My January Reads

I didn’t realise how much I missed reading until I started reading again.

Last year, I constantly felt like I was standing at the edge of a cliff, not sure when I’ll fall and so, the entirety of the year, I was on tenterhooks. I had my finals to worry about and when that was over, before I could breathe in enough fresh air, I had my license exams to worry over.

I had set a goal at the beginning of 2018 to read 20 new books; by the end of the year, I’d read only 9. It didn’t dawn on me until when the goodsread nominees for best mystery book came out, and I realized that for the first time in years, I hadn’t read even one of the books in that category, I was mortified.

This year though, despite its many pitfalls, January has been a great year for books. So far I’ve read 6 new books, I loved them and felt like sharing them with you, just in case you might want to read one or two or even all.

1. The God father by mario Puzo
I know, I know, I am so late to reading the god father. Once I started reading this book, I knew I was going to love it. It was fast paced at times and medium paced at other times. The main character, Don Corleone is likeable, and you can’t help but love him despite his own blind spots- I mean, you’ve got to love a man who values friendship and family ties. The First 2/3rd of the book was amazing but after that, the book trudged on. Majority of the last 1/3rd of the book was unnecessary in my opinion and that pretty much dropped the book from a 4 star book, to a 3 star.

2. The defining decade: why your twenties matter by Meg Jay
This was one of my favorite reads so far. It gave me a much needed insight about this stage of my life– the twenties. It explained about identity capital. It explained that just because your degree doesn’t depict the best of grades, doesn’t mean your life is over. It explained how a lot of times, we have an idea of how our lives should be in our thirties and yet we make no plan for that in our twenties and expect things to fall into place. It explains that It is okay to seek the help of a therapist in order helps us figure out how these chips can fall into place. This book is completely put of my genre and I absolutely loved it. An easy 4 stars.

3. Cinnamon by Neil Gaiman
This is a short story, and I know it feels like cheating to include it here, but it is still a book regardless of its size and I did read it and loved it as well. A 4 star even though it’s just 40 pages.

4. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Safe to say, I don’t think I will be reading another Neil Gaiman book. First of all, I had to constantly keep on correcting my brain each time I came across the word “coraline” that it is not “Caroline” but “coraline”; it was tiring. Also, the book was just creepy. Great writing though and I’m sure readers of the fantasy genre would absolutely love it because Coraline does Creep on a person, I didn’t really like it. I did finish it. It was an interesting read nonetheless and I feel proud of myself for stepping into the fantasy realm. A 3 star.

5. The universe of us by Lang Leav
In the words of a poet, I can’t remember who said, “what can I say that has not been said“. I started reading this book about a year ago, and for reasons I can’t understand, I didn’t like it, and so I quit. Reading it again though, this month, it felt different. I loved reading it. It gave me another dimension to the poet, Lang Leav. Most of her poems are generally targeted towards heartbreak or love, but this time, she included piece which reflected growth. Growth of a person in isolation of love. That, made it different for me from her other poetry books. A four stars, there are so many pieces I loved.

So far in February,
I’ve read The silver linings playbook by Matthew Quick, Flipped by Wenderlin and Sea of strangers by Lang Leav… review to come up at the end of the month.

What books did you read in January? Did you set yourself a reading goal this year? Do share in the comments section below.

In the meantime, have a great week filled with lot of love, laughter and coffee.