Welcome to my 2021 Quarter One TBR. This list covers the months of January, February, and March 2021.
The Quarter's Goals are to read one book from each of the following:
Nonfiction | Western | Classic | Thriller | Romance | SciFi | Mystery | FantasyJanuary 10, 2021 Update: I found myself struggling to get into a reading mood during week one of January. I realized that picking up a physical book and devoting myself wholly to the reading experience just was not going to work for me right now. As a result, I am canceling Jane Austen for this quarter; Dracula doubles as my Classic selection. As I have started to read/listen to my #MonthlyMotifGXO selection, The Girl in Red, I quickly realized that although it is a Fairytale retelling fitting it into Fantasy: Fairytale, it also fits a couple other Genre: Subgenre classifications. Fairytale is a sub I often read, and thus why I won’t count it towards my Fantasy Quarter Read slot, but it slides into Horror: Quiet Horror and Science Fiction: Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic quite well. Because I have already selected Dracula because it doubles for two challenge slots, I’m going to count this towards my Science Fiction selection instead. This means I can cancel Divergent as well for this quarter.
This sounds like I’m quitting to me, or not challenging myself enough. But I’m reminding myself that my goal is not to read quantities, but quality. Intentional reading is more important to me this year than the numbers.
In addition, my Goodreads shelf had close to 1,050 books on it as of October 2020. I keep adding more to it. I started weeding out in October and quickly realized that weeding through it was a task unto itself. Look for an upcoming post on how I plan to tackle that!
Until next time, Keep Reading!!
January 1, 2021 Initial Plans: After selecting the quarter's 9 challenge books, only 3 of my genre goals were satisfied, Nonfiction, Romance: Suspense, and Fantasy: Magical Realism. There are 5 remaining genre goals to be split up amongst the months. With an out-of-state couple's vacation currently set for June, it looks like I need to find a way to include Horror during this quarter as well.
I have selected the following books, although I don't know yet which months they will be read in.
Classic - I've touched on this various places: The MC in this classic and I share a name. Like not just given name and nickname. As in first and last, although mine is spelled differently, but I am one of the 1,000+ women in the US with the famous lady's name. No, my parents didn't hate me to give me that name. It was all my fault for saying "I Do." Needless to say, I have never actually read Austen's work, although I have seen most of its adaptations. I f I can't get to it, I will use it for another quarter's goal as there are 3 other books in this list that double as a classic.
Horror - Imagine my relief when I realized that the Classic Dracula counts as Horror, although it is quite tame by our standards today. I can get through that.
Mystery - I really do love a mystery and I know I said that I wanted to pick books this year from my favorite genres that aren't my usual subgenre for my quarterly goals, but come on. My Goodreads TBR shelf has over 1,000 books on it. I need to knock some of these out at some point before I am no longer interested. Sherlock Holmes it is.
SciFi - Instead of searching down other SciFi books that I might be interested in reading, I went to the dystopian YA Divergent series. I've already seen the movies. Let's see if I prefer the book to the movies.
Thriller - I read quite a few Thriller & Suspense last year, getting back into the world of Brad Thor and related works, so I definitely wanted to hit a subgenre I rarely read. In this case, I selected Medical and remembered a Dollar Spin Rack book I had picked up years ago and never read so I pulled it out of the attic.
Western - Another book I had on hand, one of the Westerns of my grandmother's I couldn't bear to get rid of. I mean, it's Wyatt Earp for crying out loud.
Links to My Challenges
Uncorked Reading 2021 | Uncorked Reading 2020 | Monthly Motif GXO 2021
January
February
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Stats: 2016 | Pages: xxx | Female, POC | Fiction | Fiction | Literary: Cultural | New Adult
Goals: #UncorkedReading2021 - Book by a Contemporary Black Author
The Blue Fox by Sjón
Stats: 2003 | Pages: xxx | Male | Fiction | Fantasy: Mythic | Adult
Goals: #UncorkedReading2020 - Book Set In Iceland, Genre - Fantasy: Mythic
Pre-read Thoughts: GXOXO doesn't have book lists up for their monthly motifs yet, although looking through old pages for their 2020 challenge it is part of their habit to do so. I had to instead rely on the theme explanation: Read a relationship story, romance, comedy, or feel good contemporary. This led me to google the most obscure wording and came across several lists related to relationships and romance that included this title. Reading that Moriarty is the author of Big Little Lies, now a critically acclaimed HBO TV show with freaking movie stars in the lead roles. If that doesn't say a lot, I don't know what will. I personally couldn't get into it, but I think that was due to its premise and setting which were both foreign concepts to me. I am not a PTA mom.
March
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Stats: 2016 | Pages: xxx | Female | Fiction | Literary: Historical | Adult
Goals: #UncorkedReading2021 - Historical Novel Featuring Inspiring Women
The Warrior Maiden by Melanie Dickerson
Stats: 2019 | Pages: xxx | Female | Fiction | Fantasy: Fairy Tale | Adult
Goals: #UncorkedReading2020 - Popular Mulan Retelling
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
Stats: 2008 | Pages: xxx | Male | Fiction | Literary: Cultural | Adult
Goals: #MonthlyMotifGXO - Countries and Cultures
No comments:
Post a Comment