My 2021 Reading & Blogging Goals: Year-End Wrap-Up

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It’s that time of year when I like to reflect on the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year and see how I did.  Some of my goals this year were repeats of goals from prior year, while others were new this year.  A few were also ways of challenging myself without officially participating in any challenges aside from the Goodreads challenge. So…how did I do?

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1) My number one goal was to read more of the books on my own shelves. I set a goal for myself of 60 books I already owned and at the end of 2020, I posted a MASTER LIST of pre-2021 books I own that I was hoping to put a dent in this year.  Being the mood reader that I am, I only ended up reading 29 books from that list.  That master list part of my goal was somewhat of a fail, but overall I crushed the goal because I actually did end up reading 78 pre-2021 books I already owned.

 

2) My second goal was to only participate in blog tours where I had already requested review books.  I hardly participated in blog tours at all this year and the ones I did were definitely for books where I actually had ARCs, so this goal was a success.

 

3) Goal #3 was to address my long-time struggle to finish book series. My goal was to finish more series and to finally start some series that have been sitting on my shelf for a while.  Below is my original list and I’ve crossed out all the series I actually completed.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Series I Want to Finish or Get Caught Up On: 

  • The Nevernight Chronicle (1 book left)
  • An Ember in the Ashes (2 books left)
  • Arc of a Scythe (1 book left)
  • Red Winter (2 books left)
  • The Wrath and the Dawn (1 book left)
  • Legacy of Orisha (ongoing series, but I’m one book behind)
  • Cursebreakers (1 book left)
  • The Mortal Instruments (3 books left)

Series I Want to Start:

  • Daughter of Smoke and Bone
  • City of Brass
  • Legend

 

4) Goal #4 was to continue to work on my Bookstagram account — to work on posting more consistently, taking better photos, and on interacting more on the platform.  I started out doing pretty well with this but then fell apart after my son got sick and work got even more short-staffed than we’ve always been.  Bookstagram was just one too many things to keep track of.  I also lost a lot of followers when I stopped posting consistently, so I didn’t grow my account at all. Overall, a fail.

 

5) Goal #5 was to re-read more.  Below is the list I posted and how I did.  I had set a personal goal of 1 re-read a month so although I did actually re-read a few this year, the goal was still a fail.

  • The Night Circus – actually started to re-read and lost interest, so DNF’ed 🙁
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Rebecca
  • Children of Blood and Bone
  • Red Winter
  • The Chronicles of Narnia (7 books) – As of 12/29, I’ve re-read only the first book.
  • The Wrath and the Dawn

 

6) Goal #6 was to try to keep my Netgalley percentage at 85% or above all year.  I kicked butt on this goal and actually stayed at 90% or above pretty much the entire year.  As of 12/29, I’m at 91%.

 

7) Goal #7 was to read more Nonfiction.  I usually only read 1 or 2 nonfiction books a year, so I had set a personal goal of 1 nonfiction book per month.  Below is my list and I marked through all of the books I managed to read.  I clearly didn’t reach my goal of one a month, but I did read several more than I usually do and one of those was Hamilton which is 818 pages long so I’m somewhat happy with my progress here.

  • A Promised Land by Barack Obama
  • The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
  • My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris
  • Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
  • Hamilton by Ron Chernow (I started this in 2020 but haven’t finished it yet).
  • What Unites Us by Dan Rather
  • We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win WWII by Liza Mundy
  • D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win WWII by Sarah Rose
  • A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII by Sonia Purnell
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • Untamed by Glennon Doyle

 

8) Goal #8 was to get more organized. LOLOLOL.  Yeah, that didn’t happen. Better luck next year.

 

9) Goal #9 was to have some guest posting on my blog and this one was definitely a success since my bff Sharon has been posting her Thriller Thursday posts all year. I’m hoping she’ll stay on board in 2022 and continue sharing her thoughts on those mysteries and psychological thrillers.

 

10) Goal #10 was just my Goodreads Challenge and I crushed that goal as well.  I had set a goal of 150 and as of December 28th, I’ve actually finished reading 210 books. Woo Hoo!

 

I’ll be posting my 2022 goals sometime in the next couple of weeks, but I imagine there will be a lot of repeats from this list since I clearly still have some room for improvement. 🙂

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Did you have any reading or blogging goals in 2021? If so, how did you do?

