Laura Z's 2024 ATY Reading Challenge

[Laura Z]

2024 ATY Reading Challenge

✅1. A book with a title that ends in A, T, or Y: Annie Bot ★★★★★
✅2. A book connected to something you read in 2023: Bookshops & Bonedust ★★★★
✅3. A book that fits a suggestion that didn’t make the final list (related to soul): Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution ★★
✅4. A book related to something mentioned in the lyrics of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World": All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me ★★★
✅5. A book set in one of the 25 most beautiful cities in the world (San Francisco/Paris): The Phoenix Crown ★★★
✅6. A book with wings on the cover: Salt & Broom ★★★
✅7. A book with a pronoun on the cover: Let Us Descend ★★★★
✅8. A book by an author from Canada, Australia or New Zealand: The Quiet People ★★★
✅9. A book with fewer than 2024 ratings on Goodreads: The Best Way to Bury Your Husband (1972 ratings) ★★★
✅10. A history or historical fiction book: Medgar & Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America ★★★★
✅11. A book with an X connection: XOXO ★★★
✅12. A book that has been on your TBR for more than a year: The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story ★★★★★
✅13. A book that is on a "Five Books" list (historical fiction set in Africa): Homegoing ★★★★
✅14. A book with a BIPOC main character: Swift River ★★★
✅15. A book whose author’s name includes J, Q, X, or Z: Marcelo in the Real World (Francis X. Stork) ★★★
✅16. A book related to the phrase "it's raining cats and dogs": White Cat, Black Dog: Stories ★★★
✅17. A book involving intelligence: Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think ★★★
✅18. A book with a botanical cover: The Waters ★★★
✅19. A book connected to a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor (Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz): Before the Coffee Gets Cold ★★★★
✅20. A book with a single word title : Open ★★★★
✅21. A book with a title containing at least 6 words: Gwen & Art Are Not in Love ★★★
✅22. A book by an author from an African country: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years ★★★★
✅23. A book related to boats, beaches, bars, ballads, or Jimmy Buffett: Shipped ★★★
✅24. A book with a secondary color on the cover (orange, green or purple): Under the Influence ★★★★
✅25. A book involving a crime other than a murder: This Could Be Us (embezzlement) ★★★★★
✅26. A book by an author known by their initials: An Education in Malice ★★★
✅27. A book related to land: This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving ★★★★
✅28. A book related to sea: Sea of Tranquility ★★★★
✅30. A book set in a country bordering the Mediterranean Sea: The House of Last Resort ★★★★
✅31. A book related to going for gold: Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and Figuring It Out ★★★★★
✅32. A book with a number in the title: 30 Things I Love About Myself ★★★★
✅33. A book involving travel: America the Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Traveled ★★★
✅34. A book related to the name of one of Snow White's Seven Dwarfs: The Happy Ever After Playlist ★★★★★
✅35. A science or science fiction book: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us ★★★★
✅36. A book featuring a character in education: They Never Learn ★★★★★
✅37. A book that is part of a series: Sun of Blood and Ruin (Sun of Blood and Ruin, #1) ★★★★
✅38. Two books with similar covers - Book 1: The Year of Second Chances ★★★★
✅39. Two books with similar covers - Book 2: The Second Chance Year ★★★★
✅40. A book involving a wild animal or endangered species (in the content, title, or on the cover): Open Throat ★★★★★
✅41. A book with a chilling atmosphere: Burial Rites ★★★
✅42. A book with a sound-related word in the title: The Whispers ★★★
✅43. A book by an Edgar Award-winning Author: The Book of Phobias and Manias: A History of Obsession ★★★
✅44. A book with a touch of magic: The Seven Year Slip ★★★
✅45. A book that is not a novel: Veg-table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals ★★★★★
✅46. A book related to night: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter ★★★★
✅47. A book with a two-word title beginning with The: The Fisherman ★★★★
✅48. A second book that fits your favorite prompt (a book with wings on the cover): Heartless Hunter ★★★★
✅49. A book with a senior citizen character: Silver Alert ★★★★
✅50. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2023 or 2024: Tom Lake ★★★★
✅51. A book published in 2024: True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between ★★★★★
✅52. A cozy mystery: Murder and Mamon ★★

[Laura Z]

Winter Challenge – DREAMING OF SNOW

✅ D Devolution: A First-Hand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre, Max Brooks ★★★★★
✅ R Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld ★★★★★
✅ E Everyone Brave Is Forgiven, Chris Cleave ★★★
✅ A American Dream Come True: Why Affordable Housing Is Good Policy, Good Business, and Good for America, Tony Bertoldi ★★★★
✅ M My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh ★★★
✅ I Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto, Michelle Bowdler ★★★★
✅ N Nevermore Bookstore (Townsend Harbor, #1), Kerrigan Byrne and Cynthia St. Aubin ★★
✅ G Goldilocks, Laura Lam ★★★
✅ O Once an Heiress (Gilded Promises, #3), Renee Ryan ★★★
✅ F Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, Crystal Maldanado ★★★★
✅ S Seveneves, Neal Stephenson ★★★
✅ N The Night Shift, Alex Finlay ★★★
✅ O One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858, Rosemary Ashton ★★★★
✅ W The Writing Retreat, Julia Bartz ★★★

