January is typically a great month for reading – bad weather and much less to do. This month I’ve been dealing with a health issue that limited my mobility, so I got more reading in than usual. But I kept my reading pretty light.
Here’s what I read in January:
- Under a Veiled Moon by Karen Odden
- The Lily of Ludgate Hill by Mimi Matthews
- The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum
- Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (audio)
- Kiss Her Once for Me by Allison Cochrun
- Late Bloomers by Deepa Varadarajan (audio)
- Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling
- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (audio)
- A Proposal They Can’t Refuse by Natalie Caña (audio)
My favorite reads:
I loved Under a Veiled Moon and The Lily of Ludgate Hill. I also really enjoyed Kiss Her Once for Me, which is a Christmas romance that pays homage to one of my favorite movies, While You Were Sleeping.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries completely lived up to expectations. It’s a slow-paced book but I found it a perfect January read (it takes place in a very cold climate and The Winter King is a character).
For those who like complicated family dramas, told from multiple viewpoints, Late Bloomers is a good read about an Indian-American family. The divorce of the parents, after many years of marriage, creates turmoil for their adult children, who are both struggling with problematic relationships themselves. I ended this book with mixed feelings, though I did enjoy it. Three of the four characters are hard to sympathize with, so if you need to really like your main characters this won’t be the book for you.
Disappointing reads:
Silver Nitrate won’t be among my favorite Silvia Moreno-Garcia books, though I do have a high bar for her. If you’re fascinated by old movie-making history, you’ll like this one, and it was definitely creepy, just not my favorite story of hers.
On the blog:
I reviewed Somewhere in the Deep, The Lily of Ludgate Hill and Under a Veiled Moon, and I wrote about my goals for 2024, my favorite reads of 2023, and my favorite new authors in 2023. I wrote two posts for Ozathon24 about The Marvelous Land of Oz.
Books for challenges:
- Backlist Reader: Under a Veiled Moon, A Proposal They Can’t Refuse, Kiss Her Once for Me
What I’m reading now:
I’m currently reading Yangsze Choo’s The Fox Wife, and I’m listening to Hello Stranger by Katherine Center.
What’s coming up:
I’m excited to have an ARC for Katherine Arden’s new book coming out February 13, The Warm Hands of Ghosts. This month’s Oz book is Ozma of Oz, one of my favorites. Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle will host this month.
Added to my TBR:
From Top Ten Tuesday I added a few books to my TBR: Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino (recommended by Bookshelf Fantasies), Outlandish: Walking Europe’s Unlikely Landscapes by Nick Hunt (recommended by Lark Writes), and Three Card Murder by J.L. Blackhurst (recommended by Sifa Elizabeth Reads).
Things that made me happy this month:
I have to say my year is not off to a very good start, but I’m happy the 49ers are going to the Super Bowl. We’ve been watching old British Baking Show seasons, and I forgot how good the two original hosts were. They used to spend a lot more time on the history of baking, and the hosts play a real role in informing viewers and actually helping (rather than getting in the way or insulting) the contestants. I wish they’d get back to that. We also enjoyed Fisk and Colin From Accounts (January is also a good month for TV watching).
I hope you’re staying warm and reading something good!
