30 In 2019
I did it! I reached my goal of 30—well, 32—books this year and I’m feeling pretty accomplished because I have a lot of Housewives franchises, podcasts, and babies to keep up with. Goooooo me! When I was running for student council in 6th grade and voted for one of my opponents because I heard he didn’t get very many votes, my grandma asked: “If you don’t vote for you, why should anyone else?” So, today, I’m voting for me. It feels great. And, honestly, given the chaos of my current life, setting a goal and accomplishing it, no matter how small, does really good things for my sanity. I’m not always catching my own tail. I am making progress. It’s good to remind myself of that.
2019 was the year of getting back into novels, reading sophomore follow-ups, and picking up books on subjects that were a little out of my comfort zone, like financial planning and a toe dip into true crime.
In full transparency, I’m feeling like the end of 2019 is a little bit of a bummer for a handful of reasons—transitions in client work, childcare frustrations, managing a toddler and an infant, feeling up to my armpits in poop, and trying to plot my next professional move. It’s one of those transitional times that I try to be grateful for, but really just makes me anxious. WHAT WILL COME NEXT? How can I get myself to loosen the grip? I also know that change is one of life’s constants, so 2020 will likely bring lots of new things, including a big stack of books. I’m setting my 2020 goal at 30 again because it felt like an achievable stretch, and I like achievable stretches. I’m also taking a new approach to assessing if books are the right fit for me from the get—I won’t slog through something just because I’ve already committed to 60 pages. I won’t let myself get to 60 pages if there isn’t something that’s grabbing me from the beginning. I have some ground to make up in 2020 since a lot of what I read felt pretty meh. This next stretch will be really worth the investment and I can’t wait to keep you updated along the way. Find them all on Instagram stories with little write-ups about what I thought. They’ll be saved in my highlights.
Herewith, ALL the books I read in 2019, followed by my favorites this year:
Books are one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE SUBJECTS, so if you have a recommendation, please share. My interests are wide-ranging and shift between genres pretty regularly. My main requirement is excellent writing, which can be surprisingly hard to find, but when it exists, you’ll find me in Do Not Disturb mode for as much of the day as the babies and my husbro let me swing.
Happy reading!