Year of the Dragon | Resolutions for 2025

Along with the books I want to read, I'm hoping 2025 is a year of patience. I want to be increasingly patient with myself and those around me, most notably, my children :) I also want to be more realistic about how long projects/tasks take and accept that I won't be able to complete everything all at once.  In general, I am coming into the new year exactly how I wanted to be feeling -- refeshed, positive, excited, and more settled into myself.

Word for the Year: Patience

Intention for the Year: Get Outdoors! We already spend a lot of time outside, but I want even more.

Goals for the Year:
1. Visit Mount Rainier National Park
2. Plant a vegetable garden
3. Get my bike working
4. Professional photo shoot for our family

We're planning very similar trips to the ones we took in 2023 -- Camano Island for spring break, Missouri farmhouse with family in June, and Connecticut in August! And I already have a girl's trip to Houston with college friends on the calendar for March. Hooray for time with family and friends. More of that, always!

Cheers to the year of the dragon,

-SJW

Dog-earred Pages | 2024

Cheers to another year of books! In 2024 I hope to do three things for my reading life: continue, simplify, and stretch. 

1. Continue my general approach to reading i.e. use monthly categories as a starting place and keep up in my ongoing book clubs 

Updated categories for this year:

January: Self-Development

February: BIPOC Authors

March: Memoir

April: Poetry + Short Stories + Essays

May: Fiction

June: Pride/LGBTQ

July: Mood Reading

August: Mood Reading

September: Mood Reading 

October: Motherhood

November: Nonfiction

December: Classic + Re-read 

2. Simplify my lists i.e. use the rule of threes and only focus on the next three titles in my queue

3 Books I'm excited to start:

3. Stretch myself in reading longer books. I don't want a high page count to scare me off!

Reading is meant to be a pleasure,
-SJW

Dog-earred Pages | 2023

I found my monthly reading categories from last year a helpful "placeholder" for planning out books I'd put on my to-be-read list. I also embraced my perpensity toward mood reading and liked designating summer for that! Here are my updated categories for this year:

January: Self-Help + Recommendations
February: Anti-Racism
March: Memoir
April: Poetry + Short Stories 
May: Literary Fiction
June: Graphic Novels 
July: Mood Reading
August: Mood Reading
September: Mood Reading 
October: Motherhood
November: Nonfiction
December: Classic 

As for specific books, these are on my shortlist:

I'd also like to read more by the following authors: 

Amor Towles, Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, Gabrielle Zevin,
Isabel Wilkerson, James Baldwin, and Kevin Wilson

With a dreamy far-off look,
-SJW

Dog-earred Pages | 2022

In an effort to be more intentional about what I read this year, I created a just-for-me reading plan.

January: Self-Help
February: Anti-Racism
March: Memoir
April: Poetry
May: Summer Reading
June: Summer Reading
July: Summer Reading
August: Summer Reading
September: Kid Lit + YA
October: Motherhood
November: Nonfiction
December: Cozy Classic or Re-read

The goal is to read one title for each monthly theme and fill in extra books as time allows. I actually hope to read fewer books than in past years, but for there to be a higher percentage of "couldn't put it down" and "would recommend to a friend" books in the mix.

Here are 22 titles I'm considering for 2022:

Reading for enjoyment,

- SJW