Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

It's now time to get ready to vote for our first set of prompts! The thread will be open for at least 24 hours before the poll gets posted. This is a good opportunity to ask any question you may have regarding the prompts, do some research or ask for recommendations.

Voting will open on Wednesday, July 8 and results will be posted in the morning of Sunday, July 12 (CST time).

How it works:
- When the voting opens, follow the link to the mini-poll that will be added at the end of this post
- You have a total of 8 votes this poll to spread across your favourite and least favourite prompts (you can also use less than 8 votes) - You can find examples of acceptable voting practices on the Introduction thread.
- The prompts with the more favorable votes (comparing top votes to bottom votes, and looking at the overall number of votes it received) will be added to the final list (between 2 and 5 depending on how the votes are spread)

We are asking people to include their Goodreads profile address when they vote. To find this, just go to your own profile and then copy the URL/web address. If for some reason you can't link to your Goodreads profile, please post your full Goodreads name with enough identifiable information that we'll be able to access your profile. We’ve introduced this for two reasons:

1. On a few occasions in each poll, people have used more than the allotted number of votes, either because they aren’t familiar with the rules or just by mistake. When this happens our only option is to disregard the vote as we can’t identify the voter to ask them to resubmit. By asking for your profile address we’ll be able to message you and ask you to vote again if you’ve accidentally used more than the allotted number of votes.

2. Unfortunately a very small number of people have voted more than once per poll and so we are asking for this information to prevent duplicate votes.

As a reminder: You have a total of 8 votes to use among your top and bottom votes. The mods have access to each individual vote, so we can see if you use more than 8 votes. If you use more than 8 votes in the poll, your vote will have to be deleted, so please make sure to follow the directions so your voice can be heard.

Possible Prompts:
1. A book whose title contains a negative (No, Not, Never, Nobody, Can't, Don't, etc.)
2. A book with a day of the week or a month in the title
3. A book with a focus on the natural world
4. A book that deals with second chances
5. A book related to one of the United Nations 2021 "International Year" themes (Peace & Trust, Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Fruits & Vegetables, and Elimination of Child Labor)
6. A book related to mental health
7. A book written by someone no more than two degrees of separation away from you
8. A book where the author has the same first and last initial as you
9. A book related to Don McLean's "American Pie"
10. A book published before you were born
11. A book with an animal on the cover
12. A book that isn't a graphic novel but contains illustrations
13. A book related to a generation that you don’t belong to
14. A book that you consider to be Brain Candy
15. A retelling of a ‘classic’ by a BIPOC author

Feel free to discuss the prompts below, but please remember to be respectful to the other group members.

VOTE HERE: https://www.surveymoz.com/s/6ZC1Z4/

DISCUSSION AND EXAMPLES FROM THE SUGGESTIONS THREAD

1. A book whose title contains a negative (No, Not, Never, Nobody, Can't, Don't, etc.)
If you read in another language, the equivalent words will count.

3. A book with a focus on the natural world
This would include animals and plants, the oceans or atmosphere, the earth itself, the cosmos, the microbial world... Could include fiction like Where the Crawdads Sing, The Signature of All Things, or The Overstory among others.

4. A book that deals with second chances
Could be a plot that involves a second chance (divorce, relocation, going home again, etc.), a book you failed to finish that you are giving a second chance, or one you are reading a second time, or an author you are reading for the second time.

5. A book related to one of the United Nations 2021 "International Year" themes (Peace & Trust, Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Fruits & Vegetables, and Elimination of Child Labor).
https://www.un.org/en/sections/observ...

6. A book related to mental health
May is Mental Health Awareness Month & Saturday October 10 is World Mental Health Day. The book can be related to mental health in any way. Memoir, True Crime, Short Stories, the psychology behind something.

7. A book written by someone no more than two degrees of separation away from you
As a reminder, you are one degree away from everyone you know, two degrees away from everyone they know, and so on. If we consider everyone in this group to be one degree away from each other, it will follow that you are two degrees away from any author/writer whom any group member here has ever met, and can choose from all those authors for this prompt. And guess what, we have started a list to collect all those one-degree connections:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

To sum up, for this prompt you could read a book by
- any author whom you have met personally or had a meaningful interaction with, e.g. on social media (must include a personal conversation/comment, not just the author clicking Like on a comment you made),
- any author whom someone you know has met (same conditions as above), or
- any author on the list above, comprising authors whom our fellow group members have met. Which is cool, because it features loads of international and indie authors but also a good deal of famous names.

