What I Read in January

This month, I was having the HARDEST time finding books I was interested in or in the mood to read. I started and stopped four books and two audiobooks. Sometimes I feel like there are a hundred books I just can’t wait to read and other times… crickets.

Maybe even my taste in books are changing? I don’t know what it is!! But here is what I did read:

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS: 4.5/5 Stars

by Sally Rooney

I read and loved Sally Rooney’s other novel Normal People so I was pretty excited to pick up this book. It’s a very quick, excellent read. I do think Sally Rooney is kind of polarizing– you either love her style of writing or you don’t. And I had been warned that some people who liked Normal People didn’t like Conversations with Friends. I did though. I find her writing to be so refreshing with flawed characters so realistic you may see yourself (or friends/partners) in them with an alarming sense of recognition. This book covers two best friends in university as they navigate their own friendship and relationship as well as friendships/relationships with other people.

BEFORE WE WERE YOURS: 4/5 Stars

by Lisa Wingate

My sister recommended this book to me! It’s a fictional tale based on a true story of The Tennessee Children’s Home Society which operated as a black-market business of selling children and babies. (Insane.) The book ping pongs between the past and the present with the stories interwoven. While I liked it and definitely found myself doing more research and reading articles about the true stories… I thought it was kind of predictable and I way preferred the story of the past to the present day story. (In fact, I found Avery’s portion of the book downright grating at times.) My grandma was actually adopted when she was little and separated from her twin older sisters and brother… and reunited much later in life so I think I also connected to the story a lot in that way too.

SUCH A FUN AGE: 5/5 Stars

by Kiley Reid

My first five star book of the year!!!! Such a Fun Age was phenomenal. It’s a super sharp book that covers a lot in a well-told story. Race, class, career, motherhood, relationships, and age play big roles. The book opens with a 25-year-old black babysitter accused of kidnapping her white toddler charge. The book covers both the perspective of Emira and Alix (her boss) as they both navigate their own lives. Emira is in that mid-twenty haze of finding herself (I related to her feelings of being young but also not that young and watching her friends succeed while she felt stuck) and Alix is trying to find her footing in her career again after leaving her beloved city of New York and having two children. It’s a GREAT story that made me think quite a lot without being “heavy.” I found myself laughing out loud at some of the awkward and hilarious and cringeworthy moments.

BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN: 3.5/5 Stars

byDiane Chamberlain

Another book that goes between the past and the present, this one seems like bit of a mystery though ultimately rather predictable. Morgan is released from prison on bail having been handpicked to restore a mural in a small town in North Carolina. The original artist Anna Dale is rumored to have “lost her mind” and the mural has some very unexpected motifs. While on a tight deadline, Morgan uncovers big secrets in this small town as she restores the mural.

Read With Me