December Recap and January Goals

Happy new year, everyone!

This December I’ve met my goal of dividing my reviews evenly between crime fiction and literary fiction:  I reviewed two of each genre this month as I did in November.  I have fallen short of my goal of reviewing one to three books per week this month because I took time off from reading over the holidays and because I’ve been reading books whose reviews I will be posting in the coming months.  Also, I have joined the Criminal Plots II Challenge to give some structure and variety to the crime novels I read.  I don’t want to confine myself authors and series I’ve been reading for years.  I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve reviewed this month because I have been jumping between thrillers and literary fiction.  I don’t want to get into a genre rut, so I plan to continue seeking out a variety of books to review here.

Here’s what you can expect from this blog in the coming month and year:  I plan on reviewing 50% thrillers and 50% fiction at a pace of one to three reviews per week.  I also plan on reviewing more women authors than male authors.  I anticipate reviewing both new releases and backlist titles as I catch up on books that popped up on lots of year-end best lists.  I’m a fan of plot over style, so I don’t expect to review lots of experimental fiction.  Finally, I’ve been working on writing longer reviews than the first reviews I wrote.  My hope is that my writing becomes crisper and clearer the more I write.

Thanks again for reading, and happy new year!  What books are you looking forward to reading in the coming year?  I’m particularly interested in Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, The Submission by Amy Waldman, The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach.