Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Of course I'm super late to post my plans again, but I've spent the past couple of days really trying to finalize some of my lists. This year, I've decided to once again design my challenge as a 2-year plan. I'm calling it "Take Two" because I felt so disorganized through most of 2021, and I'm hoping this year will be a second chance, especially to get to some of the books that I'd really wanted to read! I've gone into more detail about my goals on my blog (pretty sure I can't link here?), but I'm really hoping to reach a total of 200 books overall by the end of December!

These are my plans for each of my challenges, but things will most like change as the year goes on. Please feel free to offer suggestions, especially for anything left blank!

Goodreads ATY
1. A book with a main character whose name starts with A, T, or Y - The Heart Principle
2. A book connected to a book you read in 2021 - One of Us Is Next
3. A book with 22 or more letters in the title - A Psalm of Storms and Silence
4. A book that fits your favorite prompt that did not make the list – A winner or nominee from the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards - Our Violent Ends
5. A book by an author with two sets of double letters in their name - To Tell You the Truth
6. A book with an image of a source of light on the cover - The Night Shift
7. A book related to psychology, neuroscience or the mind - Emma in the Night
8. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 1 - Her Dark Lies (Italy)
9. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 2 - The Aosawa Murders (Japan) or The Good Son (Korea)
10. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 3 - My Sister, the Serial Killer (Nigeria)
11. A book from historical fiction genre - The Silence of Bones
12. A book related to glass - The Stranger in the Mirror
13. A book about a woman in STEM - Give Me Your Hand
14. A book with fewer than 5000 ratings on Goodreads - Not My Problem
15. A book without a person on the cover - The Perfect Family
16. A book related to Earth Day - The Ones We're Meant to Find
17. A book from NPR's Book Concierge - Her Every Fear
18. A book by an Asian or Pacific Islander author - You've Reached Sam
19. A book that involves alternate reality, alternate worlds, or alternate history - The Two Lives of Lydia Bird
20. A fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900 -1951 - These Violent Delights
21. A book with one of the Monopoly tokens on the cover - The Road Trip
22. A book with a Jewish character or author - Weather Girl
23. A book that features loving LGBTQIA+ relationship - Rise to the Sun
24. A book related to inclement weather - Rock Paper Scissors
25. A book less than 220 pages OR more than 440 pages - Lumberjanes, Vol. 10: Parents' Day
26. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 1 - Little Secrets
27. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 2 - All Your Twisted Secrets
28. A book that won an award from Powell's list of book awards - Far from the Tree
29. A book set on or near a body of water - Lakelore
30. A book related to mythology - Gods of Jade and Shadow
31. A book published at least 10 years ago - A Man Called Ove or Creep or Don't Breathe a Word
32. A book where the main character is a female detective/private eye/police officer The Child Finder
33. The next book in a series - The Merciless Ones
34. A book with an academic setting or with a teacher that plays an important role - She Was the Quiet One
35. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 1 - Sorcery of Thorns
36. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 2 - The Complete Tales
37. A book that uses all five vowels in the title and/or author's name - The House in the Cerulean Sea
38. A book by a Latin American author - You Had Me at Hola
39. A book from the TIME list of 100 Best YA Books of All Time - Firekeeper's Daughter
40. A book related to one of the 22 Tarot Major Arcana cards - The Game of Love and Death
41. A book with a theme of food or drink - Café Con Lychee
42. A book with a language or nationality in the title - Mexican Gothic
43. A book set in a small town or rural area - Don't Look for Me
44. A book with gothic elements - A Lesson in Vengeance
45. A book related to a game - Mother May I
46. A book with a non-human as one of the main characters - Across the Green Grass Fields
47. A book with handwriting on the cover - Dear Child
48. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2021 or 2022 - Anxious People
49. A book connected to the phrase "Here (There) Be Dragons" - All the Tides of Fate
50. A book that involves aging, or a character in their golden years Now That I've Found You
51. A book published in 2022 - The Family Remains
52. A book with a time-related word in the title - Today Tonight Tomorrow
53. Wild Card – A book with a cover that features a view from above - The Push

Popsugar
1. A book published in 2022 - This Wicked Fate
2. A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship - Hostage
3. A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society
4. A book with a tiger on the cover or "tiger" in the title - Lumberjanes, Vol. 14: X Marks the Spot
5. A sapphic book - The Henna Wars
6. A book by a Latinx author - The Mirror Season
7. A book with an onomatopoeia in its title
8. A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid - One Two Three
9. A book about a "found family" - The Disasters
10. An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner - Sing, Unburied, Sing
11. A #BookTok recommendation - The Midnight Library
12. A book about the afterlife - Under the Whispering Door
13. A book set in the 1980s - My Best Friend's Exorcism
14. A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title
15. A book by a Pacific Islander author - The Marriage Game
16. A book about witches - The Babysitters Coven
17. A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022 - Anatomy of a Scandal or Magpie Murders
18. A romance novel by a BIPOC author - The Right Swipe
19. A book that takes place during your favorite season - The Ex Hex
20. A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read - Everything That Burns
21. A book about a band or musical group - Super Fake Love Song
22. A book with a character on the ace spectrum - Beyond the Black Door
23. A book with a recipe in it - The Kitchen Front
24. A book you can read in one sitting - Claudia and the New Girl
25. A book about a secret - The End of Her
26. A book with a misleading title - Playing Nice
27. A Hugo Award winner - This Is How You Lose the Time War
28. A book set during a holiday - In a Holidaze
29. A different book by an author you read in 2021 - Stay Awake
30. A book with the name of a board game in the title - Guess Who
31. A book featuring a man-made disaster - Luck of the Titanic
32. A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page - Where the Drowned Girls Go (quote from VE Schwab on cover)
33. A social-horror book - Cherish Farrah
34. A book set in Victorian times - Once Upon a River
35. A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title - A Phoenix First Must Burn
36. A book you know nothing about - Before She Knew Him (I've owned this for a while, but I have no idea what it's about!)
37. A book about gender identity - Meet Cute Diary
38. A book featuring a party - The Guest List
39. An #OwnVoices SFF (science fiction and fantasy) book - Legendborn
40. -46. A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge
2015 – A popular author’s first book – Forever, Interrupted
2016 – Science fiction – Aurora's End
2017 - A book with a family member word in the title - The Cousins
2018 – A book with characters who are twins – The Good Sister
2019 – A ghost story – The Winter People
2020 – A book recommended by your favourite blog, vlog, podcast or online book club – Bunny (recommended by BooksAndLala)
2021 – A dark academia book – Kill All Your Darlings
47. A book with a reflected image on the cover or "mirror" in the title - These Toxic Things
48. A book that features two languages - Children of Blood and Bone
49. A book with a palindromic title - Madam
50. A duology (1) - The Hazel Wood
51. A duology (2) - The Night Country
52. A book about someone leading a double life - The Guinevere Deception
53. A book featuring a parallel reality - Maybe in Another Life
54. A book with two POVs - You Can Go Your Own Way
55. Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (1) - The Party (San Francisco)
56. Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (2) -
The Paris Apartment - Paris

ATY Top Picks + 2021 Leftovers
This challenge consists of the 40 prompts that I personally voted for that did not make the list, as well as 50 prompts that I wanted to carry forward from last year.

1. A book related to the title of a song from an animated Disney or Pixar movie - I Kissed Shara Wheeler (related to Kiss the Girl)
2. A book with a competition as a main plot element - A Song of Wraiths and Ruin
3. A book you haven’t read because it is or was overhyped - Wilder Girls
4. A book without the words “a,” “an” or “the” in the title - Every Last Fear
5. A book with a missing person - Local Woman Missing
6. A book with a full name in the title - Finlay Donovan Is Killing It
7. A book with a character who has a disability - The Rosie Result
8. A book that honours Betty White - The Switch
9. – 11. 3 books related to the phrase “Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil”
Hear No Evil – The Silent Suspect
Speak No Evil – I Have No Secrets
See No Evil – Forget You Know Me
12. A book about or involving ritual or ceremony - The Gilded Ones
13. A book about doing something forbidden - Wings of Ebony
14. A book with a quirky or endearing character - 10 Things I Hate About Pinky
15. A book that features an act of kindness - maybe The One Good Thing (but I'm a little hesitant since it's tagged as Christian fiction)
16. A book about independence - Just Like Other Daughters
17. A book related to the Wizard of Oz - Jar of Hearts
18. A book with a return or repeat as a major plot element - Such a Quiet Place
19. A book with the theme of revenge and getting even - maybe The Collective
20. A book with a theme of redemption - Sea Witch Rising
21. A book where a community plays an important role - How It Went Down
22. A book with a morally gray main character - We Hunt the Flame
23. A retelling with a BIPOC main character - Of Curses and Kisses
24. A book with a theme of courage or heroism - Infinity Son
25. A book about women overcoming systemic obstacles - Rules for Being a Girl
26. A book about “first contact” - An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
27. A book related to the proverb “blood is thicker than water” - The Family Plot
28. A book with a main character that fits at least one of “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” - Kingdom of the Cursed
29. A book by an author who has three names - The Other Black Girl
30. A book with a journalist author, journalist character, or journalism topic - Off the Record
31. A book connected to health or medical science - Tear Me Apart or Sick Kids in Love
32. A book with an antihero(ine) - The Shadows Between Us
33. A book with a character who loves books - Suggested Reading
34. A book about an unlikely friendship - You Are Not Alone
35. A book related to a nursery rhyme - They All Fall Down
36. A book related to the phrase “a shot in the dark” - Light It Up (character is literally shot at night)
37. A book that has a character in government, royal family, or governing body - Six Crimson Cranes
38. A book related to the song It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - I Hope You Get This Message
39. A locked room or closed circle mystery - The Hunting Party
40. A fantasy novel - Caraval

Leftovers
1. A book that features siblings as main characters - Blanca & Roja
2. A book whose title contains a negative - Don't Read the Comments
3. A book with an ensemble cast - You'll Be the Death of Me
4. An Afrofuturist book - Children of Virtue and Vengeance
5. A book that discusses body positivity - One to Watch
6. A book with the letter Z on the cover - Version Zero
7. A book with an introverted protagonist - The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
8. A book involving a power struggle - You Deserve Each Other
9. A book with a theme of opposites - The Vanishing Half
10. A book whose title contains an honorific - The Other Mrs.
11. A story with a curse - All the Bad Apples
12. A book with an abduction or kidnapping - The Chain
13. A book with a moon on the cover - Twice in a Blue Moon
14. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics - Pretty Girls
15. A book with a title starting with the letter D - Dead to Her
16. A book set before the 17th century - The Camelot Betrayal
17. A book that includes a theft - The Plot
18. A book that shares a similar title to another book - Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating
19. A book featuring adoption - The How and the Why
20. A book with a cover with a woman who is facing away - Stone Mothers
21. A book with a character whose name you can’t pronounce - Each of Us a Desert
22. A book with a character that is imprisoned - This Is My America
23. A book that features an uprising - The Infinity Courts
24. A psychological thriller - I See You
25. A book set in a restaurant - Crazy Stupid Bromance
26. A book you predict will be a five-star read - The Kind Worth Killing
27. A cross-genre novel - The Confessions of Frannie Langton
28. A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign - A ​Sky Beyond the Storm
29. A book with an oxymoron in the title - Second First Impressions
30. A book with a pronoun in the title - I Know Who You Are
31. A book with alliteration in the title - Perfect on Paper
32. A book by or about an everyday hero - Things You Save in a Fire
33. A book that features a mode of communication - The Ex Talk
34. A book with man, woman, boy or girl in the title - Undead Girl Gang
35. A book featuring a strong friendship - The War Outside
36. A book with an eye-catching cover - Skyhunter
37. A book with three words in the title - Perfect Little Children
38. A book written by someone no more than two degrees of separation away from you - Kate in Waiting (Becky Albertalli is connected to Aisha Saeed, who I have briefly spoken to on Twitter)
39. A book related to a word given by a random word generator (Words given: retailer, fan, friend, argument, absence) - When You Were Everything
40. A book related to “the end” - Finale
41. A book published by Penguin - Someone We Know (published by Pamela Dorman Books, fiction branch of Penguin)
42. A book related to the word “fire” - The Burning Girls
43. A book that has a heart, diamond, club or spade on the cover - Legendary
44. A book from one of Goodreads’ Most Popular lists - Then She Was Gone
45. A book with a happy ending - Spoiler Alert
46. A book that fits a 2021 prompt suggestion that didn’t make the list (a book related to blackjack or gambling) - Jackpot
47. A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author - When No One is Watching
48. A book set in a country that starts with the letter S - The Fountains of Silence
49. A book with the enemies-to-friends or friends-to-enemies trope - We Used to Be Friends
50. A social justice book - One of the Good Ones