You do not need to reach out to, or have met, any authors yourself to fulfill this prompt. Example: I've met Austrian author Ursula Poznanski in person at a signing, and I've corresponded personally with Sharon Bolton on Facebook (by private message). So everyone in this group is, through me, two degrees of separation away from these two authors and could read anything by either one of them.

9. A book related to Don McLean's "American Pie"
Here's a link to the lyrics: https://genius.com/Don-mclean-america... The song contains many explicit and implied references to cultural concepts, especially musical. "(John) Lennon read a book on (Karl) Marx"; "the quartet (The Beatles) practiced in the park"; "the day the music died" (the plane crash of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper"). There are also biblical references in parts. If anyone has ever been part of Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth, this prompt's for you especially.

11. A book with an animal on the cover
The book doesn't need to be about the animal, any animal on the cover will work. This could be a fiction or non-fiction read. In the last year or so I've read Dewey The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron and A Dog's Purpose (A Dog's Purpose, #1) by W. Bruce Cameron. Goodreads has a bunch of lists with different animals
Non-Fiction - Favorite Animal - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1....
Mostly Fiction, some Non-Fiction -Butterflies - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

14. A book that you consider to be Brain Candy
Brain Candy is a book that is fun to read but not necessarily intellectually stimulating, also often referred to as "fluff" reads. Here's a link to the Brain Candy shelf on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Ideas for a book related to one of the United Nations 2021 "International Year" themes (Peace & Trust, Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Fruits & Vegetables, and Elimination of Child Labor)... Here are some key words I found (and fun words I added) when researching this prompt:

Peace & Trust (link)- political dialogue, foreign policy, understanding and cooperation, harmony, hippies, meditation, trust/lying, trust funds, politics, peace sign or dove on cover, war/peace

Creative Economy for Sustainable Development (link) - economic growth, creative economy, human resource capacity, entrepreneurship, innovation, diversifying production and exports

Fruits & Vegetables (link) - agriculture, farming, nutrition, health, food security, hunger, food waste, dinner parties

Elimination of Child Labor (link) - modern slavery, human trafficking, child soldiers

I completely missed the suggestions round but there are so many great prompts in here! I especially like the UN one.

I might actually end up only upvoting on this poll which must be a first for me.

Avery wrote: "Ideas for a book related to one of the United Nations 2021 "International Year" themes (Peace & Trust, Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Fruits & Vegetables, and Elimination of Child La..."

Thanks for these, Avery. Very useful.

Avery wrote: "Ideas for a book related to one of the United Nations 2021 "International Year" themes (Peace & Trust, Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Fruits & Vegetables, and Elimination of Child La..."

Thanks Avery! I suggested this prompt and am happy others are finding it interesting. I like to read both fiction and nonfiction, and I thought this prompt would help fit another nonfiction for me.

However, I can also imagine a cozy mystery with fruit on the cover, or historical fiction about a war (or the ending of a war), and lots of other possibilities that could work for anyone!

I'm not sure how I'm going to vote with this one. My first thoughts have 2 tops and 4 bottoms but I might change my mind about my bottom from the discussion.

I like a lot of these prompts.

One that might seem limited for people, but I like, is a retelling of a classic by a BIPOC author (mostly because I've been meaning to read Pride but keep not getting to it). There have been a lot of retelling prompts in various challenges, so I'm curious how the voting will go.

I found this list, which includes the Pride and Prejudice tellings I was aware of: https://akernelofnonsense.wordpress.c...

There are also other lists of retellings that would need to be pared down for the "BIPOC" part.

Illustrations could be:
- photo insert in the middle
- chapter heading art (e.g. Harry Potter - example)
- graphs/charts/maps
- children's books
- pattern/art on the inside of the hardcover book (e.g. Starless Sea - example)

I really dislike the author with the same initials as me. The last time we did this prompt it was a real struggle to find an author.

