Booked Out January

January was a solid month in reading for both of us. We’ve really been invigorated by reading challenges and … is it just me … or is choosing books to read sometimes just as much fun as reading actual books?! Here’s a short recap of our month in reading.

KIM

No. of books read this January: 10

Overall Favorite: To Be Taught if Fortunate, Becky Chambers

Also Really Good: Binti, Nnedi Okorafor and Daisy Jones and the Six, Taylor Reid Jenkins

Also Read: Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse and Wires & Nerves #1 & #2, Marissa Meyer and Camp Red Moon, R.L. Stine and This is How You Lose the Time War, Max Gladstone and Hello Universe, Erin Entrada Kelly and Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, Bernd Heinrich

January was a solid reading month for me. I read some really great books that included middle grade, non fiction, graphic novels, and novellas. I’m proud of how much variety I got in and really loved my reading experience.

I read Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, Bernd Heinrich for the January Monthly Motif Challenge, and learned so much! For the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge I read This is How You Lose the Time War, Max Gladstone. It’s a time travel story set in the future. Two enemies turned admirers find secret ways to leave each other notes through decades and decades of war, sorrow, and destruction. In the end, their superiors discover their relationship. It’s absolutely beautifully written. Breathtaking and heartbreaking, I can see why so many love this book. I loved it as well but it’s not at the top of my list because I prefer my love stories to be a bit more action packed. Personal preference but I was slightly bored through some of this. I would still bill this as a science fiction/dystopian that contemporary readers would enjoy.

TANYA PATRICE

No. of books read this January: 6

Overall Favorite: The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden

Also Really Good: Miracle Creek, Angie Kim and Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson

The Others: How Long ‘Til Black Future Month, N.K. Jemisin + The End and Other Beginnings, Veronica Roth + The Deep, Rivers Solomon

My reading year started with Miracle Creek, Angie Kim, which I had seen another blogger gushing about during #AMonthofFaves. This worked perfectly for the “water” prompt of the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge. It’s about a group of people who are going to a hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) center – most of whom are going with their kids who have severe disabilities, and one man in particular who is going in the hopes that it will help his infertility. Their is a fire which causes several deaths and injuries. The story is recounted by those affected, and the owners, an immigrant family – the Yoos. Each person has their own story to tell, and how they may have been complicit in the fire … or are they? This is a story of lies and deceit – intentional and unintentional.

The next book, Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson, was a random pick while on a road trip – after finishing up Miracle Creek. It popped up on Scrib’d and it turned out to be a good choice. There’s kids who can spontaneously combust when agitated. But it’s also about family, friends, class and finding yourself.

The best book I read in January was The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden. I saw someone mention it on the Goodreads GXO Reading Challenges Group for the January Monthly Motif Challenge, so I decided to read it too, and found an excellent magical realism novel based on Russian folklore.

What was the best book you read in January?