Welcome friend. Writing a year review is a sacred ritual for me. I have been doing it since year 27 and shared the bookish side of it with you in past years. I grew beyond my wildest dreams in year 30. Let’s start with the books that shaped me in this age, some milestones I achieved and some personal happenings that you may have glimpsed in the past months. I will end this reflection with my hopes for Year 31.
Year 30: Book highlights
30 books of Year 30
Diving in YA Narratives
As I have grown older, I have developed a love for YA narratives. At the end of year 29, I was still riding the high from Amber Smith’s The Way I Used to Be so it is no surprise that I made time for The Way I am Now right away. I also enjoyed the fake-turned-true innocent love of This Time It’s Real. I was happy to be lost in the magical hotel of Midnight at the Houdini. The last book I read was These Are the Words by Nikita Gill. Her prose always invokes childhood memories for me and I love revisiting the past through her.
Returning to Favorite Authors
Constance Sayers won my heart with A Witch in Time and I loved supporting her latest novel, The Star and the Strange Moon. A time travel novel like her last one, The Star and the Strange Moon is a unique love story. An actress gets stuck on the set of her movie and this movie returns for an exquisite showing every decade with new scenes. Who is behind this? An intriguing mystery with gothic elements, I adore this book. I also love that one of the characters from A Witch in Time is featured in it.
Getting on tour for Jill Mansel’s The Wedding of the Year was a dream. I quite enjoyed her books growing up and don’t read the contemporary romance genre as much anymore so it was comforting to return to an old favorite. I recently got one of her backlist releases from the library book sale and will be reading her again.
Kailey Lee Baker remains a favorite for Ariel and I to buddy read since we loved Keeper of the Night. We started her new series, The Scarlet Alchemist and eagerly await the next installment in this duology, The Blood Orchid. Another favorite author of ours is Vaishnavi Patel whose debut, Kaikeyi, retelling of the Ramayana was a hit for us. This year, she released The Goddess of the River, offering a refreshing perspective of Mahabharat. We adored it. Can’t forget Travis Baldree and his series. Bookshops and Bonedust was another phenomenal audiobook experience.
I returned to the Children of Nexus series by S Kaeth through a novella, The Prelude Cycle, and I hope it propels me to make time for the standalone book while I wait for book 4 to come out.
Thought-Provoking Stories
These are the fiction that finished too fast while offering so many thoughts and ideas to digest.
- Yellowface by R. F. Kuang presents the dark side of publishing and the lengths to which an author may go to earn a living in a highly competitive market.
- The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard – A refreshing take on time travel, what if one could visit the past from 20 years ago? I loved reflecting on this literary speculative fiction.
- A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda gives a deep dive into the perspectives of members of an Indian American family when their youngest son is arrested by the police.
- Crossings by Alex Landragin is another time travel perspective but this time through a soul inhabiting a new body. Three connected short stories offer a meditation of living with this power, watching time pass by as well as being able to influence it.
- The Sunflower House by Andriana Allegri is a harrowing debut about a lesser known history of the Nazi operation of producing children that met the Nazi standards. At these specialized birthing hospitals, pregnant women, married and unmarried, were encouraged to stay and give birth. Review and author interview coming around publication date.
- The Porcelain Moon by Janie Chang offers the perspective of Chinese immigrants in France during the first world war. This was rich in story, characters and history.
- The Truth About Ben And June by Alex Kiester is a haunting postpartum story. June disappears, leaving behind her husband and four month child. What led her to do this? So much to think about.
- They Called Us Exceptional by Prachi Gupta is an intimate memoir about an American Indian family, their values, dysfunction and much more. She challenges popular stereotypes and their effect on the individual.
Non-Fiction Essentials
I absolutely adore the teachings and strategies of:
- Can’t Stop Thinking: How to Let Go of Anxiety and Free Yourself from Obsessive Rumination by Nancy Colier | Goodreads
- Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chödrön | Goodreads
- Getting Unstuck: Breaking Your Habitual Patterns & Encountering Naked Reality by Pema Chödrön | Goodreads | Review
Discovering New (to me) Authors to Return to
Sometimes I am introduced to an author through their debut work. Sometimes, it is one of their later works. I have reflected in depth on returning on TBR Tales so head there later for a more comprehensive list. In Year 30, I found:
- Samantha Mills – Her science fantasy novel, The Wings Upon Her Back is a beautiful and painful story about disillusion and finding a place in the world after decades of living under certain ideals.
