#anyway! have a new tbr and reading goal!

[agentnatesewell]

the maiden lane historical romance series was written in 1730s london?? oh my nate and suri historical romance plans are so back!!

[ninja-muse]

August is over! My reading month felt like it took forever even though otherwise, the month flew by. I blame this half on my top two reads of the month, which I was only reading in short snippets, and half on a number of lackluster reads and DNFs. I'm hoping to get back into my usual habits in September.

I did do better on reading off my physical TBR though! Even though one book was a "aw man, what do I read now?" and two more were, "I'm behind on my goal, quick, read something fast!" Plus the T. Kingfisher, which was graciously provided by my work, as was Running Close to the Wind. (Finally a month where I didn't spend money to add to my library!)

As for my top reads, The Salmon Shanties would be near the top of my list even if there wasn't a degree of reverse-nepotism involved. Absolutely excellent poetry collection, very layered and complex. If you're into Canadian poetry or poetry-of-place, pick it up! And Rose/House, once I got it back from the library because my Libby hold ran out, was absolutely fantastic! As was the quality of the French translation, because it sounded like Martine. So very, very glad I had the nerve (and linguistic ability) to read it. Super-creepy and I'm glad Tor's picked it up so I can hype the heck out of it next year. And then there's Jinn-Bot, which I wrote an actual review for.

On the other end of the list, sigh. I DNFed one book for feeling kind of trite, and another for being too predictable, and probably should have DNFed Voyage of the Damned for being uneven but I needed to know who the killer was. The Library Thief I'm also counting as lackluster—very good book, just wasn't for me or what I was expecting. Still deserves a 7.

Lula Dean, on the other hand, was surprisingly good! Fun and satirical and just plain entertaining. Read it in a couple days and it would likely be higher on my list except my reasons to be "glad to have read them" this month are less about quality and entertainingness than usual. I can't put "really liked this" above "finally I get to read a new book by X!", for instance. Or necessarily above "learned stuff!"

You might notice a distinct lack of any other news, and that's because there is none. September may be marginally more exciting, we'll see. (I know there'll be a bigger book haul.)

Anyway, on to September now, and in the meantime, here's my list everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

The Salmon Shanties - Harold Rhenisch

A collection of poems centered on and celebrating Cascadia in all its facets (or taking it to task, as the case may be). Out in September.

10/10

🇨🇦

warning: mentions racism, colonization, genocide

digital reading copy

Rose/House - Arkady Martine

There is a body within Rose House—two, if you count its architect, who ordered the house shuttered with his passing and left to its AI. Only one person is allowed to enter now, and she’s accounted for. And yet there is a body within Rose House….

9/10

🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: descriptions of a dead body

library ebook

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport - Samit Basu

Lina and Bador want freedom: from surveillance, from power structures, for their city, for all bots, or just for their family. This might come from cunning, or revolution, or a lost ancient artifact, or an underground bot-battle, or swaying a visiting space hero or the Not-Prince. Much more than an Aladdin retelling.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (multisexual, achillean), Indian-coded cast, Indian author

warning: discusses colonization and oppression, references police violence

reading copy

Unwritten, Vol. 8 - Mike Carey with Peter Gross, Dean Ormston, Yuko Shimizu

When Tommy Taylor learns that Lizzie is trapped in the land of the dead, he goes to rescue her—but he’s unprepared for his adventures there, or the wider implications.

8/10

Indigenous Australian secondary character

off my TBR

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

Paul Bäumer recounts his time serving in the German army in WWI.

7/10

warning: war, death, animal death, gore, injury

off my TBR

A Sorceress Comes to Call - T. Kingfisher

Cordelia’s terrible mother has decided to marry a squire. Cordelia knows he and his sister don’t deserve that—but how to stop her, when she can do magic?

7.5/10

warning: child abuse, torture, murder, animal cruelty and death

finished copy received through work

A Man and His Cat, Vol. 4 - Umi Sakurai

Kanda gets the courage to make a new friend and revisit an old situation.

7/10

Japanese cast, Japanese author

off my TBR

A Gentleman from Japan - Thomas Lockley

The true story of a Japanese man who was brought to the court of Elizabeth I and influenced early modern English science.

7.5/10

warning: slavery, orientalism, war and violence

library book

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books - Kirsten Miller

In Troy, Georgia, the fight for public decency is kicked off by Lula Dean, who craves attention and loves her Southern history—and her fencepost library, where someone’s put wholesome jackets over books she’s tried to ban….

7/10

ensemble cast including Black, 🏳️‍🌈 (gay, lesbian), and Indo-American POV characters

warning: Nazis, anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism, homophobia, rape, suicide

reading copy

The Library Thief - Kuchenga Shenjé

Florence talks her way into a job repairing a lord’s library, but is quickly drawn in by the mysterious death of the lady of the house. A gothic novel centering race, gender, and other marginalizations in late Victorian England.

7/10

Black British main character, Black British secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (trans woman, sapphic), Black British author

warning: racism, including slurs; rape, abuse, misogyny, queerphobia

library book

The Voyage of the Damned - Frances White

A grand state voyage is upset by murder and it’s up to the lowly, non-Blessed Ganymedes to catch the killer before they dock. Goddess help them all if he doesn’t….

5.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (multisexual), fat protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (nonbinary, ace, trans man, sapphic, achillean), Indian-, African-, and Japanese-coded secondary characters

warning: murder, injuries, blood, colonial thinking, attempted genocide, suicidal thoughts

reading copy

DNF

Remedial Magic - Melissa Marr

Safe and ordinary Ellie meets a mysterious woman in her library, and is whisked to a fantasy world where she’s probably a witch—and almost certainly in trouble.

