Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

THE 2023 ATY LIST

*main goal is to get my TBR books read and/or unhauled*

52/52
15/52

January

✔✔✔ 1. A book set in a location that begins with A, T, or Y:
- Continent: Australia - Exiles
- Region: Appalachia -
- State: Alabama - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
- City/Town: Ankh-Morpork - Men at Arms

✔✔ 2. A book by an author you read in 2022:
- Brandon Sanderson - White Sand, Volume 1; JD Robb - Innocent in Death

✔✔ 3. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the 2023 list:
- A book set on an island: Tress of the Emerald Sea
- A book with yellow, red and white on the cover: Call Me God: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper Investigation



✔ 4. A book with an interracial relationship: Northwest Angle

✔ 5. A book with 4 or more colors on the cover: Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry



February

✔ 6. A book where books are important: Death of a Bookseller

✔ 7. A book with ONE of the five "W" question words in the title:
- What's Next?: The Journey to Know God, Find Freedom, Discover Purpose, and Make a Difference

✔✔ 8. An author's debut book:
- Bringing Down the Duke; Blood on the Tracks

✔✔ 9. A book nominated for an award beginning with W:
- Cutting for Stone - (Wellcome Book Prize Winner)
- Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania - (Washington State Book Award 2016)

March

10. A book related to one of the Spice Girls' "personalities”:
Baby -
Scary -
Posh -
✔ Sporty - Fade Away
Ginger -


✔ 11. A book about a person/character with a disability: Deaf Utopia: A Memoir - And a Love Letter to a Way of Life - deaf/sign language

✔✔ 12. A book connected to birds, bees, or bunnies:
- Birds of Prey: The Harlan Coben Challenge; The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage

Cover:

✔ 13. A book that has an object that is repeated on the cover: White Sand, Volume 3 - strands of sand



April

✔ 14. A book with a con, deception, or fake: Trickster's Point

✔ 15. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 1 - after 2100 - Natchez Burning - >i>2014

✔ 16. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 2 - 1900s - The White Lady - 1947

✔ 17. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 3 - 1800s - Redeeming Love - 1850

May

✔ 18. A book related to science: I, Robot

✔✔ 19. A book related to the arts: Dead Sleep; The Omega Factor

✔ 20. A book with a cover or title that includes a route of travel: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism - spaceship

✔ 21. A book by an Asian diaspora author: Tess Gerritsen; Ice Cold

✔ 22. A book with a faceless person on the cover: Archer's Voice



June

✔✔ 23. A book with a body of water in the title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Fox Creek

✔ 24. A character that might be called a Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy: Slaughterhouse-Five

✔ 25. A book with a tropical setting: A Caribbean Mystery

✔ 26. A book related to pride: The Picture of Dorian Gray

July

✔ 27. A book by an author from continental Europe: The Chalk Circle Man

✔ 28. A book that is dark: Hell Bent

✔ 29. A book that is light: Men at Arms

✔✔ 30. A book related to a chess piece:
- multiple pieces = Her Deadly Game
- Bishop - The Bishop's Pawn

✔ 31. A book found by inputting a favorite author on https://www.literature-map.com:
- William Kent Krueger = James Lee Burke -
- Abby Jimenez = Emily Henry - Happy Place

August

✔✔ 32. A book set in a UNESCO City of Literature:

Angouleme, France
Baghdad, Iraq
Barcelona, Spain
Beirut, Lebanon
Dublin, Ireland
Dunedin, New Zealand
Durban, South Africa
Edinburgh, UK
Exeter, UK
Gothenburg, Sweden
Heidelberg, Germany
Iowa City, USA
Kraków, Poland
Kuhmo, Finland
Lahore, Pakistan
Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Lillehammer, Norway
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Lviv, Ukraine
Manchester, UK
Melbourne, Australia
✔ Milan, Italy: The Names of the Dead
Montevideo, Uruguay
Nanjing, China
Norwich, UK
Nottingham, UK
Óbidos, Portugal
Odesa, Ukraine
Prague, Czech Republic
Québec City, Canada
Reykjavík, Iceland
✔ Seattle, USA: The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics


