Dixie's 2026 ATY Challenge and more

[Dixie]

THE 52 TOPICS OF THE 2025 ATY READING CHALLENGE 0/89

1. A book from a genre that starts with A, T, or Y
A
T
Y
2. A book with a primarily red, green or blue cover
Red
Green
Blue
3. A book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list: A book with a desert setting. Jim Henson's Tale of Sand
4. A book by a new-to-you author
5. A book you want to read because of something you read in 2025

6. A book related to blood, sweat, or tears
Blood
Sweat
Tears
7. A book with a character who appears in more than one book
8. A book set in Africa, Asia, or Australia
Africa
Asia
Australia
9. A book with a number, ordinal, or iterative numeral in the title
Number
Numeral
Iterative

10. An award winning book
11. A history or historical fiction book
History
Historical fiction
12. A book with cover text that is NOT black or white
13. An author's second/sophomore book
14. A book related to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh

15. A book you've wanted to read for a long time
16. A book featuring a character with a similar occupation to one of the Clue/Cluedo characters
Colonel Mustard: military officer
Mr. Green: clergyman (UK), businessman (US)
Professor Plum: academic, professor
Mrs. White: domestic servant (maid, housekeeper, cook, etc)
Mrs. Peacock: widow, socialite
Miss Scarlett: a femme fatale
17. A book set in the wellness or beauty industries
Wellness
Beauty
18. A book with a location in the title

19. A book related to yesterday
20. A book related to today
21. A book related to tomorrow
22. A book by a Korean or Korean-diaspora author
Korean
Diaspora

23. A book with a road trip or long journey
24. A book that is either frothy or gothy
Frothy
Gothy
25. A book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list
26. A book with a Z in the title and/or author name
Title
Author's name
27. A nonfiction book

28. A book related to a resistance, rebellion, or revolution
Resistance
Rebellion
Revolution
29. A vacation book
30. The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist: Frontlist Book
31. The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist: Backlist Book

32. A novella of 100-250 pages
33. A book with an Indigenous character or author
Character
Author
34. A book with a window on the cover
35. A book where all or part of the action takes place in a library, a museum, a school, or another public building
36. A book with a primary character who is a woman over 40

37. A book that includes a science topic
38. A book that's part of a series
39. A book connected in some way to the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie
40. A book that has a punctuation mark in the title

41. A mystery or true crime book
Mystery
True crime
42. A book set in an isolated location
43. A book involving survival
44. A book with a symbol of death on the cover

45. A book connected to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
46. A book that is not a novel
47. A book with "this", "that", "these", or "those" in the title
This
That
These
Those
48. A book with something edible in the title
49. A second book for your favorite prompt

50. A book with a bird on its cover
51. A book published in 2026
52. A book related to the name of one of Santa's reindeer
Dasher
Dancer
Prancer
Vixen
Comet
Cupid
Donder
Blitzen
Rudolph

[Dixie]

2026 Rejects Challenge: Science, Social Issues, and A Sense of Place
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

1. A book that includes a “forbidden” topic in polite conversation, such as sex, money, religion, politics, or personal issues. (Poll 13)
It Can't Happen Here or The Plot Against America

2. A book featuring a feat of engineering (Poll 15)
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

3. A book that takes place in a country/place along the path of totality for the 2026 solar eclipse: Spain, Portugal, Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic, and the Atlantic Ocean (Poll 14)
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, Independent People, No One Thinks of Greenland, Out in the Cold. Travels North: Adventures in Svalbard, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and Canada, An African in Greenland, Towing Jehovah

4. A book related to observation, experimentation, or inquiry (Poll 13)
Observer, My Life with the Chimpanzees, Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science, Measuring the World, The Tainted Cup

5. A book that relates to a river (Poll 12)
The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, Walking The Wharfe: An Ode to a Yorkshire River, Elegy For a River: Whiskers, Claws and Conservation’s Last, Wild Hope

6. A book about wildlife or nature conservation (Poll 9)
Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World, Wild Souls: Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World, Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival

7. A book related to medical science or health, or a medical memoir (Polls 8 and 11)
Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health, Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness, Scurvy

8. A fiction or non-fiction book that could be considered a microhistory (Poll 10)
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World, A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth, Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist, Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor

9. A book about women crossing borders, boundaries, or barriers (Poll 10)
Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, Who Cooked the Last Supper: The Women's History of the World, Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor

10. A book related to psychology, mental health, or neuroscience (Poll 10)
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes, Migraine, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness, Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind, A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth, Adventures in Memory: Exploring the Science and Secrets of Human Memory, Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception

11. A book set in a country bordering the Indian Ocean (Poll 7)
In an Antique Land, A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth, The Cat's Table, The Malay Archipelago

