You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

For this month's challenge, we are reexploring some of Goodreads' features that most of us probably haven't looked at before, or haven't since we last played around with them 10 years ago for the last challenge (yup, that long ago).

I want you to think about a book that you loved. A 5 star read that you think about frequently, and still adore for whatever reason. Go to it's book page and scroll down.



You want to stop at the "Readers also enjoyed" section. Why is "also" in italics? Another Goodreads mystery. But I want you to click on the "All similar books" link below those 4 featured books.



This will take you to another page which will list up to 20 books that people who have read your favourite have also enjoyed. Your challenge this month is to read one of these books.



You can play around with your five star books, you are not limited to your first choice of a favourite (edited for clarity). Some suggestions are better than others, and some just give you books that haven't been translated for example.

Please let us know what book you chose to start with (your favourite/5 star read), and what book you ended up choosing from the list in this thread so we can follow along and chat about it.

Reporting

- Book title you read
- Your favourite/5 star read
- What did you think of it? Give us a couple of sentences so we can see if we want to snaffle this on to our own lists. "I liked it" will not count.
- Do you think it was a good recommendation? Was it similar? Was it as good? Was it completely unrelated and the amazon AI needs to be rebooted?

General Rules:

1. The book may be in any format - paperback, ebook, audiobook.
2. The book may be combined with the Year Long Challenge and the Group Themed Read.
3. The book must be started and read between July 1 - 31, 2025 (based on your local time zone).
4. The challenge is for one book. You may read more books if you chose but you need only report one.
5. The book must be 175 pages or more determined by the issue you read.
In the case of ebooks & audiobooks, the ebook edition must be at least 200 pages and the audiobook must be a minimum of 6 hours long.

Please let me know if anything is not clear. Lexx has the proper proper flu at the moment and my head feels a little spacey. I am hoping I am fighting it off, but there is a good chance what I think makes sense is gobbledigook at the moment :D

Great challenge, Rus. I have never used that link before.

I started with my 5 star read The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon and it gave me several choices of books that I own - Broken Country and Wild Dark Shore, a book that I have on hold at the library which will be available soon Say You'll Remember Me,
and of course one book that I started yesterday - The God of the Woods lol

Not sure which of the 3 I will read, but I am really happy with the results :)

Oh fun! I made a list from that recommendation link once and enjoyed most of the books on it. Great idea!

I can already predict enjoying a couple of hours checking out this fun challenge! I checked out the first 5-star read that came to mind - The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng. The list gave me a few books I’ve already read, two of which - My Friends by Hisham Matar, There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak - were also 5-star reads. Interestingly, Orbital by Samantha Harvey is on the list - it’s a sci-fi, which won the 2024 Booker Prize - odd it’s on the list, I’m curious to see what the two books have in common, so will probably go with it. I also want to check out a few more 5-star read recommendations for fun!

I've spent an hour already this morning, and will revisit my options a bit later. Things to do, places to be, so putting a pause on the gophering.

I chose The City & the City as my 5 star, which was a group read a bunch of years ago that I really enjoyed. Partly I was curious what books would be suggested. Turned out to be a lot of sci fi that I'm not super keen on, but I found a book I own The Windup Girl, so I'll give that a go next month.

I picked The Book Thief and I seems I have read 15 of the books that the feature suggest! Another two are in my TBR. Very funny and unexpected.

I will try with another book, still not sure which one yet.

I used Rock Paper Scissors as my 5 star book and picked The Only One Left as my book to read.

I looked up 5 different 5 star books and there was a lot of overlap. Say You'll Remember Me was one that I haven't read yet that was on all 5 lists, so I may go with that.

Other top options:
The Briar Club
All the Colors of the Dark
Margo's Got Money Troubles

Sandra wrote: "I picked The Book Thief and I seems I have read 15 of the books that the feature suggest! Another two are in my TBR. Very funny and unexpected...."

This was similar to my experience with The Women. I have read 13 out of the 20.

My other 5 star reads that I looked into were:
The God of the Woods (my first search which gave me 5+ great options)
Great Big Beautiful Life
The Frozen River
My Friends (haven't finished this one yet, so I don't actually know if it'll will end up being 5 stars.)

My top five reads I looked at were

1. Beach Music, Pat Conroy
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
3. Still Life, Louise Penny

I only chose three of my 5 star books. I’m a fairy hard rarer. Still Life and Harry Potter really kicked off and started me on the love of a series. I’ve read everything Pat Conroy has written and books about him as well. Beach Music sings me to sleep at night.

I think I will go with a book that was on two of my lists: Sandwich, Catherine Newman

This was fun to do!

A walk down memory lane with my favorite books and asking them all to bring a few friends! I love this task.

5 star: If Beale Street Could Talk
Similar Books: James
The Emperor of Gladness
The Bluest Eye
Intermezzo
The Message

5 star: The Joy Luck Club
Similar Books:
James
The Bluest Eye
The Good Earth
The Color Purple
The Secret Life of Bees

5 star: The Last Green Valley
Similar Books: All the Colors of the Dark
The Outlaw Noble Salt
Hold Strong
The World Played Chess

5 star: The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
Similar reads: The Frozen River
Broken Country
The Briar Club
James
West With Giraffes

5 star: The Ambler Warning
Similar reads: Poseidon's Arrow
Absolute Damage
The Bourne Shadow
Into the Gray Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border Between Life and Death

Grainne, I also gave The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell 5 stars. I have read 12 out of 20 of the books recommended but I have We All Live Here on my TBR, so I will add that to my options.

