#reading2021

so basically all i got for my birthday and christmas (which happen in rapid succession) were books, which was also all that i really wanted, so my list is basically all the books i just got. in no particular order:

plain bad heroines by emily danforth

annihilation by jeff vandermeer

assata: an autobiography by assata shakur

hood feminism by mikki kendall

i, tituba: Black witch of salem by maryse condé

parable of the sower by octavia butler

summer of salt by katrina leno

the joke by milan kundera

things that fly in the night: female vampires in literature of the circum-caribbean and african diaspora by gisella liza anatol

tell the wolves i’m home by carol rifka brunt

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer

east of eden by john steinbeck

everything inside by edwidge danticat

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone

gilgamesh: a verse narrative by herbert mason

wilder girls by rory power

the mabinogion

also, a few texts i’m going to read for a class that i’m very excited about:

the mahabharata

the kalevala

the mwindo

beowulf

the odyssey

i do not expect to read all of these books, but my goal is to have most of them read by the time i return to school in the fall!!

i’m not gonna tag anyone but mutuals please feel free to do this!

edit: gonna use this list to keep track of my reading in 2021! the crossed-out are the ones already finished, and the bolded is the one i’m currently reading!

i’m also trying to read at least one play a week!

Rating: ☆☆☆☆/5

For some reason, I feel like I enjoyed this book less than most people. On the good-reads app, most people who have read it were mesmerised by it and the deeper meaning. I did feel like that towards the end but there were some things that I was not particularly a fan of. 

The characters were a bit underdeveloped and it was not the right amount of mystery that I normally enjoy. You never truly found out who Winston or Julia were as people which irritated me. 

Further, I was not particularly fond of how much they read a book within a book. Indeed, it was an important aspect of the novel however it could have easily been explained in less detail. I feel like it dragged on unnecessarily. 

I did enjoy the constant twists and how the reader was able to find out more information throughout, as more things were revealed. It was a slow process, but things needed to be explained in detail in order for the reader to really feel as if they were living the life of Winston.

The ending was my favourite part. Very unexpected, especially the last sentence. I do feel as though the whole concept of the book will be stuck with me for a long time - which is what Orwell intended.