Heart Wants Books

Favorite Books of 2020

January 11, 2021

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Even though we’re discussing our favorite 2020 reads with you today, we do of course have favorite 2020 re-reads! What collection of books is always number one on that list? If you guessed next month’s Virtual Book Club titles, Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series of books, you would be right on the money! Don’t forget to sign up here to join us for an evening filled with spoilers as we prepare for the next book in the series. It’s on Friday, February 12th at 7:30pm Central Time, so don’t be late, or we might just have a riddle for you to solve!

Last January, a whole 2020 ago, Nikki and I did a choose your own adventure 2019 year in review blog post – can can find it HERE – but this year we have covered a lot of books in our weekly blog posts so there may not be as much to say about each title as there was last year, and that’s OK. We want to try to give equal coverage to all of our favorite 2020 books but that may not be possible.

You may be surprised, dear readers, when I admit that I made my top list in one sweep of my 2020 GoodReads Reading Challenge. I read 127 of 100 books for the year. After taking a secondary perusal, I found a few honorable mentions, but all of them have blog posts where you can find out exactly what I felt about them closer to real time. I say this because I have been feeling a little jaded over my reading life the past few months, and reaching back through those feelings to remember how I felt reading each book in the moment has been a struggle. Honestly, the majority of my favorite books this year have been books that have been emotionally heavy with an all-consuming plot that makes me keep wanting more. So, my reading life reflects my real life and I didn’t shy away from doing the hard inner work. There were also a lot of romance novels read so it’s not like there wasn’t balance in my reading life, but all of those met expectations and the following exceeded them on some level.

Ashley’s Top 5:

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia which we posted about in December
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert is a double favorite we talked about in July
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom is my only nonfiction favorite, also from July
Circe by Madeline Miller is a throw back to this April post.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E.Harrow is one of the first books we read in 2020, even though we didn’t share it until this post from March.

Non-Fiction Honorable Mention

Fiction Honorable Mention

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler I read it in April for Barnes & Noble’s ookclub, but we posted about it in July
Akata Witch and Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor from this October Witchy Reads post

There are only two books on the entire list that haven’t had an entire blog post about them this year and I want to focus on why those two have made the Honorable Mentions list. Overall, my favorite books of 2020 have mostly included women who have overcome an almost insurmountable obstacle of internal or external pressure. Poor Tony (and his buddy Fred) were the only main ‘characters’ on this list that are male, and Tony dealt with the hard truths of classism and racism on his travels from West Virginia to Mexico. See more in our blog post about Spying in the South.

The Only Woman in the Room by Ashley L. Wilson is a collection of stories from twenty active women real estate investors. The impetus for the writing of this book was from when in 2018 the author was at a real estate investing conference and all of the women in attendance were invited to have lunch at the same table. There were 16 women out of 400 attendees. Wilson says in the introduction: “I promised myself, at that very moment, that I would write a book around the concept of being the only woman in the room. I wanted this book to highlight what I had failed to see, spotlight badass real estate women investors, provide knowledge, inspiration and most importantly give examples of female real estate investing role models that could inspire anyone (woman or man).” And she delivers. I can not tell you how many times my eyes got moist as I read these women’s stories. If you need a book filled with modern female role models that are business women rather than politicians or celebrities, pick this book up. Even if you’re not involved or interested in real estate, you will probably see yourself in one of their stories and can take heart and inspiration from it. We no longer have to be the only women in the room. It’s currently available for free through Kindle Unlimited.

I covered American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins in my March 2020 Reading Life Review as it was that month’s Barnes & Noble Book Club pick. The meeting happened just days before the United States started shutting down because of the pandemic that shall not be named. Of course it’s a book about a strong woman. I’m not even ashamed of this theme for 2020 or my life in general. I don’t want to give away all the spoilers because this book is so poignant when you don’t know anything going in except that it is a book about modern Central and South American immigration to the United States. One learns the myriad reasons why people are fleeing the land of their birth for a land of freedom and prosperity.

