For boring reasons (*sigh* my husband had rhadbo) I took a week off from work in January. This reflects in the crazy number of books I was able to finish.
Unfortunately, it was sort of a lackluster reading month. February better be stronger!
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1/2: Grave Sight (Harper Connelly #1) by Charlaine Harris (library ebook, 2005) - I reread this as I was waiting for books to become available on Libby. I like Harper and I like the weird, creepy premise of the book that she can sense dead bodies and tell how people died. 4/5 stars
1/3: The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo (library, 2024) - It took a bit for me to get into this story about a woman who can change into a fox, but by the end I wanted to know all the answers. 4/5 stars
1/5: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher (library ebook, 2019) - Dystopia! The world is mostly empty after birth rates plummeted. Someone steals a dog. Frankly, this book was too tense for me. SPOILER behind the button.
3/5 stars1/8: New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (library audiobook narrated by Suzanne Toren, Robin Miles, Peter Ganim, Jay Snyder, Caitlin Kelly, Michael Crouch, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Christopher Ryan Grant, and Robert Blumenfeld) - It's my fault that I read two dystopian novels written by men in a row. This one was very male gaze-y. It was also really long and there were sections that strained my own incredulity and I am a lady who likes to read books about dragons. 3/5 stars
1/9: I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue (library, 2024) - Book club pick for the month. I was resistant to this at first, but it wormed its way into my heart. Interesting discussion. 3/5 stars
1/11: The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew #1) by Carolyn Keene (audiobook narrated by Nate DiMeo on The Memory Palace, 1930) - This book is in the public domain now! DiMeo read it in his awesome voice and I learned that this book was boring and I have clearly grown out of Nancy Drew. But there's something about how perfect Nancy is that amuses me. Also, can I have a blue roadster? 3/5 for the book, but 5/5 for DiMeo's reading
1/18: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (library, 2025) - Interesting, but not nearly as interesting as Babel. 3.5/5 stars
1/20: Paris Daillencourt Is about to Crumble (Winner Bakes All #2) by Alexis Hall (library, 2022) - I wanted to love this book about a gay man who gets on a Bake Off-type show and falls in love. But Paris is a mess. If you don't want to seek help for your mental illness, that's great, but you have to figure your shit out. If you think I don't like women who can't get their shit together books, imagine what I think of men who can't get their shit together books. 3/5 stars
1/21: The Lost City of Z by David Grann (library audiobook narrated by Mark Deakins, 2009) - What a dad book. Dumb reporter heads to the Amazon to look for a lost explorer and a mythical lost civilization following the trail of other dumb white men. The narrator's voice was very soothing, though, so that's something. 3/5 stars
1/22: The Space Between Worlds (The Space Between Worlds #1) by Micaiah Johnson (library, 2020) - This is my third attempt to read this book. It should have stayed a DNF. The pacing was all over the place and was boring for 50% and too action-packed for the other 50%. I loved the idea of this book, but the execution did not work for me. 2/5 stars
1/22: The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon (library ebook, 2025) - I like to read a book set on the Great Lakes! 4/5 stars
1/25: Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum (library, 2024) - Nussbaum is both a fan and a critic of reality tv and I dug this book. 4.5/5 stars
1/25: The Time I Got Drunk and Saved A Demon (Mead Mishaps #1) by Kimberly Lemming (library ebook, 2021) - It took me almost a year to get this book via Libby. I don't want to give spoilers, but this is about a human and a demon hooking up. I am...not on board with inter-species romance novels. I'll take the label of prude. 2/5 stars
1/29: Arrows of the Queen (Valdemar: The Arrows Trilogy #1) by Mercedes Lackey (library, 1987) - Hmmm...there are thirteen more books in this saga after this trilogy. Can I make it through all of them? 3/5 stars
Average star rating: 3.2/5 stars
DNF
Today Tonight Tomorrow (Rowan and Neil #1) by Rachel Lynn Solomon - I've literally had this on my list on Libby for six months. But this is YA? And starts with a series of snippy texts? NGS out. DNF at 5%.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren - I read maaaaaybe twenty pages when a different book I actually wanted to read came in for my Kindle. Not fair on my part, I bet.
