A brand new year means brand new challenges. Though this year’s resolutions are centered around my one word goal, I’m still happy to throw in 5 books I vow to read in 2016 as well. After finishing curating this list I’ve only just now realised all of the authors I’ve picked are all female (YASSS!) and cover a nice range of non-fiction, essays and fictional YA from different genres (go me!).
*images via Goodreads
Changing My Mind: Zadie Smith
I developed a very serious love for essay writing, but I’ve never managed to actually sit and read one cover to cover – I tend to go via the contents and pick out ones that sound interesting to me. Zadie Smith is an awe inspiring woman, so I’m sure I’ll come out of this one with fully highlighted pages of great quotes.
Remix: Non Pratt
This is my ‘want to read cause it looks hella fun’ choice on the list. Non Pratt comes highly recommended by most book bloggers and I’ve heard nothing but good about Remix. I already follow Pratt on Twitter and lover her humour of there so am really looking forward to this one.
How To Be A Heroine: Samantha Ellis
Spoiler alert! I’m trying to write a novel with female leading protagonists. In my quest to learn how to write better this year I’m after some decent ‘writing’ critique books that won’t make me feel like I’m reading a journal for an Undergrad dissertation. ‘How to…’ looks ace, plus I’m a bit of geek for books about analyzing books, plus this one comes with a whiff of feminist critique too.
*images via Goodreads
A Darker Shade of Magic: V.E. Schwab
I read the extract for this a few months ago and ended up buying the book when it came out because I was itching to know more – it then sat on my TBR shelf for a long, long time…Oops! From what I’ve read so far Schwab is throwing out some steampunk-y/The Night Circus vibes with this. I’m dying to get back into good series now that so many of my favourites have finished up, so maybe ADSOM will be the one!
Only Ever Yours: Louise O’Neil
I feel like everyone and their mother is trying to recommend this book to me. Which can only mean one of two things 1. It’s going to mother-effin’-mindblowingly good, or 2. It’ll be a let down but I’ll still enjoy it somewhat. I’m hoping for the former. From everything I’ve heard about Only Ever Yours, O’Neil knuckles down to some seriously tough topics. Some reviewers are calling it an accessible Atwood for the YA crowd. I loved Handmaiden’s Tale, so we’ll see how this matches up.
Additional Goals
As well as these five books, I’m also going to aim to finish 25 books this year and read 5 graphic novels too. I have Saga and Ms. Marvel to catch up on and received Alias: Jessica Jones over Christmas so am really excited to get back into those.
As always I’m also keeping on eye out on reading more diversely. I burned through books written by female authors last year, but want to challenge myself to read books written by people of colour and LGBTQ fiction as well. I also seriously need to get ruthless with what I enjoy and what I don’t – no more reading books I can’t be bothered to pick up after 100 pages!
Linked with that I’m actually going to try and buy less books this year. Fear not, I’ve not gone completely mad but I want to get on with my Netgalley backlog and borrow more books from my local library too. In the effort to save a bit of money this year I want to buy more books second hand. Seeing as Oxford has some fantastic charity and second hand bookshops this should be easy!)
Give me a shout out in the comments whether any of you have read any of the books I’ve picked out and whether you have any book goals for the year too.
And whilst I’ve got your attention, why not pop over to Blogger’s Bookshelf and check out what all our team and readers are planning on reading this year too!
Ria
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