Cassandrah’s Comments (group member since Nov 18, 2019)

Cassandrah’s comments from the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2020 group.

Wow, I was really happy with this week! Although reading books that only take me 30 min can do that!

First, I finished 'Where the Crawdads Sing' by Delia Owens for my bookclub. It was a part murder mystery, part coming of age story for Catherine Danielle Clark, or Kya as she is called. Highly recommend, it covered my book recommended by an online book club as it has Reese's bookclub stamp on the cover!

I also read books #1-3 for The Spiderwick Chronicles, 'The Field Guide', 'The Seeing Stone', and 'Lucinda's Secret' by Tony DiTerlizzi. I forgot how much I love these books! I also remember how much I enjoy the movie too, so it was a lot of fun re-reading these books. They were also a nice quick read for me.

Lastly, I listened to 'Untamed' by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, book #4 in the House of Night series.

How's everyone else doing? I'm 6 books ahead in my Goodreads challenge and 1 book ahead in my PopSugar!

'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood fills this category, and I read the graphic novel version so I am going ahead and counting it here!

I had to look it up but this is what the Bechdel test is: To pass the test, popularized by American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, a work of fiction needs to 1) have two women with names who 2) talk to each other about 3) something other than a man.

For this category I read 'Where the Crawdads Sing' by Deliah Owens. It's recommended by Reese's Book Club (Reese Witherspoon).
It's part murder mystery and part coming of age story. We follow Catherine Danielle Clark, or Kya as she is called, as she grows up all on her own after her family has all left her one by one. Fast forward to the future, she is the prime suspect in the death of Chase Andrews, the sweatheart of that town and is beloved by everyone. Can she prove her innocence? Or is she guilty?

For the week of Mar. 1-7.

Had a two book week again! I listened to 'Chosen' by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, which is book 3 in The House of Night series.

I also read 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Attwood graphic novel version, which was also pretty good. I also got it at a thrift store for $1.63 so that was pretty awesome!

I read 'The Handmaid's Tale' graphic novel edition by Margaret Atwood, which was pretty good! I'd already seen the series, so it was interesting seeing how the characters were originally imagined.

For the week of Feb. 23-29.

I got another 2 books done! I read 'The Bromance Book Club' by Lyssa Kay Adams, which was really good. It also is a part of a series of which the two other books come out this year! It fulfilled my book about a book club as well.

I also read 'Betrayed' by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, or listened to I guess, as it is the audiobook series I am listening to right now on my way to and from work. And boy do I not remember this series! I forgot almost everything that happens, but have little thoughts in the back of my head of what I think happens next. I'm really enjoying going back through though, as it was a series I loved throughout high school.

How's everyone else doing??

For the week of Feb. 16-22.

Finally back on track with 2 books a week! I read 3 books this week so that I was back on track.

I listened to 'Marked' by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, House of Night Series book #1. I used to read these books all the time and thought I'd get back into them. In this vampire series, people know about vampires - and many famous people are one! It's not surprise when they're gorgeous and have amazing talent. But for Zoey Redbird, it's a chance for a new beginning and for her to fit in. Except the goddess Nix has other plans for her, specifically ones that she can't even comprehend yet.

I read 'Frindle' by Andrew Clements because I am reading it with one of my small groups in school, and needed to go through it for vocabulary words. I loved this book, it was such a fun read as I am now a teacher and not the student. Highly recommend for a quick/fun read.

I also read an ARC (advanced reader copy) of 'The Ones We're Waiting For: How a New Generation of Leaders will Transform America' by Charlotte Alter. This book was really good, and it covered my book written by a journalist. My full review is on my profile!

I read ‘The Bromance Bookclub’ by Lyssa Kay Adams, and it was phenomenal! I finally picked it up yesterday and finished it last night 🙃 it’s about a Major League Baseball player who will do anything to save his marriage, including joining an all male romance novel bookclub. Along the way he uses the book as a guide with how women think and how women want to be treated, as well as having epiphanies of his own of what he did wrong and where he went wrong.

So good, highly recommend and it’s also part of a series! Books 2 and 3 out later this year 🤗

For this category I read ‘The Ones We’ve been Waiting For: How a New Generation of Leaders will Change America’ by Charlotte Alter who was/is a reporter for New York Times (I believe that’s the one) and it was so good! Especially helpful for this upcoming election in my opinion. On sale tomorrow 🤗

Just read ‘The Ones We’re Waiting For...’ by Charlotte Alter, which comes out next week! So good!

For the week of Feb. 9-15.

Back up to my finishing 2 books a week!

I finished 'Queen of Air and Darkness' by Cassandra Clare, which was AMAZING! Honestly her writing just improves with the books, so if you can get through the first few it will be so worth it. I won't post any spoilers though! This book counted for my book with over 20 letters in the title.

I also finish 'Eragon' by Christopher Paolini, and I forgot how much I love this series! All the magic of dragons that I've missed! This counted for my book with a map.

I'm also still 2 books ahead for my good reads challenge, and I'm on track for the pop sugar!

How's everyone else doing so far?

I think for this category I will read ‘The Girl Who Was on Fire...’ where 13 authors take us back to Panem with more stories because I love Hunger Games!

So for me, I'm doing a mixture of new books and re-reads because I love my favorite series and like to read them once a year! However, this year I'm also going back and re-reading books I haven't touched in longer than 5 years or so, so for some of them it's like a new read because I have forgotten a lot. I'm not going to have them cover 2 topics, because my goal is 100 books this year so 50 books for this challenge will be half of my overall goal.

For this category I read/listened to 'Queen of Air and Darkness' by Cassandra Clare, the last in the Dark Artifices trilogy. Wow is all I can say. This book was so well written. I highly recommend reading her series and sticking with it, because her writing gets better the more books she writes.

Cassandrah wrote: "I am reading 'The Silent Patient' by Alex Michaelides, which is also for my book club for the month of February, so 2 birds 1 stone!"

This was a fantastic book. I really enjoyed the writing, and some of my book club hated the ending but personally I liked it. Very quick read for me.

It is about a woman who shoots her husband in the head 5 times when he comes home late from work one night, and never talks again. Theo is a psychotherapist who's been obsessed with her case, and wants to help her to find her voice again and find out what happened. But what if it only leads to more trouble?

For the week of Feb. 2-8.