Happy New Year!! Rebecca and Tara sum up their 2024 goals and introduce their reading goals for 2025!
Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):
- 2024: Brothers Grimm; Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur; Inclusive Picture Book Challenge; 12 classic women authors
- 2025: Complete Anne of Green Gables and The Chronicles of Narnia series and read more Redwall; read children's books that have "mischievous, clever, independent girl characters"; track "mood reads"
Tara (@onabranchreads):
- 2024: Giller Long List; Agatha Christie; Helen Humphreys
- 2025: Carol Shields Prize for Fiction; Agatha Christie; Helen Humphreys; weed physical TBR; read more short stories
Mentioned:
https://carolshieldsprizeforfiction.com/
https://www.instagram.com/carolshieldsprize/
https://www.riverstreetwriting.com/
https://www.instagram.com/river_street_writes/
This is Canada Reads American Style featuring two friends who love Canada Reads and Canadian literature. Welcome our host Rebecca from Michigan and Tara from Ontario. Welcome to Canada Reads American Style. This is Tara. Rebecca is here with me. Hello Rebecca. Hello. And happy new year. We are here today. We are going to say goodbye to our year of reading of 2024 reading and welcoming a new year of reading which I find so exciting. Like I get really excited in December. Really it's I'm just reading. I read every month, every year. Like you know it's just it's reading but I'm like it's a new year of reading and I get so excited. So we are here to yeah let's just discuss our past reading goals for 2024 how we did with them and then we're looking forward onwards to 2025. I love it. Yep. Closing one chapter and opening a new one. Yes. Beautiful. I love that I know it's not like I know but I'm like I wish I thought of that. Okay so I'm going to start looking by looking back at my 2024 goals and update you on how I did. Okay so my first one was reading the Giller long list for 2023 that you know or that they release in October of 2024. I've been doing this one for years. I've lost track of how many years I started doing this. I do not do well this year. Oh I know and I mean which is not unusual. Oh actually no that's not true. Okay I'm going to take that back. Let me start over people. I'm getting confused in my years. The Giller long list for 2023. Yes. Take it off. I did it. I can't remember. I maybe had one or two DNFs but as a whole I'm going to say yes I finished it and then what I was referring to just now that confused me I'm going to come back to that in my 2025 reading goals. Okay so sorry if I made that that was confusing. The Giller long list for 2023 that was one of my goals and I'm going to check it off as done. Okay good. Yeah so sorry about that. My other one that this would be have been the second year that I was doing this which was reading through the Agatha Christie catalog. In 23 right yeah 23 I'd read eight Agatha Christie books. This past year I read four which I'm still happy with. It's obviously it's much less it's half but I think that's due to the other my third reading goal that I had in 2024 which was reading the backlist of Helen Humphrey's books so I read five of Helen's books in 2024. I thought you read more than that that's so wild. Yeah because I think in my head at the beginning of the year I thought I'll read one Agatha Christie a month and one Helen Humphrey's but there's just too many books so I think that I almost end up at times alternating each month what reading one of their books and there were months that I didn't couple of months that I didn't get to read either of them in that month and stuff like this so yeah so I'm my progress is less than I've been hoping at the beginning of the year but it's still progress so I'm taking them off as like you know good on me way to go Tara I read some yeah I'm really surprised it's so funny because I feel like you know and this is not I'm not saying I'm saying this in a good way it felt like you talked about Helen Humphrey's every month but apparently you kind of weren't but it felt like you were and I was I really if you had made me guess how many you read I would have said like ten or eleven isn't that wild I know but I think even like having read five like she is my roast roast my most read book or author of 2024 because you know you get that little you're all your data on storygraph so having read like I don't think I've ever read five books by a single author in one year mm-hmm so it's still a high number but yes I have same thing I would have thought by how often I've talked about or I would have thought higher as well but yeah five and and and can I well I'll wait until you get to your 2025 goals because then I'll I'll say something I'm gonna make a note to myself so I don't forget to bring it up okay and how did you do with your 2024 goals okay so I had four goals I had to go back and listen to our other podcast because I threw some many goals in there of different things but and I accomplished those and and I won't talk about those but one of them was to read Brothers Grimm because I have a collection of the Brother Grimm's tales and I because I had started doing some other things reading like Mary Oliver poetry and all that I did a bunch of other little mini challenges I didn't I think I read the first three and then I stopped and just let it go for the whole year so there's that and then I did read Project 562 changing the way we see Native America by Matika Wilbur which I've talked about ad nauseam but I love that book and I accomplished it I think I finished it like in August because every day I would read one or more of the profiles of Native Americans and their great triumphs and challenges in their lives and it's a pictorial kind of coffee table book it's fabulous so I finished that I also had this one which was an inclusive picture book challenge which had a bunch of categories about reading you know diverse children's picture books and I just want to mention that I actually got I think I read six and then I stopped because I will just say that I think it's interesting when somebody with a big following creates a challenge but then doesn't follow through with it because I read six and I used the hashtag and I had no acknowledgement that I was doing the challenge and it's not about likes and all this stuff I don't care about that I just felt if like I thought