Hooooo boy am I glad January is come and gone. I know we should not wish the year away, but I have not met very many people who think that January is not a slog to get through. As a teacher, it is particularly rough because that pay schedule is brutal.
I have started the new semester off with big projects for all of my kids, so I did not get a lot of reading in. I did manage to get in 3 finished reads and have one I am still working my way through. I also kept to my resolution to get back into watching movies in 2019 by managing at least one a weekend.
January Run Down:
Books:
- Where the Crawdads Sing (Rating: ♦♦♦/5)
- This was my book club’s January selection, and it felt good to dive into a title that was all over Book-net. I loved the main character. Kya may be one of my new top 5 female MC’s. Her resourcefulness and the fullness of her character were beautifully depicted. I found the use of the few black supporting characters to be a little bit one-note, however, and the ending was a little too “text before the credits in a biopic” tidy for me.
- Return of the King (Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦/5)
- Finally, I have tackled the beast that is The Lord of the Rings. I started this way back in October as a read-along hosted by @literaryhistory on Instagram. While I found The Hobbit a little lacking in character depictions, The Lord of the Rings series was a masterful work. There were some character depictions that I felt may have been a little racially-tinged (I will be looking into some literary scholarship by People of Color soon thanks to some thoughts I am struggling with in this read), and I found the book stretched on a little too long after the ring was destroyed, but I am amazed at Tolkien’s follow through on this vision.
- The Last Equation of Isaac Severy (Rating: ♦♦/5)
- The Goodreads group for the Popsugar Reading Challenge chooses a prompt every month to do as a group read. The prompt for January was “A book revolving around a puzzle/game” since January is National Puzzle Month. This one had an interesting premise, but I went in expecting a puzzle-based mystery and got a very problematic family drama.
Movies (One-Sentence Reviews)
- Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Rating: ♦♦♦.5/5)
- This movie had an interesting premise and engaging acting, but the choose-your-own adventure style quickly became circular in a way that was exhausting.
- Private Lives (Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦/5)
- Kathryn Hahn’s portrayal of a mom struggling with fertility was a struggle to watch in the best way an actor can make it, and she was surrounded by a phenomenal supporting cast of all your favorite secondary characters.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦/5)
- This was complete fun from start-to-finish in a way that I haven’t seen since Guardians of the Galaxy with an incredible eye for detail in the animation and the best soundtrack since Black Panther.
- Creed II (Rating: ♦♦♦/5)
- There was an incredible use of spectacle and an incredible soundtrack, but it suffered, in the way so many Rocky movies do, from feeling very recycled.
- Roma (Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦/5)
- This movie had an honesty that I have not felt since Boyhood, and Alfonso Cuarón pays meticulous attention to every detail making you feel the love.
February TBR:
- Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
- I am finishing up this one from January for the Popsugar prompt “A book you want to be made into a movie.” I am enjoying being back with Darrow, even if it’s not quite as fun this time around, and I like the other voices Brown has picked to co-narrate.
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- This one got bumped up on my list when @paperbackbones picked it as her February #ArdentlyAustenBookClub pick for the month of February. I started this one yesterday, and I like it so far even though I find Austen’s lack of character names during dialogue troublesome at times.
- Beartown by Fredrik Backman
- My book club host picked this as our February read, and I am excited to experience this much-hyped book for myself. Although, I am a little wary of what I’ve heard of the subject matter.
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
- The Goodreads group picked this for February’s group read prompt “A book with ‘Love’ in the title.” This is another one I am excited to experience.
- Pride by Ibi Zoboi
- I am pairing this with Pride and Prejudice for the double Advanced prompts “2 books that share the same title.” I am planning to pick this up at the end of the month to experience an “Own Voices” adaptation after reading the classic version.
These are not all the books I plan to get to this month, but I am sticking to my goal of not planning a TBR beyond Group reads/Book clubs. My big goal after these planned reads is to tackle my sad stack of ARC’s, because I have a lot for March and a depressingly long backlist.
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