January Wrap-Up

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My 2021 started strong, at least in terms of my reading. I read 18 books (one of them a fanfiction), DNFed one and managed to finish an entire series in a month! Here’s a wrap-up of what I read.

Wayward Children – Seanan McGuire

Let’s start with a newfound love: Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series! I had heard about it and was intrigued, but never enough to pick up the books. That changed this month when I was in the mood for a shorter book and saw that the audiobooks for the entire series were available. Honestly, if someone had told me that Every Heart a Doorway featured an asexual main character and immaculate death vibes…I would have started this series much sooner. It has my name written all over it and I had no idea! So I read all the books that are available so far and enjoyed them all, some more than others. I love getting to discover new worlds and meeting new characters, especially because the children come from a variety of backgrounds and represent various identities! Gender, sexuality and different mental health conditions are addressed in ways that don’t feel overly forced. Now I just hope that both Kade and Christopher get their own books at some point…

Legendborn – Tracy Deonn

This was the group book in January for the Avengers Reading Challenge and I absolutely loved it! Legendborn is an epic fantasy inspired by King Arthur. It really has it all: an incredible main character, secret societies and epic battles. Tracy Deonn is weaving grief and rage and pain of generations together with legends of love, loss and betrayal and I can’t wait for the next book in this series!

Heartstopper Vol 1. – Alice Oseman

Everybody has been raving about these graphic novels and for good reason. It’s heartwarming and soft but has enough depth to be more than just a cute romance. I’ll definitely be reading the other volumes as well.

Nimona – Noelle Stevenson

Admittedly, I went into this without knowing anything. Nimona is originally a graphic novel but I listened to the audiobook version of it! I think knowing the graphic novel beforehand would’ve made it easier to follow the story, but the audio production on this was incredible! Full cast, sound effects: pure fun.

Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch – Michael Ende

This was a reread of a childhood classic that accompanied me on many long car ride. It follows a cat and a raven who have to stop their masters, two evil magicians from ruining the world with a magic potion on New Year’s Eve. Let’s just say this should’ve stayed in the past. I was horrified at the blatant fatphobia and generally iffy writing. Definitely not a book I’ll reread.

Hawkeye Vol 1. – Matt Fraction

I’m dipping my toes into comics! In all honesty, I was mostly inspired to pick up the first volume of the Hawkeye comics because I saw behind the scenes photos of Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop for the new TV show…and I was looking respectfully. Comic Clint and Kate are such cool characters and I really hope that translates onto the screen. MCU Hawkeye is pretty low on my favourites list but comic Hawkeye? Very cool dude.

The Strange Library – Haruki Murakami

This was my first venture into Murakami’s writing and…it wasn’t for me. However, I am fairly certain that it was more this specific story than his writing style overall and I’ll definitely try some of his other books!

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow – Jessica Townsend

I read this for the Wunder-along hosted by Sabine’s Booknook and Olivia’s Catastrophe after owning the audiobook for quite some time now. 10/10 do recommend if you’re looking for a whimsical and funny middle-grade novel that is sure to appeal to all ages! Nevemoor surprised me with quirky characters and a wild adventure plot and I already have the second book ready for me to jump back in.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here – Patrick Ness

The Rest of Us Just Live Here is the one book this month that I DNFed. Now, there are a few factors that impacted this. Firstly, it’s very much a YA coming of age story and I feel like I am starting to age out of that particular style of story. I loved the premise of this book (it centres around the teenagers who aren’t the magical heroes who go on quests, the people who are usually background characters in classical fantasies) but found that it didn’t really deliver what I wanted. Wrong book, wrong time!

Warcross – Marie Lu

I got the audiobook for this from the library and it turned out to be a decently fun book that didn’t really meet my expectations. I felt the pacing was quite weak, the first half dragged and the final act was over way too quickly without much happening. Overall, I wish that more action within the video game world had happened and that the romance (which I wasn’t a fan of or found particularly believable) hadn’t been such a central part of the story.

City of Ghosts – Victoria Schwab

Believe it or not, despite owning multiple of her books, this is my first Victoria Schwab read! And yet another case of “cool premise, wasn’t what I wanted”, which is primarily on me and not the book.

just say you do – biblionerd07

Oh, fanfiction, how I love you. Just say you do is a romance featuring fake dating/marriage (a top tier trope) between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. Now, I am not a shipper of that pairing (or any, really) but this story is incredibly soft and kind of dark and just so well written that I felt it deserved to be mentioned in my wrap-up.

Run, Rebel – Manjeet Mann

Run, Rebel was an unexpected highlight of my January! It’s a novel written in verse with the author reading the audiobook herself. And oh boy, this book packs a punch. It’s a gut-wrenching and heartbreaking story of domestic abuse and rebellion, running and hope. I especially loved how it wove different narrative threads and character arcs together and brought them to a satisfying conclusion. If you like any of Elizabeth Acevedo’s books, this might be for you!

Make Time – Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky

I don’t rate productivity and self-help books, but I can let you know that I enjoyed this one. It proposes a method in which you choose one task, your highlight of the day, and offers ways to make time for it. Overall, the strongest point of this book is its accessible structure. It’s easy (and encouraged) to, once you’ve understood the basic idea, go and mix and match different techniques to see what works for you. As someone who is constantly fiddling with their own systems, I definitely took away some new ideas from this book.

And that’s it, that was my very extensive January wrap-up!

How did your January go? Have you read any of these books? Did you discover a new favourite? Let me know in the comments!