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2025 Goals Recap: Stats and Updates

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2025 Goals Recap

2025 Goals Recap: Stats and Updates

2025 was a frustrating one for me as a book blogger, if I’m honest. Like, I read some amazing books. That was great. But I also faced some health challenges that left me feeling way behind schedule for most of the year. Not so great.

By the time I hit September/October, I was months behind, struggling to get caught up reading the books I’d promised publishers that I’d get to by release dates that had long since swept past me. I finally caught up in mid-December and finished the year reading a few 2026 titles. Better late than never, I guess!

I set my overall reading goal for 2025 at 200 books, which is very achievable for me, and I exceeded it by almost 50 books. So, overall, I think it was still a good year, reading-wise.

And, my family finished the year with everyone doing okay health-wise, which is also a huge win! I’ve enjoyed the look back at the past year. It has helped me understand some ways I need to pivot in 2026 so that I feel a little less pressure and a little more joy in my reading life.

Last year, I posted a recap with charts, which was kind of fun. I’ll post them here again. I thought about doing some side-by-side comparisons from this year to last year, but it got weird because I didn’t name the charts consistently, so I decided not to do that. I’ll still note some comparisons for my fellow chart/trend people.

Books I Read by Age Group

Perhaps predictably, my 2025 reading by age group is very similar to my 2024 numbers. Essentially, I read the exact same percentage of YA this past year and slightly more middle grade/slightly fewer adult books.

The bulk of my reading is still young adult literature. I feel pretty good about my selection process with young adult books, but I’d like to get better at finding and selecting middle grade titles. I still sort of stumble over those rather than deliberately campaign for review copies of certain titles. A better process might help me balance my reading between the two age groups.

Types of Books I Read in 2025

Most of what I read are full-length novels (167 books). I read a LOT more anthologies this year (21) compared to last year (1), which was interesting. I’m finding that I really enjoy that format and the chance to read short stories by new authors. I also read a few anthologies this year where the authors connected the stories in interesting ways. That was a lot of fun.

I still read a lot of nonfiction (45 books), which is great. Years ago, I set a goal to read at least one nonfiction title per month, so it’s really cool to see that number at almost 4 per month on average.

Some of the poetry books were part of my reading a poem a day goal, but some are novels in verse. Graphic novels are still a bit of a new thing for me. I found some illustrators that I love, and my daughter started reading middle grade graphic novels, so both of those bumped up my reading this year.

Frontlist vs. Backlist

This year, like last year, I read a lot more backlist titles than I thought. Some of this happens because one of the groups I review for runs a little behind, so I end up reading some 2024 releases in 2025. But most of this is me fitting in books from my TBR and catching up on titles I missed for whatever reason. This year, I read some incredible backlist titles, so I hope to share those in a separate “Best of 2025” list, since I don’t get to talk about those all that often.

I also surprised myself by reading five whole 2026 titles before the end of 2025. It felt great to catch up on the books I agreed to review for 2025 and move forward into 2026 before the year’s end.

Format Breakdown

My format choices for 2025 are very similar to 2024. Nearly half of my reading is ebooks or eARCs (pre-release copies from publishers). A fair number of the hardbacks are from publishers as well. A few send me finished copies, which is so cool.

A little more than a quarter of my total books read come from audiobooks, which I mostly listen to in the car. Most of those come from the library.

Genre Breakdown

This breakdown kind of surprises me. I didn’t realize how much fantasy as a genre dominates my reading. If you asked me what percentage of my reading is contemporary versus fantasy, I would have guessed it’s about 50/50. Ha! Not even close.

I’m also surprised that I read so few romances. I think this is in part because if a book had a romance subplot, I didn’t consider it a romance. Some of those are labeled fantasy or contemporary. So there are quite a few titles that had romance in them but aren’t categorized as romance.

I read more mystery/suspense/thriller books than I thought, and fewer horror novels. Horror is a relatively new interest for me, too, but it seems to be something I enjoy, especially if it is thoughtful and not too gory.