✔ 33. A book by an author with a first name popular in 1923 (USA):
- William: William Kent Krueger; Manitou Canyon
--> Ruth: Ruth Ware; The It Girl

(Men: Charles, Donald, Edward, George, James, John, Joseph, Richard, Robert
Women: Betty, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Frances, Helen, Margaret, Mary, Mildred, Virginia)

✔ 34. A novella: The Death of Ivan Ilyich

✔ 35. A book with a school subject in the title: The Body in the Library

September

✔ 36. A book that has been translated from another language: Crime and Punishment

✔ 37. A book with the theme of returning home: Georgie, All Along

✔ 38. A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover: Burn Bright



✔ 39. A western: Lone Women

October

✔ 40. A book with a full name in the title: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

✔ 41. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists:

2023:
✔ 2022: Before I Let Go
2021:
2020:
2019:
2018:
2017:
2016:
2015:
2014:
2013:

✔✔ 42. A book related to a ghost, spirit, phantom, or specter: Ghostsitter - A Crazy Inheritance; The Halloween Tree

✔ 43. A book that involves a murder: Desolation Mountain

✔ 44. A book where the cover design includes text that is not completely horizontal: Killers of a Certain Age



November

✔ 45. A book whose author has published more than 7 books: Brandon Sanderson; White Sand, Volume 2

✔ 46. A title that contains a word often found in a recipe: water - The Water Keeper

✔ 47. A book related to a geometric shape: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter - circle on cover



✔ 48. A book with an unusually large version of an animal in the story:
- Guards! Guards!; Terry Pratchett - Dragon

December

✔✔ 49. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2022 or 2023:
- January 2023: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
- April 2022: Broken

✔✔ 50. A second book that fits your favorite prompt:
- A book involving genetics/genealogy, traits/heredity/heritage: Upgrade
- A book with an animal on the cover: Tender Is the Bite - dog



✔✔ 51. A book published in 2023:
- Yours Truly; Resonance Surge

✔✔ 52. A book with an unusual or surprising title:
- I'm Glad My Mom Died; Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

2023 ATY REJECTS CHALLENGE:

A book that can be found on Project Gutenberg
A book connected to Ireland
A book with a shoe on the cover:
A book related to the characters in The Wizard of Oz
A science fiction or fantasy novel written by a woman
A book that’s mentioned in the Rory Gilmore Book Challenge
A book with a character who has a career or hobby that interests you
A book by a Nobel Prize winner for literature
A book with at least 500,000 ratings on Goodreads
A book with a female or nonbinary main character who is an explorer/traveller
A book with a child protagonist
2 Weeks: Read a duology, or two books from a larger series
A book related to one of the 12 Western astrological signs
A book with one of the four seasons in the title
A book with orange on the cover
A Christmas book
A book with a purple cover
A "wild" book
A book written by two or more authors
A children's classic
A book with a cover you consider to be beautiful
A book from the “100 Years of Popular Books on Goodreads” list
A book set in more than one country
A book where an architectural element is central
A book that has an object that is repeated on the cover:
A book related to something lucky
A family saga
A memoir
A book by an author who uses punctuation in their name
A book related to King Tut
A book that's unlike what you usually read
An adventure book
A book that is the 2nd or 3rd in a series
A book related to "On the Road"
A book by an author you feel you should have read by now
A well-known classic book
A book published at least 23 years before you were born
A book mainly set underground or underwater
A book connected to (100 years of) Hollywood, Disney or the land of Oz
A book with 500+ pages
A book inspired by Sherlock Holmes
A dark academia book
A young adult novel
A book whose author has published less than 7 (2+0+2+3) books
A book where the chapters are named
A book where a battle takes place
A book whose author has published more than 7 (2+0+2+3) books
A book written by an author/or with a character named Elizabeth, Alexandra or Mary
A book with a secret passage
A dystopian book
A book that can be found on Project Gutenberg
A book with an eye-catching title
A book with a door on the cover
A book told from the villain’s perspective
A romance novel

