Hey Everyone! This is not my usual weekly video, that will still be coming out tomorrow, this is a bonus! As I mentioned recently my friend Jen and I started a podcast. We have our own KZread channel, so if you enjoy this head over there and Subscribe (Best Book Club with Shanna and Jen). You can also find us in all of the places you listen to podcasts. I won't normally be sharing the podcast on this channel, but I am proud of it and want to make sure everyone knows about it!
In this episode, we chat about how 2020 affected our reading goals for the year. Between the pandemic and giving birth to babies, both of us struggled for a little bit, threw out our reading challenges and then still ended up killing it in the end with Shanna reading 62 books and Jennifer reading 48 - not bad. Then we discuss what we want our reading year to look like, what we are going to do or not do as far as challenges go and which books made it onto our must reads list and why.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Update! After recording this episode, Shanna came up with a different way of going to go about the money jar challenge. Instead of putting a loonie or a toonie in for every book read to go towards a book shopping spree at the end of the year, she came up with incorporating the five star rating system. Five star book? $5 bill into the jar. Two and a half stars? $2.50 in. We are so here for this. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Our Favorite Reads of 2020
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (S+J)
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (S+J)
Anxious People by Fredrick Backman (J)
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (S)
Most Anticipated Books of 2021
A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict
(And a few others, but lets be honest, not even Jennifer really cared about these ones)
If you haven't started the #bestbookclub book already, we are loving The Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune and really hope that you will give it a read and let us know what you think about it before our Book Club episode that will be airing on January 20th - We messed up and scheduled it a little early so sorry for rushing you this month but we will be much more organized for February! We will be recording that episode on January 15th though so if you want us to chat about what you thought, let us know before then but don't worry, if you aren't done by then, the podcast will still be there for you to listen to after and we would still love to know what you thought! So no matter when, head over to our social media and let us know.
Speaking of next month! February is Black History and Month and, in celebration of that, we are going to read a book written by a black author. Each member of book club gets to put a suggestion into the hat and then we will read whichever one gets drawn. If you have any "must read" suggestions for this category, please let us know!
Join us next week when we get deep into our most favorite read of 2020 - The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. If you haven't read it, we HIGHLY recommend that you do.
Find Us Together At
www.bestbookclub.ca
Instagram @best_bookclub
Facebook: Best Book Club with Shanna and Jen
KZread: Best Book Club with Shanna and Jen
Shanna Kay
Instagram: @vellum.and.vellichor
KZread: Shanna Kay - Vellum and Vellichor
Facebook: Vellum.and.Vellichor
Jennifer West
Instagram: @thats_weird_j
Facebook: That's Weird, J