12. A book with a “green” topic or character (Poll 2)
When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance, Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind, The Origin of Species

13. A book connected to the Middle East in some way (Poll 2)
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, In an Antique Land

14. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues (Poll 6)
Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century (Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards), Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life (Pulitzer Prize), Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (Pulitzer Prize)

15 A book related to a planet other than earth (Poll 7)
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?, The Rings of Saturn

16. A book about perceptions of reality or alternate realities (Poll 12)
Island in the Sea of Time, Our Tragic Universe, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing, The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself, Ubik

[Dixie]

2026 Rejects Challenge: Awards and Lists 0/10
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues (Poll 6)
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life (Pulitzer)
Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (Pulitzer)
The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years (Dayton)
The Cat's Table (Dayton)

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award (Poll 8)
https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-li...
All the Lives We Never Lived
Americanah
Exit West
Lincoln in the Bardo

3. A book that won an international literary award (Poll 15)
The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
Three Summers

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year (Poll 13)
Six Wakes
The Test
Crosstalk

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026 (Polls 15, 17, plus more)
A Gentleman in Moscow
Wild Dark Shore
Endling
The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists (Poll 14)
Women's Hotel
The Stardust Grail
There Are Rivers in the Sky

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists (Poll 12)
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
The Glass Hotel
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025
NYPL
Hum
NYT
Godwin
Reboot
The Bluestockings: A History of the First Women's Movement

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
The Extinction of Irena Rey
Playground
Help Wanted

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice
Hugos
The Tainted Cup
Double Star
The Sirens of Titan
This Immortal

[Dixie]

A few for fun!

1. A book with a title that contains the name of a professional sports team (Poll 5)
Baseball:
Seattle Mariners
Footie:
Arsenal: The Gunners
Aston Villa: The Villains
AFC Bournemouth: The Cherries
Brentford: The Bees
Brighton & Hove Albion: The Seagulls
Chelsea: The Blues
Crystal Palace: The Eagles
Everton: The Toffees
Fulham: The Cottagers
Liverpool: The Reds
Manchester City: The Citizens, The Sky Blues
Manchester United: The Red Devils
Newcastle United: The Magpies
Nottingham Forest: Forest
Southampton: The Saints
Tottenham Hotspur: Spurs, The Lilywhites
West Ham United: The Hammers
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Wolves
plus one I particularly love from the Championship League:
Ipswich Town: The Tractor Boys

2. Two books, where the second book's title provides a response to or continuation of the first book's title (Poll 4)

3. A book that fits 3 other prompts

4.. The mods! (Poll 3)
Jackie:
Lives in Wisconsin, USA. I'm a scientist, a mom, and a dog lover. My favorite genres are mystery, history, and nature books. Other hobbies include baking, DIY projects, and video games.

Robin:
I can speak and read French.
I grew up on a sheep farm but always lived in cities as an adult.
I am retired but I have a paying gig where I speak about lesser-known women from history.
I like cats, chocolate, and tea.
Robin’s lesser-known women from history books:
Leaving Coy's Hill - fictional but highly accurate about Lucy Stone, American suffragist
Born Criminal: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Radical Suffragist - popular nonfiction about someone who should be better known
Diva Julia: The Public Romance and Private Agony of Julia Ward Howe - the woman who wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic did much more
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley - dual biography of 2 amazing women
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life - America's first feminist
Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: An Astronomer Among the American Romantics biography but also talks about how men took over the field of science
Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist- the author ties it to recent events on abortion
Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored - a 19th-century woman who was a fortune teller, stockbroker, journalist, and candidate for president
Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener - a woman from the later era of suffrage who refused to accept society's double standards

Pamela:
I live in Salem, Massachusetts. I've worked my whole career in museums-- I started as a military/aviation curator but currently work at the House of the Seven Gables-- so here's your excuse to read Hawthorne. I wish I was a fashion curator though. I also knit and travel extensively. I read a lot of paranormal romance and try to balance it out with non-fiction, classics, and literary fiction. I've just started Moby Dick again- if anyone wants to use this prompt to shame me into actually finishing it, feel free.
I do love the beach!

Trish:
I live in London. I work as a financial editor and proofreader. I have cats. I'm the wrong side of 60. I enjoy reading, photography and like to cook.

Emily:
I'm a "retired" high school teacher of English, economics, personal finance, and journalism who now works with her husband at our CPA firm. I was also a college counselor and academic advisor, cheerleading sponsor, and yearbook sponsor. I have a toddler and another baby on the way. I started a book club 12 years ago and we vacation together every summer I also enjoy running and eating sweets haha!
Emily: (here's a link to all of the books we've read in our book club: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c...)