Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

I only read 12 books last year and four of them were rereads. That means, at the most, I could’ve only discovered eight new-to-me authors in 2021, which I did. However, I didn’t like all of the new-to-me books/authors I read. Here are my top five and one honorable mention new-to-me authors I discovered in 2021:

Beth O’Leary: THE FLATSHARE was my favorite book of 2021. I absolutely adored it. I loved Tiffy and her eccentricity and Leon and his quiet, sweet personality. The notes they wrote each other were the best. I laughed and smiled all throughout this book. Their romance was heartwarming and a treat to read. I also enjoyed the heavier themed aspects of THE FLATSHARE, especially what Tiffy dealt with. It felt very real and plausible.

Leigh Bardugo: I really enjoyed reading NINTH HOUSE. I’ve always been interested in secret societies like Skull and Bones at Yale. When I heard about NINTH HOUSE, I knew I had to read it. I loved this gritty tale of magic and murder among college students. I really like Alex and I have high hopes about her and a certain someone in the rest of the series. I was blown away at what Bardugo accomplished with the story and where it leads for the next book.

George Takei: Reading about George Takei and his family’s experience in THEY CALLED US ENEMY was very eye opening and heart wrenching. Even with what I was “taught” or read about in school about the Japanese internment during WWII, I didn’t know most of what Japanese Americans went through in these camps. It’s so disheartening that humans are capable of treating other humans like this simply because of their race and nationality.

Emmanuel Acho: I read UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH A BLACK MAN. Acho doesn’t pull any punches as he discusses race, Black culture, and racism in a very open and sometimes uncomfortable conversation with his readers. I thought Acho’s words were eye opening and they gave me a lot to think about. If more white people were willing to sit down and read his words, maybe we could actually learn from our mistakes and end racism and bias once and for all.

Jennifer L. Eberhardt, PhD: I’m glad I read BIASED via audio book as Dr. Eberhardt reads her own book and was a fantastic reader. She was very engaging to listen to. She came across as genuine as she had experienced some of the discrimination she wrote about herself. I thought the information on implicit bias was very interesting. I think the information in BIASED is important for people (read white people) to learn, especially in today’s political climate.

Honorable Mention (sort of)
  • Rachel Hawkins: I also read THE WIFE UPSTAIRS. I didn’t like it very much. I only gave it two stars. However, I’m willing to give her another shot as I haven’t read her Hex Hall series yet and I really want to.

What about you? Which new-to-you authors did you discover in 2021? Do we have any in common?

Sunday Post and Sunday Salon are blog news memes hosted at Caffeinated Reviewer and Reader Buzz, respectively. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week on your blog, and showcase books and other things.
Feeling

I’m feeling more comfortable with my classes and I’m no longer feeling stressed.

I’m also feeling better now. My infection is gone and I don’t feel yucky from the antibiotics anymore. It’s great!

Blogging

It was a good week. I really loved the turn out I got on my Top Ten Tuesday post. Thanks for commenting! I always reply and return the favor by commenting on your blog.

Reading

I finished reading PRINCE CASPIAN tonight for the Narniathon. I read it really quickly, in two sittings, because I really enjoy that installment of the series.

I’m going to start reading THE MAGNOLIA PALACE today. It was my pick for January’s Book of the Month pick.

Listening

While I was waiting for my therapist this week, this song came on in his waiting room. I shazamed it and immediately added it to my Piano Favorites playlist. Sometimes, the classics are the best.

Watching

Corey and I started watching How I Met Your Mother. He’s seen it all the way through and I haven’t. We watch a couple of episodes each day and we just started on Friday. I Neil Patrick Harris. He’s my favorite in this.

I’ve also been watching The Book of Boba Fett. I like most of it. I thought the Scooty Puff Jr. (see picture for explanation) pursuit in Mos Espa in episode 2 seemed more like a slow race than a high-speed chase. However, episode 3! I can’t believe View Spoiler » It was f*ing amazing!

Loving

I’m loving my basic programming class. I’m learning Python. Corey has always said he thought I’d like programming. So far, he’s right. I don’t know if I’ll like it enough to do it full time, though. Only time will tell.

