What I Read in January + First Book Club Pick 📖
All levels of bookworms welcome!
Dear Reader,
Well, we made it! January has (slowly) come and gone and I could not be more thrilled. I am fully aware that this month is going to bring about more changes and some difficult times thanks to our neighbours to the south but hey, the days are getting longer and February is the month of 💕looooove💕. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m a Valentine’s Day fanatic but that’s a different post altogether.
I read a lot in January. Arguably too much, by how they’ve all blended into my head.
But in hopes of staying consistent in your inbox, I want to start each month chatting about what I read and reviewing the previous month’s book club pick! If I am going to mention spoilers (although I am quite good at reviews while avoiding those) I will make sure to do a very noticeable callout!
Reading can feel like an isolating hobby sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be.
I’ve said it before, but this book club is meant to be as easy as you’d like it. Sure, we can chat on the app, or you could just use it as a way to pick up a book that wasn’t on your TBR yet! It’s virtual and you can be anywhere in the dang world - library reads are encouraged in any format you like. And then if you want to chat about it on social or in email, that’s super welcome too! Reading can feel like an isolating hobby sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be. And that’s coming from a true hermit of a bookworm, especially in the winter.
Now, what did I finish in January?
What a lineup, am I right? I’m proud of the amount of genres I touched on, as someone who typically reads only thrillers. I started making an active go at diversifying my genres at the end of last year and I’m keeping it going!
The Best Listen:
Okay I will be listing two here, and I’m not sorry about it.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir is a must-listen over a read, even if it is painful to hear straight from Matthew. The book was published less than a year before he passed, and I admittedly put off reading it because it seemed too sad to do so. I’m very glad I did, but it absolutely wrecked me. It’s a tough listen, but completely worth it.
Now in a completely different direction, The Dutch House is a beautiful listen voiced by Tom Hanks. It’s a book you sink into, and end up enthralled by. A wonderful accompaniment to your daily commute!
If You’re Going to Pick Just One:
A Flicker in the Dark is, dare I say, a stunning debut that is perfect for thriller lovers! Told from the POV of the daughter of a famed serial killer, it has great twists but enough depth that it’s stood out for me (because we know I read a looooot of thrillers).
I’d Skip It (I Guess):
If it were truly horrible, I wouldn’t have finished it, but I would skip Twisted Love. It’s a very hyped spicy book on TikTok (it’s a series) and I was bored! Which says a lot, because I do love a smutty read.
Now here is when I would chat about the previous pick but instead, I will just ramble about the book club in general:
It’s totally free - there is an app if you’d like (it’s a super cute book-tracking app!)
Completely virtual, you can join from anywhere in the world
Extremely low effort and what I mean by this is that you can chat in the app, you can respond to my email OR you can just read a book by yourself and know that others are too if you want to chat! I get asked for book recos often (and I love it, please don’t stop) but rarely am I reading a book at the same time as a friend!
The first book up, and I’ll touch on it the first week of March, is a Canadian read…The Lightning Bottles!
The author of New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick Lucky returns with a spellbinding story of rock ’n’ roll and star-crossed love—about grunge-era musician Jane Pyre’s journey to find out what really happened to her husband and partner in music, who abruptly disappeared years earlier.
I’ve enjoyed Marissa’s Lucky myself and am excited for this one!
Until next chapter,
PS - if you reply to this email (or any) I can email you back! Just in case you want to chat :)
Scrolled to the bottom? Relatable. Here’s some fun stuff for ya:
📚 What I’m reading: I can admit I’m reading more and writing less these days (whoops) and right now have a few on the go - two are audiobooks and one is physical:
🎶 What I’m listening to: In anticipation of an upcoming concert, I’ve been bumping Foster the People’s latest!
📆 What’s up next for me: Not quite bookish, but I will be speaking on a panel in March at BrainStation! It’ll be an early morning session, and I’ll share more on LinkedIn closer to.