I've ordered Cue the Sun!
ReplyDeleteMy book reviews will be going up tomorrow! I had an okay January and thanks to a ton of snow days, got through a lot more books than I had expected.
I mean, snow days are a perfect excuse to just sit down and read, if you ask me!
DeleteI had a decent reading month and am hoping to post my reads today. We'll see if the day cooperates!
ReplyDeleteI love that you put a spoiler behind a wall! That's a cool feature! (I totally looked.)
That spoiler tag is sort of hard for me to do (I am not even a novice at html coding), but I wish I had known the spoiler going into the book because then maybe it wouldn't have been so tense for me. I was worried the whole book!
DeleteI was just thinking about your husband- how is he doing?
ReplyDeleteSorry your reading month was so "meh!" But you had a few good ones in there. i haven't tried rereading any Nancy Drews- even when I read and liked them in my youth, I used to smirk over Nancy's perfect-ness.
Thanks for asking, Jenny, he's doing okay. He'll go in for a whole ton of bloodwork on Friday and hopefully we'll get some answers.
DeleteNancy is definitely too good to be true. And that's why we all love her.
Oh Nancy Drew! I don't see reading these again, but I remember the blue roadster and that her friend George was pretty butch.
ReplyDeleteJanuary started off strong with Discontent, and since then reading has been...fine. Nothing bad but nothing that is making my toes curl.
CBBC kind of snuck up on me so I read last week's reading in two sessions. Now that I'm on top of things I will only read 1-2 chapters a night this week. I think I like it a lot better in small pieces.
Bess and George aren't in this book!! Isn't that crazy?!
DeleteI should read a chapter or two a day instead of cramming it all Friday night. And yet, here it is on Tuesday and I haven't read a word for next week yet!
Too many people reading a lot because of crappy reasons - dislike. Although I admire your ability to read in trying circumstances - I find it screws my focus and I end up just doom-scrolling instead.
ReplyDeleteI really liked A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World and The Space Between Worlds. I remember clearly the picture on my copy of The Secret of the Old Clock, but that's about it. Except there was a character named Lettie Briggs, I think? And I went to school with a Lesley Briggs and I didn't know enough about names not to be rocked by that coincidence.
I think I would have liked A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World more if I had just spoiled myself. I was so worried the whole time. I don't love being tense, it turns out.
Delete100% agree with you on 2140 and That Time I Got Drunk. Spot on. I slogged through The Space Between the Worlds, and realized I should have just DNF'd it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, The Space Between Worlds should have been a DNF for me, too. Oh, well. We don't always make the right reading choices.
DeleteI love your little spoiler button, and had to go figure out how to do that on my blog. I had no idea I could do that, but it was super easy. Also, thanks to your spoiler, I will NOT be reading A Boy and His Dog, I had to leave the room during a TV show last night for one of the things you mention. And I know they are just actors, but still.
ReplyDeleteI have only done the spoiler button two or three times on my blog and I have to look up the coding every time. It's pretty easy, though.
DeleteI never read Nancy Drew. I was not a reader as a kid, but I did read a series called The Happy Hollisters. I think it was similar to the Bobbsey Twins. I read The Correspondent in Jan, so that made Jan an amazing reading month to me right there.
ReplyDeleteThe Bobbsey Twins were an even lamer version of Nancy Drew, so I imagine they'd be unreadable to me today. I was a voracious Nancy Drew/Bobbsey Twins/Hardy Boys reader.
DeleteThis really makes me want to revisit Nancy Drew too, Engie!
ReplyDeleteDo it! I think you'll find her super annoying and yet be charmed by her. Everyone is!
DeleteI read Nancy Drew--the titian-haired detective--like it was my job when I was a kid. My sister had almost the whole line back in the 60s. She and Trixie Belden are the reason I don't read mysteries anymore; I pretty much topped out on them as a kid.
ReplyDeleteI was a huge reader of Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and Hardy Boys. Ha. Maybe that's why I don't read many mysteries, either.
Delete"The Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon" may have been a dud, but it wins the award for Best Title Ever!
ReplyDeleteThe title was way better than the actual book!
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