Becky Evolves Her Reading in 2025

Hello, everyone! My name is Becky and this is my second attempt at participating in this challenge. Last year's attempt was a hot mess of overcommitment, so any reading plans I had were promptly tossed out the window (I should have known better.)

My word for 2025 is "Evolve" and I plan on applying that to my reading as well. This includes being more engaged in my reading versus reading to consume (does that make sense?), annotating, being more selective in what I add to my TBR and weeding out any books I'm no longer interested in reading, spending more time reading to/with my kids, and reducing my physical TBR pile (literally a pile as tall as me). I'm also going to try and focus on reading only books with a 3.8-star rating or higher according to Goodreads, cause ain't nobody got time for that.

I'll be popping in and out of CATs and KITs this time around; there were just too many good ones this year to commit to fully!

Happy reading, everyone!

Goodreads "Want to Read" as of:
1/3/2025 - 945 books

The 52 Book Club

(11/52)

✔ 1. A Pun In The Title - Totally Folked by Penny Reid (3 stars)
✔ 2. A Character With Red Hair - Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese (4 stars)
3. Title Starts With Letter "M"
4. Title Starts With Letter "N" - Nocticadia by Keri Lake
✔ 5. Plot Includes A Heist - A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (4 stars)
6. Genre 1: Set In Spring
✔ 7. Genre 2: Set In Summer - Beach Read by Emily Henry (4 stars)
8. Genre 3: Set In Autumn
✔ 9. Genre 4: Set In Winter - The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
✔ 10. Author's Last Name Is Also A First Name - Chasing the Wild by Elliott Rose (3 stars)
11. A Prequel - Assassin's Blade by Sara J. Maas (own)
12. Has A Moon On The Cover
13. Title Is Ten Letters Or Less -
14. Climate Fiction
15. Includes Latin American History
16. Author Has Won An Edgar Award
17. Told In Verse
18. A Character Who Can Fly
✔ 19. Has Short Chapters - Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 by T.J. Newman (4 stars)
20. A Fairy Tale Retelling
21. Character's Name In The Title
22. Found Family Trope
23. A Sprayed Edge
24. Title Is A Spoiler
25. Breaks The Fourth Wall
26. More Than A Million Copies Sold
27. Features A Magician
28. A Crossover (Set In A Shared Universe)
29. Shares A Universe With Prompt 28
(and shares list)
30. In The Public Domain
✔ 31. Audiobook Has Multiple Narrators - The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (5 stars)
✔ 32. Includes A Diary Entry - When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker (4 stars)
33. A Standalone Novel
34. Direction In The Title
35. Written In Third Person
36. Final Sentence Is Less Than 6 Words Long
37. Genre Chosen For You By Someone Else
(there is no list for this one, but once you have your genre feel free to check our Summer 2022 genre lists for ideas)
38. An Adventure Story
39. Has An Epigraph
40. Stream Of Consciousness Narrative
41. Cover Font Is In A Primary Color
42. Non-Human Antagonist
43. Explores Social Class
44. A Celebrity On The Cover
45. Author Releases More Than One Book A Year
✔ 46. Read In A "-Ber" Month - Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig (4 stars)
(there is no list for this prompt)
47. "I Think It Was Blue"
48. Related To The Word Puzzle
49. Set In A Country With An Active Volcano
50. Set In The 1940's - Includes WWII
Set In The 1940's - Not Including WWII
✔ 51. A Book With 300-400 Pages - Assistant to the Villian by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (4 stars)
52. Published in 2025

CATs & KITs

January
NatureKIT - Sylvia's Farm: The Journal of an Improbable Shepherd

February -
March -
April -
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
ColorCAT: Blue - The Only One Left by Riley Sager

December -

Read Alouds (audiobooks included)

✔ January - The Mistmantle Chronicles: Urchin of the Riding Stars
February -
March -
April -
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Physical TBR (at least one per month)

January
Sylvia's Farm: The Journal of an Improbable Shepherd

February -
March -
April -
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Maybe another one...

Maybe another one?

And maybe another one (let's not get crazy)

Welcome back, Becky, and good luck with your 2025 reading goals! I like the idea of reading for engagement vs. reading to consume.

Worthy goals! Good luck reducing the TBR!

>9 christina_reads: Thanks for the welcome!

>10 Charon07: Thank you! Definitely a priority this year.

Happy reading, and good luck with your 2025 goals!

>13 mstrust: Thank you!

Happy New Year and good luck with your reading.

Hope your 2025 is filled with good reads!

Looking forward to following you this year. Wishing you a great 2025.
Find me here

https://www.librarything.com/topic/367017#8712413

>15 lowelibrary: Happy New Year!

>16 thornton37814: Thanks, you too!

Welcome back and better luck this time!

>20 MissWatson: Thanks so much!

Finished Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 by T.J. Newman yesterday. I was in a bit of a reading slump and my librarians gave me some personal favorites as recommendations. This was one of them and it did not disappoint. As someone who hates flying and is pretty terrified of the ocean, it provided plenty of suspense (and horror, in my opinion.) There were also some very heartfelt moments. A great book to end my reading slump!

Finished Two Twisted Crowns, book two of the Shepherd King duology. I really enjoyed this story and had a hard time deciding whether it was a 4 or 5-star read. I enjoyed the characters, though there were a few times I had to try and remember who was who due to the interesting names. The plot was unique and very engaging, which is refreshing after reading so many fantasy novels that seem to follow the same script. Overall, I gave it 4 stars.

Finished The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon. This was one of several recommendations my librarian friend provided when I asked for spooky reads back in October. (I had to leave my closet light on when going to bed, so I'd say this one was properly spooky.) I really liked the historical aspect of it as well as the mystery, which kept me invested in the story. Gave it 4 stars, but was tempted to give it 5. A really fun read.

Edited to add that this fulfilled the "Genre 4: Set In Winter" prompt for my 52 Week Challenge.