I selected 5 of my all time favourites. Under Swan Song, I found Never Flinch. I had planned on using a credit on it this month and reading it for my list challenge, so stop the presses. It checks a few boxes. Why keep looking?

Kristie wrote: "This was similar to my experience with The Women. I have read 13 out of the 20."

It is really fun because it happened with every single 5 stars book I've tried.

Here is my short list so I do not forget.
5-stars book -> similar book.

A Fine Balance -> The Poisonwood Bible
One Hundred Years of Solitude -> The Stranger
Tales of Love of Madness and of Death -> The Plain in Flames
The Passage -> The Girl with All the Gifts
The Martian Chronicles -> The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I like this, and will think about which 5 star book I'll use. It will have to be carefully chosen, because in my experience these lists are hit and miss for me. I've gone there for a five star book and seen books I gave 1 or 2 stars to before. One great example is if I click on one of the Vinyl Cafe books I've loved, because there are a bevvy of books of different genres and styles. eg Margaret Laurence wrote dark literary fiction, but I'm guessing is there because people who read Canadian fiction often read a variety of it, but I haven't liked her books since I was a teen.

The example I'll show you has zero books I'm interested in https://www.goodreads.com/book/simila... but thankfully I didn't go there for this challenge. Most aren't Canadian.

I found one that will work because it's written by a man for my current list, fits into a Christmas in July challenge, and at 192 pages isn't so long that it will drive me too crazy if I don't like it much.

So, the five star book for me was Fallen Angels by Patricia Hickman and the book I found was A Christmas Memory by Richard Paul Evans. I've read Evans before for a challenge earlier this year and he was a mixed bag (a series) but I didn't hate any of them, so that's a promising sign.

I'm posting this here in hopes it will help me remember this.

AAARRRGGGGHHHHH, too many options!

I have indecisionitis

Lynn wrote: "AAARRRGGGGHHHHH, too many options!

I have indecisionitis"

lol! I can definitely relate to this!

That is a problem!

For my 5 star read I chose One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.
I am choosing to read Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism

Lynn wrote: "AAARRRGGGGHHHHH, too many options!

I have indecisionitis"

Take two aspirin and call me in the morning :)

The 5-star book I've chosen is The Poisonwood Bible

From the list of similar books, I have read and enjoyed seven of them. There are three in the list that are on my Want-to-read list.

The book I've chosen is Tom Lake, and at first glance, it doesn't seem similar at all. It'll be interesting to compare the two.

I've found that the book options don't always make sense to me on the surface, Shirley. I don't think they necessarily have to be alike. It's just that for some reason people who rated one highly often rate the other highly.

Yeah, it's not that the books are similar but that other readers who read the book have read the other books that are suggested too.

Kristie wrote: "Grainne, I also gave The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell 5 stars. I have read 12 out of 20 of the books recommended but I have We All Live Here on my TBR, so I will ..."

I loved The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell all the way through. I also have some duplicate reads and books that I have already read. We All Live Here looks really interesting. I love Jojo Moyes as an author!

Kristie wrote: "I've found that the book options don't always make sense to me on the surface, Shirley. I don't think they necessarily have to be alike. It's just that for some reason people who rated one highly o..."

Bingo--this is exactly what it is and this has come up in other discussions. Computers can't judge well enough to make good decisions. It seems to be based on the fallacy that someone is going to like similar books. Some people are like that, but some have eclectic tastes or their similarity has nothing to do with the book (eg someone who prefers to read Canadian authors.)

It's based on a conclusion that if a significant number of readers read book A, and also read book B, then book B is similar to book A. The only similarity might be that the readers read both books.

Kristie wrote: "I've found that the book options don't always make sense to me on the surface, Shirley. I don't think they necessarily have to be alike. It's just that for some reason people who rated one highly o..."
Hmmm. Interesting.

Love this option: I am going to read The Safekeep which also checks the fruit on the cover box I've been needing to get for the annual challenge.

I have been dithering on this, and reading list after list after list.

I finally settled on Exit West which was on the list for Home Fire and another I can't remember right now.

Read 35 pages, and I am fully sucked in. Very different to Home Fire, but I'm hoping for a win here, and something to pull me out of my reading (and life) slump.

I have never used this feature before, so thank you, Rusalka. The month is almost over. Let's see if I can do this. My reading goes for a toss while traveling.

I realized what were once 5 star reads for me, I am not sure if I even want to read those genres now. Finally settled on my 5 star read At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches because it still resonates with me.

I will be reading Near to the Wild Heart.

I see it's 192 pages Pragya. Smart decision when time is lessening.

Janice wrote: "I see it's 192 pages Pragya. Smart decision when time is lessening."

Thanks, Janice. I thought I was being smart too but 20 pages in, I realized that stream-of-consciousness style writing does not make for a quick read. Time to abort mission.

Take Two.

5 star read- Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time

Reading now - A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

I also realized if there aren't enough ratings for a book, this feature is not available. One of my 5 star reads had 391 ratings but not this feature.

One of my few 5 Star reads this year was In Search of Perfumes: A lifetime journey to the sources of nature's scents and happily when I did the search it gave me The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession which is already on my tbr....it's 352 pages and I'm joining this challenge late in the month, so let's see if I can finish!!!

This is a great challenge, Rusalka!

I’ve read a couple of books in the past that I liked a lot and their suggestions had one book in common: Für Polina. I finished within 24 hours and liked it a lot.

Starting from The Martian Chronicles as my 5 stars read, I got The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which I am reading and hope to finish tomorrow.

You can do it, Sandra!

📣🎉 Go Sandra!

Badges have been posted. Let me know if I missed anyone.