Emily’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2017)

Emily’s comments from the Around the Year in 52 Books group.

Ah good point! I've adjusted the wording there to reflect points.

No, we don't have any formal listopias made, but if anyone wants to create them, we don't mind sharing them out!

Oooo that's good to know ok! I had trouble figuring out if the chicken or the egg came first lol.

Erica, which formulas are you seeing as incorrect? I think they are all ok, but I don't want to miss anything!

We had a prompt that had a punctuation in the title years back. It was well-received! I wouldn’t mind seeing it come back around - I often think of that prompt when I read a book like Martyr! that has vibrant punctuation in it lol

My best book was Can't Get Enough! I don't usually do the third in a series for my best book, but this was by far the best I've read this month. The books can standalone, but I'd recommend the whole series.

I've added to listopia!

Note: I added the summer reading challenge tab to the Community Spreadsheet, if anyone wants to track that way. This WILL NOT count as your completion submission, but it's a fun way to see what everyone is reading for the prompts.

I chose to read Bear next, and I was happy to see it on the 2024 NPR list. I was not expecting to have read so many - almost all of the Tournament of Books list was also on the NPR list.

I think that would count, Bea! Women's roles in the wars, especially that far back, were not formalized as military operations but certainly served a purpose in the war.

Definitely yes, NancyJ! That book absolutely counts.

Dubhease, I’ll let Jackie answer those questions as she wrote the prompts.

Yes to My Dear Kabul - but since it does not say a translator on the main page on Goodreads, you may want to make a note of this when you submit it so that we can remember you said this lol

Yes to the letters being two POVs.

NOTIFICATIONS

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We will post here as soon as the suggestions thread opens.
We will open the voting thread as soon as the suggestions have closed.
We will post here when the voting link has gone live.
We will post here as soon as results are posted, giving the time when the next suggestions thread will open.

FAQs


Q: What's a multi-week poll?
A: Multi-week prompts are a set of prompts (usually 2-4) that are connected somehow. We vote on these prompts in a separate poll because members found it difficult to vote for them when they were up against single-week prompts. This poll will usually be in the first half of the polling.

Q: How long do polls stay open?
A: The polls will stay open from the date on the schedule (when the voting thread opens) through the date that the results are announced. We suggest getting your vote in the day before results are announced to make sure your vote is counted!

Q: What time will the threads be posted?
A: The mods are mostly in the US, but we try to vary when things go live. We will usually post on the threads when the next one will go live (so we will post on the results thread for poll 1 when the suggestions will open for poll 2, etc.)

Q: Do we have themes for the polls?
A: Aside from the multi-week poll (and, sometimes, a Close Calls poll), we try not to limit the polls to certain types of prompts. Occasionally, as we get to the end of the process, we may mention prompt types that we are low on, like genre prompts or character-based prompts. However, we typically don't restrict polls to a certain type of prompt unless we feel it necessary.

Q: Is there a word limit for prompts?
A: No. But we have noticed that shorter, more concise prompts are more likely to make it into the final list, so we encourage you to workshop your suggestion in the Wild Discussion before submitting if you think it is too long or wordy.

Q: What's a Wild Card?
A: Wild Cards exist so that if there is a prompt you don’t connect with or can’t find a book for, you can use a Wild Card for that prompt. We generally say you have one Wild Card per challenge. That being said, no one is policing your reading, and we encourage you to tackle the challenge in a way that best fits your lifestyle and reading habits, so you can use Wild Cards however you’d like.

Q: What does BIO and KIS mean?
A: BIO stands for Bring it on and KIS for Keep it simple. If the prompt seems very easy for you, the BIO options will make it narrower or more challenging in various ways. On the other hand, if the prompt seems hard, the KIS option will make it easier. You might find some of these in the various discussion threads for the prompts. Some people set up their whole year with a challenging aspect like having books by minority authors. Or they might make it easier by using children's books. It's totally up to you.

VOTING SCHEDULE
For a digital version of this schedule, see here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGoCCH5...

This post will be updated after each mini-poll as topics are confirmed. Please note this is not the final reading order; that will be decided after all 52 prompts have been selected.

LIST PROGRESS: 39/52 Prompts Selected

TITLE
A book with a Z in the title and/or author name
A book that has a punctuation mark in the title
A book with a location in the title
A book with something edible in the title
A book with a number, ordinal, or iterative numeral in the title


COVER
A book with a primarily red, green or blue cover
A book with cover text that is NOT black or white
A book with a symbol of death on the cover
A book with a window on the cover


CHARACTER
A book featuring a character with a similar occupation to one of the Clue/Cluedo characters
A book with a character who appears in more than one book


SETTING
A book set in Africa, Asia, or Australia
A book set in an isolated location
A book where all or part of the action takes place in a library, a museum, a school, or another public building
A book set in the wellness or beauty industries


THEME/GENRE/PLOT
A book with a road trip or long journey
A book from a genre that starts with A, T, or Y
A book involving survival
A nonfiction book
A history or historical fiction book