Goals Recap

I’m a little discouraged about my reading challenge results this year. Not because I expected to read more backlist titles, but because I kind of filled out the prompts in reverse (trying to find a prompt that fit a backlist title I’d read rather than choosing a title based on a prompt). It’s fine– the reading challenge police are not on their way or anything. It simply wasn’t a very satisfying way for me to tackle my backlist reading this year.

Read Harder 2025 Challenge

This year, I completed 20 out of 24 reading prompts for Book Riot’s Read Harder 2025 challenge. One of the reasons I like this challenge, alongside the Beat the Backlist Challenge, is that it allows you to count books that release in 2025. The whole point is to challenge yourself to read more inclusively. The challenge has helped me recognize some holes in my reading choices. That’s a direction I intend to continue, whether or not I continue the challenge.

Beat the Backlist 2025 Challenge

I managed to satisfy 46 out of 52 reading prompts this year for Austine Decker’s Beat the Backlist challenge. A few of those prompts never had a chance. One was for reading a book that was over 600 pages. I am just not a person who can read long books like that. I start to sweat when we get over 350 pages. Needless to say, I skipped right over that one!

I’m not unhappy with 46 completed prompts, though. I liked reading through the list of prompts and thinking of books from my TBR that would satisfy a particular prompt, even if I didn’t end up reading that book for the challenge.

Poetry and Classics

One of my goals this year was to read one poem per day. This came from a suggestion in Why We Read by Shannon Reed. She struggled to read poetry and felt bad about it, but discovered that one poem per day was a really sustainable pace for her. I tried this method this year, and though I took a bit of a break this fall, it was very successful for me. This year, I managed to read several poetry anthologies, and I found some poets that I really enjoy.

On the classics front, my experience was less satisfying. I wanted to read The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, but picked it up at the wrong time. Between the news and the intensity of some of the scenes in the book, I had to put it down. I want to give it a try again once I’m in a better headspace, though. I reread The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi and finished Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume for the first time. I also reread Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.

Community Goals

I continued meeting up with KidLit Bloggers this year and sharing middle grade reviews on Mondays with the crew at Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays. Both of those things have been a lot of fun. A few of the KidLit bloggers and I now do a quarterly book club. Right now, we’re reading Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout for discussion in January.

In 2025, I only posted two Top Ten Tuesday lists, which is so sad. I love doing those lists, but I struggle to do them when I’m behind on posting reviews. It always feels like I should catch up on those reviews before working on other things, but I’m not sure how true that is. I want to revamp my process for next year to allow me some space to prioritize lists. They’re such a great way to draw attention to underhyped books, and they’re a lot of fun to put together. Lists are also a great way to feature books that I want to read, but realistically may not get to before that publication date.

Process Goals

My goal this year was to take more breaks and feel less guilty. This was very challenging in 2025 because I was far behind my predicted calendar schedule. The good news is that once I realized that catching up was a long-term strategy, not something I could do in a week or two, I was able to let go of some of the guilt and move forward the best I could.

I do not feel satisfied with the amount of space I left myself for mood reading or taking breaks. This is still very much a work in progress for me. I’ve got some ideas for how to change this up in 2026 that I’m excited about.

Did you meet your reading goals for 2025?

Did you start the year with any reading goals? How do you think you did at meeting them? Whether or not you set any goals, leave a comment and let me know about your reading experience this year. I hope you have a safe, happy New Year, and a 2026 filled with wonderful literary adventures!

Mid-Year Reading Check-in and July Reading Scramble

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Mid-Year Reading Check-in and July Reading Scramble

The summer is flying by this year, but I wanted to make time to pause for a moment and check in on the goals I set for the year. I’m also doing a Mid-year Reading Scramble with The Word N3rd this month, so I’ll post my catch-up reading plans as well.

This whole year has been packed with unexpected challenges and changes so far. From health things to stuff with my girls, I have struggled to keep up with reading and blogging more than in previous years. While I try my best not to stress about my goals, it does help to have things quantified and written down so that I can look back and note the progress I made.

