulate their feelings with. But the writing was so terrific I didn't care. PS - If you are looking for a thriller/murder mystery you may be disappointed. But read it and appreciate it for the writing!

I recently read Never Let Me Go for sci-fi and it was really good! I also read Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and it was... not bad, for someone with little-to-no space knowledge. And it was a quick read.

I recently finished The Broken Girls for the ghost story prompt and it was SO GOOD. I was surprised, frankly. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It's like historical fiction and ghost story and murder mystery all rolled into a nice little action-packed package. If you're worried about the ghost story prompt, this is a good one for it!

I've been hearing great things about The Broken Girls, Emily. I think I officially need to add it to my list!

I have The Broken Girls out from the library now and plan to read it for the ghost story prompt. I was actually worried about that one so I'm so glad to know this is worth it!

Thanks Peter and Lori for the Air recs. The Shadow of the Wind looks right up my alley, I think I will use that, thanks!

The Insanity of God by Nic Ripkin. It is nonfiction about a Christian missionary. I listened to the audiobook last year, but could be used for "surviving a hardship" and parts of it occur in Africa.

Laura wrote: "Any recommendations for science or science fiction?

I'm typically not a fan of the genre so something that is a little heavier on thriller, horror, or adventure would be preferred."

Isaac Asimov has many science fiction short stories really nice, in case you don't want to read something too long.

For those who don't like scary stories and are looking for a book in the Ghost Story category. I recommend The Screaming Staircase, it is more adventure than anything else and it's just a little bit scary :)

Laura wrote: "Any recommendations for science or science fiction?

I'm typically not a fan of the genre so something that is a little heavier on thriller, horror, or adventure would be preferred."

Illuminae is amazing or The Bone Season is a si-fi with some fantasy elements.


Otherwise I have a Novella to recommend Every Heart a Doorway :)

Rachelnyc wrote: "Does anyone have a recommendation for #46. 4 elements Air?
I currently have When Breath Becomes Air slated in but I'd like a good fiction alternative.

I highly recommend The ..."</i>

I'll probably read [book:Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat. I read one other book by her and really liked it. And it's pretty short, so if you don't like it, you won't have to spend too long reading it! :)

My favorites so far this year:

A Visit from the Goon Squad - 11. literary fiction, or 15. a book with a unique structure

Everything Here Is Beautiful - 10. a debut novel, or 52. a book published in 2018

Rachelnyc wrote: "Does anyone have a recommendation for #46. 4 elements Air?

I recommend TransAtlantic (air travel) by Colum McCann. The book I'm reading The Air We Breathe is pretty good so far. I just started it but I've enjoyed 2 other book by Andrea Barrett. If you like historical fiction, The Winds of War by Herman Wouk is a terrific WWII saga!

Here are 3 of my favourites:
Stoner, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Wall.

For all these 3, there wasn't really much going on, but there was something about the mood that just got to me. Beautiful books.

A few recommendations:
General Fiction:
Crazy Rich Asians - kind of like reading a really good soap opera.

Science Fiction:
The Passage - not my typical genre but enjoyed this a lot.

Non-Fiction:
Lab Girl - this memoir could be read for science or science fiction

Mystery/Thriller:
The Last Place You Look - this is my favorite genre and this may have been my favorite of last year

Young Adult:
You Bring the Distant Near - really enjoyed the characters

Funny:
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir - I recommend the Audiobook

I have read a number of good books this year (so far).

Monkey: The Journey to the West is probably the biggest standout, but I also enjoyed

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal
The Complete Maus
The Vegetarian

Is anyone here doing the PopSugar challenge? One of the prompts is to read a book recommended by someone else doing that challenge, so I'm looking for recommendations.

I like nonfiction, literary fiction and sad/depressing/opposite of feel good books.

Katie wrote: "Is anyone here doing the PopSugar challenge? One of the prompts is to read a book recommended by someone else doing that challenge, so I'm looking for recommendations.

I like nonfiction, literary..."

I'm not doing the popsugar challenge, so I can't help you out there, but your post made me laugh with the "sad/depressing/opposite of feel good books". There was a thread on here a while ago that asked for recommendations for happy books and when I looked through my books to find something I could suggest I couldn't find anything because most of the books I read are not "happy" books.