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 author

reading copy

Casket Case - Lauren Evans

Garrett stops to ask for directions at Nora’s casket shop and they hit it off. Unfortunately he works for Death…. Out in September.

African-American secondary characters

reading copy

Currently reading

A Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan

A memoir by Lady Trent, renowned natural philosopher and adventuress, but covering her childhood and first expedition, to the mountain highlands of Vystrana, and the troublesome dragons encountered there.

library book

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts. The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle Victorian detective stories.

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 11 Yearly total: 70 Queer books: 1 Authors of colour: 3 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 4 Books hauled: 2 ARCs acquired: 3 ARCs unhauled: 6 DNFs: 2

January February March April May June July

[benkyoutobentou]

31 Days of Productivity Reading もう一回！: Day 10

Before: I don't have a proper before, since I didn't get to write anything before I started reading and I just needed to finish ポーの一族 today anyways. But I can still tell you about my day before I started reading! I usually run errands on Saturdays and thus don't usually read too much. In addition to my usual errands, I also went to the craft store to look at their Halloween decorations and get some yarn. My next door neighbor is pregnant and I'd like to crochet her a baby blanket as a present! And then for dinner I made myself some chickpea tikka masala that was delicious.

After: Now on to the good stuff. I finished the last 90 pages of ポーの一族 and it hit the spot tonight. I've been in my usual late summer Halloween mood lately and the aesthetic of ポーの一族 was perfect. It's not very gothic in story or plot line, but the aesthetic is wonderfully gothic and just feels perfect to read on a rainy October day. It was just what I needed! The language in this series so far isn't very difficult, but I do find myself getting lost in all the hiragana. Sometimes I have to really think to be able to parse the words and separate them from each other, whereas I wouldn't have an issue if it just used kanji. I also noticed this in BASARA, but it seems like older shoujo series don't use the 々 marking. So for example, 日々 was written as 日び. I think ベルサイユのばら did it too, I'll have to keep an eye out for it next time I read a volume. If anyone here is into older shounen manga, I would love to know if they do the same thing!

Now, you might be noticing that ninety pages does not fulfill my goal of reading 100 pages of manga per day. I didn't really want to start something new knowing that I wouldn't have the time to fully get into it, so I decided to just continue on with 憎らしい彼 (a novel) which is on my tbr for the month. Because I started it in March and still haven't finished it. Don't look at me. So here's my ridiculous math: if my goal was to read 100 pages of manga per day or 25 pages of a novel, then one page of a novel is worth four pages of a manga. Therefore, if I have ten manga pages left of my goal, then I could substitute that for 2.5 pages of a novel, in this case 憎らしい彼. So that's what I did. After a little brain break, though, because I don't usually like jumping immediately from one thing to the next.

In the end, I read 8 pages of 憎らしい彼 for a total of 98 pages across both manga and novels. I'd say that fulfills my goal nicely. I would have read more, but it's getting late and I really should be getting to bed. Also, I've noticed that Nagira Yuu's writing tends to be a bit harder for me to parse. It's never bothered me too much, given that certain authors have writing styles that are easier to read regardless of language and even in my native English, but I didn't really feel that with this little excerpt I read tonight. Hopefully this means good things for my Japanese and wasn't just a lucky break. I've been feeling pretty solid with my Japanese level during this challenge, I can't wait for a book to come along and prove me wrong this month.

[the---hermit]

2024 reading goals

Let's talk about reading goals for the new year. I also want to be better at checking in during the year how I am doing with my goals, so expect further updates (ideally each quarter).

read all the books I buy during the year (or the most of them anyway): This has been one of my main goals for the past couple of years. I think I have been pretty good with this. I never got to read the 100% of the new books, mostly because at the very end of the year between the holidays and all I always accomulate some books, but never too many, and I generally end up working my way through them at the beginning of the year. Having this goal in mind has made me better at buying books I actually want to read right away, and at not making my physical tbr get bigger every year. It is fundamental for me to keep being as good as I can be with this goal, and I am pretty confident I can do a good job.

read more non fiction that is not uni related: I love non fiction books but since I have a lot of non fiction to read for uni I never really read much in my free time. I would like to read more in my free time, and I decided to keep a very minimal goal of a non-fiction book for each quarter of the year. Of course any book I have to read for a class does not count. If I can get more than one non fiction book read each quarter that is even better but I prefer starting with an approachable goal.

decrease my physical tbr: After sitting down and writing out all the unread books I own it is imperative I do something to conquer my physical tbr. I have done it with my graphic novel section, I can do it with the rest. The main focus is the fiction section, but I will keep track of the non fiction as well. I haven't planned how to yet, but I think my main approach will be to fit as many of the books I already own in the propts of the reading challenges I will do during the year. I might look for audiobook to help me with this goal. Once I'll have a better plan I might write a specific post about it.

get back to reading in French: For years I have been saying I need to work on picking back up my French and this year this is one of my goals. To do so I would like to slowly get back into reading in French. Again I want to keep this approachable so I'd like to read one French book each quarter. Ngl if I read even just one book it will be a win because it will be more than I have done in the past years. For this I will need recommendations, because I only own The Stranger by Camus in French, and no other books. I am thinking about getting a copy of The Hobbit since it's one of my favourite books and I know it pretty well, that could be a good option to start. But any recommendation is welcome. (Note for my future self checking in: even if i read one book each half of the year that counts as enough because I am scared to read in French again so I need to go easy on myself)

[noona-clock]

Hi hello!!!! I've truly missed catching up with you. Are you well? How have things been? I hope you're doing as best as you can my lovely 🩷

Life has been hellish this year for me and the family, so I've naturally retreated into myself, but I'm so glad to see you're writing still. What a comfort to find on my return to this platform.

