Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
Weekly Topics 2024
>
42. A book with a sound-related word in the title
date
newest »
newest »
Steelstriker by Marie Lustrike - make a sound or sounds as by being struck, said of a bell, clock, etc.
I plan to read Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Varga Llosa. I hoped to get to it this year but probably won’t. My other option is Thunderstruck by Erik Larson.
Pam wrote: "I plan to read Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Varga Llosa. I hoped to get to it this year but probably won’t. My other option is Thunderstruck by Erik Larson."I currently have Thunderstruck for my sea prompt, but if I don't read it there I'm glad I have another place for it. My planned book is A Symphony of Echoes.
As this prompt calls for a "sound-related" word in the title, I couldn't go beyond an audiobook as the medium. I've selected a non-fiction audiobook, "The Philosophy Of Modern Song" by Bob Dylan.Apart from being narrated by the Zimmerman himself, other narrators include Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Sissy Spasek, Renee Zellweger & others
I was pleasantly surprised by the number of books I found on my TBR for this one. I feel happy just looking at all the music related titles.
I'm not sure what my "angle" will be on next year's challenge. This year I did all women authors. I think I want to pull as many of the weeks from my TBR. I don't know yet on how many of the prompts I can do that. This prompt though I have several options (considering I am a professional musician - that's not surprising! LOL.) I might try to do a certain percentage of non-fiction. Choices, choices. :) The Sound of My Daughter's Voice40] by Wayne Hastings
The Other Side Of Silence by André P. Brink
The Infinite Variety of Music by Leonard Bernstein
Great Singers on Great Singing by Jerome Hines
Artistic Choral Singing by Harry R. Wilson
BLACK MUSIC IN OUR CULTURE: Curricular Ideas on the Subjects, Materials and Problems. by Dominique-Rene with contributions De Lerma
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin
Renaissance and Baroque Music: A Comprehensive Survey by Frederich Blume
In Quiet Light by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James
Wendy - White Noise is my 3rd choice! I keep meaning to read it and this is the perfect prompt for it.
Fun fact. The movie adaptation of White Noise was partially filmed in my hometown. They redid all the store fronts as part of the movie set. It was super cool!
I'm planning to readThe Fountains of Silence. This will be my second novel by Ruta Sepetys. I'm currently reading You: The Story: A Writer's Guide to Craft Through Memory by the same author and it's amazing how much thought she puts into her writing. I have a couple of ideas for my own writing projects and thought her book could give me some insights on what I might write but I just felt so boring compared to her. Her real life has so many stories and characters. I can't wait to see what kind of characters and stories she crafts.
Some need a bit more figuring out than others, but these are the books on my shelf that could work for this.- Mouthing the Words by Camilla Gibb
- 31 Songs by Nick Hornby
- No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
- How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Born Lippy by Jo Brand
- This Is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan
- The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
I enjoyed the debut short story collection, House Gone Quiet by Kelsey Norris. This mixed bag of stories relating to family and community were set in varied locales and time periods. My favorite was the final one, Go Way Back, featuring a young woman of mixed race meeting her white boyfriend's family in Mississippi for the first time. From the vivid and often painful memories stirred up by the visit relating to the woman's Black roots in the Deep South, I suspect the story was deeply personal for her.
At the moment I'm planning on reading When All Is Said by Anne Griffin. I'm hoping since my ATY book twin gave it 5 stars that I will like it too!
I read The Heron's Cry and The Screaming Sky.The first was a police procedural murder mystery, with a strong sense of its West Country setting. As I often find when I'm watching the same author's Vera series on television, the journey to the denouement is intriguing but I'm never sure the actual ending quite works.
The second book chronicles the author's (at times almost pathological) obsession with swifts. Some beautiful descriptions - as Charles Foster says, it wasn't so much a scientific book but just a portrait of a fascinating bird.
I just read Babel-17. Babel relates to multiple languages and sounds.I also read When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir which is excellent and easy to read (compared to other books about race and criminal justice anyway).
I was thinking about reading Tongues of Serpents for this one - I feel that a tongue is quite a sound-related word, but I don't know if that is stretching it a bit too far? :D
That begs the question is it referring to tongue as a body part (which is used to make sounds) or
Is it referring to tongues as in languages.
