January Wrap Up

Illustration by Annya Marttinen

 

The first month of 2022 is at an end, and I managed to have my most successful month of reading ever. I'll never be able to keep up this pace throughout the entire year, but I'm enjoying the ride while it lasts. I ended up reading a total of twelve (!) books, and the vast majority of them were rated four or five stars. I also read just over 100 pages every single day of the month, for a grand total of 4,421 pages. I was in the reading zone for sure, and I found some new all-time favorites along the way.

Here are all the books I finished this month:

Around the Moon by Jules Verne (2 stars)

Pony by R.J. Palacio (5 stars)

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithewaite (3 stars)

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera (5 stars)

Illuminae by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (4 stars)

Tidesong by Wendy Xu (3 stars)

Gemina by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (4 stars)

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo (4 stars)

Obsidio by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (4 stars)

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (5 stars)

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (4 stars)

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (4 stars)

My favorite read of the month was Pony by R.J. Palacio. It was a beautiful coming of age story mixing elements of the western and supernatural genres. It was emotional, touching, and surprisingly wise for a middle grades book. Honorable mentions also go out to The Last Cuentista and Piranesi, which I also truly enjoyed. It was hard to pick a favorite this month, which is a great problem to have. 

My least favorite of the month was, sadly, Around the Moon by Jules Verne. It pains me that the only classic I read this month was the book I enjoyed the least. It ended up being surprisingly boring for a story about three men being shot out of a cannon into space.

I also hauled a handful of books this month, mostly to keep up with my goal to keep reading new middle grades fiction throughout the year. Here is everything I added to my shelves this month:

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (adult dystopian fiction, ebook)

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (fantasy, physical book) 

Heartless Prince by Angela De Vito (middle grades graphic novel, physical book)

Salt Magic by Hope Larson (middle grades graphic novel, physical book)

The Golden Hour by Niki Smith (middle grades graphic novel, physical book)

The Art of Running Away by Sabrina Kleckner (middle grades realistic fiction, physical book)

Northwind by Gary Paulson (middle grades adventure/survival, physical book)

I added seven total books to my shelves.

I decided to donate My Sister, the Serial Killer, Tidesong, and Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy this month, so three books left my shelves.

In February, I plan to continue on with the Court of Thorns and Roses series, as well as work on my other reading challenges. Here's the plan:

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

Run Away by Harlan Coben

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

At least 2 middle grades novels

The other reading activity I started working on this month was keeping a physical reading journal. I found that I really enjoyed the process of writing out my thoughts and keeping track of everything I read in January on paper. It gave me a chance to be creative and design some pretty spreads. I'm definitely going to continue on with this throughout the year. 

Aside from reading this month, I made some progress on my diamond painting. I'm currently working on Midnight by Deborah Malcolm from Diamond Art Club. This is the first landscape I've ever done, and I'm finding it a little boring, to be honest. I'm liking the results so far though! My last few diamond art pieces used round diamonds, but this one uses squares. I had forgotten how much slower the square diamonds are to work with. I'm making my way through the piece though, finishing 2-3 sections per week.

Throughout January, I also watched a lot of movies and tv series. As far as new (to me) movies went, I saw Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Belle, Encanto, and The Eternals. Belle and Encanto were great. The other two...not so much. I also rewatched Into the Spiderverse and Shang Chi, which I really enjoyed, of course. 

I found a documentary on Netflix called The Puppermaster that I really liked as well - it focused on an incredibly cruel conman that managed to scam a bunch of people out of all their money and essentially emotionally kidnap them. It was definitely worth the watch. 

I finished The Babysitters Club Season 2 and Search Party Season 5 too - both were excellent, but in very different ways. The Babysitters Club was an especially wholesome watch. That show consistently makes me jealous. The girls on it have such beautiful friendships with each other! I wish I had had that growing up. Actually, come to think of it, I wish I had that now!

As far as games go, I didn't get much of a chance to play this month. I played a little bit of The Sims 4, and a charming little game called Unpacking. I learned to play Drift Away on my ukulele and am in the middle of learning Tomorrow (from Annie). I did a few logic puzzles and organized my dresser drawers. All in all, it was a much more productive month than usual. I'm hoping that I can continue this pattern in February!