~Ashley

How does one pick the top books of the year? Well, I look at my Reading Challenge page on Goodreads and then make a list of the books I adore the most from it, and use that list to narrow further. Going in to make my list this year, I wasn’t sure what was going to end up on it. Some titles from early in the year feel like I read them more than a year ago, so I’m delighted to have a chance to revisit them. I’m usually shooting for a top five list, so when the initial first pass landed me at 13 titles, I was quite pleased. A top listing with less than 10% of the total feels like a solid start. From there, I just reviewed the list and considered what I loved about each of the titles and debated if it still had a spot on the list of top titles I’ve read this year.

Nikki’s Top Five, in order of when I read them, starting with the most recent:

Non-fiction Honorable Mention:

These books are honorable mentions, but I also want to call out that I had five non-fiction titles on my initial list, which feels fantastic for someone who was reluctant to read non-fiction a couple of years ago. Both these memoirs receive honorable mentions because they took something I was familiar with, motherhood and Autism, and presented them from a new, previously unexplored perspective. They were well done, eye-opening, and I highly encourage readers to consider both of these amazing titles especially because the texts stayed with in some really beneficial ways. Bonus points if you have a buddy to discuss them with afterwards (I volunteer as tribute!). I talked more about Look me in the Eye in this post from October.

Fiction Honorable Mention:

I seriously considered whether these titles deserved a spot on the favorites list or the honorable mentions and they landed here because I love them all for the same reason. These are tales of unconventional women making the best of a situation ranging from strange to horrid, and doing it while finding herself. While our witches (who we discussed in October) had each other, Circe (who we visited here) and Alva (who we adored here) were very much on their own, one way or another, and in the end they did quite well as such. I love a tale of found inner strength and perseverance with a happy ending, and (sorry not sorry to spoil) all three have that (although I do need to read Ami McKay’s follow up novella Half Spent Was the Night for a more thorough ending).

Now, about my favorites, they weren’t necessarily the best examples of writing from my year, but they were books that I think are statements of my year, but also, they’re all worthy of a reread, maybe not soon, but eventually. They all were just what I wanted them to be, some in unpredictable ways, and others just more so than I was expecting. Without further adieu:

Mexican Gothic: I thought I knew where this story was going, and I sort of did, but whoa was it so much stranger (and grosser) than I expected. The writing was engrossing and atmospheric, the plot was creative with fabulous pacing, and there was just enough at the end that I wasn’t mad about the lack of more. There was also the issue of colonialism, culture, and gender issues at hand, which made the tale so much richer. Thanks to a special friend for sending me a copy! It has a well-earned spot on my (physical AND electronic) bookshelf! See also our post from December.

The Bookshop on the Corner: I received this from a Goodreads Giveaway, and dear readers, it was the right book at the right time. This is a bookish book with a librarian turned bookseller who’s on a journey to transform herself and her life, and finds romance in the process. Here’s the deal with this book, it’s quiet, calm, and not dramatic. There’s action and things happen, but it’s not over the top, but (almost completely) perfectly normal. The idea of rural Scotland has stayed with me, and the second book in the series definitely helped, and I hope #3 will too, as it’s currently on my nightstand (yes in dead tree form, ugh). See also my comments in the November Reading Life Review.

The Lazy Genius Way: Some of you might call me obsessed, and you know what? I. Don’t. Care. I waxed poetic about this book in the August Reading Life Review. And this is another book that I own in both dead tree and electronic forms (the e-book is a free ARC because I was on the launch team, but I paid my money for the hard copy), and I should also add that my third grader stole my print copy the day I brought it home, and y’all, I was fine with it. My people now expect me to ask them to “name what matters” and it helps! If you need a new organization guru, I propose Kendra Adachi because she can help you be a genius about the things that matter TO YOU and lazy about the things that don’t. She can tell you more about why herself on this episode of That Sounds Fun. I listened to it twice, because I needed more of this great content (body shape is a construct… chores are stupid…It’s SO GOOD).