Read:

✔ 1. A book with a color in the title or author’s name: The Hit
✔ 2. A book that involves art, music, dancing or acting: A Perilous Perspective
✔ 3. A book with a two or three word title: We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
✔ 4. A book that includes a ritual or ceremony: The Maidens
✔ 5. A book with a mostly black cover: The Last Party
✔ 6. A book with a cat in the story, title or cover: Legends & Lattes
✔ 7. A book in which someone is captured, taken hostage, trapped or imprisoned: The Street Lawyer
✔ 8. A book with a person who travels: A Fatal Illusion
--> 9. A book whose the author goes by three names: James Lee Burke; Heaven's Prisoners10.

Covers:

BOTM books I currently owned (plus, the ones I will no doubt buy in '23):

Pachinko; (Feb '17)
Sleeping Beauties;
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz; (Mar '20)
The Vanishing Half; (2020 Book of the Year)
The Four Winds; (Feb '21)
Firekeeper's Daughter;
The Lincoln Highway; (Oct '21)
The Lies I Tell; (June '22)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; (July '22)
Black Cake; (December '22)

The Chestnut Man; (Sept '19)
The Maidens; (June '21)
The Cartographers; (March '22)
Take My Hand; (May '22)
Upgrade; (July '22)
The Last Party; (November '22)
Before I Let Go; (November '22)
All the Dangerous Things; (December '22)

2023 BOTM picks

January: Hell Bent
February: Georgie, All Along ; A Fire Endless
March: Lone Women
April: - skipped
May: - skipped
June: - skipped
July: The Only One Left ; Dark Corners; Hello Stranger
August: - skipped
September: The River We Remember
October:
November:
December:

Oldest books I own - read or unhaul? :

✔ Cutting for Stone (kindle)
✔ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (kindle)
✔ The Street Lawyer (kindle)
✔The Happiness Manifesto (kindle) - book not available; watched speech on YouTube
✔ Crime and Punishment (physical)
✔ Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption (kindle)
✔ Natchez Burning (Penn Cage, #4) (physical)
✔ The Bone Tree (Penn Cage, #5) (physical)
✔ Night Film (physical) --> DNF'd


The Pillars of the Earth (kindle)
Les Misérables (kindle)
Notre-Dame de Paris (kindle)
Pachinko (physical)
Empire Falls (physical)
East of Eden (physical)
The Grapes of Wrath (physical)
The House of God (physical)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales (physical)
The Nix (physical)
Sleeping Beauties (physical)
The Twelve (The Passage, #2) (psychical)
The City of Mirrors (The Passage, #3) (physical)
Mississippi Blood (Penn Cage, #6) (physical)

Classics: 6/18

East of Eden
The Grapes of Wrath
1984
Lord of the Flies
Catch-22
Dracula
The Color Purple
The Handmaid's Tale
A Prayer for Owen Meany
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Middlesex
The Secret History
Foundation
The Count of Monte Cristo (kindle)
The Martian Chronicles

✔ I, Robot
✔ Crime and Punishment
✔ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other Classic Novels
✔ Slaughterhouse-Five
✔ Death of a Bookseller
✔ The Pursuit of God

Nonfiction books I own - well, some of them: 9/12

✔ 1. Power Moves; Adam Grant
✔ 2. What's Next?: The Journey to Know God, Find Freedom, Discover Purpose, and Make a Difference; Chris Hodges
✔ 3. Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry; Neil deGrasse Tyson
✔ 4. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
✔ 5. Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
✔ 6. Deaf Utopia: A Memoir - And a Love Letter to a Way of Life
✔ 7. The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage
✔ 8. Mere Christianity
✔ 9. The Pursuit of God
✔ 10. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
✔ 11. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
✔ 12. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

