March Wrap Up & April TBR | 2020

Books I Read in March

1. Inferno: New Tales of Terror by Ellen Datlow ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2. The Other People by C.J. Tudor ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
3. From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. Radicalized by Cory Doctorow ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
7. Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
9. The Raven Boys by Maggie Steivwater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
10. The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
11. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
12. Men Explain Things to Me by Revecca Solnit ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
13. Home by Nnedi Okorafor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
14. Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
15. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen MAria Machado ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
16. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
17. The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
18. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
19. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
20. I Crawl Through it by A.S. King ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
21. Female Husbands by Jen Manion ⭐️⭐️ (DNF at 46%)

This wasn’t a bad month. The ratings aren’t bad, but that makes me wonder if I’ve been too generous with my ratings. The lowest rating was 2 star, but that was a DNF. The next lowest was six 3.5 star books. Then I had eight 4 star books. That leaves two 4.5 star books and four 5 star books. That means ~6 exceptional books. All in all though the month still feels mediocre, so I might need to stop with the 3.5 star books. I’ve been using my rating scale, and most of these ratings are pretty fixed, meaning, slight changes in one area don’t usually change the rating. I still prefer that approach.

April TBR

1. Still: A Memoir by Emma Hansen
2. Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
3. The Apartment by K.L. Slater
4. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
5. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
6. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
7. The Majesty of Law by Sandra Day O’Connor
8. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
9. Welcome to Nightvale by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
10. Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard
11. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
12. Animal Farm by George Orwell
13. Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman
14. My Real Children by Jo Walton
15. Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
16. The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell

Provided by NetGalley and/or publisher for a fair and honest review.

I fell behind and didn’t read all the review books I was given last month, so I need to read those first thing this month. I will say, eight days into the month, I have had a very slow start. That said, I am aiming for smaller TBRs. My goal is 15 books a month, then if I have time I will fit in others. I am planning a few readathons where I want to read other books. Although, I will reassess my progress when they arrive. If you are wondering which readathons I will be doing it is Dewy’s 24 hour readathon and the intermediate reading rush. Next Month, I may be even more conservative and go with 10 books for my TBR then leave a big gap for other readathons or booktube ideas.

February Wrap Up & March TBR | 2020

Books I Read in February

1. The Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
2. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
3. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Blackathon Cont. Challenge) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
4. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Reread) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
5. Beloved by Toni Morrison (Blackathon Scifi Challenge) ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
6. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
7. Not That Bad edited by Roxane Gay ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
8. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
9. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
10. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Blackathon Cont. Challenge) ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
11. Heavy by Kiese Laymon (Blackathon Cont. Challenge) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
12. Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (Blackathon Scifi Challenge) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
13. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Blackathon Scifi Challenge) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
14. Lagurdia by Nnedi Okorafor (Blackathon Scifi Challenge) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
15. Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou ⭐️⭐️⭐️
16. March by John Lewis et al. ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
17. The Color Purple by Alice Walker ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
18. Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

This was a great month, I enjoyed all the books I read with a few that were a little disappointing. However, there was a large fraction of 4-5 star books which prove it was an objectively good month of quality reading. If you look back on my February TBR post, you’ll see another ~5 books or so that I wanted to read, and it is disappointing that I wasn’t able to read all of them. Moving forward, I am going to try and take it a bit easier on my plans because I don’t like stressing about the books I want to read. This is meant to be fun.

March TBR

1. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
2. Still: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Motherhood by Emma Hansen*
3. Female Husbands by Jen Manion
4. Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
5. The Other People by C.J. Tudor
6. The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
7. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
8. Her Bodies and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
9. Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
10. I Crawl Through It by A.S. King
11. Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
12. The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel
13. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman 
14. Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
15. Inferno by Ellen Datlow (Backlist readathon)
16. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Backlist readathon)
17. Wenjack by Joseph Boyden (Backlist readathon)

Provided by NetGalley and publisher for a fair and honest review.

