after planning out 22 books for ’22, here are the ones I am especially excited for!

Hi friends!

Wow, it’s been a while 😅 Eleanor from Wishing Upon a Star here! I hope everyone had a wonderful close to 2021 and will have an exciting start to 2022! We’ve got this 😉

I want to thank you all for sticking around, and while I don’t have a consistent posting schedule decided, your support means so much! Recently, I had some free time thanks to the winter break, and thought—well, even if this post doesn’t get a lot of interaction, it might be fun to do a bit of gushing about the books I want to get to this year 😀

These past few days, I’ve had a lot of fun picking out the books I want to read. I compiled a list of titles across six genres (fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, poetry, nonfiction, and literary) and put them into two groups—priority and tentative. This year, I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to read, so the “priority” titles, you guessed it, take priority!

I realized at the end of my list that somehow, I managed to find exactly TWENTY-TWO titles in total! Maybe I’ll be able to read 22 books in ’22 😂

So without further ado, here are some of the books I am most excited to read this year.

Already, I can feel that Tidesong will be a gem to read! It’s a graphic novel with Studio Ghibli influences, and looks like it includes magic, water dragons, and complicated family dynamics. I haven’t read a lot of graphic novels, so I’m excited to ~dive~ right in!

This Woven Kingdom will be my first Mafi book, so I’m excited to see what lies between the gilded pages! This book will feature Persian mythology, court intrigue, and enemies-to-lovers, and I just can’t wait.

In 2022, I’m hoping I can read more nonfiction—especially about Asian American history, identity, etc. So The Making of Asian America is definitely a priority title for me! Asian American history isn’t necessarily something we learn a lot about in school, so I’m sure I’ll gain some great insights from this.

I think Call Us What We Carry will be a really impactful read, and I’m looking forward to reading more poetry by Gorman! And she fits inside these words looks like it’ll be a fascinating lyrical and abstract collection of poetry.

Honestly, Recursion looks like it’ll be my kind of sci-fi jam. Time, memories, and reality distorting? Sign me up. I’ve also seen reviews where readers have said that Recursion maintains an emotional heart, and I want to see how the author will strike that balance.

Maybe in Another Life is actually one of my “tentative” titles, but hopefully I can get to it! There are so many rave reviews for TJR’s work, and I thought Maybe in Another Life might be a good starting point. It follows Hannah, a struggling twenty-something, as she makes a choice that could splinter her life into parallel universes. 👀

After one of my good friends read and praised My Brilliant Friend, I knew I had to read it soon. The complex friendship between Elena and Lila is something I simply need. And why does the quote “you’re my brilliant friend, you have to be the best of all” make me feel like crying?!

In the Margins is a book of four essays by the author of My Brilliant Friend about her writing process, inspiration, and more. I’m always interested in seeing authors talk about the “behind-the-scenes” of their writing, so after I read My Brilliant Friend, I’m sure that In the Margins will be a wonderful eye-opener!

Strike the Zither won’t be out for a while, so there’s no official cover or synopsis yet, but it’s a retelling of the Chinese classic Three Kingdoms! And it’s set to feature different interpretations of the characters, like a female Zhuge Liang. Plus, we can anticipate a lot of court intrigue.

And…that’s a wrap! Thank you for reading 😀 I hope you were able to find a few new titles as well—if not, I hope you enjoyed nonetheless!

Because the next semester is shaping up to be a busy one, if I’m inactive for some time on the blog, you’ll know why.

In the comments, let me know what you are looking forward to reading this year! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, friends! 💕