What did you read in January?

[ufcasey]

Now that it's February 1st - what did you read in January? Would you recommend any of them?

[meowmaps]

Slow month for me.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse
Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life
The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border
Confessions on the 7:45
The Cousins
The Book of Longings

The only books I’d recommend are The Boy, Group, and The Cousins. All enjoyable in their own ways.

[abs]

One to Watch (could have been a December read...I can't remember)
Happiness for Beginners
The Push
The Book of Lost Friends

I would recommend all of them. The Book of Lost Friends starts out extremely slow but I did ultimately like it.

[scm1011]

A Woman is No Man - 5 stars
Searching for Sylvie Lee - 4 stars
Ghost Boys - 4 stars
When No One is Watching - 3 stars (this started off so promising but the ending took a bizarre sci-fi esque turn that was just so WTF)

[meowmaps]

Feb 1, 2021 11:53:22 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

A Woman is No Man - 5 stars
Searching for Sylvie Lee - 4 stars
Ghost Boys - 4 stars
When No One is Watching - 3 stars (this started off so promising but the ending took a bizarre sci-fi esque turn that was just so WTF)

When No One is Watching did kind of jump the shark at the end! Lol

[ufcasey]

I read (in order of recommendation):
Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews - 4 stars
The Risk by S.T. Abby (read all 5 books in this series, starts with this) - 4 stars for the series
Knight (#2 in series) by Karen Lynch - 4 stars
Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger - 4 stars
The Sweetest Oblivion by Danielle Lori - 3.5 stars
Love in the Time of Scandal by Caroline Linden - 3.5 stars
The Last Flight by Julie Clark - 3 stars

[tcu2003]

I read:

A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
Beach Read by Emily Henry

I enjoyed all of them for different reasons.

[minzy]

A Children’s Bible - Lydia Millet
The Guest List - Lucy Foley
Hidden Valley Road - Inside the Mind of an American Family - Robert Kolker
Solutions and Other Problems - Allie Brosh
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies - Deesha Philyaw
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Windows - Balli Kaur Jaswal
Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi

I will think about A Children’s Bible for a long time. Hidden Valley Road was very interesting. They were all decent.

[Vespasia]

The Night Country by Melissa Albert 4*
Shit, Actually by Lindy West 4*
The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton 4*
A Promised Land by Barack Obama (audio) 5*
Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert 4.5*


Obama's book was the best but incredibly long.

[travella]

4*
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
3*
The Last Trial by Scott Turow
2*
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel-2*
The Wife Who Knew Too Much by Michele Campbell 2.5*

I enjoyed A Woman of No Importance. The woman's life was fascinating. However, the book felt a lot longer than it was. It seemed to take forever for me to get through it.

[charlatti]

The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas 5*
Owl by William Service 5*
Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy 5*
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh 5*

Spellbreaker by Charlie Holmberg 4*
A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter 4*
Catalyst by Sarah Beth Durst 4*
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict 4*

One by One by Ruth Ware 3*
When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole 3* (agree with the comments above!)
The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg 3*

[mrspez07]

Audio:
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes 4*
Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens 4*

Physical book:
Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia 3*
The Trespasser by Tana French 4.5*
Raising a Screen-smart Kid by Julianna Miner 5*
The Glass Hotel 2*

[tacokick]

A respectable start to the year:

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey and Michaela angela Davis

Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz (with David Ritz)

Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

Did I Say You Could Go? by Melanie Gideon

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are by Libby Copeland (interesting, science but with a narrative thread)

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (did not like, felt very shallow)

People Like Her by Ellery Loyd (enjoyed it)

Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir by Rebecca Carroll (I liked it but noticed some discrepancies between it and her earlier works)

What You Never Knew by Jessica Hamilton

Uncanny Valley by Anna Weiner (there was no there, there)

Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story by asha bandele

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Polyamory, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love Edited by Rebecca Walker

The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry (eh)

Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito

Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall (bad ending)

Her by Christa Parravani (I had a lot of questions after this one)

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper (long but interesting)

A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion

When She Returned by Lucinda Berry (predictable)

[jwright]

In January I finished:

The Sun Down Motel - Simone St James - 5* stars (really surprised to love this)
Invisible Girl - Lisa Jewell - 4* - just fun mystery
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue- 5*
Leave the World Behind - Rumaan Alam - 2* - so slow, but has made me think the last couple of weeks so maybe 2.5*
White Ivy - Susie Yang - 5*
Anatomy of a Misfit - Andrea Portes - 3* (YA, fun but middle of the road)
The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Harmel - 4*


Good month for me!

[brewco]

This Tender Land By William Kent Krueger
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
Educated by Tara Westover
Stretching and Flexibility by Kit Laughlin
Live To Tell by Lisa Gardner

I did not enjoy The Hunting Party, mostly because I had just read The Guest List and they are basically the same book.

[mie]

Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon 4*
Engagement and Espionage by Penny Reid 4*
Simmer Down by Sarah Smith 3*
RomeAntically Challenged by Marina Adair 4*
The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry 3.5*