*Provided directly by publisher, 

This month, I have several e-arcs that I want to tackle before they are published. I’m also doing a reading challenge of 5 more books (to be released), but I still made this list with the intent of being more conservative. The total number of books I’m aiming to read are ~20 books, but many of them are very short. After this month, I am going to try very hard to read even less. I want to feel a bit less pressure to read so I can spend more time writing my blog posts and doing YouTube videos. I have fallen behind on my blog.

January Wrap up & February TBR | 2020

Books I Read in January

1. Miracle Creek by Angie Kim ½
2. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald 
3. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant 
4. Robin by Dave Itzkoff ½
5. Scythe by Neal Shusterman 
6. Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin ½
7. Underland by Robert Macfarlane 
8. How We Know What Isn’t So by Thomas Gilovich 
9. If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t) by Betty White ½
10. Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman 
11. The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould 
12. The Road by Cormac McCarthy 
13. Strange Exit by Parker Peevyhouse ½
14. Yes Please by Amy Poehler 
15. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi ½
16. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 
17. In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire ½
18. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 
19. Wilder Girls by Rory Power 
20. Something Deeply Hidden by Sean Carroll 
21. The Girl from Nowhere by Eliska Tanszer ½

Provided by NetGalley and publisher for a fair and honest review.

This was a great month, but I was worried. I started off slow while I traveled. Then I got the flu for a week. January AYearAthon really saved me (getting me back in the pattern of reading). I think I had a pretty good spread of books. If you saw my 2020 ongoing post, you’ll know I am trying a new rating scheme, and I think it is helping me rate books more concisely. I really like thinking about each piece of it as I think about the score it deserves.
Now, I did DNF two books this month, Underland and The God of Small things. I am still counting them because I was over 70% through them; it was enough. This is another sign of a good start to the year because I can really struggle to DNF a book I am not enjoying or getting into. On top of that, I hit 500 likes on my blog, so exciting! I also started Josh’s Bookish Voyage, my new Booktube channel. I talk all about that in my 2020 reading log as well.

February TBR

1. The Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson
2. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
3. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Blackathon Cont. Challenge)
4. Beloved by Toni Morrison (Blackathon Scifi Challenge)
5. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
6. Not that Bad edited by Roxane Gay
7. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
8. Joplin’s Ghost by Tananarive Due
9. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
10. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle
11. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
12. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Blackathon Cont. Challenge)
13. Heavy by Kiese Laymon (Blackathon Cont. Challenge)
14. Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (Blackathon Scifi Challenge)
15. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Blackathon Scifi Challenge)
16. Lagurdia by Nnedi Okorafor (Blackathon Scifi Challenge)
17. Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou
18. March by John Lewis et al.
19. Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories by Jean Humez
20. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

You can hear all my thoughts in my video above, but these are the books I am reading this month. I didn’t mention The Color Purple in the video because I ordered it and forgot to mention it. I have made a very ambitious goal this month, especially since it is a short month. Of course, it is Black History Month. I talk all about that in my video and how I am participating in #Blackathon2020. Check out the link to learn more. In doing that, there are some challenges I will be completing. I am identifying as team science fiction; I’ve marked the books I am reading for that in red above. However, I am reading enough books to satisfy some of the contemporary team (Cont.) which I’ve marked in blue. I will be one short sadly.

I’m aiming for 3 audiobooks a week which I think is my normal speed. On top of that, I will be completing the Blackathon book-tag and Instagram challenge where I am going to plug seven books. I’ve decided to treat that like a week long “readathon” where I will try to read these all over the course of one week. I will be doing it the week before the actual Instagram challenge due to personal things.

That comes out to 9 audiobooks (3 weeks) plus 7 for the “Readathon” week. That comes to 16 audiobooks (the exact number of audiobooks I have above). My physical reading assumes I can finish each book with reading on the bus plus a bit of personal time. If I don’t complete a book, that is really where it is most likely to happen. However, I only have two real books with two comics to enjoy. If you want to hear more about my thoughts for each book, check out my YouTube video above!

