January To-Be-Read and 2020 Reading Goals

Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of the CW Torch. As the new year is upon us, it is that time to reflect on the past year and decade. However, I am looking forward to 2020 and the start of this new decade. It is a time to make goals and to try to reach them at whatever pace you choose. It's all right to not accomplish all of your goals or even just making the small leaps towards them. But as long as you set yourself to something you can accomplish, then achieving those goals should be easy. I am for one really excited to share and start my goals, because I have high hopes in accomplishing most of them. While, I do have personal goals that I don't want to share on this platform, I will definitely share the reading goals I want to accomplish this year.

2020 Goals

For 2020, two of my goals that I am most excited about kind of go hand-in-hand, since they have to do with reading particular genres. I really hope to add more adult literary fiction and Fantasy fiction to my reading repertoire. Since, getting back into reading these past couple of years, I have focused a lot on young adult genres. Which is by no means a bad thing, because I love YA. But I feel that it's all I want to read or all that I am exposed to within the Booktube community. However, I have noticed that my reading tastes are maturing and I want to read more books that make me think and question what the author's intentions were with the novel they wrote. There are a lot of books that I want to read within the adult literary fiction genre as well as adult fantasy that I've come across or have seen at the bookstore. I want to make more of an effort to actually read those books, and so here is a list of just a few that I really want to get into.

Adult Contemporary/Literary Fiction:

Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy:

All of Brandon Sanderson's books, particularly the Mistborn Trilogy

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Recursion by Blake Crouch

*There is one really popular Science-Fiction/Fantasy that I, honestly, can't think of the title right now. But, once I remember it I will add it to this list.

Another goal I want to try and accomplish is to read more of the books that I own and have not read yet, instead of buying more books. I recently moved into an apartment, and don't have a whole lot of space for extra bookshelves. So, instead of buying more books and bookshelves to put them on, I am going to try to get through all the unread books I currently have, which is a lot. I worked at a Barnes and Noble for a few months, and while I was there I definitely took advantage of the employee discount. Therefore, I bought a lot more books faster than finishing the books I was currently reading. In order, not to clutter my room full of books, I am going to try to read the books I have and not buy as many. Only buying books that I really want to get my hands on, and that I know I will enjoy.

My last goal for 2020 is my Goodreads reading goal, which is to read 60 books this year. Last year, I set my goal to 55 and read 57, so each year I try to add 5 more. Obviously, I am not going to be mad if I don't meet this goal. I did start a new full-time job, and because of that I have been reading at a slower pace. So, if I don't reach this goal or feel like I am going to be really behind, I may push it back a few books to a number that I know I can accomplish. But, obviously, I am going to try and strive for this number, but not put too much pressure on myself if I don't meet the goal in the end.

Now that I have discussed all of my reading goals, which I am sure will change throughout the year. It is time to talk about the books I want to read during the first month of the new year, which also just so happens to be my birthday month! Here is my January To-Be-Read.

The Toll (Arc of A Scythe #3) by Neal Shusterman

*I have already finished this book, because I started reading it in December. I had to put it down that month, since I was participating in a ReadAThon and this book did not meet the requirements of that ReadAThon. But, once the new year started I picked it up again and could not put it down. I plan on doing a full, in-depth review of this trilogy, which has already become one of my all-time favorites. Since, this is the third book in the series, I will not discuss the synopsis of this book to avoid spoilers.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Synopsis:

If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and the word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold Children-- four adolescents on the cusps of self-awareness-- sneak out to hear their fortunes. The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-Boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Synopsis:

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she's a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by--palm readings, zars, healings-- are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles. But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she's forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound. In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences. After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for...

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Synopsis:

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett's father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval--the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show-- are over. But this year, Scarlett's long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval's mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season's Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner. Scarlett has been told that everything happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic.

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

Synopsis:

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country's bloody civil war--and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka's coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army. Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening him to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren't meant to stay buried-and some wounds aren't meant to heal.

So, those are all the books I wish to read for the beginning of the new year! I have already finished one of them and absolutely loved it, so I have high hopes for my reading plans for 2020. I hope everyone else has a strong reading year, and good luck to anyone else who has a few goals they want to accomplish in the new year!

Thanks for Reading!

XOXO,

The CW Torch!

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