The two degrees of separation will also be a down vote. I have meet or interacted with famous people but do not find it a thrill. Usually they have appreciated when I do not mention them being, so and so.

The age, or generation prompts are to divisive for me right now. With epitaths like boomer being thrown around at the moment I want to avoid those connotations.

The negative word in a title is intriguing. Brain candy sounds like fun.

I am not sure about the rest.

I found this wikipedia list of authors which might be useful for checking initials. I'm sure it's not exhaustive but might provide some ideas. There aren't a lot of options for me but I can always read some Karl Marx again.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...

Kat wrote: "I found this wikipedia list of authors which might be useful for checking initials. I'm sure it's not exhaustive but might provide some ideas. There aren't a lot of options for me but I can always ..."

Deleting question..reread the description in the 1st post.

I really like most of these suggestions, there are only 2 I would down vote. I also know 4 I definitely want to up vote, so I need to research the others to decide what to do with my final 2 votes.

Emily wrote: "It's now time to get ready to vote for our first set of prompts! The thread will be open for at least 24 hours before the poll gets posted. This is a good opportunity to ask any question you may ha..."

According to the voting schedule graphic, shouldn't the results be posted on Sunday, July 12th, and not on Tuesday, July 14th? Just double checking!

Oh thank god, I like this group of prompts much more than the first poll! I think I'd be happy with almost any of these.

Alesha wrote: "Emily wrote: "It's now time to get ready to vote for our first set of prompts! The thread will be open for at least 24 hours before the poll gets posted. This is a good opportunity to ask any quest..."

You're totally right. I put it in the first post without consulting the schedule.. It's updated now!

I seconded the BIPOC retelling because it sounds hard, but there are different types of books that meet this. As a BIPOC, I realize that when it comes to reading, people do generally need to put in more work to find books not written by straight or cis white authors. It’s an effort, but it’s worth it. And makes it easier in the future for books like these to get attention and hopefully more publishing opportunities. My dream is one day, this will be an easy topic with too many options that it is boring. =)

For example, here is a link to 23: https://www.tor.com/2020/02/05/23-ret...

This also doesn’t include Cinderella is Dead or the various Hamilton books.

Alicia wrote: "I seconded the BIPOC retelling because it sounds hard, but there are different types of books that meet this. As a BIPOC, I realize that when it comes to reading, people do generally need to put in..."

Thanks for the resource! At one point I found myself focusing on diversifying my reading, and now I find I more naturally add diversity to my TBR without trying. I agree that the effort is worth it! I've been thinking about "nonfiction by a BIPOC author", but know a bunch of people don't like nonfiction so was waiting a bit to see how the list was evolving.

Alicia wrote: "I seconded the BIPOC retelling because it sounds hard, but there are different types of books that meet this. As a BIPOC, I realize that when it comes to reading, people do generally need to put in..."

Thanks for the link! I was on the fence about voting for this one because I couldn't think of too many options, but this list reminded me that there are tons and many are already on my TBR. I just didn't always think of them as retellings for some reason.

I like this list, with the exception of the American Pie one. Don McLean lives near me and recently pleaded guilty in court to a domestic violence charge. And he's been a bit of a jerk about it since it happened. For me, I'd rather not see his name on our list.

I think my upvotes will be the negative in the title, natural world, mental health and Brain Candy. I'm not sure what I will do, if anything, with my other 3 votes.

I suggested the ‘retelling by a BIPOC author prompt, and I read a fair number of these, for me it is that I find it fascinating to see what people from different cultures preserve and reject from these stories

Juliet wrote: "I suggested the ‘retelling by a BIPOC author prompt, and I read a fair number of these, for me it is that I find it fascinating to see what people from different cultures preserve and reject from t..."

I'm not thrilled about retellings of any type. I would prefer something new, for example, a non-European story such as The Water Dancer or Black Leopard, Red Wolf or Binti, all of which I have on my "want to read". Those are all fantasy but if we went with a retelling I guess I would read one of the Pride & Prejudice variations.

