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I'm doing things a bit different this year - normally I just read by whim. I asked my friends to each recommend me one book they love and that they think I should read. What I hope to do is have a meaningful conversation with that friend, about that book, after I've read it. I've got about 20 of those interspersed with some leftovers "to read" from 2014 and enough extra space to be fickle and choose a new book at will. I hope to review at least 1/3 of the books I read this year.

Recommendations from friends:
1) Danny recommends Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology by Cory O'Brien
2) Jess recommends Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
3) Jessica recommends Soulless by Gail Carriger
4) Jessica also recommends Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World byHaruki Murakami
5) AJ recommends The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
6) Venessa recommends The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
7) Pam recommends The Signature of All Things byElizabeth Gilbert
8) Lucas recommends The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker
9) Ezra recommends Across the Universe by Beth Revis
10) Angela recommends The Root Cellar by Janet Lunn
11) Angela also recommends Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn
12) Karine recommends They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School by Bev Sellars
13) Daniel also recommends The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
14) Jean recommends (lol) The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey
15) Maureen recommends Still Alice by Lisa Genova
16) Rich recommends Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
17) Erin recommends Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
18) Joanne recommends The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
19) Joanne also recommends Fatherland by Robert Dennis Harris
20) Sam recommends The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
21) Nadine recommends Chai Tea Sunday by Heather A. Clark
22) Jennifer recommends The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
23) Stephanie recommends The Martian by Andy Weir
24) Karen recommends Mary Modern by Mary Modern
25) Nicole recommends The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
26) Dean recommends Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan
27) Lesley recommends The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs
28) Danyul recommends John Dies at the End by David Wong
29) Danyul also recommends Daemon by Daniel Suarez
30) Tom recommends A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity by Nicholas D. Kristof
31) Tom also recommends And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails by Wayne Curtis
32) Dustin recommends The Departure by Neal Asher

Number of Ratings Given in 2015:
1 star: 0
2 star: 5
3 star: 11
4 star: 14
5 star: 3

I'm participating in the A-Z Challenge 2015:
15/26 complete
A:
B: Blameless by Gail Carriger
C: Changeless by Gail Carriger
D: Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier
E: Emma by Jane Austen
F:
G: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
H: Heartless by Gail Carriger
I:
J: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
K: Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey *re-read
L: Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson
M: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
N:
O:
P: The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Q:
R:
S: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
T: Timeless by Gail Carriger
U: Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell
V:
W: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
X:
Y:
Z:

2015 Reviews:
-Soulless by Gail Carriger at: /review/show...
-Emma by Jane Austen at: /review/show...
-Some Enchanted Éclair by Bailey Cates at: /review/show...
-The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg at: /review/show...
-The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg Warning: second in a series. /review/show...
- Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier at: /review/show...
- Cress by Marissa Meyer at: /review/show... Warning: third in a series.
- The Martian by Andy Weir at: /review/show...

2015 NetGalley Reviews (Given free ARC in exchange for an honest review)
- Saronna's Gift by Carmen Webster Buxton at: /review/show...

That sounds like a lovely idea, Mandor!

Thanks Megan. :)

Have you had any of those conversations with your friends so far? I really like that idea and it seems like a great way to connect with others and read books you wouldn't otherwise.

Hey Cassandra. I've had a few good conversations with several friends - not just the one who recommended the series to me - about Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate. It was a good way to get into the steampunk genre, as that is something I haven't had much experience in.

I also had a wonderful thing happen because of this request. My cousin who is 10 years younger than me, but a really avid reader, mailed me the book she wanted me to read with a really insightful handwritten letter explaining why she loves the book and why it is an important one to read. I've just finished it this weekend and I am really excited to connect with her over it; we never got much of a chance to do that with our age difference and I moved far away when she was still quite young. The book is The Hunger Games and I tore through that whole series in basically 4 days. So good. I think I should probably send her a book I like in return. :)

I love the Hunger Games trilogy. So glad you liked it :)

Holy guacamole! My original Facebook post where I petitioned my friends for book recommendations became popular again, so I've had 6 more recommendations. This brings me up to a whopping 32 books recommended for the year. You will see that I have edited my original post to list all recommendations, if you'd like to take a look.

I have already read 24 books this year... it might be time to up my reading goal!

Yay, awesome! Can't wait til you get to my recommendations, I'm curious to see if you love them as much as me :)

I'm excited too! It is a very well-rounded list.

So, I've been using NetGalley recently to obtain some ARCs of fantasy/sci-fi novels coming out which I'd like to read and review. I've added a section above for NetGalley reviews specifically, so they are easy to find and read. I should have 2 more reviews coming up for that shortly.

I also read and reviewed another book recommended by a friend. The Martian, by Andy Weir. I am excited to talk with her about it and pumped about how good of a read it is! I've just started on the Clive Barker recommendation, so I should have that read and reviewed soon too.

YAY! Summer reading. Hoping to spend a lot of that at the beach. :)