Katie wrote: "Is anyone here doing the PopSugar challenge? One of the prompts is to read a book recommended by someone else doing that challenge, so I'm looking for recommendations.

I like nonfiction, literary..."

I'm doing the Pop Sugar challenge!
These are my favourite books so far from this year:

Literary Fiction
The Heart's Invisible Furies
The Animators
The Lonely Hearts Hotel
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Red Clocks
A Little Life (read a couple years ago, but the most depressing book I've ever read... but I loved it!)

Non-fiction
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Any recommendations for me? I have the same fave genres as you :)

I really enjoyed Battle Royale earlier this year. I used it for the hardship prompt. It's the Hunger Games set in Japan.

Katie wrote: "Is anyone here doing the PopSugar challenge? One of the prompts is to read a book recommended by someone else doing that challenge, so I'm looking for recommendations.

I like nonfiction, literary fiction and sad/depressing/opposite of feel good books."

Me! And you know you can rely on me for depressing book recommendations.

Jude the Obscure and A Fine Balance are the two most amazingly soul-shatteringly depressing books I've ever read. Jude still contains the single most horrendous thing I've ever read in fiction.

Then there's The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, which is beautiful, but so sad. A Monster Calls ... Night ... oh! All Quiet on the Western Front is incredible. If you want something short, Brokeback Mountain - even if you've seen the movie, it still packs a punch. Norwegian Wood is also fantastic. And there's always Flowers for Algernon.

I read Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman last week and loved it.
It was a bit sad (I was crying) just before the end of the book.

Katie wrote: "Is anyone here doing the PopSugar challenge? One of the prompts is to read a book recommended by someone else doing that challenge, so I'm looking for recommendations.

I like nonfiction, literary..."

I'm doing PopSugar!

I finished both Stay with Me and All the Light We Cannot See this month -- both literary, both depressing, both excellent.

I also really enjoyed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil for a good nonfiction character study.

I'll also second Jody's A Monster Calls. Soul-aching and beautifully illustrated.

I just finished and can recommend The Supernatural Enhancements. I read it for gothic, but it could also work for unique format. The first half is more like horror, so if you don't like that give it a pass, but I thought it was quirky and smart with funny bits

Peter, same! I had nothing to contribute to that thread either.

Erica, thanks for the recommendations!

For literary fiction, I'd recommend the following:
Homegoing
Behold the Dreamers
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Human Acts

For nonfiction:
Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
The Lost Painting

Thanks for the recommendations, Jody & Emily. I have a number of those on my TBR, so it's nice to hear they're worth reading. I just had a friend from college recommend Stay with Me this weekend. Sounds like I should definitely look that one up.

Katie, read The Good Nurse. CRAZY, depressing all of that lol

I’m going to recommend News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel García Márquez.

It’s a nonfiction book that is more beautifully written and captivating than most fiction I’ve read. It’s honestly one of the best books I’ve ever read, which is definitely not something I say lightly.

Or, for a shorter read (it’d work for the AtY short book prompt, or a book to read in one sitting}, I would recommend The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by the same author. It’s another nonfiction book that’s more exciting than many novels.

Bryony wrote: "I’m going to recommend News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel García Márquez.

It’s a nonfiction book that is more beautifully written and captivating than most fiction I’ve re..."

Thank you Bryony for the suggestions! I added both to my TBR, which unfortunately is growing at 10X the rate than what I’m reading! I need a translated history book for my Translated Lit challenge. News of a Kidnapping sounds perfect!

Here is another Air suggestion- All the Birds in the Sky. I haven’t read it yet but it is the 2017 Nebula winner and Hugo finalist so it should be good! The main page genres include sci-fi, fantasy, and magical realism.

I'm excited to go through all those sci-fi recs!

I went through my books and tried to find a few that are a little lesser known (I read a lot of popular books) :

Little Black Lies by Sharon J. Bolton
Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas
Savages by Shirley Conran

A few of my favorites from this year's reading spree:
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and What We Can Do about It by Kate Harding
The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
Nothing Left to Burn by Heather Ezell

Recently I read The Keeper of Lost Things and thought it was fantastic.