Around the Year in 52 Books is a Goodreads group that creates a user-generated reading challenge each year. This listopia is dedicated to one of our 2023 prompts. Please do not vote on these lists unless you are participating in our reading challenge!

Prompt: A book related to a chess piece

The chess pieces are:
The Pawn
The Knight
The Bishop
The Rook
The Queen
The King
500

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3.10 avg rating — 196 ratings
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500

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3.76 avg rating — 1,138 ratings
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings
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505

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3.94 avg rating — 632 ratings
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505

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3.51 avg rating — 204 ratings
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505

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4.14 avg rating — 2,400 ratings
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505

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating
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509

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3.49 avg rating — 3,684 ratings
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509

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3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings
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509

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3.60 avg rating — 3,393 ratings
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509

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3.86 avg rating — 243 ratings
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513

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4.25 avg rating — 56,070 ratings
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513

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings
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513

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3.97 avg rating — 25,494 ratings
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513

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3.84 avg rating — 3,231 ratings
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513

by
3.92 avg rating — 288 ratings
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518

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4.18 avg rating — 736 ratings
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518

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3.92 avg rating — 36 ratings
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518

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3.64 avg rating — 14,018 ratings
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518

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4.07 avg rating — 1,843 ratings
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518

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3.63 avg rating — 1,114 ratings
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518

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3.76 avg rating — 37 ratings
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524

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3.63 avg rating — 634 ratings
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524

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4.15 avg rating — 1,384 ratings
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524

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3.58 avg rating — 38 ratings
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527

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4.05 avg rating — 107 ratings
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527

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4.08 avg rating — 12 ratings
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527

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4.08 avg rating — 5,824 ratings
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527

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3.78 avg rating — 1,068 ratings
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527

by
3.92 avg rating — 80 ratings
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532

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3.99 avg rating — 28,241 ratings
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532

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3.68 avg rating — 6,091 ratings
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532

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4.07 avg rating — 7,045 ratings
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532

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4.37 avg rating — 57,221 ratings
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532

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3.67 avg rating — 42 ratings
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537

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3.90 avg rating — 118,839 ratings
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537

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3.55 avg rating — 2,066 ratings
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537

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3.82 avg rating — 56 ratings
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540

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3.95 avg rating — 36,800 ratings
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540

by
3.89 avg rating — 89,662 ratings
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540

by
3.76 avg rating — 1,392 ratings
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540

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4.24 avg rating — 2,656 ratings
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544

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4.11 avg rating — 3,632,410 ratings
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544

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4.03 avg rating — 5,562 ratings
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544

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3.50 avg rating — 1,973 ratings
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544

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4.18 avg rating — 2,483 ratings
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548

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4.35 avg rating — 4,055,247 ratings
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548

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3.85 avg rating — 8,284 ratings
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548

by
3.86 avg rating — 941 ratings
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548

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4.14 avg rating — 9,750 ratings
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552

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3.90 avg rating — 868 ratings
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552

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4.37 avg rating — 2,967 ratings
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554

by
3.18 avg rating — 239 ratings
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554

by
3.86 avg rating — 844 ratings
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554

by
4.09 avg rating — 357 ratings
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557

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3.59 avg rating — 198 ratings
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557

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3.95 avg rating — 943 ratings
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557

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3.80 avg rating — 35 ratings
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560

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4.21 avg rating — 4,506 ratings
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560

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3.96 avg rating — 411 ratings
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560

by
3.71 avg rating — 947 ratings
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560

by
3.34 avg rating — 472 ratings
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564

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3.73 avg rating — 13,044 ratings
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564

by
3.50 avg rating — 22 ratings
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564

by
3.10 avg rating — 345 ratings
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564

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3.39 avg rating — 6,322 ratings
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568

by
3.84 avg rating — 241 ratings
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568

by
3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings
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568

by
3.87 avg rating — 217,866 ratings
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568

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liked it 3.00 avg rating — 4 ratings
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572

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4.16 avg rating — 1,317 ratings
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572

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3.46 avg rating — 101 ratings
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572

by
4.31 avg rating — 45,906 ratings
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572

by
3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings
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576

by
3.86 avg rating — 4,181 ratings
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576

by
2.67 avg rating — 3 ratings
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576

by
3.56 avg rating — 50 ratings
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579

