The Rest Of My January Reading

Even though I got off bed rest, went back to work, and Rachel had dental surgery, I somehow still managed to read as many books in the second half of January as I did in the first half. HOW did that happen?!?! I also read my first (and second!) 5 star read of the year on Goodreads.

This book reminds me of Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. I love the quirky characters, I love the community Lenni pulls together around herself, I just loved it all. You wouldn't think that a book about a seventeen year old and an 83 year old dying would be a good read, but it really was. (This was my first 5 star read of the year.)

This book was pretty good. Again, this is the story of two disparate people and the friends and family they draw around themself. It was a little bit romance, a little bit sad, and overall, pretty good. It reminded me a bit of Jenny Colgan, although it was written long before Jenny Colgan showed up on the scene.

This book is Jenny Colgan at her best. The only thing missing from the excellent Jenny Colgan formula (interesting heroine, running a business which is on the edge, quirky characters, romance, and unique remote location) was the location in this one as it's set in Edinburgh. But oh, now I want to go back to Edinburgh and discover some of its secret locations. (Dave and I spent two days there on our honeymoon. If you want to read about our adventures, captured on the early days of the blog, you can go here.)

 

I've heard so much about this book so when Sharon, from the great Instagram account sharonsaysso, picked it as one of her book club choices this time around, it was the impetus I needed to read it. No, I don't join her book clubs, yes, I do read her book recommendations. Anyways, this book juxtaposes two stories -- the story of Chicago preparing for, and having, the World's Fair in 1893 and the story of a serial killer who was working in Chicago during that time. I found the World Fair story much more interesting and learned a lot about architecture and Chicago versus New York and many other things. Coming from a family who owns a tree nursery, and where my dad ran the landscaping side of things for years, I also found the story of the landscape architect very interesting. I feel like the story of the serial killer didn't necessarily add to this story, or maybe it wasn't as in depth as I would have appreciated. It just felt like it was missing something.

This was a romcom with travel so sign me up! This was pretty formulaic -- the fiance didn't seem all that great from the start, Ava seemed to be trying to fit into a mold, was Jack really as evil as all that? -- but it was a good, fun read and the random, travel adventures were so fun and reminded me of my 20s. Did I ever tell you about the time I met a random British guy on a train in Denmark and we decided to take a day to explore outside of Copenhagen a little? It was super spontaneous and really fun (we ended up feeding Cheetos to ducks in Roskilde, Denmark) and thus, Ava and Jack heading off with Eddie and Celeste, didn't seem all that unusual to me.

I read this book in one sitting, and cried through the last few pages. It's about a woman who is in a car accident and, in an instant, her life significantly changes. I can't say too much without giving away part of what made this book so great. However, again, I loved the travel and, while this book won't make the top ones I read this year, it is still really good. So if you love travel and trying to reinvent your life stories, with a dash of sadness thrown in, this book is for you. (Also, I either need to stop reading books where the characters travel all over or I need to start traveling myself -- it's been a long pandemic... Ugh.)

 

Oh my goodness. I almost rated this book five stats on Goodreads. I LOVED the Canadian setting and learning more Canadian history. I loved learning about Audrey's life and seeing her independence. It bugged me how much Danny was focused on "I must be a man" but I had to keep reminding myself that that would have been very true to the late 1910s' thoughts about gender roles. This is a World War I story and a Canadian story and especially, a Nova Scotia story, but I think everyone should read it. This book just surprised me in the best way.

While this didn't have the epic story telling of The Warmth of Other Suns, this book was phenomenal. Now, I don't know how Americans would feel reading this book, and I don't know if Canada has the same caste underpinnings (but you could make an argument for how we've treated the First Nations people and how they currently live, however I don't know enough about caste to make that case), but I found the parallels between India and the US very enlightening. And the descriptions of the ways the Nazis studied the US treatment of blacks to set up their treatment and exterminations of Jews was chilling. This is a book which everyone should read. It is academic, sprinkled with many real life examples, and absolutely worth it. (This was another 5 star read for me.)

This was a beautiful story but, for some reason, it just didn't capture my attention. I would put the book down, read something else, and then pick it back up again. I think it was me more than this book, and when I got to the last one pages, I flew through them, but it just took awhile for me to get into this story. I think the alternating timelines didn't help me. I would just be getting invested in one story and the novel would flip to the other story.

I think I didn't understand this book. However, this is a very real and raw look at the feelings of a transgendered woman and how she interacts with the world. I think I found this book hard to understand because I've never had to defend my gender. Also, this is more of a long essay than a book -- it's very short at around 90 pages. Since it's written in the first person, it's more like being let into Shraya's brain which is an honour and a privilege but, because of the format, it's a very one-sided conversation. Not that that's a bad thing but it made it difficult for me to fully get this book.

So that was my reading for the rest of January. I'm already excited to share my beginning of February reading because I've read two amazing books. Whooo hooo!!! What did you read in January? Anything you think I absolutely have to add to my TBR? Let me know.