January 2025 Reading Wrap Up

 I read (and listened to) these seven books in January! 👆👆👆

While on the road trip after Christmas I listened to four audio books. (So weird to think I didn't do this in the past, even in the car on trips!)

You are a Badass by Jen Sincero: a pep talk to do all the things and accomplish all the goals by a fun and a bit "irreverent" life coach. I loved listening to this at the beginning of a new year though. Perfect. 

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears: what a sad life she's had. I find it fascinating that so many celebrities dream of making it big, and then when they do... their lives fall apart. It's a crazy cycle. Britney ended up with some not so great people in her life, including her own family. Which makes it all especially sad. It seems like she's doing better now though and is moving forward well.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry: Wow, but it was heart wrenching to hear him narrating this and saying over and over, with every story he told "I should be dead." Yeah...another sad celebrity memoir where we know he didn't get his happily ever after that he so wanted in the end. I do hope when people read this though, they learn a lesson from Matthew. And so hopefully it wasn't all in vain.

Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar: I never really watched 19 and Counting, the documentary series about the Duggar family and all their kids. Jill is the 4th of the kids and this is her story about being a part of that craziness and what ended up happening when she got married and wanted to move away from some of the teachings she was raised with. Just... so crazy!

I ended up giving all these audio books  ⭐⭐⭐⭐  because I was riveted to all their stories. Seriously, the perfect way to drive having some one narrate their crazy life in your ear mile after mile!

Then I read one ebook while on the trip:

The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth: This was our book club choice for January. I never really felt invested in it, thought the people were awful, rolled my eyes as the mystery, and etc. I just didn't get into it all, but did keep reading. And it was fun to discuss at book club after all! ⭐⭐

And two print books:

These Infinite Threads by Teherah Mafi: The 2nd in the This Woven Kingdom series, and it starts exactly where we left off in the first book with Alizah basically getting kidnapped. We follow her as she goes on a new adventure with a new dude who is the king of the rival kingdom. And we follow Kamran as he tries to deal with the aftermath of the the stuff that happened at the end the first book, and decides what he's going to de about Alizah. Whew.. this is a whirlwind book that takes place over just a day or two time period and ends on yet ANOTHER crazy cliffhanger! I need book three NOW! (I'm only giving ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half stars because our two main character were never together in this one. DANG.)

Three Wild Dogs (and the truth) by Markus Zusak: Yeah, so I've been looking forward to this one for awhile now. When it showed up on my porch a couple days early I was so excited and dropped everything else to devour it. This is MZ's first nonfiction, a memoir about his crazy dogs... how they ended up with them, how they lost them, and all the unbelievable stories in between. Plus we get a glimpse into his life too... his family, his writing, his worries, hopes and fears. Which you know I loved. Seriously though, I feel like he's the best storyteller ever. I hear he narrates the audiobook and I think I'm going to have to get my hands on that too. LOL. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

All in all a great reading month! Here's to February's plans!

• Read Hello Beautiful for book club
• Read the fun sequel to Better Than the Movies (Nothing Like the Movies)
• Read a classic for the Classic Six challenge that I'm hosting
• Hopefully read The Bright Sword that I just picked up from the library
• Keep working on Us Against You

Reading Recap October-December 2024

 Hello all! Trying to catch up on my reading log here on the blog.  Wow, but time flies! And it's so easy to get behind. 

OCTOBER

The Passengers by John Marrs: This was the book club pick of the month. It's in the distant future where driverless cars have been mandated. And suddenly, the cars take over and several passengers are headed for a death collision. And the public is forced to decide who to save. And the mystery of who's behind it all is revealed. It's pretty crazy! I gave it ⭐⭐⭐⭐ for intrigue and intensity!

Heartstopper Volumes Two and Three by Alice Oseman: I read the first one earlier
in the year and got my hands on the next two and continued this series. It's the love story of Charlie and Nick and all their friends and high school things and just slice of life. I watched the Netflix show along with reading it have totally fallen in love with them. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab: Here's a popular book I finally got my hands on when I happened upon it at the library. What a great premise about a girl who sells her soul to the devil so she can live the life she's always wanted. Only the condition is that people forget her. Which is not quite what she's wanted. She is cursed with that forever and lives through a bunch of places and history until one day she finds someone who actually DOES remember her. And then it gets really interesting! The buzz about this one is spot on and I'm giving it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: I read this one in a day for Dewey's Readathon. It was our city-wide book pick for this year and I'm glad to have finally gotten to it. Geez that took awhile, lol! Probably as you all know, this one is about a firefighter who's job it is to go to houses and START fires, burning up books. And then one day, he gets a call and it's for his own house. Oh my word. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great classic dystopian that feels like it could happen now in our day and age any second. Sigh.

NOVEMBER

James by Percival Everett: I bought this one and was able to meet the author at the local university and have him sign it, even before I managed to read it! It's a returning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's point of view, and it's very poignant and heart wrenching and so powerful. Definitely ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me!

