I hope you all enjoyed your New Year celebrations. We heard fireworks go off around our neighborhood and that was enough for me. I did welcome the year with a new book and though and it’s Despues del Invierno by Guadalupe Nettel.

I’ve had this book on my shelf for a couple of years and after thinking  a lot lately about how I want to read more books by Latin American authors, I thought let’s go for it.

This story is about Claudio and Cecilia. They live in different countries but of course their lives are going to intersect in Paris and they’ll fall in love. Sounds a bit like a romcom right? Nettel has won various literary prizes so I believe I’ll be in for a good read.

You can also find an English version of the book.

I’m also still carrying over several books from 2019 and don’t even get me started the number of books I finished and never got around to reviewing.

Next couple of posts I plan to tell you more about the reading challenges I’ll be joining and the new books I’ve added to my shelves.

For now, wishing you all a happy start to 2020!

The year is coming to a close and as always, I wait until the last minute to do a wrap up post just in case I finish another book and/or it happens to be a favorite. I may still finish another book but let’s get to it because there’s a lot to go over:

Here are my stats for 2019:

Favorites in Fiction: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez, Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner and The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

Favorites in Mystery: You by Caroline Kepnes, The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup, The Awkward Squad by Sophie Henaff

Favorites in Other Genres: Smoke Gets in your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, Felicity by Mary Oliver and Book Love by Debbie Tung

The Numbers:
Total books read in 2019: 73
Books by women: 66
Books by men: 7
Fiction: 24
Mystery: 33
Non-fiction: 2
Romance: 2
Short Story Collection: 2
Classic: 1
Graphic Novel: 5
Poetry Collections: 4
Books in translation: 9 (Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, Danish, German and French)
Audiobooks: 25
Challenges participated in: 1

I read 24 more books than last year and I’m sure that’s thanks to audiobooks. Even though I discovered audiobooks last year, I finally have gotten used to them and now I love them. I still prefer to listen to mysteries though. Speaking of mysteries, no surprised that I still read more mysteries than any other genre. I am somewhat surprised though by the number of books by men. I think this may be my lowest amount ever.

I took a break from most reading challenges with the exception of R.I.P. but in 2020 I’ll dip back in to a few and hopefully participate in some reading events like Women In Translation, Nonfiction November and German Literature Month. I’ll tell you more about the reading challenges in another post.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t go to as many bookish events as I used to. I miss going to poetry readings, author signings and book festivals. I’m hoping this year I make time for these.

How was your reading year? Do you have reading goals for 2020?

As always thank you for stopping by and sharing in the book love with me. Wishing you all the best in 2020. Happy New Year!

Smiles,
Iliana