Books Read in January 2023!

Posted On January 31, 2023

Hi Readers! Just like that one month is down already. How was January for you? Did you stick to your New Year resolutions and making progress? Or is February the month you actually start working on them? Haha, either way, I am way behind on my 23 Goals of 2023. I might start in March, so you are already winning, but it’s not a competition! The only thing I did this month was R&R, that’s rest and reading!

I read 8 books across 3478 pages in January! All of them were fiction novels across historical fiction, short stories, contemporary and mystery. I read 5 books from my physical TBR and 3 books digitally.

~~BOOKS I LOVED~~

~~The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili~~

I had wanted to read The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili since a long time! I think I bought it more than a year ago and never got to reading it because of the 900+ pages and the small font. But this year I really wanted to read a lot of thick books and can get me entirely emotionally invested and thereby devasted! This one sure did its job well. It’s going to be one of my 2023 favorites for sure. I am still processing it and I do plan to write a review on this one soon. I just need to find a way of manoeuvring through my feelings and emotions into thoughts to be able to write anything coherent about this masterpiece! I have rated The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili at 5/5 stars!

~~Signal Moon by Kate Quinn~~

Signal Moon is a very short short story which is a combination of historical fiction and science fiction. I have loved 3 out of the 4 historical fiction novels written by Kate Quinn. So, I am really glad I enjoyed this one so much. I would love to read even a 400-page novel if she combines these two favourite genres of mine! I have rated Signal Moon by Kate Quinn at 5/5 stars!

~~Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami~~

Another one of my reading goals is to read all of Murakami’s books this year, as in read the ones that I haven’t read yet. This book is a collection of short stories with different kinds of weird stories, some sensical and some with magical realism. I loved most of them and reading this book was like being home. The writing is like warmth on a wintery day. You just want to keep on reading and be in that cocoon of the Murakami world. I have rated Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami at 4/5 stars!

~~Beartown by Fredrick Backman~~

I tried to read Beartown a couple of years ago but could not get into it at all. I had DNFed it after 100 or so pages. Fast forward to 2023 when I finished the book in 2 days! I like to think that I grew as a person in these 2 years and that made me read this book with a fresh perspective. Beartown is the first book in a three-part series. I will post one review with all three in it once I finish the third book The Winner. I have rated Beartown by Fredrick Backman at 4/5 stars!

~~BOOKS I LIKED~~

~~The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn~~

This book is the only exception when it comes to my love for Kate Quinn’s historical fiction books. I have loved The Alice Network, The Rose Code, The Huntress and Signal Moon, but I didn’t quite love The Diamond Eye as much. It had the premise of being amazing what with a young mother who is a book lover who switched her books for a rifle. But, somehow I felt that the story was flat with predictability revolving around it and not much of a wow factor that usually exists multiple times in the other books. I have rated The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn at 3/5 stars!

You can read the full review here!

~~How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie~~

I had shelved this book in June of last year, so I just randomly picked it because I needed something fun and light after I finished reading The Eighth Life. I quite enjoyed it for the most part of the story, but then the ending was wildly disappointing. But, it did make for a good reading experience for about 90% of the book, so that’s an almost win! I have rated How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie at 3/5 stars!

You can read the full review here!

~~BOOKS I HATED~~

~~Us Against You by Fredrick Backman~~

The second book in the Beartown series was a disappointment. Beartown ended with a lot of closure but I was deeply interested in the future of this ice hockey town, so I immediately started reading this book. But, the first 100 pages went in recapping the first books, then next 200 pages had little to no story progression and then only in the last 100 pages did I got to see some action. So, overall my high hopes led to a very sad and boring end. I have rated Us Against You by Fredrick Backman at 3/5 stars!

~~The Trees by Percival Everett~~

The Trees was among The Shortlist for Booker Prize in 2022. Everyone on Instagram and Goodreads raved about the book. I read it and found it okay. It is not an easy book to read. It has a lot of gore and murders, but it is not a mystery novel. It is a satire. This genre wasn’t for me at all. True, I love reading between the lines and come up with interpretations. But, not in this style of writing. The message was important, completely agree. But, I would rather read books like ‘The Hate U Give’ than The Trees. But, that’s of course, just how I like my books. I have rated The Trees by Percival Everett at 2/5 stars!

~~JANUARY READING STATISTICS~~

I am currently reading Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton and might start reading The Winners by Fredrick Backman soon enough. In terms of my book buying ban, I broke it only once this month to buy 2 books: Us Against You and The Winners. I am going to do my best not to break it in February. But, I know I will break it in March to buy the much awaited newly published books: Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner! Happy Reading!

Until next time,