Beat the Backlist 2020 Sign Up & Tentative TBR

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Going in to 2020, one of my biggest resolutions is to do less challenges since I pretty much bailed on most of the ones I signed up for in 2019.  One challenge I know I still want to do, however, is the Beat the Backlist Challenge, mainly because it ties in with one of my other bookish resolutions for 2020, which is to read more of the older books I own that have been sitting on my shelves neglected in favor of newer releases.  This past year the Beat the Backlist Challenge helped me to knock 36 backlisted titles off my TBR and since, aside from the Goodreads Challenge, it’s the only challenge I plan to do at this point, I’ve decided to increase my goal to 50  for 2020.  Wish me luck!  You can read about the rules for the challenge at www.novelknight.com but the basic gist is that the challenge runs all year long and all of the books you read  for it must have been published in 2019 or earlier.  There are also a fun mini challenge built into BTB and this year I’m planning to take part and represent the Multi-Taskers since I’m the kind of reader who isn’t satisfied with reading just one book at a time.

Team Multi-Taskers!

Below is my tentative 2020 TBR, but as I’m such a mood reader, this list is subject to change.  A few of these are carryovers from last year’s challenge TBR. I will say though that I finally did purge about 10 titles from my overall TBR after putting them on this challenge list for three years in a row and still not reading them. Clearly I had lost interest in them so it was just time for them to go.

  1. The Flatshare – Beth O’Leary
  2. All Systems Red – Martha Wells
  3. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – Becky Chambers
  4. Get a Life, Chloe Brown – Talia Hibbert
  5. The Giver of Stars – Jojo Moyes
  6. The Tattoist of Auschwitz – Heather Morris
  7. The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
  8. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
  9. The Starless Sea – Erin Morganstern
  10. Circe – Madeline Miller
  11. Summer of ’69 – Erin Hilderbrand
  12. Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
  13. An American Marriage – Tayari Jones
  14. One Day in December – Josie Silver
  15. The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton
  16. Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
  17. The Huntress – Kate Quinn
  18. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – Jenny Han
  19. A Dance with Dragons – George R.R. Martin
  20. Heir of Fire – Sarah J. Maas
  21. The Whisper Man – Alex North
  22. Never Have I Ever – Joshilyn Jackson
  23. Next Year in Havana – Chanel Cleeton
  24. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek – Kim Michele Richardson
  25. My Sister, the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
  26. The Night Tiger – Yangsze Choo
  27. The Fountains of Silence – Ruta Sepetys
  28. The Queen of Nothing – Holly Black
  29. The Dry – Jane Harper
  30. Uprooted – Naomi Novik
  31. Miracle Creek – Angie Kim
  32. To the Bright Edge of the World – Eowyn Ivey
  33. Sorcery of Thorns – Margaret Rogerson
  34. Girls of Paper and Fire – Natasha Ngan
  35. When We Left Cuba – Chanel Cleeton
  36. Aurora Rising – Amie Kaufman
  37. Godsgrave – Jay Kristoff
  38. Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire
  39. They Both Die at the End – Adam Silvera
  40. Torch Against the Night – Sabaa Tahir
  41. The Rose and the Dagger – Renee Ahdieh
  42. Dating You, Hating You – Christina Lauren
  43. City of Glass – Cassandra Clare
  44. Daughter of Smoke and Bone – Laini Taylor
  45. The City of Brass – S.A. Chakraborty
  46. Ellie and the Harpmaker – Hazel Prior
  47. The Husband’s Secret – Liane Moriarty
  48. The Toll – Neal Shusterman
  49. Gods of Jade and Shadow – Silvia Moreno- Garcia
  50. How to Walk Away – Katherine Center

 

Midyear Audiobook Challenge Check-In

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So it’s time to see how I’m doing on my audiobook challenge.  I’m actually really proud of my progress on this one because my goal for the year was to read 16-20 audiobooks and at the midway point, I’ve actually managed to read 18!  That’s huge for me since up until last year, I hadn’t had any luck trying to read audiobooks.  So here’s what I’ve read so far (oh and 16 of these are also doing double duty for the Beat-the Backlist Challenge so consider this an update for that challenge as well.

 

     

The first four books I read were the The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater.  I was a little nervous about it going in since I had read but not loved her more recent book, All the Crooked Saints.  Thankfully I ended up really enjoying the series, with each book being a four star read.  I really loved all of the characters in the series, especially Ronan Lynch and it just feels good to have The Raven Cycle off my TBR since it had been there for about 3 years.

