Happy belated New Year internet friends! I hope we’ve all survived January with our sanity intact, it was a wild time in my house to say the least.
2024 Reading Review
I set my 2024 reading goal for 20 books, hit that goal by July, ultimately ending the year having read 31 books. According to Storygraph, Fantasy was my top genre (shocker), and fourteen of the books I read were by Brandon Sanderson. This is my favorite chart they provide, the mood map of what I read this year:
That September Slide just gets me every time I look at it.
I’m not happy with the lack of diversity in my reads this year. 14 of the books I read were written by women, almost half, and only 5 were non-white or non-American. Not great. The only saving grace is that if I only count each author once, no matter how many books of theirs I read, that number becomes 14 women out of 16 authors. But I’ve always counted by how many books not how many authors, so I’m owning that stat this year.
2025 Reading Goals
Real talk, I’m never going to be one of those mass-consumption reading girlies. If you read 150 KU novelettes in a year and you’re happy with that, I genuinely love that for you. But for me, I’m happy with a lower more savor-your-books goal. This year I set my reading goal as 25 books. I’ve been able to reach that the last two years, but I like to one, set myself reachable goals and two, account for some of the more time consuming events I have on the calendar for this coming year.
I also need to recommit to reading diversely. More women, more non-Americans, and especially more non-white authors. In our current political climate, it’s more important than ever to read and understand other perspectives. I have quite a few books on my TBR for this, but would love any personal reccs!
Writing Real Reviews
I spent a lot of time in 2023 and 2024 doing more creative writing. My goal with it was to rehab my love of writing and stretch my creative muscles in a way that was personally satisfying, not just to benefit my career. This year, I want to take a bigger step and do more writing overall, including book reviews. I’m so tired of the era of 1 paragraph or tiktok seven second flash reviews. Yes I am a part of that problem, but consider this my first step on the way to healing that problem! It’s my goal to do more NYT-level book reviews on at least half the books I read this year. Check back after February to see my progress on that goal!
January Stats
Have I told you how much I love Storygraph? Seriously, these graphics are so fun. Do I need this much data for two books read? No. But I like it.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
5 / 5 Stars
I picked this book up in a small bookshop in Dublin, Ireland last spring. I was desperate for something different, and this gorgeous cover really jumped off the shelf at me. The Marriage Portrait is a historical fiction novel exploring the life of the real Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici. Historical fiction isn’t a common genre for me, but I couldn’t put The Marriage Portrait down. It took only a few sittings for me to power through, constantly giving it the “one more chapter” treatment before bed. Every scene was described in beautiful, crystal clear detail, I felt as though I were there holding Lucré’s hand through it all.
Skyhunter– by Marie Lu
3 / 5 Stars
A whopping meh for me. The world was really interesting, so the first few chapters I was decently invested. But by the time I through the first quarter of the book, I correctly predicted the end. Not in a well-planted-seeds way, but in an unfortunately very predictable way. It wasn’t rally a bad book, but it wasn’t good enough for me to want to pick up book two in the series.
I also listened to the audiobook, and did not love the narrator. I have also DNF’d multiple other books she’s narrated. Not that she does a bad job, but I’m beginning to avoid books shes read, as her taste in narration jobs does not seem to line up with my taste in books!
Currently Reading
Jade War by Fonda Lee
Phaedra by Laura Shepperson
Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher
Eldest by Christipher Paolini
Stay tuned for more books in progress! I’m warming up my bookstagram again, add me on Storygraph, and follow me on TikTok!