Goals for 2024

To see my full list of goals for the year, check out my Bookish Goals for 2024 post. Otherwise, grab a drink and let’s get down to it.

Goal: Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge

There are 52 optional prompts in the Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge. So far, I’ve completed 20 of them. Not quite half, but not too shabby, if I say so myself. Last year I completed 19 out of 24 prompts, so I’m tracking at that same pace so far this year. Highlights from the challenge? Glad you asked!

I’ve ended up reading several titles that have been on my reading list for YEARS, and I’ve mostly enjoyed them. The audiobook version of The Color Purple is amazing– it’s got some explicit abuse, so read carefully– I imagine this won’t be the only time I listen to the story. It’s a powerful story.

I finally read Nimona because my daughter wanted to watch the movie, and I prefer to read the book first if possible. I loved it, and having seen the movie now, too, I think it captures the heart of the story really well even if some of the events play out a bit differently.

A friend had given me a copy of The Hazel Wood years ago, and I kept promising myself I’d read it. While waiting on a hold through my library, I noticed that the audiobook version of this one was available, so I dove in. And, wow. It’s not the story I expected, but I got lost in the twisty, dark fairytales and the quest to bring family back together.

Goal: Read Harder Reading Challenge

I’m also working on the Read Hard(er) Challenge by Book Riot, which has 24 prompts. At this point, I’ve completed 13 of them, which is right on track. Here are a few favorites…

Killers of the Flower Moon was an impulse read. My library had the audiobook version, and the title was too intriguing to pass up. It opened up a chapter of history I knew almost nothing about (thank you, Florida education system) and completely blew me away. I highly recommend it.

Black Girl You Are Atlas was on my reading list, and in fact, I already owned the ebook version because I love Renée Watson and will read anything she writes. The poems are powerful and inspiring, and the collage illustrations are absolutely breathtaking.

Conditions of a Heart is a contemporary romance about a girl with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which I wasn’t familiar with. The story explores Brynn’s experience navigating high school life and relationships and her conflicting feelings about talking to others about her disability.

Goal: Read 200 Books

I’m totally on track for this. As of the end of June, I’d read almost 140 books this year. I’ve had a wacky year with some health stuff coming up and parenting challenges, so I’m pretty proud to have read so many. About 20 I read as audiobooks, and another 20 are graphic novels, so that does make it a little easier to keep this kind of pace.

Goal: Read 3-5 More Classics, Especially by Women or BIPOC

This has been another ongoing project for me. There are a ton of classic works that I simply haven’t read, and I’d like to add a few to the list of those I’ve read each year. Here’s what I’ve read this year besides The Color Purple, which I talked about already.

Wuthering Heights was a reread for me since I read it in high school. I remember that I didn’t like it then, but I didn’t like Pride and Prejudice when I read it in school, either, and it’s a favorite now. I gave it another chance, and I’m sorry to say it’s still a massive nope for me. Too many people abuse one another around a narrator who is powerless to stop them.

This year I read Sense and Sensibility for the first time. It was a little confusing, since I’m fairly familiar with the BBC movie version, so I actually listened to the audiobook more than once because some scenes happened so differently than the movie shows. I enjoyed it a lot, though. When I’m not reading Austen, I always forget how funny she is.

Another classic on my reading list for a LONG time is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I listened to the audiobook version read by the author, and wow. She writes so emotively about how children think and perceive things. The book describes a time in history that I don’t think I’ve ever read about from a Black author’s perspective– which seems wild to me. (More thanks, Florida education system.)

Goal: Donate Books and Manage the Book Hoard

I think I’ve actually been doing okay with these goals this year. I’ve sent five or six boxes of books to a juvenile detention center through information posted on Sentences Book Donations Facebook page. I’ve donated a few bags of books to my local library as well.

Sorting the book hoard is still a work in progress. I’m close to having a good system for books coming in and going out. I need a basket or designated spot for books I plan to send to a JD center. Once school starts up again, I’ll probably do one more pass through the collection to weed out things I’m ready to let go of, and I’ll have at least one more box or two to donate to the juvenile facility. Then I think I’ll call that goal met.