The Color of Law: Yes darlings, I realize the irony of adoring a book by a white person about how the government at all levels in the United States created segregated communities in our country, I do. HOWEVER, so many things make so much sense now that I have a better understanding of the history behind it. I have been in a few professional sessions over the last year about topics related to diversity and race and in all but one, a speaker has suggested this book as further reading. In order to move ahead to a better place, we need to understand how we got here. Without that understanding, it’s going to be more challenging to build a better future. There is a lot that I didn’t understand, a lot that I didn’t have to because it wasn’t a part of my community, but if I’m going to love my neighbors and be a better person, I need to understand the things that I’ve been blind to because I didn’t have to see them. This book has helped me to see more of the depth and breadth of the issues we have to tackle. I talked more about this book in this post from July.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January: Be still my beating heart! I want to reread this book and I want to read Once and Future Witches which is FINALLY in my holds list! Also, I want Alix E. Harrow’s words and stories to go straight to my kindle, please and thank you! January’s story is creative, layered, and gorgeous. There are class and race issues, and also just a girl figuring out who she is and where she belongs while she struggles to unravel this amazing mystery. I’m still dreaming of this book, and wishing I had a door I could go through to the pre virus that shall not be named world, but sadly I can’t find it. We talked more about this book in this post from March!

What were your favorite titles of 2020? Let us know in the comments!

~Nikki

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Book Review•Jane in January

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

January 7, 2021

What happens when a girl is left essentially on her own without a friend in the world? Does she give her hateful guardian what for after being locked in a terrifying room of death? Does she go hunting deeper in the woods than is safe because it’s that or starve? It depends, but either way, she says “not today” to the god of death! We’re going to talk about that terrifying room a bit more below, and we’re going to talk about that hunting trip on Friday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. CST when we discuss Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series. Sign up here to join us for an evening of fae and high lords as we prepare for the next book in the series.

Oh dear readers, I remember reading Jane Eyre by Currer Bell, I mean, Charlotte Bronte, and loving it. Jane starts as a meek child, and then suddenly finds her gumption as we join the action. At Gateshead, she’s treated with contempt by all but the nurse Bessie, bullied by her cousin, blamed by her aunt, and generally treated as a child who doesn’t belong all because her mother dared marry against her family’s wishes and her aunt couldn’t forgive the intrusion of her orphaned niece. So yes, a great opening. I adore how bookish Jane is from the start, which would have captured me had not her tragic situation already done so. For her to then stand up for herself to her cousin (who threw a book, and not because of the contents even!), and forgo her meekness to her aunt (out of terror from being in the red room which she only knows as a room of death), I was ready to champion Jane’s side in all things good!

I didn’t read as much commentary as I originally intended, but what I did read likens Jane Eyre to works of Dickens in that it highlights the plight of a common person for the broader world to see. Bronte wrote of Lowood school after experiencing a similar institution. She and three of her sisters were sent to a school for the female children of clergy for nearly a year, and only two of them survived. The malnourishment combined with poor conditions left the girls ill suited to survive an illness that swept through the school. Knowing this makes me read of Jane’s early days in Lowood in a different light, especially after reading that Jane’s best friend at Lowood, Helen Burns, is modeled after her sisters who didn’t survive their stay at school. The other commentary I read noted Bronte’s joy at getting a letter of praise on Jane Eyre from William Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair, and her friendship with fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, who is also her first biographer.

Having read Jane Eyre as a freshman in college, and again several years ago during a period of reading or rereading many classics, I knew the story, but I was still anxious to make my way to Thornfield and Mr. Rochester. What I expected to find was a grand romance in the style of Jane Austen, or perhaps Elizabeth Gaskell, as she was friends with the Brontes. What I actually experienced this time was much frustration. Mrs. Fairfax is delightful, Adele is precocious, and, at least at first, Mr. Rochester is everything a governess could want in an employer and more.

As Jane Eyre progresses, I find that I don’t like Mr. Rochester as I want to adore the hero in a romance novel, but I loathe him as not good enough for our heroine, and then I’m sad for her that she still pines for him after the way he’s treated her. For me, it all starts when he leaves for the house party. I was disappointed (especially as I had forgotten that part), but when he returns with guests, one of whom he appears to be courting, I was frustrated. Mr. Rochester’s performance as the gypsy was further aggravating because here we get our first blatant sight of him manipulating Jane and the others. While he may have intended it to be a bit of fun, it was very unfair of him to include Jane in that, and to attempt to secure her confidence in such a manner. This is really where I started becoming increasingly unnerved that Jane could still love Mr. Rochester after the way he treated her. He keeps going, traveling to London to buy a new carriage for the anticipated Mrs. Rochester, and then disappearing again (presumably to see Mr. Mason settled well out of his way, or maybe that’s just me).

