New Releases I Meant to Read This Year

Today is the day I face the many new releases I had every intention of reading this year and for some reason didn’t get to. I had such high hopes for my reading in 2020, and this year just didn’t quite go as planned. Which means, I still haven’t read almost all of my most anticipated books of the year. Don’t ask me how or why that happened, but it did. I will definitely be reading all of these next year.

But for now, let’s talk about them. These are the books released this year that I was most excited about and didn’t read. I actually purchased copies of every single one of these books, and yet still didn’t read them. Which is just sad. But here we are.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Of all the books on this list, this is the one I am most sad about not getting to this year. I actually kept delaying this post hoping it would happen, but given how slowly my current read is going, it’s just not going to. I do plan on starting this before the year is over, but the chances of me finishing it at this point are almost zero. Which is fine, because then I can start next year off right with what I’m sure will be an incredible book.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

This is one of the only books on this list that wasn’t on my list at the beginning of the year. But after I read How to Stop Time, Matt Haig was immediately added to my list of authors I really want to read more of. I was super excited to see this release. It sounds totally up my alley, and is by an author I’ve really enjoyed. And yet, it was sat on my bookshelf since the day it was released. Unread and sad. If I don’t pick this up early next year, I’m going to be really annoyed with myself.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

I love Naomi Novik’s books, and I also really enjoy dark academia. So I have absolutely no idea why I didn’t read this after picking it up. I do now have a pile of dust jackets of the new books I started this year (I take them off when I read because they annoy me) and this is part of it. Along with Addie LaRue and the next book on this list. All of which I had every intention of reading and then just didn’t. In my defense, I really wanted to read this in October – because spooky, Halloween vibes – and ended up in a massive slump. Which was kind of a theme for this year, and I did not like it.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

This is now the second Brit Bennett book sitting unread on my shelves. Why? I have no idea. This book sounds amazing, but I was just never really in the mood to read it this year. I am a huge mood reader, and sometimes that can be a problem. But I have learned to not force things, because I end up enjoying them less than I do if I read them when I’m in the mood for that particular story/genre/etc. It’s still high up on my TBR, but I know I’m going to love it if I pick it up at the right time, so I can wait.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

I absolutely love Station Eleven and was pretty excited about a new Emily St. John Mandel book. I actually did pick this up right around when it was released and read a few chapters. But it was right around the start of my first big slump of the year, and I wasn’t really feeling it in that moment, so I put it down. One thing led to another, and I just haven’t picked it back up. Honestly, this just wasn’t something I was in the mood for this year, and I think I definitely need to be in the right mood for this book. Hopefully it’ll happen soon, because I do really want to read it.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune

I honestly knew nothing about this until it came out and everyone started talking about this book. It’s an LGBTQ+ fantasy, and sounds absolutely fantastic. It reminds me a lot of The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire, which I love. This might not be at the very top of my TBR, but it intrigued me enough that I bought a copy. That’s pretty big considering it’s by an author I’m unfamiliar with. I really wanted to read more fantasy this year, but my not being in the mood to read anything really got in the way of that.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing is one of my favorite books of all time. It was just incredible. I was so, so excited that we were finally getting another Yaa Gyasi book this year. And yet, I didn’t read it the second I got my hands on it. And I still haven’t read it. If I’m being completely honest, I just really haven’t been in the mood for a serious book this year. And I want to give this the attention it deserves and knew I wasn’t quite in the right place to provide that. I’m starting to come out of the giant slump of 2020, so hopefully I will pick this up very soon.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

I could pretty much say the same thing as I did above. It’s been a few years since I read Freshwater, but I still haven’t read anything quite like it. I loved Akwaeki Emezi’s writing and unique perspective. I’m anticipating this will probably mess with my head a little bit, and I honestly wasn’t in a place for that this year. But I can’t wait to get to this one,

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That’s it for the new releases I most wanted to get to this year and didn’t. There are actually a lot of other new releases I picked up or was interested in, but wasn’t seriously planning on reading. These are the ones I am kind of disappointed I didn’t get to. So you can probably expect to see this in my wrap ups next year, because they’re all books I still really want to read.

What new releases are still hanging out on your TBR?