Since I work in a bookstore, I am surrounded at all times by fantastic reads. For those not familiar with book jargon, books fall into two categories: forthcoming/new releases and backlist titles. As a bookseller, it’s usually more advantageous to read more forthcoming books than backlist books, as those are the ones you’ll want to recommend to customers. However, I always try to balance a few newer titles with a few backlist ones. Most of the books I want to read this year are ones that have come out in the past few months, but I wanted to highlight some books from early last year and before that that I want to get to in the coming months. These vary in genre and subject matter, but they’ve all been on my list for a while, and I’m making them a priority in the new year.
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
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I started reading this book in 2019 but took a break from it for a little while when school started. When I finally came back to it, COVID-19 was sweeping the globe and I wasn’t really in the mood to read a post-apocalyptic novel dictating the aftermath of a global pandemic for obvious reasons. Since it has been almost a year of various lockdowns and quarantines, I want to get back to this book. I really enjoyed the pages of it that I did read, and all my friends and coworkers have loved it, so I’m excited to get to it soon.
- Bunny by Mona Awad
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Okay, so like Station Eleven, I’ve already started Bunny, but that was only in December, so far less time has gone by. This book is described as Heathers meets The Craft, but at a liberal arts school, which is absolutely up my alley. I just need to sit down and keep reading it, which I have found hard to do because of classes starting again. I plan to hopefully finish it in early February.
- Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
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When it comes to romance, I usually tend to drift toward novels of the supernatural variety, but this one has been loved by everyone I’ve spoken to about it. Not to mention it’s super wholesome and has reportedly very good representation of chronic illness. Needless to say, I am VERY excited to pick this up when I am in the mood for fluff.
- The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay
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I watch a lot of YouTube, and one of my favorite YouTubers, Abby Asselin, gushes about this book all the time. Though she’s a couple years older than me and in grad school, we’re at a similar point in our lives: early twenties, in school, and just trying to figure out the world. If she found solace and inspiration from this book then I am confident I can too, and I look forward to seeing what it has to offer.
- Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
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If you’ve heard of Edward Snowden, it’s probably in relation to the mass NSA surveillance leak he orchestrated in 2013. This is his memoir, and as someone who has been fascinated by his story since watching his interview with John Oliver, this book has drawn me in for over a year now. I know a bit about Edward Snowden, but I want to know more and have wanted to know more for a while, so now is the time.
I have no idea if I will be able to read all of these books this year, but since I am striving to read 100 books in 2021, I am hopeful that I will get to these five. I love writing about books, so maybe I’ll do a review of these five once I have finished them. I hope you all have something that excites you this year, whether it’s books or something entirely different.
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