Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

For this prompt, I read Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters and would definitely recommend it for a quick, easy read.

I also just finished Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything and would definitely recommend it! I'm using it for prompt 47 (nonfiction other than biography or memoir) but it could easily fit this prompt as well!

Some other "You read what?!" recommendations:
How to Raise Kids You Want to Keep: The Proven Discipline Program Your Kids Will Love - weird title, good parenting book for those "spirited" kids.

Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit - very good, very dark.

Stray - a free (at the time, at least) Kindle book that I really, really enjoyed. Including it because it seems to be not widely known. Also first in a series.

Gemma wrote: "So I could use this prompt to read any of Caitlin Doughty's books that I want to read.

But on the other hand, I'll probably use them for other prompts so I've decided to go for so..."

you could! I'm using her for book with more than 6 words in the title

Ali wrote: "I read Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. I really loved this book. I picked it for the prompt after I described what I was reading to a friend and they literally said WHAT??!

Wh..."

This book was the BEST! Even better, if you're an Awkwafina fan (I am)- the audio book reader sounds like her and makes the book even more a joy!

. What are you reading for this category? I'm feeling boring! Real Men Knit
2. How does it fit the prompt? Well, that was my reaction when someone said they read this- "what???"
3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
Well, not sure that Kissing the Coronavirus can be beat!

Pamela wrote: "Ali wrote: "I read Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. I really loved this book. I picked it for the prompt after I described what I was reading to a friend and they literally said..."

I was on the fence about this book, but your Awkwafina comment sold me! Off to find the audiobook!

What are you reading for this category?
I've just finished In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Šlepikas, translated from Lithuanian by Romas Kinka
How does it fit the prompt?
It's a harrowing novel based on the experiences of German children in what used to be East Prussia scavenging to survive in Lithuania at the end of WWII, an uncomfortable and painful read. There were several moments when I felt I couldn't bear to continue reading.
What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
I had wondered about reading a silly children's book, it would have been fun to sit on a bus reading The Adventures of Captain Underpants or The Cat in the Hat but at the moment here in England we're in lockdown so I wouldn't have got the sideways looks. I may still get out some of my son's favourites from when he was little just to reminisce about those shared bedtime reads.

1. What are you reading for this category?
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen
2. How does it fit the prompt?
Well, first off I rarely if ever voluntarily read non-fiction, so people I know would say "wait you picked that up for fun?" but then I think a lot of strangers might see the title and have no idea what asexuality even is.
3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre looks normal enough, but it's really hard to explain the plot to any nosey nellies who ask about what your reading.
And I did enjoy my choice - Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen. It's a topic I know a lot about, but this is a good choice even if asexuality is a new concept for you.

Marie wrote: "1. What are you reading for this category?
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen
2. How does it fit the prompt?..."

Just read The Girl in 6E and loved it! Not my usual style! At all! But, yep, definitely not an easy plot to describe. Thanks for the recommendation!

The Conjure-Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher? It was written in the 1930s and is apparently, the first mystery novel written by an African American. Thank you Buzzfeed.

I truly enjoyed Does It Fart?: The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence. A great science book on digestive systems from slugs to humans. As for answering the question "You read what?" When I brought it up to the librarians to check it out they got a good laugh. One even asked if I got that on their shelves. My brother had a fit and asked many guy questions on farts. Such fun.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read Last Day by Bryan Smith

2. How does it fit the prompt?
I didn't start reading it thinking that it would. I had it in mind for another prompt. But it turned out to be such a depraved book with literally no redeeming qualities that I'm sure I would get horrified looks and 'you read what?'s from people if I told them how bad it was!

3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
I honestly have no idea.

For this prompt I was going to read Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler or To Mock a Killing Bird by Raymond D. Mason.

