Here’s a bonus book list for you this week – my January reading wrap up!

January was a good reading month for me, I read eleven books from a variety of genres. I read 2/28 books from my list of books I want to read in 2019, decent but I’m going to have to step it up a bit to reach my goal for the year.

At the beginning of January I came across some really good book channels on YouTube and I think that will also influence some of the books I read this year, three of the books from this list were thanks to some of those channels.

February is also starting out as a good reading month, if you like books and would like a weekly email with the books I am enjoying and what the kids (ages 5 & 8) are reading, you can sign up for the bookish newsletter here:

WHAT I READ IN JANUARY

Foxes Unearthed: A Story of Love and Loathing in Modern Britain

3.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Foxes have always been some of my favorite animals and this non-fiction book really intrigued me, even though I don’t live in Britain. Truthfully I ended up not finishing the book but I feel like I got enough out of it and read nearly all of it to be able to accurately rate it.

My only real big complaint was that my library didn’t have the physical book, only the ebook and this cover looks gorgeous, I would love to see it in person.

His Last Bow: A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes

5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I finished this a few days into the year, I had tried to read all of the Sherlock books in 2018 and this was my last one and I didn’t quite get it done in 2018. I really enjoy all the Sherlock short story books, this one included.

The Giver Quartet
(The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger & The Son)

The Giver: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gathering Blue: 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Messenger: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Son: 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐

The Giver was my Classics Book Club read for the month. While technically not a classic (it was only published in 1993) it is generally considered a modern classic.

The Giver made me realize how much I enjoy dystopian books, even though I have read quite a few of them for some reason that hadn’t clicked for me before, so I plan on adding more dystopian books into my to read piles this year.

Also, I didn’t realize when I continued the series that the second book, Gathering Blue, doesn’t follow the same characters or community as The Giver, I think if I would have known that going into it that probably would have bumped it up to a four star for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed the series as a whole and am glad I continued on with it. Looking back now I don’t know why I gave the last book 3/5 stars, now, a few weeks later I would give it 4/5.

I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage

4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was my library “Literary Society” book for the month. I was raving about this book in my book-ish newsletter a few weeks ago, not in the sense that I wanted to become Hutterite, but just because it was such a fascinating book. Growing up in a Mennonite community (not the horse and buggy type), I thought Hutterites were similar since they started around the same time but there are actually very few similarities.

While I don’t think that author intended the Hutterites to come across as a cult that is definitely my take from the book and I think she had a very unique perspective and was the ideal person to write it.

Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World

3.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book was recommended to me by one of my good friends. I like to go into books blind, knowing as little about it as possible, and I think that was the downfall of this book for me. I felt like I only “got it” about half way through. I would like to re-read it in the near-ish future and see if that ends up changing my rating. I also read somewhere that this is a book guys generally tend to enjoy more, I’m not sure if that is true but I am curious to get my husband to read it and see what he thinks.

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows

2.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐

I was given this book for free to potentially review. To be honest, it wasn’t my favorite of books. First of all, it is a middle grade fantasy, and while I want to read more fantasy this year, I don’t think I want it to be middle grade fantasy. I think if I was 10-12 years old I would have enjoyed it more but as an adult it felt like things just happened too smoothly. I also didn’t like the addition of psychics . . . while I know there are often those kind of characters in fantasy books I didn’t enjoy the word usage because I feel like that can get confusing when there are so called “psychics” in our world as well. I actually ended up giving up on the book with only a few pages left, I felt like I had enough.

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was by far my favorite book this month. It is a short novella, I think something like 67 pages (with pictures interspersed) about an old man explaining to his grandson that he has Alzheimer’s. The book is so short I don’t want to say much more, but let’s just say: it took me about 45 minutes to read and I had tears streaming down my face by the end. Mine was a library copy but I need to get my hands on a copy for myself and re-read it the next time I need a good cry. I brought it back to the library the night of our Literary Society and raved about it and now I’ve got a number of the ladies there on the list to read it.

Perfection

3.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Perfection is the last place on earth. Everything else was destroyed long before I was born but I don’t know how. Don’t ask questions. That’s what they’ve always taught me. Don’t ask questions and keep the law. Or what? I never knew the answer to that until someone kidnapped me and showed me what was really behind the walls of Perfection. Now I’m breaking the law every day, I can’t trust anyone, and I’m learning exactly what it takes to make a place so Perfect. But around here, too much knowledge will lead to your death.

This book is written by Merphy Napier, one of the BookTuber’s (YouTuber’s who talks about books) I have been binge watching lately. The book used to be on Amazon but she now put it up for free on WattPad because this was a “for fun” project for her, not that she is trying to be an author. I feel like the book had the feeling of being “self published”, not as refined as published books, but it was really enjoyable and I have been thinking about it a lot since finishing it.

AMAZON  |  WATTPAD

I would love for you to leave me a comment below and tell me what you have been reading recently, especially if you have some good recommendations!