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel: November's book club, a non fiction book that reads like fiction and feels like fiction, because how can this really happen? It's about a dude who in the later 90s and early 2000's stole HUNDREDS of art pieces from various museums across Europe... in the middle of the day with no violence or weapons or anything. Just his girlfriend as a lookout. And they put all the things in their bedroom. And it's insane and the end of the story is even crazier. You have to read it to believe it. Ah, and we got to meet this author just a few weeks ago! He was fabulous! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Heartstopper Volumes Four and Five by Alice Oseman: Just continuing the series until I finished! Book six (which is the finale) comes out this year! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Making It So by Patrick Stewart: Went to a concert in Vegas (not kpop so there) and listened to this during the drive. Being a pretty pick Star Trek fan, particularly The Next Generation, I found all his stories fascinating. He wasn't a perfect guy but he's lived quite the life. Wow. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

DECEMBER

Two beta reads: My writing group is writing! And so once we all finished our books, we read each others and so I am counting these two toward my total. Both middle grade fantasy, one about the Scottish selkie legend, and one about Christmas. Loved them both.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Piranesi by Susanne Clarke: This was a re-read for me for our book club this month. I loved it just as much the second time through. Hard to say what this one is about and it's better to go in not knowing... if you haven't read this one yet. So good. But the reviews were mixed at book club and many thought it was boring. I am not one obviously. (I am realizing that I tend to be not on the same page with many book clubbers lately on what I find a great book. Hmmm....) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman: a did a buddy read with Melinda at Web of Stories for this one! That was fun! It's about our girl Eleanor, who is a strange sort of person, and as we get to know her, we find out about her life and what might have contributed to her being a bit strange. And he learn, of course, that she is not at all completely fine. People say it's funny, and there are funny moments, but in the end it just kinda made me sad. Still, a great one and well written and lots to think about. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Scribbler of Dreams by Mary E. Pearson: I wanted to re-read this one, a YA romance that I read WAY back in the day (pre blog, nearly pre internet) to see if it lived up to the hype in my mind. It didn't. I remember it being quite swoony. It wasn't really. Sigh. Sometimes this happens I suppose.⭐⭐⭐ The author has written many more things since then, all of them really awesome. And I can't wait to jump into her first one for adults... a romantasy called The Courting of Bristol Keats. 

And that was my last book of 2024, which put me at 62 total books (counting the two beta reads!) I made my Goodreads goal! (You can check out my previous post where I crunched all the numbers) Here's to 2025!

Crunching the Numbers 2024 Edition!

 READING STATS for 2024

(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 19 at 3:00 pm MST... click here to find us. )

TOTAL BOOKS: 62 (Goal was 60!)

Total pages: 20,360
Total Re-reads: 3

Authors
Men:  22
Women: 40

For:
Review for an author: 1

AML Award: 5
Book Club: 11

Readathon/Events: 10

Forced Phase: 0

Beta Reads: 2

Readalong/Buddy Reads: 2

Banned Books: 4

Fun: 27

From:
Print books from the library: 6
On my Kindle (library and bought): 17

Print books bought/owned: 31
Borrowed: 2
Audio: 7

Categories:
YA: 22
Adult: 36
Middle Grade: 4


Genres from the YA Category:
Contemporary Realistic Fiction or Romance:12
SF/Fantasy: 4

Historical Fiction: 1

Graphic Novel: 5

Genres from the MG Category:

Fantasy: 2

Graphic Novel: 1

Contemporary: 1

Genres from the Adult Category:
Historical Fiction: 5
Science Fiction an Fantasy: 8

Dystopian: 1

Romance: 3

Literary Fiction: 6
Memoirs: 6

Other Nonfiction: 5

Classic: 1

Mystery: 1

Star Ratings:
5 stars: 12

4.5: 1
4 stars: 31 

3.5: 1
3 stars: 15
2 stars: 1
1 star: 1

Observations:

• Still bummed at how few classics I'm reading these days. In order to fix that, I'm "hosting" (there's not much to hosting... I just created a challenge page on The Storygraph!) a challenge to read SIX CLASSICS this year. The Classic Six Challenge and if you want to commit to that, you can join here.
• And wow, but the non fiction really went up this year! Go me! I feel like seeing the genres all listed out like this shows that my reading is pretty varied. I like that.
• YA Contemporary romance type books are still my favorite though.
• And look at that 7 audio books! Who knew! LOL! (It's all the driving!)
• Next year I want to do more graphic novels and maybe even some manga. I kind of love it. I guess I should do a post here with all my goals! 

KDRAMA STATS

Total Kdramas: 8

5 hearts: 6

4 hearts: 1

3 hearts: 1

I watched much less this year, and tried to watch a few American type shows. It was okay but Kdramas are still very much superior.

YOUTUBE STATS:

The Kpop Konverters

Total videos uploaded in 2023: 18 long videos, 0 shorts

Subscribers at year end: 40,262

View count at year end: 19,300,895 million

As of this moment, I plan to be done uploading to this channel. I might do one or two more favorites videos, but I will be stepping away for the most part. It's been an amazing ride and I still can't believe the things that happened thanks to the channel. It's hard to be done, but I think it's time.

Suey's Book Banter 

Total videos uploaded in 2023: 126 long videos, 43 shorts

Total Views at year end: 226,584

Total Subscribers at year end: 1,338

The booktube channel is not doing as well as I'd hoped and often I think about just dropping it and coming back to blogging. But I want to make videos. So there's the struggle.