Monday, February 1, 2021

January 2021 Reading Wrap Up

This year, I decided to be extra crazy and do three separate 50-book reading challenges. My goal is to read completely different books for each challenge with no overlap. If you recall from my last post, I completed 165 books last year, so it's totally doable. In order to read 150 books in 2021, I need to complete 12-13 books a month. The only downside is that I'm introducing a lot of new-to-me books and authors to satisfy the categories, which means I'm knocking fewer books of my lengthy TBR list. Of course, I'm fitting TBR books wherever I can within the challenges, but I seem to be adding books to my list faster than I'm reading them...

The challenges I'm attempting this year are:

You may have noticed that I sneaked in another challenge there at the end-- I will only be doing that one if I have time. It is the challenge that meshes the best with my go-to genres, so it will be fun to end the year reading books I know I'll love from my TBR list.

So, without further ado, let's so how January went for me! 

I read on 29/31 days and completed 15 books. I read 6 for the Meridian Library Challenge (MLD), 5 for the Garden City Library Challenge (GCPL), and 4 for the PopSugar Challenge. Several of these reads were very sad and dealt with heavy topics so I had to read a lot of fluff in between to keep my spirits up.

 

MLD CATEGORIES:

13. A book with a doctor in it:  The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Nonfiction, Neurology, Mental Illness, Adaptation
Quick Summary: A series of 24 case studies from a neurology ward.
Thoughts: This book has been sitting on my nonfiction shelf for ages. It sounded so interesting when I bought it 10 year ago, but I haven't had the motivation to read it yet. Last year I read a series of short stories by Octavia Butler that I really enjoyed and she cited this book as inspiration. So I made an effort to get to it this year. The content was quite fascinating, though some sections were very dry.

26. All Three books of a trilogy (1): From Blood and Ash by Jennifer Armentrout
Genre/Tropes/Themes: New Adult Fantasy, Chosen One, Secrets/Lies, "Vampires" & "Werewolves"
Quick Summary: Penelophe (aka Poppy), is the "maiden," kept mostly solitary and awaiting ascension. She is not allowed to be seen, touched, or spoken to (except by a select few). So when a new guard begins to ignite passions within her, she begins to question her duty.
Thoughts: I read a ton of fantasy and while I liked this one, it didn't present anything new-- anything I haven't read before in another book. Still, I like the characters and will finish the trilogy.

27. All Three books of a trilogy (2): Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer Armentrout
Genre/Tropes/Themes: New Adult Fantasy, Chosen One, Secrets/Lies, "Vampires" & "Werewolves"
Quick Summary: See above, don't want to include any spoilers here.
Thoughts: More of the same with a little more excitement. I'm definitely interested to see how it all ends. These darn cliffhangers!

29. A Pulitzer Prize winner or nominee: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Historical Fiction, Slavery/Freedom, Brutality, Parents/Children/Family
Quick Summary: Cora, a young slave girl who lives on a cotton plantation in 1850s Georgia decides to flee north after several brutal whippings on the Underground Railroad (which in this book is literally an underground railroad).
Thoughts: This was a sad read. It highlights almost every brutality and violation that slaves and freed persons had to face in one neat little package. While the content is very interesting and heartbreaking, I didn't care for the author's style much. Still a valuable read.

35. A book with a month of the year in the title: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Fantasy, Doors as Portals, Alternate Worlds, Racism
Quick Summary: January Scaller is an in-between girl with an absent explorer father who grows up under the care of wealthy collector Cornelius Locke, who frowns upon her mischievous nature. On her 17th birthday, she finds out that her father has gone missing and then she finds a mysterious book that changes the course of her life.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this one. A fun little metaphor about books as portals to other worlds.

39. A book with characters who are snowed in/quarantined: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Fiction, Trauma/Violence, Relationships, PTSD, Alcoholism, Fragility/Strength
Quick Summary: The Allbright family, barely making ends meet in 1974, moves from Seattle to the untamed wilderness of Kaneq, Alaska, to claim a parcel of land left to the father, a recently returned Vietnam POW, by a slain Army buddy.
Thoughts: WOW, Kristin Hannah sure knows how to tug at my heartstrings. I kept wondering how things could possibly get any worse-- and then they did! I had to actually stop reading at one point because I was so nervous. It was a great story, but also so sad.

GCPL CATEGORIES:

2. A book recommended by a friend: The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Fake relationship, Regency era historical romance, Speech impediment, some naughty bits
Quick Summary: Daphne, quite reasonably for a woman in her place and time, wants a husband with whom she can start a family. Her three very protective older brothers often get in the way of prospects so she and Simon (happens to be a Duke) fabricate a fake relationship in order to draw more attention to her and keep desperate young girls from throwing themselves at him.
Thoughts: I squeezed this one in because one of my besties has been pressuring me to watch Bridgerton for weeks now and I always like to read the book first. I don't know if that was a good idea in this case, because I constantly point out all the things that are different from the book. It was pretty average Regency romance fare, replete with the snarky banter I so love. I will continue the series, because this is my favorite type of guilty-pleasure genre and I'm sure the characters will grow on me.

4. A book written by an Australian author: The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Historical Fiction based on a True Story, Holocaust, Survival, Faith, Love
Quick Summary: Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews, were deprived of their freedom, their dignity, their families, and even their names (replaced by numbers), but still managed to find love and survive the Auschwitz concentration camp together.
Thoughts: This was a fabulous story. So sad, so fabulous. I loved it. I will read the sequel.

11. A multi-generational book: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Fiction/Magical Realism, Fate/Choice, Family, Obsession, Death, Religion
Quick Summary: In 1969 the four Gold siblings visit a gypsy living near them in the Lower East Side of Manhattan that could tell when one would die and the siblings' curiosity gets the best of them.
Thoughts: Read this one for book club. I guess I didn't really "get" this book... I'm sure there's some deep theme in here about self-fulfilling prophecy-- and whether the siblings each died on their "death days" because of their own choices or because of fate.

21. A book with a wedding in it: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Interracial Contemporary Romance, Race, Fake Relationship, Weddings
Quick Summary: Drew is headed to his ex's wedding weekend as a groomsman without a date when a power outrage strands him in an elevator with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend.
Thoughts: This was cute and it is nice to see more representation in romance. Lots of sexy scenes. Followed the normal "romance pattern." Didn't care for the hero much.

24. A second book in a series: The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Interracial Contemporary Romance, Race
Quick Summary: Nikole is saved from an embarrassing situation (her casual boyfriend proposes to her on screen at a Dodgers game) by the brother-sister duo sitting behind her. Her savior, Carlos, is the perfect rebound guy and neither of them have any expectations of commitment from each other, until they do.
Thoughts: I liked this one better that the first in the series, probably because I liked the hero better. Maybe he was even a little too perfect. Anyway, another cute love story with lots more sexy scenes.

POPSUGAR CATEGORIES:

26. A book featuring three generations: Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Mystery, Humor, Bounty Hunting
Quick Summary: Stephanie Plum is an incredibly average bounty hunter that steps up to the plate for occasional heroics. Ex-prostitute Lula is her sometimes partner. In this volume, "Uncle Sunny" Sunucchi has a bounty on his head and there is a giraffe on the loose in New Jersey.
Thoughts: It's been a while since I read one of these. I binged all of them up until this point a few years back and then haven't read any of the 8 new releases since then. They are quick, funny reads that are a little bit "out there," but still enjoyable. Stephanie's mother and grandmother crack me up.

27. A book about a social justice issue: Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Nonfiction, Law, Unfair Institutions, Death Penalty, Empathy/Mercy, Justice
Quick Summary: This book follows the 1989 founding of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and many stories from the early days. While many stories are shared, the main story centers on Walter McMillian's death penalty sentence for a crime he did not commit.
Thoughts: Very interesting book. Compelling argument against the death penalty and life imprisonment of minors, though some of his points/stories did not sway me.

31. A book that has the same title as a song: Stranger in My Arms by Lisa Kleypas
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Historical romance, Deception, False Identities, Orphans
Quick Summary: Widow Lady Hawksworth's life has turned upside down in response to the news that her husband is not actually dead. Only, when he arrives, he seems like a completely different person. BUT he *knows* things about her, their family, their neighbors, and their friends that only her husband could have known... dun dun dun.
Thoughts: I will start out by saying that I love Lisa Kleypas and every book of hers that I've read so far (10+) has been a win. This one was not a win and I struggled to finish it. Not my thing. Blah. Sad day.

36. A book with < 1,000 reviews on Goodreads: 'Twas the Knife Before Christmas by Jacqueline Frost
Genre/Tropes/Themes: Cozy Mystery, Christmas, Murder
Quick Summary: When a body turns up in the dumpster behind Caroline’s Cupcakes, the store’s owner is the main suspect. Everyone in town saw Caroline fighting with the victim on the night of his death. Worse, the murder weapon is Caroline’s custom-designed butcher knife. But Holly White knows that her best friend isn’t capable of murder.
Thoughts: This was the second book in the Christmas Tree Farm Mystery series. Who would have thought that a Christmas-themed cozy mystery would be so charming? I enjoyed them so much I read both of them in a few days. Now I'm bummed that there aren't more AND this author has no other books.

Here's how I did on Bookish First Bingo: 


 

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