How has your reading been? Please tell me you've read Funny Story!!! I need someone to swoon over Miles with. I've been reading a lot, mostly fantasy, but there's been a few romance novels I've enjoyed this year.

Anyway, enough rambling. This is just me reaching out to say hello and that I've missed you and hope you're well xxxx

hi friend 🥹 i have also missed catching up with you!!!! things have been... tough. i had a pretty shitty summer (june-aug/sept since i know summer is not the same for you!) -- experienced some losses, multiple household things needed fixing one right after the other, work was incredibly busy and stressful, there were some health issues (not mine except i did get a mild case of covid after my sister's school year started). it was a lot!!! and then the election happened! so i'm honestly not doing well mentally or emotionally at the moment. and i may not be doing well mentally or emotionally for the next 4-8 years.

i'm so sorry to hear that things haven't been going well for you either 😩 i saw in one of your posts about your mom and everything going on with her 💜 i'm relieved to hear she is all right but i also know how exhausting it is to be someone's primary caretaker. please make sure you're taking care of yourself too!

reading!! my 2024 reading goal was to read 50 books total and to read 40 books from my TBR. one thing that has gone well this year is that i accomplished both already! plus i rewarded myself by buying a perfume for every 10 TBR books i read 😂 i have not read funny story yet, i'm sorry!!!!! i was kind of laser-focused on only reading books on my existing TBR and not adding anything to it so i could really get it down, but with the new year, i will add more to it. and funny story shall be one of them! i have only read book lovers by emily henry and it was delightful. i was reading some fantasy (mainly acotar/crescent city and fourth wing) last year and earlier this year but i got burnout from reading too many too quickly and have been focusing a lot on romance since then. i have become obsessed with tessa dare!!!! she is so so so so good. and right now i am reading salem's daughter by maggie osborne which is also amazing so far. i haven't read anything else by her but i adore her writing style.

thank you for reaching out 💜 i'm hoping i can be on here more consistently so i can have some sort of escape. i know this site is pretty dead but hey, even if it's just you and me, i'm all for it.

[14carrotghoul]

24 for 24

Thank you @read-and-write- and @myheartalivewrites for tagging me! One of my resolutions is to read more books bc last year I finished a whopping one (1) book! My goal for several years now has been 26 books (one every two weeks) and I want to try a few different things to hopefully meet it because I have progressively been getting worse at meeting my goal!

So here are some books that have been rotting on my bedside bookshelf or in my sprawling TBR in no particular order

Freedom is a Constant Struggle - Angela Y. Davis (50% done already!)

Bad Mormon - Heather Gay (~25%)

Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler

Mexican Gothic (reread in Spanish)(~10%) - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Severance - Ling Ma

Cantoras - Carolina de Robertis

Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner

Hacienda - Isabel Cañas

Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson

In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado

Jesus and John Wayne - Kristin Kobes Du Mez OR White Too Long - Robert Jones

Silver, Sword, and Stone - Marie Arana OR Open Veins of Latin America - Eduardo Galeano

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat - Samin Nosrat

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us - Harif Abdurraqib (This year's designated travel book!)

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name - Audre Lorde

Passing - Nella Larsen

Frankenstein (reread) - Mary Shelley

Pride and Prejudice OR Emma - Jane Austen

Darius the Great is Not Okay - Adib Khorram

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg

Tipping the Velvet OR The Paying Guests OR Fingersmith - Sarah Waters (I got copies of the first 2 for a STEAL at a used bookstore, and one of them had a sticky note covered in cat hair - really felt like a passing of the wlw torch lol)

Fun Home - Alison Bechdel

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

Maus 1 & 2 - Art Spiegelman

No pressure tagging because this is pretty extensive and this is a list I like to make at the beginning of the year anyway (although usually a shortlist of 10 books) but I'm curious about y'all's prospective reads if you decide to share! Part of the fun of reading for me is hearing all about new books! @happiness-of-the-pursuit @cha-melodius @orchidscript @inexplicablymine @indomitable-love @affectionatelyrs @ssmtskw @dumbpeachjuice @daisymae-12 @cultofsappho @suseagull04 @firenati0n @kiwiana-writes

[magratpudifoot]

Finished 6 October 2024:

The Two Gentleman of Verona - William Shakespeare

My new-to-me Shakespeare reading process is pretty involved*, so I haven't been able to do it properly in the last five years of moving and having all my books in storage. But I mostly have my books back and have set a goal for myself to read all the plays I haven't before by April 2026, so we're starting at the beginning of my Shakespeare TBR list.

I did actually read this play in my undergrad class, but that was at least 15 years ago, and the class was awful. I honestly think if it had been the same professor with the three of us who paid attention and maybe a couple of grad students, it would have been really good, but it was a 3 hr Monday night class, and EVERY SINGLE SESSION he would have to explain what having horns on one's head meant. One time I took pity on him and raised my hand to say, "I think it's interesting that all of Feste's songs are really morbid." And he latched onto it in a way that I wasn't quite expecting: "YES! Tell me more!!" Alas, this was YEARS before I actually took this on as a personal research interest, so I was not at all expecting to suddenly be the focus of the class--this was the first time the whole semester anyone actually volunteered an opinion--so I let the poor guy down with "I don't know...I just thought it was interesting..."

