Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are settling into the new year with hope and resolve.  I've yet to make any resolutions, but I've definitely been thinking about what I want to accomplish this year, both on the blog and off.  What have you come up with?  Any big goals or plans?  Whatever you're shooting for, I wish you the very best of luck with it.

Today's Top Ten Tuesday concerns our Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2021.  I feel like I've talked a lot already about the new releases I'm most looking forward to, but I'll go ahead and give you ten more.  There are tons of great-sounding books coming out this year—I can't wait!

If you want to join in the TTT fun, click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl to get all the details.

Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2021:  

1.  What You Never Knew by Jessica Hamilton (available April 13)—June Bennett is shocked when she inherits her family's ancestral home and island, which she thought had been sold after her father's mysterious disappearance thirty years ago.  When she returns to the island, she learns that her former neighbors believe her dad was murdered.  As June looks into the past, she's taunted by strange happenings in the present.  What is going on in her 100-year-old cottage?  And what really happened to her father?  Sounds compelling!

2.  Survive the Night by Riley Sager (available June 29)—This thriller features a student who uses his college's ride board to hitch a ride home to Ohio.  He's never met the driver and the longer the two are on the road together, the more frightened he becomes about who the man behind the wheel really is.  It's Sager, so I'm definitely in for this one.

3.  Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (available May 4, 2021)—The first installment in a new cozy culinary mystery series, this novel features a woman who is tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's struggling restaurant.  When her food critic ex-boyfriend is found dead, she finds herself playing Nancy Drew in order to save her own neck.  This one sounds similar to the Noodle House Mystery series by Vivien Chien, which I love, so I'm excited to check out this series debut.

4.  Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto (available April 27)—This mystery/rom-com sounds like a lot of fun.  It's all about a woman who accidentally kills her blind date.  When she calls her mother for help, her mother calls in her squad of sisters.  The aunties must help hide a corpse while trying to keep their wedding planning business afloat.  

5.  War and Millie McGonigle by Karen Cushman (available April 6)—This middle grade novel concerns a California girl who's life is changed irrevocably both by a faraway war and problems closer to home.  I'm always up for a World War II novel, so I'm curious to see what this one's all about.

6.  Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh (available February 23)—Ten years ago, a wealthy socialite disappeared with a whole lot of money.  When her body is found buried in the elite neighborhood where she lived, it becomes apparent that she didn't just skip town.  What really happened?  Color me intrigued!

7.  Starfish by Lisa Fipps (available March 9)—This body-positive MG novel revolves around a girl who is bullied because of her weight.  She finds solace in the swimming pool and with supportive people, who help her thrive in spite of her mother's constant criticism.

8.  Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson (available March 2)—I enjoyed A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, so I'm excited for this sequel.  This time around, Pip is on the hunt for a missing teenager.

9.  When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain (available April 13)—When a seasoned missing persons detective returns to her California hometown to grieve, she discovers that a local teen has vanished under mysterious circumstances.  The incident is eerily similar to one that occurred when she was a child.  Can she figure out what happened then and what is going on now?  Sounds compelling, no?

10.  The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. by David Levithan (available February 2)—When Aidan goes missing for almost a week, everyone wondered where he was.  He returns with an impossible story.  His brother, Lucas, wants to believe Aidan's wild story, but how can he?  With a vague premise like that, I'm definitely interested to see where this story goes ...

There you go, ten 2021 releases I'm looking forward to reading.  Which are on your list?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on yours.

Happy TTT!  

I'm hosting this challenge, which encourages participants to read historical fiction written for children (including teens) by fulfilling 20 reading prompts.  You can get all the information on this challenge and sign up here.

2.  2021 Historical Fiction Challenge

I love historical fiction of all kinds, so I'm excited for this one.  I'm going to aim for the "Prehistoric" level by reading 50+ historical novels.  You can get all the information on this challenge and sign up here.

3.  2021 Booklist Queen Reading Challenge

I signed up for this 52-prompt challenge halfway through last year, so I didn't complete the 2020 version, although I did finish about 70% of the prompts.  I'm aiming for 100% this year.  You can get all the information on this challenge and sign up here.

4.  2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge

This annual challenge features 40 prompts, with an additional 10 for an "Advanced" experience.  Naturally, I plan to do all 50 like I did in 2020.  What can I say?  I'm a glutton for punishment!  You can get all the information on this challenge here.  No sign up is required. 

5.  2021 Literary Escapes Reading Challenge

Although I do this challenge every year, 2020 was the first year I actually completed it.  It's a fun one, so I'm doing it again in 2021.  The aim is to read one book set in every state, plus D.C.  You can get all the information on this challenge and sign up here.