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4.08 avg rating — 436,138 ratings
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579

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3.93 avg rating — 2,990 ratings
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579

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3.99 avg rating — 1,450 ratings
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579

by
3.43 avg rating — 572 ratings
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583

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3.62 avg rating — 19,047 ratings
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583

by
4.02 avg rating — 2,242 ratings
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583

by
3.72 avg rating — 159 ratings
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583

by
3.19 avg rating — 16 ratings
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587

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3.88 avg rating — 5,498 ratings
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587

by
4.04 avg rating — 1,101 ratings
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587

by
4.01 avg rating — 2,137 ratings
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587

by
3.89 avg rating — 136 ratings
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587

by
3.16 avg rating — 4,309 ratings
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592

by
4.24 avg rating — 11,559 ratings
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592

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4.26 avg rating — 2,037 ratings
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592

by
3.36 avg rating — 25 ratings
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592

by
3.95 avg rating — 5,312 ratings
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592

by
2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings
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597

by
4.21 avg rating — 54,835 ratings
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597

by
4.37 avg rating — 429 ratings
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597

by
3.72 avg rating — 909 ratings
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597

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2.62 avg rating — 13 ratings
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720 books · 100 voters · list created August 29th, 2022 by Emily Bourque (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


dalex 554 books
52 friends
Louise 4427 books
105 friends
NancyJ 13048 books
230 friends
Sydney 590 books
14 friends
Hélène 2881 books
34 friends
°~Amy~° 2646 books
66 friends
Pamela 2171 books
88 friends
Marie 3925 books
8 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Mandy (last edited Aug 29, 2022 09:47AM) (new)

Mandy here are some other names for pieces.

Minister, top, lady, tower, vizier, horse, officer

A link for finding international piece names. unfortunately, unless you can read the language, google translate will be your friend.

www. schach-chess. com / chess-pieces .htm


message 2: by NancyJ (last edited Aug 29, 2022 12:43PM) (new)

NancyJ I think it's too big a stretch to include words with "king" imbedded in a title word or author's name - eg. working, mockingbird, looking, Kingfisher, etc. This prompt is already very broad.


message 3: by Dubhease (new)

Dubhease Rooks are sometimes called a castle, a tower, and an elephant in various cultures.


message 4: by Emily (new)

Emily Bourque NancyJ wrote: "I think it's too big a stretch to include words with "king" imbedded in a title word or author's name - eg. working, mockingbird, looking, Kingfisher, etc. This prompt is already very broad."

Totally understand if you don't want to include those books in this prompt, NancyJ (I personally don't plan to) but I'll allow them to remain on the listopia for people who may want to broaden the prompt to that.


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Dubhease wrote: "Rooks are sometimes called a castle ... in various cultures."

Agreed


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Mandy wrote: "here are some other names for pieces.

... horse ..."
I so agree


message 7: by Ketutar (new)

Ketutar Jensen OK... The Count of Monte Cristo?
A Discovery of Witches?
11/22/63?
Writers and Lovers?
Euphoria?
The Uncommon Reader?
Rosemary and Rue?
How are these related to chess pieces? People should be motivating their votes here, too.

And, no, words with -king on them shouldn't count. I know this is just a reading challenge and not serious or so, but why would people join a reading challenge if they don't plan to challenge themselves in any way? I mean, I can accept "royals", and "rookie", but there are TONS of books with "king", "queen", "horse" and "tower" to choose from, without needing to go that far out to fish. One could just as well select any 52 books and then come up with far-fetched motivations.

BTW, in Finnish the pieces are called the King, the Queen, the Messenger, the Horse (Steed), the Tower and the Soldier
in Swedish: king, lady, runner, horse, tower, peasant
in Estonian: king, flag, spear, horse, wagon, forerunner


message 8: by Emily (new)

Emily Bourque A reminder, Ketutar, that everyone approaches the challenge in a different way. We encourage people to put notes on their votes explaining how the book fits, but at the end of the day, it is up to each person using the listopia to decide if a book fits for them or not. We aren't here to judge how or why someone chooses to complete our challenge.

I appreciate your listing the different words used in different languages! That's very helpful!


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