1. Completed Series:

Nalini Singh
- Psy-Changeling; Season 1
- Rock Kiss
- Hard Play

Jane Harper
- Aaron Falk Trilogy

Talia Hibbert
- Brown Sisters Trilogy

Robin Hobb
- Farseer Trilogy

N.K. Jemisin
- The Broken Earth Trilogy

R.F. Kuang - DNF'd

Nnedi Okorafor
- The Night Masquerade Trilogy

Brandon Sanderson
- Mistborn Era 1
- Mistborn Era 2
- White Sands Volume 1-3

Nalini Singh
- Psy-Changeling; Season 1
- Rock Kiss
- Hard Play

Michael J Sullivan
- The Riyria Revelations

2. Completed Series I need to finish:

Secret Projects; Brandon Sanderson
✔ 1. Secret Project #1: Tress of the Emerald Sea
2. Secret Project #2: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England
✔3. Secret Project #3: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
4. Secret Project #4

An Ember in the Ashes; Sabaa Tahir
1. An Ember in the Ashes
2. A Torch Against the Night
3. A Reaper at the Gates
4. A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

Cemetery of Forgotten Books; Carlos Ruiz Zafón
1. The Shadow of the Wind
2. The Angel's Game
2.5. The Rose of Fire
3. The Prisoner of Heaven
4. The Labyrinth of the Spirits

City Watch (Discworld); Terry Pratchett
✔ 1. Guards! Guards!
✔ 1.5. Theatre of Cruelty
✔ 2. Men at Arms
3. Feet of Clay
4. Jingo
5. The Fifth Elephant
6. Night Watch
7. Thud!
7.5 Where's My Cow?
8. Snuff

Dark Tower; Stephen King
--> 7. The Dark Tower

Elements of Cadence; Rebecca Ross
✔ 1. A River Enchanted
2. A Fire Endless

I, Robot; Isaac Asimov
✔ 0.1. I, Robot
0.2 The Rest of the Robots
0.3. The Complete Robot
0.4.

The Legend of Drizzt; R.A. Salvatore
✔ 1. Homeland
2. Exile
3. Sojourn

Legends of the First Empire; Michael J. Sullivan
1. Age of Myth
2. Age of Swords
3. Age of War
4. Age of Legend
5. Age of Death
6. Age of Empyre

Liveship Trader's Trilogy; Robin Hobb
1. Ship of Magic
2. The Mad Ship
3. Ship of Destiny

The Passage; Justin Cronin
✔ 1. The Passage
2. The Twelve
3. The City of Mirrors

3. Series that I need to catch up on or awaiting next book:

Argeneau Vampire series; Lynday Sands: next book #16 Under a Vampire Moon

17. The Lady is a Vamp
18. Immortal Ever After
19. One Lucky Vampire
✔ 20. Vampire Most Wanted

The Bloodsworn Saga; John Gwynne
✔ 1. The Shadow of the Gods
2. The Hunger of the Gods
3. out ???

Bobiverse; Dennis E. Taylor
✔ 1. We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
✔ 2. For We Are Many
3. All These Worlds
4. Heaven's River

Chet and Bernie; Spencer Quinn
Next book --> 12. It's a Wonderful Woof
13. Bark to the Future

Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor; William Kent Krueger
Next book out --> ??

Crescent City; Sarah J Mass
Next book: House of Flame and Shadow (#3) out 1/30/24

Dave Robicheaux; James Lee Burke
✔ 1. The Neon Rain
2. Heaven's Prisoners
3. Black Cherry Blues
4. A Morning for Flamingos
5. A Stained White Radiance: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
6. In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead

Dirk Pitt; Clive Cussler
✔ 1. Pacific Vortex!
2. The Mediterranean Caper
3. Iceberg
4. Raise the Titanic!

