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.
All of Us Villains (Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman): Hunger Games with magic and no main character (so you have no clue who will win) — that is how I keep describing this book. It also isn’t as bleak as the Hunger Games. The sequel is coming out next year, but it’s totally worth reading this first book now.
The Club (Ellery Lloyd): All of the pleasure of White Lotus without the stomach-turning close-ups. (Anyone who has seen the show knows exactly what I mean.) It’s terrible rich people at a terrible rich-person resort doing terrible-rich person things. I devoured it. Lots and lots of twists.
Taste (Stanley Tucci): So… this is a bit of a mixed bag. I loved the book while we were listening to it. He is a fantastic narrator, the stories were entertaining, and he made me want to eat. Constantly. After finishing the book, my cousin told me something that made me see the stories in a completely different (not very good) way. So take this audio book a little like Instagram; enjoyable to look at as long as you remember that there are piles of dirty laundry out of the frame.
The Maid (Nita Prose): I liked this book. It isn’t much of a mystery; you kind of know everything super quickly, and the one “twist” wasn’t much of a twist. So don’t go into it thinking you’ll get a mystery. You’ll get a character sketch. If you like the character, you’ll probably be happy with the story. (That was how I felt.) If you don’t like the character, there isn’t much else there.
What did you read last month?
3 comments
Would you believe I finally read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? And Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being? Both sort of less depressing than my previous month’s reads…I needed levity.
I read My Lovely Wife after you recommended it and it was as banana pants crazy as promised. I recommended it to two friends! I also started and DNF 2 books that turned out to be set during (and heavily feature) covid. I’m not sure who the audience is for this type of story in this moment but it’s not me and I returned them both.
I read five books in January, and very much enjoyed all of them — all rated 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads. They’re all reviewed on my blog as well as on Goodreads:
* “Ghosts” by Dolly Alderton (December’s pick for the Gateway Women/NoMo book club). Chick lit with an edge.
* “The Story Girl” by L.M. Montgomery, in advance of my LMM Readathon group on Facebook beginning a group read & discussion together. One of Montgomery’s first books written after “Anne of Green Gables,” and one of the books that served as the source material for the very popular “Road to Avonlea” TV series in the 1990s.
* “My Sister the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite (the January pick for the Gateway Women/NoMo book club). Short, but packs a real punch. The writing is amazing.
* “The Man Who Died Twice” by Richard Osman. This is a sequel to “The Thursday Murder Club,” which I read & adored last year, and I loved this one too. 🙂
* “Taste” by Stanley Tucci. This one was in my TBR pile for a while, but I was prompted to pick it up and read it after your initial review here. I really enjoyed it (and I’m curious what you’ve learned since then that’s made you modify your opinion?).