Reading (Some of) Shawn's 5-Star Books

As an English lit major, reading has always been an important part of my life. But reading became less of a hobby and more related to professional work in 2020 when I became a book reviewer for Sabotage Reviews. I have since become a reviewer on NetGalley and review books on Goodreads and will be pursuing a serious career as a reviewer (fingers crossed that it goes somewhere!).

Part of my new pursuit will include being more proactive in posting more about books on this blog. Why not, right? I'll still post about travel, but I'll likely post less about food. Have no fear: both food and travel will still feature once in a while.

While thinking about what I want my reading to look like in 2023, I decided to create a new reading project for myself: reading 6 of Shawn's 5-star reads. Shawn is known on social media as Shawn the Book Maniac (a prolific BookTuber). You can find Shawn on Goodreads here: Shawn the Book Maniac and on Instagram @shawnthebookmaniac. I don't know his Twitter handle because I loathe Twitter.

Shawn and I have been chatting about books on his BookTube channel now for over a year, and I've been having a blast!

Here's one chat we did last year: Bite-Sized Book Chat Episode 31

Shawn's eclectic taste in reading has helped me find oh, so many great reads, and I thought it would be fun to test out whether our reading tastes are very similar (we definitely have some overlap). And since I'm always a guest on his channel praising books that I've read, it seems only fair to read some of his favourites.

The texts that I plan to read this year are (in no particular order):

1. Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Madeline Thien (Canadian)

(Cover image from goodreads: Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien | Goodreads).

2. Happening, Annie Ernaux, translated from the French by Tanya Leslie

(Cover image from goodreads: Happening by Annie Ernaux | Goodreads)

3. Woman Running in the Mountains, Yūko Tsushima, translated from the Japanese by Geraldine Harcourt

 (Cover image from goodreads: Woman Running in the Mountains by Yūko Tsushima | Goodreads)

4. The Peacock, Isabel Bogdan, translated from the German by Annie Rutherford

(Cover image from goodreads: The Peacock by Isabel Bogdan | Goodreads)

5. Indelicacy, Amina Cain (American)

(Cover image from goodreads: Indelicacy by Amina Cain | Goodreads)

6. Butter Honey Pig Bread, Francesca Ekwuyasi (Nigerian Canadian)

(Cover image from goodreads: Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi | Goodreads)

I haven't decided how I'll post the outcomes of this reading project (one post/book or one post after I've finished reading all of the books). If you have a preference, please let me know!