Hello, bookish friends! Whew - I am so glad last week is over. Here’s a quick post because it’s legitimately all I have the energy for (it was a long week at work, can you tell? haha - I’ve legitimately slept over 12 hours in the last day trying to make up for it).
As y’all can probably tell, I am very much a mood reader. Which means my reading is varied and unpredictable (probably the only aspect of my life I can say either about). What that also means, though, is sometimes I’ll put down a book I’m enjoying or know I would enjoy if I wasn’t trying to read it in that particular moment, and then I take a while to return to it, though I normally do.
So, here are 13 books I’ve started and hope to finish before 2023 (provided the mood strikes):
White Teeth by Zadie Smith - Check no further than here to discover my absolute hero worship of Zadie Smith. Which is why I know it was 100% me last year when I wasn’t completely immersed in White Teeth. My mental health was a roller coaster last year, and I’m pretty sure I picked this up at a time where the only books I truly wanted to read were familiar, comfort reads, and this just happened not to fit the bill. But, since Zadie Smith can do no wrong, I’m sure the next time I pick it up, it will be as incredible a reading experience as Swing Time was. I can’t wait!
What Happened by Hillary Clinton - Okay, this one might take a bit longer to be able to finish. I don’t know when I’ll be able to think about the 2016 - 2020 era without a mix of fear, anger, and devastation, but I’ll keep you updated. I legitimately cried by page 7 of this book, and I realized I needed a bit more time and space between myself and the Trump presidency before I could really start reading about it more in depth.
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers - I picked up this book for the Women’s Prize last year and I was loving it! I’m not quite sure why I set it down, but I hope to pick it up again soon.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi - Dr. Kendi is another author that I will instantly purchase a book from because I know it will be incredible. Unfortunately, I started reading this while I was studying for the bar exam, and honestly, my brain just couldn’t handle reading a book so fact and history intensive. I want to learn everything I can from the works of Dr. Kendi, and I was not in a place where I would be able to when I first picked this up.
All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny - If you’ve read my review of The Madness of Crowds, you’ll know two things: one, that I am a Louise Penny fangirl, and two, the book preceding The Madness of Crowds made me question whether I was, in fact, a Louise Penny fangirl. When I first picked this up, we were at the height of the pandemic, and the family dynamics of this book just were too stressful for me. I also didn’t like that it wasn’t based in Three Pines, because (as we’ve already established), I wanted comfort from my pandemic reads, and what is more comfortable than Three Pines? But I want to give this book another chance, because I know I wasn’t in the right mood for it before, and I do absolutely adore Penny. Hoping second time is the charm!
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo - Remember how I mentioned studying for the bar exam was not a good time for me in the book department? Well, silly me, I decided to pick up this masterpiece the day I found out the bar exam was postponed for the first time (but not the last time), all thanks to Covid. I was a bit tipsy, and absolutely obsessed with Evaristo’s writing from the first page. I just wasn’t thinking about how, after that afternoon/evening break I was giving myself, life was going to get a whole lot more stressful before it ever calmed down - and this is a book that I want to have my full attention.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - BAR EXAM SHIT POST part a million! So, like multiple other books on this list, my plans for reading this book were derailed by the 2020 bar exam (an experience so traumatic, I still haven’t fully processed it). My book club was reading this for a gathering that happened the weekend before the bar exam took place. I don’t know what naive version of me ever expected to be fit to be around other humans by that point in the process, but let me tell you…I. Was. Not. The first part of it though was soooo good, and I can’t wait to dive back in.
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers - I started reading this book right around the time I started working, and I just didn’t have the time or mental energy to devote to a book so rich in detail and engrossing prose.
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat - I started reading this book with an online book club, though I’d originally purchased it last year when it was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. I was absolutely loving it, but I fell behind on the suggested reading schedule for the book club and then got overwhelmed by the fact that I fell behind haha. It’s definitely one I’ll be picking up sooner rather than later, though.
Despised and Rejected by Rose Allatini - This is the first Persephone book I picked up and one of the first books I posted as part of my #littleliterarymorning posts, over on my Instagram. I can’t remember exactly why I put it down (not that I always have a reason), but it’s a book I carry with me constantly in the hopes that I have the opportunity to pick it up, even just for a few moments.
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid - Need I say more than this book is by the same author as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo? I think not.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - I’ve tried to give Russian literature another chance after an absolutely horrible experience with Crime and Punishment in my 12th grade English class. And I really have liked War and Peace so far. But I’ve found that I process it better when I read it in small sections. And this book is wayyyy too long to make significant progress in in small bursts.
Middlemarch by George Eliot - When I first started this book, I was absolutely obsessed. But it was right at the beginning of the pandemic, and my brain really struggled to focus on anything for too long a time during that period. Thus, why, two years later, I still think fondly of it, even though it remains unfinished on my neverending TBR.
Have you read any of these? Which should I jump back into first? Share your thoughts below!
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