1. What are you reading for this category? Bunny
2. How does it fit the prompt? when I have heard this book being described it makes me have that "you read what?" thought. I have been thinking about reading it for a while so this seemed like a good time to give it a go.
3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
It is always hard to tell what might raise someone else's eyebrows but here are a few that do it for me.
Titles
Bunny really is weird and beautiful and works well for this.
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
My Sister, the Serial Killer
The Smell of Other People's Houses
Content
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things - This book is not for everyone it can be ugly.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

2. How does it fit the prompt? Death is uncomfortable for many people.

3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forché

I think I'm going to use Linguistics For Dummies. I'm learning Russian, relearning Spanish, and thinking about learning a little French and Polish, all on the Duolingo App. I've always had an interest in languages so I think this book will be interesting to me but others might say why would you want to read THAT?!

This is absolutely my favorite topic as I love weird titles, and have read 46 of the top 100 titles in the Funny Book Titles list.

The best candidate I have read this year is Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. The author apologized for the bombastic title to those mitochondriacs (yes, it is a word) who feel embarrassed to read it on the subway... on the other hand, when I told people I was reading a book about mitochondria, they went, you read what???

On the other hand, I think I might read something fun.

Some titles I have read in the past that literally raised someone’s eyebrow were:
Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls

John Dies at the End

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies

The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure

This prompt was worth it just to read the lists of possibilities. I couldn't stop with just one.

I read these. They also fit other prompts.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies - Very good short story collection. 4 stars
Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science - The cannibal part is misleading but still weird. 3.5 stars
Walking the Nile - 3 stars

I plan to read:
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions - A geometric love story
The Tsar of Love and Techno
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within - this is a great series. (My family might be surprised that I'm reading science fiction.)
The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America - I'm getting this for my husband.

I recommend:
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead- 4 stars. It also fits the Warwick Prize.
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows - 5 stars
Nothing to See Here - I would not have selected this based on the cover, 4+ stars - It also has a negative in the title.

My people know me. They know I will read almost anything, so nothing I read surprises them much. I chose and recommend:

A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back

1. What are you reading for this category? We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper
2. How does it fit the prompt? If you tried to summarize the story, you'd definitely get whattt??? responses (the insularity of Harvard departments, sexism in academia, murder of a young graduate student that goes unsolved for decades)
3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt? Finding Faeries: Discovering Sprites, Pixies, Redcaps, and Other Fantastical Creatures in an Urban Environment (hard to categorize - sort of a bestiary), My Sister, the Serial Killer (thriller), Raising Them: Our Adventure in Gender Creative Parenting (memoir of parents who chose not to disclose the gender of their child), and Dictionary of the Khazars (a book published with male and female versions, identical except for 17 crucially different lines)

1. What are you reading for this category? Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory
2. How does it fit the prompt? The author works at a Crematory
3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt? Last year I read the author's other book Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies and that really fits this prompt. The best thing is to listen to these books on audio because the author is hilarious and she narrates them.

1. What are you reading for this category?

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith.

2. How does it fit this prompt? I'd read a book for this prompt, then saw this in a bookshop and couldn't resist the title. Not a normal request. The plot which involves shape-shifting, talking animals and a mysterious forest is also pretty difficult to explain. This is a ghost story/thriller set in Vietnam and while I normally avoid magic realism, this kept me gripped. You need to be alert to follow the ins and outs of the plot. This book would work for a number of prompts - element of magic, ensemble cast, greenery on the cover, 'u' in title and author's name.

3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?

Care of Wooden Floors;
Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS;
Do Ants Have Arseholes?;
Fruit of the Drunken Tree

I can't imagine anyone I know saying that about anything, however I guess I'd get some looks reading this one on the train...

Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio

Tsipi wrote: "I can't imagine anyone I know saying that about anything, however I guess I'd get some looks reading this one on the train...

[book:Cunt: A De..."

This has got to be the winner! Don't bring it to work, or someone might file a harassment complaint against you. (I actually had to investigate a complaint like that, it was discussed in the context of the Sex and the City play.)

I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle byHaruki Murakami. He is just one of those authors where once you read one of his books, you have to read more. It's a big book with weird worlds. I just buckled my seatbelt & was not disappointed. I'm going to read the guide just to make sure I truly understood the book.

