Simone and Her Books

Now empowered with my new resolutions for this bookish year, I wanted to share with you a little TBR I put together. For the most part, I don’t want to be writing these TBRs every month. In fact, I plan on putting a little TBR together every few books I read because library holds come in too quickly and I want to make sure I get to them all before the return dates. On top of that, I hear so many great books that make me excited that a small list of possibly reads helps me feel a little more organized and a lot less overwhelmed.

So this isn’t a TBR, per se, but it’s a list of books that I’ve been meaning to get to and hopefully get through in January. No pressure to follow the list with plenty of room for deviating, I’m sure I’ll fall off this wagon at one point or another. But here’s the books I plan on exploring this month:

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward – This is actually a new book that I’ve been dying to get to and my newly minted office book club decided to make it the first read of the year. I’m so excited. It’s been a long time since I’ve read Jesmyn Ward. I know I can count on her to write a prolific piece on the human connection, but also rip my heart out.

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang – I received the audiobook recommendation from a friend who said it’s really good on audio. What I didn’t imagine was a story about a chef who is living in a dystopian world where food is scarce and the climate crisis has reached its utter peak. When she gets a job for a wealthy entrepreneur cooking elaborate dinners for his investors with the food grown in underground labs on his land, the chef learns more about the world of post-apocalyptic politics, the ethics of growing food that’s been extinct for centuries, and whether or not she’ll be able to face the demons of her own past. It’s been incredible so far.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica – This is another recommendation from my coworkers this time that really peaked my interest. It’s another dystopian story about what the world needs to do in order to feed its populations and this time instead of using labs to create extinct animals and plants, they’re just eating people. I’m thinking this is leaning towards the soylent green-level of dystopian and I’m here for it.

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young – I saw a friend on bookstagram rave about this book and trusting her taste in books, I wanted to take a look. Luckily, I was able to grab the audiobook for it and it may be the second one I try this year. Am I turning into an audiobook person? Maybe. Audiobooks are pretty tough for me to read because I’m not an auditory person, but I want to be. I know it takes some effort, so I plan on taking it slowly and this might be the best possible way.

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross – Another newer book, but I couldn’t wait to read it. I was definitely one of the people who absolutely devoured Divine Rivals and couldn’t wait for book two. So here I am, about to dive into the second book and hoping that it will meet my expectations.