Gaslight Mystery; Victoria Thompson
Next --> 20. Murder in the Bowery
21. Murder on Union Square
22. Murder on Trinity Place
23. Murder on Pleasant Avenue
24. Murder on Wall Street
25. Murder on Madison Square
26. Murder on Bedford Street (out 4/2023)

Hercule Poirot; Agatha Christie
- Sad Cypress
- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
- Evil Under the Sun
- Five Little Pigs
- The Hollow
- The Labors of Hercules
- Taken at the Flood
- The Under Dog and Other Stories
- Mrs. McGinty's Dead
- After the Funeral
- Hickory Dickory Dock
- Cat Among the Pigeons
- The Clocks
- Third Girl
- Elephants Can Remember
- Curtain

in Death; J.D. Robb
Next book --> 25. Creation in Death

A League of Extraordinary Women; Evie Dunmore
✔ 1. Bringing Down the Duke
2. A Rogue of One's Own
3. Portrait of a Scotsman
4. The Gentleman's Gambit - out 9/2023

Miss Marple; Agatha Christie
Next --> 3. The Moving Finger
4. A Murder Is Announced: A Miss Marple Mystery
5. They Do It with Mirrors: A Miss Marple Mystery
6. A Pocket Full of Rye
7. 4:50 from Paddington
10. At Bertram's Hotel
11. Nemesis
12. Sleeping Murder
13. Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories

Penn Cage; Greg Iles
Next --> 5. The Bone Tree
6. Mississippi Blood
7. Southern Man - out ??

Sigma Force; James Rollins
✔ 1. Sandstorm
2. Map of Bones
2.5. Kowalski's in Love
3. Black Order
4. The Judas Strain
5. The Last Oracle
6. The Doomsday Key
6.5. The Skeleton Key
7. The Devil Colony
7.5. Tracker
8. Bloodline
9. The Eye of God
9.5. The Devil's Bones: Cotton Malone vs. Gray Pierce
10. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
10.5. The Midnight Watch
11. The Bone Labyrinth
11.5. Crash and Burn
12. The Seventh Plague
12.5. Ghost Ship
13. The Demon Crown
14. Crucible
15. The Last Odyssey
16. Kingdom of Bones
17. Tides of Fire

-----------------------------------------------------------

Caught up on and awaiting the next new book:

Alpha & Omega; Patricia Briggs: next book- #7 - "Untitled" out 1/2024

Charles Lenox; Charles Finch: next book - #12 - The Hidden City out 5/7/2024

Crescent City; House of Flame and Shadow - #3 out 1/30/2024

Hidden Legacy; Ilona Andrews: next book - #7 - Arabella's Story - out ?

Lady Darby Mystery; Anna Lee Huber: next book - #12 - out ?

Psy-Changeling Trinity; Nalini Singh: next book - #8 - out ?

Virgil Flowers; John Sandford: next book - #15 (#33 of Prey Series) - Judgment Prey - out 10/3/2023

Will Robie; David Baldacci: next book - #6 - out ???

-------------------------------------------------------------

"Maybe" book series to continue:

DC Morgan; Clare Mackintosh - 1st book read
The Shroud of Prophecy; Fate of the Fallen - 1st book read
Harry Hole; Jo Nesbø
Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery; Mia P. Manansala - 1st book read

January/February

January

✔✔✔ 1. A book set in a location that begins with A, T, or Y:
- Continent: Australia or Asia - Exiles
- Region: Appalachia -
- State: Alabama - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Whistle Stop, #1)
- City/Town: Ankh-Morpork - Guards! Guards! (City Watch, #1)

✔✔ 2. A book by an author you read in 2022:
- Brandon Sanderson - White Sand, Volume 1
- JD Robb - Innocent in Death

✔ 3. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the 2023 list:
- A book set on an island: Tress of the Emerald Sea
--> A book whose the author goes by three names: James Lee Burke; Heaven's Prisoners

✔ 4. A book with an interracial relationship: Northwest Angle (Cork O'Connor, #11)