Anyway, yes, I know I read this in that class because my copy of the text had annotations in my handwriting, in the type of ink I used to prefer before it became impossible to find**. But I had ZERO memory of any part of the play, except a vague sense that I must have been really excited to Know Something about the story from dramatis personae because I read a lot of Greek mythology as a kid. (I was actually in another class that same semester where we would have been reading Ovid's Metamorphosis right around the same time, but I think it was probably the Hercules Animated Series that taught me what to expect from Proteus. Or Young Hercules. It may have been Young Hercules.)

So, sure, I read this play before, allegedly, but I am treating it as one I hadn't read. And if you know anything about Shakespeare's body of work, it's probably no surprise that my main takeaway this time was "Okay, yeah, I get why no one has even really tried to bring this one back." I think there were good ideas, interesting impulses, and I spent a lot of time thinking about The Importance of Being Earnest, but I'm not sure that there is any satisfactory way to stage the final act, or any way to stage it without the final act and still call it the same play.

It should surprise no one that Speed and Silvia are my favorites. It is perhaps shocking that Posthumus is still my most hated Shakespearean male love interest when Proteus and Valentine are both right there. If I were to write fix it fic, I'm not sure if I would have Julia stay in Verona with Lucetta (who she instructed to make her clothes that she thinks she would look best in, don't think I didn't read too much into THAT), or have her and Silvia return to Milan together and leave everyone else in the forrest.

* I read from the Norton Shakespeare while listening to Arkangel recordings, and then follow up with the entries in Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare and Harold Bloom's Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human--not because I particularly trust either of them as Shakespeare scholars, but because I find arguing with others about what does and does not work for me in classic literature helps me process, and there's no one better for arguing with than Bloom. Of COURSE he likes Launce. OF COURSE. I hope Will Kempe does a little jig every time Bloom sits down to write. I used to also supplement my Shakespeare reads with Dr. Johnson's notes, but I cannot find my copy now and am not sure it wasn't a casualty of Moldpocalypse. I am going to go out to the storage closet again one of these days and see again if I can find it, because that historical midpoint commentary is excellent to have.

** The shitty blue Bic pens with the "comfort grips" and the hollow plastic tubes and the ink that kind of smelled like you should ventilate the room probably.

[ritzcrackee]

april tbr post yayy

rereads are marked by a ☆, new reads are marked by a ♡, and new acquisitions are bolded

physical tbr: 20

what moves the dead - t. kingfisher ♡

an education in malice - s. t. gibson ♡

juilet takes a breath - gabby rivera ♡

stories of people and civilization, greek ancient origins - lindsay powell, j. k. jackson ♡

rebel girls - elizabeth keenan ♡

the silent stars go by - dan abbet ♡

touched by an angel - johnathan morris ♡

dracula - bram stoker ♡

dune - frank herbert ♡

dune messiah - frank herbert ♡

frankenstein - mary shelley ♡

sense and sensibility - jane austen ♡

hippie - barry miles ♡

evernight - claudia gray ☆

stargazer - claudia gray ♡

the handmaids tale - margaret atwood ☆

the testaments - margaret atwood ♡

aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the

universe - benjamin alire sáenz ☆

would-be witch - kimberly frost ☆

the ballad of songbirds and snakes - suzanne collins ☆

digital tbr: 2

pandora's jar: women in the greek myths - natalie haynes ♡

wild is the witch - rachel griffin ♡

read: 7

a million kisses in your lifetime - monica murphy - dnf

i got like 80 pages in and then just,,, could not continue. no shade if u liked this book it was just solidly, solidly not my thing.

my monster valentine - various authors - 3/5

debated putting this on here for obvious reasons but i neeeeed to be accurate i guess. i only read about half of the stories in this collection and they were pretty hit or miss. it was free though so yk. vibes.

high spirits - camille gomera-tavarez - 2.5/5

this book was pretty alright! i don't have much to say about it (hence the middling rating) but i would reccomend it if you're looking for a fast read :D

the coldest touch - isabel sterling - 4/5

THIS WAS SO CUUUUTTTTTEEEEE!!! i liked the way the author portrayed the genuine hell that being stuck at 17 would be. please get me out of here i want a fully developed frontal lobe. AW and all of the characters were super likable. truly so adorable i was squealing the whole time.

im knocking a point off for the romance being a littttllllleeeee rushed and the character descriptions feeling off (it felt odd that both pov characters categorized every single person into a specific race? i think its good practice to make a characters race clear, but idk if that applies to a random teacher with no dialogue). to be so real though i loved this book enough that it didn't bother me too much.

beastly & bookish - catrina bell - 5/5

did i finish this book in one sitting? yes. did i stay up until 1am doing that? ...mind your business. honestly, im maybeee being a little bit generous giving this 5 stars but !! i really liked it!!! rom was soo mecore. i'm excited to read the rest of the books in this collection (even though they're all christmasy), and i can't wait for my physical copy to get here!!

holly's unjolly christmas - lark green - 2/5

this book was truly just fine. like, the definition of pretty alright. the tropes weren't my thing and the romance felt wildly rushed, but the writing style was easy to read and there were some funny bits. i also felt like the demon characters fell pretty flat? idk felt mid overall. (tbh the highlights of this book were when rom and noelle showed up. my babiesssss)

holidays ablaze - lucy limon - 3/5

v cute 👍 i love samite he's so autistic 💗

last months goal: finish dune

hmm ok. so i did not finish dune. i don't know why i thought i could. whatever possessed me to believe i could finish an 800 page sci-fi book in one month was truly of the devil herself. what the fuck. that was a blatant temptation towards hubris and I FELL FOR IT. anyways i hit 300 pages. everyone clap.

this months goal: finish a re-read

i have a lot of books i'd like to re-read but!!! i just never get around to it!!!! there r always newer shinier books that grab my attention!! i'd also like to carve away a more sizable chunk of my physical tbr this month because i have officially run out of space on my bookshelf TwT. everything is so so crammed in there, i truly cannot afford any more physical books. public library here i come!!

