2021 Reading Challenges and Goals

 Hello Interwebs!

So now we're about a week into 2021 and I'm finally getting around to writing up my reading, blogging and general life plans for the new year. I was beyond pleased with how 2020 was for a reading year. I set myself a goal of 40 books and far exceeded it by reading 75. So this year my GoodReads reading goal is 52 books, roughly a book a week for 2021. This is a higher goal than last year but should still be doable.

I am also participating in 3 reading challenges to whatever extent I want. This isn't so much about completing every last prompt on these challenges but rather just giving myself prompts I can use to branch out my reading. I will still read what I want to and fit those books into the prompts. So the three challenges I'm working on are: 

2021 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: this consists of 40 "normal" prompts and 10 "challenge" prompts of all varieties. 

The 52 Book Club: this is 52 book prompts to encourage you to read a book a week for 2021

The 2021 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge: This is a hugely customizable reading challenge consisting of 26 categories (plus a free category), each with four prompts for reading. You can pick which prompts from which categories to do whatever reading challenge you want. 

This year I will try to keep updating on the challenge progress monthly instead of just letting it fester in an excel spreadsheet on my computer. 

In addition to my 52 books and my three reading challenges I have some other reading goals, mostly similar ones to last year. 

1. Read more library books, when I have the choice between buying a book I'm not 100% sure I think I'll love and getting it from the library or Libby I want to borrow it
2. Read more nonfiction overall, and not just memoirs/biographies
3. Listen to more audiobooks: when knitting or blogging or something else instead of watching The Great British Baking Show yet again I want to think about listening to an audiobook instead. 
4. Buy less books, every year this is a goal and every year I fail it but I am buying less and less full price and more on sale from Amazon so I'm getting there

Finally there are some specific books I'm already excited for in 2021. I've narrowed down my full list to just twenty that I'm most excited for in 2021. 

1. Lore by Alexandra Bracken (1.5.2021): This is a YA fantasy novel about an event called the Agon where every seven years nine gods  walk the earth while people hunt them to gain immortality and their godly powers then Lore teams up with an old friend and the wounded Goddess Athena to get revenge. 
   
   
   
   
2. Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas (1.12.2021): This is the prequel to The Hate U Give and focuses on Star's father, Maverick, as a young man and young father trying to figure out the world. 
   
   
   
   
3. Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert (1.12.2021): This is a collection of illustrated fairy tales from the Hinterland featured in Albert's Hazelwood series, which I love. 
   
   
   
   
4. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (2.2.2021): This is a novel about a young woman in the dust bowl of Texas during the Great Depression and the decision to either stay on the land they loved or travel west to California. 
   
   
   
   
5. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas (2.16.2021): This is the fifth book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series (ACOTAR) and this one focuses on Cassian and Nesta's relationship so I am here for this. 
   
   
   
   
6. Later by Stephen King (3.2.2021): The new Stephen King novel, need I say more? 
   
   
   
   
7. Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo (3.30.2021): This is the conclusion to the King of Scars duology set in Bardugo's Grishaverse and featuring one of my favorite characters from the other two series, Nikolai Lantsov. 
   
   
   
   
8. Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price (4.6.2021): This is the first book in the Jane Austen Murder Mystery series and reimagines the Jane Austen classic as a murder mystery. 
   
   
   
   
9. Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart (4.20.2021): This is a Jamaican inspired fantasy featuring witches and royalty and political intrigue. 
   
   
   
   
10. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (5.11.2021): The new Emily Henry book about two best friends, now estranged, who decide to take one last summer vacation together to clear the air and it's a romance so I'm sure we all know where that ends up going. 
    
    
    
    
11. The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren (5.18.2021): a new romance featuring single mother Jess who uses a DNA based matchmaking service and ends up matching with the company's founder. 
    
    
    
    
12. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (5.18.2021): a nonfiction essay collection based on Green's podcast by the same name discussing various aspects of the human experience. 
    
    
    
    
13. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (5.25.2021): This is about a summer blowout in Malibu in the 1980s and the secrets and lives of the hosts and guests who are there when the party reaches a feverpitch and the mansion burns down. 
    
    
    
    
14. Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand (6.1.2021): This is the story of a woman, Vivian, who dies in a hit-and-run while jogging and is assigned a person to watch over for a summer while also getting three nudges to affect life on earth from the beyond. It sounds like Hilderbrand's Nantucket Summer books but with a twist. 
    
    
    
    
15. One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (6.1.2021): This is a romance about August whose life in New York isn't how she planned and Jane who appears on the subway to save her and is a woman displaced from her time in the 1970s. August is helping her get back to her own time and romantic hijinks ensue. 
    
    
    
    
16. My Contrary Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (6.22.2021): This is the first book in the Mary series by the authors of the Jane series (My Lady Jane) focusing on a retelling of the story of Mary, Queen of Scots. 
    
    
    
    
17. Survive the Night by Riley Sager (7.6.2021): a cat-and-mouse thriller that takes place in the early 1990s. 
    
    
    
    
18. Isn't It Bromantic? by Lyssa Kay Adams (7.20.2021): The fourth book in the Bromance Book Club series, this one focuses on The Russian and his attempts to write a romance novel of his own and fix his marriage of convenience. 
    
    
    
    
19. Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber (9.30.2021): Not many details about this one but it's a new book from the author of the Caraval series so I'm down. 
    
    
    
    
20. The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee (11.16.2021): This is the third book in the Montague Siblings series, following the youngest of the siblings on his own adventure. 
    
    
    

So those are the books I am most excited about in 2021, there are others on my radar for the year but those are the most exciting ones. 

Finally there's a handful of books I meant to read in 2020, that I just didn't get to, as well as a handful of books I want to read for sure in 2021.

• Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
• The Caraval Series by Stephanie Garber (I've read the first one)
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
• A Promised Land by Barack Obama
• Becoming by Michelle Obama 
• The Illuminae Files by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman
• The Complete Works of Jane Austen

So those are my goals for reading in 2021. I have a couple goals for this blog and in my personal life but the most important of those is I want to stay caught up on reviews for all the books I read in 2021 instead of falling way behind like I did in 2020 and then just giving up on catching up. So that's how my 2021 is hopefully going to go. 

Happy Reading,

Richelle