Mid-Year Reading Scramble with The Word N3rd

I heard about the Mid-year Reading Scramble through Alex at Pucks and Paperbacks channel on YouTube. Since I’ve got a few books that I’m desperate to work into my schedule this month anyway, it seemed like a great way to boost my motivation, get some accountability, and maybe meet some more bookish people. Triple win.

If you want to know more about the Reading Scramble, check out this announcement video from The Word N3rd.

Here are a few of the books on my catch-up list.

There are two titles from Wednesday books on my list as well. I’d also like to read The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Unbecoming by Seema Yasmin, and The Loudest Silence by Sydney Langford.

How is your reading going this year?

If you set goals for yourself, how are you doing? Are you doing any reading challenges or readathon events? Let me know what you’re reading and if you’ve read any of the books I mentioned in this post.

6 Easy Ways to Unhaul Your Books

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6 Easy Ways to Unhaul Your Books

Spring and Fall always make me want to clean and organize, and one of my favorite things to organize is, of course, my books! This year, I’ll review somewhere around 200 titles, and about one-third of them will be in the form of physical copies I receive from publishers. Which means about 70 books for the year.

Not including the books I buy (not zero) or are gifted to me. Or books anyone else in our household of readers happens to buy.

At any rate, it’s too many to keep, which means dealing with my book hoard a couple of times a year is essential. If you’re like me and you’re getting ready for a fall cleanout, here are some ways to unhaul your books.

1. Donate books to your local county library.

The library will accept books in good condition and sell them to raise money for their programs. I think they might stop accepting donations during the summer due to being busy with summer reading programs, so be sure to check with your library and make sure they’re accepting donations before you try to drop off books.

2. Find a Little Free Library near you.

If you’re not familiar with them, Little Free Libraries are small, stand-alone structures that are usually big enough to hold a shelf or two of books. You may see them outside a park or in neighborhoods. You can also check the Little Free Library website to see if there are Little Free Libraries in your area that are registered with the program. I usually only add two or three books at a time when I donate to these, but there are a few in my area that I frequent. Our local community college bookstore also has a “Leave a Book/Take a Book” table that I will add to my regular donation list.

3. Pass your books on to a friend, relative, or teacher.

I don’t have a ton of reading friends at the moment. When I did, I used to pass on a lot of books to them or to their kids. Sometimes now, I’ll take a quick picture of a stack of books and ask my remaining reader friends if they want anything in the stack. That way, I can pass the books on to them the next time we meet up.

I used to give a lot more books to teachers. I live in Florida, so right now, that’s problematic for me. If you live in a place where it’s easier to hand books to teachers and have them added to a school or class library, I know the teachers I’ve given to appreciate it.

4. Sell or trade at your local used bookstore.

This is a book unhaul point that I definitely need to make better use of. We have a couple of used bookstores in town. I’ve bought books from them more than once, but I have never traded things in. You can often get store credit for the books you sell to the store.

Of course, then I’ll want to spend my store credit on, you know… MORE BOOKS. This seems like a vicious cycle. Haha!

5. Donate books to a domestic violence shelter, group home, or local sharing organization.

We have a local organization that helps local families by serving as a food pantry and thrift store. I like to donate books to them sometimes. It feels more personal than a chain like Goodwill, though there’s nothing wrong with donating there if that’s what’s local to you.

You may also want to consider local domestic violence shelters or group homes if you have any in your area. Keep in mind that they may only accept certain types of books.

6. Mail books to prisons or other facilities through Sentences Book Donations.

This is my favorite way to unhaul books. I discovered Sentences Book Donations the first year I started blogging on The Story Sanctuary. The founder, Clinton Festa, asked me to review his book, and I discovered (or he mentioned) Sentences then. Sentences is a non-profit organization that helps match donors with prisons and other facilities looking for book donations. When a facility is looking for books, Clinton posts the details on his Facebook and Goodreads pages. Anyone can copy down the details and ship books to the facility directly. Easy peasy.

