Dog-earred Pages | 2026

This year, I'm ditching my monthly reading categories and letting book club picks and my personal whims lead the way. After reading over 200 books in the past three years, I have a clearer sense of my tastes and reading preferences. Of course, I still love being surprised, but overall, I plan to stick to books that have stood the test of time—beloved backlist titles with rich world-building, deep characters, and meaningful themes. I'm excited to sprinkle in some re-reads, and hope to include a lot more fantasy this year to anchor my reading in page-turning adventures. I may take on a personal reading project now and then, but for now, here's a peek at some of the titles I'm eyeing: 

Escaping to faraway places,

-SJW

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