to myself oh well she must have a lot of people doing it well then when I looked at the hashtag there weren't that many people doing it so I thought so she couldn't even acknowledge like anybody doing it because I kind of looked into it and so I thought you know what I'm gonna continue to read my picture books I did all year I loved them they were great but I just sort of lost my interest in that challenge because I felt like if you want us to participate then they're neat you know what I mean I just sort of felt a little pissy about it yeah and so yeah so I just sort of thought I don't think I will follow that person's challenges like I don't think I'm a great account I love the account but the challenges I think I'm gonna let them go in the future so that's that I think when you put a challenge like that out on social media you do it because you're trying to foster a community exactly and so that then the people who are wanting to participate in that challenge expect the same thing you're expecting to find a community and interaction and debate conversation so when you don't get that or when you doesn't follow through on that part of it that's okay you said it way better than I could have and that's exactly how I felt because I have a friend who is a youth librarian I have a couple friends who are youth librarians and I wanted them to be aware of it because I thought hey here are some these are gonna be some great you know recommendations for you working in a diverse community which they do and when I went to the hashtag and there was kind of nothing there except for mine I thought okay and I made sure I was doing the right hashtag like I made sure I didn't make a mistake but I thought yeah where's the community and and I couldn't even forward or share what I was getting out of it with my friends who are active youth librarians in a diverse community so yeah anyway so there's that yeah and then of course my last goal which everybody is probably sick of but I had 12 classic women authors I did complete it I loved it I loved the authors I'm going to go back and read many of these other these women again it was just a really fun challenge for myself and it reminded me of why classic literature is classic so there you go good like I feel like you did really well with your goals awesome okay claps applause for us for 2024 because I had a great reading I'm clapping so you can hear yeah we did we had a great 24 yeah and I love reliving so I know I have like my goals and that which shaped my reading year but I didn't realize until you started talking about your brother Grimm challenge that you had up that your reading goals also are part of my reading year in some weird because I hear about them like because you and I not only through the podcast but you know we share frequent messages about what we're reading and stuff so that your reading becomes part of my reading year yeah I love because I was like that's true yeah yeah it's super fun I know it's like like I said when you read it's so funny when you talk about reading Helen Humphreys or Agatha Christie I know those are your goals and I'm like I'm there with you because you are accomplishing your goals I just love that you're right that's so cool so we have double the goals in a way we do like double applause and whatever for us woo-hoo we are amazing okay 2025 woo-hoo yes go do you want to start you want me start I'll let you go first yeah okay so I'm going my first one which I alluded to when I talked about my 2024 goals so for several years the giller long list has been one of my goals to read through the long list over the they announced their shortlist in October or sorry their long list in October and I then take those few months I think the winner is announced in November I try don't care I don't care if I read them all before the winners announced that's never been one of my goals I just take the next following calendar year to work my way through the long list and I've been doing that for several years and one of the main reasons I had started doing it is that as a mother of young children I have lost my connection with Canadian literature and this gave me a good way of keeping in touch with Canadian authors and literature that I the world that I lost touch with so but in the last year I've come to realize while one there's like a ongoing debate surrounding the giller I'll let you Google it and you can see for yourself what's been going on but I've also lost interest in some of the authors like I kept there's several authors that keep getting nominated or long listed and short listed that I don't like the books I read them once because they do to the long list being nominated but I'm like if I see them on the long list I don't read them because I'm not interested but they keep getting nominated like keep getting long listed I've kind of lost and I'm I don't need the giller long list anymore I I know what's going on in the Canadian literary world and I know what books I want to read and how I can find them and stuff like this however I do like a checklist so what I've instead of the giller this year I'm going to read the Carol Shields Prize long list right yes I'm excited I know I'm excited too because I've been like full on into this I this will be its third year coming up 2025 will be the third year and I love this so just a quick it's the Carol Shields Prize celebrates creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the US I've been full like I supported this right from the beginning I love this whole idea I've read a couple of the books in the first year I have their list for this past year down like that I want to go through and every time I find the list super exciting like there are books that I've already this past year I think I'd already read half of them so like the books that I want to read this Carol Shields Prize their jury are getting the books that I want to read so I'm like forget the giller because I'm gonna read whatever Canadian books I want to read anyways but this one's going to be high Carol Shields I find is highlighting writers that I may not find and I am super excited to see what 2025 holds for the Carol Shields Prize that's my awards goal for the year I love this goal for you I think that is exciting because you've talked about it you know on a number of occasions you've talked about the award and everything and