I have been rather delinquent with my blog. It has been a rough winter, and my brain hasn’t been present. However, with the new year made me make a promise to myself: Be here. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy books again. And that, at least, has been successful. I read five books in January, which doesn’t seem crazy, but felt pretty good. These books were diverse, they were almost all written by women, and I had a blast reading them. Will I review them all? Probably not. I can’t promise something that may not come to fruition. But each of these books deserve “page time.”

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• On Lighthouses, by Jazmina Barrera, published in 2020 (originally published in the Spanish in 2017).
  • My husband bought this for me when we were out in Greenport for my 30th birthday. I am obsessed with lighthouses, and this was like balm on a sad soul. I took my time reading this little volume, and brought in the new year cuddled up to stories of lighthouses and stories of insanity and loneliness.
  • I gave this 3.5 waves, mostly because of my own internal bias about the author’s age (I have a hard time giving credence to her ruminations on the nature of life and death when she is my age), but I did love the Woolf-ian stream of consciousness style and the great deal of research that went into this.

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• A Three Book Problem, by Vicki Delany, published January 11th of 2022.
  • I received this as an ARC from Netgalley, and was thrilled since I am a devoted Sherlockian and reader of Vicki Delany books. This is number 7 in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, and I have been reading the series ever since it started.
  • This was a solid 3 waves from me – not the best, not the worst in the series. And, I was shockingly not too delinquent in this blog post (see full review here).

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• The Librarian Always Rings Twice, by Marty Wingate, published January 4th of 2022
  • This series is on my yearly pre-order list because how can you beat a librarian that lives in a manor house and gives tours about Golden Age authoresses? This is number 3 in the series, and was by far the best so far.
  • 4.5 waves from me for the fun seaside references and my favorite mystery sub-genre. This will probably get its own review, as I have reviewed book 1 and book 2.

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• Strange Planet: The Sneaking, Hiding, Vibrating Creature, by Nathan Pyle, published June 1st of 2021
  • I have been following Pyle’s comics for years – who can beat aliens encountering cats? – And then I saw his book coming out and managed to snag a signed first edition.
  • Five waves for me. This is 30 pages of pure unadulterated kitty joy. Exactly what I needed during a book slump.

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• Payback’s a Witch, by Lana Harper, published October 5th of 2021
  • My good friend and book buddy gave this to me since we have pretty similar tastes and a love of good romance/witchy books. This seemed to fit the bill times 100.
  • This ended up being 3 stars for me. While I loved the magical worldbuild and system, the dialogue was juvenile and the plot point a little too “John Tucker Must Die” meets “The Craft” for me. I will probably do a full review for this book, since it should be right up my alley but fell a little short.

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Conclusion:

January was an insane month for me at work. I am grateful to have found the time for the books I finished, and love that it included non-fiction and LGBT romance since my goal this year is to expand my reading horizons. This trend has continued into February, so stay tuned! What were your favorite books from last month?