If you want to know more about Clinton and Sentences, check out this Q&A I posted yesterday.

This is a box of books I donated late last summer to a facility in Alabama via information posted on the Sentences Book Donations Facebook page.

A Note About ARCs (Advance Release Copies)

If you’re a reviewer, you probably already know you can’t sell ARCs– they’re pre-release, uncorrected copies of a book that basically become obsolete after a book is published. This means you’ll want to be careful where you donate them. For example, I’ve noticed that if I donate them to my library, they will try to sell them, which I don’t like. Just something to keep in mind.

My favorite thing to do with ARCs is either give them to a reader who has been waiting eagerly for the book to come out, place them in a Little Free Library, or donate them to a local charity.

I think you can also recycle ARCs, depending on the recycling rules where you live.

What’s Your Go-To Place to Unhaul Your Books?

Where do you take books you’re getting rid of? How often do you clean out or reorganize your shelves? If you’ve posted about a recent book unhaul on your blog or social media, leave me a link. I’d love to check it out for more inspiration as I prepare for my fall cleanout!

It’s fall– and time for me to clean out and reorganize my shelves. If you’re like me and getting ready for a clean-out, you might want to check out these six places to unhaul your books.

A Very Belated Winter Wrap-Up

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A Very Belated Winter Wrap-Up

Spring has (maybe?) sprung, and here I am scraping together my winter wrap-up. It’s been a busy season! Read on to see the best books I read this season as well as my most popular posts. Finally, I’ll check in on the goals I set for the year and how I’m doing in meeting them.

Winter Wrap-Up Behind the Scenes News

Last year, I started working directly with several new publishers, which means easier access to more of the books I can’t wait to read. Which is good and bad? Because yeowza, my calendar has never been so packed.

I used to limit myself to three reviews per week, but last September, I increased that to four. In January, I increased to five reviews per week.

Honestly, this only works because I’ve been sitting on a backlog of about 40 reviews for backlist books I read sometime last year. Sometimes, though, I’ve needed to read four or five new books per week. I don’t think that’s a sustainable pace, so I’m trying to refine my process for deciding which books to review.

Changes in My What to Review Decision-Making Process

For a long time, I was really just reviewing whatever books looked interesting. I had few enough requests that this made sense and still left me wiggle room to add in backlist titles I couldn’t get review copies of or discovered after publication and wanted to read.

I’ve tried to have an eye toward reading diversely as I select which books to read, but there are definitely holes I would like to fill. For example, I don’t read very many books by Indigenous authors. Not on purpose. I just don’t often get asked to review them, and I haven’t been purposefully seeking them out. So I’m working on that this year.

Lately, though, that’s not the case, and I’m finding that I have to say no to books that look really great. The good news is that my blog viewership has grown enough (thanks to all of you!) that I have access to a larger selection of books. The bad news is that I can’t review them all!

One of the new things that I’m considering as I encounter books by authors I’ve read before is how those past reviews performed in terms of the number of views they received. This was super helpful last week when I was asked to review the sequel to SKANDAR AND THE UNICORN THIEF. When I checked the post performance for my review, I discovered it was one of my top ten best performing posts last year, and it’s in the top twenty for this year so far.

So I’d say the data indicates my readers would be interested in the sequel, so I eagerly accepted the book for review.

Winter Wrap-Up: Top Posts

Technically these are the top five best performing reviews for the first quarter of this year. What’s funny to me is that none of these were posted this quarter. I’m guessing people searched for reviews of RUIN AND RISING because of the release of the second season of the Shadow and Bone series on Netflix. The others have been high performing posts for a while, so I guess there aren’t really any big surprises here.

What’s interesting to me is that I’ve heard other bloggers talk about how their reviews don’t perform well over time in terms of clicks and views, but four out of my top five posts are reviews. (The other is this list of middle grade books I was eagerly anticipating coming out this past winter.)

One of the things that I do which probably helps my stats is to use a plugin that helps me strengthen my SEO for each post. (I use a free one called Yoast.)