Options: The Vanishing Half; Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; Firekeeper's Daughter; This Tender Land

✔ 5. A book with 4 or more colors on the cover: Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry



Options:

February
✔ 6. A book where books are important: Death of a Bookseller

Options: The Starless Sea; The Shadow of the Wind; The Darwin Affair

✔ 7. A book with ONE of the five "W" question words in the title: What's Next?: The Journey to Know God, Find Freedom, Discover Purpose, and Make a Difference

Options: Where the Crawdads Sing; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Where the Forest Meets the Stars; The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales;

✔✔ 8. An author's debut book:
- Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women, #1)
- Blood on the Tracks (Sydney Rose Parnell, #1)

Options: Where the Forest Meets the Stars; Miracle Creek; Carrie; Firekeeper's Daughter; The Virgin Suicides; The Nix; Black Cake; Frankenstein: The 1818 Text; The Darwin Affair

✔✔ 9. A book nominated for an award beginning with W:
- Cutting for Stone - (Wellcome Book Prize Winner)
- Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania - Washington State Book Award

Options - Lovecraft Country - World Fantasy Award Nominee for Novel (2017)

March/April

March
10. A book related to one of the Spice Girls' "personalities”:
baby -
scary -
posh - Valley of the Dolls
✔ sporty - Fade Away; (Myron Bolitar, #3)
ginger -

✔ 11. A book about a person/character with a disability: Deaf Utopia: A Memoir - And a Love Letter to a Way of Life

Options: The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell; Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; Miracle Creek; A Prayer for Owen Meany; Fevered Star

✔✔ 12. A book connected to birds, bees, or bunnies:
- Birds of Prey: The Harlan Coben Challenge
- The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage



Options: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; The Starless Sea; Migrations; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants; The Nightingale; The Darwin Affair

✔ 13. A book that has an object that is repeated on the cover: White Sand, Volume 3



Options: The Starless Sea; Firekeeper's Daughter; The Last Lie ToldA Fire EndlessThe Blue Bar

April
✔ 14. A book with a con, deception, or fake: Trickster's Point

Options: The Count of Monte Cristo; The Lies of Locke Lamora; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Lies I Tell

✔ 15. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 1 - 2000s: Natchez Burning - 2014

✔ 16. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 2 - 1900s: The White Lady - 1947

Options: The Grapes of Wrath; The Four Winds; Heaven's Prisoners

✔ 17. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 2 - 1800s: Redeeming Love - 1850

Options: The Darwin Affair

Extra books read:
✔ The Last Line
✔ Men at Arms, City Watch #2

May/June

May
✔ 18. A book related to science: I, Robot

Options: Migrations; Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race; Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales

✔ 19. A book related to the arts: Dead Sleep

Options: Valley of the Dolls; Night Film

✔ 20. A book with a cover or title that includes a route of travel: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism - spaceship

Options: Cemetery Road; The Lincoln Highway; Blacktop Wasteland; Five Total Strangers

✔ 21. A book by an Asian diaspora author:
- Celeste Ng; Our Missing Hearts
- Tess Gerritsen; Ice Cold

Options: Pachinko; A Thousand Splendid Suns; And the Mountains Echoed; Babel: An Arcane History

✔ 22. A book with a faceless person on the cover: Archer's Voice

Options:

June
✔✔ 23. A book with a body of water in the title:
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
- Fox Creek

Options: The Starless Sea

✔ 24. A character that might be called a Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy: Slaughterhouse-Five

Options: Catch-22; Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption; Blacktop Wasteland; The Nightingale

✔ 25. A book with a tropical setting: A Caribbean Mystery

Options: Jurassic Park; The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

✔ 26. A book related to pride: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Options: Pride and Prejudice; The Vanishing Half; Crime and Punishment

July/August

July
✔ 27. A book by an author from continental Europe: The Chalk Circle Man

Options: The Shadow of the Wind or sequels; The Count of Monte Cristo; Les Misérables; The Hiding Place; The Diary of a Young Girl; The Chalk Circle Man; Frankenstein: The 1818 Text; The Bat or other Harry Hole book

