Caitlin’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2015)

Caitlin’s comments from the Pop Sugar's Annual Ultimate Reading Challenge group.

Kayla wrote: "Since I'm from a small town in Iowa, I chose a book by an author from Iowa that's set in Iowa. :-)"

That sounds great Kayla. Extra imaginary points for the author being from Iowa too!

I'm with Nicole and Kelsey, both sound good. Let me know if you need any narrative non-fiction suggestions!

Kelsey wrote: "One I've read that I would recommend is "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray. It takes place at a girl's boarding school (sort of Victorian-esque time period) and has supernatural elements -..."

It's also the first in a trilogy if you want to knock that one out too Kelsey! Personally I wasn't interested enough to finish it but, clearly YMMV.

Memoir is, I think, a sub-genre within Non-fiction although they're allowed to fudge the details a bit because, memory.

I sorted my To-read list by year and found a couple, one of which is actually sitting on my shelf! Rachel's suggestion is great if you don't find one on your list already.

Bonnie, this is awesome!

In a different thread Bonnie asked about 2015 releases and I offered to give suggestions. After typing my response and seeing how big it was I decided to start a new topic. Please feel free to comment and contribute as well!

Also, I'm reserving the right to come back and edit this if/when I get my hands on some of these and thus have a first-hand opinion of them but so far these are some of the 2015 releases I'm psyched for. You'll notice that they're light on the adult novels and there is no Non-fiction. Trust me, as the year goes on there will be other books you'll hear about that will get buzz (and I might edit and add those too!)

Alexandra Bracken has two books coming out in 2015, one of which is the first in a duet and the other is a re-telling of Star Wars: A New Hope! Alex is an author I've followed online and whose writing I personally have liked, I'm particularly excited for the Star Wars re-telling because she is a HUGE Star Wars fan and if anyone can do this right it's her.

is going to be a book full of hot men and smut. Also crazy crazy fantasy world stuff. I do not know where Sarah gets some of the things she writes. I personally am not planning to read this (it's in a genre (NA) I personally don't like) but I'll recommend it to friends I think would like it. If it sounds like something you'd like totally put it on your list.

I know just enough about this to be keeping it on my radar.

This is the first in a series by an author I've met who is a total sweetheart. It sounds pretty interesting and is coming out pretty soon.

The next three books were all written by someone I know or someone my bff knows.


Two books I'm interested in from blurb and hype but have no other connection to:

And last but not least, you'll have to read the first book in this series first (but it could count for a couple categories and is totally worth it) but Shadow Scale, the long awaited sequel to Seraphina will be out very soon, eep!

Sorry for the long post and again, I reserve the right to come back and edit when I have more knowledge about 2015 releases, including these.

How about the rest of you? any 2015 suggestions?

Bonnie wrote: "Another question: What about the category "books published this year?" It's only January 21st so this is kind-of limited right now. Can we include something that was published within the last year ..."

You have the whole year to complete the list so there's plenty of time to find a book for this one (I have a big list of books I'm looking forward to that are being published this year and would totally be willing to make recommendations if you need one.)

Bonnie wrote: "I was in HPB last night and there was an entire section called books for school (or something similar) Is it okay if I read one of those for my "book you were supposed to read in high school but di..."

Hahaha, that might be a way to get around this one. You should discuss with Nicole. My options are The Grapes of Wrath and The Jungle so, I'm going with The Jungle.

Stephanie wrote: "the good old-fashioned way is getting audiobook cds. but i get them on the library app on my phone (overdrive) and download. then plug and play :)"

Stephanie's already said most of it above. I used to get audio CDs from the library but then I downloaded the Overdrive app. Now I download them online (no stepping foot in a library required) and listen to them via my phone.

AHH!!! Rebecca, you too might enjoy the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. Beautiful beautiful writing really amazing themes. So much intensity in parts that it's seared on my brain.

Steph wrote: "I'm torn between Tina Fey's and Mindy Kaling's books. They both sound fantastic"

Hey Steph, I liked both Bossypants and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? but I liked Bossypants a bit more. I read both on my kindle but I've heard the audiobooks for each are amazing so I'd recommend listening to them if you have that option.

Edited to add: Another thought: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? could probably work as a book you could read in one day, it's a very fast read.

Would count?

I wikipedia'd antonyms to see if that would help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposite...

Rachel wrote: "I'm currently reading Shadow Souls, a book in the Vampire Diaries series. Most of the reviews for it are TERRIBLE. I can see why. I've been reading it since November now."

Ugh... your sacrifice will not be for nought! good thing you can count it for this.

So... I'm planning to go big on this and purchase a copy of the book from this infamous SBTB review: http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/re...

I'll write in the margins for fun an although I've promised Madicken first dibs on the book when I'm done, we could make a chain of folks if anyone else was interested.

If you're going to read a comedian (or comedienne)'s memoir I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.

One of my favorite booktubers did a great video on Memoir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRBwm...

If you want to read your 500+ page book and memoir in one shot I just finished Robert Gates' Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War and found it really great. I've also personally enjoyed Girl Meets God, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, and Never Have I Ever: my life (so far) without a date although YMMV with those.

Many people love Just Kids by Patti Smith although I struggled to get into it last year.

Hey Rachel, that would be pretty cool. Give us the link here? If anyone else is willing to share links to the lists they're making, post them here!

Erin wrote: "I might have to settle for home country, as I am unsure of any books set in my city. I was born here, too. >.>"

Hi Erin, welcome! I couldn't find anything in my hometown but I grew up in a suburb of a larger city that does have books set there (one of which is on my shelf right now, conveniently.) You could look for the nearest large city in that link Kelsey posted or maybe even look for anything set in your province/state/region? If there's an independent bookstore anywhere near you (I know much easier to find in some areas than others) ask there. Bookstores in an area tend to be more likely to know if there's a book set in that area.

Good luck!

hahahaha, I think there is something nice about the form of the trilogy or starting and ending a story in three books but if you get to the end of the year and want to count a 3+ book series as a trilogy, IDK would you have to finish it?

We can also definitely recommend trilogies to you, I see how the kind of books you usually read aren't trilogies though!

Kelsey you win for posting that link! and Rachel, so cool to have you from outside the US in this group.

I'm so looking forward to all of the great books I'll learn about from all of you through this challenge. My to-read list on the other had is decidedly not looking forward to that.