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

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

Clara, that's an impressive goal! I have Birnam Wood on deck when I finish my current print, but I have low hopes for December and the holidays.

Hey Rosemary, you can add your own thread to this folder, rather than adding your tracking thread here!

After finishing the challenge in August of 2023, I decided I hate having to pick my books so I'll be reading in order again in 2024. I've also convinced several of my friends who do the challenge to also read in order with me for accountability buddies!

It's that time of year to start thinking about our 2024 challenge. This is the spot to update the group on your progress if you plan on reading in order!

Odette, you can omit or use A, An, or The. It's up to you.

Sure! I have them separated on the spreadsheet into three different challenges, so I’d say each book can only be used once per phrase, but it’s fine to use across multiple phrases.

Let us celebrate your accomplishments here!

Questions about a prompt? Need help finding a book for a tricky letter? Have a really great recommendation? Check here!

FAQs

Welcome to the next Around the Year in 52 Books seasonal challenge. Our Winter challenge starts on December 1, 2023 and finishes on February 29, 2024 (we get a whole extra day!).

This challenge will be a bit different from previous seasonal challenges. We are tackling an A-Z challenge!

How It Works
For this challenge, you will be trying to fulfill the letters in ONE of three phrases:
- WINTER WONDERLAND (16)
- DREAMING OF SNOW (14)
- HELLO NEW BEGINNINGS (18)

You can fulfill these letters by using the first letter of the title, the first letter of the author's first or last name, or the first letter of the main genre of the book.

Example:
- W: What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli (Title)
- I: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue (Author's First Name)
- N: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Author's Last Name)
- T: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Genre: Thriller)

How to join the challenge
1. Set up a thread to keep track of your books for the challenge. You can create a new thread for your challenge in this folder. You can also check out the Community Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

3. If you need ideas or inspiration for any of the prompts, or you’d like to share recommendations then you can do so here.

4. When you’ve completed all of the letters for one phrase, post the details in this thread.

What books can be counted?
Generally books should be 100 pages or more, but if you’ve found the perfect book and it’s 90 pages then it’s your choice whether to count it. Or, if you’re really stuck on one task and you want to read a picture book or short story just to mark it as complete then go right ahead. The aim is to have fun and enjoy what you read, so nobody is going to judge anyone else for their book choices.

If you have any questions about the challenge then you can post them in this thread. The FAQs in post two below will also be updated as people ask questions so you might find your question has been answered there.

Happy reading, and we hope you enjoy the challenge!

Listopia is updated!

I went with Tomb Sweeping and added on The Frozen River. I was very iffy about the selection, and almost went with Evil Eye from the member faves, but I decided to try out the short stories since it's hard to commit to a print book right now.

BOTY voting will begin in January, winner announced in February, and BFFs will get their free book in March's box. They moved it back this year and I think it will cover books from September 2022-December 2023.

November 28: Our final read-a-thon of 2023 is starting on Saturday! You can check out this folder for more information and to sign up for the team challenge.

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

One month to go in 2023! What was your best book of November?

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

2023 Best Books Listopia

Welcome tina! You'll find we all have big ambitious TBRs here... I would personally like the publishing industry to take a year's pause on publishing new books because I can't keep up with all the books I want to read!

Congrats Ellie! I'm specifically doing the challenge in order next year so that I don't finish too early and have to spend time trying to decide what to read lol

November 19: Reminder that the 2024 Plans tab on the Community Spreadsheet will be going away at the end of the month in order to make room for our 2024 tabs. Please move all of your plans to the threads!

Also, mark your calendars for December 2-10 for our final read-a-thon of 2024!

Wow Joy, you've read a lot! This will probably get me to read Wellness, which was a book of the month pick last month but I didn't pick it because of the length and the male author. But it's turned up on so many Best of 2023 lists so...

Of the longlist, I've read only read one: The Guest (and I gave it 2 stars...)

Less than ideal, considering I don't really love cramming 16-18 lit fic books into three months, with one of those months being December, but there are a lot on the list that I'm excited to read.

I have The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store slotted in for February for my IRL book club pick.

I just returned Birnam Wood back to the library because I knew I wouldn't get it finished in time for my hold, but I jumped back on the holds list and it isn't too long.

I'll probably jump on the audio of Hello Beautiful when I'm done with my current listen.

I had Happiness Falls planned for January, but I may bump it up to December if it makes the short list.

I definitely plan on reading Chain-Gang All-Stars. I had planned on using that for my IRL book club, but I was worried that the violence mentioned in the reviews would be too offputting to some of our members. I'm going to tackle it though.

I've heard that the Big Swiss audio was fantastic so I'll be listening to that one in January.

These are all books I planned on reading anyway, so I'm hoping some/most/all of them get onto the short list lol. There's always a few short list books that are out of left field and have been read by very few people, so I'm just hoping they are available at the library.

The longlist is out for the Tournament of Books 2024! With 58 book options, I'd love recommendations on where to start / which books you think will make the short list.

Here's a link to the long list: https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/the...

And here's a listopia of the longlist (thanks NancyJ!): https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

UPDATE: Here's a link to the page that has all the judgements on the rounds of the tournament: https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/2024/