Bout of Books 30 has wrapped up. For the first time in several years, I didn’t manage to make either Twitter chat, which was disappointing, since I usually enjoy them.

I did, however, get some reading done, although I didn’t finish any books.

I listened to some of Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous, a memoir from the real-world journalist who creates a fictional Twitter persona for herself. There’s lots to make you laugh, but also lots to make you cringe.

I picked up Evie Dunmore’s Bringing Down the Duke again this week (apparently I was craving tales of high royalty), which is currently my most overdue library book with the hopes of returning it this week. It’s about a Bluestocking commoner who finagles her way onto the titular duke’s estate in an effort to find a way to get him to support voting rights for women. Instead they both find themselves fighting off mutual attraction.

The next Bout of Books is May 10-16. You can bet I’ll be back for it.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share ten books we’re excited to see coming out in the next six months. I don’t tend to have my finger on the publishing pulse, so this topic is always fun as I scroll through upcoming new releases.

Here are ten that I’m looking forward to:

1. Angie Thomas’ Concrete Rose (next week)
2. Renée Watson’s Love Is a Revolution (Feb.)
3. Muse by Brittany Cavallaro (Feb.)
4. Talia Hibbert’s Act Your Age, Eve Brown (March)
5. An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn (March!!!)
6. Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli (April)
7. Mackenzi Lee’s The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks (April)
8. Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi (April)
9. Beth and Amy by Virginia Kantrell (May)
10. The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary (June)

How about you? What books are you looking forward to seeing on the shelves between now and June?

This week kicks off Bout of Books 30, and I’m going to join in as a way to ease into 2021. What is Bout of Books and why should you join in?

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01 a.m. Monday, January 4, and runs through Sunday, January 10, in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For all Bout of Books 30 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I’m going to share my participation a couple times this week. There are no blog challenges this time around, but since I’m not on Instagram, I might just put my answers here anyway.

For instance, I’m currently listening to Samantha Irby’s hilarious collection of essays, Wow, No Thank You. On paper I’m reading One Day in December by Josie Silver, but I might put it aside in favor of something else this week.

I finished a book this morning. It was a cute, holiday-themed romance that was perfectly adequate — too many characters left underdeveloped, but generally a feeling of coziness and caring even among the ones who should have been edited out.

But its ending annoyed me, because there was a proposal, and it involved all the secondary characters knowing before the main character, as well as the casual comment about the love interest having asked the father for his permission or blessing or whatever.

I recognize that both those things happen in real life. Proposals, like so many other events, have become an opportunity for grandiose public gestures. There is intense pressure on the person being queried for an affirmative response, and unless that person has already confided that a) they’d like to marry you and b) they’ve always hoped to be proposed to in front of a million strangers, I’d suggest you keep your important questions to a more intimate setting.

But the part that more sets my teeth on edge is the asking of parents (particularly fathers) for permission to marry their daughter. It smacks of old-fashioned patriarchy and transactional relationships (“I will marry your daughter, as long as you include three cows and a hectare of land”), and I find it a wholly offensive gesture, rather than a romantic one. If you’ve already spent any significant amount of time with your love’s family, you know whether they like you or not. And, at the heart of it, it’s really not about them. It’s about the person you actually want to spend the rest of your life with, and their opinion should matter most of all. For the record, I told Rudi early on in our relationship that should he ever feel the need to propose, if he asked anyone else about it before me, my answer would automatically be no.

I recognize that not everyone feels this way, including some of my close friends. And in the end, marriage — and how you get there — is one of personal preference. So, you do you. But every novelist that includes that scene as something they feel is to be admired is getting knocked down a star in my rating book.

First, a confession: My #tbtbsanta box arrived a month ago. I held off on opening it, first as a reward and later as a talisman, warding off bad seasonal events.

It should be noted that I looked at the box every day. I considered opening it. And so I left it unopened — and my poor Santa probably wondering what in the world was the matter with me.

But today, today I woke up and it was sunny. I realized I’d made it through both Thanksgiving and Christmas without breaking and I felt a little more like myself than I have since early October. And I knew it was time to open my box.

My Santa, Jordan, didn’t know when she sent me the box that I was going to hold onto it like a life raft. But the box was filled with good, buoyant things that make me even gladder now that I’ve opened it.

Already, we’re off to a great start: I drink a ton of cocoa, so am super excited to have new varieties to try. I didn’t have a new ornament for this year, because I hadn’t gone anywhere to get one. And the card made me guffaw!

I love purple. I love sparkles. I love nail polish. Put them all together and we have a winner!

Okay, on to the packages! (For the record, I also have Peanuts Christmas wrapping paper….)

First up, there is a fun tiny planter shaped like a Jane Austen bust so I can bring my gardening inside for the season.

Second, there are two books I’ve been wanting to read, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ well-received The Water Dancer and Ten Blind Dates by Ashley Elston, a Christmas-themed romance.

Finally, there was a gift for Corey — a catnip-filled croissant:

Thank you, Jordan, from both Corey and me. We absolutely love our gifts!

A new season is coming up on us quickly, and planning the reads to accompany it (particularly one set to be as emotionally and physically dark as the coming one), is a joy. (I wrote “job” there first, which maybe gives you a sense of how tired my brain is.)

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks a favorite question: What are ten books you’re planning to read this winter?

1. A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey (How can you not love this title? It’s waiting for me at the library.)
2. One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite (Romance and I are getting along well this year.)
3. Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev (I’ve been wanting to read the second book her Austen re-tellings since it came out back in the spring.)
4. The Meet-Cute Project by Rhiannon Richardson (More romance.)
5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (People seem to be loving this historical fiction sci fi story)
6. The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde (Karen suggested Fforde’s world was a little too close to our current dysopia, so I put off starting it.)
7. Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (A Pride & Prejudice retelling.)
8. Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (I’ve been on the holds list for the second in this space trilogy since the library added it.)
9. The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jiminez (On the audiobook holds list after Dad recommended it this summer.)
10. One Life by Megan Rapinhoe (Megan and Sue Bird are my celebrity couple crush.)

How about you? What’s on your winter TBR pile? And while you’re waiting to start your winter reading, why don’t you stop by our Virtual Advent Tour and share in our holiday joy?