The 52 Book Club 2026 Challenge

This is my first attempt at the 52 Book Club challenge. The idea of the challenge is to have you read 1 book per week. Below are the books I’ve decided to read, and why, for each prompt. The website (the52bookclub.com) has explanations of each prompt and Goodreads has some suggestions as well. Most of these were from Goodreads suggestions. Don’t get mad at me if you don’t agree with the selection. Blame Goodreads (but don’t really because we love Goodreads and it can do no wrong).

I’ll also add an asterisk next to the ones I’ve already finished for the year.

Set in an Ancient Civilization: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller*
Kangaroo Word on the Cover: Me Before You by JoJo Moyes
Written Without Quotation Marks: Normal People by Sally Rooney
Has Dust Jacket: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Featuring a Conspiracy: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Title Starts with the Letter “O”: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Title Starts with the Letter “P”: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
A Three Syllable Word in the Title: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Featuring a Natural Disaster: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Spans a Decade or More: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Requires a Suspension of Disbelief: Weyward by Emilia Hart
A Genre-Defining Read: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Bookface: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Includes a Character List: Circe by Madeline Miller
Subtitle with a Comma: Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed Amerika by Erik Larson
Deus Ex Machina: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Author’s Bio Mentions their Dog: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Provokes Strong Emotion: My Friends by Fredrik Backman
A Nosy Neighbor Character: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Day of the Week in Title: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Written in the 1800s: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Spotted in a TV Series or Movie: Atonement by Ian McEwan
Grumpy Sunshine Trope: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Uneven Number of Chapters: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Includes a Red Herring: One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
Title in a Serif Font: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
Two or More Authors, One Pseudonym: Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
From a Series of At Least Eight Books Long: Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldron
Set in the Artic or Antarctic: Where’d you Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Author Related to Another Author: N0S4A2 by Joe Hill
Author Related to Author in Prompt 30: Tommyknockers by Stephen King
Publisher Starting with the Letter “B”: People we Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
A Standalone Fantasy Novel: The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab
Inspired by a Top Grossing Movie the Year You were Born (1982): The Seep by Chana Porter
Character with a Secret Identity: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towels
Award Winning Book from Last Year: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry*
Started on the 26th of The Month: TBD
Domestic Fiction: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
A Book that Cost You Nothing: The Escape by Ruth Kelly
Author’s First and Last Name Start with the Same Letter: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
A Guide To….: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Includes a Handwritten Interior Font: The Sideways Life of Denny Voss by Holly Kennedy
A Goodreads Recommendation for You: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Literary Device: Personification: The Briar Club by Kate Quinn*
Bibliographical Fiction: My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Non-Fiction About Character in Prompt 45: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
A Diacritical Mark on the Cover: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Related to the Word “Nemesis”: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
In the 800s of the Dewey Decimal System: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Set in a Castle: The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Includes a Map: Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
Published in 2026: The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez

Shannon Reads Good

The 52 Book Club 2026 Challenge