I think both fit, but the latter fits even better,
I've got to #10 in the Lighthouse Library series, which happens to be Death Knells and Wedding Bells, so given that a knell is onomatopaeic for the sound a bell makes, I figure with both in the title, it works here.
A kind of "opposite" approach ... the absence of sound
✔ - 01Mar24The Silence Between Us – Alison Gervais – 4****
This is a lovely young-adult romance with the added inclusion of one partner with a significant disability. Maya is smart and tenacious, but she just can’t believe that a hearing person and a deaf person can form a true relationship. In many ways the relationship between Beau and Maya is a typical teen romance, with missteps followed by genuine gestures that show caring, alongside all the usual teen drama of a senior year in high school.
LINK to my full review
The book I chose for this prompt
sweet and short review: 4.0
This book was a really good story, Bree seemed to move and force her little way into Archer’s life. That seem like just what he need at the time. Archer scared me. To love someone like that was gonna be the death of him, so he did right to go find his self and prepare to be the man she wanted. Travis was a slob and his mother was the devil.
I read:
The Whispering Women by Trish MacEnultyBIO: The sound-related word has to be sound-related in the context of the title
REJECT: A book with a main character who is a bookseller, writer, journalist or librarian
Finished: 06/02/2024
Rating: 4 stars
Excellent! First in a series, set in 1913 New York. Good plot and great characters.
I read A Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams. It's great if you're in the mood for a romance with a touch of magic and a lot of style.
I read Listen for the Lie, I really enjoyed this, not sure it will be everyone's cup of tea but it was a fun read for me. I would recommend:
Symphony of Secrets
The Song of Achilles
The Sound of Gravel
Samantha wrote: "I read Listen for the Lie, I really enjoyed this, not sure it will be everyone's cup of tea but it was a fun read for me. ..."OMG I read that book earlier this year and it never occurred to me that OF COURSE "Listen" is a sound-related word. THANK YOU. I came here looking for inspiration for this category, and I leave being able to check the category off as finished already.
2nd time through, I read:
The Mourning Bells by Christine TrentREJECT: A book where at least one character is trapped
Finished: 08/04/2024
Rating: 4 stars
#4 in the Lady of Ashes series about a sleuthing undertaker in Victorian London. Queen Victoria is a regular character.
For this prompt, I read The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud.Although the title is reminiscent of a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mystery, the story is more of a Ghostbusters revival for young adults, but without the focus on comedy.
In fact, some of the scenes are quite creepy, which is a bit surprising for a young adult novel. But the author has an excellent ability to create eerie ghosts and hair-raising scenes that leave goosebumps on your flesh.
3.5 stars
My review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I opted for an audiobook as it is more related to sound than reading:The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan (finished August 10th; 4*) Narrators included Dylan himself as well as Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, John Goodman, Sissy Spasek & others.
I just read Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman. It’s a coming of age story about a gay teenager in Rome.
I'm listening to the audiobook of the children's book Every Leaf a Hallelujah by Ben Okri. I would love to see the illustrations but none of my libraries have the physical or e-book. I will have to look for it at Barnes & Noble. It's a beautiful story!
I read Whistling Past the GraveyardThis has been on my TBR for ages and what a good read it was.
Starla decides to run away from her grandmother to find her mother - and what a fine old mess she gets into.
Aside from the runaway narrative this book has a lot to say about racial division and Christian charity
Books mentioned in this topic
Whistling Past the Graveyard (other topics)Every Leaf a Hallelujah (other topics)
Call Me By Your Name (other topics)
The Philosophy of Modern Song (other topics)
The Screaming Staircase (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ben Okri (other topics)André Aciman (other topics)
Bob Dylan (other topics)
Christine Trent (other topics)
Trish MacEnulty (other topics)
More...

















This week, we are diving into the lists to find a book with a sound-related word in the title. Popsugar had a prompt that required onomatopoeia, so there are plenty of lists out there in reference to that.
But there are other ways of looking at this prompt. You could use the word "noise" (White Noise), "sound" (The Sound of Glass), or "conversation" (Conversations with Friends). Check out the listopia for more inspiration.
ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
What are you reading for this prompt?