Month in Review: January 2019

As usual, January has been an exceptionally long month, but it's also been a surprisingly good month. I usually hate January because I don't really love the new year, but I read some really great books this month and did some fun things, so that helped it. What didn't help was my mental health, which is struggling lately, but I suppose that's just how it goes. My husband and I also first started "officially" dating seven years ago as of January 1st, so it's a little crazy (and awesome) and to realize how long we've been together. 

One of the fun things that I did during January was getting to see Elton John live for the first time (thanks to my super generous mom)! My mom has always been a huge fan, so I've had healthy doses of Elton John's music in my life pretty much since the day I was born. It was incredible and if you have the opportunity (I know tickets can be hard to get) to see him during his Farewell Tour, you absolutely should! He even played one of my favorite songs, "Funeral for a Friend," live, which apparently he hasn't done before so that was really neat. 

This month also saw the official one year anniversary of my mom's last/most recent cancer-related surgery, so it's nice to start a year off with nothing cancer-related for once! Hooray! Since she does have a genetic cancer condition she still has to do a lot of regular yearly testing, but prevention is key so it's all good right now and we can relax for a bit.

On to books! I didn't get through quite as many books as I thought I would this January, but I'd say that's partially because I read a couple of pretty chunky tomes that took a lot longer than the average book (looking at you, Kingdom of Ash).

How was your January? Anything new to start your year off? Read anything great (or bad)?

Books read: 10

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden ★★★★★
The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan ★★★★
Shattered Hopes by Ulff Lehmann ★★★★
Crooked Raven by Talis Jones ★★★★
Mini-Review: Revenge: Stories by Yoko Ogawa ★★★★
The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft ★★★★★
Never Die by Rob J. Hayes ★★★★

(this month)



Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas ★★★★★+++
To Best the Boys by Mary Weber (review coming in March!) ★★★★
Winterhouse by Ben Guterson  ★★★★
Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan (review coming in March!) ★★★
The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester ★★★★
No Way  by S.J. Morden ★★★★★

DNF'd books:
All Systems Red by Martha Wells - I don't know what happened! I think maybe the timing was just wrong for me, but I couldn't get into this for some reason? It's so small that I figured I would just read it anyway, but for some reason I just couldn't get into the story. I might revisit this sometime.

Best Books I Read in 2018 Pt. I: Ft. 2018 Non-Fantasy Releases & Backlist Titles
Best Books of 2018 Pt.II: Fantasy!
2018 End of Year Book Stats & Overview
Month in Review: December 2018
Cover Reveal + Guest Article: Legends of the Exiles by Jesse Teller
Lowest Rated Goodreads Books On My Shelf vs. My Rating (An Experiment)
Anticipated February 2019 Releases!

Top Ten Tuesday:
Exciting 2019 Releases (That I Haven't Talked About Yet)
New-to-Me Authors I Read In 2018
Sequels I Meant to Read in 2018 (That I WILL Read in 2019)

Can't-Wait Wednesday:

The Ruin of Kings by Jenny Lyons & Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte & The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie 
Gates of Stone by Angus Macallan & The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

The Friday Face-Off:
A Tudor Novel

Have you read any of these? What books did you read this month? I hope you all had a great month-- comment below and let me know!

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