Have I mentioned that I actually have a New Year Resolution? No? Well let me tell you: my resolution is to read all the books that I’ve been supposed to read. Books that were gifted to me, books that I own but never opened, books that I started to read, enjoyed reading, then simply… forgot to read ever again? There’s a sad amount of those. I’ve done pretty well so far and finished 3.5 books by February 2nd.  For me, that’s pretty darn good. I finished The Fifth Season (the first book of The Broken Earth series) into the New Year, then immediately finished the last two. I also joined a new book club, where we read The Stroke of Winter. I had mixed feelings on it – the characters were flat but overall it was a nice, cozy read.

I have a P L A N for my readings coming up, and it goes in order:

1. Red, White and Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston) – is next because it was gifted to me by one of my best friends and I’m tired of getting yelled at for not reading it yet. (Also it seems v. v. cute.)
2. The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula Le Guin) – as a fantasy enthusiast, it’s frankly messed up that I haven’t read any Ursula Le Guin, so we’re going to remedy that asap. I want to read a fantasy here because the next couple will need to be romances:
3. Welcome to Temptation (Jennifer Crusie) – My new book club book needs to be read by February 28th. Romance isn’t typically my go-to, but it’s a LOT of people’s go-to. I find value in reading many different genres, and Crusie is one of my favorite romance authors. 
4. Untamed (Glennon Doyle) – a book gifted to me by a sweet friend. She said this book helped her a LOT in her life struggles, and I feel like an ass for not reading it yet. So this one needs to be up in the queue.
5. The Blood King (Gail Martin) – back to fantasy (ope there goes gravity) Another book gifted to me (man, I have good friends.) This is book #2 that I COULDN’T FIND FOR YEARS and I finally have it and I need to finish it.
6. The Killing Moon (N.K. Jemisin) – Jemisin… may be my favorite fantasy author atm? I adored her writing style in The Broken Earth trilogy and I would like more please, thank you. The other ones I want to get to quickly but I’m also very anxious to get back into her fascinating worlds written in lovely prose.

So this is a pretty good mixture of genres, and a good mixture of books that other people want me to read vs. books I want to read. (That sounds like there is no overlap, but this venn diagram is pretty much a circle. I DO want to read them all.) So I guess these are the goals for February? Considering I read 3.5 books in January, I’d say this goal is… challenging. I don’t totally expect to hit, but hey – we can dream.