Emily’s Comments (group member since Jan 01, 2019)

Emily’s comments from the BYL Reading Challenge group.

We should always be learning new things! What is a skill you have always wanted to learn? Maybe it's knitting or calligraphy or scuba diving! Find a book about it and learn something new!

Meta means that the book is self-aware - it knows it's a book, it might even adress you, the reader, directly.

Some examples:

We are in a Book - Mo Willems (children)
The Book With No Pictures - B.J. Novak (children)
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde (adult)
The Princess Bride - William Goldman (teen/adult)
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende (middle grade/teen)

I LOVED Memoirs of a Geisha. I must have read it 16 years ago, but it still stands out in my memory.

Brittany wrote: "I have several favorite authors, but for this challenge I'm looking at Libba Bray, Neal Shusterman, or Stephen King. Not necessarily new releases but books of theirs I haven't read yet!
[bookcover:..."

I have several Stephen King books I still need to get to...that's a good idea. ;)

Sometimes you just know, right? A book has a great synopsis, or you really like the author, maybe the cover speaks to you. You just know that this book is going to be great.


What books have given you that feeling?


Recommendations:

The Dollmaker of Krakow - R. M. Romero (middle grade)
The List - Patricia Forde (middle grade/teen)
Hex - Thomas Olde Heuvelt (teen/adult)
The Year We Were Famous - Carole Estby Dagg (teen/adult)
Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys (teen/adult)
Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo (teen/adult)

This can be a book you thought looked beautiful or appealing in some way and you assume (or just hope) that the story is just as lovely.

Some books with gorgous (or really fun) covers:

The Dollmaker of Krakow - R. M. Romero (middle grade)
Maud - Melanie J. Fishbane (teen/adult)
The Fair Fight - Anna Freeman (adult)
My Best Friend's Exorcism - Grady Hendrix (adult)

Who doesn't love a good space adventure?

Recommendations:

Astronaut Handbook - Meghan McCarthy (children)
Mousetronaut - Mark Kelly (children)
George's Secret Key to the Universe - Stephen and Lucy Hawking (middle grade)
Illuminae - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (teen/adult)
The Martian - Andy Weir (teen/adult)
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers (teen/adult)

We all do it - start a series and get too busy to pick up the next book. Now is your chance to continue one of those series! Or maybe a new book in a favorite series is coming out this year!

Some of the (many) series that I need to finish....

Red Rising series - Pierce Brown (teen/adult)
Unwind dystology - Neal Shusterman (teen/adult)
Ember in the Ashes quartet - Sabaa Tahir (teen/adult)
Discworld series - Terry Pratchett (teen/adult)
Grisha verse series - Leigh Bardugo (teen/adult)

Fantasy is full of magical creatures - read a book about them!

Recommendations:

Duncan the Story Dragon - Amanda Driscoll (children)
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein (middle grade/teen)
Odd and the Frost Giants - Neil Gaiman (children/middle grade)
Harry Potter series - J. K. Rowling (middle grade/teen)
The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker (adult)
His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik (adult)

This will depend on where you live, obviously, but find a book that takes place in your home state.

This list will be helpful:
https://bookriot.com/2018/08/22/best-...

This is incredibly subjective - there are currently 195 countries in the world today. Where would you like to travel-by-book?

I've always been fascinated with Eastern Europe as that is where my family comes from (Hungary/Latvia/Lithuania/Russia).

Some books from my list:

The Shadow Land - Elizabeth Kostova (adult)
The Tiger's Wife - Téa Obreht (adult)
Between Shades of Grey - Ruta Sepetys (teen/adult)
The Trumpeter of Krakow - Eric P. Kelly (middle grade/teen)
Midnight in St. Petersburg - Vanora Bennett (adult)

So many celebrities write books!

Some recommendations:

My Brave Year of Firsts - Jamie Lee Curtis (children)
Nightmares! - Jason Segel (middle grade)
The Magic Misfits - Neil Patrick Harris (middle grade)
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - Hank Green (teen/adult)
Yes Please! - Amy Poehler (adult)

This can be any book that is published in 2019.

Some recommendations:

We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World by Malala Yousafzai (children/middle grade)
The Gilded Wolves - Roshani Chokshi (teen/adult)
Slayer - Kiersten White (teen/adult)
Winter of the Witch - Katherine Arden (teen/adult)
The Paragon Hotel - Lyndsay Faye (adult)

Everyone should be well versed in climate science. It's potentially the most important issue of our day.

Recommendations:

The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge - Joanna Cole (children)
A World Without Fish - Mark Kurlansky (middle grade/teen)
The Last Wild - Piers Torday (middle grade)
Dry - Neal Shusterman (teen/adult)
The Sixth Extinction - Elizabeth Kolbert (teen/adult)

There are so many wonderful books that are about/written by indigenous people.

Recommendations:

My Heart Fills With Happiness - Monique Gray Smith (children)
When We Were Alone - David Alexander Robertson (children)
Soft Rain - Cornelia Cornelissen (children/middle grade)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie (teen/adult)
Love Medicine - Louise Erdrich (adult)

The Build Your Library Family Reading crates are a monthly subscription-style box full of books for the whole family! We have more than a dozen previous crates to choose from as of this posting - so there are many books that could be on this list!


A sampling of options:

Duncan the Story Dragon - Amanda Driscoll (children)
From Wolf to Woof - Hudson Talbott (children)
Sweet Home Alaska - Carole Etsby Dagg (middle grade)
The Desperate Adventures of Zeno and Alya - Jane Kelley (middle grade)
Furthermore - Tahereh Mafi (middle grade)
Wintersong - S. Jae-Jones (teen/adult)
The Gilded Years - Karin Tanabe (adult)

I love a good graphic novel, and I love reading about history - so why not combine the two?

Recommendations:

Around the World - Matt Phelan (middle grade)
Maus - Art Spiegelman (teen/adult)
Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb - Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (teen/adult)
March - John Lewis (middle grade/teen)
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain - Peter Sis (children/middle grade)
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea - Guy Delise (teen/adult)

This one is a little bit tricky at first glance, but there are plenty of options!

Recommendations:

By the Shores of Silver Lake - Laura Ingalls Wilder (middle grade)
The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman (middle grade/teen)
The Radium Girls - Kate Moore (teen/adult)
Black Gold - Marguerite Henry (middle grade/teen)
Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik (teen/adult)
Neon Pilgrim - Lisa Dempster (adult)

Pretty self-explanatory!

Recommendations:

Shark Lady: True Adventures of Eugenie Clark - Ann McGovern (children)
Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science - Jeannine Atkins (middle grade)
Lab Girl - Hope Jahren (teen/adult)
Lady of the Butterflies - Fiona Mountain (adult)
Radioactive - Lauren Redniss (teen/adult)

Representation matters!

Recommendations:

George - Alex Gino (middle grade)
Hurricane Child - Kheryn Callender (middle grade/teen)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Emily M. Danforth (teen/adult)
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertali (teen/adult)
If You Could Be Mine - Sara Farizan (teen/adult)
Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire (teen/adult)