✔ 28. A book that is dark: Hell Bent

Options: The Whisper Man; Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty; A Thousand Splendid Suns; Dracula; The Shadow of the Wind; The Dark Half; The Chestnut Man

✔ 29. A book that is light: Men at Arms

Options: Firekeeper's Daughter; a City Watch book; How the Light Gets In; At First Light

✔✔ 30. A book related to a chess piece:
- (multiple pieces) - Her Deadly Game
- (bishop) - The Bishop's Pawn

Options: The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge #1), The Queen's Poisoner (Queen), (Rook), (Pawn), (Knight) ); book by Stephen King

✔ 31. A book found by inputting a favorite author on https://www.literature-map.com: TBD
- Abby Jimenez = Emily Henry --> Happy Place

William Kent Krueger = James Lee Burke or Louise Penny

Stephen King = Agatha Christie; John Steinbeck; or John Irving

Brandon Sanderson = Robin Hobb; Brent Weeks; Michael J. Sullivan; or R.A. Salvatore

Options to input: James Lee Burke; William Kent Krueger; Emily Henry; Stephen King; Brandon Sanderson; Agatha Christie; Greg Iles

August
✔✔ 32. A book set in a UNESCO City of Literature:

- Barcelona, Spain: The Shadow of the Wind; The Angel's Game; etc..
- Edinburgh, UK: Marathon Man
- Iowa City, USA: Beer Money: A Tale of the Iowa City Beer Mafia
- Lahore, Pakistan: All My Rage
- Manchester, UK: North and South; Where The Truth Lies
✔ - Milan, Italy: The Names of the Dead
- Prague, Czech Republic: The Lights of Prague
- Québec City, Canada: Bury Your Dead
- Reykjavík, Iceland: Journey to the Center of the Earth
✔- Seattle, USA: The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

33. A book by an author with a first name popular in 1923 (USA):
Men: Charles, Donald, Edward, George, James, John, Joseph, Richard, Robert, William
✔ William Kent Krueger; Manitou Canyon

Options by author: James Lee Burke; William Kent Krueger; Charles Finch

- Women: Betty, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Frances, Helen, Margaret, Mary, Mildred, Ruth, Virginia

Options by author:

Options by book:

✔ 34. A novella: The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Options: A Psalm for the Wild-Built; The Green Mile; The Body

✔ 35. A book with a school subject in the title: The Body in the Library: A Miss Marple Mystery (Miss Marple, #2)

Options: Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution; The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History; The Chemist

September/October

September
✔ 36. A book that has been translated from another language: Crime and Punishment

Options: The Shadow of the Wind (or sequels); The Chestnut Man; The Count of Monte Cristo; Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café; Confessions; The Dogs of Riga

✔ 37. A book with the theme of returning home: Georgie, All Along

Options: The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop; The Vanishing Half; It; The Elementals; Gilead; The Grapes of Wrath

✔ 38. A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover: Burn Bright



Options:

✔ 39. A western: Lone Women

Options: Lonesome Dove; Where the Lost Wander; Tread of Angels; The Dark Tower; True Grit

October
✔ 40. A book with a full name in the title: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Options: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Billy Summers; A Prayer for Owen Meany; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; The Lies of Locke Lamora; Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; A Prayer for Owen Meany

✔ 41. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists:
- 2022: Before I Let Go - ✔
2021: Firekeeper's Daughter; The Lincoln Highway or A Psalm for the Wild-Built
2020: The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz; The Vanishing Half
2019: Know My Name; The Starless Sea
2018: Becoming; Iron Gold
2017: Pachinko
2016: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World The Nix;
2014: none
2013: Night Film

✔ 42. A book related to a ghost, spirit, phantom, or specter: Ghostsitter - A Crazy Inheritance