The 52 Book Club’s 2022 Challenge
1. A second-person narrative - You
2. Featuring a library or bookstore - Recommended for You
3. Title starting with the letter “E” - Enchantée
4. Title starting with the letter “F” - For Better or Cursed or Friends Like These
5. Chapters have titles - Lie to Me
6. Household object on the cover - Horrorstör
7. A non-fiction bestseller - Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It
8. Involving the art world - An Enchantment of Ravens
9. A book that sparks joy - The Upside of Unrequited
10. A book based on a real person - My Calamity Jane
11. A book with less than 2022 Goodreads ratings - Not the Girls You're Looking For
12. Set on at least two continents - All My Rage
13. Includes a club - The Mary Shelley Club
14. A character with superhuman ability - Ashes of Gold
15. A five-syllable title - The Wrong Family
16. A book you’ve seen someone reading in a public place - Catherine House (saw many people read it on Youtube)
17. A book picked based on its spine - A Slow Fire Burning
18. Jane Austen-inspired - Ayesha at Last
19. A book that has an alternate title - The Hiding Place
20. Related to the word “gold” - The Golden Couple
21. Published by Simon & Schuster - Vespertine
22. An unlikely detective - The Red Palace
23. Author with an X, Y, or Z in their name - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
24. Addresses a specific topic - The Black Kids
25. A wealthy character - Not a Happy Family
26. Has an “Author’s Note” - Internment
27. Includes a map - Fable
28. Award-winning book from your country
29. Over 500 pages long - Bloodmarked
30. Audiobook is narrated by the author
31. Technology-themed - The Perfect Wife
32. A book that intimidates you - Empire of the Vampire - Book One
33. A bilingual character - Silent Night
34. An author’s photo on the back cover - First Comes Like
35. From the villain’s perspective - Sea Witch
36. Recommended by a favorite author - The Wife Stalker (recommended by Riley Sager)
37. Set in a rural area - Under a Painted Sky
38. Don’t judge a book by its cover! - All Is Not Forgotten
39. A middle-grade novel - The Only Black Girls in Town
40. A book with photographs inside - The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire
41. Involves a second chance - See You Yesterday
42. An indie read - maybe How to Be Remy Cameron
43. Author who’s published in more than one genre - Hide
44. An anthology - A Universe of Wishes: A We Need Diverse Books Anthology
45. A book with illustrated people on cover - Book Lovers
46. A job title in the title - The Maid
47. Read during the month of November
48. Re-do one of this year’s prompts but with a different genre
A book related to the word fire – A Torch Against the Night
49. Book title starts with the same letter as your first name - Right Where I Left You
50. A person of color as the main character - Survive the Dome
51. The word “game” in the title - The Blame Game
52. Published in 2022 - When You Get the Chance

Flourish & Blotts: OWLS
Ancient Runes
1. Ancient Runes: A book in translation - The Good Son or The Only Child
2. Deathly Hallows: A book that has a symbol on the cover - A Deadly Education
3. Tales of Beedle the Bard: A fairytale retelling - Gilded
4. Mistranslation: A book whose title is translated differently - My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry or What She Knew
5. Parseltongue: A book that contains a fictional language - Aurora Rising

Arithmancy
6. Arithmancy: A book with a number on the cover or in the title - 56 Days
7. Golden Trio: A book that’s a part of a series - The Righteous
8. Hoggy Warty Hogwarts: A book that involves music - Ghost Wood Song
9. Magical Numbers: A book that relates to a magical number (pi or pi(e), 7, 3, 13, etc) - Three Perfect Liars
10. Mad Eye Moody: A book with multiple points of view - This Is All Your Fault

Astronomy
11. Astronomy: A book set in outer space - Aurora Burning
12. Star Gazing: A book with a star on the cover or in the title - Heartstopper: Volume Two
13. Star Struck: A book about a celebrity - While We Were Dating
14. Sirius Black: Includes a character with a celestial name - An Arrow to the Moon
15. Telescope: A book you spotted on social media - Too Good to Be True (saw on Youtube because it was a BOTM option)

Care of Magical Creatures
16. Care of Magical Creatures: Includes a magical creature - Burn
17. Niffler: A book with a shiny cover - In a Garden Burning Gold
18. Fantastic Beasts: A book with an animal on the cover - The Genesis Wars
19. Unicorn- Your most anticipated book of the year - House of Sky and Breath
20. Monster Book of Monsters: A scary looking book - Insomnia

Charms
21. Charms: A book by a favorite author - White Smoke
22. Cheering Charm: A funny or happy book - Undercover Bromance
23. Flitwick: A short book or book of short stories - Lumberjanes, Vol. 19: A Summer to Remember
24. Wingardium Leviosa: A book that contains a feather - The Weight of Feathers
25. Time Turner: A book with dual timelines - Yesterday Is History

Defense Against the Dark Arts
26. DADA: A book featuring good vs. evil - This Savage Song
27. Dark Arts: A book featuring dark magic - Kingdom of the Wicked
28. Death Eaters: A book with a dark cover - In Every Generation
29. Magical Me: A book with an incompetent character
30. Remus Lupin: A paranormal book - The Book of Cold Cases

Divination
31. Divination: A book set in the future - On the Edge of Gone
32. Trelawney: A book featuring a prophecy - Blood Like Fate
33. Star Chart: A book related to your zodiac sign - The Scorpio Races
34. Unfogging the Future: A mystery or thriller - A Stranger in the House
35. The Grim: Contains a death - The Last Time I Saw You

Herbology
36. Herbology: A book with a plant on the cover or in the title - The Younger Wife
37. Pomona Sprout: Contains a character with a herbology related name - The Children on the Hill
38. Greenhouses: A book with a green cover - The Last Graduate
39. Mandrake: A book that made you cry
40. Neville Longbottom: Contains a character who is an underdog - maybe Miss Meteor

History of Magic
41. History of Magic: A book that mentions a historical witch or wizard - The Excalibur Curse
42. Harry Potter: A book that mentions Harry Potter - What If It's Us
43. Hogwarts, A History: A historical fiction - I Must Betray You
44. Helena Ravenclaw: A novella or prequel - Love, Creekwood
45. Cuthbert Binns: A book you “slept” on - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Muggle Studies
46. Muggle Studies: An own voices book
47. Flying Car: A book related to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) - The Soulmate Equation
48. Hogwarts: A book set in a school - Ace of Spades
49. Daily Prophet: A nonfiction book - Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America
50. Rubber Duck: A book with a yellow cover - Yolk

Potions
51. Potions: A book that includes poison - Girl, Serpent, Thorn
52. Amortentia: A book that includes a romance - Would Like to Meet
53. Severus Snape: Turn to page 394 - A book with page 394 - My Plain Jane
54. No Foolish Wand Waving: A book without magic - Every Other Weekend
55. Liquid Luck: Luck of the draw: choose a book randomly
(put numbers into a random number generator) - maybe With You All the Way (used a random number generator on my list of books bought from Book Outlet)

Transfiguration
56. Transfiguration: A book to screen adaptation - Hidden Bodies
57. Animagus: Includes a shapeshifter - My Lady Jane
58. Switching Spell: A book whose cover and dust jacket are different colors - The Damned
59. Minerva McGonagall: Contains a strong female character - Our Dark Duet
60. Vanishment Spell: A bestseller (that vanishes off the shelf!) - Good Girl, Bad Blood

BookList Queen 2022
1. By an Author You Love - Gallant
2. Goodreads Winner in 2021 - The Final Girl Support Group
3. Book Becoming Movie in 2022 - Luckiest Girl Alive (if I can find a copy)
4. Book with a Twist - The Night Before
5. Speculative Fiction - Game Changer or The School for Good Mothers
6. With a Bird on the Cover - The River Has Teeth
7. About a Difficult Choice - Any Way the Wind Blows
8. Published in 2012 - maybe A Man Called Ove
9. With a Name in the Title - The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre
10. By a Local Author - My Art, My World
11. Discussion-Worthy Book Club Book - The Gifted School
12. 2021 Bestseller - Apples Never Fall
13. Genre You Don't Usually Read - Master Class
14. Shakespearean Play - probably The Taming of the Shrew
15. With a Two Word Title - Nine Lives
16. About a Muslim Protagonist - All-American Muslim Girl
17. Set in the 1980s - Machines Like Me
18. Asian American & Pacific Islander Author - Spin the Dawn
19. Bottom of Your To-Read List
20. Literary Fiction - Transcendent Kingdom
21. Recommended on Instagram
22. LBGTQ+ Book - I'm So (Not) Over You
23. A Book Everyone is Talking About
24. Pulitzer Prize Winner
25. With a Blue Cover - The Night She Disappeared
26. Author Who Shares Your Initials - The Beautiful
27. Epic Adventure - A Reaper at the Gates
28. A Guilty Pleasure Read - Kristy and the Snobs
29. An Audiobook - Can Anybody Help Me?
30. Catchy Title - The Color of Bee Larkham's Murder
31. About Nature - Lumberjanes, Vol. 18: Horticultural Horizons
32. Two Books by the Same Author - A Song Below Water
33. Two Books by the Same Author - A Chorus Rises
34. YA Fantasy - Wayward Son
35. Purchased at a Bookstore - Instructions for Dancing
36. Family Drama - An American Marriage
37. Classic You’ve Avoided
38. Set in Africa - When Stars Are Scattered
39. Recommended by a Librarian - The Wife Upstairs
40. By a British Author - The Long Weekend
41. Reread a Favorite - The Rosie Project
42. Under 300 Pages - Lumberjanes, Vol. 20: End of Summer
43. Spooky Read - The Last House on Needless Street
44. Nonfiction Bestseller - Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm
45. A Book About Life - In Love & Pajamas: A Collection of Comics about Being Yourself Together
46. Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick - The Downstairs Girl
47. Makes You Laugh - Oddball
48. Historical Novel - Music from Another World
49. A 2022 New Release - Reckless Girls
50. Inspiring Memoir - maybe Educated
51. Cozy Mystery - Arsenic and Adobo
52. You Own But Haven’t Read - Don't Try to Find Me

Pick Your Poison 2021
I'm a year behind on this challenge because I only discovered it in 2021, and way too late in the year to actually take it on. I didn't even see the new challenge until after the start of the new year, so I'm sticking with last year's instead.

Who’s In Charge?
1. A book about an empire - An Ember in the Ashes
2. A book about a social movement - Amelia Westlake Was Never Here
3. A book about being a first-time parent - The Rosie Effect
4. A book about a cat - Karen's Kittycat Club

Make ‘Em Laugh
5. A funny comic or graphic novel - Lumberjanes, Vol. 16: Mind Over Mettle
6. A book about a comedian - This Will Be Funny Someday
7. A book with a pun in the title - Lumberjanes, Vol. 15: Birthday Smarty
8. A book with someone laughing on the cover - With and Without You

Where You Sleep at Night
9. A book about a hotel - Moonflower Murders
10. A book with the word “house” in the title - House of Salt and Sorrows
11. A book with a cabin on the cover - Lumberjanes, Vol. 13: Indoor Recess
12. A book with a haunted house - The Invited

Ways to Die
13. A book with “poison” in the title - This Poison Heart
14. A book with a knife on the cover - Unravel the Dusk
15. A true crime murder story - maybe In Cold Blood
16. A book dealing with suicide - The Wife Who Knew Too Much

Occupations
17. A book about a farmer - Stepping Stones
18. A book about a librarian or bookseller - You Love Me
19. A book written by a college professor - How to Be an Antiracist
20. A book about a scientist - The Love Hypothesis

Generations
21. A book about millienials - An Emotion of Great Delight
22. A book about hippies
23. A book about baby boomers - maybe Necessary Lies
24. A book about flappers - maybe The Chaperone

Plaids
25. A book with a kilt on the cover - Well Matched
26. A book written by someone from Scotland
27. A book with a plaid cover
28. A book with a flannel shirt on the cover - Serious Moonlight

Those Bodies
29. A book by a celebrity known for body positivity - Open Book
30. A book with a picture of an ocean on the cover - Mr. Nobody
31. A book with a dead body on the cover - The Drowning Kind
32. A children’s book about body parts

Bringing the World into Your Home
33. A book about hygge, feng shui, or home harmony - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing or The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well
34. A book about taking in a stranger - The Perfect Daughter
35. A book about a culture other than your own
36. A book about how radio, television, or the internet has changed us - Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

The Tools of Writing
37. A paperback book - The Wives
38. A book with a typewriter on the cover
39. A book with “words” in the title - Love and Other Words
40. A book with “deadline” in the title

That Creepy Feeling
41. A horror story or thriller - A Stranger on the Beach
42. A book with an insect on the cover - The Butterfly Girl
43. A book about something that scares you
44. A book with a monster on the cover - Lumberjanes, Vol. 12: Jackalope Springs Eternal

Favourites
45. A book by your favourite author - Wish You Were Here
46. A book in your favourite genre - The New Husband
47. A book with your favourite colour on the cover - Blood Like Magic
48. A book from a celebrity favourite list - Such a Fun Age

Crossing Boundaries
49. A book about an interracial romance - Party of Two
50. A book about the immigrant experience - Parachutes
51. A book about reconciliation
52. A book about cross dressing - The Black Flamingo

Things We Don’t Talk About
53. A book with the word “naked” in the title
54. A book by a politician
55. A book about oppression - Dear Justyce
56. A book about terminal illness - Five Feet Apart

Reflections
57. A book with a mirror on the cover - Behind the Red Door
58. A memoir - Almost American Girl
59. A fiction book about reminiscing
60. A self-help book - How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life or Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps

Swashbuckling
61. A book with a sword on the cover - All the Stars and Teeth
62. A book about pirates - Namesake
63. A rollicking adventure story - The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks
64. A book with a map on the cover - Heartstopper: Volume Three

