The 16 Books I Read in January
It’s been a minute, but I’m back to posting my book reviews here on the blog for easy searching. It’s nice to be able to search for books and reviews here, and hopefully it’s helpful for you all too.
Here are the 16 books I read in January:
Fighting Forward: The Nitty-Gritty Guide to Beating the Lies that Hold You Back
by Hannah Brencher
review:
First book of 2021 was the BEST CHOICE. my girl @hannahbrencher hit me right in the feels and gave me a swift kick in the pants (in love!!!) with this one— it’s fiery and full of truth and quite honestly was exactly what I needed. i highlighted the heck out of it and already added “watch for foxes” and “count the ravens” pages to my journal (read it to understand!)— her heart and her wisdom are so genuinely GOOD and needed in our world.
So, so grateful for HB. the passage she highlighted and tagged for me made me cry— “Share your tools. Share your gifts. Share what you are learning, and don’t hold back. Help people set little fires everywhere”. 😭 my life goal, for real.
okay I could go on and on but GET THIS BOOK.
Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart
by Christena Cleveland
review:
This book. 🙌🏼 This was one I read and studied with a @hopecentralrva small group last fall, which I think is the way it should be read. The discussions we had (as Black, white, Hispanic, male/female, varied age believers) were challenging and rich and catalytic. I’m so grateful for the way we were able to use this wise and thoughtful book as a launching point into really honest, sometimes hard, incredibly helpful and hopeful conversations.
I could quote you dozens and dozens of lines and passages, but instead, I’ll recommend you read it yourself (with others!!) if you’re a person of faith wondering how we do this work of reconciliation and rebuilding as a body of Christ.
Swing
by Kwame Alexander
review:
I’m... not over this one. It’s free verse and fast paced and sweet and snappy and then the ending... 😭 Plz tell me someone has read this and can be sad with me!!! And if you haven’t read it (or @kwamealexander at all), PLZ DO. So good. Fresh and necessary and telling the stories of young Black men in a way we need— honestly and with real heart.
The Dating Plan
by Sara Desai
review:
It’s a little like The Proposal (movie) mixed with Indian Matchmaking (Netflix show) combined with How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (movie) and it was so delightful!
Love a quirky and diverse lead (more of this, plz!!!) and a male character with complexity, and this served up both in abundance.
How it All Blew Up
by Arvin Ahmadi
review:
This book was a timely, important, multi-cultural, layered story of a boy finding his way in the world, living into the truth of who he is, and navigating the rocky terrain of religious, familial, and societal pressures and expectations. I’m so grateful for books like this one, that give me a chance to “climb into someone’s skin and walk around in it” like Atticus Finch said. I’ll never know what it’s like to be Muslim and gay as a teenage boy in America, but this book gave me a peek into that experience. It didn’t seem completely realistic (his solo jaunt to Italy to escape his family finding out his sexuality was a bit far-fetched, and the friends he met there seemed too old for him) but hey— it’s a story, it took some liberties, and it all was part of making the point that we can’t ever outrun who we are, or how loved we are.
On Mystic Lake
by Kristin Hannah
review:
Tackled this backlist read from @kristinhannahauthor (a fave of mine!) for #aradreadingchallengeand it confirmed (once again) how brilliant she is at telling moving, meaningful, magical stories.
There are some poignant themes in this one (TW: suicide, an affair, infant death), some Virgin River vibes (which I read/watched recently so it’s on my mind), and I loved the way it all played out. I can’t wait to keep making my way through Hannah’s catalog until I’ve read them all! (and stoooooked she has a new book coming in February 🙌🏼)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson
review:
This book is INCREDIBLE. It’s truly an epic— a nonfiction story of the great migration of Black Americans out of the South, told through the lives of three individuals, making a massive and historic era in our nation feel personal and intimate. I can’t rave about it enough.
I had to annotate this one as I read, because there was just too much I wanted to highlight and remember. Swipe to see the legend for how I color coded my flags— it’s the first time I’ve ever done this while reading but it helped me engage so much and find deeper meaning in these stories.
This book will open your eyes, break your heart, expand your mind, deepen your understanding, call you to grieve, and stir you to action.
It’s important. It’s impressively crafted. It’s imperative for us to understand what happened in our past before having any hope of working toward a better future.