Even after all that, what really set me off was the conversation in the orchard, wherein he says he plans to be married in a month and Jane tells him (again) she must leave because she and Adele don’t need to live in the house with Miss Ingram (who is just plain awful, but also feels 100% like social commentary in and of herself). He plainly refers to Miss Ingram as his intended, and then, in that SAME CONVERSATION, professes his love for Jane as the only object of his affection! (I don’t even need Bertha Mason to be over Mr. Rochester!) And then (I realize this is a plot point, but still), he still puts off the wedding for a month! Why? No really, why? The banns of marriage only need to be read for three Sundays, and if he’s fancy enough to be entertaining a member of parliament, then he’s probably fancy enough to get a special license and marry in a couple of days. I do not like plot holes dear readers, even if they exist so Jane can write her uncle who can send Mr. Mason from Madeira to save her from entering into a false marriage. While we’re on the subject, if Mr. Mason is with Uncle John in Madeira, can he even get to England, much less Northern England, where all of the novel takes place, in time? I don’t know the actual answer from 175 years ago, but Madeira is an island off the coast of Morocco (but part of Portugal), so I’m imagining the time it takes a letter to get there from Northern England, and then a person to get back is lengthy.

Dear readers, I do think Jane does the only thing she can in the circumstance, she runs away. Mr. Rochester has hidden a wife from her (hidden is generous, really, he lied), and he’s been very manipulative of Jane. She knows others in the house and town knew of Bertha Mason, but she doesn’t know just how much they know of the situation, other than she was not to be told. What else do you do when you find the person you love has lied to you and encouraged everyone you interact with (presumably except Adele and Sophie) to lie to you as well (although we know they didn’t know Betha’s identity, but if I’m Jane, I believe ZERO things Rochester says at this point).

After all this drama, I want to curl up with Jane beside the fire in Moor House to recover, because just wow! Also, I want to note that it’s interesting to read Jane’s struggles to find food and shelter right around Christmas as I had just finished an advent study on Joseph, part of which focused on the journey to Bethlehem and the search for appropriate shelter when he and the laboring Mary arrived. I adore Diana and Mary Rivers, but I want to throttle St. John during their last stay at Moor House. He is entirely too focused on his one goal to open his eyes to the things and people around him. St. John also manipulates Jane in an attempt to get her to support his goals. I do agree with St. John that in the nineteenth century, cousins Jane and St. John cannot go abroad together unless they marry. Do I think Jane would be a good missionary? If she so desired. Do I think she should marry St. John? Not. At. All. At this point, Jane has inherited more than enough to keep her happily for the rest of her days and she has family in the form of three well-loved cousins. She need do only what brings her joy, so long as she remains economical.

Reader, I get why she marries him, but why does she still love him? I realize she doesn’t have social media or the internet to satisfy her curiosity about what happened to Mr. Rochester, but her continued ardent love of him after the way he has treated her baffles me. Heap onto that the way St. John is trying to bully her into a loveless marriage because he sees being his missionary help meet as the best way of Jane using her life in the service of God, and if I’m Jane, I just want to live with Diana and Mary in Moor House and not interact with the patriarchy ever again. Is Bronte using Jane’s continued love of Mr. Rochester to tell us the patriarchy always wins? Is it her telling us matters of the heart aren’t logical? Did Mr. Rochester receive his just desserts in the fire and is now redeemed and deserving of our fabulous Jane? I don’t know the answer, but I do give Jane Eyre four stars because the writing is gorgeous and the story is still very relevant. I’m likely to reread it (again), but I need to be less mad at Jane for still loving Mr. Rochester before I do.

What’s a book that frustrated you, but you adore anyway?

~Nikki

PS: Join us next week when we’re diving deep into Rochester’s story in a book that both of us are really enjoying! Maybe we’ll decide Mr. Rochester got his comeuppance and deserves a life with our precious Jane….or maybe not.