Shapes and Colours
65. A book with a primarily black cover - The New Neighbor: A Novel
66. A book with a shape-shifting character - Infinity Reaper
67. A book with a shape on the cover that reminds you of a Rorschach test - A History of Wild Places
68. A book by an author whose name is a colour - Book of Night

Picture This
69. A book with the word “picture” in the title - Karen's School Picture
70. A book with a photograph on the cover - Girl Gone Viral
71. A book by a journalist or news photographer - The Child
72. An illustrated book - Long Distance

Shh…
73. A book about secret societies/clubs - Good Girls Lie
74. A children’s book about bedtime - The Dark
75. A book with the word “secret” in the title - Two Can Keep a Secret
76. A book with a peaceful cover - Lucky Caller or Waiting for the Night Song

Challenges
77. A book over 500 pages - We Free the Stars
78. A book about overcoming obstacles
79. A book you’ve set aside in the past because it was hard to get into - The Song of Achilles (stretched to something I set aside because I was never in the mood)
80. A book with the word “hard” in the title

Drinking Game
81. A cozy mystery with a beverage in the title
82. A book with a picture of an alcoholic beverage on the cover - The Arrangement
83. A book title that could be a drinking game - Believe Me (could be a game similar to 2 Truths and a Lie)
84. A nonfiction book about alcohol - Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol


85. A book set in your grandparents’ era - The Home for Unwanted Girls
86. A book with the word “father” in the title - The Good Father
87. A book you’d share with your child
88. A book about an estranged family - The House We Grew Up In or What Big Teeth

Weather
89. A book with the word “snow” in the title
90. A nonfiction book about a weather-related disaster - Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans
91. A book with a picture of a clear blue sky on the cover - I Wanna Be Where You Are
92. A book that comforts you on a rainy day - Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

TBR Burners
93. A book that has been on your TBR list more than a year - The Playdate
94. A book someone gave you that you haven’t read yet - All the Feels
95. Anything you want
96. A book you’re excited to read - Seasonal Fears

Borrowing
97. A book with a character from a different book - Lost in the Never Woods
98. A fairytale or myth retelling in a modern setting - Lore
99. A book written by an author with a pseudonym - The House Across the Lake
100. A book borrowed from the library - Lumberjanes, Vol. 11: Time After Crime

Putting 2020 Behind Us
101. A book with a crowded cover - Lumberjanes, Vol. 17: Smitten in the Stars
102. A book about self-care or recovery - maybe The Revolution of Birdie Randolph
103. A book set after a major world event (war, weather disaster, etc.) - They Went Left
104. A book with the word “better” in the title - The Better Sister

Wildcards
105. A book by an author under 30 - As Good As Dead (Holly Jackson – turns 30 in 2022)
106. A 2021 release - Here's to Us
107. A comic book - Heartstopper: Volume Four
108. A book by two or more authors - The Roughest Draft
109. A collection of essays - Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture

Other Goals
Series Goals
Finish all of the following series:
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (4 books)
Caraval by Stephanie Garber (3 books)
Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kauffman (3 books)
The Simon Snow series by Rainbow Rowell (2 books remaining)

At least 5 of these series:
The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White (3 books)
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (3 books)
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (rereads, 3 books)
You by Caroline Kepnes (3 books, 2 of which are rereads)
The Lady Janies by Cynthia Hand, Brody Ashton and Jodi Meadows (3 books)
Modern Love by Alisha Rai (3 books)
Lumberjanes (11 books remaining)

At least 3 of these unfinished series:
Infinity Cycle by Adam Silvera (2 books currently available)
Scholomance by Naomi Novik (2 books currently available)
Legacy of Orisha by Tomi Adeyemi (2 books currently available)
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco (2 books currently available, possibly a third this year)
The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh (3 books currently available)
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna (2 books currently available)
The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman (2 books currently available)

At least half of these duologies:
Monsters of Verity by Victoria Schwab (reread)
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
Gilded by Marissa Meyer
Sands of Arawiya by Hafsah Faizal
The Blood of Stars by Elizabeth Lim
A Song of Wraiths and Ruins by Roseanne A. Brown
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury
Wings of Ebony by J. Elle
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
Fable by Adrienne Young
Enchantee by Gita Trelease
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace
Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
Skyhunter by Marie Lu


Top 22 Authors to Try in 2022
Stacey Lee
June Hur
Bethany C. Morrow
Adiba Jaigirdar
Eric Smith
Margaret Rogerson
Emery Lee
Kosoko Jackson
Kristina Forest
Aminah Mae Safi
Erica Waters
Wendy Walker
J.T. Ellison
Jennifer McMahon
Robyn Harding
Tarryn Fisher
Lucy Foley
Grady Hendrix
Alex Finlay
Jennifer Hillier
Rachel Hawkins
Silva Moreno-Garcia

Top 22 Books to Read in 2022
An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan
In Every Generation by Kendare Blake
When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard
Kill All Your Darlings by David Bell
Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough
Nine Lives by Peter Swanson
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney
In a Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire
Hide by Kiersten White
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Push by Ashley Audrain
Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow
See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide
Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins

January Update
Last month felt both too fast and too slow at the same time. I feel like I reverted a bit back to some of my patterns with my first couple of years of reading challenges, while at the same time still trying to read at least a little bit seasonally. I think it helps that I didn't have a ton of winter-themed books so I couldn't get too hung up on that theme although I definitely read quite a few wintry books. I couldn't help being a little disappointed that I "only" read 11 books this month, when I usually average around 13-15, especially since several of my books were audiobooks and even picture books, but I was still happy to knock out quite a few books that I've been meaning to read for a long time!

Around the Year
Technically I started one book toward this in the last days of the month, but I finished it in February so I'll count it toward that month instead.

Total: 0/53

PopSugar
A book set during a holiday – In a Holidaze
A duology (1) - The Hazel Wood
A duology (2) - The Night Country

Total: 3/56 (5.36%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
Nothing this month!

Total: 0/90

52 Books Club
A book that intimidates you - Empire of the Vampire
A bilingual character - Silent Night

Total: 2/52 (3.85%)

Flourish & Blotts
Nothing this month!

Total: 0/60

Booklist Queen
By a Local Author – My Art, My World
Bottom of Your To-Read List – Tales From the Hinterland

Total: 2/52 (3.85%)

Pick Your Poison
A book by a celebrity known for body positivity - Open Book
A book with the word “snow” in the title – So Much Snow!
A collection of essays – Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
A book that has been on your TBR list more than a year - The Playdate

Total: 4/109 (3.67%)

Series Goals
This month, I completed one series from my list of duologies! I finally read The Hazel Wood after having it on my list literally for years, and even added a book since I hadn't originally intended to pick up Tales of the Hinterland. I was actually hoping to read either one more duology or start another series before the end of the month, but time got away from me a bit. It is just 1 of the 17 duologies I had on that part of my series goals lists, although my goal is technically just to reach the halfway point on that list, but at least it's a start!

Top 21 to Read in 2021 and 5-Star Predictions
Technically, I feel like I cheated a bit since I was already finishing up Empire of the Vampire when I finally posted my list, but it was a book I'd always intended to add there so I count it anyway. I'm very happy that I read this book right away this year because it's the type of thing I definitely would have avoided if I'd waited until later. As it is, it took me about a week and a half to read it, which is much longer than most books take me!

I haven't even touched any of my 5-star predictions yet, but I'm looking forward to getting started on those very soon too! I'm really hoping that this will finally be the year where I'm able to read everything on both of these lists. I actually ended up placing an order earlier today which included several of my priority books and also a couple of my 5-Star Predictions, so I'm excited to get started on those!

Priority Authors
I started reading a book by Wendy Walker right at the end of the month, but didn't finish it in time for it to count just yet. I'm hoping to get to at least a few of my priority authors in February instead.

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I'd love to be surprised that my non-fiction goal is once again where I've had the best start, but it actually makes sense since I listen to an audiobook every other weekend while doing some work from home, and the majority of the audiobooks I pick are non-fiction. I've already read (or at least listened to) 2 non-fiction books so far this year, out of my goal of 15.

I also wanted to really prioritize reading thrillers this year! I always have so many on my TBR and somehow never pick up anywhere near as many as I expect to. I'm off to a solid start this year with 2 thrillers already (Silent Night and The Playdate), which is not too bad given that I only read 11 books so far. I'm definitely hoping to read a lot more thrillers throughout the year. My goal for the year is a minimum of 30, which shouldn't be too hard if I read even a few each month.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
These are new goals that I added this year to give myself an extra push to pick up books from some genres that I generally really enjoy, but don't necessarily reach for. I had so many contemporary romances on my list last year, but somehow I didn't get to the majority even though some were books I was very highly anticipating. I decided to count only adult contemporary romances and exclude YA since so many YA books contain some kind of romance storyline anyway. So far, I've read only one romance book (In a Holidaze), so at least it's a start.

I haven't read any historical fiction books yet this year, but I also wasn't really expecting to start on that goal immediately either. I definitely have some books in mind that I'd like to get to within the next couple of months. My goal is a minimum of 10 so even one a month for the rest of the year would be enough, although I'd love to read even more than that.

Overall
Overall, I think the year has gotten off to a pretty good start, although I would have loved to have finished even one or two more books. I know Empire of the Vampire was the main culprit in slowing me down, but I thought the 2 audiobooks and 2 picture books would have been enough to counteract that and balance things out again. I'm especially happy to have knocked that huge doorstop of a book out right away, and also that I finally read The Hazel Wood series after it had been on my list for so long.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see that I'd inadvertently stuck my loose structure of 3-4 books per month for PopSugar, although I failed completely when it came to ATY. Actually, the last 3 books I was planning to squeeze in at the end of the month were all from ATY so I would have been able to do it, but the end of the month just snuck right up on me. I was also very happy to have read several book towards Pick Your Poison, which is a challenge that is new to me this year and has some very unique prompts.

In terms of quality, this month was a little lacklustre, with the vast majority of my books "only" rated 4 stars. I know that a 4 is still a very good rating, but I usually have a much more even mix of 4's and 5's. I was a little surprised to see that the only books I'd given 5 stars were Empire of the Vampire and my two picture books. It's made the month feel a little unmemorable overall, but to be fair, I usually read so much in a year that I don't necessarily remember much about my January books anyway. I'm hoping for a more even mix next month!

Looking Ahead
For February, I usually like to have a bit of a Valentine's Day theme, with a combo of romances and some domestic thrillers/thrillers with a heavy relationship-focus. I have a few specific books in mind that I'd really like to prioritize. I also have two more winter-themed books that I'd like to pick up soon, although one of them is still on it's way to me so I'm not 100% sure I'll get it before the end of the month.

I'm also planning to give myself a loose structure for the year of one series or two duologies per month, as well as aiming to read 3-4 books per month for each of my two priority challenges. Those can very easily overlap, so it shouldn't be too hard to make it work. I also really want to actively prioritize some of the books that I'm most excited to pick up. I found that last year, I had a weird tendency to delay reading them despite being very excited to try them, and I don't want that to happen again.

February Update
I felt like January got off to a relatively slow start, but February was so much better! I was especially surprised to see that I'd finished a total of 15 books in February, which is the most I've ever read in that month! I often find that I tend to read one or two books less than my average in February, I guess because the month is a couple of days shorter. Luckily, this month was amazing productive! I was actually a bit surprised to see how closely I ended up sticking to my intended theme, which very rarely happens.

Around the Year
A book related to psychology, neuroscience or the mind – Emma in the Night
A book with a main character whose name starts with A, T, or Y – The Heart Principle

Total: 2/53 (3.78%)

PopSugar
A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge (2019 – A ghost story) – The Winter People

Total: 4/56 (7.14%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book with a theme of opposites - The Vanishing Half
A fantasy novel – Caraval
A book that has a heart, diamond, club or spade on the cover - Legendary
A book related to “the end” - Finale
A book related to the Wizard of Oz – Jar of Hearts

Total: 5/90 (5.56%)

52 Books Club
Audiobook is narrated by the author – You Will Get Through This Night

Total: 3/52 (5.77%)

Flourish & Blotts
A book with a star on the cover or in the title - Heartstopper: Volume Two

Total: 1/60 (1.67%)

Booklist Queen
Nothing this month!

Total: 2/52 (3.85%)

Pick Your Poison
A nonfiction book about alcohol – Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol
A book about a scientist – The Love Hypothesis
A nonfiction book about a weather-related disaster - Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans
A book with a map on the cover - Heartstopper: Volume Three
A comic book - Heartstopper: Volume Four

Total: 9/109 (8.26%)

Series Goals
This month, I completed one more series from my list! I read the entire Caraval trilogy, which I'd actually been meaning to read last year but left it until way too late. I also caught up on the Heartstopper series, but I forgot to include that one on my original list of goals even though it was a series I also needed to continue! Caraval was my first full series of the year, in addition the one duology I read back in January, so I'm working my way through these series.

Top 21 to Read in 2021 and 5-Star Predictions
To be honest, I've already forgotten which books I had on my Top 21 list so I was very excited to see that I'd actually read one! I had The Love Hypothesis on my priority list for the year, mostly due to all the hype around it, and I read that one the week of Valentine's Day!

Unfortunately, I still didn't get to any of my 5 star predictions yet. I actually had a few of them that I'd been planning to read in February, but I wanted to save them until a day/weekend where I really had the time to focus on them properly. I still need to grab copies of some of the books that I picked for this list, but I'm hoping to get started on this goal soon.

