A detailed look at last week’s reading habits: four new books read (one from my Up Next shelf), three new books I want to read centring strong women and explore women’s roles in systems of oppression, a change in my Up Next Shelf progress report and my 2020 reading goal and two new books I can’t wait to start reading!
Updates
| Last Week’s Blog Updates | Last Week’s Goodreads Reviews |
|---|---|
| 📖 Weekly Wrap: November 9th to November 15th 📖 Heartbreaking and Moving: Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano 📖 Gut-wrenching and Healing: The Cabin by Jasinda Wilder | 📚 Raster City Rebel by Jen Ponce 📚 Beauty Tempts the Beast by MINK |
Contents
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Weekly Review
What I’ve Read This Week
Key: 🔁 re-read| ❌ DNF | 📜 from my Up Next shelf | 📲 eARC
- How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi 📜 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Raster City Rebel (Raster City, #1) by Jen Ponce ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Raster City Rogues (Raster City, #2) by Jen Ponce ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Beauty Tempts the Beast by MINK ⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Reading Progress
The biggest news from last week is that I finally decided to edit my reading goal, lowering it down to a goal of 365 books to read by the year’s end. I talked awhile back about how my lack of interest in reading (compared to last year) since March has translated into a significantly smaller amount of books read. However, this realization has been a reminder that it’s not about how many books I read by about the joy I get from reading.
One book I read last week that I want to discuss is Raster City Rebel by Jen Ponce. It’s an urban fantasy, reverse harem romance that was unique and fun. However, my interest in the trilogy waned after the second book.
I also reviewed two books connected by the theme: Learning to Love Again After Tragedy. The two books review, Dear Edward by Ana Napolitano (read my review here) and The Cabin Jasinda Wilder (read my review here), addresses the loss of both familial as well as romantic love.
Both books were character-driven and excellently executed the restorative journey of coming to terms with such loss and opening up again to love. However, Dear Edward‘s characterization of 12-year-old Edward and friendship with his neighbour, 12-year-old Shay, made the book a 5-star read. While Dear Edward was heartbreaking, it was also moving and rewarding.
Up Next Shelf Progress
A reminder: my Up Next Shelf is comprised of all the unread books I want to read and have purchased.
I’m changing up my progress from a simple percentage complete to a line graph (see left) because a percentage doesn’t acknowledge how both the number of books read and the total books on the shelf fluctuate.
– Total Books is the total number of books still waiting to be read on my Up Next Shelf. It’s important to recognize that when I finish a book, that book is immediately deducted from the total, meaning the total value decreases. It’s important because while the weeks of Nov 2-8 and Nov 9-15 look like my total books value hasn’t changed, it actually shows that I added a new book to my Up Next Shelf during the Week of Nov 9-15.
– Books Read is the number of books I’ve read from my Up Next Shelf in that week. The values are negative because finishing a book from the Shelf decreases the total value. Therefore, when looking at the Overall graph (the yellow line), you can see when the line is 0, the books I read and added cancel each other out. This week (Nov 16-22), the Overall value is below the 0-line, demonstrating that I didn’t add any new books to my Up Next Shelf, but I did finish a book from the Shelf.
Want to Read Updates
You will like White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad if you appreciate:
✨ Unpack white feminism: a tool of white supremacy and the patriarchy
✨ Antiracist feminism
✨ Social justice
✨ Cultural criticism
You will like The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson if you appreciate:
✨ Science Fiction
✨ Multiverse travel adventure
✨ Exploration of identity and privilege
✨ Bisexual Main Character
The Upcoming Week
To Be Read
The past week was another slow reading week. I realized this week that I have quite a few post-graduate applications to start sending off! As a result, my frequency of reviews (and other book posts) might decline a bit. Also, my to-be-read list is the same as last week, minus one book:
- Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
- Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
- Seven Ways to Kill A King by Melissa Wright
To Look Forward To This Week
Pre-order the book: 🇨🇦
I’ve been reading the teaser posts to The Champion’s Ruin on Kristen Banet’s Facebook page this past week, and I’m so excited to start reading the book when it releases this Tuesday, November 24th. Mave is one of the most badass heroines I’ve read and has such a great character development arc–her harem of husbands also doesn’t hurt 😉. If you like high fantasy novels with amazing world-building and strong characters, I highly recommend the Age of the Andinna series.
I’m also so excited to read A Promised Land by Barack Obama. His book just arrived today, so I might start reading it this week, depending on my time.
Finally, I’ve noticed a desire for book recommendations that are similar to a specific novel. As such, I’ve decided to start a recommendation category titled Readalike that will offer books similar to a specific title and detail how they are alike.
If you have any novels that you think I should prioritize, please leave a comment or send me a message on my Contact Me page (see here).
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