Wanting

I want to know what the number is for February for the Unofficial Trim Challenge that I’m participating in so I can come up with a game plan. I may be a mood reader, but I still like to have an idea of what I’m reading next. It’s weird.

Needing

I need more sleep. I’ve been having trouble falling asleep OR getting restful sleep when I do fall asleep.

How was your week? Anything exciting happen?

I’ve been part of a IRL (“in real life” for those who don’t know that acronym) for 10.5 years now. We used to meet on the third Thursday of each month so we call ourselves the “Third Thursday Book Club.” A few months ago, we all decided it was more convenient to meet on the third Wednesday. We joke that we’re now the “Third Thursday Book Club, now on Wednesdays.”

We met this past Wednesday to discuss January’s book. (Due to COVID’s increased numbers, we opted to meet via Zoom rather than in-person.)

We discussed KEEP MOVING: NOTES ON LOSS, CREATIVITY, AND CHANGE by Maggie Smith (click the link to read my review). There were six of us that met and only five read the book. Here are some highlights of our discussion:

  • Everyone made the comment they didn’t realize KEEP MOVING was mostly the author’s collection of tweets while she was going through her divorce (affirmations to help her stay positive during a time of turmoil). We thought it was going to be more of a memoir.
  • No one hated the book, but no one loved it either.
  • A couple of people thought it was generic and unmemorable.
  • No one could really relate to the author because none of us have been through a divorce (our group is a statistical anomaly).
  • One person liked the affirmations more than the other sections.
  • One person read KEEP MOVING via audiobook and the rest of us wondered if that experience was weird given the layout of the book.
  • The phrase “keep moving” got old by the end because the author tacked it on the end of every. single. affirmation.

Our discussion was really short because KEEP MOVING wasn’t what we thought it was. Like I said in my review, though, I’m glad I read it because of the two little tidbits I got out of it.

After our discussion, we talked about other books we’ve been reading, voting on our new list of books, the Book of the Month club, what’s going on in everyone’s lives, and COVID. I had a great time as always. I really my book club and look forward to it each month, even if I don’t read the book.

Next month’s book is TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE by Jenny Han. I’m very excited to read it. It’s been on my TBR ever since the Netflix show came out, which I still haven’t watched. All things in their proper order.

Have you read KEEP MOVING? If so, what do you think about my book club’s discussion about it?

Review: How ToTitle: How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
Author: Randall Munroe
Genre(s): Humor, Illustrated, Non-Fiction
Pages: 308
Source: Own
For: Play Book Tag
Rating:
Sexual Content: 0 Flames

Add to Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis

For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally complex, excessive, and inadvisable that no one would ever try it. HOW TO is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.

My Thoughts

My husband turned me onto the xkcd webcomic about a decade ago. I’m not the most religious follower, but I do like his humor. I found out about HOW TO through my library’s “Best in Books 2019” event and actually won a copy of the book while I was there. I was really excited that out of all the books I could’ve won, I won Randall Munroe’s.

I loved HOW TO. I loved all the crazy things Munroe thought of doing using absurd, over-the-top scientific methods accompanied by his typical stylistic stick figure drawings made HOW TO a delight to read. I also loved that since I was in a physics class last semester, a lot of the physics he used and talked about were things I had just learned, albeit on a much simpler level.

One of my favorite chapters was “How to Throw Things” because he has an interactive element on his website with the physics built in. I think it’s hilarious that Thor AND Chris Hemsworth are available throwers. I recommend playing around with it because it’s fun, even if you haven’t read the chapter.

Anyway, I’m glad my Goodreads group’s tag this month was science and prompted me to finally read HOW TO. It was 9 hours well spent (thanks, Bookly, for the stats).

Have you read HOW TO? If so, what did you think about it?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
2021 Releases I Was Excited to Read But Didn’t Get To

Since I only read 12 books last year due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t get to a lot of the books I wanted to read. Man, this list was hard to narrow down! Here are my top ten books released in 2021 I was excited to read but I didn’t get to:

    It’s crazy to me that this list is mostly adult novels. I used to read mostly YA, I’ve started to read more adult novels than YA. I never thought that would happen and until this post prompted me to look at my stats I hadn’t realized it has been happening for the last five years.

    What about you? What books released in 2021 were you excited to read but didn’t get to? Do we have any in common?