Options: Daughters of the Lake

✔ 43. A book that involves a murder: Desolation Mountain

Options: Heaven's Prisoners; The Bone Tree

✔ 44. A book where the cover design includes text that is not completely horizontal: Killers of a Certain Age



Options: Christine; Bag of Bones; Rose Madder; Station Eternity; The Whisper Man; Speaker for the Dead

November/December

November
✔ 45. A book whose author has published more than 7 books:
- Brandon Sanderson; White Sand, Volume 2

Options: Stephen King; William Kent Krueger; Lousie Penny; Agatha Christie; Karin Slaughter; James Lee Burke; Greg Iles; R.A. Salvatore

✔ 46. A title that contains a word often found in a recipe: water- The Water Keeper

Options: This Tender Land; The Chestnut Man; A Pocket Full of Rye; Chocolat; Black Cake; Black Cherry Blues; The Bone Tree

✔ 47. A book related to a geometric shape: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter - circle on cover

Options: A Thousand Splendid Suns; The Institute; Middlesex - (National Book Critics Circle Award nominee)

✔ 48. A book with an unusually large version of an animal in the story:
- Guards! Guards! - dragon

Options: Children of Time; The Hunger of the Gods; Fairy Tale

December
✔✔ 49. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2022 or 2023:
- January 2023: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife; Meg Elison
- April 2022: Broken; Jenny Lawson

Options: May 2023 - The Seven Sisters; April 2023 - The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

✔✔ 50. A second book that fits your favorite prompt:
- A book involving genetics/genealogy/traits/heredity/heritage: Upgrade; Blake Crouch
- A book with an animal on the cover: dog- Tender Is the Bite; Spencer Quinn

✔✔ 51. A book published in 2023:
- Yours Truly; Resonance Surge

Options: The Ferryman; The River We Remember

✔✔ 52. A book with an unusual or surprising title:
- I'm Glad My Mom Died; Jennette McCurdy
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; Mary Roach

Options: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales; Cloud Cuckoo Land; The Virgin Suicides

Mid-Year check-up : JULY

Around the Year in 52 Books challenge:
1st round: 43/52 books read
2nd round: 5/52

ATY Rejects Challenge: 8/10 read

BOTM Books read: 9/25
- have skipped 3 months (but...bought 3 anticipated books this month :(
- skip next 3 months
- read at least 3-4 books this month, then re-evaluate in August

Oldest owned books: 4/23 with 1 in progress (Crime and Punishment)
- most of the books on this list are classics and/or large books
- review list monthly and delete books from list if no longer interested
- read at least 1 book from this list monthly
- get better at DNF'ing

Classics that I own: 4/19; with 1 in progress
- Some of these books overlap with 'Oldest owned books'
- read at least 1 book from list monthly (hopefully I will finally finish Crime and Punishment so I can move to another classic - I am loving it, it is just long.

Nonfiction books I own: 8/12
- I own more, but 12 is my goal for now.
- Increase goal once 12 nonfiction books are read
- Use audio for nonfiction books when available via library (avoid buying audio of books when physical book is already owned)

Series:
- Finish at least 3 series: 1/3
- Catch up on at least 3 series: 1/3
- Work really hard on not starting new series until 1 or 2 series are completed or caught up on
- Aaron Falk trilogy completed
- work on Natchez Burning and The Poppy War trilogy
- Complete Dark Tower series as I only have The Dark Tower to finish (I started this book but need to finish it) - yes, this starting and stopping books is a theme
- Caught up on: Cork O'Connor, Crescent City, and Lady Darby series
- Catch up on Psy-Changeling Trinity (new release 7/23), Gaslight Mystery, Will Trent (new release 8/23); and Penn Cage series
- Started City Watch series: 2/8 books read

Books I started and need to finish
- The Dark Tower
- The Whisper Man
- Where the Crawdads Sing
- Homeland
- The Blade Itself
- The Four Winds

Monthly check-ins to make sure I stick to my goals