Books Read in January 2022!

Posted On January 31, 2022

Hi Readers! Just like everyone else, I cannot believe January has already ended. When I think back, I honestly have no idea how the month flew by. I have stayed true to my 2022 Goals & Habits, for the most part. And, when it comes to reading, I read EIGHT BOOKS & 4044 PAGES in JANUARY! I also participated in JANUARY IN JAPAN this month! I am pleased that I read some great books this month. And, even though I did read a few average ones, there were none which I hated. Isn’t that amazing? Check out the books I read!

~~THE BEST~~

~~Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson~~

This is the second book in The Stormlight Archive series. I loved it way more than I loved the first book where most of it was world-building. I love being in the world of this series & I have such a strong bond with all the characters after reading the second book. Be it Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, Dalinar, Jasnah, Elhokar, Navani, Rock or even Sadeas. Whatever feelings you have for these characters are on the extreme. You either love them to death or want them at their death. There is literally no in between. Such is the amazing, engaging & brilliant writing of Brandon Sanderson.

There are going to be 10 books and the author has written and published only 4 till now. Since my memory isn’t that great, I thought of reading the next two spread across time so that when the 5^th book arrives, I still have some idea of what happened in the earlier books. Having said that, I can hardly wait to read the next one and all the books to come! I rated Words of Radiance at 5/5 stars!

~~The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai~~

When I read wartime historical fiction, I am almost always sure that I will love it. I loved The Mountains Sing a little too much. Reading The Mountains Sing is 90% about reading sad story after sad story with only 10% of happy moments. Yet, maybe because of this imbalance, it stays with the reader for a long time. Even though this is only a 342-page novel, it feels like a lot more because it spans 50 long years of struggle, hardships & layer upon layer of gut-wrenching pain.

This book is literally perfect, with no flaws in it. Inspired from real experiences, this novel is a benchmark in Asian Historical Fiction. The intensity of adversity flows poignantly from the pages giving us characters you cry with & cry for. This is a wildly underrated book which needs more eyes, more praise, more highlight & just more love. If you haven’t read it yet, please do! I have rated The Mountains Sing at 5/5 stars!

Check out the full review here!

~~The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa~~

When I started reading The Travelling Cat Chronicles, I was immediately immersed into it. The book starts with a stray cat narrating the story of how he was adopted by a kind man. I thought, that’s cute! A light warm-hearted story. But then, it jumps to 5 years later when that kind man Satoru is looking for someone else to adopt the same cat (now named Nana) because of some unmentioned reasons. It doesn’t take long to realise that he wants to give away Nana because Satoru is dying. So much for a light warm-hearted story! But, even with this slightly sad doom always looming on the threshold of the story, I really liked reading this book.

All the cherished stories of friendship, love, belonging are pure in entirety. All the memorable trips with Satoru & Nana in the silver van feel like you are with them sitting in the back seat feeling all that those two are feeling. I truly enjoyed the beauty of countryside with its horses & sea of grass & unexpected sight of double rainbows. I was lost in their world & they made me feel welcome to experience all those things, but also all the emotions beyond those things too. I loved being on this bitter-sweet journey of stimulating yet funny conversations, frightening yet hopeful destinations, new yet familiar friendships & a riveting thought-provoking presence, all in 238 pages! I have rated The Travelling Cat Chronicles at 4/5 stars!

Check out the full review here!

~~Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano~~

A mom of 2 young kids recently separated from her husband who cheated on her because of which her life has come to financial distress & an overall mess. She is a writer of romance-mystery novels & she is way behind on her current book with no inspiration to make it better. As everything crumbles around her, a note falls in her lap for a contract killing of $50000. As amusing as it is perfect, this contract killer job saves her life, her book, her kids & her sanity (more or less) without actually having to kill anyone.

The sheer audacity this book reaches, while entirely unrealistic, makes for a fun read where you simply cannot put the book down. It’s quite entertaining to read how one contract killing job connects to the Russian mafia. How making this story into her novel is beyond risky yet leads to a bestselling novel. How being utterly in debt soon leads to having surplus cash. I think because the characters are relatable & homey, the story catchy & memorable, the writing astoundingly picturesque & the whole setup is just alluring to all kinds of readers. I have rated Finlay Donovan is Killing It at 4/5 stars!

Check out the full review here!