Now that we’ve discussed what most of my viewers were reading this past quarter, let’s look at what I was reading!

Best Books I Read This Winter

Middle Grade Favorites

I read 26 middle grade books during the first quarter of this year, and there were some really great ones in that list. These four are my favorites. They’re the ones I still think about even weeks after I finished reading them. I loved the sense of community and celebration of amigurumi and boba tea in IT’S BOBA TIME FOR PEARL LI.

That Gillian McDunn’s latest book, WHEN SEA BECOMES SKY, moved me probably won’t surprise anyone who has followed this blog the last few years. I love her writing and the explorations of deep feelings she brings to the pages of her books.

MIRROR TO MIRROR surprised me with its beautiful celebration of sisterhood and individuality in its spare verse chapters. I loved getting the points of view of both of the twins and seeing the difference in how they viewed each other and themselves.

THE BOY WHO FOLLOWED HIS FATHER INTO AUSCHWITZ is a haunting, true story about a family fractured by World War II and the Holocaust. I couldn’t stop thinking about this book after I’d finished it. It’s definitely worth a read, and does a great job showing the destruction that happened to Jewish families both within and outside concentration camps during World War II.

Young Adult Favorites

I read 39 young adult books from January to March this year. Lots of them were really well done, so it was hard to narrow down to a handful of favorites.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect picking up MY DEAR HENRY, but wow, was it good. Kalynn Bayron really captured the vibe of the original story and delivered complex, tortured characters in Victorian England. It was so good. Definitely made me want to catch up on the books by this author that I’ve missed.

I WILL FIND YOU AGAIN was another wild card for me. The cover copy made me think a bit of WE WERE LIARS, which is one of my favorite books ever, so that was enough to get me to check it out. And let me tell you, I was NOT disappointed! I’ll definitely keep Sarah Lyu on my radar, because what a compelling, twisty story.

I’ve been a long-time Elizabeth Wein fan, so again, probably not a surprise to see STATELESS on my favorites list if you’ve been reading my reviews for a long time. I was really excited to see a book about a female pilot in the 1930s. Wein does an amazing job showing the tension between nations as Europe nears another World War.

Though it’s got kind of an understated cover, MISSING CLARISSA packed some serious punch. The pacing was perfect, and the characters were compelling enough to propel me through this one all the way to the final page. It’s a definite must-read for fans of ONE OF US IS LYING.

Goals Tracking

At the beginning of the year, I wrote this Top Ten Tuesday post outlining a long list of goals for this year. So how’s that going, you ask? Let’s take a super quick look…

Reading Goals

Goal: Read at least 150 books this year. Update: I’ve read 75 books so far this year, so I’d say I’ve made great progress on this one.

Goal: Say no when my calendar is full. Update: Hahahahahahaha! …. Yeah, this one is a work in progress.

Backlist Reading Goals

Goal: Read and review 3-5 timely classics, preferably by BIPOC. Update: I started both THE FIRE NEXT TIME by James Baldwin and THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET by Sandra Cisneros, so those I expect to finish this year for sure. I also finally read ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell, which only half-counts toward this goal, because it is definitely timely.

Goal: Read 3-5 backlist TBR nonfiction titles. Update: So far I’ve read one– ALL BOYS AREN’T BLUE by George M. Johnson, so that’s one.

Goal: Read 10-12 backlist TBR fiction titles. Update: I started CLAP WHEN YOU LAND, but haven’t finished it yet.

Bookish List Post Goals

Goal: Post 3-4 Top Ten Tuesday lists each quarter. Update: I posted six TTT lists this quarter. Win!

Goal: Post seasonal most-anticipated lists. Update: I’m on this. Just posted my lists for middle grade and young adult books coming this spring!

Goal: Post lists for monthly celebrations. Update: I did make a list for Holocaust Remembrance Day, but I totally missed both Women’s History month this month and Black History month in February. I’ve got an Earth Day post coming soon. Still a work in progress.

