The Hungry Bookworm

Most Anticipated Reads of the First Half of 2021 + Reading Goals

January 5, 2021 by Megan 5 Comments

I love this time of year! It’s full of possibilities… and in this case, it means 2020 is officially behind us too. I’m trying not to have huge expectations for 2021, but I’m just hoping it’s even the littlest bit better than last year. At least we know there will be good books!

I’ve scoped out 10 books I’m most looking forward to reading, plus of course, some honorable mentions because it was really hard getting it down to just 10. These all look really promising — some interesting debuts and new stories from old favorites. I also put together a list of 5 reading goals for this year, mostly just to keep myself accountable. I really need to read my shelves, guys.

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Best in Books - 2020 Edition

December 29, 2020 by Megan 2 Comments

Can we believe it? 2020 is almost over (yay!), which makes it the perfect time to look back at the year behind as well as look forward to the (hopefully better) year ahead. I did this survey in 2018 — skipped last year due to a brand new baby — and loved it. I want to give a shoutout to The Perpetual Page Turner, who has been doing this annual year-end survey for 11 years now! Without further ado, my 2020 in review:

2020 READING STATS

Number Of Books You Read: 70 (as of 12/28 before bed)

Number of Re-Reads: 3 — this is huge for me because I never re-read books. One of these books was an old favorite, one was a book I read and disliked the first time but loved the second time around, and one was a book I read 70% of a couple years ago and DNF’d (I got so far into it the first time that I’m considering it a re-read)

Genre You Read The Most From: I’m going to guess it was Literary Fiction again

*A note: In most cases, the links below will go out to my full length review, if you'd like to read more of my thoughts on the book and/or a fun book-inspired recipe!

1. Best book you read in 2020? Without a doubt my favorite fiction was The House in the Cerulean Sea. It was happy and hopeful, and exactly what everyone needed in 2020. My favorite nonfiction was Hood Feminism, which I’m glad I was able to get from the library after a very long time on the waitlist.

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Kids Edition: The Snowy Day + Snowball Cookies

December 19, 2020 by Megan 1 Comment

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When we brought my son home last December, we read to him constantly — mostly black and white books at first but we quickly moved to longer stories. One of my favorites was The Snowy Day, which I read to him to commemorate his first snowfall. I put it away in the spring and recently dug it out to add back to the bookshelf. Again, it was just in time for the first snowfall.

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A Gentleman in Moscow + Dill Bread

December 15, 2020 by Megan Leave a Comment

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I have had A Gentleman in Moscow sitting on my shelf for what feels like forever. I recognized it at a used book sale and scooped it up for a dollar. But then it sat there. The size really intimidated me. When I was presented with an opportunity to partner with the Book Club Cookbook for their Book Blends Bash, I knew now was the time to push myself to read it!

Well, I’m mostly just disappointed I waited so long to pick Amor Towles’ novel up! It was really quite lovely — almost a 5-star read. In it, we follow Count Alexander Rostov, who is sentenced to house arrest by the Bolsheviks in the early 1920s. The rest of the story takes place in the Metropol, where the Count will be staying; to step out onto the street would mean being shot dead on the spot.

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Show Us Your Books Reading Recap — What I Read in November

December 8, 2020 by Megan 2 Comments

This year absolutely flew by, and honestly, bring on 2021. I can happily announce that I made my reading goal this year, when I definitely thought I wouldn’t — I only read 6 books before April! At that point, thankfully, something kicked into gear and I was able to get back on track. This month was a bit of a mixed bag, but I ended on a high note. Here’s a look at what I read:

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Anxious People + Pizza Capricciosa

December 1, 2020 by Megan 4 Comments

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As I have said time and time again, I really love Fredrik Backman’s storytelling. In the case of Anxious People, his latest novel, not that much happens but you get so caught up in the story that you fall in love with it anyway. Anxious People takes place during a hostage situation in Sweden, and though we have a few flashbacks and several interrogation scenes at the police station afterward, the majority of it takes place in a single apartment.

It is not dissimilar to Bel Canto, which also takes place during a hostage situation (this one in a large mansion in South America) and which I also loved. The key here is that Backman really builds the characters — and they’re mesmerizing. With some, you meet them thinking one thing and leave them realizing you were completely wrong; with others, your initial judgements were apt from the start.

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