As of May 31st 2021, I can officially say I got my reading mojo back, and I didn’t need to leave the country to find a toy boy to get my groove back.

I’ve officially passed the number of books I read for the whole of 2020. That number was 27, and at the time of writing I have read 28 books. I have set myself my annual goal of reading 52 books in a year, and I hope I can keep up this momentum but I’m technically 7 books ahead of the schedule. This is in part to do with the fact I now run two book clubs with friends, but also the fact my lockdown brain found it extremely difficult to concentrate, during the first two lockdowns. A lot has been written about people’s concentration difficulties during this pandemic, and I can attest that it was definitely a thing as I’ve previously shared.

Turning to the book clubs, One is called Last Read, which is on Clubhouse, whilst the other is Let’s Read which has been going for over 10 years – or I should probably say close to 11 years.

Last Read is a weekly book club on Clubhouse where participants have to bring their own book and share their last read. We don’t mind what genre of book is read, as people have shared books they read with their children like Peppa Pig as well as the you can’t say you are a reader unless you’ve read Ulysses by James Joyce. It’s moderated by myself and my old friend Vanessa Walters as we both have a passion for books and reading more generally. People have brought fiction and nonfiction, and it has been really interesting to see what people bring to the weekly discussion. If you are interested in joining us join Clubhouse and we meet every Monday at 6pm UK/ 1pm NYC/ USA time, you can sign up via this link.

As mentioned Let’s Read has been going for nearly 11 years and is a book club that primarily reads and discusses books by Black authors or of Black interest. We meet once a month and you can see what our book of the month is on our social channels. Check out what the book of the month is, as well as our previous reads, by bookmarking our Linktree!

So here is a visual representation of my year in books so far, I’ve read 7121 pages allegedly, which excludes audiobooks for obvious reasons. The books have been both fiction and non fiction: including poetry, short stories and psychology. The majority have been Black books and most have also been new releases or soon to be releasesd

Check out my reviews on some of the books I’ve read thus far:

• Mango Cake and Murder by Christy Murphy
• Unspoken by Guvna B
• A Multicultural Picnic by Victor Dias de Oliveira Santos
• The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell by Lonnie Wheeler
• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
• Afro Nostalgia by Badia Ahad-Legardy
• Clap when you Land by Elizabeth Acedo
• Restoring your Intestinal Flora by Christoper Vesey
• The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall
• Send Judah First by Brian C. Johnson
• Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
• Wicked Enchantment by Wanda Coleman
• Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
• Gone Missing in Harlem by Karla F.C. Holloway
• The Future of You by Tracey Follows
• When Sunday Comes by Claudrena N. Harold
• Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
• The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Delila Harris

I’ve curated a list of the books that have been discussed at Last Reads and Let’s Read on the independent bookshop website Bookshop. I may also get around to writing full reviews of the other books I’ve read before the year is out, and if any of these books pique your interest, you can get most of these books at your usual book retailers.

Let me know your thoughts about any of the books I’ve read or if you have read any of them.