January Book Round-Up || 2020
Can I just start this off with saying, I cannot believe we are already one month into 2020! I still feel like it was summer two months ago or something, and then I realize that actually half a year has gone by and we are in the full swing of 2020. This January has been interesting for me, with some highs and lows. I know I am not the only one, but coming off of the high of Christmas mixed with some serious SAD, I’ve been struggling a bit with feeling pretty down and getting back into the swing of work. The good side of this though is, I got a TON of reading done! I started the year off great with a trip around the city with my sister visiting all of the independent book stores in Vancouver. With that massive haul of new books to read, I got excited to start my 2020 reading goal which I upped this year to 50 books. According to my goodreads account, I am 4 books ahead of schedule which is very satisfying.
Now it’s time for the round-up! I’m not going to give you guys a full synopsis of each book (I would check them out on goodreads for that), but I am going tell you which ones were the best for the month, which ones were kind of meh, and which ones were solid good reads, alongside some quick thoughts on each book. But with all that said… lets get into the books!
Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune - Roselle Lim
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill - Abbi Waxman
Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah
My sister, The Serial Killer -
Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Matchmaker’s List - Sonya Lalli
Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid
Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano
The Best
Let’s start it off on a high note! The best from the month, aka my favourites from January! These books all got five stars over on goodreads from me. These are the books that I would instantly recommend to you guys or my friends if anyone was looking for a good book to read.
Firefly Lane
This book is a beautiful story of friendship and the sacrifices we make in life no matter what we choose to do with our careers and the mistakes humans make in their relationships. My heart hurt after reading this one, and I cried for a solid hour at the end.
Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune - Roselle Lim
This one is a great story about grief, community, friends, family, and romance all wrapped around the power of food and the way eating well makes us feel. I loved this one. It gives you all the feels in all right places and overall is just a great read if you’re looking for something light and fun but still a serious note underlining it all.
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill - Abbi Waxman
I loved this! I relate so hard to Nina's character, and found her both endearing and irritating at times. I think the book is a very cute read. I recommend it for anyone looking for a light, uplifting story to read, it would be a great beach book!
Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano
This book was heartbreaking and heartwarming. I loved the choice the author made to go back and forth from present day (post crash) and during the flight so we got to understand and know the people in both contexts. A beautiful story about recovery after tragedy. PTSD and trauma is something that isn't easy to understand, and this book just does such a beautiful job at showing the progress and the effort that goes into healing after a traumatic event.
Such a Fun Age
- Kiley Reid
A great book that looks at the subtleties or modern day racism, and the lack of awareness that white people can have with their own racist actions. It’s a bit of a slow story, but an important message. Totally get why it’s being raved about!
Meh.
Now moving on to the books that kind of just make me go meh… (insert shrugging emoji here) Luckily for me there was only one this month! These are the kind of books that I didn’t mind per se, but that I don’t think I would recommend to a friend. Somewhere in between a 2-3 stars on goodreads sort of thing.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
An incredibly sad story of a girl suffering from major PTSD from childhood-trauma. I think Eleanor's awkward behaviour is supposed to be seen as the comedy in this book, but to me it was just sad as it was clearly a result from the severe trauma she endured. I felt so uncomfortable by the end that I just wanted it to end. Surprised there weren't a million trigger warnings all over this book. Also the ending is super rushed, instead of getting to see Eleanor work through her mental health issues it was basically just “she went to therapy and is fine now” which is such a cop out. I hated this book.
The good reads
Maybe they didn’t make my favourites of the month, but that doesn’t mean these aren’t great books. These are all the ones in the 4 star range that I really enjoyed reading and would still recommend to any of my friends to read.
My sister, The Serial Killer -
Oyinkan Braithwaite
A very quick read. I enjoyed this one, an interesting take at sisterhood and the complexity of that kind of relationship. What would you do for your family? For your sister? The man you are in love with? Not as intense as one would think based off of the title of the book but still an interesting read.
The Matchmaker’s List - Sonya Lalli
Such a cute book about painted like a love story about a girl trying to find her match, but really it's a story about her love for her family and particularly her grandmother. It walks you through recovering from heartbreak, figuring out how to move on from someone, and really open up to the dating life around you. But also the mistakes we imperfect humans make when not wanting to be judged.
There you guys have it! That’s everything I read I read this January. This was such a good month packed of good reads. It’s not often that I get so many books in one month that I liked as much as I did this set, and I’m so excited to continue on reading and smashing out books next February. Let me know in the comments below if have you read any of these books and what you thought of them, as well as let me know how your 2020 reading is going so far!