hello and welcome to my first bookish post of 2020!! Woohoo. other exciting things to come this year (as per usual) but I thought I would share some titles that have recently found themselves on my To Be Read (#tbr) list.
Starting off we have Girls & Sex: Navigating The Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein. This title found it’s way to me sort of adjacently, as I discovered it due to the release of Orenstien’s newer book, Boys & Sex (which is also now on my tbr). Almost as soon as I learned about Girls & Sex a friend of mine recommended the title to me (thanks Elissa). So it seems right to feature this here, especially as I now own a copy.
Next we have Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley. This novel came to me in my most favorite way: browsing at a bookstore (yay The Vermont Bookshop). Because I am a blogger/book lover/etc I find out about so many books through blogs, Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads…the list goes on. It’s SO fun to spend time in a bookstore and find a title that intrigues you; which is exactly what happened here. I find the premise of Authenticity Project particularly intriguing because the topic of authenticity is…engaging to say the least! And though this feels a little unnecessary to add–especially in the age of social media.
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré is another The Vermont Bookshop find! I’m not going to lie, this cover certainly drew me in. I am not ashamed to say that I “judge” a book by its cover (visit Jen’s over at Pop Goes the Reader for a recurring post encouraging readers to do just this)/. But why else am I excited about this title?? For one, I absolutely love reading debuts because emerging talent is so exciting. Also, the premise of a young teenage girl on the pursuit of education is a very real reality that I’ve had the chance to read about non-fictionally (in titles like Half the Sky ) but am thrilled to pursue in a fictional format.
Next we have Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, which I discovered on Instagram from @postitreview. This book was a joint winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2019 and sounds fantastic. I love interwoven stories and this sounds like the type of read that would be right up my ally. Also, because I’m planning to study abroad in the UK next year (tbd) I’ve been feeling pretty keen on books from that part of the world lately, especially as I start to imagine my own life there. Also, as it is Black History Month, it is important to me to seek out books by black authors to add to my list. Not that this isn’t always important to me, but this month is another important reminder to prioritize these stories.
Lastly we have What We Talk About When We Talk About Books by Leah Price. I found this one on my radar due to Grace’s instagram (@wlsgrace); I find so many of my reads due to her curation! This title feels particularly important as a reader who has grown up in the era of technology boom. I remember at age thirteen an older cousin of mind teasingly exclaiming how due to e-readers books would probably not be printed in a few years. I burst into tears! Of course, his claim proved not to be true–print books continue to out sell e-books–but at the time that idea was devastating. As a book lover the history and future of book reading feels important because it’s such a huge part of my life. Also, author Leah Price is a badass who is a professor at Harvard and was promoted to tenure at 31!!! I really want to read more work from her.
And…that’s it. This is, of course, just a sampling of some of the books that have piqued my interest and been added to my TBR recently. Follow my Goodreads (link in the sidebar) for a more play-by-play update of what has been added to my list.
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