Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

It's now time to get ready to vote for our next set of prompts! This thread will be open for around 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 in the morning of Thursday, August 19 and results will be posted in the morning of Monday, August 23.

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 favorite and least favorite 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 (usually between 2 and 5 depending on how the votes are spread)

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 with a theme of redemption
2. A book related to The Princess Bride movie
3. A book related to mythology
4. A book mentioned on the Reading Women podcast
5. A book shelved as Literary Fiction
6. A book that involves aging, or a character in their golden years
7. A book characterizable as Up Lit
8. A book related to a movie or TV project being released in 2022
9. A book with a protagonist who is a military veteran
10. A book from NPR's Book Concierge
11. A book with a theme of food or drink
12. A classic
13. A book about the forbidden
14. A book about healing
15. A book set in more than one country

VOTE HERE: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/PHT2WG/

IDEAS FROM THE SUGGESTIONS THREAD

I know Ellie also said this in the suggestions thread, but it looks like #15 should actually be "A book set in more than one country," since it was seconded before "A book with a horse on the cover."

Saw that this is being addressed. Thanks Robin!

I hit a reading slump so I've been making/collecting lists instead.

UP-LIT, and Uplifting books
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Literary Fiction, and best literary fiction of the 21st century
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Mythology retellings
https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/li...

Katie wrote: "I know Ellie also said this in the suggestions thread, but it looks like #15 should actually be "A book set in more than one country," since it was seconded before "A book with a horse on the cover..."

Thank you both! My worst fear about starting to do this was missing something, they came in almost the same time. I have corrected the necessary threads.

Apologies for the confusion to everyone who was on the suggestions thread!

First glance is 7 up and 1 down. We have more than enough location setting prompts.

A book related to The Princess Bride movie

It is the 35th anniversary of the movie.

This could include the book itself, The Princess Bride or books about the movie or the actors such as As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

It could also include books with:
* witty banter
* romance
* fairy tale
* a wedding
* pirates
* giants
* "inconceivable" in the title
* swords
* royalty
* other books by William Goldman

A book related to a movie or TV project being released in 2022

https://the-bibliofile.com/2022-books...
https://variety.com/feature/books-bec...

I agree with Nancy. I love a setting prompt, but we have the 3-week different continents and set in a small/rural town. So even I'm tired of it.

I'll definitely upvote mythology and golden years. But I'll probably wait to listen to the discussion for my other 5 votes.

Any examples of military protagonists?

I loved the NPR lists last time they were a prompt, lots of variation so that will be an upvote. Maybe also Reading Women though it's a bit of a pain to click through on each episode, what I've seen on first glance looks promising. Can't believe I like both list prompts!

I'm gonna need someone to sell military veteran to me, I can only think of a certain sort of thriller that doesn't really appeal.

A book related to mythology

Here's the Goodreads page with anything they have shelved under mythology: https://www.goodreads.com/genres/myth...

Here's one I hit by accident https://www.goodreads.com/genres/myth...

A book with a theme of redemption


The Kite Runner -
Les Miserables -
A Tale of Two Cities –
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption -
The Language of Flowers –
The Last Sin Eater –
Atonement –
Home
Gilead -
The Count of Monte Cristo –
Silas Marner –
Just Mercy
A Christmas Carol –
Crime and Punishment –
Redeeming Love –
Off The Grid –
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe –
Chronicles of Narnia –
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry –
Redemption (Redemption #1) –
The Storyteller –


Listopias:
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/rede...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Alicia wrote: "Any examples of military protagonists?..."

Does veteran not mean they are no longer in the military? I'm not really familiar with military terms.

A book mentioned on the Reading Women podcast

An easy way to find a book is to reference this listopia for nominees/winners of their award (both fiction and nonfiction):

Goodreads listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

Alternately, you can peruse their episode list here:
Episode list: https://www.readingwomenpodcast.com/e...

Some books are mentioned in the topics, alternatively if you find a topic of interest and click on the link, a list of books mentioned is included (you don’t need to listen to the podcast).

A book that involves aging, or a character in their golden years

This could be fun, involving adventures, mysteries, new friends, romance, bucket lists. It could be a meaningful exploration of important themes in life, purpose, legacy, connection. It could be a bio or memoir of an active older person still getting it done. It could involve mending breaks, reconnections, family secrets. Adapting to changes, memory, loss, illness, or the final stages.

Books about older characters
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/old-...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

Books about aging
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/aging
https://mindjoggle.com/books-about-ag...

Reifungsroman: Novels that feature aged woman as protagonists
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://bookriot.com/novels-about-old...

Shelved as Literary Fiction

You can use your library shelves or your bookstore's shelves or GR shelves... not necessarily restricted to just GR, and not wide open to interpretation as other literary fiction books are.

But if you want to use Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/genres/lite...
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Ellie wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Any examples of military protagonists?..."

Does veteran not mean they are no longer in the military? I'm not really familiar with military terms."

Oh I missed the veteran part of the prompt. Yes, that means ex/past military. That definitely narrows the prompt.

I'd still love examples though because I'm coming up blank.

