Finding Your People: The ultimate guide to friendship

Current Read: Finding Your People: The ultimate guide to friendship
Date Started: 12/31/24 

Date Finished: 01/01/25

Rating: ★★★

And so it goes, my first book of 2025! I decided to finally take advantage of Netgalley, and got a copy of this book based on the title alone. I admittedly skimmed over some of the material, but to be fair, after reading through most of it, I quickly realized that I'm not the target audience. As a 35 year old mom of an almost 2-year old, this was definitely not written with me in mind. This is geared more toward 20+ year olds, people who are getting ready to embark on adulthood and put themselves out there. With that being said, however, there are some gems in here for everyone! I found myself reflecting on the relationships in my lives - ones that have come and gone, reasons that I gave myself not to reach out (when in reality, I could still try), and excuses that I've made to not put myself out there. So many missed opportunities! I especially resonated with chapter 1 (being your own best friend), and am also grateful that the book exists. I only wish that it had existed for me when I actually was in my 20's! 

Setting the groundwork...

 Although I've never been fully successful in achieving an annual reading challenge, one that I'm considering for 2025 is below. I've even created a notebook with books that fill the need for the various categories. I'll list them in this post and cross them off as I go! I tried to go with physical books that I own already to try and make a dent in my shelf space (underlined books are owned), but I'm flexible and going with books on my TBR list in general too. 😂 

This is definitely a work in progress, so don't hold me to having every category figured out just yet!

I'm also going to stick with the Goodreads rating system (more or less)

1 star - didn't like it

2 stars – it was OK

3 stars – liked it

4 stars – really liked it

5 stars – it was amazing

1. Three or more point of views: World War Z
2. Takes place at a college: The Art of Fielding, On Beauty, Fangirl
3. Takes place next to a body of water: The Light Between Oceans, The Woman in Cabin 10, This Tender Land
4. Small town Life: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. 'Salem's Lot
5. Has 300-350 pages: The Unmaking of June Farrow, Room, The Days I Loved You Most
6. Trending on TikTok: We Used to Live Here
7. Part of a series: The Eyre Affair, Lost in A Good Book
8. Became a movie: The Godfather, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
9. Male POV: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, All Quiet on the Western Front, Dracula, A Clockwork Orange
10. Young Adult: Ready Player One, Ender's Game, A Monster Calls
11. Has multiple authors: Finding Your People: The Ultimate Guide to Friendship
12. Takes place in a Big City: 
13. Takes place on the East Coast: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Rules of Civility, The Cider House Rules
14. Reviewed by Favorite Author: 
15. 4* review: The Handmaid's Tale
16. Amazon "for you" recommendation: All the Colors of the Dark, The Women
17. Reviewed as "can't put down": The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Room, The Secret Life of Bees
18. Setting in the title: China Rich Girlfriend, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
19. Green on the cover: Fangirl, Snowflower and the Secret Fan
20. Takes place during the holidays: Little Women, Holidays on Ice, The Five Wounds
21. Takes place during the summer: Happy Place, Malibu Rising, 
22. An indie book: 
23. Off your wishlist:
24. Book club edition: The Prospectors 
25. Mystery: The Big Sleep
26. Has purple on the cover: The White Tiger, In the Time of the Butteflies
27. 2005 bestseller: Snowflower and the Secret Fan, A Long Way Down, The Inheritance of Loss
28. Involves a sport: The Boys in the Boat, Beartown
29. Recommended on Facebook: The Heart's Invisible Furies
30. By a new-to-you author: Sky Full of Elephants
31. One word title: Pachinko, Passing, Atonement
32. Second chance DNF: Half of A Yellow Sun, All the Light We Cannot See
33. International bestseller: A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Kite Runner
34. A Novella: Small Things Like These, Heart of Darkness
35. Second chance lover's trope: The Unmaking of June Farrow, 
36. Reread favorite classic: Their Eyes Were Watching God
37. Author as main character: Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood
38. Takes place in another country: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
39. Romance: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Landline, The Wedding People
40. Two word title: Cold Mountain
41. Image of a person on the cover: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time, Lovecraft Country
42. 600+ pages: Fairy Tale, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, The Stand, The Shining
43. Main character is a parent: The Kitchen God's Wife
44. Historical Fiction: The Nightingale, Memoirs of A Geisha
45. 2015 bestseller: The Nightingale, Orphan Train, The Invention of Wings
46. # in the title:The Three-Body Problem, Two Boys Kissing, A Thousand Splendid Suns
47. About family: The Days I Loved You Most 
48. Favorite color on the cover: The Grace Year
49. Involves a vacation: People We Meet on Vacation, The Vacationers, Beautiful Ruins
50. By an author with 25+ published titles: Sycamore Row
51. Main character shares your profession:
52. 2025 new release:
53. New-to-you classic: Jane Eyre, The Giver, Beloved 
54. Recommendation by a friend: The Strange Career of Jim Crow, Sky Full of Elephants
55. Involves a bookstore: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
56. Teenage point-of-view: Hollow City, The Other Boleyn Girl
57. 2010 bestseller: Unbroken, Matched, What Alice Forgot
58. Sci-fi: Lovecraft Country
59. About a kid: Just A Hat
60. Has a map:
61. Enemies to lovers trope: Carry On, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
62. Banned book: Black Boy, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
63. Murder mystery: Mother-Daughter Murder Night, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
64. 2000 bestseller: The Corrections, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, White Teeth
65. Takes place during autumn:
66. Has a color in the title: The Red Tent
67. True crime nonfiction: Helter Skelter,
68. Recommended by a bookstore clerk:
69. Character's name in title: 
70. By an author who shares your birthday month: Little Women
71. Up and coming author:
72. Read in opposite media preference: When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
73. 5 * review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Schindler's List
74. Spooky read: Dracula, The Girl With All The Gifts, Beloved
75. Fantasy: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Gunslinger
76. Three word title: The Life Impossible, 
77. Takes place during spring:
78. Book with siblings: No One Can Know
79. Blue on the cover: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
80. Popular in high school: The Devil Wears Prada
81. Became a TV show: Orange is the New Black, American Gods, 
82. Released 1980-1989: The Remains of the Day, Love in the Time of Cholera
83. Will be a movie in the future: Exit West
84. Recommended by a librarian: Louder Than Hunger
85. 2020 bestseller: The Thursday Murder Club, A Promised Land
86. Has a picture of food on the cover: Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
87. Genre out of your comfort zone: Like Water for Chocolate
88. Takes place in CA: The Grapes of Wrath, Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of L\ove, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
89. 25th anniversary edition:
90. 25 year old main character: The Plated Prisoner
91. Thriller: Misery, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, No One Can Know
92. About an animal: H is for Hawk, Cujo, Jurassic Park
93. Borrowed from a friend: Truly, Madly, Guilty, The Hypnotist's Love Story
94. Takes place during winter: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
95. Favorite love trope:
96. Takes place during a war: The Summer Before the War, The Women
97. On your TBR for 3+ years: Siddhartha, The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind
98. Has red on the cover: Beneath A Scarlet Sky, The Maid
99. Written by an unreliable narrator: Lolita, Piranesi, American Psycho
100. Takes place on West Coast: The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco, The Women