Writing Goals

I listed two writing goals in my original post (publishing another indie book for authors and finishing a novel of my own), and honestly, I haven’t really worked on either of these. Some family stuff has come up that’s made it necessary for me to table both those projects for now. I’m working on a short story currently, and would like to write some essays to sell as well. That seems more manageable right now.

What Would You Like to See More of?

Now that you know what I’m working on and what’s coming soon… what are the things you wish you could see more of on this site? Do you want more lists? More updates like this one? Are you interested in voting on what backlist books I read and review next? Leave a comment and let me know!

If We Were Having Coffee Update

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I’ve been meaning to post a blog update and also really wanting to do an “If We Were Having Coffee” style post, so today is the day I’m doing it! If you’re unfamiliar with the prompt, it’s basically me talking to you as if we were across the table from each other having coffee– something I know I miss right now with social distancing and such. So. Here we go.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that my mom’s in the hospital. No, it’s not Covid19, thankfully. But it’s still the hospital, still scary, and still not at all what we planned for right now. She’ll be okay. I’m thankful for that. But even though I believe she’ll be fine, the fact that she’s in the hospital still throws my world off-kilter. My family and my parents all share a big house and property together. We love it, and this is part of the reason why we’ve opted for a sort of communal-style life– so we can be there for each other when life throws us unexpected circumstances. But it also means we have the front row seats to those circumstances, and that can be a big deal.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I’m proud of my daughter. Her whole world got turned upside down with closures and online school at a time of life when friends and social connections are so important. She’s soldiered on, continued to make education a priority, and I’m so proud to be her mom. So much of that momentum comes from her, not me. And It’s really inspiring to watch her. I would tell you that I’m worried about her, too. I see her struggling, and sometimes I feel so powerless to help. It can be really heartbreaking to watch someone you love battling things bigger than they are.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that my family has made more than 300 cotton masks. We’ve given them out to friends, family, and community members. If you know my mom, you probably think it was her idea, because she’s the kind of person who helps the people around her and makes them feel seen and loved. The project was actually my husband’s idea, and he has done the bulk of the sewing as well as creating prototypes and heading up a team of volunteers who’ve helped supply us with materials and prep them. It’s been a pretty incredible thing to be part of, especially when you consider that most of us work at least 30 hrs a week!

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I want to start doing book photos on Instagram again. I’ve been dabbling and taking some pictures that I’m really proud of here and there, but I’m not totally sure I’ve figured out how I want my account to feel and look, so I’m kind of dragging my feet. Plus most of what’s on the account I have is random photos of stuff, so I don’t know if I should remove those? Post them on another account? Start over? So I’m trying to figure that out.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I’ve bought way too many books lately. Honestly. I ordered new releases from local independent bookstores. I ordered some backlist titles that I’ve been meaning to add to my library. I got books for my girls. And most recently I ordered books by authors on a much-discussed YALL STAY HOME virtual book con panel. I wasn’t a viewer on the panel, but it sounded like some bad things happened. Rather than offering an unsolicited opinion to the conversation, I opted to support the panel authors by buying their latest books.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you I want to do more book list posts. I often start lists and then leave them languishing in some half-finished state. I want to do more of them and more faithfully. I feel like they’re probably just as helpful if not more helpful than a review, depending on what you’re looking for. I know I enjoy reading them.

What would you tell me over a cup of coffee or tea?

Leave a comment on something I mentioned or tell me something you’ve been thinking about lately. I look forward to hearing from you!

Has Clean Become a Dirty Word in Book Reviews?

Book Review and Content, Discussion Post, News and Fun, ,

I’m super late to the conversation, but I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot. The first I’d seen of the discussion was a Twitter post positing that calling a book “clean” was the same as calling books with explicit sexual content or profanity “dirty”, which the tweet named as shaming language and not okay.

It takes me a long time to process things like that. I’m kind of a people pleaser by nature, so there was a part of me that wanted to go back through every post and page on my blog and replace the term “clean” with something more friendly and less potentially offensive.

