Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

We are getting to the end of April! Drop your best books here!

Answer the following questions:

- Title
- Author
- Rating
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio)
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable)
- Brief reason why it was the best

Best Books Listopia (2025)

- Title: The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
- Author: Jamie Ford
- Rating: 4/5
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): alternate timelines
- Brief reason why it was the best: It was unusual and I liked the way the MC got to travel back (through an experimental treatment) and "fix" the generational trauma that was starting to impact her daughter

- Title: A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories
- Author: Lucia Berlin
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): collection of short stories
- Brief reason why it was the best: The beautiful writing!
These are short stories based on the writer’s life. The characters, the images… I couldn’t get enough of them.

In May, I read 34 books, and these are my favorites:

Fiction:
- Title: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
- Author: Helen Simonson
- Rating: 5*
- Format: e-book & audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for: n/a
- Brief reason why it was the best: Simonson writes with wit and compassion. She has a remarkable ability to evoke the atmosphere of post-WWI England. I am finding it hard to put into words the emotional impact this book had on me, but I just loved it. It is historical fiction at its finest.

- Title: The Piano Tuner
- Author: Daniel Mason
- Rating: 5*
- Format: e-book & audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for: n/a
- Brief reason why it was the best: This is an atmospheric read set in Myanmar, back when it was called Burma in colonial times. It portrays a clash between one character that wants to use diplomatic persuasion versus the military's desire to use force to get the local people to do their bidding versus the local people who don't want to be told what to do at all. It is beautifully written and immerses the reader in a different place and time in a way that inspires empathy.

Non-Fiction:
- Title: The Zanzibar Chest: A Story of Life, Love, and Death in Foreign Lands
- Author: Aidan Hartley
- Rating: 5*
- Format: Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for: n/a
- Brief reason why it was the best: This book covers Aidan Hartley's experiences covering the civil wars in Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, and other parts of Central Africa. I consider it essential reading for anyone interested in African history, the legacy of colonialism, or the psychological toll of bearing witness to the worst aspects of human nature. Hartley’s honesty about both his family's colonial past and the horror he witnessed results in a powerful and memorable read.

May was a lot of rereads for me but my best new to me book of the month was:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Also, listopia updated through here!

My best book was Can't Get Enough! I don't usually do the third in a series for my best book, but this was by far the best I've read this month. The books can standalone, but I'd recommend the whole series.

I've added to listopia!

My best book for May was Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker.

Rating: 5 stars
Format: ebook
ATY prompt: #37, a book featuring adult friendships. It also qualified for the "heritage reads" prompt in the 카지노싸이트 seasonal challenge, which I didn't realize until after reading it. A nice surprise.
Brief reason why it was the best: I loved how well the author puts us inside the head of someone who is so afraid to live, someone so passive that she studies something she doesn't care about because her half sister is doing it, who bobs along through life not making decisions and always feeling on the back foot. After her sister is gone, she has to find a way to live alone while also navigating some spooky/murderous events. I didn't choose this book to fit this prompt until after finishing it - the main character definitely makes some important adult friendships.

My favorite book of May was
Dungeon Crawler Carl
by Matt Dinniman
Rating: I gave this 5 stars
Format: Audio
ATY Prompt you used it for: #4 A book set underground, under sea or in an underworld
I really had a fun time with this book, although it can be violent the humor and a talking cat kept me going. The fact that Carl is stuck in his underwear and his girlfriend's crocs while running for his life is so funny. The audio was done so well that I had no problem figuring who was who. I am going to read the rest of the series.

Title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
- Author: Agatha Christie
- Rating : 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): A book connected in some way to any collective noun for animals
- Brief reason why it was the best: Without ruining anything, it is widely considered one of her best books.

- Title - Running Close to the Wind
- Author - Alexandra Rowland
- Rating - 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio) - Audio, a big part of my rating
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) - unsure
- Brief reason why it was the best - just so much fun! a promiscuous scoundrel falls in with hapless pirates and a hunk of a monk with an inconvenient vow of celibacy. The audio made me laugh multiple times. Not 5 stars for any literary merit, but if you think you would like Pirates of the Caribbean with more "camp", more humor and a LOT more swearing and sex, you could try it out. Under the X-rated language, these are the sweetest pirates ever.

Title: Battle of the Bookstores
Author: Ali Brady
Rating: 5
Format (Print, eBook, Audio): E-Book
Brief reason why it was the best: If there was ever a book that can resonate so deeply to the love that comes with being a reader, Battle of the Bookstores would be it.

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger, 5 stars. I tried and failed to listen to the audiobook, but loved it in print. It has a really great sense of place (Lake Superior) and showed me a way to have hope in dark times.

It would work for a coastal setting, or set primarily in nature. Maybe others too.

