Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
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[2024] Poll 7 Voting
Emily wrote: "Jennifer W wrote: "Emily wrote: "First day of school tomorrow!"Emily, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live that school starts tomorrow??
Here in NY we have 4 more weeks from this comin..."
Good luck on the new school year! :)
I hope you have a great time back at school Emily.
I have two series set in Sweden, so Eurovision is perfect for 2024. The Girl Who Takes an Eye an Eye fits Body part on the title. My favorites are Going for the Gold, Fire, and Eurovision. Intelligence, and King Henry are up there. Other possibilities are the title and character prompts, multiple POVs, and bridges.
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I vote down 4 with no up votes. I can do the ones I left neutral they are just not exciting.
A suggestion that didn't make the final list and Eurovision countries are my favorites out of this group.
I think I will have all up votes again this week. Nothing here that I hate!
Intelligence, Bridges, and Multiple POV are my favorites for this poll. Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog is one of my all time favorite books. I received two copies of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? from family members, and I have others on the animal intelligence list. https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
Bridges are on some of the boating books I own.
The Multiple POV list is full of books I want to read.
Eurovision sounds cool. The Henry VIII prompt might be fun, but the examples don't help. Boys in the Boat is not a survival book for instance.
I don't have anything for Fire, musical instruments or upside down covers. I'm neutral on all the others.
Love Going for the Gold! I like that it can be interpreted a lot of different ways (gold cover, gold-rush book, book on the olympics, athletes, etc)I really like intelligence too. I don't know what I would possibly read for it, but excited at being able to push my creativity there.
Also will be upvoting Henry VIII (it's my prompt), domestic service (like that this is something new that I haven't seen before), Audie award (feel I should since I almost exclusively listen to audiobooks now that I have a small human), goodreads "friend" (I don't think it'll get in, but I steal from a lot of your TBRs so thank you!).
So at least 6 upvotes for me!
7 up, 1 downRemembering Eurovision 1994 - Riverdance with Michael Flatley and Jean Butler! What a performance!
4 up, 4 down, which is better than the last two rounds. Since I come from a musical household (several of us plus in my extended family) I upvoted musical instrument on the cover and as I said somewhere else, I downvoted the Henry VIII wives one.I can't remember all of my votes, but I also upvoted domestic service and going for gold since that's much better than I anticipated for an Olympics based one since it's quite wide open and I won't have to read for sports, nor will I necessarily have to read about a competition (so many other types besides sports!); it's the fourth one I'm fuzzy on since I then took a long look at downvotes. There are some I'm ambivalent on so I left those with nothing.
All upvotes for me, and it was hard to narrow it down to just 8!
In the end I went with 6 up and 2 down. It was hard to choose from these set of prompts as there are so many I love. I really hope intelligence and Eurovision make it.
NancyJ wrote: "°~Amy~° wrote: "Oh no! Last poll was all upvotes and this one is looking like 8 STRONG down votes for me. 😣"Sorry to hear that Amy. I’m getting sold on many that I initially didn’t like. I like l..."
Unfortunately after sitting on these prompts a few days, I did not in fact change my mind about any of them :( Hoping for another week of all upvotes again next week!
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Don't we all like fire??? :) It's raining here today and I was just saying how nice it would be if we could have a fire in the fireplace in our office.
I upvoted an audie winner, multiple points of view, a relative in the title and a book relating to fire.I downvoted bridges. I just don't think I have any books currently that would fit but I wouldn't mind if it got in. Same for musical instrument. I downvoted domestic service but it would be easy for me to find a book for that. I also downvoted the upside down prompt. I wouldn't mind really if any of these got in. I just selfishly relate it to what books I have stacked up. But sometimes the prompts I think I don't want are the most fun to read.
Pamela wrote: "Siobhan wrote: "A bit more of a mixed week this week (for me), but still several prompts that I’m very excited about!."
Don't we all like fire??? :) It's raining here today and I was just saying ..."
I like sitting by a fireplace, but I can only think of a couple books with fires, and they weren’t favorites. There must be more…
I started a listopia recently for books with fire in the plot. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...Please add to it!
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There's a bunch of really good nonfictions books about fire- The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America or The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy (I grew up in Hartford where the stories of this event were very real even 50 years later).
For a totally different meaning, there's always books where a character is fired. Or books about potters.
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The listopia is 24 pages long!
