Books I read in January

Hello all. I haven't been writing anything recently. I know, guilty as charged. But it's been a very long week for me and I have been really busy....doing absolutely nothing. I cannot muster enough energy to even go and read the great stuff on your blogs, not to mention to write a comment here and there. The only thing that I did manage to do was reading, but that doesn't really count, since I also managed to sleep and eat and these hardly require extra energy.

Anyway, since January is over (thank you Lord!) I figured I'll start keeping record of books I read each month. Just another thing that'll help me keep on track with the reading challenges I signed up for.



1. The Kingmaking by Helen Hollick (not due in the stores until March 2009, I will be posting
my review and the author's guest blog in the last week of february. For
now, let me just say that it was a great historical novel.)


2. The Blessings by Anna Quindlen (it was okay, but not good enough to encourage me to read more of her work)


3. Chocolat by Joanne Harris ( I posted the review, a wonderful little book).


4. The Testament by David Morrell (an okay thriller, not enough for a review).


5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read for a book club discussion, quite good actually.
One of the better YA novels I've read).


6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (I think everybody has heard about this one, it was a
good YA book, very intelligent and emotive, something we need more of
for our young readers).


7. The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber (I reviewed this one a couple of weeks
back. I liked it very much, especially the writing style of Mr. Gruber).


8. Mr. X by Peter Straub (the only horror so far this year).


9. Conan Doyle's Wallet by Patrick McNamara (paranormal non-fiction that gave me a few
sleepless nights, I might add).


10. Andorra by Peter Cameron (I don't know what to say about this one, the writing was really
good, very evocative and the ending was quite surprising).

I also listened to audiobooks.

1. One For The Money by Janet Evanovich (quite funny, it did cause me to giggle here and there).

2. High Profile by Robert B. Parker (I think this one exemplifies why some books should not be recorded).

3. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster (a very weird book, I didn't quite know what to make out of it but I also couldn't stop listening to it either. It was dark, tragic but somehow alluring).

I think I got pretty lucky with the selection. All the books were either really good or at least good enough to read through to the end. The only thing I will say is that there was no book with a Wow! factor there, where 'Wow!' translates into: 'OMG, the book was absolutely fantastic, I think I'm gonna read it again'.
February will be primarily an ARC month, I have quite a pile growing. I hope I won't have to write negative reviews. So far they all look quite interesting.