seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Netherlands
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from Belgium
seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from Malaysia
seen from Hungary
seen from United States
seen from Indonesia
One of my major goals for 2023 was to get my physical TBR down to 10 books. This includes anything I pick up during the year from book shopping or preorders that come in. I read four books from this shelf this past month, but then today I literally went out and bought three. Whoops.
January 2023--15 books. February 2023--14 books. Net: -1 book.
I am not unfamiliar with the Westmorelands. Anyone who knows anything about category romance is at least aware of the existence of the Westmoreland series. But at some point I lost track of how far they’d spread, and how extensive the series had gotten. Brenda Jackson has been writing this series for half my life, and I have never picked one up. How had that happened?
So when I read a description of His Secret Son, I made a decision.
I was going to go back to the beginning, read Delaney’s Desert Sheikh, and make it to what would probably be number 35 by the time I made it back to the current day.
https://bookriot.com/2017/11/29/westmoreland-project/
Current State of the TBR--
The end of March update to the TBR Shelf. One of my major goals for 2023 is to reduce my physical TBR to 10 or fewer books. This is obviously not a huge task if we’re only looking at what’s currently on the shelf. But I bring in new books every single month thanks to purchases and preorders. So, it’s always a balancing act here. I did purchase books in the month of March, but almost all of them I actually read in March which works for this project... Just not a great choice all the time.
February 2023--14 books. March 2023--11 books. Net: -3 books.
I haven’t even finished my 40 Books Before 40 TBR and I’m already writing out a 50 before 50. Ugh. This is why we can't have nice things.
I really want my 50 before 50 TBR to be full of chunky, long tomes and series that are SFF and dense AF. I put so many quick and easy reads on my 40 before 40 TBR and I enjoyed most of them, but since I’ll have around 15 years between completing my 40 before 40 and needing to complete my 50 before 50 I really want to tackle some big books.
Book Review #60 of 2022--
The Humans by Matt Haig. Rating: 3 stars.
Read from May 19th to 20th.
Yet another book crossed off of my 40 Books to Read Before 40 TBR. I had heard so many great things about Matt Haig and about The Humans in particular. There was no choice but to put that one on the list. But I have to say that this story fell kind of flat for me. For those who don’t know, The Humans is a story about an alien sent to Earth in order to kill a mathematics professor who solved one of the most important equations of all time. As well, the alien transforms into the professor in order to find out who else knows this information and to get rid of them. I’ve heard it explained as a look at humanity from an outsider’s perspective. I’ve heard people say this one is funny. Overall, I thought it was unimaginative.
For me, a lot of the things the alien sees as deeply human are things that humanity already knows about itself. The things the alien over explains in the narrative include poetry, art, kindness, knowledge, simplicity, nature. It feels like it should be deeply moving and it wasn’t. It was also never funny for me personally. As I was reading, I could see the parts of the story that were supposed to be funny. But they weren’t. There was also inconsistencies as far as the alien’s knowledge of Earth and the different aspects of Earth culture. At first the alien doesn’t understand clothes or greetings, but a few pages later understands cops and cooperating with them and hospitals for mental patients. It was weird.
The best moments in the book were the dog (obviously) and the moments when the alien connected with the kid. Not as the kid’s father who died, but as an alien and a human that the alien has come to care about. I think the honesty about how different they are but how their feelings about each other still connected them was beautiful. I saw what the book was trying to do and at moments it really accomplished it. I just don’t think they were the moments the author intended. Will I read Matt Haig again? Maybe. I think the book was easy enough to get through, but the emotional impact wasn’t there.
Mid-Year Check In--
It’s the middle of the year and I thought I’d check in on one of my reading goals for 2021. I made a list of books I wanted to either read this year or decide they weren't for me and get them off of my TBR Shelf. Out of the eight books on the list, I’ve read 6 so far. Which puts me ahead of schedule for the year. I’m glad I’m finally reading some of my TBR Vets, but I wish I was enjoying this project more.
1. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi– Legacy of Orisha #1. 3 Stars.
2. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson– Fire and Thorns #1. 3.25 Stars.
3. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. DNF.
4. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence– Book of the Ancestor #1. 3 Stars.
5. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan– Girls of Paper and Fire #1. 2.5 Stars.
6. Strange Fire by Tommy Wallach– Anchor & Sophia #1. 2.25 Stars.
7. The Young World by Chris Weitz– The Young World #1.
8. Blood Red Road by Moira Young– Dust Lands #1.
40 Books Before 40 Project--
It’s time for the final update for the 40 Books Before 40 Project! I 100% cannot believe that this project is over. And so soon. That’s what happens when you hyper fixate and then get burnt out and can do nothing but read for 6 months. I will have the full list with the ratings down below as well as the overall average rating for the project.
40 Books Before 40 End of Year Update--
I’ve made some serious progress on this project this year. I only have 4 books left after DNF’ing The House on Infinity Loop. Under the cut will be the full list as well as the rating I’ve given for the ones I’ve read so far.