Pamela wrote: "The listopia is 24 pages long!.."24 pages of books I'm not I really interested in or have read already. I have since looked through them and I haven't changed my mind.
There is one book I'm reading for this year's challenge on the list and don't really want to find something else for that prompt and a handful of books I have on my TBR because they were cheap on ebook and I can read them if I have to find something.
Yet the nominees have lots of books that would actually make me look forward to the prompt. I didn't vote either way for it BUT if it included nominees I would have voted for it.
Pamela wrote: "Siobhan wrote: "A bit more of a mixed week this week (for me), but still several prompts that I’m very excited about!."
Don't we all like fire??? :) It's raining here today and I was just saying ..."
@Pamela — I wish a cozy fire was my first thought (I DO love a cozy fire)!
However, I live in an area with a long history of wildfires, so that is where my brain went first. I have had to evacuate my home roughly 6 times in the past 35 years (most of those in the last 15 years), and have had many friends whose homes were in direct danger of burning, or did burn, even when my home was not in the direct path. In 2018 there was a VERY large, VERY fast fire that traveled about 50 miles over night to my town. This was followed, less than a month later by a huge rainstorm that triggered a debris flow causing unbelievable damage and lost lives.
Even though fire is a traumatic topic for me, during the times we have large fires (that last days to weeks) the firefighters have had community "town halls" broadcast on TV, which on top of being a good way to track how your own neighborhood might fare, also provided a lot of discussion about Fire Science, which I found quite interesting.
If "a book related to fire" gets through, I'm not sure if I'd read a book related to fire science and wildfires, or if I'd go easy on myself (emotionally) and take it in a different, creative direction.
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At the moment I have planned for 6 UP and 2 DOWN, my favorites being "intelligence", and a "cover with something tilted or upside down". "Fire" is actually neutral for me.
Pamela wrote: "Siobhan wrote: "A bit more of a mixed week this week (for me), but still several prompts that I’m very excited about!."
Don't we all like fire??? :) It's raining here today and I was just saying ..."
No, we don't all like it right now!!! Canada has had a horrible, devastating and life threatening fire season that is far beyond the norm (boreal forests in Canada require them every 100-200 years, but not all at once!) and in the US many have been suffering from all of the smoke from those that make it down.
Many of these fires are in areas so remote that even if there were enough firefighthers in Canada and the States combined can't be fought because you can't get to them even with planes full of water.
Karin wrote: "Pamela wrote: "Siobhan wrote: "A bit more of a mixed week this week (for me), but still several prompts that I’m very excited about!."
Don't we all like fire??? :) It's raining here today and I w..."
Sorry Karin, yes I had intended to reference what Canada is experiencing now (and parts of the US indirectly), as well as Greece, and often Australia as well. There don't seem to be any good answers about how to handle them — the old way (put it all out), the new way (save people/homes/infrastructure, but let nature cycle as intended), or some unknown way since even if we let nature cycle as intended, there is an extremely unhealthy amount of smoke in the air! The New York Times podcast, The Daily, just did a really good episode on this!
Stay healthy and safe!
I changed my mind on these ones. At first look I wasn't impressed with the majority, but after a bit of research and checking my TBR I ended up with 6 up and 2 down. The ones I upvoted I only had 1 or 2 books on my TBR - but figured it would be a good push to get me to actually read them. I add many to my TBR and then never get to read them.I ended up upvoting:
2. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the final list - I like this one as it lets me include another new release book
5. An Audie award winner (in any format) - I've had Sadie on my list to read since adding after a recommendation from this group. Sounds like it would be good on audio so if it gets in I'll listen to it.
9. A book told from multiple character POVs - love this one - I read lots of these so this is right up my ally
13. A book set in one of the countries competing in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest - didn't grab me at first but figured I can read some of the WW2 books I have set in Germany that I havent been getting to. I've got at leat 2 on list.
14. A book involving a type of intelligence - I picked this one to force me to read Klara and the Sun. I own it, but keep putting it off for some reason.
15. A book related to fire - I have a few books set in firehouses and one that I got from amazon first reads called Out of the Ashes
A good selection this time. Non of the prompts I felt strongly against, so I will propably not give any downvotes. There were a lot I liked, so I will have to narrow it down.
Ira wrote: "A good selection this time. Non of the prompts I felt strongly against, so I will propably not give any downvotes. There were a lot I liked, so I will have to narrow it down."I feel exactly the same way! At first I wasn't overly excited about any of the prompts, but I did end up with six upvotes, simply because there was no prompt I actively disliked and I found that I would be able to make almost all of them work, so I just went with those I felt comfortable with. I was surprised at how many "body parts" books I have on my TBR, haha.