AUTHOR/PUBLISHING/PAGE LENGTH
A book published in 2026
A book by a new-to-you author
A book that's part of a series
An author's second/sophomore book
A novella of 100-250 pages
The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist
A book by a Korean or Korean-diaspora author


RECOMMENDATIONS (GR, FRIENDS, CHALLENGES, LISTS, AWARDS)
A book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list
A second book for your favorite prompt
A book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list


OTHER
A book related to blood, sweat, or tears
A book related to yesterday
A book related to today
A book related to tomorrow
A book connected in some way to the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie
A book related to the name of one of Santa's reindeer
A book related to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh
A vacation book

THE RULES

As always, our first rule is the Golden Rule. We expect all group members to treat each other with respect and dignity. Let’s remember that we’re all doing the challenge differently and for different reasons, so avoid judging others’ choices or suggestions.

Voting Rules
- Each person may only suggest or second one topic per poll.
- Each person may only vote once in each poll. The survey site allows us to identify people who vote multiple times and duplicate votes will be excluded. Surveys that we receive without links to Goodreads profiles will also be excluded.
- Prompts that are in the bottom of any poll cannot be resubmitted in later polls unless substantially reworked.
- Prompts that are submitted in 3 polls and do not make it to the final list cannot be resubmitted in later polls unless substantially reworked.

Multi-Week Polls
- We will have one dedicated poll for multi-week prompts.
- Multi-week prompts are NOT allowed to be submitted in any other poll.
- We will cap the amount of weeks used by multi-week prompts at 6 weeks total. This could be filled by a combination of three 2-week prompts, a 4-week prompt and a 2-week prompt, or two 3-week prompts.
This is not a requirement to meet, however. If the winning prompts are a 2-week and a 3-week, putting us at a total of 5, we will allow that to stand. We will just restrict the total weeks used to 6 maximum.

Pre-Poll
- We will have one pre-poll that begins the week before our first suggestions thread opens.
- This pre-poll will consist of the prompts chosen during our June Mini-thon.
- Voting rules for this poll will posted on the Voting thread when the pre-poll opens.

When Voting
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.

This thread is only for moderator announcements. For discussion about the 2026 reading list please go to the Wild Discussion thread, and for questions about the process, please see our FAQs thread.

The entire Around the Year challenge list is generated by the group members. We enjoyed the process so much in the past ten years that we are creating another list for 2026.

The process will start on July 1 and we aim to have a completed list by sometime in September or October. Everyone is very welcome to participate, whether this is your first or eleventh year.

How it will work:
The topics will be chosen through a series of mini-polls. For each mini-poll there will be a suggestion thread where you can propose a topic. A suggestion needs to be seconded by one other person before it’s included in the poll. Once the required number of suggestions have been seconded the thread will close for new suggestions. There will be a break of around 24 hours between the suggestions thread closing and the poll opening for voting. This is to allow people to discuss the options before voting opens.

The mods will create a poll for members to choose their favorite suggestions. Each member has eight votes, which you can use to vote for your “top” and/or “bottom” choices. (See below for an example.) Polls will stay open for three days, and the mods will announce the results shortly after. The number of winning suggestions from each poll may vary depending on the distribution of votes.

Then a new suggestion thread will open and we’ll repeat the process until we have chosen 50 topics for the 2026 list (two topics will be chosen by winners of two reading competitions within the group).

How to participate:
*If you want to suggest a topic you can do so whenever a new suggestion thread opens. You don’t have to suggest a topic in order to participate in the poll.
*When a new poll is posted follow the link to the survey site and vote for your favorite and/or least favorite prompts.
*Look out for the results and the opening of a new suggestion thread.
*The topics chosen for the 2025 list will be posted in this thread and the topics that were suggested but not chosen will be posted on a separate thread (to be linked here later).

Voting Process
You have eight votes in total which you can use to vote for your top and bottom choices. You can use less than eight votes if you wish.

For example:
Voter 1
Top: Suggestions 1, 4, 7, 9
Bottom: Suggestions 2, 10, 11, 12
Total: 8 votes

Voter 2
Top: Suggestions 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14
Bottom: None
Total: 8 votes

Voter 3
Top: Suggestions 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14
Bottom: Suggestions 3, 10
Total: 8 votes

Voter 4
Top: Suggestions 1, 6
Bottom: Suggestion 12
Total: 3 votes

Yes! You see a few different points of view in it.

My best book for April was In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some by Josh Gad! I've added to the listopia.

We are getting to the end of April! Drop your best books here!

Answer the following questions:

- Title
- Author
- Rating
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio)
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable)
- Brief reason why it was the best

Best Books Listopia (2025)

You can also use Ctrl + F to search a page for a specific word, but you will have to search each page.

Pasting pertinent dates here:

June 1 - Summer Reading Challenge goes live
June 7-15 (tentatively) - Summer Read-a-Thon to determine the pre-poll nominees
June 25 - Pre-Poll opens
July 1 - Suggestions open for Poll 1