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Reading Update & January TBR

Books I Read in December

1. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang ★★★★☆
2. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood ★★★☆☆
3. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz ★★★★★
4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tart ★★★★☆
5. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★
6. Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire ★★★★★
7. Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King ★★★★☆
8. An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim ★★★★☆
9. The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand ★★★☆☆
10. Mr. Dickens and his Carol by Samantha Silva ★★★☆☆
11. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ★★★★★
12. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy ★★★★☆
13. How I Broke Up With My Colon by Nick Seluk ★★★☆☆
14. Everything My Mother Taught Me* by Alice Hoffman ★★★★☆
15. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly ★★★★☆
16. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker ★★★★☆
17. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams ★★★★☆
18. Gone Girl by Gillian Glynn ★★★★★
19. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ★★★☆☆
20. Kindred by Octavia Butler ★★★★★

*Short story, not a book

Provided by NetGalley and publisher for a fair and honest review.

This month has been busy as hell. I’ve heard people talk about the holidays being a rough time to read, and it really is. I got must of the books I was planning to read. The books I struggled with were mostly during the readathon which was just bad timing. It was my first readathon not finishing everything on my TBR. I finished Before the Coffee Gets Cold after it ended, but I DNFed Watership Down. That was not out of dislike; I was short on time and it wasn’t working. I want to return to it after some time has passed.

I still struggled after the readathon. Traveling makes it harder to read due to time and routine. Reading is very much about the pattern I’ve taught myself, and it is harder to stick to that when I am doing things so sporadically.

Nevertheless, I completed 19 books, and one short story. That isn’t as much as November, but it is still a great amount! This month I learned about NetGalley, and I’ve got 6 or so books lined up that I need to read. I don’t include those here because I am more casual with my ebook/physical reading than my audiobook TBR. I think it will help me read more because I have the NetGalley Deadlines to work with. It is also getting me to explore new releases so I have a better idea of what is coming out. In doing so, I get to start trying books entirely on promotion without the bias of external review. Comments on books aren’t bad, but I like the idea of trying a few without too much info. Ideally, this will also set me up to win e-ARCs for bigger books that I have heard of.

A lot of people give stats at the end of each month. I haven’t done that this year, but I will be doing an end of year stats post. Then moving forward, I intend to provide monthly stats as well.

January TBR

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1. Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
2. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
3. In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
4. The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
5. Fall on Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald
6. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
7. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
8. Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
9. The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith
10. Wilder Girls by Rory Power
11. Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane
12. The Power by Naomi Alderman

It’s a new month, a new year, and a new decade! I don’t know if my new found reading habit will last the entire decade, but I am going to continue until I can’t. I am in grad school. Sometimes will be busier than others; the most important thing for me, is that I don’t let that stop me from reading when I can. However, I think this is like riding a bike. I may stop for a while, but I figured out how to do an ambitious reading routine before. I can do it again!

This year, I have a goal of 100 books on Goodreads. If I keep up my pattern of 15-20 books a month, then I should be able to do that easily, even if I have slow months where I am busy. This month, I had my wonderful partner help me select (~half) my TBR for the month. She choose the right 5 books off my TBR shelf. Then I choose another 5 or so I wanted to read too. I just thought it would be really fun! Of course, this idea comes from the delightful Books and Lala.

I decided to make it only 5 books because there are still a lot of books I really really want to read. This is just to help me get to books I am only moderately excited for (but still excited!). I decided my TBR in mid December before I left my home to visit family for the holidays. I’ve gotten a lot of new books. Some of them I just can’t wait for! So, I’ve adjusted the TBR slightly from I posted on Instagram. I hopefully will be able to read all these, but I moved The Power down the list because it is a book I am okay postponing in place of my new ones.

I am very particular with what I want to read because I am planning long term. I intend to devote my reading in black history month to black history. That will be primarily black writers (with one exception). So that leaves anything I don’t read this month to March, and that may be a month of only women since it is international women’s month (I haven’t decided if I will make a month long thing).

I may or may not read Underland. I really want to read it, and if I don’t do it this month it may be April before I can read it. I will still aim to read the Power, but it would also fit in Women’s month. One thing is for sure, I will be dropping one of those last three.

Look for my end of year update and stats! Also keep an eye out for my January Readathon.