Best Books of January
As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.
So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.
These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from January.
I read a lot of Parnell Hall’s Puzzle Lady books last month, but I’m not going to do a separate review for each one because I wrote about them in December. I still like the series. It’s mind candy.
Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo): I spent years taking this book on and off my TBR list. I don’t know why I was so reluctant to commit to reading it because it’s FANTASTIC. It’s a book about a magical heist in a vaguely Scandinavian-like universe. I had to read the first chapter twice to figure out what was happening, but I quickly found my footing in the world. My cousin and I read it for our book-club-for-two, and we’re following it up soon with the sequel, Crooked Kingdom.
A Study in Scarlet (Arthur Conan Doyle) and Sign of the Four (Arthur Conan Doyle): I’m re-reading the Doyle canon. While I’m currently deep in the short stories, I wanted to go in chronological order, so I started with the two novella. I’ve always liked Doyle, but I’m getting so much more out of these stories since going on a Sherlock Holmes tour of Edinburgh. That tour was one of the best things we’ve done on a vacation. It has made me think about how much our tangential experiences affect the way we read a book.
What did you read last month?
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I read 5 (!) books in January — which is really great for me! — an excellent start to the new year and towards meeting my Goodreads Challenge goal for this year! All of them are reviewed on my blog:
* “Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why it Still Matters” by Anne Boyd Rioux
* “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett
* “Impeach” by Neal Katyal
* “Uncanny Valley” by Anna Wiener
* “A Very Stable Genius” by Philip Rucker and Carole Leonnig
“The Dutch House” in particular was fabulous (I gave it five stars).
I’m off to a good start with my reading this year: I read five books in January and so far in February I’ve finished three (and have a couple more in progress). One book I read last month and really enjoyed was The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, which had been on my “to read” list for a while.
I finished six very good books in January – though to be honest, I started one of them in December, and finished it on 1 January. I’ve slowed down a lot in February, but hoping to get back to reading some more soon.
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza (five stars, really special)
Killing It by Asia MacKay (any infertile/childless people who are feeling vulnerable should avoid! – three stars, entertaining but a bit silly)
L’Appart by David Lebovitz (an audiobook – three stars, enjoyable but a bit annoying)
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (also five stars)
Up the Garden Path by Sue Limb (also an audiobook, brilliant BBC production, five stars)
The Changeling by Victor LaValle (three stars – it started well but in the last third went off the rails, I thought)