12 Books I want to Read in 2020

I was hesitant to create another one of  these since I only read 5 from last year but I thought I would try anyway. Here are the 12 books I want to prioritize in the year 2020.

1. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
3. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (repeat from last year's list)
4. The Five by Hallie Rubenfold
5. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
6. You Will be Safe Here by Damien Barr
7. The Overstory by Richard Powers
8. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
9. Red Sister by Mark Lawerence
10. Columbine by Dave Cullen
11. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
12. Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Most of this will be stretching me. Lots of fantasy, more non-fiction, and some historical fiction. I'm really hoping most of these will be 4 or 5 star reads for me as well.

January Wrap Up 1

So far I've finished 4 books in January.

I've already summarized Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse in my previous post---3 stars.

The one I picked up after that was This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay. This was a nonfiction diary type book of his experience working as a junior doctor (intern/resident) in the NHS system in the UK. Some of the stories were funny, a lot were very gross, and some were quite sad. A lot were focused on how understaffed they were and how he often had to give up his social plans and how this constant overworking led to some problems. However, abruptly, as he has reached the pinnacle and is about to become a senior doctor with a lot more flexibility, he tells a story in which a patient dies. He has a strong emotional reaction and decides he can no longer be a doctor. We knew from the start that he had quit being a doctor but the tonal shift from funny to depressing was very fast. I knew he wrote this book as a call to make changes in the NHS so I felt it is important for people living in the UK to read, but as an American, maybe less so for me. I gave the book 3.5 stars.

I then chose to read Strange Planet by Nathan Pyle. This is a collection of his comics that are told from an alien's perspective about normal everyday things humans do but are put in a comedic light. It was fun and light. I gave it 3 stars.

The last book I read was Me by Elton John. I have been a fan of Elton John's music since I was a teen so I was excited to pick up his autobiography and learn more about him. I want to admit, the beginning was quite slow. There was a lot of name-dropping of industry people I had never heard of and it was pretty boring. I was keeping my DNF-ing goal in mind and considering dropping it but the audiobook was so good I decided to keep going and I'm glad I did. It really started to pick up as he started discussing his drug addiction, his friendships with people I had heard of (like Rod Stewart, John Lennon, and Princess Diana), and his charity startup to help people with HIV/AIDS. He is not entirely likable in this book which I think is something people should know going in, but his story is fascinating and I really enjoyed reading about his life. (So much so that I then went and rented the movie Rocketman which is a musical based somewhat on his life.) I gave the book 4 stars, for being difficult to start.

Magical Readathon Wrap Up 2

So my Magical Readathon leaked into January a bit but this is how it finished.

My fourth week I received one prompt: to read a book with an author's surname that started with a "T', "M", or "R". I chose to read both volumes of manga of My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame. This manga is about a Japanese man who has a gay twin who moved to Canada and married a man. The twin died and the husband visits Japan to meet his brother-in-law and his niece. The adult brother-in-law is homophobic and very unaccepting but the girl has no preconceived notions and accepts him as a loving uncle that he is. She slowly brings her dad around and it is such a heart-warming story that I immediately felt the urge to pick up the second volume. I gave both volumes 5 stars.

The fifth and last week's prompt was to read a book with a sword on the cover. I chose to read the book Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. This was an urban fantasy story based on Native American folklore invoking gods and monsters. I really thought I would like it and I'm quite split. There is so much potential for interesting world-building and the characters could be very complex. But the ending became quite cliched, shoe-horning some romance in where it was unneeded, and trying to surprise us when we definitely had received enough clues to not really be surprised. The main character was a bad-ass female warrior in the beginning and became whiny and pathetic. In addition, the author would put the characters in tight spots, and then just create ways for them to get out without explaining the new powers or reasons they survived. There seemed to be a lot of plotholes and the author got very lazy in explaining why some characters survived when they really shouldn't have. Overall, I gave it 3 stars because they were so much potential. I will read the next book but if it doesn't improve, I will drop the series.

Overall, this was a fun additional to the Magical Readathon series. I do however like planning my readathons out ahead of time and am looking forward to the O.W.L.s in April when I will be able to do that.