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Forgot that form of fire! And yes, often the view of the ocean from work has been obscured--- we've been lucky that we've had a constant light layer rather than a short period of intense.
Although the way places deal with fire is v different. Years ago I did a site visit to a botanical garden in Adelaide that had had devastating forest fires over a decade ago. Their view and relation of the fires is so different than Americans',
How about- we all like fires that stay in fireplaces! Unless you have asthma...
Those fires are on my mind. I live in the States now, but my family lives up there and I'll be seeing them during fire season. So far their area is okay. I don't have asthma, but do have allergies and won't have my central air/air purifiers there. It's not hot enough where I grew up for most people to get central air although many parts of inhabited Canada do get that hot.
Pamela wrote: .Although the way places deal with fire is v different. Years ago I did a site visit to a botanical garden in Adelaide that had had devastating forest fires over a decade ago. Their view and relation of the fires is so different than Americans',"I live in Adelaide, Australia. I'm interested in how views in Australia are different to America. What's it like in America?
We had problems with air quality, but it’s better now. I didn’t like it when I couldn’t go outside, but some people have lost everything. There seem to be bad fires all over the world. The fires in Hawaii hit me hard today. It was the last place I expected it to happen, and people are trapped. The winds make it hard to leave on boat or by plane. They can’t just drive away or close their windows and forget about it.
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You're lucky to live there! That was such a nice place!
We run and let the government handle it. No fighting it ourselves. Australians are also more focused on prevention. Might be that I was at the Botanical Gardens, but I also did a review at a CA botanical garden and there was almost no talk about wildfires there.
Pamela wrote: "Bec wrote: I live in Adelaide, Australia. I'm interested in how views in Australia are different to America. What's it like in America.."You're lucky to live there! That was such a nice place!
W..."
Oh yes very big on prevention here. Do you have fire bans there? Times when you are not allowed to have fires?
Interestingly enough this article was in my inbox this morning: 'Australia is Sleepwalking': a bushfire scientist explains what the Hawaii tragedy means for our flammable continent
https://theconversation.com/australia...
Bec wrote: "Pamela wrote: "Bec wrote: I live in Adelaide, Australia. I'm interested in how views in Australia are different to America. What's it like in America.."You're lucky to live there! That was such a..."
Canada has fire bans at times but it's not done as a country as a whole usually; I think the States does as well, but it would be done more locally.
Although the US and Australia are quite different, as a Canadian first I would say there are certain things that are more similar in a few ways between the States and Australia than in NZ or Canada, or at least 30 years ago. But Australia is still very different, and you won't find many Americans who can tell a Kiwi from an Aussie by their accents even though they are quite different overall even allowing for regional Aussie accents.
Quietly wondering when it will be Friday morning......hahaha, as I settle into my Friday arvo....I can never work it out. Probably overnight for me.
Well, if Emily posts at 8am her time like she did a couple of times ago (?), then in about 6.5 hours. Sorry Bec!
So about 11pm for me ….all good. I’ll be excited for tomorrow!
Lol, I came on here on *Tuesday* looking for results... it's been a very long week as far as that goes!! :)
Bec wrote: "Quietly wondering when it will be Friday morning......hahaha, as I settle into my Friday arvo....I can never work it out. Probably overnight for me."LOL it’s 8:30 am on the east coast right now!! And that’s why I’m here, just checking to see if results are out. …
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Emily wrote: "Just got to school so I'll be tallying and posting in a few haha!"We all know it takes time, no pressure! It’s like little Christmas mornings.
Emily wrote: "Just got to school so I'll be tallying and posting in a few haha!"Sorry I thought your kid was about a year old? I knew kids were starting younger but one?
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Out of the Ashes (other topics)Klara and the Sun (other topics)
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America (other topics)
The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy (other topics)
Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Gina Chung (other topics)Abigail Tarttelin (other topics)
Lisa Genova (other topics)
Becky Chambers (other topics)
Kazuo Ishiguro (other topics)
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Emily, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live that school starts tomorrow??
Here in NY we have 4 more weeks from this coming Wednesday!!"
I'm in Louisiana. Teachers go back today, students start on Wednesday! But we have our last day of school before Memorial Day in May, with all of June and July off.