 

Books 5-8 have been some of my favorite audio reads so far in the challenge, especially The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is all around one of my favorite reads of the year to this point.  It was 5 stars all the way!  What If It’s Us was a super cute 4-star romance for me, while Crazy Rich Asians was 4 stars of crazy fun.  And I highly recommend the audio version of On the Come Up.  I think it makes Bri a more likable character than just reading the print version, plus you get to actually hear her rap, which was so cool  That was a 4.5 star read for me.

 

Books 9-12 were some fantasy reads that I tried on audio and really loved.  Plus it was nice to make some progress on my series reading too.  I really enjoyed Catwoman: Soulstealer on audio, so much so that I may go back and try Marie Lu’s Batman book that way since I skipped over it after hearing meh reviews.  Catwoman was 4 stars for me, as was City of Ashes, the second book in Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series.  I’ll probably continue that series on audio as well.  I had actually been in a fantasy slump for a couple of months until I read Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes on audio, which I loved and rated 4 stars.  The biggest surprise out of all of these fantasy reads for me was Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. I was just writing in a recent Top Ten Tuesday post how his books were really hit or miss for me.  Well, this one was a huge hit with me.  Gaiman himself narrates it and the story is just beautiful.  It actually reads like a fairytale, which just made the audio version seem like the perfect way to enjoy it. Stardust was a 4.5 star read for me and is now my favorite Gaiman book.

 

Books 12-16 are a hodge podge from different genres.  Murder on the Orient Express was my favorite from this group.  I thought the narrator was fantastic and the murder mystery gripping.  It was a 5 star read for me.  The Song of Achilles was a lovely read as well, one that I would recommend to anyone who loves Greek Mythology. I rated it 4 stars and look forward to reading Circe from the same author soon.  Pride was such a fun read.  It’s a Pride and Prejudice retelling set in modern day Brooklyn, and it’s filled with sass, snark, and romance just like the original P&P.  I gave it 4 stars as well.  Queenie was the one disappointment from this lot.  It started out so good but then I just became so frustrated with the main character and her pattern of making bad choices, all the while admitting she was well aware they were bad choices.  It got to the point where I just wanted the story to be over so I didn’t have to hear from her anymore, lol.  I rated 3 stars, just because I did enjoy the first part of it.

 

And finally, books 17 and 18.  Lily and the Octopus was an interesting read.  As a pet owner, I found it a very emotional read, but from a more objective standpoint, it was a little hard to get into, just the whole concept of referring to what was on the dog as an octopus was a little jarring.  I ended up rating it 3 stars.  Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere was a fantastic and moving read.  I loved the way the story unfolded and thought the narrator was great.  I read somewhere that this book is being made into a limited series and I can’t wait to watch it.  I rated the book 4.5 stars.

 

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Are you participating in the audiobook challenge?  If so, how are you doing on it?  I have to admit that I’ve been somewhat of an audiobook junkie now and look forward to seeing just how far I can surpass my original goal in the second half of the year.

 

Iron Throne Readalong Sign Up Post

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I’ve been reading the A Song of Ice and Fire books on and off for the past few years.  I just purchased the fifth book in the series late last year but found that, with spreading the books out as much as I did, I’ve forgotten a lot of what I had previously read.  I had been thinking about going back and doing a re-read before starting book 5 and now, after having watched the series finale of Game of Thrones, I’m definitely in the mood to go back and experience George R.R. Martin’s story in full.  I had been planning to just do a re-read on my own but when I saw that Novelknight and Of Wonderland had put together an incredible series readalong, I decided this was a much better option for me.  I love the schedule they have put together because it gets the series read completed in a timely manner (34 weeks) but still allows plenty of time for reading other books and of course, for life in general.  If you’re interested in joining in, you can read the complete details of the readalong HERE and I’ve posted the reading schedule for book 1 below.

 

 

2018 HoHoHo Readathon Sign Up Post & TBR List

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Even though I’ve been saying I’m going to cut back on the number of challenges and readathons I participate in, the HoHoHo Readathon, which is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer,  is one that I enjoy too much to give up.  It’s so much fun and it really helps get me into the holiday spirit.  I’m a bit last minute getting this part together but I have finally decided what books I’m going to try to read for the readathon.  Here’s my sign-up post, complete with my Christmas/Winter-themed TBR list as well as the rules for the readathon in case anyone else is interested in signing up.

