17 Things This Week

Welcome to the first weekly highlights post of 2021! How did you start the year off? I’m easing into the year, taking it easy, looking around skeptically because I don’t know what’s waiting for me around the corner! Here’s some of the bookishness and other seasonal living large articles that I’ve been checking out lately.

ONE+ January is Vintage Science Fiction Month … are you participating? Need ideas – check out the Welcome post.

TWO+ This week is Bout of Books 30 – The Bout of Books readathon is a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in YOUR time zone. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. Here’s the schedule. I’m joining in – who’s with meeee?!

THREE+ Japanese Literature Challenge is also happening January through March. Read books in translation (unless you are able to read Japanese). Check in on social media with #JapaneseLitChallenge14 or on the review site.

FOUR+ Book Awards being announced in January include the 2020 Costa Book Awards – Category winners on the 4th and Book of the Year on the 26th; and the 2021 American Library Association (ALA) Youth Media Awards. Follow results by visiting ALA’s streaming platform at http://ala.unikron.com at 8AM CST.

FIVE+ Here’s The Ten Biggest Literary Stories of the Year according to Lit Hub (here’s the entire Top 50) and the Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2020 … wow!

SIX+ Are you doing any reading challenges this year? Check out our Master List of 2021 Reading Challenges – and another very comprehensive list is at Feed Your Fiction Addiction List of 2021 Reading/Book Blogging Challenges. And don’t forget the 3 reading challenges that we’re hosting.

SEVEN+ Here’s a list of favorite books read in 2020 from someone who’s read close to 300 books … at Modern Mrs. Darcy.

EIGHT+ This is how you show how much you love a book … A Tribute to the Murderbot series (Youtube Vid)

NINE+ I love to see what books are coming out soon – that’s how I usually find out what authors I’ve read before are coming out with new titles. Here’s the Most anticipated fiction of winter according to Amazon Charts and 45 of the Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2021 … Cheating clones, robots with human feelings, extinction threats, evil social networks, wild space operas, and much, much more

TEN+ For this month, see Barnes and Noble Most Anticipated New Book Releases of January 2021 and Amazon Best Books for January 2021. I’ve read Black Buck, Makeo Askaripour and it’s a snarky, fun, “shade-throwing at start-up culture” book.

ELEVEN+ Do you listen to music while reading? Here’s A Collection of Music to Listen to While Reading – soundtracks, fanmixes, covers, instrumental solos and mixes.

TWELVE+ Speaking of music – former President Barack Obama has released a 20-song playlist to accompany his memoir A Promised Land.

THIRTEEN+ NPR’s 40 Most Engaging And Popular Stories Of 2020.

FOURTEEN+ Is anyone really setting goals this year? We probably all are, no matter what we call them, so read New Year, New Me: Set Goals That You’re Excited About and An Honest Look at Yearly Planning

FIFTEEN+ OK – New Year’s Eve is gone, but I’m still sharing this collection of the Best New Year’s Eve Appetizers because they can be had anytime. And football is still on!

SIXTEEN+ I’m a little obsessed with food and recipes at the moment. So much inspiration from Half Baked Harvest’s most popular recipes this year … Budget Bytes Top 20 Recipes of 2020 … Salt & Baker Best Recipes of 2020 and What’s Gabby Cooking Top Recipes of 2020

SEVENTEEN+ 12 Ridiculous Brand Inventions That Made Us Laugh (and Soothed Our Weary Souls) in 2020 – wow, I’m digging that turkey nap hat.

Do you have any goals for January? Are you trying anything new? New recipe … new workout etc? I’ve been cycling indoors using Zwift app and completely love it!