Priority Authors
This is another goal where I made great progress this month! I read one book each by Wendy Walker, Jennifer Hillier, and Jennifer McMahon. That means I've already crossed three non-YA authors off my priority list, although none of my priority YA authors yet. To be fair, I started Wendy Walker's book in January so it almost would have counted toward that month instead, but I count them by when I finish the book, not when I started.

Just for sake of comparison, I briefly looked back at my progress post from last year and I'm much further ahead on my priority authors goal than I was at this point last year. On the other hand, by the end of February last year I'd already read a total of 3 series so I guess it balances it out. It's not a competition, but I just found it interesting to see!

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I read three more non-fiction books this month (two as audiobooks, and one as a graphic novel), which already brings me to a total of 5 non-fiction this year. That's already a third of my goal of 15 for the year. I definitely find these two formats make non-fiction much easier for me to read. It's still not something I tend to gravitate toward, but at least I'm reading some.

I also read two more thrillers this month, bringing me up to a total of 4. I guess technically The Winter People might be classified as a thriller, at least according to tags on Goodreads, but I personally don't count it. To me, it was more of a horror/mystery, and slower-paced than I would usually consider a thriller. It's funny that I feel like I've been doing much better at prioritizing thrillers, when I've actually read the exact same number that I'd read by this time last year.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
Given that it was Valentine's Day, I definitely planned to read at least a couple of adult contemporary romances. I ended up reading just two: The Love Hypothesis and The Heart Principle. I definitely would have loved to read a couple more to fit a Valentine's theme, but at least I managed to squeeze in a few.

I was also fully prepared to say that I hadn't read any historical fiction yet, but then I realized that The Vanishing Half is historical fiction! It wasn't really one of the books I had in mind when I set this goal, but it was a good way to start! You could also possibly make a case for Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans as historical (as weird as that seems), but it's not fiction so it wouldn't fit either way.

Overall
Overall, this reading month felt amazing! I was especially impressed with myself for finishing so many books, which is a rarity in February. To be fair, it took a bit of strategic planning. I'd originally planned to read House of Sky and Breath some time in February, but I ended up being busy every weekend that I'd planned to read it! Instead, I ended up switching it out for a few shorter options which definitely contributed to feeling super productive.

More than the number of books though, I was also very happy to see that I'd made good progress on several of my goals. I read 3 priority authors, and several books from genres that I really want to focus on this year. It felt great to see some good progress happening on such a variety of my goals, especially after feeling like I hadn't done that much in January. It's honestly the most productive I've felt in a while, even though I still got a lot done toward the end of 2021.

Also, another huge factor in that feeling is how much I was enjoying the books I read this month. Whereas January was mostly 4 stars (which is still very good!), the vast majority of my books in February were 5 stars. Technically a few of these were really 4.5 stars, but in most cases I rounded up. I definitely felt like the books I read this month were a lot more memorable overall than my January reads, and I'm hoping to keep up the momentum!

The only slight downside is that I still haven't done a great job of prioritizing the ATY and PopSugar challenges like I planned. I've only read 2 books toward ATY all year so far, and 4 toward PopSugar. This is quite a bit lower than my intended average of 3-4 books for each of these challenges per month. I really want to make this the year that I don't reach November and December with about 30 books left for each of my "main" challenges, so I definitely need to pay more attention to this one.

Looking Ahead
I'm trying to break away a bit from tying specific months/seasons to specific themes, except for Valentine's Day in February and "spooky season" in October, because I often find myself getting a bit too stuck on the theme. If a book doesn't fit the theme, then I end up pushing it off even if I really want to read it. For March, I'm actually planning to prioritize some of the books that I've been meaning to read for a while. This might interfere a bit with my intent to prioritize ATY and PopSugar, but there are several books that I really want to make sure I read this year so I'd love to get to them soon.

I definitely want to keep my loose structure of at least one series or two duologies per month, especially since I have so many on my list. For March, I'm most likely going to read the Ember in the Ashes series, but there's a possibility I'll switch things around a bit. I'd also love to read more of my Top 21 Books or 5-star Predictions for the year, if possible!

March Update
I don't know what it is about March specifically, but it always feels like it drags a bit compared to other months. All through the month, I was in a bit of a mild slump where everything just took longer than expected, even when I was enjoying the book. I ended up finishing a total of 12 books, but that's mostly because I squeezed in two graphic novels right at the end of the month. I guess coming off the back of a very productive February, it felt a little weird to be that much slower, even though I still managed to read a lot.

Around the Year
A book where the main character is a female detective/private eye/police officer – The Child Finder
A book from historical fiction genre – The Silence of Bones
A book related to inclement weather - Rock Paper Scissors

Total: 5/53 (9.43%)

PopSugar
A book you can read in one sitting - Claudia and the New Girl

Total: 5/56 (8.93%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book from one of Goodreads’ Most Popular lists - Then She Was Gone
A locked room or closed circle mystery – The Hunting Party

Total: 7/90 (7.78%)

52 Books Club
Re-do one of this year’s prompts but with a different genre (A book related to the word fire) – A Torch Against the Night

Total: 4/52 (7.69%)

Flourish & Blotts
Nothing this month!

Total: 1/60 (1.67%)

Booklist Queen
By an Author You Love - Gallant
Nonfiction Bestseller – Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm
A Guilty Pleasure Read - Kristy and the Snobs

Total: 5/52 (9.62%)

Pick Your Poison
A book about how radio, television, or the internet has changed us - Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
A book about an empire - An Ember in the Ashes

Total: 11/109 (10.1%)

Series Goals
I think my biggest disappointment of the month was that I didn't finish the Ember in the Ashes series like I'd planned! By the end of the month, I was just under halfway through the third book so I only technically finished half of a series this month. It's strange because these books are so much easier to read (in terms of writing style) than I expected, yet somehow each one is taking me longer than expected to read. It's probably because I'm trying to read them in the evenings after work, when I don't have much time. It means I can't cross any other series off my list, so by the end of the first quarter, I'd only finished 2 and a half!

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
I read Rock Paper Scissors, which I'd completely forgotten was on my Top 22 list (which I'm also realizing now I mislabeled as Top 21 in 2021 for the past two months!). That brings me to a total of 3 out of the 22 books on this list so far, with literally one read each month. It's a decent start on the goal, but I'll definitely have to prioritize some of these a bit better to make sure I get to them all.

I also read Gallant, which is the first and so far only one of my 5-Star Predictions that I've read this year. To be fair, I don't yet have copies of the majority of the books that I picked, although I have several of them already preordered. I don't think I've ever completed a full 5-star predictions list yet, so I'd love to make that happen this year if I can get copies of everything.

Priority Authors
I managed to cross two more authors off my priority list! From my YA list, I read one book by June Hur, and from my non-YA list, I read by Lucy Foley. That brings me to a total of 4 out of 11 non-YA authors already tried, but only 1 of my 11 YA authors. I'd say this is great progress on this goal so far! By the end of the first quarter of 2021, I'd only read a total of 2 of my priority authors, so I'm more than double that now. The comparison doesn't necessarily mean much, except that I likely have a stronger idea of who is on my list this year to actually prioritize them, since I'd commented last year that I kept forgetting.

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
This month, I listened to 2 more non-fiction audiobooks, bringing me up to a total of 7 for the year, which is about halfway to my goal of 15. It's a little ironic that this goal is one of the easiest for me to accomplish considering I'm really not a fan of non-fiction, although I definitely make it easy on myself by mostly sticking to audiobooks and graphic memoirs. I increased my goal a bit compared to last year to try to push myself to try a few more, and because my challenges this year already included so many non-fiction prompts, so it's good to see that I'm still making great progress.

I also read 4 more thrillers this month, which is a total of 11 for the year so far. Technically, I guess you could count The Silence of Bones as a thriller, but I thought of it as more of a mystery so I didn't include that in my count. One of my biggest challenges with this goal in general is deciding whether some books are technically thrillers, and making sure I count consistently through the year. In any case, I think 11 thrillers by this point of the year is amazing progress on this goal! I didn't set myself a specific number, but in the past two years, I'd read a total of about 30 through the whole year and I was hoping to exceed that. Considering I've already read a third of that total, it seems pretty likely to happen!

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
I didn't read any adult comtemporary romance books this month, but I did read The Silence of the Bones, which was historical fiction. In general, this is a goal that I haven't actively focused that much on yet. I've read a total of only 3 romances this year, and just 2 historical fiction. My goal is 10 historical fiction for the year and 15-20 romances, so I definitely need to get moving on this!

Overall
Overall, this month felt like a bit of a slog even though I read many books that I really enjoyed, especially Gallant, Then She Was Gone, The Hunting Party and Rock Paper Scissors. I was definitely disappointed that I didn't finish the Ember in the Ashes series like I'd wanted, but it's probably for the best that I didn't try to rush through it just to cross it off my list either. It's funny because looking back on my thread from last year, I'd commented that it felt like each book was taking me "too long" to read in March even though it generally took a perfectly reasonable amount of time, and it was exactly the same this year as well! I have no idea why March always feels like this.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see that I'd made good progress on ATY this month with 3 more books read, although I'm still far below my plan to average 3-4 per month for ATY and PopSugar. I've only read a total of 5 books for each of these challenges, so I'll have to actively prioritize them both a bit more if I want to finish them both by the end of the year, or at least not have 30 books left toward each of them by December. If anything, I would say my reading has been pretty balanced so far. With the exception of the Flourish & Blotts challenge that I've barely started, I've read around 5 books per challenge. I've even doubled that total on Pick Your Poison with 11 books already finished! It's always a weird balancing act to read books toward each challenge, while also still giving some priority to my "main" challenges, but hopefully it will all work out.

Although the series goal was a bit of a disappointment, I was very happy to see that I'd made excellent progress on a number of other goals. I was especially happy to have made such great progress on my Priority Authors list! I definitely want to put the same amount of energy into my 5 Star Predictions and Top 22 Priority Books lists too.

In terms of quality, I almost wonder if this was one of the reasons why this month felt like more of a slog. In February, the number of 5-star reads I had far exceeded the number of 4-star reads, whereas this month it was a bit more even. I had a total of 7 books that I'd rated 5 stars, and 5 books that I rated 4 stars. Even though a 4 is still a very good rating and shows that I really enjoyed everything, it seems to have made a difference to my perception of the month overall.

Looking Ahead
I definitely want to prioritize reading some YA standalone books, and also some adult contemporary romances this month! Those are two kinds of books that I don't think I've really read this year. I've read only a handful of romances so far, but I have so many on my list that it shouldn't be hard to pick up a few more. I also have many YA contemporary books that I've been meaning to read, many of them leftover from last year's challenges, and I want to make sure that I don't miss out on them again! I think in a sense, I'm leaning in this direction a bit because March felt so slow, and these kinds of books generally feel much quicker, but also I want a bit more variety since I've been fairly fantasy and thriller-heavy so far this year.

The fact that I haven't finished the Ember in the Ashes series does throw off my series goal a bit, since I had the loose structure of reading one series or two duologies per month. I had another series in mind to read in April, but I might go easy on myself and pick a duology instead. I'd also love to try to read at least a few of my Top 21 Books or 5 Star Predictions in April!

April Update
I feel like this month absolutely flew by! It was a nice change from March, which always feels like it drags a bit, although I basically ended up reading almost exactly the same number of books in both. In March I had read a total of 12 and in April I read 13. This total was definitely helped along quite a bit by several graphic novels and audiobooks, but it balanced out nicely with some longer books as well so I didn't feel too far behind when some of those took a while. I did have a few more books that I really wanted to get to, but I guess I'll have to try to squeeze them into May instead!

Around the Year
A book with a Jewish character or author - Weather Girl
2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 1 - Sorcery of Thorns
2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 2 - The Complete Tales

Total: 8/53 (15%)

PopSugar
Nothing this month!

Total: 5/56 (8.93%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign – A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

Total: 8/90 (8.89%)

52 Books Club
A book with photographs inside – The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire
Featuring a library or bookstore - Recommended for You

Total: 6/52 (11.5%)

Flourish & Blotts
Your most anticipated book of the year - House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

Total: 2/60 (3.33%)

Booklist Queen
Epic Adventure – A Reaper at the Gates

Total: 6/52 (11.5%)

Pick Your Poison
A self-help book – How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life
A book you’d share with your child – Karen's Worst Day
A book about a cat - Karen's Kittycat Club
A book about hygge, feng shui, or home harmony - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
A true crime murder story – I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

Total: 16/109 (14.7%)

Series Goals
I technically finished off the Ember in the Ashes quartet, but I couldn't help being a little disappointed that I didn't squeeze in another series or duology as well. I'd expected this series to be completed in March, and planned to read at least 1-2 more in April, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Finishing this one off did bring me up to a total of 3 full series completed so far this year, which is decent but I definitely need to prioritize more (especially duologies) for this goal!

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
I did not read any more of my Top 22 books this month! I had one or two that I was planning to read, but I just didn't get to them in time. I broke my streak of reading one per month so far!

On the other hand, I did read all of House of Sky and Breath, which was one of my 5 star predictions (and also one of the longest books on my list for the whole year)! In a way, I can't feel too bad about not finishing another series because this book alone is about as long as a duology anyway. This book brought me to a total of just 2 of my 5-star predictions so far.