~Ashley

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First Monday•Jane in January

Jane Eyre in January

January 4, 2021

We like to start strong here at Heart. Wants. Books. For the blog, that means starting the year with a whole month of titles surrounding a fabulous Jane. For book club, that means selecting not one, but 3.5 titles and for those titles to be among the most reread in our personal libraries. We do hope you’ll join us for a discussion of Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series to kick off your reading year (check out the bundle here, which was a great deal over the weekend, and may still be). And, as a bonus, during book club (or DM us if you can’t make it and are interested), we’ll be discussing the potential for a follow-up on A Court of Silver Flames. I hope you’ll join us on Friday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. CST for some fun conversation, that may or may not include a comparison of grand entrances and / or spring weddings. (It will, and also more spoilers, you have been warned. <3, A.)

I know we alluded (or more) to this a few times, but consider this your formal announcement: Heart.Wants.Books. is pleased to announce our Jane of the Blog, 2020, is none other than:

Jane Eyre!

Oh dear readers, Ashley and I have been planning and plotting and considering which Jane to share with you this year. You may recall 2019’s selection, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. This January, we’ll be passing our time with Jane Eyre, the titular character of Charlotte Bronte’s most famous work. Why Jane in January you ask? Well, we considered Austen in August but decided that was too limiting. Jane in January accomplished our task last year and gave us many more Janes to choose from as authors, characters, and historical personages, so there you have it. We like variety and options, especially in our reading lives. Jane Eyre, much like the Bennett sisters, is a beloved literary character, so we had to narrow our options greatly, and finally selected the titles below from ten that made our short list.

Many are likely familiar with Jane Eyre, as the story follows Jane’s struggles to find her place as an orphan, but we still hope to bring you something new this month. We’ll bring you three adjacent titles as well as comments on screen adaptations and thoughts on the original work. I’m struggling not to overshare because I’ve already finished the original, I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS. The best part, this is at least my third time to read Jane Eyre and they’re new feelings. This is why we love a reread around here, and fully support it! (See also I have read ACOTAR at least five times, including once on audio.) So, if you want to read along with us this month, we’d love to be friends on Goodreads so you can track us in real time, and here’s what we’ll be sharing with you here, and when.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
January 7

Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker
January 14

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
January 21

Re Jane by Patricia Park
January 28

We hope you’ll join us on this journey with Jane, as we explore just what her lasting mark is on readers and literature nearly 175 years after she was introduced to the world.

What’s a book you’ve read that hit you very differently upon a reread?

~Nikki

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Bookish Life

Reading Goals for 2021

December 31, 2020

Darling readers, my first reading goal of 2021 is to not reread Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series more than twice. I’m kidding, mostly, but, well, stranger things have happened. (This is not even remotely a goal for Ashley.) My current plan is to start rereading them (again) in a few weeks, and we’ll see about that potential second reread after the next book is ~~consumed~~ read in February or March. In all seriousness, one of my goals is finishing all the Virtual Book Club books before book club starts, so you’ll have to sign up here to join us for the discussion of the extended trilogy, on Friday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. CST and find out if I start out this goal with success, or not. Regardless, there will be spoilers.

All kidding aside, my general goal is (recently) read all the Virtual Book Club books before discussing them with you, dear readers. I’m formally adding that to my goal list, along with a few more. Here’s the thing though, I’m mostly pleased with my reading life, so I’m not changing much. I still want to read at least one non-fiction book a month, and I still want to include more diverse authors and characters in my reading life. Other than that, I’m shooting for averaging two books each week, for a total of 104 and calling my goals done. I’m not shoulding on myself with titles I’ve purchased that I have not opened, nor am I looking at my unread titles on my bookshelf with guilt. It’s just data, and as such, it doesn’t get to have feelings or to put upon mine. Ashley and I will still be bringing you a title almost every week on Thursday. (I can’t say every week because, well, it’s Thursday, and this isn’t a title, but this could be the exception that makes the rule.) Are these all SMART goals that I’ll be following up on regularly? No, but they are goals that I’ll be at least glancing at monthly during our Reading Life Review posts. We list out the titles we’ve read every month to share with you, but also as a check in for us to see if we need any course correction to hit our goals. In addition to these check-ins, I’ll be using Goodreads to track my goals. I’ll join the reading challenge to help me stay (maybe) on track with my total number and see where it leads. It also gives me a great list each month to help compile the list for the Reading Life Review.

