Hi and welcome to another monthly overview!
Congratulations, we’ve made it through the month that lasts 364 years! Funny, the weeks flew by, but still it felt like January would never end, if anyone can explain the dark powers of January, please do! Work was either rather too quiet or complete madness, which did my head in, and there was just too much socialising and too much fatigue.
Bookishwise, I hit the ground running. I alternated ARCs and new books with backlog books and I’m happy I got through quite a few older books. I’m even happier I loved most of them! I would love it if I could visit all the US states again this year so I’m prioritising some of the more difficult states, and I already got Idaho and Oklahoma (and 11 other states!) out of the way 😄 And I continued the Kim Stone series in Spanish and had a great time with the sixth instalment.
Honourable mentions to The Shadow Key, The Eyes Are the Best Part and The Evolution of Fear but these were my favourite reads of the month:
In figures January looks like this:
January
Novels: 6671 pages across 19 novels and 1 short story
Audiobooks: 58 hours across 13 novels, novellas and short stories
And here’s what I did in January:
What I read:
Hell’s Bells, Jill Johnson
Dark as Night, Lilja Sigurdardottir
Living is a Problem, Doug Johnstone
The Mercy Chair, M.W. Craven
The Weekenders, David F. Ross
De onderkant van sneeuw, Ilse Ruijters
The Shadow Key, Susan Stokes-Chapman
De gestreste samenleving, Stephan Claes
The Eyes Are the Best Part, Monika Kim
The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern
The Chamber, Will Dean
Almas muertas (Dead Souls), Angela Marsons
The Cure, Eve Smith (review to follow)
All the Devils, Catelyn Wilson
Welcome To Las Vegas, Stacy Green
We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, Syou Ishida
The Evolution of Fear, Paul E. Hardisty
The Antique Hunter’s: Death on the Red Sea, C. L. Miller (review to follow)
The Rainfall Market, You Yeong-Gwang
How to Solve Your Own Murder, Kristen Perrin
What I listened to:
Ghost Camera, Darcy Coates
Midnight Son, James Dommek Jr.
The Madness, Dawn Kurtagich
The Answer Is No, Fredrik Backman
Godforsaken Idaho: Stories, Shawn Vestal
Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne
The Cliff House, Chris Brookmyre
Hemlock, Kiersten Modglin
Zombie, Indiana, Scott Kenemore
There Are Flowers in Ohio, Rumaan Alam
Electrodomésticos, Moira McCavana
Project Kawayan, Randy Ribay
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, John Grisham
What I read earlier but reviewed in January:
The Garden, Nick Newman
Helle’s Hound, Oskar Jensen
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Grady Hendrix
I also had a look at my favourite books of 2024 here and at my bookish stats of 2024 here.
Let’s have a look at the books that landed on my lap in January:
One regular hardcover that should have been a hardcover with gorgeous dragon-filled spredges, but alas, my preorder was cancelled:
Four 99p deals and two NetGalley DRCs:
I hope you had a good month and that you are safe and well! Thanks for joining me today and happy reading xxx
Looks like a fab bookish month! I love January because it’s my birthday month, so it never feels that bad, except for the weather of course and the lack of light! 😂
It was great! The weather definitely didn’t help 🙄 Belated happy birthday, Nicki xx
Sorry you didn’t get your dragon-filled spredges. That must have been disappointing. A great reading month though x
It really was but I’m enjoying the story even without the spredges so there’s that 😂
That’s such a fantastic bookish month! Such a shame about those spredges though… I hadn’t heard about the new Eve Smith and Doug Johnstone yet, so that’s exciting news! xx
It really was! Always fun to discover an author you like has a new book coming 😊