January Reading Wrap-Up and February Plans

I had a really stellar reading month to start of 2022. I read a lot of titles and most of them were 4-star reads, so I’m counting both of those things as a major win! If you are interested in any of the January books, I’ve got reviews for most of them (a couple more to come for an ARC review and the two I just finished this weekend) earlier in the month’s blog posts.

What I Read in January:
1. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
2. The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
3. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
4. The Forgotten Sister by Nicola Cornick
5. All of Us Villians by Christine Herman and Amanda Foody
6. The Last Mona Lisa by Jonathan Santlofer
7. The Origin of Wizards, Witches and Fairies by Simon Webb
8. Spilt Milk by Chico Buarque
9. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
10. The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith

As mentioned, most of these were 4-star reads, but a few lower than that, and one 5-star for The Night Circus – which I’ll be reviewing this week.

I have pulled together my short list of titles for February. I have several ARCs I need to read and review, and I’d like to get caught up with my Book of the Month titles as well, so here’s what’s on tap:

1. Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen. A retelling of the Little Mermaid fairy tale, with what sounds like a lot of unique updates.
2. Underland by Robert MacFarlane. I started this one on audiobook yesterday afternoon. I read one of MacFarlane’s other books last year and really liked it, and this one is already shaping up to be a 5-star read and may put this author on my auto-buy short list; it’s that good.
3. The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing. Set in South Africa, I’ll be using this title for The Uncorked Librarian’s Around the World challenge.
4. Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano. This one will be the bonus read title for The Uncorked Librarian’s challenge as well.
5. The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman. This was my January YA Fantasy BOM club book.
6. Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich. This was my Page1 BOM club book. (Not gonna lie – I’m a little intimidated by this nonfiction title about Russia in the late 20th century and the rise of Putin because it is WAY outside my usual read comfort zone.)
7. The Girl with the Whispering Shadow by DE Night. The publisher contacted me and asked if I’d review this one following my review of book #1 in this series, so this is on my list for early this month.
8. A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft – ARC #2 for this month.
9. We Kept Our Towns Going by Phyllis Michael Wong – ARC #3 for this month.
10. If I get all of the above finished, I’ll tackle Claire of the Sea Light, which will be the book for The Storygraph’s Read the World Challenge 2022 for Haiti.