What should your reading goals be for 2021? Well, I can’t answer that, but I can refer you to one of my favorite humans I wish I was cool enough to know in real life, Kendra Adachi, and her podcast and book. Yes, I was on the launch team and was gifted an e-book early, but I also paid cash dollars to pre-order my own hardback copy (that my eight year old promptly stole) and am a patreon supporter of hers as well. Start with this Lazy Genius Principle: Name what matters. For my reading life, it matters that my goals don’t cause me stress, that they’re realistic, and that they support my overall goal of becoming a better version of myself. I don’t choose goals that should on me, but goals that guide my choices towards the direction I wish to travel. It matters to me that I’m prepared for book club, that the number of books I want to read doesn’t turn into a stressful competition (see also Monday’s post wherein I state I can reach my adapted number goal, but I am calling it a win and mood reading instead), and that I learn things in the books I read. I want to branch out of my comfort zone, and will seek out titles and authors that will do that. It matters that I do not stay stagnant as a person, and it matters that I find ways to grow and learn about myself, my neighbors, and the world around us.

So, darling readers, what matters to you and how can your reading goals, should you choose to set some, reflect that?

~Nikki

Goals! Goals! Goals! I love GOALS! Why? Because goals are a way most people strive for ‘perfection’ in their lives, and that makes my little, Grinchy, Enneagram Type 1 heart so happy. I love helping others achieve their goals, and I’m here to cheer you on to whatever badassery your goal-setting self decides it needs. I discussed all about my Enneagram Type 1-ness in last year’s post about setting 2020 Reading Goals and I wax poetic all the time about my Plum Paper Planner Obsession. #sorrynotsorry Capital O needed. (Gentle reminder to DM us on socials or the post comments if you decide to make a purchase of $30 or more to get a coupon code for 10% off your order and to help keep me in my sticker habit. I will need more pink dots real soon, that’s the color for digital library books, the pack only came with 25. I foresee running out of that color by May. Still not sorry.)

Nothing much has changed in the physical way I’m going to log my reading life and measure my goal of 100 books in 2021. (Why mess with a good thing?) I have invested (also obsessively) in color coding stickers this year! This way I will be able to see at a glance how I am consuming titles – kindle, audio, dead tree, library, etc. – see above about how I am going to run out of the pink ones real fast – Last year’s writing in the dots got frustrating because the colors would change every month, I’d run out of a color by the next month, etc, etc, blah blah blah. I didn’t prefer it, so I decided I would change that up. I have decided just now as I am typing that I will also color code for fiction or nonfiction titles! That’s easy enough, I’ll write fiction in black ink and nonfiction in blue. That way I can most easily see if I am meeting or exceeding my goal of 2 nonfiction titles a month. I already have a short list of real estate and business books, but I really want to see if I can get some new release nonfiction on my list this year. I’m up for all the suggestions in that regard. [Nikki here: The thought of doing this makes my head spin, but it makes Ashley happy, so remember – you do you!]

I have a few other re-reads planned this year (besides the ~~first~~ re-read of ACOTAR for book club): finishing up Harry Potter, probably Percy Jackson, and some nonfiction titles that I need a refresher on – these most probably will be audio versions but we’ll see what happens. I am of course still trying to put more diversity in my reading life. One area that I have noticed does not have a lot of diversity is business books. It’s filled with a lot of white men and I’m tired of their perspective. I’m making a point of finding business, finance, and real estate books written by women and/or BIPOC in 2021. I want all your suggestions! Bonus points if it’s a new release title!

I realized that my previous paragraph was a little self-serving, asking for recommendations, but what else would be appropriate in a post about goal-setting if I didn’t ask for help in reaching my goals?! And since it’s our last post for 2020, how can we help you reach your goals in 2021? Hit us up in the comments or on socials.

~Ashley

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