authors and books from that list so I'm really excited that you're gonna do this so I can't wait to watch this process so when does it when does it you might have already said this and I'm blanking now already but when does this come out long list comes out in March so March 6 okay and I think they did the short list is in April okay and then the winner is announced in May okay and I kind of like this actually a little better than the giller was like September October November October November kind of thing yeah I like starting off for as for a reading goal to start off with a long list in March mm-hmm sets me up for the year - right like it's so I kind of like the timing better as well yeah I agree that is really good oh my gosh I cannot wait yeah so I'll have to yeah I'll have to look at that a little bit closer which I haven't before but yeah wow and I recommend like go to their their website I think if you just put in Carol Shields Prize you'll get to their website it is the Canadian and US well both writers from both countries well represented the jury is also split so that they have Canadian and American on the jury and it's all women and non-binary yeah yeah this is great mm-hmm yeah so I'm excited they've had great books in the past so yeah bring it on and it's new it's a new thing you want to promote it and be excited about it and yeah I love it now what about your other past goals are you going to continue to carry on your other goals yes am I going to continue with want me to go through them all oh yeah okay yeah sorry this is just the most exciting one because it's the newest one I'm going to ongoing will be the Helen Humphreys and maybe I can actually get through the Helen Humphreys catalog this year if I read five and 24 I feel like I can maybe get through the rest I think she has like 13 I don't know I'm gonna do my best to get it through it this year so that's going to be ongoing my Agatha Christie that's ongoing that's gonna be the rest of my life people like I'm gonna be hopefully 75 and being like and I finally read miss that oh that's my bucket list people have way more exciting bucket list but there's my bucket list yeah so the ongoing one which I didn't mention for 2024 but it's to whittle my physical TBR I did I don't think I added to it this year like I read as many off my shelf as I added to my shelf but it doesn't it's not down to the number I wanted I would love it down to like 10 10 books so that when I purchase books I know that those are the books I'm going to be reading within the next couple of months rather than two years from now right I would just like to stay on top of that and finally this is actually a new one in 2024 I did introduce more short stories into my reading life and I want to continue building on that like working them in more regularly yeah one with it one goal with a good checklist that I can go check check because I do what people I write down a physical list in my journal I put a little circle beside each title and I color it in depending on whether I read it or didn't read it it's color coded it's silly and I love it everything else is just like a quality kind of although I guess the hell in Humphreys I also and Agatha Christie I get to color those in as well but yeah there we go I love your plan for 2025 that's all awesome and I and I like that you have that thing about the checklist and coloring it in or whatever the circles I mean all of those things just enhance what we do otherwise we just be plowing through books and I love the idea that we all have you know our TBR might be bigger small or we're a mood reader or we like to you know write it all down or or put it in a spreadsheet you know what I'm saying we all have our ways of managing it and that's part of the fun of it all right yes yeah I think that's why it makes it like I love reading obviously but it also makes it part of my lifestyle like I get so much more out of it than just the reading like it's you know it's the sharing of it here with Rebecca sharing it with you you all writing it down like I love taking time once a week or so to sit down with my journal and write it all in write down quotes write down how I felt about a book even putting like a DNF on a book I'm like I just you know it's just part of it I enjoy it that reminded me of something when you said that okay so interestingly my 2025 they're kind of simple in a way but I wanted them to be simple because I will say that this year at the beginning of the year I was really struggling because I had we get a lot of books through River Street writes writing River Street writing I think it's anyway I think that's the formal name we'll put it obviously in the show notes but we get a lot of arcs and I had ordered a bunch and they were and honestly they are they have all been great books so like a lot of the stuff that was on my fiction top 10 list this year I think the four Canadian titles all came through arcs which I loved and those were authors I would have never discovered had I not been going through this process through River Street writes with Halley but also I am a mood reader and I was not really able to do my mood reading because I was I had all these books I needed to read and I was getting really hung up on it so I will be say happily I got through all of my arcs this year I'm very thrilled I know well I actually kind of started to cut them down a little bit because it stopped requesting so many because I was getting too many to where I couldn't do my mood reading thing right so then also I have this standard goal like your Agatha Christie my standard goal is if I buy a book and I give myself one year to read the book or it's got to go because if I if I haven't picked it up it's because I've lost interest again mood reading it's easy to lose interest I completed all of my books this year I'm so excited my shelf was completely not cleared off in the sense of I got rid of them but I'm keeping the books that I really love and then I'm going to build a little free library for myself in the spring and so I've been saving all the books that I that I like but that I don't want to keep and those will go into my little free library so I'm really excited about that and I also want to buy less books because I love this idea at the end of the year I feel like whoo-hoo like it's all fresh and clean and everything's done right so here are