I feel a bit conflicted about the literary fiction prompt. I’m not a huge fan of the concept of literary fiction, as in, I don’t think it’s particularly useful to divide books into “serious” books with literary merit and genre fiction. That being said, I do tend to like books that are classified as literary fiction - I looked at the Goodreads listopia for Literary Fiction Books and I’ve never seen a list so full of books on my Read and TBR shelves! So I’ll probably vote for it, despite not loving the term.

A book with a theme of food or drink

Some examples
Fiction:

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
The Lager Queen of Minnesota
Sourdough
With the Fire on High
Garden Spells
Arsenic and Adobo

Non-fiction:
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
Salt: A World History
The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks
Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist

A classic

You can read a modern classic, or go old style, totally up to you how you interpret a classic. https://www.goodreads.com/genres/clas....

A book from NPR's Book Concierge

https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view...

A book about the forbidden.

A forbidden place, love, friendship, politics etc.

A book with a protagonist who is a military veteran

This prompt doesn’t have to focus only on the US, as I’m sure there’s plenty of veteran stories in other countries as well as the fantasy/sci-fi genre.

Many detectives also are veterans, such as Cormoran Strike and Bernie Little.

A book about healing

Examples: mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual healing; healing of family/friendship/romantic relationships; healing from grief or trauma; various types of medical healers throughout history; care-givers; peace-making

Robin P wrote: "A book mentioned on the Reading Women podcast

An easy way to find a book is to reference this listopia for nominees/winners of their award (both fiction and nonfiction):
https://www.goodreads.com..."

The links posted here for the Reading Women podcast aren't working. Here they are again.

Goodreads listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

Episode list:
https://www.readingwomenpodcast.com/e...

Traci wrote: "Robin P wrote: "A book mentioned on the Reading Women podcast

An easy way to find a book is to reference this listopia for nominees/winners of their award (both fiction and nonfiction):
https://w..."

Thanks! I will correct them.

My clear favorites are:
Literary fiction - many great options
Aging/Golden Years - great options
NPR's list - I like the theme breakdowns - great options

Next:
Up-lit
Classic
Mythology
I like the ideas of redemption and healing, but I need to explore them further. For healing I loved Dear Edward.
I don't mind the overlaps between a few of the categories.
A book mentioned on the Reading Women podcast - I'll need to explore it.

-Food and Drink - I would read Eat a peach, I recommend Lager Queen of Minnesota (for food or aging/golden years)
-A book set in more than one country - I recommend Migrations, Long Petal of the Sea, Less. I'll be juggling a lot of countries, so this might come in handy, or be one more to juggle.
-A book with a protagonist who is a military veteran - not sure
-Forbidden

My least favorites are
Princess Bride - I liked the making of ... book.
A book related to a movie or TV project being released in 2022 - this is a narrowing pool for me since I don't really enjoy watching anymore.

Alicia wrote: "I'd still love examples though because I'm coming up blank."

The main character in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series is ex-military, starting with Case Histories. A Year of Marvellous Ways would work as well, I think.

There must be lots of fantasy, sci-fi and historical fiction that would fit, but I can't think of anything else at the moment.

I have to look at the list more closely, but I'm thinking I'll do 7 up and 1 down. We already have six setting prompts, so I will downvote a book set in more than one country.

More ideas for princess bride

1. Book about revenge (character in the movie's motivation is revenge for his father's death.)

2.Book by Plato, Aristotle, etc or about philosophy (Character compares his intelligence to famous philosophers.)

3.A book with a word in a title used in an unusual way (Quote:"You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.")

4. Book with a rodent on the cover (book and movie feature Rodents of Unusual Size

5. If you are familiar with the movie there are a lot of quotes to pick from. Here is a link to some of them:
https://www.businessinsider.com/best-...

Robin P wrote: "Many detectives also are veterans, such as Cormoran Strike and Bernie Little.."

Dorothy L. Sayers's Sir Peter Wimsy and Sherlock Holmes' Dr. Watson are also both veterans

Robin P wrote: "A book with a theme of redemption

Robin, Those must be the wrong list links. None of them are relevant to redemption. They're Best of the 80's, best ever, etc.

Deborah wrote: "More ideas for princess bride

1. Book about revenge (character in the movie's motivation is revenge for his father's death.)

2.Book by Plato, Aristotle, etc or about philosophy (Character compare..."

The quotes from this movie always make me laugh. I enjoyed the book about the making of the film. I wonder if there is a good book about/by Mandy Patinkin.

I was thinking of Home Front for military veteran but after reading the synopsis she's active military.

Prompts I can easily find books for are:

* Mythology (been wanting to read The Song of Achilles)
* Movie/tv released in 2022 (Death on the Nile or The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, plus some great books being made into movies - The Nightingale and The Time Traveler's Wife are among my favorite books ever)
* Theme of food or drink (I'd probably do a food memoir or Arsenic and Adobo)
* A classic (so many I have to read still).

I'm also leaning toward

*Princess Bride (loved the movie, already read the book and As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride so would do a fairy tale or something else by William Goldman)
*Up Lit (not sure yet but I'm sure I'll find something; I prefer Up Lit over the redemption and healing prompts.)
*NPR (also not sure yet but will find something)

Does anybody have an opinion on redemption vs. healing vs. up-lit? I'd definitely like to see one of these get through, but they seem pretty similar to me. (I'm leaning towards up-lit).