[morfinwen]

New Year's Goals

Someone i know once said she didn't make resolutions, she made goals, and i thought that was an excellent way of putting it: fail once at a resolution, that's it -- fail once at achieving a goal, just means you aren't there yet.

Anyway, a few things i hope to accomplish this year:

Attend church regularly

Exercise every week

Learn to draw (the balance between my past disinterest and the number of ideas i have has finally tipped in favor of the latter ... i hope)

Read close to as many books as last year (i have a TBR list long enough to satisfy that, i expect)

Cook more meals at home

It's all pretty intimidating to look at, but i have to remember that all of those things are within my control (which is why "get a new job", which i want to do more than any of these, is not on the list), and all of them are good for me. Except maybe drawing.

[ben-learns-smth]

(telling people to answer their own questions is such a fun idea and I might steal it tbh) anyway! How about questions 2 (I re-read so much compared to the total number of books I read because the brain likes familiarity, what can you do), 4 (I guess I'm kind of discovering E.M. Forster right now (who never came up in my entire English degree??), but most of the books were by authors I already knew) and 14?

2) did you reread anything? what?

the lady astronaut series, priory of the orange tree for funsies & technically the bone season (but idk if I count the revised anniversay edition as a reread) ! I'm a bit surprised, usually I also reread a lot, at least one or two faves for emotional support. I still count a book for my reading goal as long as it's been at least 1 year since I read it last

4) Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I found lots of new authors and will make sure to check out any new releases to see if they're one hit wonders for me or if I want to find more! a lot of it was debut stuff though so I gotta be patient...

two authors whose work I looked for a bit more already are biba oskar nass for german poetry & essays and daniel schreiber for german literary essays

14) what books do you want to finish before the year is over?

my current read alte sorten (halfway through, I definitely will manage that thanks to my commute) and as many of my physical tbr shelf as possible before I have to switch to ebooks after my top surgery in january (apparently holding a book and turning pages is hard in the first weeks of recovery </3). funnily enough most of those are about trans and (gender)queer topics: pageboy (elliot page), before we were trans (kit heyam), to be seen - queer lives 1900-1950

[ninja-muse]

I completely abandoned any pretense about reaching my yearly reading goal this December, but I did manage to read one TBR book per month and read 50 of the books I wanted to in 2022, so I’m counting the year as a win. And I got close to the goal, anyway, at least if you include the picture books. (I do not like to include the picture books.) This month also included surprise highlights, surprise disappointments, and not one, but two, history books, which I feel like I never do.

December also, obviously, included a book haul. I got a couple books I asked for for Christmas, a couple books that came from the “give everyone an essay about my tastes” wishlists, and The Atlas Six, which arrived at work too damaged to sell but is still perfectly readable and it had been recommended by a friend…. The highlight is Weirdos of the Universe Unite!, however. I read this at least three times as a kid, via the public library, and I’m pretty sure we can credit my love of urban fantasy to it. That one’s actually part of my birthday haul, but the postal system got in the way. Very excited to (hopefully) reread it in 2023!

The Mummy! - Jane C. Webb Louden A plan to resurrect a mummy somehow upends the monarchy and everyone’s love lives. Melodramatic satire on a grand scale. - Egyptian secondary character

Beneath Another Sky - Norman Davies A world tour of countries subsumed by the colonial West and the ways they’re rebuilding after. - diverse nations and peoples covered - warning: colonial mindsets 1491 - Charles C. Mann An examination of what is known about pre-contact life in the Americas, versus what has often been taught and believed. - Indigenous subject matter - warning: racists, genocide

The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai Yale is trying for a bequest to his gallery while navigating a relationship and watching his friends die of AIDS. Thirty years later, Fiona is searching for her daughter and reckoning with how Yale’s friend-group has affected her life. - largely 🏳️‍🌈 cast, Jewish protagonist, Jewish secondary character, Black secondary character - warning: deaths from AIDS, period-typical homophobia, including apathy and hate crimes

Books and Libraries - Andrew Scrimgeour, ed. A collection of poetry dedicated to the love of books.

The World We Make - N.K. Jemisin The boroughs of New York thought they’d fought their biggest battle, but then a populist politician comes to town. - ensemble cast containing Black, Indigenous, Indian, Latina, and 🏳️‍🌈 protagonists, Black author, #ownvoices for Blackness

Don't Fear the Reaper - Stephen Graham Jones Jade Jennifer Daniels returns to Proofrock the week a serial killer escapes in a blizzard. Out in February. - Blackfoot protagonist, Indigenous secondary characters, Black secondary character, disabled secondary characters, Blackfoot author, #ownvoices for Blackfoot representation - warning: death, gore, animal death

Grumpy New Year - Katrina Moore with Xindi Yan (illustrator) Daisy’s going to China to visit her Yeh-Yeh for Lunar New Year! Daisy should have slept—but she didn’t. - Chinese cast

The Golden Spoon - Jessa Maxwell Six contestants, two hosts, one world-famous baking show. And a body. Out in March. - ensemble cast containing Black, Latina, neurodivergent, and 🏳️‍🌈 characters

Reread:

The Jolly Christmas Postman - Allan Ahlberg with Janet Ahlberg (illustrator) A postman delivers Christmas mail to the fairy tale and nursery rhyme residents of his village.