-Title: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
-Author: Susanna Clarke
-Rating: 5 Stars
-Format: Print
-ATY Prompt: 카지노싸이트 fiction or fantasy by a woman
-Why best: incredible tour de force

- Title Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling
- Author Michael Cannell
- Rating 4 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio) Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) Breakfast Club (it fits several characters)
- Brief reason why it was the best- A serial bomber terrorized NYC for 16 years without being caught until NYPD decided to have a psychiatrist draw up a criminal profile. I always love books about something that was *a huge deal* at the time, but has been lost to history for one. For another, it was the first time a criminal profile had been developed. What would our world be like if he had been wrong?? Finally, the end of the book deals with the legal rights of mentally ill criminals, in ways that were still evolving into the 1980s. All in all, it was a fascinating book.

Actually had three this month.

- Title: River Sing Me Home
- Author: Eleanor Shearer
- Rating: 5
- Format: Library Book
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): 17. A history or historical fiction book set prior to 1925
- Brief reason why it was the best: historical fiction, a slave in Barbados is "freed" one day only to be forced into an "apprenticeship program" for 5 years. She decides to run and try to find her children who had been sold away from her years before. Set in Barbados, British Guiana, and Trinidad.

- Title: As Close to Us as Breathing
- Author: Elizabeth Poliner
- Rating: 5
- Format: Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for: 3. A book connected to something mentioned in the Do Re Mi song: the book takes place in summer (RE - a drop of golden sun); one of the main characters is a seamstress (SO - a needle pulling thread)
- Brief reason why it was the best: Three Jewish sisters, their children, and their weekend husbands enjoy a month at the cabin at "Bagel Beach" in CT. Set in the 1950's, the dynamics were ripe for family drama. Read it for Jewish Heritage Month.

- Title: Baba Dunja's Last Love
- Author: Alina Bronsky
- Rating: 5
- Format: Print
- ATY Prompt you used it for: 2020. A book with an emotion in the title
- Brief reason why it was the best: historical fiction set in Ukraine some years after the Chernobyl disaster. A group of elderly village residents decide it's time to go home and live out their last years as best they can in their own way in their own homes. Translated from the German.

Title: Several People Are Typing
Author: Calvin Kasulke
Rating: 5 stars
Format (Print, eBook, Audio): print
ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): TOB
Brief reason why it was the best: Humourous and a quick read.

Title: XOXO
Author: Axie Oh
Rating: 5 stars
Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): n/a
Brief reason why it was the best: Super cute young adult romance. I love Kpop so the main character falling for a Kpop idol was fun.

Title: The Auschwitz Photographer: The powerful true story of Wilhelm Brasse prisoner number 3444
Author: Luca Crippa
Rating: 5 stars
Format (Print, eBook, Audio): print
ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): Anniversary prompt origionally published not in English
Brief reason why it was the best: The author always treated prisioners of Auschwitz with respect while still talking about what happened. It was a different perspective to think on someone who was in Auschwitz the majority of the war and witnessed so many of the individuals that were murdered whilst fearing for his own life.

I actually managed to narrow it down to just 1 this month, and it ended up being the last book I read.

Title The DallerGut Dream Department Store
Author Lee Mi-ye
Rating 5 stars
Format eBook
ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable) I used it for the fictional setting, but it also works for translated book from Asia (Korea)
Brief reason why it was the best: It was a fun, silly sweet story about a ordinary girl who gets a job at the biggest dream store in dreamland, and gets to fangirl out when she meets the famous dream makers who's products she sells to the people from the real world who visit in their sleep.

After several months without any, I had three in May:

-The Frozen River
- Ariel Lawhon
- ★★★★★
- Format: ebook
- ATY Prompt you used it for: 27. A book set in the winter
- Brief reason why it was the best: Historical mystery with interesting characters

-An Ordinary Life
- Amanda Prowse
- ★★★★★
- Format: ebook
- ATY Prompt you used it for:29. Two books with a pair of opposites in their titles: Book 2
- Brief reason why it was the best: A touching historical fiction of sacrifice

-Annie Bot
- Sierra Greer
- ★★★★★
- Format: Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for: 35. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists
- Brief reason why it was the best: Speculative fiction regarding A.I. which makes you think.

- Title: The Word is Murder
- Author: Anthony Horowitz
- Rating: 4/5
- Format: Audiobook
- ATY Prompt you used it for: 16. (2016 ATY list) A book about books
- Brief reason why it was the best: Great detective murder mystery, I loved it. The protagonist is the author himself and it is very Sherlock/Watson or Poirot/Hastings. Love the twists on the classic genre, it was clearly done with a lot of love.