So I'm really not a fan of many this week. I like the retelling prompt but the rest of mine will most likely be down votes.

I appreciated the uniqueness of the We Didn’t Start the Fire and American Pie prompts, but they just don’t suit my reading styles/genres. Unfortunately, the American Pie prompt also seems to be vague and narrow at the same time - since the references are less specific and less abundant.

From the definition you posted, Brain Candy seems like what I consider beach reads and guilty pleasures, which is totally great for me! But for some reason when I think of the term Brain Candy, my mind goes to books that exercise your brain and make you think, like mind puzzles, whodunnits, complex plots, etc. Am I the only one who thought this at first??

Anastasia wrote: "The two degrees of separation will also be a down vote. I have meet or interacted with famous people but do not find it a thrill. Usually they have appreciated when I do not mention them being, so and so. "

Actually, the intention behind me suggesting that prompt had nothing at all to do with the "thrill of knowing famous people", it was all about the degrees of separation phenomenon and how small our world has become. That in just two steps, all our reading could be connected directly. and through the list we are making, we are creating touchpoints for authors who probably would never have caught the attention of other group members otherwise (does that make sense?)
That said, I'm happy enough that my first-ever suggestion made it directly to voting, so I'm not going to try and dissuade you from downvoting if you're not feeling that prompt :D

I also have to agree with previous posters that this is a really cool round of suggestions! I will definitely upvote more than downvote! Actually, the only ones that don't really appeal to me are the "day of the week or month in the title" prompt (been there, done that, more than once, in past challenges), "published before you were born" (same), and the American Pie one (never liked the song, and there is so much only hinted at in the lyrics that it's at the same time pretty narrow and incredibly broad).

The BIPOC retelling will be a challenge for me, but one I'm more than willing to take. And I've done the initials one, but luckily my go-to initials author has written a series with a bunch of entries and I'm not even halfway through it, so I can always pick up the next one.

I wouldn't call most the authors on our degree of separation list famous people. Some of us have just interacted with more authors because we like books and have had the opportunity, not because we get thrills out of meeting famous people. Anyway, I seconded because I thought it was a different way to make a list.

I like most of these.

The initials one is quite limiting for me, but I suppose I will finally read Code Name Verity if it gets in.

@°~Amy~° I didn't know that about Don Mclean and I agree it wouldn't be good to have him on our list. I like the idea of another song lyrics prompt though.

Avery wrote: "...From the definition you posted, Brain Candy seems like what I consider beach reads and guilty pleasures, which is totally great for me! But for some reason when I think of the term Brain Candy, my mind goes to books that exercise your brain and make you think, like mind puzzles, whodunnits, complex plots, etc. Am I the only one who thought this at first??."

I had the same idea when I saw the prompt :)

I really like the majority of these suggestions and honestly would be happy with any. Like someone else has said, I think this might be the first round where I only upvote!

The only prompt that I think I'll find difficult is an author with the same initials as myself. Having a look at my TBR, there's only one book that fits and I was planning on reading that this year. Of course, if I enjoy the book, I may end up adding the author's other works to my TBR but it's a bit early to say...

Voting is now open!
https://www.surveymoz.com/s/6ZC1Z4/

(I haven't even had a second to look at the prompts besides copying them over to this list, so I'm excited to finally dive into them and see what all the fuss is about!)

Just voted - I had to do some research to see if there were ones on my tbr that would fit the days of the week and month prompt. Turns out there were a few so I didn't downvote it but I didn't upvote it either. Same for author with my initials. You would think that an author with JB wouldn't be hard but I only found three on my list. So once again I didn't downvote or upvote that one. I love the mental health prompt because I feel like I have a bunch on my list. I also loved the prompt with a book published before you were born. I also upvoted the one with a negative in the title. I also liked the illustration one. I feel like I read a couple of those every year.

I ended up with 4 up and 4 down this poll, which is interesting because at first glance, I thought it was a really unique set of prompts, but there were a few that would just be really difficult for me. Emily Bronte was pretty much the only author I could find that I had a heard of with my initials. But! I was happily surprised with that list of retellings by BIPOC authors... there were a few on the list I have on my TBR. So some up, some down.