Upvoting:
Aging/Golden Years
Movie/TV project - I always tell myself to read the book before watching an adaptation, so this is some extra motivation to do it
Up-lit?

Downvoting:
NPR Book Concierge - I LOVE this tool & look forward to it every year, but last I heard it is not available outside the US

Undecided on the rest for now -- there are a lot in here that would get me to read something new.

Ellie wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Any examples of military protagonists?..."

Does veteran not mean they are no longer in the military? I'm not really familiar with military terms."

Yes. A veteran is someone who has left military service, either through retirement or once their tour of duty has ended.

Robin P wrote: "A classic

You can read a modern classic, or go old style, totally up to you how you interpret a classic. https://www.goodreads.com/genres/clas..."

The above link doesn't go to the classics shelf. It looks like it cut you off. It leads to a shelf called "clas" - Here's the shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/genres/clas...

Marin wrote: "NPR Book Concierge - I LOVE this tool & look forward to it every year, but last I heard it is not available outside the US ..."

They've sorted that out, please don't downvote it just because of that! I can view it fine in the UK.

Ellie wrote: "Marin wrote: "NPR Book Concierge - I LOVE this tool & look forward to it every year, but last I heard it is not available outside the US ..."

They've sorted that out, please don't downvote it just..."

That's great news! Thanks for clearing that up.

Marie wrote: "Alicia wrote: "I'd still love examples though because I'm coming up blank."

The main character in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series is ex-military, starting with [book:Case Hist..."

I don't read as many mysteries and thrillers as I used to, but I would love to read another Jackson Brodie book. I would also like to see some coming home type books, that are more realistic than detective stories.

I like healing because it's a good fit for medical books, and I guess those who don't want to go near medical stories can read about a personal journey of some sort.

I'm leaning towards downvoting redemption, because I feel like researching that will lead to spoilers. Redemption requires the character to have done something wrong in the first place, and then make up for it. So they seem different enough to me.

Juliet Brown wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Many detectives also are veterans, such as Cormoran Strike and Bernie Little.."

Dorothy L. Sayers's Sir Peter Wimsy and Sherlock Holmes' Dr. Watson are also both vete..."

Ooh, how could I forget them, 2 of my favorite people!

Angie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "A classic

You can read a modern classic, or go old style, totally up to you how you interpret a classic. https://www.goodreads.com/genres/clas..."

The above link doesn't go to the..."

Thanks, it's tricky copying, I'll correct the one above.

Alicia wrote: Oh I missed the veteran part of the prompt. Yes, that means ex/past military. That definitely narrows the prompt.

I'd still love examples though because I'm coming up blank."

The protagonist from many spy novels/political thrillers/police procedurals are veterans. See books by Brad Thor, Michael Connelly, Brad Taylor, Jack Carr, Ben Coes, etc.

Historical fiction: Inspector Rutledge series by Charles Todd

Many world figures - Elvis, Gal Gadot, Bea Arthur, Doctor Ruth, Queen Elizabeth II, John F Kennedy, Prince Charles, Leo Tolstoy, George Bush, Prince Phillip, Napoleon, George W Bush, Benjamin Netanyahu, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Stewart, Dwight Eisenhower, etc - were in the military. So biographies of them would work.

What would be a KIS or alternative option for the Princess Bride prompt if it gets it? I absolutely loathed the book and have never seen the movie, so I'm wondering what other way I could interpret the prompt aside from an actor biography, which I have no interest in. It seems like too much of a stretch to read any fairy tale or anything fantasy and say it's specifically related to the Princess Bride film.

Just realized that many of my copied links were cut off. I'm working on correcting them but need to go out so will finish later. Darn, I thought I had a shortcut, instead I did a cut short!

The easiest ideas that come to mind for The Princess Bride are a book about royalty, pirates or a wedding. It could also be a book that involves a wish because of Westleys saying. It could be set in Sicily (Vizzini is Sicillian) or there is a Chess move called the Sicillian Defence. Inigo is looking for a six fingered man so you could read a book about someone with polydactylism such as Anne Boleyn.

Kat wrote: "The easiest ideas that come to mind for The Princess Bride are a book about royalty, pirates or a wedding. It could also be a book that involves a wish because of Westleys saying. It could be set i..."

There's a quest (to find the six-fingered man)
Buttercup is captured, so a book with kidnapping
The story features a grandfather reading to his sick grandson, so a book with that relationship
It's satire
There's good and evil

I'm thinking I'll vote 5 up, 3 down on first glance. I'm not a huge fan of classics or the 2 different countries (only because I think we have enough setting prompts. I'm also not sure about the military veteran prompt. Can anyone suggest books for this that are more character driven and not thrillers?

-A book with a protagonist who is a military veteran - Robyn Carr's Virgin River series features military veterans.

I'm thinking of going 6 up and 1 down this time, I'm usually 4 & 4. So many good ideas, I can't wait to see what gets in.