What We Read in January

January was a decent month of reading for me. I read 7 books which is on the lower end for me, but I had a ton of social plans during the month which cut into my reading time. Also, in the past I would read during both of Will's weekend naps but now I spend one of them working out so I can hit 3-4 workouts/week. Plus most of what I read was very heavy and heavy books tend to slow down my pace of reading. Lastly, after several months of multiple 5-star reads, I only had one 5-star read this month so my reading didn't feel as stellar but was still quite good! Here is how our reading shaped up.

Good/Great: 

My favorite of this bunch was "All the Broken Places" by John Boyne. It's technically a sequel to "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" but if you haven't read that book, you would likely still enjoy this book. It follows the life of the daughter of a Nazi commandant and looks at culpability. "The Midnight Library" was our January pick for book club. I re-read it since I didn't remember much from when I read it in November 2020. When I read it for the first time, I felt pretty meh but I was 9 months pregnant and expecting a baby during the peak of the pandemic so I wasn't in the right mindset to ponder existential thoughts. I liked it more this time around and we had a good discussion about regrets and roads not taken in life. "The Four Treasures of the Sky" is historical fiction set in the Western part of the US in the 1880s. It focuses on the horrific treatment of Chinese immigrants and is VERY HEAVY/SAD. "Solito" is another heavy book - it's a memoir of the author's journey from El Salvador to Arizona at the age of 9. I had to keep reminding myself that the child makes it since he's alive and writing this memoir. "And Yet" is a beautiful collection of poems that focuses on the experiences of women and mothers. You could read this in one sitting. 

Meh

Neither of these books worked for me. "The Midcoast" is literary fiction set in Maine. It's the examination of a family that pretends to be something that it's not (they exude wealth but it's all based on lies/dishonesty). "The Ingenue" had promise as it was about a young piano prodigy. But overall it was a miss for me. The protagonist is around my age in this book and I didn't understand some of the decisions she made/how she dealt with challenges in her life. 

Paul's Reading:

These were our 2 favorite picture books from January, both from repeat authors that we love! I highly recommend both!

Paul and I have started to read chapter books and most have worked well but Socks by Beverly Cleary was a bit of a miss. I have such great memories of reading Cleary books but hadn't read this one. It wasn't as good as her Ramona series and I think the content went a bit over Paul's head. It's about a couple who gets a cat - and then the cat is kind of benignly neglected when they have a baby. This book hasn't aged well either as it talks about the post-partum mom needing to go on a diet... I'm really sensitive to talk of diets/body shaming/etc since I was so very critical of myself from an early age. So we'll be putting this in the little free library as I don't plan to read it to Will down the road. 

Did you read anything great in January?