January Wrap-Up
On December 31st I was holding myself back from starting all of the books I got for Christmas and was so excited to read. I thought that if I waited until the new year to read them I would start of 2021 strong and make a good dent toward my yearly reading goal. Then, as soon as January came, I hit a major reading slump…
I came out of it at the very end of the month and still managed to read a decent number of books, but it wasn’t quite the start to the year I hoped for. I did pick up some really great reads though and I’m excited to talk about them!
A Promised Land by Barack Obama - This is part 1 of Obama’s memoir of his life and time in office. I listened to the audiobook of this one which I highly recommend because this is a 768 page book and it’s way easier to let Barack Obama just read it to you than carrying that around!
I really enjoyed listening to this book. I felt that the pacing was particularly well done. I, peronsally, was more interested in reading about his years in office than his whole life and, while he did obviously provide that, I never felt bored or tempted to skip forward. The audiobook is 28 hours long and I marathoned it (on double speed) over two days while I built Legos that I got for christmas (yes, I am an adult) and I didn’t want to put it down. I’m looking forward to part 2!
The Guest List by Lucy Foley - I have a whole review here for this book if you want a more in-depth look at what it is about, but it’s a thriller following a group of people on a remote Irish island for a wedding. You know from the start that there’s a body and something has happened to one of the people that are on the island for the wedding and then you work back through the weekend via multiple perspectives to figure out what exactly happened and to whom. The characters are all really interesting with secrets to hide and reasons to not like the other people on the island. I read it really quickly and enjoyed it a lot. 4.25/5 stars.
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall - This is an adult (mid 20s ish) romance novel featuring Luc O’Donnell, the son of famous rockstar parents with a need to improve his public image and Oliver Blackwood, a barrister who has his life together and would make a perfect image-improving boyfriend for Luc. Unfortunately, other than the fact that Oliver would be great for his public life, they have nothing in common and don’t like each other very much. However, they do have a mutual need for a significant other so they agree to fake a relationship until both of them make it through the events they need to attend with a date. After that they can separate and each get on with their lives. Except it obviously doesn’t go as smoothly as that.
This is another book I listened to the audiobook for. It had me consistently laughing out loud in a way that no other book has before. I had seen pretty good reviews for this book and thought it would be light enough to help get me out of a slump, but I was absolutely not prepared for how hilarious and enjoyable it was! 5/5 stars, really great.
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse - This is the first book in a fantasy series inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas. It tells the story of 3 very different characters:
Narampe, the sun priest who is making enemies while she works to change traditions to be better for the people of her nation.
Xiala, a disgraced Teek sailor with a magical gift and a need for a job no matter how crazy or dangerous it may be.
and Serapio, the blind and mysterious man Xiala responsible for transporting. He has a grand destiny that finds itself directly in conflict with one of our other protagonists.
I really loved this book. There isn’t quite anything like it that I’ve read before. I loved the world, and the characters, and how casually and seamlessly diverse and inclusive the story is. I can’t wait to read the next one. 4/5 stars.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - This is one of the most read and loved books of 2020 so I decided that I needed to see what the hype was all about. It follows light-skinned black twin sisters from a tiny town in Louisiana. They run away to the city as teenagers and aren’t seen again until 13 years later when one of them returns to their hometown with her young daughter in tow. The other twin has moved away. She is lying to everyone and passing as a white woman and has cut all ties to her family and hometown. Throughout the story we see the lives of the twins unfold as well as those of their children showing how their decisions have impacted themselves as well as future generations.
I thought this book was so excellently crafted. It takes place between the 1950s and the 1990s and focuses closely on the twins and their families while also providing a broader commentary on the country and society as a whole. I don’t normally have the patience for multi-generational novels no matter how well written they are but this one kept me invested the whole time. 4/5 stars.
The Dating Plan by Sara Desai - This was my January pick for Book of the Month Club. It’s a fake-dating romance novel focusing on software engineer Daisy Patel and her brother’s childhood best friend Liam Murphy. Daisy runs into Liam nine years after he broke her heart the night of her prom and in an effort to get her family to stop playing matchmaker for her introduces him to one of her aunties as her fiancé. From there Daisy and Liam come to a mutually beneficial agreement. She will pretend to be his fiancée so he can inherit his grandfather’s distillery and he will pretend to be hers so her family gets off her back. They plan to marry soon before his 30th birthday and divorce exactly one year later. Except they soon realize that the feelings they once had for each other did not stay in their past.
This book was fine. It was exactly as expected and a lighthearted, fun read. I think my enjoyment of it was hindered by the fact that it was the second fake-dating book I read this month and I struggled not to compare them or my different enjoyment levels. 3/5 stars.
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson - I haven’t seen a ton of people talking about this book, but the ones I have seen are raving about it so I thought I’d give it a try! This is a multiverse, science fiction, thriller which is not something I’ve read a lot of. My science fiction reads are normally more flying around in space or alien focused but it was so easy to fall into this world. In this book there are people called traversers who are able to travel the multiverse and collect intel to bring back to Earth Zero. There are hundreds of worlds like the one they live on, but you can only travel to the worlds where you have already died. Luckily (or not so luckily) for Cara she has died on all but 8 of those worlds making her a valuable employee.
Cara is dropped into a conundrum when one of her last remaining doppelgängers dies of mysterious circumstances. She is forced to involve herself in the politics and secrets of multiple worlds in order to save her own and all the others. This book is thrilling and fast-paced with compelling characters and a fascinating setting. The author really looks at what the smallest circumstances and actions can do to alter someone’s entire life trajectory and how that can then affect the world as a whole. I really loved this book. 5/5 stars.
Did you read anything fun in January? Let me know!