my goals for 2025 I have three series of books that I bought like a few years ago and I still have not finished them so I'm going to complete Anne of Green Gables this year I've read the first two but I don't I don't want to have so much time go in between them I want to just sort of read them all close together and just love Anne yeah I still have not finished Narnia I think I've read the first two but again I should just read them and they're not that many and they're not they're short so I should be able to do it and then my Red Wall series there are 22 in the series I've read two and I'm not even going to put a number on it it's just I want to read some Red Wall this year but I do want to complete Anne of Green Gables in Narnia and then because I had so much fun reading 12 classic women authors I was talking to a friend and I realized that there are children's books that I've never read that are kind of classics and I thought I want to read and I kind of put this in quotation sort of I want to read about mischievous clever independent girls and so some of the titles that I've already thought about and again my list can change but like pippy long stocking I've never read that I love pippy I never read it see I never read it and I yeah and Ramona I've never read any of the Ramona books I know but I think I don't even know how when they were written like if I would I don't know that I would have been the right age when they were written maybe I was and I just didn't read them I don't know and then there were a couple others that had been mentioned to me so if you have any recommendations for mischievous clever independent girls children's children's children's book they could be they're mostly going to be that sort of juvenile title like four through six grade kind of reading I just want to read these classic girls that were feisty and that we all grew up loving that I missed out on so that's kind of my goal and then I that though so there's my really my two goals I then have while you were talking I saw I thought to myself as much fun as I've had reading at the end of this year which I did I just had a wild ride of them on December which I'll talk about this year in upcoming podcast I think somehow I'm gonna track my mood reads and these will be books that I just find that I don't own or that I haven't necessarily I mean they could be on my TBR but that I just I serendipitously find them at my public library and maybe I'll just mark those as my mood reads to see how many mood reads I fit into my year kind of made me think of that right yeah and then I have a secret goal that I'm not going to tell you what it is and you will have to wait for it okay you will love it but I it's a secret goal okay so I have thoughts one I love an empty bookshelf and that is my goal eventually to like end the year with an empty bookshelf except for like maybe whatever a couple books I got for Christmas so yeah poodles on you I love that too this children children's the girls books I can't think of how you worded it because it was perfect that's a perfect Rebecca goal I love that I'm gonna add Harry at the spy check out Harry at the spy I knew okay I couldn't remember I knew there was something that you loved so much but I couldn't remember I'm adding Harry at the spy yep Harry the spy and pippy I think I have an old pippy down that I bought like used recently that I was like I have to reread pippy so I cannot wait to follow along on this goal and three a secret goal when do we find out said secret goal I don't know and I know it's painful to have a secret goal because you're gonna sit there and go what the hell is the goal but I really think you will I want you to I want it to be a fun goal where you have a great laugh when you discover with and and I will divulge it on a podcast I will never tell you about it offline okay but that you will be able to participate in it in the moment and you will have the best laugh they're your best book laugh of the year I can't wait yeah at first I'm not annoyed that I'm like why is she not telling me I know I would be like well I have a secret goal to Rebecca and I will say this but if it becomes too much because I my my goal was to mention that I have a secret goal and then I will not speak of it again until it's time and then that way it won't be you know it's sort of niggling in your brain where you're like what is it what is it but if it does become a hassle you tell me and then I'll divulge the dough I'm now over like being okay and I'm just excited now I'm like excited because I'm like oh now when is what is it and when is it gonna happen yeah so now no no no I'm in I'm in okay I'm in for the secret goal all right awesome yeah yeah I'm super excited for this next year of reading me too and to like many more bookish conversations with you yes definitely and all of you for thank you for joining us and watching our YouTube lives which we'll get back to in January and everything that we do this community we just love it and we have so much fun with it and it's something I look forward to and I know you do as well yeah I really do okay thank you all thank you everyone happy new year and happy reading thank you for joining us on our bookish journey if you enjoyed this episode please consider subscribing reading and reviewing Canada Reads American style wherever you listen you can connect with the podcast and Rebecca on Instagram at Canada Reads American style and with Tara at on a branch reads until next time keep reading (upbeat music)
Happy New Year!! Rebecca and Tara sum up their 2024 goals and introduce their reading goals for 2025!
Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):
2024: Brothers Grimm; Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur; Inclusive Picture Book Challenge; 12 classic women authors
2025: Complete Anne of Green Gables and The Chronicles of Narnia series and read more Redwall; read children's books that have "mischievous, clever, independent girl characters"; track "mood reads"
Tara (@onabranchreads):
2024: Giller Long List; Agatha Christie; Helen Humphreys
2025: Carol Shields Prize for Fiction; Agatha Christie; Helen Humphreys; weed physical TBR; read more short stories
Mentioned:
https://carolshieldsprizeforfiction.com/
https://www.instagram.com/carolshieldsprize/
https://www.riverstreetwriting.com/
https://www.instagram.com/river_street_writes/
