Reading, Writing, and Me

It's that time of year when reading goals are met or abandoned, and we all spend the liminal week between Christmas and New Years curled up with a book trying to escape the cold. Or, at least, that's what I do. This weekend, I'll compile all my  reading stats into an annual reading report blog post, I figured that I'd start off by celebrating my favorite books of 2022. While I'll have to choose an ultimate favorite in a few days, all my 5 star reads deserve a little bit of love. I was surprised by how few 5 star reads I had this year (I'll have to check if it's lower than in year's past), and the categories reflected look very very different than any year before now. So without further ado, here's the YA, fiction, and nonfiction favorites that have stuck with me all year long.  YA Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie Why It's 5 Stars: Being many years removed from high school and honestly not ever having had much of a high school  experience , it t

Severance  by Ling Ma TW: Pandemic Buy Severance via Bookshop!   This is an affiliate link which means I may receive a small commission from your purchase at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting the blog! If you enjoyed this book or want something with a super similar feel in the YA world check out This Is Not a Test  by Courtney Summers. Overview: A pandemic has hit New York and the rest of the world. A fungal infection that leaves people stuck in a loop, repeating familiar daily tasks until they ultimately degenerate. It starts as a whisper of something like West Nile virus before it ravages entire continent with an uncontrollable spread–not that it seems like much of anyone tried to stop it. Candace is one of the last survivors in New York who hasn't become Fevered, and she runs a photo blog with dispatches about a crumbling New York. Eventually, even Candace has to leave, linking up with a rouge group of survivors who could mean salvation or devastation. The story of the En

Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead  by Emily Austin Buy Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead via Bookshop! This is an affiliate link which means I may receive a small commission from your purchase at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting the blog! TW: depression, suicidal thoughts, alcoholism, mentions of possible self harm Overview: Gilda has been depressed since she was 11. She's also fairly anxious. She thinks about death quite frequently. Her dishes are piled up in her sink, and she lost her job at the bookstore because she couldn't bring herself to get out of bed. She also frequents the emergency room quite often for a variety of ailments from broken arms and cuts to near constant panic attacks. Trying to find free therapy, she accidentally stumbles into a Catholic Church that thinks she's there to be the new receptionist. So atheist, Lesbian Gilda takes on a new character to accept the job which leads to plenty of hijinks. Overall: 3.5 This is the per

The Idiot   by Elif Batuman  Buy The Idiot via Bookshop!  This is an affiliate link which means I may receive a small commission from your purchase at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting the blog! Overview: Selin starts her freshman year at Harvard in 1995. She's coming from New Jersey, which isn't too far, but she doesn't know all that will be in store for her in Boston. The story follows, in great detail, her freshman year navigating new classes, deciding on a focus of study, making friends, negotiating roommate conflicts, and falling into an entanglement of sorts primarily via email, which is still new and exciting and confusing. The second half of the book sees Selin going abroad to visit France with a friend, go to Hungry to teach English in a village, and Turkey to see family which greatly alters her worldview. Slow progressing, much like real life, the book plods on capturing minute details and feelings in a way that ultimately builds out a compelling inner worl

It's officially winter break, I'm back home all cozy watching the snow fall outside, and I'm ready to fill my days with endless reading. I've been reunited with my very favorite library, so I'm definitely making the most of it. I placed an absurd number of holds, but this list just features the first 9 that came in. I'm not sure where to dive in first, but I'm so excited to catch up on reading again and get up to date with this new world of books written for adults that I'm finally finding my place in. I have those giddy feelings of when I first aged into YA and it suddenly felt like a whole new world had opened up all over again.  The Idiot  by Elif Batuman  I  picked up this book for the first time over the summer from the library. I got through about 100 pages  before I had to return it, and I felt relatively indifferent. But after rereading Sally Rooney this fall and connecting with it in a way I never had before, I figured it was worth picking this

Built to Last  by Erin Hahn Overview: Shelby left Hollywood in the midst of a bad break-up as a disgraced child star. Cameron left to go to college and later to travel the world with National Geographic, running far away from their past. It's TV that brings the former co-stars back together again too, this time in Michigan for a reality show. Shelby has made a new life for herself refurbishing furniture and working with her dad's construction company, and she pitches a pilot renovation show to cover his future retirement. When the show needs a little more chemistry, it's obviously Cameron that has to fill those shoes. Given a second chance at romance and returning to their roots, this is an incredibly sweet renovation love story. Overall: 4 Characters: 4 I really love how all of the characters in this book are allowed to be shown in their full dimensions. From flashbacks to when they were younger to long conversations with friends and family, we get to see who Cameron and S

Happy December everyone! How is it already the last month of the year? I haven't written a wrap up in a very long time, but since I got more into blogging in November again, I figured I'd revisit the old tradition. It's hard to believe that this corner of the Internet has been mine for almost seven years. Seven years. And yet here I still am. I definitely took some major breaks from blogging this year and over the last few years. I've thought about closing the door on Reading, Writing, and Me so many times. But I always come back eventually, and I love that I've always had this anchor here no matter where the current moment is taking me.  I have plans to write a post soon about getting back into reading and what's changed in my life that's made reading and thereby blogging more of a priority. I'm glad I'm finally finding the joy in blogging again, though, because for a long time, even if I did finish a book or two, I didn't want to write about it