 

My 2018 HoHoHo Readathon TBR List

 

      
 

2018 HoHoHo Readathon Details and Rules

 

It’s time to sign up for the Sixth Annual HoHoHo Readathon hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer.  Gather up your favorite cocoa, comfort foods, holiday music and books and join in the fun! For this event books and audiobooks with holiday or winter themes count.  You can participate for a day or cozy up by the fire and hang out every day. The more you participate the more entries you will earn for the Participant Giveaway.

The event will be longer this year after feedback from last years Twitter Party. It all begins on Friday November 9th and ends at 11:59pm on Sunday November 18th. We will have a Twitter party on the 18th at 3:30 pm (EST)

 

  • Link-up (it is not necessary to link to goal post, just link to the account/blog you will be using)
  • Before or on November 9th post a goals post to your blog.  If you do not have a blog, declare your intentions on social media and link to this page, then create a shelf on Goodreads with intended books) Be sure and link back to Caffeinated Reviewer. If you do not have a blog or Goodreads account and wish to participate you could use Instagram or Facebook. Contact me if unsure.
  • It might be a good idea to a friend, like or follow me on whatever social media site you use so we can see your progress. Just mention Ho-Ho-Ho so I can follow you back.
  • Grab the image and share! Tell your friends, post the image and link on social media using Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google + or Instagram. Be sure to include a link to this page, so others may join.
  • Participate in at least one challenge to be eligible for grand prize
  • Read/listen to as many Holiday or Winter themed books as you can. (Winter can be new years setting, snowstorm etc. If you are unsure contact me)
  • Tweet your progress using #hohohorat
  • Twitter Party! Sunday, November 18, 2018, at 3:30 pm (EST) #hohohorat Come chat about the books you have read. There will be prizes.
  • Challenge schedule and Grand Prize widget will post on November 9th at/by 8 am (EST)
  • Read-a-thon starts on November 9th 12:01 am (your time zone) and ends on November 18 at 11:59 pm (your time zone)
  • Challenges will be open from 8 am (EST) on the 9th and stay open until Nov 18th at 11:59 pm (EST)
  • Grand Prize Raffle will be open until November 19th at 11:59 pm (EST) to allow you to submit entries.
  • All winners of challenges and the grand prize will be notified by November 20th.

Summer TBR Wipeout 2018: Wrap-Up Post

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This week marks the end of the Summer TBR Wipeout 2018 Challenge.  A huge thanks to The Candid Cover for hosting it again this year.  As always, it has been a lot of fun and I got a ton of reading done for the challenge this year so yay!  My original goal was to read 15 books and I’m excited to report that I actually managed to exceed that goal with a total of 18 books, including every single book off of my original TBR list for the challenge.  Being the mood reader I am, I think I’m most excited to have actually stuck to that list. That may be a first for me, haha!  Anyway, on to the books.  As far as reviews go, I have written full reviews for the three books on here that were ARCs. For the rest, I’m just going to give a quick reaction on each and move on so that I don’t continue to fall behind on my reviews.

 

COMPLETED BOOKS SINCE LAST UPDATE

 

    

    

 

VICIOUS by V.E. SCHWAB –  My love for Schwab’s books has only continued to grow now that I have finally read Vicious.  As much as I adore books that feature anti-heroes, this book was practically written with me in mind.  If you love books that feature villains, or you’ve read and loved Schwab’s other series but somehow haven’t picked this one up yet, GO BUY THIS BOOK! You won’t regret it!  5 STARS

THE RAGING ONES by KRISTA & BECCA RITCHIE – Part epic space odyssey, part coming of age story, The Raging Ones is one of the more unique books I’ve read this year.  Check out my full review HERE. 4 STARS

CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by TOMI ADEYEMI – I just finished reading this book tonight and all I have to say is WOW!  Out of all of the hyped books I’ve read this year, I think this one most lives up to and exceeds the hype.  It’s an intense and sometimes painful story that is filled with all too relevant themes such as oppression and racism.  It’s also beautifully written, with exquisite worldbuilding and characters that I adored, especially Zélie and Amari.  I loved everything about this book! 5 STARS

THE POINT by JOHN DIXON – An exciting story about an outcast with supernatural powers who finds herself enrolled at West Point Military Academy where they hope to train her to be the ultimate weapon.  Check out my full review HERE.  4 STARS.

