My 2022 Reading Year in Review

January 1, 2023January 1, 2023 meltotheanyAside17 Comments

happy new year, friends! i cant believe it is actually 2023. i know everyone says this, but it is because it is true – i truly feel like its 2019 still. 2023? i can’t wrap my mind around it! but i am sending you so much love and i hope this year is really safe and happy for you and your loved ones.

since september, i feel like i have really fallen back into organically picking up books and adding reading to my nighttime routine and its felt so good. i am tempted to make a goals post but i am always so scared to jinx happy things, which is also something i hope i can work on this year. but i would love to read more books this year (not that i am not extremely happy and proud of the 48 i was able to read) and i would love to make more bookish content again on here, and goodreads, and on bookstagram. lots of baby steps while also juggling kpop content and a life that can get pretty busy! the only other goal i have in terms of reading this year, is that i would love to read more anthologies and short story collections again. i have been thinking about it these last few weeks (maybe craving one?) but i miss it and i want to fix that!

also, i am sure most of you know, but holly black is dropping a new book from faerie in TWO days and then the final last hours books by cassie clare? january is gonna start off and end very happily, i think! so i am extra excited for january reading! and again, not to jinx anything, but i am just excited for this new year, new opportunities, and so many new stories.

but let’s get into some reading statistics and the yearly book stack picture tradition!

Thanks to the amazing Brock at Let’s Read, here are some 2022 reading statistics that I was able to gather from his amazing spreadsheet that I use every single year:

My Top Ten Favorite 2022 Publications:
➽ 10.) Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco
➽ 9.) Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
➽ 8.) Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
➽ 7.) Her Soul to Take (Souls Trilogy #1) by Harley Laroux
➽ 6.) Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
➽ 5.) Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
➽ 4.) The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
➽ 3.) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
➽ 2.) Misrule (Malice Duology #2) by Heather Walter
➽ 1.) Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang

okay, friends! happy new year! i really hope this new year is happy and healing for you. i hope you are able to be gentler on yourselves and more forgiving to yourselves as well. i am sending you and your loved ones my whole heart and i am wishing you so many blessings in this new year! and i hope so many stories make you feel seen and whole this year (and always)!

and thank you all for always being kind and being sweet friends while i have navigated these last few pandemic years. i know it’s still hard on everyone, but my blog has extra always felt so safe and happy and i appreciate all of your friendships more than you’ll ever know. also… please buddy read with me this year for extra happy motivations, hehe!

➽ My 2021 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2020 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2019 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2018 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2017 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2016 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2015 Reading Challenge

My 2021 Reading Year in Review

January 1, 2022January 1, 2022 meltotheanyAside15 Comments

happy new year, friends! i can’t believe we are entering a brand new year, because time just keeps feeling more and more fake! but these are always my favorite posts to make, and i hope you enjoy reading it.

okay, let’s rip the metaphorical band-aid off right away – so i have read less books in 2021 than i ever have before. i remember a month or so ago, thinking about how i might be disappointed with myself when writing up this post, but today when i was updating my goodreads and saw that i “only” read 33 books, i actually was okay. maybe even better than okay, and i don’t really know the answer to why! maybe *gasp* good mental health right now? maybe because i read a lot of books that i absolutely loved, and have some memories attached to some that enhance everything about the story itself? maybe because at end of the day (or year), 33 still feels like an impressive number compared to what i felt like that i read with the lack of pressure and expectations i put on myself while leaving 2020.

2020 was a really hard year for everyone, but i think i left that year with just not wanting to put any extra pressure or expectations on myself in all regards, and that very much impacted my reading this year. i wanted to just throw myself creatively in other new places things that were bringing me happiness instead of reclaiming spaces and remembering my worth.

if i have one goal in 2022 it really is to stop being so hard on myself. i really am my own worst critic in every aspect of my life, and i just want to be braver in this new year, and trust in myself that everything will work out and be okay. because i honestly proved to myself in 2021 that everything was okay and that i was okay. (i mean, despite the very loud and obvious and still scary state of our world right now.) i still feel like i’m still struggling to find my place among book stuff again, but i know everything is a process, and i think pushing myself a little more in 2022 will be a really good thing for me and my reading! but i do find myself ✨ organically ✨ craving to read like before again, and i hope i am able to find that good balance and talk about it in 2022’s reading year in review. but first let’s look back at 2021, everything that i was able to read (and my favorites), and some cool reading graphs!

