Emily’s Monthly Wrap Up- January 2020

My Favorite Reads

Am I the only one that felt like January lasted FOREVER?! This was the longest month in memorable history. I got some decent reading done, though not quite as much as December. I have a ton of travel coming up next month, so I’m hoping to be able to get more reading done on the various airplanes and hotel rooms I’ll be in!

Apparently my theme for January was “blue covers” with the exception of Greenglass house. I really loved Such a Fun Age (you can check out my review here) and Come Tumbling Down (in this house we stan Seanan McGuire). Look out next week for my reviews of We Unleash the Merciless Storm and Come Tumbling Down!

Books That Weren’t My Cup of Tea

I tried reading Old in Art School by Nell Irvin Painter, which was the pick for my book club this month, and just really couldn’t get into it. A lot of what I’m reading lately has been lighter and frothier, so I think it was a case of right book, wrong time.

Favorite Posts

We managed to post every day this month and had our best month yet! I’m really proud of a few of our posts, and wanted to share them again here in case you’d missed them!

• My very favorite post this month was Multigenerational Monday, where my son, my dad and me all read and reviewed the same book. I love sharing my love of reading with my family and this post was so fun to put together! I *think* we’ve settled on next month’s read, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
• We started our very own feature with Monday Matinee! Haley kicked it off with some really creepy horror recommendations based on her favorite horror movies, and I recommended a few books to read if you loved The Witcher.
• We shone the spotlight on Ashlords by Scott Reintgen, with a super fun Q&A with the author, a review of the book, and even a Themed Thursday post where we recommended some books to check out if you loved Ashlords (like we did!).
• We continued to help you pick your favorite Book of the Month selection with our monthly summary posts. We’ve been so pleased with the feedback you all have given us! If you haven’t picked yet, the Adult BOTM summaries are here and the YA BOTM summaries are here.
• We dipped a tiny toe in the American Dirt controversy, but mostly just to give you some awesome ownvoice Latinx author recommendations that you should definitely check out!
• And finally, we opened the Reading Room and shared reviews of Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, Highfire by Eoin Colfer, as well as Ashlords and Such a Fun Age (both linked above). We also tried to make a dent in our Netgalley queue with a few Bites from our Backlist with some mini reviews of upcoming books.

What About You?

What did you read this month that you loved? Was there anything that just wasn’t working for you? Do you have any posts that you are proud of this month that you want to share? We can’t wait to chat with you in the comments!