Priority Authors
I could have sworn I'd read more than one of my priority authors this month, but I guess a few of those were books that I'd planned to read but didn't actually get to. I did read Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, who is on my YA list of priority authors this year. This brings me to a total of 2 out of my 11 YA authors, and I've still read a total of 4 out of 11 non-YA authors. Both of those together, bring me to a total of just over a quarter of all my priority authors, which is a great place to be at this point of the year!

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I read a surprising amount of non-fiction this month, with a total of 4 out of my 13 books! 3 of them were audiobooks and the last one was an ebooks. Of the 4 non-fiction books I read, two of them were by some of my favourite Youtube channels, so those were pretty fun to read. I am already very quickly approaching my goal of 15 non-fiction books for the whole year, since these 4 bring me up to a total of 11!

I was also very surprised to see that I didn't read a single thriller at all in April! I guess it's not so surprising since I read quite a few in March, but I had such good momentum going on that goal that I was surprised that I didn't even read one. I'm still about a third of the way toward my goal of reading a minimum of 30, and it's a third of the way through the year now, so that seems fair.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
I read one adult contemporary romance, but no historical fiction! The more I look at my list of books from the past month, the more it seems incredibly all over the place. These are both still goals that I really need to prioritize a bit more. I had a few books toward each of these genres planned for this month, but didn't get to most of them.

Overall
As I mentioned above, this month felt incredibly scattered somehow, even though I still managed to read quiet a bit. I'm noticing this year that fantasy books in general are taking me longer to read than they used to, and I'm not entirely sure why! I'm still really enjoying them, so I think it's more to do with my schedule than anything else. I definitely didn't expect the Ember in the Ashes series to take anywhere near as long as they did! I also thought House of Sky and Breath took a lot longer than the first book in that series, although I've just checked and both of those books took me about a full week, so I'm not sure why this one felt slower.

I was especially happy to see that I've continued to make great progress toward ATY with another 3 books read! Unfortunately, I didn't read a single book toward my PopSugar challenge in April and I definitely need to step it up and make sure I prioritize that challenge as much. Just looking at my PopSugar plans now, I see several books that I'm interested in picking up soon so I'll have to make sure that I follow through and do that. I also want to prioritize Flourish & Blotts a bit more so I don't fall too far behind on that one!

I'd thought I made some good progress on a number of my goals this month, but looking back at the books that I read, I can't necessarily say that this was the case. I definitely need to keep making sure to check my lists frequently to make sure I'm keeping the books I'm meant to be prioritizing in mind. I've often found that one of my biggest challenges to accomplishing goals is literally forgetting which books I'd been planning to prioritize! I'm still doing relatively well on the majority of my goals though, and I want to keep that up!

In terms of quality, this was another month that was quite balanced. I read a total of 7 books that I rated 5 stars, and 6 books that I rated 4 stars. Of course, that's skewed a bit because of the kinds of books that I read, since I don't necessarily consider a 5-star graphic novel the same as a 5-star full-length novel, especially when that graphic novel is middle grade. I have still yet to rate anything this year below 4 stars though, so that's a great trend to keep up!

Looking Ahead
I have so many books that I want to read in May, and I'm having a lot of trouble deciding what to pick up first! I think I may get a little strategic with it, and prioritize some books that will count toward goals when I'm on the fence. I'm a huge mood reader, so I definitely have to genuinely want to read something to pick it up, but if there are multiple books I'm excited for, it might just make sense to have a bit of a plan of attack on how to prioritize them.

May is also not really a month that I tend to tie to any specific theme or genre, so it's one that shouldn't be hit too hard by "seasonal" reading. In general, I'm really trying to stop tying the majority of my books to specific months or seasons and just read what I want. One goal I'm loosely leaning toward in May is to finally knock out some of the books that have been on my challenge plans for a while. I have about 5 or 6 books that I've been meaning to read for years, and I'd love to finally get those off my list!

May Update
May was a very strange reading month for me. I ended up reading a total of 15 books, but somehow didn't feel like I had read very much since about a third of those were graphic novels, and another 2 were audiobooks. In a way, it almost felt like the month was so long that I forgot about a few of the books and my brain attributed them to previous months instead. I definitely can't complain though, because it has tied February for my most productive month so far this year!

Around the Year
A book by an Asian or Pacific Islander author – You've Reached Sam

Total: 9/53 (17%)

PopSugar
Nothing this month!

Total: 5/56 (8.93%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book with an oxymoron in the title - Second First Impressions
A book that features an uprising - The Infinity Courts

Total: 10/90 (11.1%)

52 Books Club
Nothing this month!

Total: 6/52 (11.5%)

Flourish & Blotts
A book with a number on the cover or in the title - 56 Days
A nonfiction book – Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America
A book with an animal on the cover - The Genesis Wars

Total: 5/60 (8.3%)

Booklist Queen
Makes You Laugh – Oddball
Speculative Fiction - The School for Good Mothers

Total: 8/52 (15.4%)

Pick Your Poison
A children’s book about bedtime – The Dark
A book written by a college professor – How to Be an Antiracist
A book about terminal illness – Five Feet Apart
A book by your favourite author -- Wish You Were Here
A children’s book about body parts – Smile
A memoir – Almost American Girl
A book with the word “picture” in the title - Karen's School Picture

Total: 23/109 (21.1%)

Series Goals
I finally read the first two books of the The Infinity Courts series! This was one of the on-going series that was on my list to try this year. I had a total of 7 series on this list but my goal was to read at least 3. This is the first that I've read off this list, and my fourth series overall from my full list of priority series. I'm definitely feeling a little behind on this goal generally, but I'm hoping to catch up over the summer when I will hopefully have a little more free time.

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
I read 56 Days which was on my list of Top 22 books to read this year! Although it doesn't count toward my goal, I also finally read Second First Impressions, which was supposed to be one of my priority books to pick up in 2021. It's definitely a little embarrassing that it took me so long to get to that book considering how excited I was for it! Reading 56 Days brings me up to a total of 4 out of 22 book so far, which is not too bad.

I also read Wish You Were Here, which was one of my 5-star predictions for the year! This is only my third of the 22 books this year so it's also a goal that I need to actively pay attention to if I want to finish everything before the end of the year. There are still quite a few books on this list that I don't own yet, but I'm hoping to get copies of them soon!

Priority Authors
To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to this goal in May. I had a few books in mind that I was intending to read, but didn't get to them before the end of the month. I'm still standing at a pretty solid quarter of this goal accomplished, but I'd love to be able to read more than one book per person if possible!

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I only read 1 thriller this month (56 Days) but I ended up reading a ton of non-fiction! To be fair, some of the non-fiction books I read were graphic novels, including Oddball which I don't typically consider nonfiction even though it technically is. I also read Almost American Girl and possibly Smile, although again, I'm not sure I'd count that as nonfiction. It's technically based on the author's life, but for some reason I see it tagged as fiction. If I count those 3 plus the two audiobooks I listened to, that's another 5 nonfiction books, which means I've exceed my goal! My goal for the year was 15, and I've now read 16. Even if you exclude Smile and Oddball, that's still 14 so it's still very close.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
It's a little ironic that I put historical fiction as a goal for the year, and have not prioritized it at all since then! I have only read 2 historical fiction books all year so far so I really need to get on that if I want to reach my goal of 10. I also read just one more adult contemporary romance this month with Second First Impressions, making a total of 5. I expect I'll be gravitating more toward romances over the summer too.

Overall
Overall, this month was really all over the place! It was an especially busy month at work, primarily toward the end, which definitely contributed to me focusing quite a bit on graphic novels for a while. I was very happy to have finally read Second First Impressions and The Infinity Courts, which I'd been meaning to try for over a year, and also 56 Days and Wish You Were Here, which were two of my most anticipated books! It was also very nice to finally cross off a few books that had been on my list for years, including Smile, The Dark, and Five Feet Apart.

Once again, I couldn't help being a little disappointed that I didn't make much progress on my top priority challenges. I read only 1 more book toward ATY and nothing toward PopSugar. I really have no idea why I can never seem to prioritize these challenges even though I want to. I definitely want to make it a goal to actively prioritize these two challenges more in the next few months. On the other hand, I made excellent progress on Pick Your Poison with another 7 books this month!

I was pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of my books so far! This month, I gave 9 of the books 5 stars and the remaining 6 were all 4 stars. I still have not had anything this month that I rated less than 4, although there were one or two 3.5 stars that I rounded up to 4 so far this year. Maybe I'm a little too generous with my ratings, but I honestly think I've just become pretty good at knowing my reading tastes and picking books that I'm fairly confident I'll like.

In terms of overall progress on goals, I don't think I necessarily accomplished quite as much as I thought, but I at least made a little progress on most of them. I definitely need to refresh myself on which books and authors are on my list and make sure I prioritize them soon. I especially want to take a look at my ATY and PopSugar lists since I know there were so many books I was very excited for on those!

Looking Ahead
I want to put a little more focus into specific goals this month, especially my priority authors and priority books. I also have about 4 or 5 books that have been on my TBR for several challenges in a row now that I want to prioritize so I can finally cross them off my list. Unlike May, I have a little more of an idea in mind of which books I'd like to read soon, so it feels a bit more structured.

I'm also considering actively trying to break my mind's association that certain books need to be seasonal, by purposely reading at least one thing that does not "fit" the season. I'm not entirely sure yet what that would be so that may be a goal for another month. I'm also hoping to get a ton of reading done this month in general. It's the last month for the summer where I will have extra projects at work taking up some of my weekends (although I usually listen to an audiobook while doing those, so it doesn't necessarily mean reading less), so I'm hoping to have a little extra time.

June Update
June was a surprisingly productive reading month for me, and I was especially happy to have really focused on some of my goals. However, my reading plans did get a little disrupted toward the end. Instead of being able to go on a week-long vacation as planned, I caught COVID (luckily extremely mild), and was stuck at home. Even though I was able to read quite a bit while I was off, I did have some trouble focusing, so I relied a bit on graphic novels and audiobooks. I ended the month having finished 23 books, but it feels a bit like cheating since about half were graphic novels!

Around the Year
A book that uses all five vowels in the title and/or author's name – The House in the Cerulean Sea
A book less than 220 pages OR more than 440 pages - Lumberjanes, Vol. 10: Parents' Day

Total: 11/53 (20.8%)

PopSugar
A book about gender identity – Meet Cute Diary
A sapphic book - The Henna Wars
A book with a tiger on the cover or "tiger" in the title - Lumberjanes, Vol. 14: X Marks the Spot

Total: 8/56 (14.3%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book that features a mode of communication - The Ex Talk
A book with a character that is imprisoned - This Is My America

Total: 12/90 (13.5%)

52 Books Club
A non-fiction bestseller – Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It

Total: 7/52 (13.5%)

Flourish & Blotts
A short book or book of short stories – Lumberjanes, Vol. 19: A Summer to Remember

Total: 6/60 (10%)

Booklist Queen
A Book About Life - In Love & Pajamas: A Collection of Comics about Being Yourself Together
Recommended by a Librarian - The Wife Upstairs
Two Books by the Same Author – A Song Below Water
Two Books by the Same Author – A Chorus Rises
About Nature – Lumberjanes, Vol. 18: Horticultural Horizons
Under 300 Pages - Lumberjanes, Vol. 20: End of Summer

Total: 14/52 (26.9%)

Pick Your Poison
A cozy mystery with a beverage in the title – Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse
A book you’ve set aside in the past because it was hard to get into - The Song of Achilles
A book borrowed from the library - Lumberjanes, Vol. 11: Time After Crime
A book with a monster on the cover - Lumberjanes, Vol. 12: Jackalope Springs Eternal
A book with a cabin on the cover – Lumberjanes, Vol. 13: Indoor Recess
A book with a pun in the title - Lumberjanes, Vol. 15: Birthday Smarty
A funny comic or graphic novel - Lumberjanes, Vol. 16: Mind Over Mettle
A book with a crowded cover - Lumberjanes, Vol. 17: Smitten in the Stars

Total: 31/109 (28.4%)

Series Goals
I could have sworn Bethany C. Morrow's Song Below Water duology was on my list of priority series, but apparently it wasn't! I suspect it's because I counted her as a priority author instead. It's a little frustrating since I was so excited to say I had finished two more series this month, but it turns out that this one didn't count. However, either way I did read the entirety of the Lumberjanes series that I had remaining, so that's one more completed from my list. That makes it my fifth series completed overall. To be fair, this is quite a bit behind where I would like to be at the halfway point of the year, so it's a goal I'll really need to actively prioritize going forward.

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
I read The House in the Cerulean Sea, which was one of my Top 22 books to read this year, and it has very quickly become my favourite book that I've read all year as well! That brings me to a total of 5 out of the 22 books on my list, which is decent, but I'd definitely like to be much further ahead on this goal.

None of the books I read were on my 5-star predictions list. I did have a couple that I was planning to read in the last week, but that had to change when I got sick. I'm planning to read several of those books as soon as possible though! I'm still one-third of the way through this challenge, which is not too bad!

Priority Authors
I think this is the one goal where I made the most progress this month. I read two books by Bethany C. Morrow, one by Emery Lee, and one by Adiba Jagirdar. All three of those authors were on my priority YA list, which brings me to a total of 5 of my 11 authors on this list! I also read one book by Rachel Hawkins, which brings me to 5 authors completed on my non-YA list as well. I'm very happy to be about halfway through each of these lists by the halfway point of the year! I do have a couple of authors that I'm purposely saving for the fall, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to accomplish this goal.