~~Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata~~

I finished this book recently so it is still very fresh in my mind. Keiko Furukura is our convenience store woman who is neuro divergent. While there are many things that the author wanted to convey, two of them were visible throughout. In the first half of the book, we see the routine life of Keiko which is basically where the author wanted to establish the life of neuro-divergent people. In the second half, we see how a single woman is perceived by the society even after we have come forward after all those years from the Stone Age. I really enjoyed reading this book. It has touched upon a lot of tangents and I loved reading about all of those. I will write a review on this book soon! I rated Convenience Store Woman at 4/5 stars!

~~THE AVERAGE~~

~~A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende~~

From the Goodreads blurb, anyone would be impressed. As was I. But, I feel like the blurb is written better than the book itself. I don’t know if it was the translation or just the way it was written originally, but the writing style has one tone throughout. It simply states events one after the other. It’s like reading from a newspaper. The writing completely lacks sentiment & emotion.

The irony of it all is this is inspired from the real life of Victor Pey, which is why it should have been all the more touching, poignant & wonderful. But, it’s completely opposite. Because of the on-the-surface writing, it comes off as entirely underwhelming.

I have read plenty of wartime historical fiction novels which made me cry, so I had high hopes of crying from an actual wartime historical fiction novel who had famous people as characters. Not once in the entire story could I connect to the characters or empathize for them or even felt like this was inspired from a real story because it sounds made up. No offence to the real people out there on which this is written. But, honestly, can you blame the readers?

It feels like a musical, which in my opinion, are entirely ridiculous & goody goody. How can one imagine a simple musical-like life in the middle of a war? It’s so entirely pointless. Even though I read this book pretty quickly, I did not enjoy reading it. This was my first Allende book, which is why I’m devastated to not have liked it. I have rated it at 2/5 stars!

Check out the full review here!

~~1Q84 by Haruki Murakami~~

I thought it would take me at least a month to finish this book, but it only took me 14 days. But, now that I look back at it, I honestly have no clue how this story was written across 1318-pages! This is one of the reasons why I haven’t reviewed it yet. 1Q84 is the parallel world to 1984 where Aomame finds herself. The chapters are divided between Aomame & Tengo, our main characters. They both are involved in dangerous things. Tengo is ghost-writing a book called Air Chrysalis & soon the world of 1Q84 itself becomes the fictional world of Air Chrysalis. There are 2 moons in the sky. There are Little People in this world. There are many other weird things in addition to this, as is expected in any Murakami novel. I liked the eccentricity of this world, though dangerous, it was just something else. For the most part of it, I was engaged with the story & had a good reading experience. I may or may not write the full review, but this does sum it up. I have rated 1Q84 at 3.5/5 stars!

~~Do Epic Shit by Ankur Warikoo~~

My problem with Self-Help Books is that I don’t get to learn anything new. I already know everything that’s written & it’s my choice whether to follow it or not. So, when I started this book, I was utterly pleased by reading the Introduction, which went like this: “This book may very well turn out to be the most useless book you will ever buy. Because nothing in this book is something you don’t know of.” Now this I can get on with.

I liked how he talks about how our actions are more important than our thoughts.

I liked how he mentions that just because you are good at something, doesn’t mean that thing makes you happy.

I liked how he mentions how we control our happiness, which is why it should not depend on external things.

I liked how he tells us to read the books we want to read & not the ones we should.

I liked how he values & conveys the importance of a sleep schedule.

I liked how he has written about why it is vital to stay calm.

I liked how he decoded the simplest logic behind procrastination. (It was true in my case.)

I liked how he rewires our brain into telling us why we usually don’t prioritise.

If you are a person who can relate to these things, then you should read Do Epic Shit. The writing, though simple, has a lasting impact. Like Ankur has mentioned that he has merely taken his basic thoughts & organised them in a better way so that it is applicable to the world at large. I found that to be true in all the pages of the book. I have rated it at 3.5/5 stars!

Check out the full review here!

~~JANUARY READING STATS~~

In 2022, I am now updating my reading progress on Goodreads as well as StoryGraph. And because I am doing this double work, I thought of adding the stats from Storygraph in my monthly roundup posts! Here they are!

That is all. I had a completely different TBR at the beginning of the month. But, because of my mood reading, I ended up reading these set of books. Well, I still have 40+ unread books on my bookshelf. Be it this month or next, I am definitely reading all of them till the year end!

How many books did you read? Tell me which ones were your favourite!

Until next time,