Currently reading:

A Killing In Costumes - Zac Bissonnette Jay and Cindy just got an offer that might save their movie memorabilia business. Unfortunately, their competitor has turned up dead and that might sink everything. - 🏳️‍🌈 protagonists

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle Victorian detective stories - major disabled character
 - warning: colonialism, racism


Stats


Monthly total: 9
 Yearly total: 145 + 2
 Queer books: 1
 Authors of colour: 2
 Books by women: 5
 Canadian authors: 0
 Off the TBR shelves: 2
 DNFs: 0

January February March April May June July August September October November

[jooniens]

January 2023 TBR

I truly am so excited to be back doing this. I had to remind myself on hiatus that taking a break is what I needed but I truly did miss this. 

I am quite proud of the reading that I did in 2022 and I am going to push myself to read even more this year. As I have mentioned before one of my goals this year is to finish all of the series that I have started, both in 2022 and overall. Thus, many of my TBR lists this year will be full of sequels and continuations of series. I will do my best to not include spoilers but sometimes in book reviews it is just part of business. 

Anyways, now that I’ve established “ground rules”, let’s get into what I want to read in the month of January!

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

I know what I said above, I want to finish the series that I have already started and this is the first of a new series but hear me out, I have been wanting to read this for awhile and after I was finally able to FIND this book (which is more of a challenge than you would expect for a book that is nearly a decade old) I want to start it as soon as possible. You all have seen my opinion on the Mortal Instrument series but I heard that the Infernal Devices is far superior and I am just holding out for it. 

Lightbringer by Claire Legrand

I have had this in at least one of my previous TBR lists and yes, I still haven't read it (hence why one of my goals is to finish series). I really loved the first two books in this series I just don’t want it to end. This is quite a large book so If I do decide to read this I will probably try to read some shorter or stand alone novels to help my brain not shut down. 

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson 

Now for a standalone. I actually just bought this and honestly, I wouldn’t have picked this up if Hannah (From Aclockworkreader) didn’t make a reading vlog about this novel and loved it. It seems like something I would like I am just not sure why I always gravitate towards series instead of stand-alone novels. I have this book right in front of me and I actually plan on starting it after drafting this post (remember to keep up with me on Goodreads/Instagram @jooniens !) 

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

I started An Ember in the Ashes in November of 2022 and it has been true love. A Torch against the Night was my last read for 2022 and it was a great way to end a year of reading. This entire series has swept me off of my feet and I am so excited to keep reading, I just love these characters and this world so much. I accidentally bought this thinking that it was the second book so I had to go back to Barnes and Noble later (what a shame). 

There isn’t a lot on this list because half of my Goodreads TBR has gone missing(?) I know I trimmed it down but I don’t think I had gotten rid of so much. Hopefully, I will be able to knock some of these titles off and start 2023 with some great reads.  

Also, note that I will be bringing back the Mid-Month Reading updates however they will be brief posts and not as long as they were previously. 

Have a very happy and safe new year! 

Much Love, 

June <3

[benkyoutobentou]

31 Days of Productivity Reading: Retrospective

This ended up being an entire essay so I had to make it into its own post!

How did my goals turn out? I'm so glad you asked.

Finish No. 6 volume 3

[X] Read [half of] 憎らしい彼

Read 独り舞

Read at least ten volumes of manga

[30/31] Read at least an hour per day

Personally, I think I did alright with my goals, especially considering how busy I was during the first few weeks of the month. I only missed my reading goal one day out of the month! I'm happy with that! That one miss was definitely odd though. The very next day, I found myself debating if I should still hit the hour mark. After all, I had already missed one day. What's one more? But I squashed that thought and continued on as though I never missed at all. Missing only once is better than missing twice!

During the course of this challenge, I finished twelve books (two novels and ten manga volumes) and started one more novel. The two novels I finished were No. 6 volume three by Asano Atsuko and 独り舞 by Li Kotomi, the novel I started but didn't get around to finishing was 憎らしい彼 by Nagira Yuu (which is the second book in the美しい彼 series). The manga volumes that I read were 僕らの地球の歩き方 (5) by Sorai Mone, 光が死んだ夏 (4) by Mokmok Len, ベルサイユのばら (1, 2) by Ikeda Riyoko, ３月のライオン (5) by Umino Chica, and ロンリーガールに逆らえない (1-5) by Kashikaze. If I were forced to pick a favorite of the month, I think I would have to choose volume five of ボクチキ but I feel like that's kind of cheating, since it's already my favorite manga series. Most of what I read during the month ended up being continuations of series that I had previously started reading, and I only read two completely new to me things (独り舞 and ロンガル).

Did my physical tbr shrink during this challenge? No! Not at all! Yikes! At the beginning of the month, I got a huge package of eighteen books from a lovely friend over on Instagram who doesn't read Japanese and was getting rid of them anyways. Then, I found the entirety of Basara at a used book shop and picked up the first five volumes. I want to start reading more older and classic shoujo, so this was the perfect opportunity to pick up a series that I probably wouldn't have read otherwise. So in the end, my Japanese tbr ended up expanding by thirteen books, but at least it didn't expand by twenty three, right?

