Books

2019 Reading Updates – January Update

January was weird and stressful and busy, but somehow I managed to get some reading done as well. Here’s the first of my actual 2019 reading updates – January update!

What I read

  1. The Printed Letter Bookshop, Katherine Raey
  2. Wildflower Park – Part One, Part Two, & Part Three Bella Osborne
  3. Coming Home to Holly Close Farm, Julie Houston
  4. The Man I Fell in Love With, Kate Field
  5. The Happiness Project, Pippa James
  6. I Could Go On, Iain Hollingshead
  7. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Stephen Hawking
  8. The Undomestic Goddess, Sophie Kinsella
  9. Persuasion, Jane Austen
  10. The Age of Misadventure, Judy Leigh
  11. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey NIffenegger

What I thought

This month was basically a weird mixture of books I absolutely loved, books I loved to revisit, and books I was honestly quite tempted to DNF. I’m glad I didn’t, because, well, honestly… I just don’t like not finishing books? But still – The Age of Misadventure? Not really a recommendation for me…

Luckily, quite a few of the books I read this month are. As a matter of fact, I gave no less than 3 books 4.5 stars (Bookshop, Holly Close Farm and The Man I Fell in Love With). Each of these stories manages to so perfectly strike that balance between emotions and empowerment, and I loved it (differently) in each of those books.

If I loved the previous three books, I adored Persuasion and The Time Traveler’s Wife. Persuasion is basically just one of those old favourites for me, but The Time Traveler’s Wife? Now that one was a revelation – I can’t remember the last time I’d actually sobbed because of the ending of a book. Maybe The Book Thief? Either way, I absolutely loved these two, and it’s resulted in no less than two 5-star-ratings this month! Two! In a single month! Suffice it to say: that’s not something that happens too often!

All in all, I quite liked January as far as reading goes – sure, there were a couple of bummers – I expected way more from A Brief History of Time, for one thing… But still, it’s given me a couple of new favourites to recommend to people – and of course, maybe even better: I managed to actually read some physical copies! Yay!

What have you been reading this past month? Be sure to let me know below, and do tell me if you have any books to recommend to me – or of course: to warn me off!

-Saar