If you are a reader, you definitely have a TBR, or to-be-read, that probably keeps growing and growing. I am not immune to this and have been on the search for things to read this year, and I decided to share what I’m wanting to read with you.
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The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera
The First to Die at the End is a prequel to They Both Die at the End which I read a couple of years ago and really enjoyed. As I was cataloging my personal library, it came up as a recommendation and I knew I had to read it given my enjoyment of the first one.
Book Summary:
It’s the night before Death-Cast goes live, and there’s one question on everyone’s mind: Can Death-Cast actually predict when someone will die, or is it just an elaborate hoax?
Orion Pagan has waited years for someone to tell him that he’s going to die. He has a serious heart condition, and he signed up for Death-Cast so he could know what’s coming. Valentino Prince is restarting his life in New York. He has a long and promising future ahead and he only registered for Death-Cast after his twin sister nearly died in a car accident.
Orion and Valentino cross paths in Times Square and immediately feel a deep connection. But when the first round of End Day calls goes out, their lives are changed forever–one of them receives a call, and the other doesn’t. Though neither boy is certain how the day will end, they know they want to spend it together…even if that means their goodbye will be heartbreaking.
Healing Through Words by Rupi Kaur
Book Summary:
Healing Through Words is a guided tour on the journey back to the self, a cathartic and mindful exploration through writing.
This carefully curated collection of exercises asks only that you be vulnerable and honest, both with yourself and the page. You don’t need to be a writer to take this walk; you just need to write–that’s all.
I am a fan of Rupi Kaur’s work, so naturally, a new book from her will end up on my TBR. Healing Through Words is more of a workbook than a poetry collection, so I am interested in how this will work.
Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes
I actually just found Pandora’s Jar while perusing my local bookstore and I became quickly intrigued. I have a basic knowledge of greek myths, and exploring the topic through the lens of a woman interests me.
Book Summary:
The tellers of Greek myths—historically men—have routinely sidelined the female characters. When they do take a larger role, women are often portrayed as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil—like Pandora, the woman of eternal scorn and damnation whose curiosity is tasked with causing all the world’s suffering and wickedness when she opened that forbidden box. But, as Natalie Haynes reveals, in ancient Greek myths there was no box. It was a jar . . . which is far more likely to tip over.
Pandora’s Jar brings nuance and care to the millennia-old myths and legends and asks the question: Why are we so quick to villainize these women in the first place—and so eager to accept the stories we’ve been told?
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Book Summary:
In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee–the chance to travel back in time.
Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.
Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious, and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?
Before the Coffee Gets Cold was recommended by a Booktuber I follow and its premise really intrigued me. It also reminds me of a book I read in college called One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni.
Radically Content: Being Satisfied in an Endlessly Dissatisfied World by Jamie Varnon
This will probably sound cheesy, but I have been spending the first month of the year trying to figure myself out and what I want in life. So I’ve been exploring different tools and books on the matter, including Radically Content. Jamie Varnon was a guest on The Financial Confessions which I sometimes listen to, and from that, I became intrigued with her book.
Book Summary:
Too many of us are waiting for our lives to begin, putting our happiness on layaway for some future version where it all lines up, when we’ve accomplished it all, when we have the perfect career, bodies, partners, and when our lives finally feel “good enough.” But what is good enough? Who gets to decide? And when do we ever reach it?
Jamie takes a sharp, incisive look at the industries that are constantly telling us to do more, be more, and keep striving, pushing, and hustling–and shows you how to radically opt out of societal conditioning.
We’ve learned to be terrified of contentment, thinking it will lead us to complacency. Yet, being content in a world that profits off our dissatisfaction is not complacency. It’s revolutionary.
Do you have any books you’re planning to read this year? Tell me about them with a comment below.
That “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” sounds like it’s begging to be adapted into a j-drama and/or k-drama 😉