Thanks to the amazing Brock at Let’s Read, here are some 2021 reading statistics that I was able to gather from his amazing spreadsheet that I use every single year:

My Top Ten Favorite 2021 Publications:
➽ 10.) Vespertine Margaret Rogerson
➽ 9.) Chain of Iron (The Last Hours, #2) by Cassandra Clare
➽ 8.) We Free the Stars Hafsah Faizal
➽ 7.) Honey Girl Morgan Rogers
➽ 6.) Ace of Spades Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
➽ 5.) One Last Stop Casey McQuiston
➽ 4.) Yolk Mary H.K. Choi
➽ 3.) The Anthropocene Reviewed John Green
➽ 2.) Iron Widow Xiran Jay Zhao
➽ 1.) She Who Became the Sun Shelley Parker-Chan

okay, friends! happy new year – i am sending you and your families love, luck, good health, and so much warmth in 2022 and always. i miss you all so much, and i hope that 2021 was gentle on you and that you were gentle on yourselves, too! i also absolutely cannot wait to read all of your end of year favorites posts and give my tbr a lot of love based on your book recommendations! i’m thankful for you all always, and i love you.

➽ My 2020 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2019 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2018 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2017 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2016 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2015 Reading Challenge

January 2021 Wrap Up

January 31, 2021January 29, 2021 meltotheanyAside20 Comments

How we are already a month into this new year, I’ll never know! But hello, friends! I hope you are doing well! As you are reading this, I am in the middle of redoing my room! I figured, if I (very privilege-ly) have to work from home for another six months, I’m going to make my space feel a little more lighter, brighter, and separated! But my mind has been hyper focusing on getting everything ready (and everything collecting in my garage) for the entire month of January! This is my very long-winded intro to tell you that I “only” read five and a half books this start of 2021, but I’m still very happy with that, and excited to tell you all about those five and a half things…. now! ❤️📖

➽ Lore by Alexandra Bracken ★ ★ ★

“and to believe that you deserve a good life.”

– greek gods abandoned by zeus
– a citywide hunger games every seven years to take the gods’ power
– perseus bloodline mc trying to get revenge for the brutal murder of her family

➽ Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“the year that will make all the blood, sweat, and tears worthwhile”

– thriller where the only 2 Black students at a private academy are being targeted
– unpacking all the racist systems still thriving today
– very gay & very perfect

➽ Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell ★ ★ ★ ★

“For almost the past year I’ve been in love with a girl named Laura Dean”

– Asian-American lesbian
– writing to an online advice column about her abusive relationship
– wanting to be a good friend, even though sometimes life (and mental health) can make it hard

➽ From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout ★ ★ ★ ★

“From this moment until the last moment, I am yours.”

– chosen maiden for the gods, but vampires may have other plans
– very sex positive & a very good look at exploring different wants
– angst & yearning on every page

➽ A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (Blood and Ash #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout ★ ★ ★

“He was the first thing I’d ever truly chosen for myself.”

– not nearly as good as book one & so much set up
– but more gods & new secrets
– maybe some polyamory rep in the next book, but maybe just baiting me

➽ Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers – currently reading: 143/296

“If you’re out there, Honey Girl, I am singing you a song. It’s a good song. It won’t lure you to the depths of the ocean. It’s a song that leads you just to me, I think, if you’re listening.”

– so freaking romantic I am actually losing my mind
– fake marriage between two people from different coasts one weekend away in vegas, but they can reconnect over a spooky radio show
– sapphic swooning, yearning, perfect, romance between our Black mc and her Asian love interest
– BIPOC in STEM and the extra expectations placed
– found family that I would literally die for
– will 100% make my best of 2021 (and probably best debut of 2021 too)
– I promise to talk about WAY more very soon & honestly probably never shut up about it.

I’m sorry this is a little rushed with the mini points; it’s something I’m trying to incorporate on other social media platforms, and I thought it might be cool (and easier) to do for these wraps ups too! But you can always click the titles for a full review (hopefully)! Also, I really do promise to gush a whole lot about Honey Girl because it really is everything, and I know that everyone is going to be so in love with it when it drops! I really hope you all put it on your February TBRs! Okay, friends, I love you so much! Let me know what was your favorite book of January! And I’m sending you so much love, always and forever. ✨