Wrap-Ups

Happy February!

What did I read in January? January’s over, right? I don’t know where it went, but it’s gone.

What I Read

The Lies of Locke Lamora
by Scott Lynch

Red Seas Under Red Skies
by Scott Lynch

LOLA was a re-read before heading into RSURS, and I loved it just as much this time as I did the first. Total 5-star rating, then and now.

Red Seas was good, but not great. Sequels are hard to pull off, especially when we’re talking about book two in a trilogy. That being said, Red Seas Under Red Skies is easily a 4-star and gives me high, high hopes for the third book in the Gentlemen Bastards series.

We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story
by Simu Liu

I don’t read a lot of celebrity bios, but I was drawn to this one. I love the MCU and with Simu being a fellow Canadian, I had to jump into this one. I loved filling in the blanks beyond the tidbits I already knew. Actors’ lives always seem so glamorous and otherworldly. It’s nice to hear how human they are.

The Atlas Six
by Olivie Blake

Deep characters and a unique magic system are the earmarks of this one. I think my only beef was a build-up to a third act that seemed to drop severely in its intensity. However, this first book leaves me really wanting to get into the next book.

What I’m In The Middle Of

The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin

Gotta be honest, I’ve been in the middle of this one for a looooong time. Each chapter is like a hearty meal. Not only in the number of pages per chapter but reading Jemisin’s work is… well, work. That’s not a bad thing, but it makes The Fifth Season a book that I can’t always bring myself to pick up on a daily basis.

Babel
by R.F. Kuang

I’ve just started this one in audiobook form, and I’m not sure what I think of it. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, but so far I’m seeing more “fiction” than “history” and I’m intrigued.

What I Hope to Read This Month

In Writing

I wish I could tell you I made a ton of progress this month, or a decent amount of progress, or even a pitiful amount of progress. Anything would be better than zero, which is what I got.

I sent one new query and received one rejection. Huzzah!

Have a good February!!

January is over? Already? Finally?

On one hand, I can’t believe it’s already February, but on the other hand it feels like Christmas was 6 years ago. How does that happen?

Anyway, it’s been a while since I did one of the monthly wrap-up thingies, but I did a ton of reading (more listening) this month. Then there’s the Cheapskate Challenge to check in with, and my very first use of an awesome bookish gift from my wife!

Books I read this month

TEN! I don’t think I’ve ever read that many books in a single month before. To be fair, the majority of them were audiobooks, but even so… TEN!

	Strange Exit by Parker Peevyhouse Digital ARC
	The Girl in the Tower (Winternight #2) by Katherine Arden Audiobook
	The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2) by James Dashner Audiobook
	The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson Audiobook
	The Long Walk by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) Audiobook
	The Shining byStephen King Audiobook
	The Winter of the Witch (Winternight #3) by Katherine Arden Audiobook
	Mr. Monster (John Cleaver #2) by Dan Wells Audiobook
	Obsidio (Illuminae Files #3) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff Hardcover
	Own the Day, Own Your Life by Aubrey Marcus Audiobook

The Cheapskate Reading Challenge

After the first month, I’m happy to see that my score for the Cheapskate Reading Challenge is 20!

For anyone looking for an easy way to keep track of the points for the books you read, I’ve built a simple spreadsheet, available for anyone who would like to use it. All you need to do is:

Hit ‘Make a Copy’ or you won’t be able to enter any data.
Then just enter your book titles and select the category of each book from the dropdown menu.
The spreadsheet will assign each book the proper amount of points and give you a running tally.

What I’m Reading Next

Lastly, I made my first use out of the most thoughtful and creative gift from the holiday season. My wife, whose creative endeavours never cease to surprise, made me a reading scratch ticket.

Each rectangle has a book title underneath. Leading up to the holidays, my wife talked to some of people that know a bit about what I might be planning on reading soon, and she even convinced me to re-arrange our bookshelf by ‘read’ and ‘unread’ in order to put to right kinds of books on the ticket. Book number one, Iron Gold!

How was your January? How are you doing the Cheapskate Reading Challenge? And how is February looking for you?

Fun fact about this post: On a side note, look at how immaculately clean Iron Gold is without its dust jacket. There’s no way it’s going to be that clean by the time I’m done reading it. No way!

January in Books