My January Reading List

Ok you guys. Basically every January I tell myself this will be the year I start reading more and then it’s December and I only got through a few books. Enough of that nonsense, this IS the year of more books. Drama, thrillers, self improvement, design, cook books. I am actively making time to read, and it feels good!

Side note: One thing that’s really helped me is becoming aware of how much time I spend on my phone. Have you tried the app called Moment? It keeps track of how long we’re on our phones, what apps we’re using the most etc. It’s frightening. I realized that instead of mindlessly scrolling through Instagram for 30 minutes in the evening I can use that time to read..who knew?! It’s been a huge game changer for me.

Another helpful thing is that a few women in my neighborhood got together and we started a book club! January was our first meeting and I’m really excited to learn about new books and to have a deadline to finish them by (for us it’s the last Wednesday of every month).

Between book club and my own desire to read on a consistent basis I’ve been building up quite the reading list and gathering some great recommendations from y’all on Instagram. So I figured why not start a book club page for us all to refer to? This is going to be fun!

I will be creating a formal page on my site but anything that has to do with technology takes me much longer than it should and I’m just too excited to wait. So while I work on that behind the scenes I wanted to list off a few books I’ve read thus far and the next few on my list! I’m going to rate those I’ve read (scale of 1-5, 5 being the best) and give my reasoning behind the rating.

Here’s what I read in January and my thoughts:

The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

Rating: 2/5
For those of you who can stop reading a book because you feel it isn’t worth your time, I envy you. I just have to finish them, even if I’m bored to tears or don’t like what I’m reading– it’s very annoying. I had fairly high hopes for this and was majorly disappointed.
It’s the story of the Plumb family, 4 siblings who have some drama over a shared inheritance and the ins and outs of eachs’ fairly dysfunctional life. It was longer than it needed to be and boring with a capital B. Womp womp.

The Book Club by Mary Alice Monroe

Rating: 3/5
My neighborhood book club decided to read this one as our first book because of the title, and the author is located here in Charleston!
It’s the story of 5 women who have formed special friendships from their book club. Each of them go through some sort of transition or challenge in their lives and the book club members are there to help them through tough times.
It was ok but I felt some of the characters were underdeveloped. It’s a light read and I was intrigued to see how it ended, but it’s nothing I’d rave about. I believe this was one of the author’s first books and have heard that her more recent work is much better!

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Rating: 4/5
This was actually a December read, we listened to it on the car ride up to NY for the holidays. It’s SO good!
Alice falls off a spin bike and her world is turned upside down. She wakes thinking everything is normal and that she’s 29 years old and pregnant with her first child. Little does she know, she’s actually 39, has three children and is going through a divorce. With the help of her friends and family she tries to deal with this sudden memory loss and understand how her world has changed so much in only ten years.

Next up are books high on my list, all that I’m very excited for!

Room by Emma Donoghue – I just started this and am pretty sure it’s going to suck me in! I’ve also heard the movie is so good!
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult – I listened to this when it first came out, it was ok. We are reading it this month for book club so I’ll go back through it again. (Will give my little review after I read it the second time around)
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – So many people recommended this to me thanks to a little discussion on my Instagram story. Can’t wait for this one!
Bear Town by Fredrik Backman – Another one that keeps popping up on my Good Reads app!
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman – Yep, you guessed it– heard lots of great reviews on this one too!

I could go on and on with my “want to read” list but I’ll stop there for now. Please comment below and tell me suggestions you have! I could also use your help- I want to create a book club hashtag so we can all follow one another on social media and get even more recommendations. Two that came to mind are #pineapplesandpages (but I think it’s too long?) or #booksandbubbles (but there are already 500 of those!). If you have any thoughts on this send them my way pretty please!

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