Ramona’s Comments (group member since Nov 19, 2017)

Ramona’s comments from the While I Was Reading Annual Challenge group.

Celebrity can be a pretty relative term, so get creative here! Consider actors, writers, musicians, politicians, I think fiction characters could even count!

I'm interested in the new biography of Robin Williams by Dave Itzkoff.

I'm also considering Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis

A few I've read this year and recommend are:

The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King

Mo' Meta Blues by Questlove

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Failure is an Option: An Attempted Memoir by H. Jon Benjamin

I'm going with Son of the Circus by John Irving, which has an elephant on the cover.

There are tons of options for this. Utilize Goodread's Listopia section to search for animals.

This doesn't have to be limited to literal how to or self help books.

Consider:

How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran (A novel that I HIGHLY recommend)

I'm planning to read the follow up to this novel, called How To Be Famous.

Caitlin Moran also has a non-fiction book called How To Be A Woman, which I'm interested in as well.

I also highly recommend Thich Nhat Hanh's Mindfulness Essentials Series, which are all short little books:

How to Sit
How To Walk
How To Relax
How To Fight
How To Love
How To Eat

I'm planning to read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Harmon

Some other ideas:

You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero (also You Are A Badass at Making Money and You Are a Badass Everyday)

The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

Go the F*ck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio

Pussy: A Reclamation by Regena Thomashauer

The Story of Shit by Midas Dekkers

Please Don't Grab My P#$$y by Julia Young and Matt Harkins

I was pleasantly surprised to discover a book I grabbed from the library this week was written by an author who grew up in Pennsylvania: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I highly recommend it!

I finished Depression & Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaium and found it solidly okay. Some poems were fantastic, but the majority I "didn't get" or thought were meh.

Melanie wrote: "I just read Diary of a Wimpy Kid while I was cleaning all the “kiddie” stuff out of my teenage son’s room. Does that count? 🤪"

I haven't read any of those but from what I understand they should count!

Kate wrote: "Started my first book for the challenge!

Hacks by Donna Brazile"

That sounds interesting for sure, you'll have to let me know what you think!

Greetings to everyone and thank you for being here! I'll start by introducing myself.

I'm the creator/host of this reading challenge. My name is Ramona Mead, I'm a writer living in Montana. I'm married and have a bunch of pets! I write creative non-fiction and blog about books at ramonamead.com.

After participating in other reading challenges for the past few years, I decided to start my own because many of the others are intimidating to a lot of readers I know. I set the pace to average at one book per month so participants feel they can meet their goal. And I created most of the categories to be specific to the reader because I've spent a lot of time scrambling to find a title or force my way through a book I'm not interested in just so I can mark off a challenge category.

Please tell the group about yourself and why you've decided to tackle this challenge!

Hi everyone! We are officially one month away from the start of our challenge. I'm starting this thread to see if anyone has questions or concerns about the challenge in general. I created a thread for each category over in the Challenge Discussion folder!

I recently bought The Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry at a thrift store based solely on the cover so I'll probably use that.

Here are some lists of beautiful covers:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I will likely use a book from the Flavia deLuce series for this. I've read three and loved them.

Here's a list of adult fiction with a child narrator:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Here's a list of books with food in the title:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5...

My favorite foods are cheese, pizza, and ice cream. I'm considering these books:
Cheesemonger by Gordon Edgar
The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson

Here's a list of dessert titles:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

I'm not sure on this one. My mom reads a ton, but I'm usually passing to her instead of the other way around. But I'll check with her. My father-in-law is a librarian and has recommended the Longmire series to me for years. I read the first one this year, so I might continue the series for this category.

I grew up in Pennsylvania so here are some authors I'm considering:
John Updike
James Michener
Louisa May Alcott

I live in Montana, here are some authors for my friends from here to consider:
Maile Meloy
David Quamman
Molly Caro May
Patricia Briggs
Nicholas Evans
Nevada Barr

Here's a list of famous authors from every state:
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-f...

A couple I'm considering:

Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle
1776 by David McCullough

I'm thinking of using The Tao of Bill Murray for this one. I got it as a gift last Christmas.

Some ideas:

Old Blood by K Jo
The Cats of Rekem By CL Francisco
Blue Sky by D. Bryant Simmons
Unleash the Winner with You by Coach Sherry Winn
Columbus - The untold Story by Manuel Rosa
A Journey With Panic by Dr. James Manning and Dr. Nicola Ridgeway


These bestsellers began as self published works:

Eragon by Christopher Paolini
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Sanders
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Some ideas:

Today Means Amen by Sierra DeMulder
Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman