01/01/2021

2021 Bookish Hype Train

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2021, A.M. Strickland, Alexandra Overy, amreading, Anna-Marie McLemore, Arkady Martine, Ashley Shuttleworth, books, C.L. Clark, Cadwell Turnbull, Caitlin Starling, Cassandra Khaw, Catherynne Valente, Charlie Jane Anders, E. Lily Yu, Elana K. Arnold, Emily A. Duncan, fantasy, Fonda Lee, Fran Wilde, Genevieve Gornichec, Hannah Abigail Clarke, Hannah Whitten, hype, Imbolo Mbue, Jen Karner, K.M. Szpara, Karin Tidbeck, Kerstin Hall, Mervyn Peake, Mike Chen, Nghi Vo, Nicole Glover, Nino Cipri, Rivers Solomon, Roseanne A. Brown, Ryka Aoki, S.T. Gibson, Sarah Beth Durst, Sarah Gailey, Sarah Porter, science fiction, Scott Hawkins, Shelley Parker-Chan, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Stephen Graham Jones, Sylvain Neuvel, Tasha Suri, Victoria Lee, Vivian Shaw ¶ Leave a comment

2020 was trash, but brought us many, many gifts in terms of books that came out. Here are the presents coming to us in 2021 that I’m personally far too excited to read.

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12/31/2020

My 2020 in Reading

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged Adam Higginbotham, Alechia Dow, Aleksandra Ross, Alma Katsu, amreading, Andrea Stewart, Andrzej Sapkowski, books, Buddy Levy, Caitlin Starling, Chelsea G. Summers, Cindy Pon, Claire Eliza Bartlett, Daniel James Brown, Daniel Polansky, fantasy, Hannah Abigail Clarke, Hari Hunzru, hype, Jacqueline Carey, Jon Krakauer, K.M. Szpara, K.S. Villoso, Kacen Callender, Kate Alice Marshall, Kim Smejkal, Liz Lawson, Mike Chen, N.K. Jemisin, Nino Cipri, Nonfiction, R.O. Kwon, Rory Power, Roseanne A. Brown, S.A. Cosby, S.A. Hunt, S.A. Jones, Sam J. Miller, Sarah Beth Durst, Sarah Gailey, science fiction, Sergey and Marina Dyachenko, Seth Dickinson, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Simon Jimenez, Stephen Graham Jones, Tananarive Due, Tessa Gratton, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Victor LaValle ¶ Leave a comment

I read 153 books this year in a 50/50 split between audiobooks and other formats. Being unemployed helped that along, didn’t do much for me in terms of my mental health. But there were so many good reads consumed and published this year, I had to make two lists. Enjoy!

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11/30/2020

November 2020 Reading Recap

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2020, adult, amreading, anthology, books, C.S. Malerich, contemporary, fantasy, historical, horror, hype, Magen Cubed, Michelle McNamara, Nick Cutter, Nonfiction, Romina Garber, Sam J. Miller, Sarah Krasnostein, thriller, young adult, Zoje Stage ¶ Leave a comment

In November, I attempted NaNoWriMo, and I did not win. Which is fine. Work was wild. I’m not on any contractual deadline. I read a lot, but I feel like this month had more duds in it than usual. It happens.

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11/02/2020

October 2020 Reading Recap

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2020, adult, amreading, Andrzej Sapkowski, Ben Kissel, books, contemporary, fantasy, Henry Zebrowski, historical, horror, hype, Kate Alice Marshall, Marcus Parks, Margaret Owen, Nonfiction, P. Djèlí Clark, Peternelle van Arsdale, Rachel DeLoache Williams, T. Kingfisher, thriller, young adult ¶ 1 Comment

In October, my friends and I went full spooky season and watched a new movie every weekend. By new, I mean, it was a different movie, but it happened to be new to at least one of us every time. Watching movies with friends is nice, don’t you know?

Started a new job this month, so reading has noticeably slowed down. Whoops.

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09/30/2020

September 2020 Reading Recap

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2020, adult, amreading, Andrea Stewart, books, contemporary, Daniel Polansky, fantasy, Hannah Abigail Clarke, horror, hype, K. Avard, Luke Arnold, Marieke Nijkamp, Mary Beard, Nita Tyndall, Nonfiction, S.A. Hunt, S.L. Huang, thriller ¶ Leave a comment

September2020RR

September marked the beginning of autumn, of Revision Season, I celebrated my eight year anniversary with my boyfriend, and made a lot of progress as far as job hunting goes. With that came exhaustion, however, so this month’s recap is a bit lighter than normally. Also Hades dropped and that’s been really good for my creative well.

