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

Emily’s comments from the BYL Reading Challenge group.

I know the saying is to NOT judge a book by its cover, but when the cover is gorgeous, how can you not? So pick up a really pretty book to read this year!

Recommendations:

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
When the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

There are so many celebrities recommending books, so this should be easy enough to complete.

Some celebrities who frequently recommend books to get you started:

Reese Witherspoon
Emma Watson
Barak Obama
Felicia Day

Read an author's first book - this could be a brand new author or a new to you author, so long as you are picking up their very first book!

It's never too late to learn something new! This could be a book that teaches you a new skill, or a book on a period of history you've never studied. Or maybe it's a book about a topic in science you've never explored or a biography about a person you've never heard of before! Go on a learning adventure!

Go on a small adventure out of your comfort zone! What's a genre you haven't read from before? Or a genre you've tried but haven't read very often?

Ideas:

high fantasy
dystopian
horror
romance
historical fiction
literary fiction
graphic novel
self-help
true crime
drama (stories written in script form)

Read a book about the immigrant experience. What's it like to have to leave the only place you've ever known to start over in a strange country?

Recommendations:

The Night Journey by Kathryn Lasky
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
The Bee Keeper of Allepo by Christy Lefteri
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

We all have those books - the ones we look at longingly on the shelf, promising that someday we'll read it. Or feel unnecessary guilt for having not read it yet. Well, someday has come. Read that book this year to meet this prompt!

I think for myself - that book is probably A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

This can be fiction or non-fiction and any kind of disaster - man-made or natural.

Recommendations:

In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton
The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman
Ashfall by Mike Mullin
Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Read a story set after the apocalypse has ravaged the earth. What does the world look like in the aftermath?

Recommendations:

The Giver by Lois Lowry
City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Stand by Stephen King
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

Sometimes whilst on an adventure, one becomes lost. So read a book with the word lost in the title!

Recommendations:

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
The Lost Queen by Signe Pike
The Lost Art of Reading Nature Signs by Tristan Gooley
Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

This is a pretty easy challenge because so many great books have been adapted!

Recommendations:

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Stewart
The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

We're looking for outdoor adventures - sleeping under the stars, hiking, exploring the wilderness!

Recommendations:

Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis
Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

I love prompts like this where you have to look for details on book covers! Find a book with a suitcase, large tote, backpack, or some other kind of large bag on the cover!

Recommendations:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Who is your favorite author? Read a book they've written that you haven't gotten to yet. If they have a new release out this year, even better!

What's more exciting and adventurous than a plot-twisty mystery or thriller?

Recommendations:

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

This can be anything to do with a circus, the performers, vaudeville, carnivals, etc.

Recommendations:

Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman
The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris
Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I always love adding this prompt because there are so many new releases to get excited about!

Some that I'm looking forward to this year:

Witchlings by Claribel A. Ortega
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Great or Nothing by Joy McCullogh, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, and Jessica Spotswood
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Bloody Fool for Love by William Ritter

What's your desert island book? You know, that book you can always turn to for comfort and entertainment? The one that never gets old.

My options:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

This can be a travelogue or it can just be a book in which a character happens to travel a great distance.

Recommendations:

While I Was Away by Waka T. Brown
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Anthony Bourdain: World Traveler
Hope is Our Only Wing by Rutendo Tavengerwei

Pretty self-explanatory. Find a book with one of these on the cover: a sword, a dagger, or a shield. Bonus points if it has all 3!

Recommendations:

A Blade so Black by L.L. McKinney
Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye