Last Month In Review: January 2013

January sure had more downs than ups this time around.  My husband and mom had dreadful medical issues they were dealing with, and so did one of my best friends, and when we got back from visiting my mom in Wisconsin, I finally succumbed to the cold I'd been keeping at bay since mid-December. My reading reflects that this month, as audio books and Harry Potter comprise the bulk of my reading. In chronological order:

1. Benediction by Kent Haruf.  I started off 2013 with a bang, reading a book that truly will be difficult to top. Admittedly I started this one in December but I read the bulk of it in January. If you're at all interested in hearing how I go on and on about how much I love it, the review is here.

2. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (audio). I've listened to this book so many times that there are parts I can quote along with the recording, but it's so good, and I was much in need of a comfort read/listen, so I indulged myself again.  I love Bill Bryson.  Maybe not quite in the leave-my-husband-to-move-to-England-to-be-with-him kind of way, but pretty close. I rave about the book and the time I met Bryson here. Correction: I rave about a previous Bill Bryson audio in that post, but go ahead and click on over anyway because it's got knives and shit in it, as Stephen Katz might put it.

3. Amity and Sorrow by Peggy Riley. This book puzzled me quite a bit as I was reading it.  It was only when I got to one of the final chapters that one of Sorrow's personality traits clicked into place for me, and after having dinner with the author last week (have I mentioned how much I love my job lately?), that I really appreciated this book.  Review here.

4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling.  Speaking of Harry Potter...I'm participating in the readalong sponsored by Alice at Reading Rambo. As a bookseller, I barely make time to read to read any book already published, but I love Alice and I'm wild about Harry, and frankly, comfort reading is important when one is stressed. So sure, re-reading seven books (at approximately 4 bazillion pages of backlist) is my thing this year. I figure that it's better than giving in to the sleeping giant of alcoholism lying dormant in my body. Most days all I want is a drink. There's a certain amount of facetiousness there, but I'm not saying what the percentage is. Anyway, the posts are here and here.

5. Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson (audio). This was also a reread/relisten. See #2 above. It also turns out to be an abridged production, which I didn't realize when I bought it.  I had the old audio cassette of it years and years ago, and nothing makes me want to head for parts unknown quite as much as reading about someone who does.

6. Home Is a Roof Over a Pig by Aminta Arrington.  I started this books months ago and finally finished it in January.  A good travel memoir about an American family who decide to raise their children in China. Review here.

7. The Best Revenge by Arsinoe de Blassenville.  This is a novel-length work of Harry Potter fanfiction that I've read a couple of times before.  It's quite well done, taking the familiar meme of how Harry's life would have been different if it had been Snape and not Hagrid who rescued him from his family. Well-balanced, lacking the notable anti-Slytherin balance found in the books, AND Harry gets sorted into Hufflepuff. You can read it here.

8. This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith (YA). Funny and bittersweet tale of two teens who accidentally "meet" when one of them receives a text intended for a different recipient.  I hope to review it soon.

9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J K Rowling. See #4 above. You can find the discussions here and here.

10. Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber (audio). Once again, I didn't realize that this was an abridged edition until after I borrowed it. I love books that tie food & romance together and wrap them up in a big multicultural bow, but this one disappointed. I think the abridgement was unsuccessful, as there were multiple points during the recording when contradictory and/or impossible things happened in the narrative that can only be explained by a clumsy abridgement.

So, it looks like January was a productive month for me, what with the ten books and all, but three of them were audios (two of which were abridged) and two of them were re-reads of middle-grade books. There was only one adult novel that I started and finished in the month, and that's Amity & Sorrow.