There were two interviews this month:

Author to Author with Hannah Abigail Clarke
Author to Author with S.A. Hunt

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08/31/2020

August 2020 Reading Recap

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2020, adult, Alex North, Alicia Jasinka, amreading, Andy Davidson, books, Caitlin Starling, Chelsea G. Summers, contemporary, Daniel James Brown, Emily Tesh, fantasy, Gardner Dozois, horror, hype, Jordan Ifueko, Michael Swanwick, Nonfiction, Paul Tremblay, R.B. Lemberg, Seth Dickinson, Simone St. James, Stephen Graham Jones, thriller ¶ Leave a comment

August2020RR

Summer is coming to an end, I guess. The autumn equinox doesn’t hit until September 22nd, but we can already get pumpkin spice lattes, so I’m saying summer is over. A few more books read this month. No interviews, but I have so much excitement coming in September. Continue reading →

07/31/2020

July 2020 Reading Recap

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2020, adult, Aleš Kot & Piotr Kowalski, amreading, books, Buddy Levy, contemporary, fantasy, horror, hype, Jenn Lyons, K.S. Villoso, Kathleen Jennings, Lucy Foley, N.K. Jemisin, Nick Pyenson, Nonfiction, R.J. Theodore, S.A. Hunt, Samanta Schweblin, Stephen Graham Jones, Tamsyn Muir, thriller ¶ Leave a comment

July2020RR

I hit my goal of reading 100 books in July! Which sounds absurd, but between Animal Crossing, unemployment, and ongoing lockdowns, there is so much reading to be done (television, for whatever reason, cannot hold my attention).

This month, I did two blog interviews:

Rory Power, to celebrate her sophomore novel, Burn Our Bodies Down
S.A. Hunt, to celebrate the release of the second entry into Malus Domestica, I Come With Knives

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06/30/2020

June 2020 Reading Recap

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2020, adult, amreading, books, Caitlin Starling, Camilla Bruce, Cassandra Khaw, contemporary, fantasy, Genevieve Gornichec, Hari Hunzru, horror, hype, Katherine Addison, Lisa Unger, Morgan Shamy, Naomi Novik, Rory Power, Roseanne A. Brown, S.A. Hunt, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Suzanne Collins, Tananarive Due, thriller, young adult, Zen Cho ¶ Leave a comment

June2020RR

June was my birthday! I wound up reading a whole bunch of ARCs, a few new favorites, and even interviewed K.A. Doore to celebrate the release of the Chronicles of Ghadid finale, The Unconquered City.

In addition the blog, you will now be able to find my reviews on The StoryGraph, in addition to Goodreads. My handle is JoReadsBooks

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05/31/2020

May 2020 Reading Recap

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2020, adult, Aleš Kot & Piotr Kowalski, amreading, books, contemporary, Emily Tesh, fantasy, Hafsah Faizal, horror, hype, Jeffe Kennedy, Jeffrey Ford, Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor, K.A. Doore, Kacen Callender, Lana Popovic, Leigh Bardugo, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Naomi Novik, Nonfiction, Ronan Farrow, Tessa Gratton, thriller, young adult ¶ Leave a comment

May2020RR

May featured the Nebulas and continued work on myself during this unemployed time.

No special posts this month, but definitely an interview with K.A. Doore coming your way in June.

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04/30/2020

April 2020 Reading Recap

By Jo ¶ Posted in Ramblings, Reading Recap ¶ Tagged 2020, adult, Aleksandra Ross, amreading, books, Claire Eliza Bartlett, contemporary, Erin Morgenstern, fantasy, Gale Massey, hype, John Langan, Kate Elizabeth Russell, Liz Lawson, Liz Moore, Louisa Morgan, Robert Jackson Bennett, Robin Hobb, Sarah Beth Durst, Seanan McGuire, Shirley Jackson, Stephanie Wrobel, Tessa Gratton, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, thriller, true crime, young adult ¶ Leave a comment

April2020RR

Good-bye April, the shortest month this year. I have gone through a lot of sudden changes, but there are always more books to read. I even discovered two new favorites this month, which feels exciting.

This month, I also interviewed Aleksandra Ross to celebrate the release of her debut novel, Don’t Call the Wolf and I had outlined a plan to improve my craft. I will be saving the craft reads for their own post.

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