Hello, lovelies! Welcome to another Bookish Breakdown post, my monthly wrap-up where I talk about last month’s reading, as well as life musings, blog hopping links and intention updates!
January wasn’t a bad month, all things considered (especially when looking at how shit 2021 was for me all round). Still working on creating a better mindset in regards to my toxic work environment in my day job, as that affected me very negatively for most of last year. I’m hanging onto the “new year, new vibes” high and honestly keeping it as long as I can. But, with how hard hitting the latest variant is, we’ve been sticking as close to home as possible, which has been nice for creative endeavors.
So, let’s check in and see how I did creatively this month!
Reading Breakdown
What I Read
I did realize it was going to be such a yellow cover month! But wow, did I start off my reading year with a bang, can I just say? The Councillor has become one of my favorite books of all time, whereas She Who Became the Sun lived up to every aspect of hype it had and then some.
If you haven’t read these, I highly, highly recommend!
What I Hauled
This looks larger than it is, since I haven’t updated this in a while (i.e., this wasn’t all from January)! But, it’s a combination of ARCs (thanks Orbit Books!), some Christmas gifts from my Mom and then two splurge purchases of Cass Morris’s books after I discovered them in Mass Market Paperbacks.
Reading Challenges Update
What: A yearly challenge tracked via StoryGraph of how my books I want to read this year.
Goal: 50 Books
Status: 2/50 Books
What: A personal challenge I’ve put upon myself to read at least one antiracist book a month (or 12 a year).
Goal: 12 Books
Status: 0/12 Books
What: A personal challenge where I want to do a better job that of reading books written by (or featuring protagonists) that aren’t the publishing “standard”, i.e, white, male, able-bodied, straight and based on Western cultures or Christian/Catholic religions.
Goal: More books that break away from that “standard” than books that do.
Status: 2/25
What: A yearly challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight where you write and share your bookish discussion posts!
Goal: 24 Discussion Post (Chatty Kathy Level)
Status: /24 Posts
Posts:
Blogging Breakdown
What I Posted
Friends, it felt SO good to blog regularly this month. Like, my goodness. And it ended up being a nice mixture of different content: from bookish discussions to an actual book review (!) and yearly intentions setting, to more personal posts about finances and MFA apprehensions; even some writing posts and keeping up with all of my regular series (Allyship Check-In, Novels and Narrations and Bookish Breakdown).
Yeah, if every month could be this great of a blogging month, that’d be sick.
Posts Published January 2022
- Ways to Support Me in 2022
- 2022 Intentions
- 2022 Editorial Services
- Let’s Talk Bookish: 2022 Reading Goals
- Transparency and Finances
- Writing Weaknesses
- Academia Apprehension
- The Councillor
- Let’s Talk Bookish: Blogger and Audience Relationship
- Blogger Shout Outs | Support Book Bloggers Challenge
- Allyship Check-In No 22
- Novels and Narrations No 14
Read Around the Blogosphere
Not only did I keep up with blogging, but I also regularly blog hopped!? WHO IS SHE!? Check out some of the fantastic posts from this past month from other bloggers below!
Other Bloggers’ Posts I Loved
- PONDATHON II IS HERE!!!!! Hosted by CW, Skye and Joce @ The Quiet Pond.
- Author Ijeoma Oluo shares tips when writing is hard and it resonated with me, hard. Read it here.
- Author Check Wendig @ Terrible Minds reminds us to seek joy in our writing, echoing my own writerly goals for this year!
- I enjoyed reading Caitlin @ Realms of My Mind‘s thoughts between StoryGraph and Goodreads!
- Shealea @ Shut Up, Shealea HAS RETURNED! And I am so excited. Check out her first post back about curating your blogging mindset and please follow this powerhouse blogger, if you don’t already!
- Check out these 22 Filipino Book Releases in 2022, curated by Kate @ Your Tita Kate! Also, her post on 6 reasons to start a book blog this year is *chef’s kiss*.
- Malka @ Paper Procrastinators shares how to break into a new genre while reading.
- Briana @ Pages Unbound shares 5 quick and easy ways to support book bloggers!
- I really appreciated K.M Allan’s tips to train yourself to write–tips I plan to use to create a routine I desperately want to prioritize this year!
- Nia @ Perceptive Madness shares important reflections about work life balance that I really appreciated.
- Author Michael Mammay shares about writer imposter syndrome and oh, hello, it’s me.
- Sword and Silk Books tackles writing anxiety this week!
- Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books shares 7 easy ways to increase your blog’s traffic and wow, do I wish I could have had a list like this when I started blogging years ago.
- Let’s all celebrate May @ Forever and Everly, who just celebrated her 5 year blogging anniversary!
- Check out this awesome interview with author C.L. Clark, author of The Unbroken, hosted as the first post in the Fiction Digest series, hosted by Lia @ An Ode to Fiction!
Intentions Check-In
As you saw from my intentions post, I tried to narrow in my focus this year. I still do want to check-in each month and see how I’m doing, so I don’t lose sight of what I’m hoping to achieve, change and celebrate!
I did start off attempting to have a better daily routine, which I did like, for the two days I tried it. I’m going to recommit to this in February, as I think having a proper sleep, evening and morning routine will do wonders in helping with so many of these other intentions!
My goal for January was to start organizing our apartment, starting with the kitchen. This didn’t happen at all, but that’s okay! We’re going to tackle the kitchen in February.
Writing was not a priority this month, but I did manage to making reading a priority, reading more days than I didn’t this month! Plus, I read two books (which wasn’t as much as I hoped, but I can’t complain about the quality honestly).
Looking Forward
Well, January was a breath of fresh air, honestly. I hope that I can continue to find positives in February, celebrate small victories and make the creative aspects of my life more of a priority!
Thanks for reading this month’s Bookish Breakdown. I hope you all are staying safe and healthy. I’m rooting for you!
so glad that you were able to blog consistently in january—that’s the dream for me! and i’ll have to check out some of the stuff you posted, they sound so interesting! and YES at enjoying she who became the sun, it really is worth all the hype ahh. and thank you so much for sharing my post! <3
It’s definitely been a long time coming! Thank you so much, May! Always happy to share your incredible work. 🖤
Hi Nicole, I just found out that you linked my article on work/life balance in your roundup — thank you so much! I went to check out some of your January articles and really appreciated your courage and transparency with the one about your finances and work.
Thank you for linking my newsletter again, I really appreciate it. 😀
Absolutely, thank you so much for writing it! And I’m so glad you found a blog post that you enjoyed. I really appreciate you taking a look at my content! 🖤
I’m so happy to see you managed to blog more regularly this month, that’s amazing! I wish you all the very best and hope that February has been kind to you. Take care of yourself always <3