READING (and other) STATS for 2025!

  READING STATS for 2025

(We'll be doing a LIVE STREAM again on the Booktube channel. Tori and I will be discussing our stats and we hope you all join in and share yours along with us. It will be Sunday January 11 at 3:00 pm MST... click here to find us. )

TOTAL BOOKS: 66 (Goal was 60!)

Total pages: 20,580
Total Re-reads: 0

Average Length of book: 314

Authors
Men:  17
Women: 51
New-to-me authors: 35

For:
Review for an author:  4

AML Award: 0
Book Club: 10

Readathon/Events: 9 

Forced Phase: 2

Beta Reads: 1

Readalong/Buddy Reads: 1

Banned Books: 0

Fun: 40

Part of a series:19

From:
Print books from the library: 5
eBooks: 20

Print books: 35
Borrowed: 1
Audio: 13

Books I own: 36 

Categories:
YA: 21
Adult: 41
Middle Grade:  4


Genres from the YA Category:
Contemporary Realistic Fiction or Romance: 13
SF/Fantasy: 4

Historical Fiction: 1 

Graphic Novel: 1

Dystopian: 2

Genres from the MG Category:

Fantasy: 0

Graphic Novel: 3 

Contemporary: 1

Genres from the Adult Category:
Historical Fiction: 5
Science Fiction an Fantasy: 4

Dystopian: 0

Romance: 5

Literary Fiction: 5
Memoirs: 6

Other Nonfiction:  5

Classic: 6

Mystery: 3

Horror: 1

Star Ratings:
5 stars: 8

4.5: 5
4 stars:  31

3.5: 8
3 stars: 10
2 stars: 2

1 star: 0

Average Rating: 3.89

Observations:

• Happy to report that starting The Classic Six Challenge absolutely did help me to add more classics to my line up. I will be doing it for 2026 so if you want to join in on the Storygraph page you can click here!  Most of my classics would be considered science fiction. Next year I want to read more romance classics!
• Loving all the memoirs I've been consuming.
• I went from 7 audio books last year to 13 this year. That number really does continue to go up!
• I wanted to add manga to my line up this year... I only read one I would consider manga and it was a middle grade zombie story full of potty humor. Not what I had in mind! LOL!
• Not sure exactly where to put the Emma M. Lion books. I had them in romance at first but have moved them to historical fiction. What do you think?

KDRAMA STATS

I don't think I even watched a kdrama this year. What the heck is up with that? If I did I can't remember what it was. I do know I was in the middle of one that I never finished. I just put a lot more time into reading (and writing) this year. 

YOUTUBE STATS:

The Kpop Konverters

Total videos uploaded in 2025: 3

Subscribers at year end: 40,662

View count at year end: 19,790,718 

So I said was going to quit this channel, and I pretty much did. And yet it still grew by 400 subscribers. Twice as much as my book channel which I am pouring my heart and soul into. I also got 500,000 more views this year. All on old content. It's so not fair. I just want to SCREAM! AHHHHH!!

Suey's Book Banter 

Total videos uploaded in 2025: 121 long videos, 78 shorts

Total Views at year end: 337,904

Total Subscribers at year end: 1,597

So I grew by a couple hundred subscribers in the whole freaking year. Woot. Sigh. I want this channel to do well so bad and it's just... not. 

WRITING STATS:

Should I add writing stats to the year end number crunch?

A Breath of Starlight

Current word count: 92,784

Status: beta reader feedback has been received

Soon to be getting a complete overhaul using reader feedback with plans to query.

The Adventures of Samantha Sawyer

Current word count: 47,967

Status: About half done? Maybe 3/4 done?

Still in draft mode and getting feedback from alpha readers (writing group peeps.)

Always Best Buds

Current word count: 65,025

Status: being turned into a semi-graphic novel

Will hopefully be a guinea pig for self publishing.

Indian Summer (needs new title)

Current word count: 83,842

Status: on hold

Plans to completely revise it, changing up the genre and the intended audience.

Weeping Rayne

Current word count: 41,489

Status: on hold

About half drafted. Not sure what to do with this one. Is it worth reviving at some point?

Love the Boy Band (working title not real title!)

Current word count: 18,604

Status: on hold

About 2/3 drafted. Not sure I'll ever finish this one even though I'm love with the characters.

My Goals for 2026 in Four Categories

 For the video version of this goal list, click on over to my YouTube channel!