[Laura Z]

Winter Challenge – HELLO NEW BEGINNINGS

✅ H Blind Man’s Bluff, James Tate Hill ★★★★
✅ E Hold Fast (The Laird’s Holdings, #1), Eliza MacArthur ★★★★
✅ L The Boleyn King (Boleyn Trilogy, #1), Laura Andersen ★★
✅ L Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, Liz Cheney ★★★★★
✅ O Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Knitting the World’s Ugliest Sweater, Peggy Orenstein ★★★★
✅ N Eagle Drums, Nasugraq Rainey Hopson ★★★★
✅ E Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing, Emily Lynn Paulson ★★★★
✅ W Bea Wolf, Zach Weinersmith ★★★★★
✅ B FantasticLand, Mike Bockoven ★★★★
✅ E Valentine, Elizabeth Wetmore ★★★★
✅ G Maame, Jessica George ★★★★
✅ I Violeta, Isabel Allende ★★★
✅ N Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories, GennaRose Nethercott ★★★
✅ N Bellies, Nicola Dinan ★★★★
✅ I The Paris Winter, Imogen Robertson ★★★
✅ N They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency, Malcolm Nance ★★★
✅ G Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. ★★★★
✅ S Cover Story, Susan Rigetti ★★★★

[Laura Z]

Spring Challenge

✅ Red: Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, Abraham Reisman ★★★★
✅ Orange: The Burnout, Sophie Kinsella ★★★
✅ Yellow: Georgie, All Along, Kate Clayborn ★★★★
✅ Green: Come and Get It, Kiley Reid ★★★★
✅ Blue: How the Boogeyman Became a Poet, Tony Keith, Jr. ★★★★
✅ Purple: Shubeik Lubeik, Deena Mohamed ★★★★★
✅ White: The Future, Naomi Alderman ★★★
✅ Black: James, Percival Everett ★★★★★
✅ Brown: Brooklyn (Eilis Lacey, #1), Colm Toibin ★★★
✅ Gold: Age of Vice, Deepti Kapoor ★★★
✅ Gray: Seasonal Work, Laura Lippman ★★★★
✅ 5+ Colors: The Husbands, Holly Gramazio ★★★★★




Spring Bonus Challenge

✅ RAINBOW: The Bad Muslim Discount, Syed M. Masood ★★★★
✅ SHOWER: Once More with Feeling, Elissa Sussman ★★★★
✅ SPRING: The Rewind, Allison Winn Scotch ★★★
✅ COLORFUL: Lunar New Year Love Story, Gene Luen Yang ★★★★★
✅ GROWTH: The True Love Experiment (DNADuo, #2), Christina Lauren ★★★★

[Laura Z]

Summer Challenge - June

1. National Ballpoint Pen Day
✅a. A book with a writing utensil on the cover: Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Emma Torzs ★★★★
✅b. A book written under a pen name: Love and Other Words, Christina Lauren ★★★★
✅c. A book about a writer, bookseller, or librarian: The Lonely Hearts Book Club, Lucy Gilmore ★★★★

2. National Prune Day
✅a. A book written by someone over the age of 60: You Like It Darker, Stephen King ★★★★
✅b. A book with more than 400 pages: Middlemarch, George Eliot/Mary Ann Evans ★★★
✅c. A book with purple on the cover: Twelfth Knight, Alexene Farol Follmuth ★★★★

3. Let's Catch a Movie
✅a. Author's initials can be found in BLOCKBUSTER FILM: I Take You, Eliza Kennedy ★★
✅b. A book that has been adapted into a movie or series: The Buccaneers, Edith Wharton ★★★★
✅c. A book published in the last two years: Good Bad Girl, Alice Feeney ★★★★

4. Happy Birthday Paul Gauguin
✅a. A book with at least 4 colors on the cover: Margo's Got Money Troubles, Rufi Thorpe ★★★★
✅b. A translated book: Tales from the Café, Toshikazu Kawaguchi ★★★★
✅c. A book with a seven in the page count: Counterfeit, Kristin Chen ★★★

[Laura Z]

Summer Challenge - July

1. Happy Birthday, Satchel Paige
✅a. A book by an author whose initials appear in CURVEBALL: Very Bad Company, Emma Rosenblum ★★★
✅b. A book featuring a sport: Fangirl Down, Tessa Bailey ★★★★
✅c. A book with a Black main character: A Woman Of Endurance, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa ★★★

2. The Apollo Moon Landing
✅a. A book set in space: The Darkness Outside Us, Eliot Schrefer ★★★
✅b. A book with the moon on the cover: How To Start A Fire, Lisa Lutz ★★
✅c. A book published in the 1960s: A Single Man, Chris Isherwood ★★★★

