Books Read in January

Book By Book

It took me a while to catch up on reviews, but here – finally – is my January summary of books read. It was an excellent reading month. Starting the year out sick for two weeks gave me extra reading time!

• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (IL), adult fiction
• Friends for Life by Andrew Norriss (UK), middle-grade fiction
• Dept. Of Speculation by Jenny Offill (NY), adult fiction

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (France, Germany), adult fiction
• Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke, middle-grade graphic novel 
• The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart (WA), middle-grade fiction

• ‘Round Midnight by Laura McBride (NV), adult fiction – reviewed an outside publication
• The Whip by Karen Kondazian (RI, CA), adult fiction

 Wow, 8 books in all! That’s a lot for me in one month. It was an all-fiction month for me, with a mix of adult and middle-grade fiction, including one graphic novel. Not a single audiobook because the one I was listening to at the start of the month quit suddenly, and the second one I started went into February. I enjoyed all of these novels – most very much – but it’s easy to pick a favorite. I LOVED Dark Matter, as did my husband – sooo compelling & original!

Progress on 2017 Reading Challenges:
This is my favorite part of my monthly summary – updating my Reading Challenges! I kicked off my Read Your Own Damn Books Challenge in a big way, with 6 TBR books! For the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge, January was Diversity month – ‘Round Midnight fit that bill, with plenty of diverse characters.  No classics yet for the 2017 Back to the Classics Challenge. I slotted all 8 books into categories for my Well-Rounded Challenge. For my Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge, I kicked off the year with 2 international books, set in the UK and France/Germany. I added 5 states to my 2017 Literary Escapes Challenge.

Finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break – not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month! Here is my Bingo card for January, with 12 squares filled in – not very good for 8 books!

Books Read for each square:

Dark Matter – Rated 4 or more stars
The Honest Truth – pets, exercise, winter weather
Mighty Jack – Pictures in a book, free book, zombie/plague/mutations
Dept. of Speculation – blue cover
‘Round Midnight – diversity
Friends for Life – shelf-love book (aka TBR)

All the Light We Cannot See – more than 400 pages

What was your favorite book read in January?