Reading

• read 60 books

• read 6 classics

• read banned books and books I own

• read IRL book club books

• finish a few select series (A Darker Shade of Magic and An Ember in the Ashes)

• participate in buddy reads and group reads and booktube events and challenges

Writing

• self pub Always Best Buds

• revise Starlight

• revise Indian Summer

• finish Samantha

• continue to go to conferences

• start writing on Substack and revive this book blog

• don’t quit!

BookTube

• host YA’UGUST

• host a group read/read along

• post author highlights

• post character highlights

• don’t quit!

• announce and host new Forced Phase project

Health/Fitness

• do strength training T/Th/Sa

• do cardio M/W/F

• continue to experiment with low carb recipes

• survive next blood test check

What goals do you have planned for the new year?

Book Review: Love Me Tomorrow by Emiko Jean

Book: Love Me Tomorrow by Emiko Jean

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Release Date: February 3, 2026

This is a fun cute story about our girl Emma, who is struggling with the divorce of her parents and the decision of where to go to school. She is a fantastic violin player and wants to go to Berklee, but she also is feeling the need to stay close to home to help take care of her mom and grandpa. 

She helps her mom with their cleaning service and one day she gets a letter from a guy claiming to be her boyfriend...but he's writing from the future. So she is obsessed with figuring out which guy in her life could be the writer. 

Is it her best friend for forever, the boy next door, who she is suddenly seeing in a differently light? Or could it be the guy from high school who is an amazing cello player and is assigned to be her mentor at the classes she is going to? Or... maybe it's the guy who threw up on her shoes at a party? Or actually, it could it be the son of the very very rich family she cleans for!

So many choices!

In the course of all this, and the connections she has with these boys, she learns to be true to herself and do what she needs to do to move on in life and be successful.

I really enjoyed it! This is the style of writing and kind of book vibe that you all know I love! I haven't read any other books by this author, but have been wanting to and now I will for sure put those on my list. The reason I docked it a half a star and didn't give it my normal 4 stars for this type of book is because the ending was a bit of a let down for me. And left me feeling confused. I probably just didn't "get it" and if I could talk to someone about it, maybe I'd be all... OH YEAH! 

Anyway, I recommend this one to all lovers of YA contemporary romance, to people who love a little mix of Asian (Japanese in this case) culture mixed into their stories, and to fans of the author of course. It will be out early next month! (Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this advanced copy!) 

26 Books in 26!

Everyone over on BookTube is talking about 26 books they want to read in 2026.. so I made my list to! These books are ones I KNOW (mostly) that I will read next year. Except I have miscounted and on my video I talked about 28 books actually. LOL! (Watch the video here.)

Here's my list! Are you planning on reading any books on this list too? Let me know!

Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol 6 to 8 Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton The Spectacular by Fiona Davis The Housemaid by Freida McFadden Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman Just Friends by Haley Pham Love Me Tomorrow be Emiko Jean Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor Betting on You by Lynn Painter This Woven Kingdom book 5 by Tahereh Mafi If Looks Could Kill by Julie Berry The Killing Rules by Bree Despain Story Genius by Lisa Cron The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson The Free State of Jax by Jennifer A. Nielsen West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi Beneath the Wide Silk Sky by Emily Inouye Huey Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou Gilded by Marissa Meyer Cursed by Marissa Meyer

The Classic Six Reading Challenge Wrap Up for 2025 and Announcement for 2026!

Last year I hosted a reading challenge on Storygraph for the first time... I called it simple The Classic Six Challenge. And I'll be doing it again for 2026! You should totally join us!

The idea is, of course, to read six classics during the year. I like to spread them out and at least get to one every other month. I started doing this because my classics reading has been terrible the past few years and I wanted to fix that! And I did! I managed six classics this past year! It helped that three of them were book club books, lol! We'll see if that particular benefit happens again next year.

Here's what classics I read in 2025:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick 

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

Soon I'll be figuring out what will be on my pile of possibilities for the 2026 version of this challenge. But in the meantime, I've created a Storygraph page where you can join if you'd like. Click here for the link to that page. Of course you don't have to be on Storygraph to participate. Just let me know here in comments and we'll randomly check in throughout the year.

Book Review: Room to Breathe by Kasie West

 

Book: Room to Breathe by Kasie West

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date: January 6, 2026

So, it appears I'm back to requesting books from NetGalley, and this is the first book that became available to me and I dropped everything else and read it over a couple of days, including the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I just love these books!