Obviously, I ended up not doing that, partly because I could never think of a succinct alternate term. Still. Totally at a loss here. I’m open to ideas.

Trigger-free? Doesn’t that assume we understand all reader’s triggers and still leave room for offense? I don’t feel comfortable with that either. Explicit-free? That seems weird, too.

At some point, the whole conversation shaming bloggers/publishers/anyone for using “clean” to describe books made me a little angry, to be honest. I’ve worked really hard to try to make this blog space welcoming and open. It felt like I was being attacked for things I *didn’t* say rather than things I’d said.

Using Clean in Book Reviews

I’ve been using “clean” as a way to describe a particular kind of book, one without profanity, explicit drug or alcohol use, graphic violence, or explicit sexual content. But I don’t think anywhere in my blog have I ever reviewed a book with explicit content and called it dirty. In fact I’ve tried to be very careful to phrase any dislike on my part as personal preference.

It feels a little like if, as a parent, I tell one child she’s done something really good, and the other child immediately panics because she thinks I’m implying what she’s done is bad.

The solution, to me, isn’t to stop telling a child when she’s done something good. I simply explain to the other child that it’s an independent observation. That telling her sister she’s done something good has nothing to do with her own behavior.

It’s less simple to translate that across the reading sphere, though, right? I can model respect for books with explicit content by reviewing them in a non-judgmental way, and I strive to do that. But I worry that labeling some books “clean” may cause offense or mean that viewers assume things about me that aren’t true. Which isn’t fair and is frustrating.

How Readers Use the Term Clean in Book Reviews

A fair amount of traffic on this site comes from google searches for things like “clean books,” which also matters. Honestly, I’m not super concerned about the Google hits, but I want to take a minute and talk about why people are using that label in searches in my experience.

Lots of times it’s a parent or teacher looking for books they can have on a family bookshelf or in a classroom. If you’ve got children of various ages in your home, you may want to focus your book budget on stories that are accessible to the most readers in your home, and that’s not a bad thing.

As a teacher, you may also face limitations on what you can have in your classroom. A local high school teacher here has told me she’s not allowed to have books on her classroom shelves that have explicit sex or other types of content in them.

I also see parents and educators looking for books for teens who’ve sort of fallen between middle grade lit (which is aimed at kids 8 to12) and young adult lit (much of which is aimed at ages 15 to 18). As a parent of a child in the gap myself, it’s become really important to me to find books that both challenge my reader but meet her at her current maturity and level of comfort.

Using the label “clean” helps simplify those searches. You can find a book for your reader in the right age range and find content that you and your reader find appropriate.

I can’t stress enough how important I feel this is. We talk a lot in the YA sphere about freedom of speech and freedom to read books with whatever content we want, and that’s a freedom I really appreciate. I love that there are so many books in such a vast spectrum of topics and genres and ideas.

But we can’t forget that some kids aren’t ready to read everything today, and we shouldn’t shame them for not being ready or make it more difficult for them to find books that they can feel comfortable reading and fall in love with.

My Plan for Describing Books without Explicit Sexual/Violent/Language Content

I’m continuing to use the term “clean” at least for the present. It means something to readers who visit my blog. It feels to me like the word isn’t really the problem. The problem is a lack of respect that some bloggers have for books with explicit content in them.

To which I kind of want to say, okay, rudeness sucks. It really does. That’s not okay. So here’s what I suggest.

Vote with your mouse. Don’t click those pages written by a snooty blogger. Don’t visit that blog. Invest in relationships with readers and bloggers who appreciate the books you do.

There are lots of really amazing book blogger sites. Find some with values and a tone that you love. Follow them. Comment on their posts. Shop their affiliate links. Thank them for their hard work.

What are your thoughts on using the word “clean” in book reviews?

As a blogger or reader, are you still (or did you ever) using “clean” in book reviews? Do you think it constitutes shaming language or is offensive? Do you have suggestions for alternative descriptions? (Because I’m so open to ideas!)

What do you do when you find yourself on the outside of changing trends like this?