As much as this challenge was a success, it was also a failure. I started this challenge to encourage myself to prioritize reading in my schedule and, honestly, that didn't happen as much as I had hoped. I talked a bit about this with a neighbor who wants to practice piano more, but I think that sometimes, putting emphasis on something can create a mental block, no matter how much you enjoy the activity. Especially with a challenge like this, I constantly felt like I had to have enough time to read. What even is enough time to read? Instead of picking up a book whenever and wherever, I was trying to force time for it, which just ended up making it so that I would push off reading until the very end of the day. It's the same as with practicing piano. If you stop to play a little song when you have five minutes, you'll probably play a lot more in the day than if you specifically try to find enough time for a full hour long practice session. Often, those little pick ups turn into a lot more if you let them.

I mentioned this a bit before, but I'd like to say it again and possibly expand on it. I think I'd like to bring this challenge back in a few months, but instead of focusing on time spent, focus more on page count. This would encourage those small pick ups rather than discourage them, as I felt this timing method did. Each time I wanted to read, I had to start the timer, stop it every time I got interrupted, and overall it was kind of a pain. Definitely not the ideal reading circumstances.

One thing that I did like about the timing system was being able to see my average reading speed. My average speed ended up being a little bit faster than what I had previously thought! My guess before this was about five minutes per novel page. I'm not a whole lot faster than that, but small progress is still progress! It was also interesting to see how my reading speed differed between different manga series and wh that was. I read some series that I knew were slower reads for me (３月のライオン) and some that I knew would be easier (ロンガル) but actually seeing the differences in the way the manga was written and drawn and how that related to my reading speed was interesting. I didn't get to all the manga series I wanted to in the end, but I won't stop reading just because this challenge is over.

Overall, I am really glad that I did this challenge. I had a lot of fun writing these updates each day and I am glad that I got through some books on my tbr, even if I would have liked to have made a bit more progress than I did. Expect to see more of this in the future! Just, maybe not the super near future. I'm also thinking of other fun reading challenges to do... Someone I follow on Instagram has an immersion bingo board that they complete each month, so maybe I could do that with my Japanese rads? Much to be considered... Until next time!

[roanofarc]

5 & 6!

5. what 2023 new releases are you most looking forward to?

i am currently very much NOT on top of new release news, so the only 2023 release i already had on my tbr as of receiving this ask was she is a haunting by trang thanh tran

however getting this q did inspire me to do a little poking around to see what else is coming out next year, and i have added to my tbr: chlorine by jade song, the salt grows heavy by cassandra khaw, any other city by hazel jane plante, and the first bright thing by j.r. dawson

rest of my answer is under the cut but anyways send me 2023 reading asks pls i promise i'm actually answering them

additionally, i am excited for heavenly tyrant, the sequel to iron widow by xiran jay zhao (mostly because of that last minute reveal/cliffhanger, which i saw coming but the implications are *eyes emoji*) and while i'm not necessarily interested in reading fake dates and mooncakes by sher lee (it's YA romance which is just not a genre i'm prioritizing) i am excited for it to exist, like, conceptually, for ppl who do read that kind of thing. who knows, maybe i'll try curbing the fluff fanfic rereading habit and reading original published romance instead (lbr though i reread romcom fics because they are shorter than published novels and don't require establishing new characters)

6. do you have any conceptual reading goals?

i want to read more books with spatial horror! or not even horror, just ones that really use space and place as a prominent vehicle for storytelling. haunted houses, setting as character, weird buildings, conditional cities, sentient locations...the works. i already started reading more books like these in the latter half of this year but it's definitely something i'm looking to continue

[riceball1759]

Personal Library TBR *Shelves*

I love having my own personal library -FINALLY!!! After almost 2 decades of keeping my "library" in the sturdiest boxes I could find (including shoe boxes for my mass-market size guys and manga), moving 3 TIMES, and dreaming about my glass cabinet library, we found the perfect bookcases -in the perfect color- and finally started to make my "book nook" dreams reality. Seriously, it was hard to say goodbye to that og-Chegg box...best box I could ask for to hold my pristine hardcovers.

I never actually posted the finished product -well, 80%ish done- mostly because I wanted it to be "perfect". Nothing really changed in the visual dept except I bought some more books lol. Really hoped I could have a proper seating arrangement by now, but that hasn't worked out both with money and the practical-vs-wishful. What I want is too expensive and too big. Instead, we ended up partially finishing 2 other 'quadrants' of the basement: we have an air hockey table and a 'gaming quarter' where the Nintendo systems, board games, and whatnot have their home. All we need is a small coffee table and some additional wall art/hangings. My Tohru Honda and Grimmjow wall scrolls are perfectly displayed where all can admire them^_^ Hubby's bar will be the remaining quadrant (he can't wait, but he has to). I'LL POST PICTURES SOON!!!

Now, to the reason for the title of this post... I think I'm fairly unique in my organizational methods due to the fact that I actually have shelves dedicated to books I haven't read that I probably will not keep. This includes titles that I have either been given, got as giveaways, purchased, and brought home from my library (my job) because I weeded my collection -we can talk about that at a later time or you can look it up. Not getting into the particulars of my personal collection's "weeding policy", it's safe to say that I know I need to read what I have in order to not expand the not-here-to-stay shelves. Thus, I have dubbed them the TBR Shelves. How many do I have? There are 3 dedicated shelves that only consist of what I haven't read: 2 YA and one Harlequin LIH (double-stacked). The rest of the shelves have a mixture, but they're genre-fied and 'author-betized' and they're perfect the way they are...mostly, but that's not today's problem.