In this story, we have our two love interests who have been best friends for years. But something has happened to tear them apart. One day, they get locked in the teacher's lounge bathroom and have to face whatever happened and figure it all out. 

The story goes between THEN (a few months in the past where we get a glimpse of their friendship and eventually the thing that happened) and NOW (the present moment in the bathroom as they hopefully start talking and work things out.)  

I'm still not sure I can pinpoint what it is exactly that I love so much about YA contemporary romance stories. First love? For sure. The sweetness and simplicity of the stories? Probably. The swooniness that always seems to be present. Absolutely. I truly love getting immersed in all of this despite being as old as I am. Or maybe it's even BECAUSE of how old I am. I don't know. 

I really do enjoy it and Kasie West writes these types of stories right there among the best of them. I wish she would get more attention like Lynn Painter or Jenny Han.. or something. Anyway, I will keep reading them as long as she keeps writing them. If you haven't checked her stuff out yet, do it now. And add this one to the list!

November 2025 Reading Wrap

 

 It was a great month, November! Thanks to a road trip with lots of audio books and a few days true vacation where all I did was sit and read. So perfect!

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop: A memoir from the actress that played Emily Gilmore, Rory's grandma and Lorelei's mom. She's had a very interesting life and it was fun to learn about it, especially the part about her involvement in the famous Broadway show, A Chorus Line. So interesting! Anyway, if you have any connection or feeling for Gilmore Girls, you will want to read/listen to this one!

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel: A science fiction time travel story following the different reports of people who have experienced some sort of hole in the time/space continuum. It's very intriguing and fun to see how all the stories come together in the end. There is a small tie-in to Station Eleven, and I am also curious about a third book called The Glass Hotel with yet more of a connection to these three books. 

Sunny Side Up, and Swing It Sunny by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm: A brother and sister author/illustration team wrote this fun middle grade graphic novel series that was published a few years ago based on their experiences growing up in the 70s. My 9 year old granddaughter is loving them and so I had to read them while I was visiting to see what the intrigue was. And she was right, they are very fun and so nostalgic for me.

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor: The first book in a fantasy duology about a regular orphan dude who ends up as part of an adventure to help a mythical city that just so happens to be the one he has learned and studied about his whole life. When they get there, things end up being very much as he expected in some ways, but so very unexpected in other ways. So it's his story, but also the story of the girl who lives in this city and what's happened there and how she has been affected. It's SO GOOD! And now I can't wait to get to the next one!

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 4: I continued with this series, there's 8 out right now and my hope was to get through before the end of the year. Not sure I'm going to make it. This one was a bit more serious than the previous ones and I quite enjoyed the depth and getting to see a different side of Emma. Her friendship with THREE intriguing guys is getting more and more attention too and yes, the series is just so much fun.

Go As a River by Shelley Read: This was the audio book of choice for the drive home. A sad tale about a girl who is living in a small Colorado town and one by one everything she loves or is important to her is taken away. It's a story of survival and resilience, beautifully written. I really enjoyed it.

Every Spiral of Fate by Tahereh Mafi: The fourth book in the This Woven Kingdom series. In this one all the characters have come together to try and help Alizeh find her magic in the mountains. Cyrus is leading the charge, though everyone still thinks he's the bad guy. We get much more about his story and learn that in fact, he is one of the best of the best guys. The chemistry building up between Alizeh and Cyrus is pretty much unbearable at this point. NEXT BOOK PLEASE!

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore: This was the book club pick for the month, a mystery going back and forth between two different time periods telling the two different stories about the disappearances of siblings... the boy in the 60s when he was 8, and the girl in the 70s when she was 13. Is there a connection? Who did it? Are they dead? I was worried at first, but ended up totally enjoying it in the end!

Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson: A classic written and published in the late 1800s about Southern California and the plight of the Indians there. We follow the story of Ramona when she marries an Indian, finds out she is part Indian herself, and joins his struggle to survive among the changes taking place in that area. It's sad and maddening and frustrating. It was a bit hard to get into the old story telling style, but I got the groove of it after awhile and ended up very much invested in this story.

And that's the books from November! What a great and diverse pile, don't you think!? If you are interested in the YouTube version of this wrap up you can click here.

Also, if you you'd like to see the "cozy reading vlog" I filmed during my time on the Oregon Coast in November, check it out here!