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I read one book that was definitely non-fiction, and there was also In Love & Pajamas: A Collection of Comics about Being Yourself Together, which is one of those questionable ones. It is technically non-fiction since it is based on the author's real life, but it almost seems wrong to count it. I had the same dilemma previously with Oddball as well. For the sake of consistency, I'll include In Love and Pajamas since I did ultimately decide to include Oddball, so that brings me up to a total of 18. Even if you exclude the graphic novels that I've read that were questionable (Oddball, In Love and Pajamas, and Smile) over the past two months, that's still reaching my goal of 15!

I was surprised to see that I'd only read one thriller this month! I had at least two more planned to bring with me on vacation, but when that got cancelled, I ended up shuffling around the books I read reading. That brings me up to a total of 13 thrillers so far this year, which is a little more than a third of my goal to read at least 30. I would definitely like to read a lot more considering how many I have on my list!

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
I read only one book that could clearly be classified as adult contemporary romance, which was The Ex Talk, bringing me to a total of 6 this year so far. This is quite a bit lower than I expected given how many I have on my TBR this year, and I'm hoping to read a lot more over the summer.

In terms of historical fiction, I'm a little on the fence about whether The Song of Achilles counts, since it's based on mythology as well. However, it is tagged as historical fiction on Goodreads so I think I will count it. This brings me up to a total of just 3 historical fiction so far this year, which isn't even halfway to my goal of 10. I'll have to look at which other historical fiction books I have on my challenge plans, and see if I can prioritize a few. I think several of them are YA historical fiction, so those should be easy enough to prioritize soon.

Overall
Overall, this month ended up being a weird one because of how much I had to change my plans toward the end. The trip that I'd planned was kind of a last minute thing, so I already shuffled my books around because I had specific ones I wanted to bring with me, but then I got sick and ended up shuffling things around again based on whatever I was able to focus on. I was originally planning to save the Lumberjanes for the middle of the summer to give a quick boost to my overall total of books read, but I guess it doesn't hurt that it happened just before the halfway point. I definitely wish I'd spread them out over more time though, instead of powering through about 8 of them in one day!

I was pretty happy to have read a couple more books each toward ATY and PopSugar, although I still really need to focus on those challenges to avoid falling too far behind. I also made excellent progress on both the Booklist Queen challenge and especially the Pick Your Poison challenge, largely thanks to all the Lumberjanes books. I really want to avoid getting to the start of November with 30+ books remaining on each of my main challenges, so it may help to refresh myself a bit on which books are one each list and try to prioritize accordingly.

This was also the month where I finally had my first 3-star book of the year! Luckily, it was pretty expected since it was a book that I had extremely low expectations for. My only 3-star this year was Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse, which is from a genre that I really don't care for at all. I chose this book just because it fulfilled a prompt that was more difficult for me, and expected that it would be pretty mediocre. Aside from that, I had 10 books that I rated 5 stars, and another 12 that I rated 4 stars, so that by far outweighed it.

In terms of overall progress, I'm especially happy to have reached the halfway point on both of my priority authors lists. I wish I could say the same for my priority books and especially my priority series! These are both lists I'll have to actively pay attention to going forward to make sure I actually pick up the books that I intended. I've found in the past that I tend to forget which books were on my list, and often read something that I thought counted only to discover that it didn't. I also think I'm making decent progress on all my genre-based goals, although I still have a ton of books I want to read toward each of those!

Looking Ahead
Like last month, I really want to prioritize my Top 22 Books to Read in 2022 list this month, and revisit some of the books I'd been planning to read before I got sick. Even though my case was very mild (just felt like a cold), I had so much trouble focusing at times, and I didn't want that to affect my experience of a book that I was really expecting to enjoy. I tend to have some extra time over the summer, although I do have another trip tentatively planned for later this month (if all goes well), which also affects my reading time.

Another thing I'd love to do this month is to finally knock out some of the books that have been on my list for way too long. I had that as a loose goal for May but didn't do much toward it, but I have a list of about 5-7 books that have been on my challenge plans for at least 2 years already, and it would be very nice to finally say that I've read them!

July Update
July felt like a very strange month to me for some reason, probably because I caught a 24-hour stomach bug within the first week, shortly after recovering from COVID. Aside from that, July was also a huge break in my usual schedule since I had staff training for the first two weeks, which is still working full days but feels very different from my normal day, followed by two weeks off which included my first actual vacation away from home since the start of the pandemic! I always assume I'm going to read so much more in July with all the "extra" time (since I always try to book two weeks off after training), but somehow never quite seem to follow through as much as I expect. I still managed to finish a total of 13 books within the month though, so pretty much on par with most of the rest of the year, although I definitely would have liked to squeeze in a couple more given that I had more free time.

Around the Year
A book related to mythology - Gods of Jade and Shadow

Total: 12/53 (22.6%)

PopSugar
A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge (2016 – Science fiction) – Aurora's End
A book with an onomatopoeia in its title – Click

Total: 10/56 (17.9%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics - Pretty Girls
A book with a full name in the title – Finlay Donovan Is Killing It

Total: 14/90 (15.6%)

52 Books Club
A book with illustrated people on cover – Book Lovers

Total: 8/52 (15.4%)

Flourish & Blotts
A book that contains a fictional language - Aurora Rising
A book set in outer space – Aurora Burning
A book with dual timelines - Yesterday Is History

Total: 9/60 (15%)

Booklist Queen
A 2022 New Release - Reckless Girls

Total: 15/52 (28.9%)

Pick Your Poison
A book about a farmer - Stepping Stones
A book with a picture of a clear blue sky on the cover - I Wanna Be Where You Are
A book about cross dressing - The Black Flamingo

Total: 34/109 (31.2%)

Series Goals
I finally read the entire Aurora Cycle trilogy, which has been on my TBR for years! Aurora Rising was originally one of my 5 star predictions for 2020, but I kept putting it off until eventually I decided to just wait and read all three books together. This series marks my 6th completed overall this year, and it is the third out of the 4 highest priority series that were on my list. I really want to make sure I at least hit the minimum goals I had for each of my 4 lists of series, so it's a goal I'll have to continue to actively prioritize.

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
Unfortunately, I did not read anything from my Top 22 list this month, despite having one or two that I was planning to squeeze in by the end of July. I'm hoping to get to those very soon instead, so hopefully I'll have some more progress this month instead.

However, I did read Book Lovers which was one of my 5 star predictions, so at least I had a small amount of progress toward that goal! So far, I've read a total of just 4 of the books on this list. I'm not quite sure why I said I was one-third of the way through last month, since I'm not quite there yet. I think I saw "finished my third book" the previous month, and read it as "one-third of the books." I definitely want to prioritize some more of these books as well, and hope I can finish this whole list before the end of the year.

Priority Authors
This was a goal where I made some great progress this month! I read one book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, bringing me to a total of 6 out of 11 authors on my non-YA list. I also read a second book by Rachel Hawkins who was on my list as well. My goal is to read a minimum of 1, but if possible I'd love to read at least two each.

I also read one book each by Kosoko Jackson and Kristina Forest, which brings me to a total of 7 out of 11 authors crossed off my YA list (although again, I have more books by each of these authors still on my list too). I am very happy to be making such great progress on this goal, and it definitely seems like my most realistic goal to complete by the end of the year (assuming I didn't just jinx myself by saying that).

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I did not read any non-fiction this month, but that's fine since that goal has already been accomplished, so any more by now would just be extra. However, I did read two more thrillers this month as well, which brings me to 15 so far this year. I'm happy to have reached the halfway point of my goal to read at least 30, but I have so many thrillers on my list that I would have expected to be a little further ahead by now.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
I read Book Lovers this month, which was my 7th adult contemporary romance book of the year. This was another case where I had several in mind to pick up within the month, but the time just got away from me a bit.

In terms of historical fiction, I guess you could make a case for Gods of Jade and Shadow since it is set in the Jazz Age. Personally, I considered it more fantasy than historical, but it is tagged as historical on Goodread. It's essentially the same dilemma I had last month with Song of Achilles, but since I counted that one, it only seems fair to count this one too. That brings me to a total of just 4 historical fiction so far this year. I'm a little worried about this goal, but some of my priority authors and priority series include historical fiction, so if I can get to those, many of those books will do double duty on a few goals.

Overall
This month was another weird one, but I generally ended up feeling like I made some good progress on my goals. I was a bit put out at the beginning because the Aurora Cycle ate up so much of my time. Those three books together took a full two weeks for me to read, which is quite slow for me. Even though I really enjoyed them, it bothered me that they took so long and put a bit of a damper on my plans for the month overall. However, I was happy to see that I still managed to read just about the same overall total of books this month as I have so far as for the rest of the year.

I was also a bit disappointed to see that I still hadn't made too much progress on my ATY and PopSugar challenges. I'm still averaging just over 1 book per month for each of these two challenges, so I'll definitely need to step that up if I want to avoid my usual trap of getting stuck with 30+ books remaining for each by December 1. However, I'm still making some decent progress on several of my other challenges, especially Pick Your Poison and BookList Queen, as well as finally getting to some of the prompts on my Leftovers challenge.

In terms of the overall quality of my books this month, it was pretty much on par with the rest of the year. I had a total of 8 books which I rated 5 stars, and the remaining 5 books were all rated 4 stars. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I still have only one 3-star read (which I read in June) for the whole year so far. Usually I have a handful by now, so I guess I've been pretty lucky. I think it may help that I'm mostly choosing from books that I own, even though there's no guarantee that I'll like a book when I buy it.

I was also very happy to see that I kept making some great progress on my priority authors list, and I'd love to be able to keep up that momentum and finish both of those lists off, and maybe even with more than one book per person! I still need to continue prioritizing my Top 22 list and 5 Star Predictions a bit more. There are still a couple of books on those lists that I don't yet own, and a few more that I'm purposely saving to read around October, so I'd imagine there will be quite the jump in progress around then.

Looking Ahead
I didn't end up putting much effort into reading those books that had been on my plans for years (except Pretty Girls), so that's a goal that I'd like to carry over into this month. I also have a few more summer-themed books that I think would be fitting to try to read in August, despite not wanting to get myself locked too much into the idea of reading seasonally.

I've also loosely toyed with the idea of designating a month to only (or at least mostly) read books toward ATY, PopSugar, or that address specific other goals (ie. a book from any challenge that's on my Top 22 list or that's a 5 star prediction, or priority series regardless of which challenge they are on). I'm not entirely sure if August will end up being that month, nor am I sure that it's a productive approach, but if I could stick to it, it could mean some great progress. On the other hand, it could also backfire and leave it feeling like reading those books is a chore or an assignment, and that's the quickest way to put me off.

August Update
I've been stalling on this update a bit because August was quite a slump-y month somehow! I don't even know why, but everything just seemed to take so long to read even when I was enjoying it. Not only did this month have my lowest total number of books this year, it's actually one of the lowest totals I've read in any month since 2017! I generally average around 13 or 14 books each month, so even though I'm not that focused on the numbers, it was a bit disappointing to see that I seemed to have read so little.

Around the Year
A book with a theme of food or drink – Café Con Lychee
A book set on or near a body of water - Lakelore
3 books set on three different continents - Book 1 – Her Dark Lies

Total: 15/53 (28.3%)

PopSugar
A social-horror book - Cherish Farrah
Total: 11/56 (19.64%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
Nothing this month!

Total: 14/90 (15.6%)

52 Books Club
Nothing this month!

Total: 8/52 (15.4%)

Flourish & Blotts

Total: 9/60 (15%)

Booklist Queen
Set in Africa – When Stars Are Scattered
YA Fantasy - Wayward Son
About a Difficult Choice – Any Way the Wind Blows

Total: 18/52 (34.6%)

Pick Your Poison
A book about the immigrant experience - Parachutes
A book by two or more authors - The Roughest Draft

Total: 36/109 (33%)

Series Goals
My biggest accomplishment of the month was finally reading the last two books of the Carry On series! I've been meaning to read Wayward Son for a while and with the third book finally out, it seemed like a good time to finally pick them up. This marked my 7th completed series of the year, and the last of my highest priority series of the year! I have now finished all 4 of the series that I had for this subgoal, and I'm so happy to finally have read them all!

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
I read Cherish Farrah which was one of the books on my Top 22 list, making a total of just 6 out of the 22 books so far. I did not read any more of my 5 star predictions. I definitely had several books on both of these lists that I intended to read within the month, and likely would have if the weird slump hadn't happened and slowed me way down.

Priority Authors
Technically, Cherish Farrah did double duty since Bethany C. Morrow is also one of my top priority authors to try, although I have already read 2 of her books this year. I also read my second book by Emery Lee. Both of these authors had already been crossed of my list, but I'm always happy to read more than one per priority author!

However, right at the end of August, I managed to squeeze in my first JT Ellison book, who was one of my priority non-YA authors! This brings me up to a total of 6 out of the 11 authors on this list, which is great progress so far.

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I read When Stars Are Scattered, which was a non-fiction graphic memoir. I'd actually completely forgotten that I'd read this and was fully prepared to say that I hadn't read any more non-fiction this month. This goal has already long been accomplished, but this book brought me up to a total of 19.