HOW TO STOP TIME by MATT HAIG – This was a fascinating read that is actually kind of hard to describe.  It’s science fiction in the sense that it features a character who has been alive for over 500 years because he doesn’t age as normal humans do.  It also, however, reads like historical fiction because the author uses flashbacks to take us back to earlier periods in the character’s life where he often encountered famous figures from history, such as William Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin, Captain Cook, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc.  Finally, I’d even go so far as to call it a romance because it does follow the main character’s love of a woman and how that relationship has impacted him for most of his very extended life.  Just an all around unique and creative read that I very much enjoyed.  4 STARS. 

VOX by CHRISTINA DALCHER –  A terrifying novel about what could happen if a radical religious group managed to rise to power in the United States with the ultimate agenda of silencing women.  This was a gripping read that I just could not put down once I started reading it!  Check out my full review HERE.  4 STARS

 

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Well, that’s it for my challenge.  If you participated, I hope you had as much success as I did!

 

Summer TBR Wipeout 2018: Update #2

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It’s time for my second update for the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge hosted by The Candid Cover!  It feels like this challenge has just flown by, but regardless, I’ve managed to knock a lot of books off my TBR so I’m very happy with my progress.  My original goal for the challenge was to read 15 books and to try to stick as closely to my tentative TBR as possible.  For the first update, I was able to read 6 books and for this second update, I read another 6 and am about two-thirds of the way through a seventh book.  I did veer from my tentative TBR a little but overall I think I did pretty well following it, especially considering what a mood reader I am.

Anyway, so going into the final stretch of the challenge, I’ve read 12 2/3 books, which means I’ve almost achieved my goal.  I still have 5 unread books from my original TBR, however, so I’m going to really strive to finish all of those.  We’ll see how it goes!

 

COMPLETED BOOKS

 

    
    

 

NEARLY COMPLETED

 

 

WHAT I PLAN TO READ NEXT

 

     
 

Best of luck to everyone as we move into the final stretch of this challenge!

Summer TBR Wipeout 2018: Update #1

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I can’t believe we’ve already made it to the first update post of the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge hosted by The Candid Cover, but here we are!  I don’t know if I’ll get through all 15 books that were on my tentative TBR for this challenge, but I’m pretty pleased with my progress so far.  I’m especially thrilled to have finished another George R.R. Martin book as well as the final book in the Grishaverse trilogy.  Overall, I managed to 6 books for this first update (5 from my original TBR + 1 library book that became available sooner that I expected it to) and I also made a good start on a 7th book, In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. Go me!  LOL!  Anyway, here are all of the books I’ve read so far and what books I’m hoping to get to next.  4 of those are from my original TBR and then I added Not the Girls You’re Looking For, another library book that became available sooner than anticipated.  Wish me luck!

 

COMPLETED BOOKS

 

 

WHAT I PLAN TO READ NEXT

 

I hope everyone who is taking part in the challenge is getting a lot of reading done!

Summer Reading Challenge: Summer TBR Wipeout 2018 – Intro Post

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I know I made a post not too long ago talking about challenge fatigue and about how I debating whether or not to continue with my challenges because I was struggling to keep up with the administrative aspects of challenges.  The Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge, hosted by The Candid Cover, however, is actually a challenge that I really enjoy.  It is designed so that there’s more focus on reading and less focus on the administrative side.  It’s win-win in that sense and so I love it!

Last year when I did this challenge, I was able to knock 12 books off my TBR, so I’m hoping to read 1 or 2 more this time around.  Below is the schedule for the challenge, along with the list of books I’m hoping to read.  It’s a mix of books that have been on my TBR for years, some ARCs that I want to get read for July and August, as well as a couple of 2018 releases that I’ve been meaning to get to and keep setting aside.  I started A Feast for Crows this weekend since it’s over 1,000 pages and probably the most challenging book on my list, and it’s also the one I’m least confident I’ll finish in time. I managed to read over 200 pages on July 1 though, so we’ll see how it goes. 🙂

 

THE SCHEDULE:

June 3- July 5: Sign-ups open!

Week of July 1st: Introductory post- What books are you planning to read this summer?

Week of July 15th: Update post #1- Tell us how your reading has been going so far. What books have you read? Were they enjoyable? What’s next on your TBR? Etc.

Week of July 29th: Update post #2

Week of August 12th: Wrap-up post- How did your summer reading go? Did you wipeout some books from your summer TBR?

 

THE BOOKS

 

        
    
       
           
                        
     

Are you looking to finally knock some backlisted books off your TBR this summer?  Maybe you should consider taking the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge too.