At the beginning of the year I chose nine books that I wanted to prioritise this year. I wanted to go through each of them and talk about whether or not I have read them, and what I thought of the ones I have read.

Mox by Jon Moxley

The first book on my list is an autobiorgraphy by wrestler Jon Moxley. I read this book back in March, and I really enjoyed it. I found it was an easy book to read, and it was really interesting to learn more about the life of someone I’ve watched on television.

I’m not usually someone who reads a lot of memoirs, but I found this one to be really enjoyable. It was awesome to learn more about how he became the person I’ve seen on AEW, and to find out how he got into his career.

This was a great book, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching wrestling, or indeed anyone looking to get into the wrestling profession.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

I have not read this book yet. It’s a book that my brother and I are thinking about reading together in the next month or two.

This book is about two young people who become friends while in hospital together in 1987, but don’t see each other again until they bump into each other at a train station in 1995. Their friendship is based on a shared interest in video games.

I’m really looking forward ot reading this book as it has a lot of really positive reviews.

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

I have been excited to read this book for a few years now, and I still haven’t read it.

This is a mystery YA book set in a boarding school. It follows a girl who is investigating the disappearance of the wife and daughter of the man who founded the illustreous school.

I’ve heard so many good things about this trilogy, and I am really excited to get to it. I’m not sure why I haven’t picked it up before. It has been on my top list of books to read for ages, but still I haven’t picked it up. I intend to read it soon, I really want to complete it before the end of this year.

Black Prism by Brent Weeks

This is a book that I have owned for ages. When I first got the book, I read the first 100 pages, but then put it down for some reason, and never finished it.

This is a fnatasy book set in a world where the magic system is based on the spectrum of light. The more colours a person controls, the more powerful they are. This sounds like a really interesting and different magic system. I really want to attempt this book again, especially as I have more experience reading fantasy books since the last time I tried reading it.

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

I bought this book at the end of 2022 without knowing much about it. I saw one of my favourite BookTubers, Regan at PeruseProject, talking about it on her channel. I often enjoy the books that Regan recommends, and the title was incredibly intiguing to me.

This book is set in 1950’s America, and follows a girl called Alex as she becomes aware of dragons in her neighbourhood. As she grows up she starts noticing them more often, and women in her life start disappearing.

This book sounds really interesting. I have previously read The Girl Who Drank the Moon by the same author, and quite enjoyed that, so I’m hoping I like this one too.

I’m Glad My Mum Died by Jennette McCurdy

This is a really popular memoir written by the child actress Jennette McCurdy, and it’s all about her experience with childhood trauma, abuse, and living with an eating disorder.

I read this book back in March, and it is hard to describe. I enjoyed it, but also had moments where it was hard to read as well. However, Jennette had a way of talking about her experiences which just made me want to keep reading. It was like her coping mechanism for dealing with her experiences was to make them feel funny.

It was odd, but it was also really compelling.

Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey

I read this book back in April, it took me the whole month to read this book, but I’m really glad that I finished it because it was amazing!

This is a Sci-Fi, mystery, thriller, centring around a space-pandemic. I’m not someone who reads a lot of Sci-Fi, but I found this really easy to follow, and it was a great all-round experience.

It was easy to read for someone who hasn’t got much experience reading sci-fi, but it also had some moments which felt a bit slow.

Overall I really enjoyed it and I’m excited to read the rest of the series, as well as wat h The Expanse TV series.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

This book is over 1000 pages. It took me the majority of two months to read. But I managed it in the end.

This was the first book I completed in 2023 (although I did start it in December 2022). It is a high fantasy, multi-perspective story. The main characters in this book are a scholar, the king’s uncle, and a prisoner.

It’s a really difficult story to sum up in just a few lines. It is complex, but it is easily the best book I’ve read this year. I really want to continue the series, but it’s another one I’m reading with my brother so I’ll probably have to wait a bit until I get to it.

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

This is a cosy fantasy following an orc called Viv as she gives up fighting and decides to open a cafe (in a world where coffee is almost unknown).

I really enjoyed this story. I finished it last week (even though I started it in March lol). This is such a gentle story, and it’s such an easy book to read. All the characters are really interesting, and have such a beautiful dynamic.

I wish I had read this book faster, it really shouldn’t have taken me four months to read a book that is less than 300 pages. Haha.

---

I could read one of these books a month for the rest of the year and get through them all.

So those are the nine books I wanted to complete this year. There are still four and a half months left for me to complete the rest of them, so I really have no excuse. Lol.

I’m thinking I might pick up Truly Devious in the next month. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Until next time,

Love Bobbi. Xx.

Tl;dr: I have completed five of these nine books, and really enjoyed all of them. I still have time to complete the rest, so fingers crossed. 🙂