January & February Wrap Up

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well + staying healthy in the first two months of 2021! I have had a very busy and emotional past month or so (and school is whooping my butt this semester), but I am VERY ready for the spring and the warm weather that comes with it! I have not had the chance to wrap up my reading months for 2021 so far, so I decided to do it in one grand post like this! In total, I’ve read nine books in the past two months and I can’t wait to chat with you about them!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde ★★★★: My first read of 2021! I have been wanting to read more classics recently, and THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY was the PERFECT introduction to the genre! When I asked for classic recommendations on my Twitter, this was one of the most recommended books since so many people read DORIAN GRAY in high school! I really fell in love with Wilde’s writing style; it was a very hauntingly dark story, and I was shocked by how much I loved the characters. I will definitely be reading more of Oscar Wilde’s works in the future!

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas ★★★★★: This book! It’s been almost two months, and I have still have not emotionally recovered! CEMETERY BOYS was one of my most anticipated books of 2020, and I was honestly pretty disappointed that I didn’t manage to fit it in during my 2020 reading year. However, this book was worth the wait! It was equal parts entertaining, life-affirming, tragic, emotional, and beautiful. Yadriel and Julian were both such lovely characters to read and I honestly felt so sad to leave them at the end. Aiden Thomas is force to wrecken with in the YA book community (plus, they have a new book coming out soon that you should preorder).

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki ★★★: While three stars is definitely not a bad rating by any means, this rating my ruffle some feathers. I went into LAURA DEAN KEEPS BREAKING UP WITH ME with pretty high expectations because of all the hype I had heard about the book from Twitter and other places online. However, I felt pretty ‘meh’ about it overall. I did really love the art style, but I personally didn’t vibe with the book as much as I thought I would. A solid 3 stars for me!

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass ★★★★★: The first book I read for class this semester! I am currently taking a literature class called “Black Revolutionary Thought”, and this was one of the texts we had to read for the course! I am honestly shocked I had not read NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS up until now, but I’m really glad I did. It’s a very tough book to get through at times, but I really recommend reading it at some point (especially if you can take a literature class similar to the one I’m taking).

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta ★★★★: My first audiobook of 2021! I initially borrowed THE BLACK FLAMINGO from the Libby app because I had some errands to run the day I started listening to it, and I wanted to knock a book off of my TBR. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I fell in love with this story! The only reason I rated it four stars instead of five was because I didn’t totally love consuming it as an audiobook, but I know it’ll be a five star for me when I re-read it physically!

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs ★★★★★: Similarly to FREDERICK DOUGLASS, I read INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL for my Black Revolutionary Thought class! I also thought this book was very intense but deeply important. It was also very interesting to compare Douglass’s narrative to Jacobs’s in my class, and I highly recommend reading both of them. I listened to this as an audiobook and thought it was a really good format to listen to this novel in because of the nature of a narrative. However, as I mentioned, this book is very intense so please take that into account when reading Jacob’s narrative.

Beartown by Frederik Backman ★★★★★: *deep breath*. I first picked up BEARTOWN because my friend Sara has been recommending it to me since the beginning of time. And, to be totally honest, I was not really vibing with the book for the first 150 or so pages. Once I hit that mark, though, I was OBSESSED. I couldn’t put it down. BEARTOWN is so raw and so human; I couldn’t help but fall in love with everything about it. I would like to put a special trigger warning on BEARTOWN for sexual assault, rape, alcohol to the point of drunkenness, guns, death of a child mentioned, and suicide ideation. If any of these are potentially triggering for you, PLEASE proceed with caution.

Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier ★★★: Another book I read for class! I read TEN ARGUMENTS FOR DELETING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS RIGHT NOW for my Introduction to Digital Publishing class since we also discuss social media and media consumption. I didn’t love it as much as other books I’ve read about social media, but I still found it super fascinating. I don’t think I would recommend it unless you are super interested in social media addiction, but if you are you might find this interesting!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky ★★★★★: This one has a bit of a story. I was searching through the Boston Public Library overdrive one night, and I discovered an edition of THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER narrated by Noah Galvin. I’ve been a fan of Noah’s since I saw him in Dear Evan Hansen many years ago. Noah’s voice is very distinct so I was worried how he would translate as an audiobook narrator. With that being said, I REALY loved it! It also has a little funky bonus chapter at the end, so I highly recommend giving it a listen (especially if it’s been a hot second since you last read PERKS).

Thanks for sticking around and reading my wrap up! I have had a wide range of recent reads, and I am so excited to see what I read in the next couple months! Have you read any of the books that I read the past two months? Did you enjoy them? What about your 2021 reading so far? How many books have you read? Thanks again, and I can’t wait to chat with y’all!