Title: He Who Drowned the World
Author: Shelley Parker-Chan
Rating: 5 stars
Format: Print
ATY Prompt you used it for: I used it for my rejects challenge - a book with royalty.
Brief reason why it was the best: I don't know how Shelley Parker-Chan did it, but the POV characters all repeatedly did horrifying things in service of a goal I don't really care about (ultimate political power) and yet I felt so much empathy for them. It was also very engrossing, with lots of twists and turns.
(Also just want to note that it's a sequel, so don't start with this one. But if you're looking for something to fulfil the Book of the Month prompt, the first book, She Who Became the Sun was one of my picks earlier this year.)

The Age of Miracles | Karen Thompson Walker | eBook | ★★★★★
Most end-of-the-world stories are loud and cataclysmic, but this one is quiet and introspective. “It’s never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass—it’s the ones you don’t expect at all.” Such a lovely book!
(ATY #7 - author uses three names)

All That Life Can Afford | Emily Everett | Print | ★★★★
It's a story of class and privilege, reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice without being a strict (vaguely concealed) retelling. I loved Anna's contradictions and missteps in this coming-of-age story.

Listopia updated through here!

Jackie, should we add our own books to the listopia or is it easier for you to do it?

Here is my pick for May:

- Title: A Room with a View
- Author: E.M. Forster
- Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audiobook
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): None
- Brief reason why it was the best: A classic that still feel very relevant. Genuinely funny at times. The audiobook is beautifully narrated by Rebecca Hall.

Turid, got yours!

And it's ok if you add your own to the listopia (as long as its also here) but I add them all regardless.

I had eight five-star books this month, and nothing below a four-star. It was a good month in books!

- Title: The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King
- Author: Carissa Broadbent
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): N/A
- Brief reason why it was the best: So many romantasy books are now kind of icky. It's a popular genre, and it feels like there are new authors who have read a Maas book and figure they can write one, and it turns out just being crap filled with bad sex. This series is different. It's original. The characters are fleshed out. It's a really good series.

- Title: Great Big Beautiful Life
- Author: Emily Henry
- Rating: 5 star
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): N/A
- Brief reason why it was the best: I loved this story. It is marketed as a romance, but it really isn't. There is a love story in it, but it is not the story. It's a little reminiscent of the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but it's different enough.

- Title: The Wizard Hunters
- Author: Martha Wells
- Rating: 5 stars
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): N/A
- Brief reason why it was the best: This book has a very different take on fantasy. I am becoming a very big fan of Martha Wells. The book is action-packed. It's funny in places, and the story kept me hooked.

Honorable mentions:
Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel - not a book, but if you have Audible, I recommend it.

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian - my kiddo got me to read this. It is a very sweet love story. I really liked it.

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten - not your typical protagonist. I loved this book because you do not read about characters like this. She is an elderly lady, and you won't like her. LOL. It's a good book though.

Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent - a novella in the same world as the other Broadbent book above. I really love her world.

Never Flinch by Stephen King - another Holly book. I love Holly! Loved this story, but his afterward made my sob.

May was a solid month (lots of 4 ⭐️), but only one 5 ⭐️

Title: Woodworking
Author: Emily St. James
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Format: Kindle
ATY Prompt you used it for: 7. A book by an author that uses 3 names

Brief reason why it was the best: Portrayed what seemed like the realistic experience of a transwoman just coming to terms with her realization. The relationships were well done, and the level of drama was not overblown, as some stories like this might be.

Title: Wild Dark Shore
Author: Charlotte McConaghy
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Format: Hardcover (BOTM)
ATY Prompt you used it for: 25. A book with waves on the cover

Brief reason why it was the best: Page turner: part psychological thriller, part mystery, all climate fiction

Title: The Island of Missing Trees
Author: Elif Shafak
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Format: ebook/audio
ATY Prompt you used it for: 20. A book with an animal, vegetable (plant), or mineral in the title

Brief reason why it was the best: The most reliable narrator (one of several) in this novel is a fig tree that witnessed the blossoming of a forbidden romance between two teenagers - she a Turkish Muslim and he a Greek Catholic - in the summer of 1974, when Cyprus was on the brink of civil war between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The fig tree acts almost like a Greek chorus moving the story along. This novel is a moving, lyrical, and intricately constructed story about ethnic prejudices, love, the ravages of war, personal history, and eco-consciousness.

Updated the listopia through here!

- Title: The Women
- Author: Kristin Hannah
- Rating: 5/5
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): #50 A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2024 or 2025
- Brief reason why it was the best: I really enjoyed reading historical fiction about the Vietnam War instead of WWII. I also thought the MCs PTSD was very realistic.

- Title: Shout
- Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
- Rating: 5/5
- Format (Print, eBook, Audio): Audio
- ATY Prompt you used it for (if applicable): #39 Two books with a connection from different genres: Book 2 (along with Speak by the same author for prompt #38)
- Brief reason why it was the best: I'm not much of a memoir reader, but I enjoyed listening to the author tell her life story in verse.

Listopia updated!