I read Her Dark Lies, which I can safely classify as a thriller, and I'm a little on the fence about Cherish Farrah. I personally didn't really consider it a thriller but it is tagged as one on Goodreads. I guess since it has the tag I'll count it, so that brings me to a total of 17 thrillers for the year so far.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
I read just one adult contemporary romance in August, which was my 8th of the year overall. I don't know why I keep procrastinating on all my historical fiction books even after setting it as a goal to prioritize them!

Overall
This month felt very disappointing overall, especially because I feel like I read so few books. I know a lot of people would consider 9 in a month a huge accomplishment, but I'm so used to reading at least 13 so I couldn't help feeling like I was behind the whole time. I think what was most frustrating is that there were a ton of books that I really wanted to read that I just didn't get to because every book just took so much longer than expected.

I was happy that I had at least made some solid progress on ATY with three more books completed, and I also read one more book toward PopSugar. On the other hand, I was a little disappointed to see that I had three separate challenges where I'd made absolutely no progress at all this month, especially since those are the ones where I have already read the least. It's tough to balance reading toward those and trying to prioritize ATY and PopSugar, but I also don't really want to give them up either!

In terms of overall quality, I definitely can't complain about what I read. I gave 5 stars to 6 of the books I read, and the remaining books were all 4 stars. To be fair, I think several of the books I read in August were more like 4.5 and I had to make the difficult decision of whether to round up or down. I was very surprised to see that I still have only one book for the entire year so far that is rated below 4 stars! That's definitely a new record for me.

I was happy to make a very small amount of progress on some of my other goals, including a couple more priority authors, even if most were additional books by authors I had already tried. I was also happy to have finally read one more of my Top 22 books. I have no idea why I always have such a hard time prioritizing the books that I'm most excited about! I feel like I subconsciously try to space them out throughout the year so I don't devour them all in a row, but then it backfires and I end up just not reading them for a long time.

Looking Ahead
Fall is definitely the time I tend to get the most seasonal with my books, and I already seem to have hoarded all of my school-themed books for September somehow. It's actually going to be very difficult to decide which ones to prioritize first since I also really want to make sure I get to at least a couple of series and/or duologies each month for the rest of the year. I'm definitely hoping to be in less of a slump this month.

I also still have not yet read some of the books that have been on my TBR list for way too long, to the point where it's getting a bit ridiculous. I always end up putting them aside because there are others I want to prioritize more, but this is exactly how they ended up being on my list for so long already. I think I need to pick a week to devote to reading at least 2-3 of the books I've been avoiding, at least as a starting point!

September Update
September was another fairly slump-y month, but definitely an improvement over August. For some reason, I still felt like a few of my books took much longer than they should to finish, even when I was really enjoying the book and wanted to read. I ended up finishing a total of 11 books in September, which is still a bit lower than usual but I'm much happier with that total than my total for August (9 books).

Around the Year
3 books set on three different continents - Book 2 – The Good Son
3 books set on three different continents - Book 3 - My Sister, the Serial Killer
A fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900 -1951 – These Violent Delights

Total: 18/53 (34%)

PopSugar
An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner – Sing, Unburied, Sing

Total: 12/56 (21.4%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book related to the title of a song from an animated Disney or Pixar movie - I Kissed Shara Wheeler
A book without the words “a,” “an” or “the” in the title - Every Last Fear

Total: 16/90 (17.8%)

52 Books Club
Nothing this month!

Total: 8/52 (15.4%)

Flourish & Blotts
A book that made you cry – A Monster Calls (Collector's Edition)

Total: 10/60 (16.7%)

Booklist Queen
Inspiring Memoir - Educated
Pulitzer Prize Winner – The Complete Maus

Total: 20/52 (38.5%)

Pick Your Poison
A book with a kilt on the cover – Well Matched
A book written by an author with a pseudonym - The House Across the Lake

Total: 38/109 (34.5%)

Series Goals
I think my biggest disappointment of the month was the fact that I did not finish the These Violent Delights duology! I had only completed the first book by the end of September, and this was one of the books I was referring to when I said it took way longer than expected which was weird because I loved it! It's also embarrassing that it took me so long to get to this duology since it was one of the reasons that sparked my interest in prioritizing duologies this year as a goal. In any case, by the end of the month I couldn't quite cross anything else of my list, so I'm still at a total of 7 series for the year so far (technically 7.5 by the end of September).

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
On the plus side, These Violent Delights was one of my 5 star predictions! I'd actually completely forgotten that I'd included this on my list, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it there. In fact, I read a total of 3 of my 5-star predictions this month (I Kissed Shara Wheeler and The House Across the Lake being the other two), which was great progress toward that goal! I have now read a total of 7 out of the 22 books on my list, which is pretty good.

However, I did not read any of the books on my Top 22 list. I definitely thought a few of the books I'd read were on the list but I think I had them mixed up with my 5-star predictions, like I usually do. I'm still at a total of 6 books read from this list, but I have a handful that I was saving to read for October, so I'm hoping to up that total quite a bit!

Priority Authors
I read one book by Alex Finlay, who was on my priority non-YA author list, bringing me up to a total of 8 out of 11 adult authors and 15 of my 22 priority authors overall! I'm very happy to have made such great progress on this goal so far this year, and I hope I don't jinx myself by saying that it shouldn't be too hard to complete by the end of December. I would especially love to read more than one book per author wherever possible too.

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I read two more non-fiction books this month: Educated and Maus. I always find it a bit ironic that my non-fiction goal ends up being my easiest to complete. I have read a total of 21 non-fiction books so far this year, exceeding my goal of 15!

I also read 4 thrillers this month, which brings me up to a total of 21 thrillers for the year out my goal to read at least 30. This is great progress although I also have so many thrillers on my TBR that I'm always a bit surprised that it isn't much more! I definitely tend to read a lot of thrillers around October/November, so I'm fairly confident I'll reach my goal.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
I read only one adult contemporary this month (9th of the year overall), and I'm still failing miserably when it comes to historical fiction. I think this will need to be a goal I repeat next year, especially since I've bought a bunch more historical fictions this year.

**Edited to add: It took me a couple of days to realize this, but actually I think I can safely count These Violent Delights as historical fiction! It was set in 1920s Shanghai and although there were fantasy elements, I think it can still count. So that's a total of 5 for the year so far.

Overall
I wouldn't necessarily say this month was my best, but it definitely felt like a big step up from August. It wasn't even just about the overall quantity of books since 11 is still quite low for me, because I think I also generally enjoyed the books I read in September better too. Objectively, the numbers were actually quite similar. I had a total of 6 books that I gave 5 stars in August and 3 that were 4 stars, and this month I had 8 books that were 5 stars and also 3 that were 4 stars. It's a little weird that those two extra books made such a difference.

I was also very happy to have made some solid progress on ATY although I'm still nowhere near where I would have liked to be by this point of the year. I would love to figure out what it is that prevents me from actually prioritizing the challenges that are supposed to be my top priority! I've read over 30 books toward Pick Your Poison for example, so obviously it's possible to read many toward one challenge even while doing multiple challenges. To be fair, PYP is the challenge where I tended to put more audiobooks and/or graphic novels though, so that might be the main reason. I almost wonder if I pick a different challenge to call my top priority next year, would I end up easily finishing all of ATY first?

More than anything, I was happy to have made some great progress toward a few of my other goals, especially my 5 star predictions list! I definitely need to refresh myself (again) on which books are on my Top 22 list because I can never seem to remember what I put there. I often find that the books from that list are often the ones I end up "near missing" when it comes to the end of a month. For example, I was hoping to read The Push and ended up pushing it off (no pun intended) because I just ran out of time, but maybe remembering that it was meant to be a priority would help me pick it up sooner.

I was also very happy to have finally prioritized a few more thrillers. It is one of my favourite genres and I have so many that I want to read, but I always end up trying to space them out. I have no idea why I keep avoiding all my historical fiction when it's a genre that I love and really want to start picking up more often again. I suspect the past two months, it was because I assumed the books would be on the slower side so I wasn't too motivated when I already felt like my progress was slow. I'm hoping to pick up at least a few more by the end of this year.

Looking Ahead
I always have a ton of books that I purposely save to read in October/around Halloween, but it's always too many to realistically read within the month! I've definitely been bleeding over some of the books I'd meant to read in September into October, with the loose intent of transitioning toward the creepier/more Halloween-themed books as the month goes on. I usually end up doing a week or two of Halloweenish books at the start of November too.

This is the last month for a long time where I'll have a considerable amount of time off since I have at least 1 extra day off almost every single week this month. I'm hoping this will give me the push to actually prioritize reading and pick up a few extra books, although I do have some work that I'll have to complete at home at least some of those extra days so I'm not sure it will actually happen. I'm planning to read at least 2 more of my priority authors, and several of my 5-Star Predictions and Top 22 list, so I'm hoping I get to all of those!

October Update
October was a little all over the place for me. I'd originally intended to spend the majority of the month reading some of my Halloween-themed books, but shifted gears in the first half instead to read some of my highest priority books and especially series. I didn't even get to the spookier books until the last week or so of the month, so I couldn't help being a tiny bit disappointed that I couldn't read more of them before Halloween. I did manage to read a pretty solid number of books (12) overall, and even got to some of my most anticipated books, so it was a good month overall.

Around the Year
A book that fits your favorite prompt that did not make the list – A winner or nominee from the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards – Our Violent Ends
A book with 22 or more letters in the title – A Psalm of Storms and Silence

Total: 20/53 (37.7%)

PopSugar
A book about the afterlife - Under the Whispering Door
A book set in the 1980s - My Best Friend's Exorcism

Total: 14/56 (25%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book with a competition as a main plot element - A Song of Wraiths and Ruin

Total: 17/90 (19%)

52 Books Club
Author who’s published in more than one genre - Hide

Total: 9/52 (17.3%)

Flourish & Blotts
Contains a character with a herbology related name - The Children on the Hill

Total: 11/60 (18.3%)


A Book Everyone is Talking About – I'm Glad My Mom Died
An Audiobook – Can Anybody Help Me?

Total: 22/52 (42.3%)

Pick Your Poison
A book with the word “naked” in the title – Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed
A book about secret societies/clubs – Good Girls Lie
An illustrated book - Mooncakes

Total: 41/109 (37.6%)

Series Goals
One of my biggest accomplishments this month was finishing off two of my highest-priority duologies! I read the second book of the These Violent Delights duology this month, as well as both books of the Song of Wraiths and Ruin duology. This brings me up to a total of 9 completed series so far this year, and a total of 3 out of the 17 duologies I had on my list (with the goal to read a minimum of 8). It's a little further behind than I would have liked to be by this point of the year, but solid progress this month alone.

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
I only read 1 more book from my Top 22 list, which was Hide. I had several more in mind that I wanted to pick up in October specifically, but that got changed when I ended up prioritizing the duologies instead. In total, I've only read 7 of the 22 books on this list, and I'm pretty disappointed to still be well below half! I'm still hoping to be able to complete this goal by the end of the year, but with 15 books remaining, it may be a bit of a longshot unless I actively prioritize these at the expense of other books/goals.

On the other hand, I did read 3 more books from my 5-Star Predictions list! I read A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, The Children on the Hill and Under the Whispering Door which were three of my most anticipated books to pick up this year! I'm almost wondering if going forward I should combine my Top X Books to Read in 202X and my 5-Star Predictions, but the lists do have slightly different focuses so it might make sense to just keep them separate.

Priority Authors
I read one book by Grady Hendrix, marking by 9th out of 11 priority non-YA authors from my list, but unfortunately no additional YA authors this time. I also read one additional book each by Jennifer McMahon and JT Ellison, who are both on my list too. I've already read one other book by each of them earlier in the year, but I've always had the loose goal in mind of actively reading *more* than one book per priority author, so I was very happy to get to these!

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I read one more non-fiction book this month, bringing me up to a total of 22 for the year! This has far exceeded my goal of 15. To be fair, I'd briefly considered making my goal for the year 20 originally but I thought that might be pushing it a bit. I guess I was wrong!

I also read a total of 4 thrillers this month, bringing me up to a total of 25! This is very solid progress toward my goal of reading a minimum of 30. I was hoping to have quite a few more than 30 to really confidently say I had read "more" thrillers than usual, but it seems most likely that I'll stay somewhere around that number. Either way, I'm very happy to make some more solid progress toward this goal.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
I didn't end up reading any more adult contemporary romances this month, however I did read one (possibly two?) historical fiction books. I realized after the fact last month that Chloe Gong's These Violent Delights series counts as historical fiction due to its 1920s setting, so the sequel I read this month would bring me up to a total of 6 for the year so far.

The only one I'm on the fence about is My Best Friend's Exorcism. It's set in the 1980s so it's definitely in the past, but I've never really seen it tagged or even discussed as historical. Given that the time period is not really the focus of the book, I don't think I will include it at this time although I may change my mind later on.

Overall
Even though I was frustrated that I didn't get to all the Halloween-ish books that I'd intended, I feel like this was one of my most successful months overall in terms of accomplishing goals. I made pretty solid progress on almost all of my goals, with the exception of adult contemporary romances. I wish I'd actually gotten to all of the books that I'd had in mind for this month since that would have been a huge jump forward on several goals, especially my Top 22 list, but there's still some time before the end of the year.