Long story short— read this. Keep a highlighter handy.
How to Find Love in a Bookshop
by Veronica Henry
review:
I am still squealing (internally) about how much I loved this book! It’s so quaint and charming, has the best cast of characters, is centered on the kind of bookstore I dream about... it was lovely. It felt a little like Love Actually meets You’ve Got Mail, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Never Never: The Complete Series
by Colleen Hoover
review:
I’m back on my CoHo grind, tackling that backlist! This series (which I guess technically is three books in one but reads like one book in three parts) had me HOOKED. It’s like if John Green books met In a Holidaze (or any time loop plot) and a dash of Riverdale got thrown in the mix.
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
by Glory Edim
review:
There's a quote in this book from James Baldwin that says "You think your pain and your heartbreak is unprecedented in the history of the world, and then you read." It gets to the heart of why this book is so important-- it's a collection of Black women writing on the stories, the characters, the book, the authors who showed them they weren't alone in their experiences, that their pain or their heartbreak or their circumstances weren't unprecedented. Every essay is beautiful and powerful, each one illuminating to me again and again the power of words to connect us, to convict us, to heal us, to help us.
My to-be-read list grew a LOT while reading of the books these women recommended, and I look forward to continuing my exploration of books by Black authors.
I'll say this until my dying day-- PLEASE read books by authors who don't look like you, who aren't from where you're from, who don't believe what you believe, who have lived different lives than you have. It's important. It's imperative. We need to grow in empathy and compassion, in kindness and respect, in appreciation for diversity and all of our complexity.
Grateful for the stories shared in this anthology, and will be keeping it on my shelf to refer back to often.
Jackpot
by Nic Stone
review:
Nic Stone is SUH GOOD. I’ve loved everything she’s written. This one tackled some touchy things (poverty and wealth, classism, not having health insurance, biracial relationships, single parenthood, etc) while still reading like the young adult novel it is. It’s centered around two teens who come from very different worlds who end up teaming up to try to hunt down a winning lottery ticket that could change one of their lives. It has light moments, humor, a lot of realness, and an end I didn’t expect but really loved! Basically, if you come across a Stone book, READ IT.
Outlawed
by Anna North
review:
The premise of this one totally intrigued me— a feminist spin on a western? Count me in! But even with the hype and a lot of great components, it didn’t quite click for me. There were Handmaid’s Tale vibes for sure, and a ragtag bunch of women (all outcasts, some barren, some queer, some mentally ill), but ultimately I felt like it skimmed the surface too much and loved too fast for any really good stuff to happen. I wanted to dive deeper into this quirky cast of characters, and hear more of their lives and adventures, but didn’t quite get that. I read it fast and couldn’t put it down, don’t get me wrong, but would have loved another 100 pages of depth (especially with Lark + Ada!!!).
Swimming Lessons: Poems
by Lili Reinhart
review:
These poems were... not great? Look, I love poetry, and I’m all about expressing yourself in verse... but these felt really shallow and cliche and overly simplistic/basic to me. 😬
I just didn’t enjoy it and didn’t resonate at all. Oh well.
Layla
by Colleen Hoover
review:
I... don’t know what I just read ??? CoHo, girl, I love you, but this was... bizarre. Ghosts and paranormal activity and weird love triangles through dimensions and inhabiting people’s bodies and deranged exes... I was hooked, don’t get me wrong, but also, what the heck?!
I don’t really know what else say about this one 😶
Six of Crows
by Leigh Bardugo
review:
I don’t know how to write a review for this book when i am SQUEALING and my heart is EXPLODING and i am DYING for the sequel!!! it. was. amazing.
It took a minute for me to get into the world and follow all the unique names of people/places/things, but then it hooked me HARD and i could not put it down!
WHAT A BOOK. what a world! what a story! what a CAST OF CHARACTERS. i mean, the hero (anti-hero?) has a disability 🙌🏼 different races and ethnicities are represented 🙌🏼 characters have diverse love interests 🙌🏼 a main character is fat 🙌🏼 these characters have overcome abuse and poverty and tragedy and everything under the sun but still are lovable and courageous and loyal...
i just loved it all. every little bit of it. why it took me so long to dive into the world of fantasy i will NEVER KNOW but there is no going back now!!!
