Hello and Welcome to my first Reading Wrap-up of the Year!
January was a good reading month.
I read 16 books!
Yay!
Most of them were rather good.
I had this tiny goal with regards to my reading in January, I wanted to only read good books, to sort of set the tone for the rest of my reading year. And I think for most part I have done just that. Sure some books were less than extraordinary but well..that's just life eh?
I read literary fiction.
I read some Jhumpa Lahiri.
I did a spot of re-reading.
I read Ray.
I read some kidlit.
I read some picture books.
I read some YA.
I read translations.
It was all in all a good start to my year.
You were good January.
Thank-you and more please.
Lets jump in my reads of January.
BOOKS OF JANUARY 2022:
1. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy: I started my reading with the most perfect book. I loved it. Made my sister read it immediately and I can't believe it took me so long to get to it. I loved this book. I did a full review for it too.
5/5
2. Rhododendrons in the Mist by Ruskin Bond: Always a good time reading Bond. And this book was a jot from start to finish. This had some of his most loved mountain stories and since I haven't been to the hills in a while, travel via these stories was the next best alternative. A review for this darling little book is up too.
4/5
3. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri: This one was a re-read. This right here is my least read Lahiri.I needed some #JhumpainJanuary because why wouldn't I want to read my favourite author in the first few days of the new year?! I might make this a yearly tradition. I hadn't read this since 2014 and I was very happy to sink back into Lahiri's world and magic.
Love. Love. Love.
This is not my favourite Lahiri by a long shot but it's one I enjoyed nonetheless.
4/5
4. Honor by Thrity Umrigar: Read. Hated. Next!
Did a review for this one too.
I still can't get over the factual mistakes in this one. Dancing bears on Mumbai streets and The Taj serving Nescafe! Really?!
1/5 (mostly because I had high hopes from this one)
5. Minor Detail by Adania Shibli: I wanted to read something from Palestine for a while now and I am so glad I picked this slim two part book to begin my foray in Palestinian literature. It's a short and stark look at life under occupation. There are no frills here, it shows life under duress both in 1949 and now in such startling clarity.
3.5/ 5
6. The Ghost of Gosain Bagan by Sirshendu Mukherjee: A Bengali children's modern classic by all accounts and one I have heard so much about and I am so happy I have finally read a book so many of my cousins seem to adore.
A young boy. A ghost..a couple of ghosts. A town lout. Funny characters and so many shenanigans. A good time this was.
4/5
7. The Greatest Odia Stories Ever Told: Another installment of Greatest Stories from Aleph and Co. A great bunch of stories from writers I hadn't read before. I quite enjoyed these stories.
3/5
8. A Married Woman by Manju Kapur: I think I have now read every Manju Kapur book ever written. This one set in India in the 80s and 90s was still so incredibly relatable and so much the subject matter is still so relevant. Set in a typical Indian family and the backdrop of mounting communal tensions owing to the Babri Masjid demolition and a woman, our protaganist finding herself stuck in a marriage that doesn't really serve her and a new blossoming love. Nicely done and so true to the time it represents. I liked this very much.
4/5
9. Poonachi Lost in the Forest by Perumal Murugan and Illustrated by Priya Kuriyan: This beautiful book was a quick and sweet read. Very, very different from the original novel and much lighter and happier than that one. This was a fun read.
4/5
10: Am I Small? by Phillip Winterberg: A picture book I read over a cup of coffee. Sweet.
3/5
11. This is how we do it by Matt Lamothe: A book I would have loved reading when I was little. It shows how kids all over the world live. What they eat. Do. Live. Love. Homework. School. Family. It shows the ways in which we are different and the ways in which all of us are basically the same.
4/5
12. The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan: A very buzzy new book was also read and quite enjoyed. For most part this is a book I loved.
Full review was done for this too.
4/5
13. One Dozen Stories by Satyajit Ray: Always a delight to read some Ray. These stories are a great way to get into his writing if you haven't already. A mix of sci-fi, slice of life, character studies, ghosts and some Feluda thrown in for good measure.
5/5
14. Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson: A surprise new favourite. A book I chanced upon quite by chance and I am glad I did. Did a full review which you should go read.
4/5
15. Young Blood by Chandrima Das: Ghost stories set on college campuses in India. Sounds good and just like something I would enjoy. Sadly that didn't happen. I found these stories pretty lackluster and occasionally just boring. Not scary at all. Not fun either.
Meh. Didn't work for me at all.
2/5
16. The Storyteller by Kathryn Williams: My last read of the month was a fun one. A young girl finds some old journals that belonged to her late great-aunt and she thinks her eccentric old grand-aunt might just be Anastasia Romanov, the missing Grand Duchess of Russia. So she and her partner in crime Evan start translating and reading Anna's incredible life story. I really enjoyed this book and the journey it took me on.
4/5
I had a good reading month. A good mix of books, most of which I liked.
I also bought just one physical book...wait I might have ordered it in December so that doesn't even count.
I bought a few ebooks. Nothing too wild.
I blogged everyday.
And I reviewed books I wanted to talk about.
I read 6 physical books and 10 ebooks.
A good start to the year.
Hope you had a good reading month too.
:)
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