Problem: I'm having a bit of a crisis in my reading preferences lately and I need to force myself to read what I've been ignoring so I can stop feeling that poking feeling every time I go down to find my favorite thing to re-read again. See my problem? Not yet? I've been very stressed and that leads me to re-reading. I'm also coming to terms with the changing YA market and I need to start reading what's coming out now so I can honestly tell my kids, "yes, I've read that!" instead of, "I started it, but didn't get around to finishing it...><". This habit of reading maybe 5 chapters of a new book and then moving on to the next is truly the worst. It's horrible. I need to stop and that's what I'm working on right now.

Solution: Honesty. I started talking to my kids about it because I can't just keep saying, "Well I can't read everything". They're at least as blunt as I am about it and I need that. Trying to come up with a way to get them involved with what I'm currently reading without giving them access to my Goodreads (because minors) and maybe even giving them control of my next read... that makes me cringe every time I think about it. Anyway, my goal is to read a mixture of new and fairly recent YA within my other reading habits. My additional goal is to make a significant dent in the unread LIH shelf. It became a back-burner TBR since they stopped publication of the imprint and I didn't have as much pressure to read through them. More recently, it's gotten annoying to the point I'm almost reading 3 a week (if I don't pause). Only just started, but I already finished 6 lol. It takes 3-4 hours to read through one -easy, right? Consistency is key, so my best is all I can offer.

Currently reading: The Dark Becomes Her by Judy L. Lin. Really liking it so far and I hope I'll be done by the weekend so I can post the review to NetGalley and Edelweiss. It comes out Oct 1st and I want to be able to be that Teen Librarian and boast my opinion of it fully -mwuahahaha.

Thank you for reading!

What are you reading? [OR] What are your goals for the rest of the year?

[astridofraftel]

reading challenge #11 (wrap-up)

Just finished: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Currently reading: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Next on schedule: The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

I just wanted to add for myself a little conclusion to the reading challenge I did last year! I went back to university, so I had a lot less time and motivation to read for the past six months. Because of that, I didn't achieve my goals in the end, but that's alright, I'm still very proud of all the dusting-off I did! My TBR pile is much more manageable now, so I will not be keeping up with this challenge in 2024 (I barely read anything not Percy Jackson-related since January, anyway).

So, if anyone is interested in random lists of books, in 2023 I checked off my program:

(FR) Le Prieuré de l'Oranger (The Priory of the Orange Tree) by Samantha Shannon

(FR) La voleuse de livres (The Book Thief) by Markus Zusak

(FR) L'École des femmes + Le Misanthrope by Molière

(EN) Babel, or the Necessity of Violence by R. F. Kuang

(EN) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

(EN) Daughter of Smoke and Bone + Days of Blood and Starlight + Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

(FR) Le Chien des Baskerville (The Hound of the Baskervilles) by Arthur Conan Doyle

(FR) Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola

(FR) Le symbole perdu (The Lost Symbol) by Dan Brown

(FR) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

(FR) Il était une fois dans le Nord (Once Upon A Time In The North) by Philip Pullman

(FR) Le Roi Lear (King Lear) by William Shakespeare

(EN) The Conqueror’s Saga (And I Darken + Now I Rise + Bright We Burn) by Kiersten White

(FR) Le Flambeau + Témoin à charge by Agatha Christie

(FR) Boudicca by Jean-Laurent Del Socorro

(FR) Fantômes et kimonos by Kidō Okamoto

(FR) Dans l'ombre de Paris by Morgan of Glencoe

For a total of 23 books out of my goal of 30 that I had owned for years and never read!

Which means that my TBR pile now amounts to these 12 books (I acquired the last 4 last year so they were not included in my program):

(FR) L'Ultime Expérience by Bruce Benamran

(FR) Cinna by Corneille

(FR) Othello by Shakespeare

(EN) Three Dark Crowns (re-read) + One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

(EN) Iskari, the Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli

(EN) The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen

(FR) Le complot des corbeaux by Ariel Holzl

(FR) La mythologie viking (North Mythology) by Neil Gaiman

(FR) La métamorphose by Franz Kafka

(EN) A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

(EN) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

In addition to all that, although disregarding anything fanfictitious, last year...

(and because I barely have any self-control when it comes to books)

...I also read these, which were not initially included in my program:

(EN) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

(EN) Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

(FR) Le château de Hurle (Howl’s moving castle) by Diana Wynne Jones

(EN) The Princess Diaries vol. 1 by Meg Cabot

(EN) Strange the dreamer + Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

(EN) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

(EN) Divergent vol. 1 by Veronica Roth

(EN) Legendborn + Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

(FR) Comme un vol d'étourneaux by Giorgio Parisi

(FR) Le meilleur des mondes (Brave New World) by Aldous Huxley

(EN) I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

(EN) Crooked House by Agatha Christie

(EN) Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

(FR) La guerre des clans (Warriors) - cycle I vol. 1-6 by Erin Hunter

(EN) Tallstar’s Revenge by Erin Hunter

(FR) Le mystère de Listerdale by Agatha Christie

After all these gruesome lists, I can finally put to rest my 2023 reading challenge. Maybe one day I'll renew it, but I probably won't have the time nor the energy to schedule my readings so seriously for the next two years. It's been very fun though, also it had been the first year in quite some time that I read that much in French, and I think it did me good.

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