I would recommend The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Catch-22, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

TIFFANY wrote: "I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle byHaruki Murakami. He is just one of those authors where once you read one of his books, you have to read more. It's a big book with wei..."

Reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle did make me say "what??"! I didn't really know what to make of it after I read it, but I've been feeling weirdly compelled to reread it. I feel the same way about The Vegetarian .

What are you reading for this category?
I read Stop Bloody Bossing Me About: How We Need To Stop Being Told What To Do by Quentin Letts

How does it fit the prompt?
It wasn't originally what I had planned to read, but when I was reading it someone who asked me what I was reading and when told said those exact words with feeling

The Peanuts Papers: Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life

It's not my normal reading.

Hannah wrote: "TIFFANY wrote: "I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle byHaruki Murakami. He is just one of those authors where once you read one of his books, you have to read more. It's a b..."

I was introduced to Murakami with 1Q84. That really made me go "What?!?" This time, I expected to be shocked. I'll take a look at The Vegetarian. Many people in my family are vegans - so I wonder what kind of surprises lay in wait there.

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World

2. How does it fit the prompt?
While this book was somewhat popular, it seems a bit strange to read an entire book about eels.

3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

Suzanne wrote: " 1. What are you reading for this category?
The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World

2. How does it fit the prompt?
Wh..."



I loved that book!! And I have very little interest in eels hahaha!!

I read F*ckface: and Other Stories for this prompt, an engaging collection of short stories about life in Appalachia. I'll admit the title hooked me initially, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it turned out to be.

Recommendations for books off the beaten track include Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked, You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine and Tampa. For the title alone, you can't beat Scary Old Sex, Its Head Came Off by Accident: A Memoir and I Love Dick.

I so intended to read Infinite Jest, 🙄 , but this book arrived in the mail and was so far out of my standard reading zone that I used it in place of DFW's tome. The book that I ultimately selected to read for this prompt was The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling.

I must say that this sparky and steamy fantasy was a fun read.

1. What are you reading for this category? One Tuesday Morning
2. How does it fit the prompt? It has a religious/ christian narrative. Even as a committed Christian myself people know this sort of fiction annoys me - nobody is so "perfect"
3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant

1. What are you reading for this category?
I want to read a NetGalley ARC I took recently, called Can You Sign My Tentacle? by Brandon O'Brien.

2. How does it fit the prompt?
Cthulhu meets hip-hop in this book of horror poems that flips the eldritch genre upside down.
Plus the cover looks weird

3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt?
Where Willy Went by Nicholas Allan it's a funny and cool book I adored about a sperm :D.

I found the perfect book on my TBR. I read My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland. Between the title and the cover, it's pretty obvious how it fits. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the book actually. I was expecting something on the level of the Stephanie Plum books but I thought this book was much better than that. More like Mercy Thompson.

1. What are you reading for this category? I read The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon

2. How does it fit the prompt? I love Arthurian legends and even named my daughter Avalon. To find out that MZB was a child abuser married to a pedophile was shocking. To read a memoire when someone sets out their life story of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse isn't my normal reading.

3. What would you recommend to others for this prompt? This prompt is so personal, but I did enjoy reading everyone's comments and all the creative ways people fulfilled the prompt. That hip-hop Cthulhu book sounds interesting.

This is one of my favourite prompts this year. I read Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan (which wasn't one of my favourite reads of the year!).

I think it obviously fits for the title, and probably for the cover:



Also, anyone who knows me, if I told them that I'd read a non-fiction about romance novels, would react the same way, since romance is my most disliked genre.

For recommendations I'd suggest When God Was a Rabbit for the title, and for the reason for that title (I don't think it's a spoiler, but just in case (view spoiler)[the main character names her pet rabbit God (hide spoiler)]), All Systems Red for the description - "A security droid becomes self-aware, names itself 'Murderbot' and just wants to be left alone to watch soap operas", and The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece and The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder, all for the title.