According to Goodreads, my average rating is 3.8, which doesn’t feel quite right, but who am I to argue with data. As of now, I am 98 books in, but I fully intend to finish a short book and manga before midnight. it’ll be my first recorded year of reaching 100 books a year, but as I explained earlier, I feel like it made me bypass longer books. My longest book was On A Sunbeam, at 533 pages. That’s weak.
Read Bricks: My 2020 Reading Goal
This isn’t exactly a top books of 2019 post, because there are 2nd or 3rd choices of some months that are better than the #1s of other months. But I did notice a trend (3 months) where I would read the best book of the month as the first book of the month, and those were also the best books of the year.
January
Stats: 6 books, 2 contemporary, 1 fantasy, 1 classic, 1 manga, 1 mystery
Rep:
And the best book:
If We Were Villains, ML Rio
I love this book, it was my favourite of 2019 and I still think about it. I found it on a whim, while I was aimlessly browsing the library. It’s about a Shakespeare group in college a cult, where one of their members were murdered and they all have something to hide. There’s a slow-burn m/m romance tragedy that was painfully simar to my own gay awakening. But alas, I don’t own it, so if you guys want to gift it to me…
February
Stats: 7 books, 3 Contemporary, 1 horror, 1 manga, 1 historical fiction, 1 mystery
Rep:
The best book:
Darius The Great is Not Ok, Adib Khorram
This follows an Iranan-american boy whose granddad in Iran is ill, so his family is going to visit them so Darius can know him before he dies. It isn’t about the granddad though: it’s about Iranian culture, soccer, and a boy. Being gay can be a death sentence in Iran, so while there’s definite gay undertones, they never actually do or say anything. Their friendship is the purest thing, some hope while Darius is struggling with depression.
March
Stats: 6 books, 3 manga, 2 horror, 1 contemporary
Rep:
The best book:
Autoboyography Christina Lauren
This book made me upset. It’s about 2 boys, one who’s at peace with his bisexuality, and the other who’s a mormon. It deals with his struggle to love someone and go against his family and community. There’s also a writing seminar, where one has to write a book with the other coaching him. I thought that part could’ve been expanded more. There’s secret hikes and secret gay moments.
April
Stats: 8 books, 5 Contemporary, 1 satire, 1 horror, 1 manga
Rep:
Best book:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw2QR6wA0HM/?utm_source=ig_embed
Radio Silence, Alice Oseman
Kat @ paperback dreams loves this book so much, if you didn’t know. I was expecting some letdown, but I still love it. It’s about a gang that produces a sci-fi podcast called Universe City while they muse about what they’re going to do after high school. It’s an exploration of why college isn’t for everyone.
May
Stats: 8 books, 4 contemporary, 2 satire, 1 manga, 1 fantasy
Rep:
Best book:
I Wish You All The Best, Mason Deaver
I hope you know what this is. I hope you read it. I will disown you if you haven’t.
Dear Ben De Backer/ I Wish You All The Best
June
Stats: 6 books, 4 Contemporary (1 manga), 2 romance
Rep:
The Best Book:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzJDlg_Abf3/?utm_source=ig_embed
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Mariko Tamaki , Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
Ahh, yes. The graphic novel about an emotional abusive teen f/f romance that explores what happens when you let yourself and neglect your friends with beautiful art.
Portraying Toxicity in F/F Relationships: Reading Jordi Perez And Laura Dean
July
(When booktubeathon happened) 13 books, 5 manga, 3 contemporary, 1 superhero, 1 Urban fantasy, 1 Poetry, 1 erotica
Rep:
Best Book:
Nimona, Noelle Stevenson
Two months with a top graphic novel, but that just shows how amazing they’ve gotten. Nimona is a shapeshifter determined to do evil for her master, unaware that his greatest rival used to be his greatest lover. Funny! Evil propo!
August
Stats: 8 books, 3 contemporary, 2 manga, 1 satire, 1 poetry, 1 spiritual
Rep:
Best Book:
Sappho, the lesbian poet of Greece. Her poetry haunted the lesbian areas of Greece. Lesbian greek poetry. What Are you waiting for?
September
Stats: 6 books, 3 manga, 2 supernatural, 1 sick lit
Rep:
Best book:
My beloved girlfriend Carmilla. Carmilla is a lesbian vampire in the classic, muddling girls’ minds with dreams and sex. It was adapted into a youtube series that I’m probably going to binge watch after I’ve read the two books I read to reach 100 this year (Bread and Roses, Too, The Fifth Beatle).
October
Stats: 9 month, 5 fantasy, 2 manga, 2 contemporary
Rep:
Best Book:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3GGXb5Ax5h/
Everything Leads To You, Nina LaCour
F/F in LA! i loved how ingrained movies were in their lives, how it was their jobs, their relatives’ jobs, their passions. There’s also a realllly slooow burn romance! If Nina wrote a how-to slow burn guide, it’d be the book on how to write relationships.
November
Stats; 9 books, 4 manga, 2 dystopia, 1 contemporary, 1 spiritual, 1 fantasy
Rep:
This best book was tough, since a few stand out, however Fence is rated highest! Contenders are Dragon Pearl, A Quick And Easy Guide To They/Them Pronouns, and Lizard Radio.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4xexy8gwUC/
December
This is a no-brainer. The Deep by Rivers Solomon is about merfolk descended from pregnant captives on slave ships that were thrown overboard. Their babies were born in the water, barely functioning merbabies. 100 years later, the society remembers three days a year, the memories too heavy and their capacity to short for them to be held by anyone other than the Historian. But now she’s sick of it and wants to find herself. Super gay, written by a nonbinary author.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5hGbrog6Q_/
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
tanyxscreams 