I found a single author with my initials on my tbr list and it’s a book about pandemics.....

I'm not really familiar with the term BIPOC. I googled it and it seems it's a different way of saying people of colour with emphasis on black and indigenous? But we could also read Asian authors for it? Or is it trying to get us to read specifically black or indigenous authors?

Ellie wrote: "I'm not really familiar with the term BIPOC. I googled it and it seems it's a different way of saying people of colour with emphasis on black and indigenous? But we could also read Asian authors fo..."

it's just more inclusive so it stands for black, indigenous AND people of colour. asian authors are covered whether they are Black or non-Black 😊

Thanks annie :)

I decided not to downvote anything as there are too many prompts I like and I can work with the others.

Voted for negative in title, natural world, second chances, UN international year, mental health, degrees of separation, brain candy and BIPOC retelling.

i upvoted negative title & day/month in title (i really like title/cover prompts), natural world (so i can read some of climate science books on my tbr), second chances (for a second chance romance!) and mental health.

i downvoted published before you were born (i prefer newer titles), the two degrees of separation, and the brain candy one.

I upvoted 8! I chose the negative title, day/month in the title, UN 2021, book published before I was born, illustrations, the generation one, and the BIPOC one. Then I can't remember if I chose the two degrees of separation or the author with the same initials one lol... Hopefully I didn't pick both and end up with 9 votes (oops)?!

Your vote is fine, Alexx 😂 for reference, if anyone votes more than 8 votes or votes multiple times, we delete the response and reach out to you to vote again (which is why we collect your profile link).

Emily wrote: "Your vote is fine, Alexx 😂 for reference, if anyone votes more than 8 votes or votes multiple times, we delete the response and reach out to you to vote again (which is why we collect your profile ..."

Thanks for checking! I had a moment of panic where I remember having to choose between the two and couldn't remember if I chose both or just one lol

Anastasia wrote: "I really dislike the author with the same initials as me. The last time we did this prompt it was a real struggle to find an author.

The two degrees of separation will also be a down vote. I have..."

That was kind of why I put the generation idea out there. I thought it might be good for everyone to read something from a perspective outside of their own and maybe give a better idea of where people are coming from, at least that was what I was hoping.

I had a 4/4 split but once I got into the poll I ended up switching it to 3/5. Even though I only up voted 3 there were several that I also liked.

I ended up downvoting the author with the same initials as you as there is a single author on my 800+ TBR list that fits the prompt and I didn’t want to limit myself to a single book.

I ended up with a 6/2 split. There were only two I didn't really want to do. Day of the week/month just does not have anything on my tbr. I'm also not feeling the "American Pie" prompt. But those were the only two; pretty much everything else I could find something on my tbr to read.

I had to vote for same initials, as I'm supposed to get married this year and it'd be a fun way to commemorate my name change. I love how unique some of these prompts are - like the second chances, UN 2021 International year, and 2 degrees of separation.

Avery wrote: "I had to vote for same initials, as I'm supposed to get married this year and it'd be a fun way to commemorate my name change. I love how unique some of these prompts are - like the second chances,..."

Congrats, Avery! Hope your planning is going well. I got married in 2018 and I don't really miss the planning aspect haha! The party itself, though...

I am so excited about the BIPOC retelling. I really hope that makes the final list.

Here are a couple fantastic books that I can't recommend enough.


This is a retelling of the Indian epic the Mahabharata. It is fantastical & mythological, and really really exquisite, even if you don't know the original work (which I didn't).


This is a retelling of Antigone, and also a political novel & a love story. And it's stunning. Kind of a perfect novel to me.

You should add them to your TBR, even if this prompt doesn't make the list.

It sounds like if a prompt isn't eliminated by a certain number of down votes, it can be resubmitted, so some will get more chances.

Found these prompts much more interesting than those of poll 1!
Loved the UN prompt, the illustrations and the initials (very challenging!), but also voted for the negative.
I voted out all prompts I considered too vast: published before I was born (anything written before 1930 will probably work for all of us) and the generation I don't belong to. Didn't like the two degree of separation either.
Looking forward to the results :)