3. Let’s Go on a Hike
✅a. A book with a cover of a nature scene without people: North Woods, Daniel Mason ★★★
✅b. A book set in a rural area: Murder Road, Simone St. James ★★★★
✅c. A book with an element of survival: Camp Zero, Michelle Min Sterling ★★★★

4. The Dog Days of Summer
✅a. A book with a dog on the cover: Perestroika in Paris, Jane Smiley ★★★
✅b. A book with a hot setting: Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, John Vaillant ★★★★★
✅c. An author’s first book: A Short Walk Through a Wide World, Douglas Westerbeke ★★★★

[Laura Z]

Summer Challenge - August

1. The Destruction of Pompeii
✅a. A book featuring an ancient civilization: Kaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel ★★★
✅b. A book with red on the cover: Listen for the Lie, Amy Tintera ★★★★★
✅c. A book set in a city (Murano): The Glassmaker, Tracy Chevalier ★★★★

2. Vacation Time
✅a. A book you’ve been meaning to read: The Broken Girls, Simone St. James ★★★★
✅b. A book by a favorite author: Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde ★★★★★
✅c. A book set somewhere you would like to visit (Madrid): The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo ★★★★

3. Let’s Play a Game
✅a. A book with multiple points of view: Weyward, Emilia Hart ★★★★
✅b. A book by an author whose initials appear in SCRABBLE: Before We Were Innocent, Ella Berman ★★★★
✅c. A book in a series: Rivers of London (Rivers of London, #1), Ben Aaronovitch ★★★★★

4. Back to School Sales
✅a. A book borrowed from the library: Marilou is Everywhere, Sarah Elaine Smith ★★★
✅b. A nonfiction book: The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy, Stephanie Kelton ★★★★
✅c. A book with a character in an educational setting: The Very Principled Maggie Mayfield, Kathy Cooperman ★★

[Laura Z]

Fall Challenge - PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE

✅P: Same Bed Different Dreams, Ed Park ★★★
✅U: The Butcher Game, Alaina Urquhart ★★★
✅M: The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley ★★★★
✅P: Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond ★★★★★
✅K: After the Forest, Kell Woods ★★★★
✅I: Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice ★★★★
✅N: Never in a Hurry: Essays on People and Places, Naomi Shahib Nye ★★★★★
✅S: Slow Dance, Rainbow Rowell ★★★★
✅P: A Passage to India, E. M. Forster ★★★
✅I: Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, Ilyon Woo ★★★★
✅C: Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah ★★★★
✅E: The Wedding People, Alison Espach ★★★★★
✅L: The Paradise Problem, Christina Lauren ★★★★
✅A: The Happy Ever After Playlist, Abby Jimenez ★★★★★
✅T: The Secret History, Donna Tartt ★★★★
✅T: A House with Good Bones, T. Kingfisher ★★★★★
✅E: Jackal, Erin E. Adams ★★★★

[Laura Z]

Fall Challenge - FAMILY GATHERING

✅F: Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, H. G. Bissinger ★★★★
✅A: All You Have to Do Is Call, Kerri Maher ★★★★
✅M: Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation, Michael Powell ★★★★
✅I: I Was a Teenage Slasher, Stephen Graham Jones ★★★★★
✅L: The Honey-Don't List, Christina Lauren ★★★★★
✅Y: The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo ★★★
✅G: Gold Diggers, Sanjena Sathian ★★★★
✅A: Again and Again, Jonathan Evison ★★★★
✅T: Tastes Like Shakkar, Nisha Sharma ★★★
✅H: How to Say Babylon, Safiyah Sinclair ★★★★
✅E: The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth ★★★★
✅R: Road Home, Rex Ogle ★★★★
✅I: I Was Told It Would Get Easier, Abbi Waxman ★★★★
✅N: The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler ★★★
✅G: The Great Transition, Nick Fuller Googins ★★★

[Laura Z]

Fall Challenge - HOT APPLE CIDER

✅H: Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope, Sarah Bakewell ★★★★★
✅O: One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts Our History and Threatens Our Democracy, Dominic Erdozain ★★★★
✅T: The Champions (The Cheerleaders, #2), Kara Thomas ★★★★
✅A: The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden ★★★
✅P: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee Bender ★★★★
✅P: Playground, Richard Powers ★★★★★
✅L: The Long Game (The Long Game, #1), Elena Armas ★★★
✅E: Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World, Eric Jay Dolin ★★★
✅C: The Garden, Clare Beams ★★★
✅I: I Flipping Love You (Shacking Up, #3), Helena Hunting ★★★
✅D: Laziness Does Not Exist, Devon Price ★★★★
✅E: The Bullet Swallower, Elizabeth Gonzalez James ★★★
✅R: Horse Barbie: A Memoir of Reclamation, Gina Rocero ★★★★