I think my biggest frustration overall is that I still seem to be incapable of getting to this point of the year with fewer than 30 books remaining on each of my top priority challenges! I said this last month too, but it's almost to the point where I'd like to try a reverse psychology experiment and label different challenges as top priority instead of ATY and PopSugar, and see if I somehow end up changing my reading pattern. It's not even anything to do with the books I had in mind for those challenges since I'm still excited to read those so I really don't know what the issue is.

In terms of quality, this was a decent month overall although I definitely had fewer 5-star reads than usual. I had just 5 books that I rated 5 stars, which was my second-lowest number in a single month all year (January is still the lowest with just 3). I had 6 books that I rated 4 stars, and 1 book that I rated 3 stars, although to be fair, that was literally a children's picture book that I didn't expect to love, so I wasn't too upset about it. In general, I've found that I'm reading less overall in the second half of the year somehow, but I'm hoping to pick up the pace a little in the next couple of months and read as much as I can.

I was especially happy to have finally gotten to some of my most anticipated books of the year, although I have no idea why it took me so long to pick up some of them! Although I still wish I'd stuck a bit more closely to my Halloween theme for the month overall, I also think it was good to actively prioritize some of the duologies that I really badly wanted to read, especially since I had some time off at the beginning of the month so I (theoretically) had a bit more time to read them with fewer distractions. I was hoping it would translate to a couple of extra books finished overall, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Maybe in the future I should find some way to track page count too, since I'm wondering whether the months where I read "less" might actually be a similar total number of pages to the months where I've read more books overall. It's possible that it's just some longer books throwing off the count a bit.

Looking Ahead
I will definitely be keeping up my Halloween theme for the first week or two of November since there are still so many more books that I wanted to read. After that, I'm torn between focusing on some of the books that have been on my reading challenge TBRs more than 2 times already, or focusing on targeting very specific books that work toward goals. I actually think I've been pretty successful in October by picking up whatever I was in the mood for at the time, so it might be best not to strategize too much.

The one thing I would really like to do though is to cross several more books off my ATY and PopSugar lists, so I might try to give a slight edge to those if I'm stuck about what to read next. I have so many books that I really want to read, but I've been finding myself in a bizarre kind of slump for a few months now. I'm still reading a lot and want to read, but everything just takes longer than expected and I'm sometimes even having a harder time than I expect getting into books even when I'm enjoying them. It has been a particularly busy/stressful few months though, so I'm hoping things will pick back up by the end of the year (or at least get a refresh when the new year of challenges starts).

November Update
I don't know why, but November felt like an unusually long month this time around. Unfortunately, that "extra" time didn't necessarily translate to much extra reading. I finished a total of 12 books, but that included 2 audiobooks and 2 graphic novels. I spent the first chunk of the month focusing on reading more of my Halloween-themed books that I hadn't had a chance to get to in October, and slowly shifted toward reading other things as well by the end. I was also intentionally trying to pick up some of the books and authors that I'd been hoping to prioritize, and luckily I was successful in that!

Around the Year
A book published at least 10 years ago - Life & Laughing: My Story

Total: 21/53 (39.6%)

PopSugar
A book about witches - The Ex Hex
Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (1) – The Paris Apartment
Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (2) – The Party

Total: 17/56 (30.4%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book related to the proverb “blood is thicker than water” – The Family Plot

Total: 18/90 (20%)

52 Books Club
Household object on the cover - Horrorstör
Award-winning book from your country – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Read during the month of November – You Are Home

Total: 12/52 (23.1%)

Flourish & Blotts
A book by a favorite author - White Smoke
A book that involves music - Ghost Wood Song

Total: 14/60 (23.3%)

Booklist Queen
Nothing this month!

Total: 22/52 (42.3%)

Pick Your Poison
A book about an estranged family - What Big Teeth
A book about overcoming obstacles - Everything Is OK

Total: 43/109 (39.4%)

Series Goals
Unfortunately, my series goal seems to have completely fallen apart. The further we get into the year, the less motivated I've been to pick up series since it feels like they take up "too much" time somehow, even though it's realistically the same as reading the same number of individual books. I assume it's because the books in the series I read tend to be on the longer side. I was hoping to read at least one duology this month, but ended up reading no series at all.

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
On the other hand, I did a little better with this goal, at least when it comes to reading 5-star predictions. I did not read any more books on my Top 22 list, but I did read The Family Plot and White Smoke, both of which were on my 5-star predictions list! That brings me to a total of 12 of the 23 books completed from this list, which is great progress, although a little frustrating that I'm not further ahead by the end of the year!

Priority Authors
I made some solid progress on this goal as well, and it was one that I was actively trying to prioritize this month! I read one book by Erica Waters and one book by Robyn Harding, crossing one more off each of my lists. I also read a second book each by Lucy Foley and Grady Hendrix, which is just a bonus! So far, I have read a total of 8 out of 11 priority YA authors, and 10 out of my 11 priority non-YA authors! This will likely be my easiest goal to accomplish, as long as I make a point of prioritizing their books!

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
Surprisingly, I read another 3 non-fiction books this month! Two of those were graphic novels, but I'm counting them for the sake of consistency since I've included other similar non-fiction graphic novels earlier this year. This brings me to a total of 25 non-fiction books for the year, which I'm sure is a record for me!

I also read two books that can definitely be classified as thrillers (The Paris Apartment and The Family Plot), and another 3 that are questionable. I personally don't count The Party as a thriller even though it is tagged as such on Goodreads, so I don't think I'll include that one. White Smoke and Horrorstor are both also tagged as thrillers although I'd classify them as predominantly horror. I think for now I will leave them out of the count, but I may reconsider. Without those included, I've read a total of 27 thrillers this year, which brings me very close to my minimum goal of 30.

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
The Ex Hex might be a little more on the fantasy side that what I would traditionally count as a contemporary romance, but I'm counting it anyway! This makes a total of 10 for the year, which is quite a bit lower than my goal of 15-20. I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in a few in December, so hopefully I'll be able to at least reach my minimum goal of 15.

Unfortunately, I have completely failed in my historical fiction goal! This was another month where I did not read a single historical fiction book. I've read a total of 6 out of my goal to read at least 10 so there is a slim possibility I'll be able to squeeze in enough to reach this goal before the end of the year. I should at least be able to get pretty close.

Overall
I was both very happy and very frustrated with my progress this month at the same time! I was happy that I made some good progress on a few of my goals, but also frustrated that every book still seems to be taking me a little longer than expected. The entire month felt very slow-moving in general so that definitely contributed a lot to the perception that everything was taking forever. I start each month with so many books in mind that I want to get to soon, and somehow end up only getting to a few.

As always, my biggest frustration is the fact that I am once again going into December with at least 30 books remaining on both the ATY and PopSugar challenges. This was the one thing I wanted most to avoid this year, but it's become a recurring pattern that I can't seem to prioritize these challenges even though I want to. I'll have to strategize a bit if I want to keep this as a goal for next year, or if switch things up and try to prioritize differently instead.

In terms of quality, this was another great month with a total of 7 books that I gave 5 stars, and the remaining 5 books were all rated 4 stars. I was also excited to finally get to some of my most anticipated books of the year, and even squeezed in two graphic novels that I wasn't expecting to have access to so soon after their release! I also had several books that I enjoyed a lot more than I expected, so that was a very pleasant surprise.

Looking Ahead
There are several goals that I'm fairly close to accomplishing, or at least reaching my minimum that I was aiming for, so it's likely that I'll be able to cross at least a few off my list. Unfortunately, there are also some other goals that I'm nowhere near (ie. my series goal and my Top 22 list) and it's a bit frustrating that I didn't prioritize them properly. I obviously won't be able to finish these goals, but I would like to make at least a little more progress on each so I can feel confident that at least I got as close as I possibly could.

I'm also actively starting to plan for my next round of reading challenges, although I'm struggling a bit more than expected to figure out which books to plot in. I feel like several of my challenges have prompts that are a bit more open than usual so it makes it a little harder to figure out what to include. It's almost like there are too many options so it's hard to pick just one! I'm hoping to have a day or two, ideally on a weekend, where I can really devote some time to sitting with my challenge lists and really plotting things out.

December Update
I was debating not even posting this since it seems quite late, and I'm a little frustrated that I didn't accomplish many of my goals, but it was bugging me to leave this incomplete! I definitely caught a bit of a "second wind" toward November/December where I was very motivated to try to finish off at least some of my goals, but didn't quite have enough time to squeeze everything in. However, I was still able to read a lot and managed to finish a total of 14 books!

Around the Year
A book published in 2022 - The Family Remains
A book with an image of a source of light on the cover – The Night Shift

Total: 23/53 (43.4%)

PopSugar
Nothing this month!

Total: 17/56 (30.4%)

ATY Top Picks & Leftovers
A book whose title contains a negative – Don't Read the Comments
A book where a community plays an important role - How It Went Down
A book related to the phrase “a shot in the dark” - Light It Up

Total: 21/90 (23.3%)

52 Books Club
A job title in the title - The Maid

Total: 13/52 (25%)

Flourish & Blotts
A book with an incompetent character – F in Exams: The Best Test Paper Blunders
A paranormal book - The Book of Cold Cases
Includes a character with a celestial name - An Arrow to the Moon
A funny or happy book - The Day the Crayons Came Home

Total: 18/60 (30%)

Booklist Queen
Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick - The Downstairs Girl

Total: 23/52 (44.2%)

Pick Your Poison
A book written by someone from Scotland – 500 Miles from You
Anything you want – The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There
A paperback book - The Wives

Total: 46/109 (42.2%)

Series Goals
By this part of the year, my series goal had completely fallen apart. I decided not to prioritize series since I assumed it would give me more time to work toward other goals instead. It was another month where I ended up reading no series at all, leaving me with a total of 9 series completed this year overall.

Top 22 to Read in 2022 and 5-Star Predictions
On the other hand, I did slightly better with this goal. I read An Arrow to the Moon, which brought me up to a somewhat disappointing total of 8 of my priority books completed this year.

I also read The Book of Cold Cases, The Night Shift and The Maid, all of which were on my 5-Star Prediction lists. Those three brought me up to a total of 15 out of 22 predictions read! This was one of my most successful goals overall, which is ironic because it was one that wasn't an "official" goal.

Priority Authors
Frustratingly enough, I ended up reading all but one of my priority authors this year! This month, I read one book each by Stacey Lee and Eric Smith from my YA list, and Tarryn Fisher from my non-YA list, as well as a second book by Alex Finlay. It was a little discouraging to get so close to finishing this goal and then missing it by just one, but to be fair, the last remaining author was Aminah Mae Safi, who was the one I was most on the fence about trying anyway.

Read some non-fiction and some thrillers
I read 1 book (The Office BFFs) that could safely be counted as non-fiction, and also F In Exams, which is a bit questionable. It's technically non-fiction since it's supposed to be based on real test answers, but seems like a bit of a stretch to count. Either way, I definitely accomplished this goal for the year since The Office BFFs brought me up to a total of 26!

In terms of thrillers, I read another 4 thrillers this month which brought me up to a total for the year of around 31. I checked my stats on Storygraph and it said 32 thrillers, but I couldn't quite figure out what it had counted that I hadn't. Either way, this reaches my goal of reading at least 30, although I would have loved to exceed it by a bit more!

Read some adult contemporary romance and some historical fiction
I read one more book in each of these genres in December, bringing me up to a total of just 7 historical fiction and 11 adult contemporary romance books for the year. These were both a bit lower than the goals I had set (10 historical, and 15-20 romance), but at both totals were approaching my minimum goals. These are both genres that I want to prioritize even more in 2023!

Overall
Overall, it's been a good reading year but also a little frustrating since I didn't accomplish many of my goals. I was very happy to have made some great progress on the majority of them, but frustrated that by the end of the year, every book was taking longer than expected which made me feel constantly behind. Even though I technically read a lot, I couldn't help being a little disappointed too that I didn't get to all of the books I'd been so excited to read.

However, I definitely can't complain about the quality of my reading overall. This month alone, I read a total of 14 books and 8 of those were 5 stars, 4 books that were 4 stars, and just 2 that I rated 3 stars. For the whole year, I had significantly more 5 star books (90 in total) compared to 4 stars (66 books total), and just a handful (only 4!) books that I rated 3 stars with nothing below that. It only further solidifies my idea that I've become very good at choosing books that I'm pretty confident that I'll like.

My biggest frustration of the year was how I failed to prioritize books and series that I was very excited to pick up, and I still have a recurring pattern of going into December with 30+ books remaining on both the ATY and PopSugar challenges. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with taking on so many different challenges and I don't necessarily pay attention to which book counts toward which challenge when I choose what to read next. However, I was very happy that I read most of my 5 Star Predictions and almost all of my priority authors!

Looking Ahead
I'm looking into ways to restructure my goals a bit for 2023 to make them a little more reasonable to accomplish. I have a ton of reading challenges on the go and it's obviously not going to be realistic to accomplish them all, but I've decided to look at many of them as lists of options since I tend to be such a mood reader. I almost wonder if taking the pressure off of trying to finish ATY and PopSugar will be the trick I need to actually end up finishing them.

I have so many books and authors I'm excited to try in 2023, and I definitely want a do-over on my goal to read series/duologies, possibly with a little more structure in place to keep me on track. The same goes for my list of Top 23 to Read in 2023, which I want to make sure I actually prioritize properly for once! It's been a lot of fun looking ahead to some of my most anticipated books coming out in 2023 and to get started on a new year of challenges!