- Nathaniel Luscombe – What would work and life be like on a moon? Moon Soul is a cozy fantasy like no other and I am excited to dive into the author’s other works. I follow him on Goodreads and have fathered many indie recommendations from him.
- Maggie Hill – Sunday Money brought together sibling relationships and love for basketball while balancing with family tensions in an unforgettable manner.
- Anitha Krishnan – A Benevolent Goddess let me imagine the birth of a goddess and how humans worship her. Since reading this book, Anitha has become a good friend and I am honored to have connected with her at so many levels – books, writing, life.
- T. Kingfisher – A well known author in the SFF community, T. Kingfisher has many books. A Sorceress Comes to Call was just the right amount of historical fiction, horror and YA for me. SK has recommended one of her series to me and there is another we have on our buddy reading list. Lots to keep us busy here!
- J. T. Ellison – I am on tour for J. T. Ellison’s latest novel, A Very Bad Thing. This murder mystery was amazing and I will definitely be reading more books by the author.
Series to Follow
In Year 30 I discovered four series that I am going to continue reading:
Daughter of No Worlds was recommended to me by SK and it is one of the best indie fantasy stories I have ever read. The audio is amazing and was actually available through my library. On the traditional publishing side, The Hexologists’ humour and husband-wife protagonist duo makes my heart so happy.
I discovered The Surviving Sky trilogy and Ariel and I are looking forward to reading the next book. The Unrelenting Earth is already available. Another one of ours is The Annual Migration of Clouds. We are caught up on the two books in the series and waiting to see if there will be a book three.
A Look Back at Favorites over the Years and Some Predictions
- Year 27’s favorites were We Are Satellites, Bewilderment and The Children’s Train.
- From Year 28, HEX, Lessons in Chemistry, Sea of Tranquility, Tell Me an Ending and The Count of Monte Cristo come to mind easily.
- There are books from Year 29 that I still think about – Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, A History of Burning, The Light Pirate and Hello Beautiful.
- From Year 30, books that will stick around with me are The Star and the Strange Moon, Sunday Money and A Sorceress Comes to Call.
Milestones of Year 30
A few milestones I was celebrate as I close of Year 30:
For the first time ever, I reread a whole series – The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. I was such a good time!
I set up my Little Free Library and it brings me so much joy to check it out once in a while, see which of my books have gone off to new homes and others that my local community wants to share. I have been swapping out books every month and leaving stickers, badges and little trinkets in the box. Pop by if you are ever in the area!
Armed with A Book turned 5 years old in May! I launched two new series – TBR Tales (with its own mailing list) and Journal Insights. But super coolest of all – Ariel and I started co hosting Armed with A Book Choice awards. We are so excited to plan out 2024!
It’s fascinating to me how the number of pages I fill in my journal has little to do with big happenings. For a year that had so many amazing milestones, I actually have fewer journals than Year 29. Pregnancy, the first trimester in particular, took a bit of a toll on the journaling amongst other things. There was a month when I only read 3 books. That was so low from my typical 8+ a month trend.
I am happy to have regained energy but also cognizant of this will be short lived. Bigger changes are on the horizon.
What I am looking forward to for Year 31
This is the last birthday I celebrate by myself but it is also the first when I with child. Once she arrives kicking and screaming into the world, I can’t even imagine the kind of changes to my habits in Year 31. In some ways, I will have a lot more time as I will be spending most of the year at home, free of my full-time job. In other ways, I will have less time because she will take up a lot of head and heart space. I am curious to see how it all plays out.
You probably won’t find it surprising that I have started a small collection of books for her. How she will change the blog is yet to be seen.
There is still time before she becomes the priority so I am going to focus on writing reviews in November – excited to launch a mini series for book bloggers centred around NaNoWriMo – and get the blog set up for her early months when I am told there will be less sleep and energy.
In terms of books, birthdays and new years always give me a fresh appreciation of all the fantastic books on my TBR. I have at least 5 series ready to read from start to finish, included in the 600+ options on my TBR. I wonder what I will pick up.
What will Ariel and I buddy read?
Every year is so different. Year 31 will be no different in that sense.
Thank you for following along! See you at the next article. 🙂
Amazing list of books and life events. Truly awesome work sharing all these books with us.
Thank you for reading! 🙂