6.  2021 Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge

If you enjoy mysteries, this is a morbid but fun challenge.  You read murder mysteries, keep track of the body count, and earn points for every corpse you add to the morgue.  You can get all the information on this challenge and sign up here.

7.  2021 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

We did it!  We made it to 2021!  Happy New Year, everyone!  

I know I'm a little bit late to the party, but things have been a little hectic around here.  My son and his beautiful bride were married on Saturday.  It was a lovely event in every way and even though it was stressful to hold a wedding during the holidays, it was a fun way to start the new year.

Now that my company has gone home, I can turn my attention to looking at my reading stats from 2020.  It's always interesting and fun for me to look back at what I read and how it compares/contrasts with other years' numbers.  So, without further ado, here we go:

Total Books Read:  191 - Although I did not meet my goal of reading 200 books, I got pretty darn close.  I blew past last year's total of 168 and even beat my all-time record of 186 (from 2011).  Not bad!

Number of fiction books read:  183 (96%)

Number of non-fiction books read:  8 (4%)

Number of adult books read:  119 (62%)

Number of YA books read:  23 (12%)

Number of MG books read:  49 (26%)

Number of books by female authors: 164 (86%)

Number of books by male authors: 22 (12%)

Number of books by multiple authors, male and female:  5 (2%)

Number of books read, personal collection:  37 (19%)

Number of books read, review copies:  53 (28%)

Number of books read, borrowed from library:  101 (53%)

Number of books read, paper:  126 (66%)

Number of books read, electronic: 60 (31%)  

Number of books read, audio:  6 (3%)

Number of reading challenges joined:  8

Number of reading challenges completed:  6

For the Literary Escapes Challenge, I kept track of the states and countries where the books I read took place.  The top three states I visited most were:  California, New York, and North Carolina (a three-way tie as I read 11 books set in each).  The top three countries besides the U.S. were:  England (13), France (3), and Russia (3).  

As is true every year, in 2020 I read mostly adult fiction set in the United States that was written by women.  Unlike other years, the majority of the books I read this year came from the library, which is interesting since my local libraries were not open for several months because of the pandemic.  In previous years, I've read mostly review books.  Another big change this year is that I completed almost all of the reading challenges I signed up for.  That has never happened before!  

Overall, I have to say that 2020 was a very good reading year for me.  I'm hoping 2021 will be even better.  How did your year in reading go?  

Just for my records, the following is a list of books I read this year:

William "Scoob" Lamar is on house arrest after an incident at school for which he was wrongfully blamed.  No one will listen to his side of the story, not even his father.  Feeling resentful, the 11-year-old is only too happy to go along when his 76-year-old grandmother decides to whisk him away on an impromptu road trip.  G'ma explains that they'll be retracing the route through the South that she and Scoob's grandfather took back in 1963.  As an interracial couple, they were rarely well received and had to travel using the Negro Travelers' Green Book to know which establishments would allow them entry.  Scoob can hardly believe such a guide was necessary, but as he—a bi-racial child who presents as Black—and his white grandmother travel through the South, he notices the odd, even threatening, looks they're getting from some people.  It seems to him that maybe things haven't changed much at all in the last 50+ years.

G'ma has always been a spitfire, but as they travel, Scoob starts to notice behavior that's strange even for her.  Is there a reason she's constantly ducking Dad's phone calls?  Is her spur-of-the-moment road trip really about teaching Scoob about the Civil Rights Movement and his own history?  Or is G'ma up to something a little more ... criminal?  

Clean Getaway by Nic Stone is a warm, enjoyable novel that asks readers to consider a serious question—how far has America really progressed when it comes to race relations?  Through the experiences of Scoob and G'ma, which mirror those of G'ma and G'pa in 1963, we can come to our own conclusions.  It's an unsettling but important question that all of us, regardless of ethnicity, would do well to ponder.  Despite its weighty subject matter, Clean Getaway is a funny book as well as a surprising one.  There's plenty of humor as well as mystery and adventure to keep it interesting and appealing.  Of course, it's got thoughtful, poignant moments as well, all of which combine to create an engrossing, moving read.  In addition to powerful lessons about racism, the book also teaches kids about the importance of knowing your own history and learning from grandparents while acknowledging the messiness of family life as well as the fact that there is always more to a person than what we think we know about them.  It's an illuminating book in many ways and one I very much enjoyed.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of When I Hit the Road by Nancy J. Cavanaugh)