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Reading goals for the year:
Read 40 books
Read 5 classics
Read a Murakami book
Read 5 non-fiction
Read 5 books published in 2022
Read 3 books in Spanish
Read 5 books on my bookshelf

1. The Beautiful and Damned 5/5
My third F. Scott Fitzgerald book and they are all five star reads for me! I could see a lot of similarities between this and The Great Gatsby, and whilst this book is longer than some of his others, his writing makes it all worth it.

2. Emma 2/5
Whilst Fitzgerald is one of my favourite classic writers, I've come to the conclusion that Austen is definitely not. I've read P&P too, and I think her books just aren't for me personally. I don't find myself relating to the plot and characters as much, but I think this is the case for a lot of 19th century literature for me.

3. We Were Liars 4/5
This book haS very mixed reviews but I enjoyed it, Some of the writing made me cringe but it was a very quick and easy read. I seem to just really enjoy books about rich people and plot twists aha.

4. My Dark Vanessa 4/5
This book made me so made but in the way it's supposed to, I think it dealt with trauma and the situation in a way we don't normally see, which I thought was very important to show because there is no 'right' way to deal with it, I do think it ran a bit long at times though, even though it's not a very long book. At the same time I can understand why the author decided to keep everything in because it really showed the lasting impact of events,

5. Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time 3.75/5 I started off loving this book and found it so cool how music can have such an impact in our lives. But eventually there were some chapters where I unfortunately lost a bit of interest and I found his description of women often quite degrading.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH:
6. Passing 4.25/5
A beautifully written book that provided a different insight to the 1920s that I'm used to. Has definitely encouraged me to finally read the vanishing half too. I did sometimes get confused at the writing but that's on me

7. Buy Black: How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture 4/5
I got an ARC from Netgalley and I really enjoyed the book. It made several interesting points on representation and the challenges black creators face to get this representation. At times I wish the book was broken up more though, and I though the author sometimes dismissed certain controversies surrounding some of her examples.

8. Deacon King Kong 3/5
I liked it... but I also didn't? I think I mostly had issues with the pace, pages of dialogue and it took me a while to get into the story. I also got confused with the amount of characters, but I think they were developed really well. I could see this book working well as a TV show because of the large cast.

Hi Mansi, that's a well-articulated goal! Good luck with it!

Trisha wrote: "Hi Mansi, that's a well-articulated goal! Good luck with it!"

Thank you! Good luck with yours too!

9. Black Butterflies 4.5/5
Not black history related, but got a eARC from NetGalley
Historical fiction done right! I didn't know anything about the Bosnian War before, but through thorough research, Morris was able to accurately bring the heartbreaking story to the book. Simple writing but beautiful imagery