#january reading wrap up

[godzilla-reads]

❄️January 2025 Reading Wrap Up❄️

🐓 Have You Met the Witch of the Wood? by Annie Dowdell

👗 Fairie-ality: The Fashion Collection from the House of Ellwand by Eugenie Bird, David Downton, and David Ellwand

🐭 Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehmann and Kerascoët (trans. Helge Dascher)

🦌 The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

🐰 Four Little Bunnies by Harry Whittier Frees

🌳 The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

❄️ The Wood in Winter by John Lewis-Stempel

❤️ On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

🐺 White Wolf: Living with an Arctic Legend by Jim Brandenburg

🌖 The Brightest Night by Tui T. Sutherland and Mike Holmes

January Total: 10 books

Top Three: The Butcher of the Forest; The Word for World is Forest; and White Wolf

What did you read this month?

[lexreadsdiversely]

Lex's January Reading Wrap Up! 🌨

Since I'm participating in @batmanisagatewaydrug 's 2025 book bingo, my reading wrap ups will look a little different this year. At the end of each month I'll post my bingo board, talk about what I've completed (both part of and outside of the board) and what else I've been reading. I am at all times rotating between like 6+ books, so it'll be fun to talk about progress with those.

And I got my first box, whoooo!

Read (Bingo):

Reread a Childhood Favorite: The Baby-Sitters Club #25: Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise by Ann M. Martin

Read (Non-Bingo):

N/A

Currently Reading:

Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi - 55% complete. Reading this is like watching the most bisexual car crash in slow motion, and I mean that as the highest compliment.

We Don't Swim Here by Vincent Tirado - page 96/297. Endlessly confused as to why Tirado isn't more well-known. This book has everything. Sibling rivalry, ritual sacrifice, lesbians, estranged cousins simultaneously on the same and opposite sides, creepy lake, ghost bus. It's so good!

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - Page 29/182. I'll admit, my having watched The Haunting (with Catherine Zeta-Jones *heart eyes*) growing up might be making this feel slower to get through, but I do like it. I especially like seeing more deeply into Eleanor's thoughts/background and filling the gaps that the movie left.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - Page 57/336. Calling it now, this will be the book that takes me the longest to get through this year, and I'm cool with that. It feels like a good book to take in a little at a time and really digest it. I'm so intrigued by whatever Mia's got going on (I'm getting big bipolar + past trauma related to Pearl's bio father vibes?). Haven't seen much of Izzy yet, but I'm looking forward to her. Already kind of a fan after that opening tbh

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram - 20% complete. Okay, so. This is cool so far, and I like the conversation happening around depression and suicide. I particularly like that it's being discussed through a character who feels he's had a good life but still can't shake it off. Dialogue and action writing is pretty good. I want to love this. That being said, some of the descriptions are giant chunks of no-doubt beautiful language that, strung together the way the author saw fit, don't make a goddamm bit of sense. Whole paragraphs have me like "what does this MEAN?" And I'm a fan of funky metaphors, figurative speech, hyperbole. I love dramatics, and these descriptions are so big and dramatic, but unfortunately they don't always land well. I still want to love it, so we'll see what happens.

The End of the Alphabet by Claudia Rankine - 17% complete. Everything is going over my head and it very much seems to be a Me issue, but I'm going to be gentle with myself on account of the soon-to-be-tested-for-MS and my processing not being what it used to be. Worth reading in my opinion (most things are) and I'll try again on a better brain day.

That's it for now! If all goes well, I'll hopefully finish most of these in February (3 of them are for the board) and get back to reading short stories again.

Happy reading, my friends!

[kitausu]

What I read...January 2025

The following are all the books I read in January. I made a pact with myself that I would lower my phone screen time down to 4 hours a day or less (total) and that means I ended up reading a LOT more.

I've also just been SO stressed about the world and everything going on in it, so that also means more reading. I will also say, I also just had an amazing reading month. There is not a single book on this list I would not recommend. I loved pretty much every book here and stand by them all.

So let's recap...

Physical Books/eBooks:

Audiobooks:

DNFs:

I truly wanted to like all 4 of these books...but I simply did not.

[tolive1000lives]

My 2024 reading wrap up through March! Only missing the last two books of the Witcher series, which were library books.

[soapyporridge]

[katrinegrey]

January 2025 Reading Wrapped

Total Titles Read in January: 9

Still Currently Reading: 6

Titles Read:

Quicksilver by Callie Hart

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

------

My Mountain Man's Desire by Lena Rae

Star Rating: ⭐⭐& 0.5

------

Psycho Shifters by Jasmine Mas

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ & 0.5

-----

Psycho Fae by Jasmine Mas

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ & 0.25

-----

A Cursed Kiss by Jenny Hickman

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐& 0.25

-----

Her Shadow by Elliot Ason

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

-----

Anthropologists Like It Wet by Elliot Ason

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

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All Knotted Up by Elliot Ason

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐& 0.5

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The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐& 0.25

-----

I track and rate using the 0.25 system and my ratings will shift throughout the year as books sit with me. Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down. The end of the year solidifies it, though, and the next year starts over fresh and new.

After being in such a book slump last year after bingeing books for ApollyCon, I struggled to get back into reading. Eventually I just decided to ride the year out and start fresh in January. I couldn't have picked a better first book to ease my way back into writing. Though so many books in the romantasy genre are divisive, I really loved Quicksilver. I had a great time and it pull me out of the slump.

I also seem to have developed a pattern of reading a large book, usually fantasy/fantasy adjacent followed by a short story or two to cleanse the palette a little. It's helping so much! I don't know why I didn't think of this before.

If you read a short story, do you count it toward your reading goal? I'm struggling with this because it doesn't seem fair to compare the size of Quicksilver to Her Shadow (roughly 670 pages to 30 pages), but I also like to track my titles read. Storygraph and Goodreads both count them as objective books read. Does it even out in the end if it's roughly equal numbers of both creating normal sized novels? Or should it not matter because it's a dorky hobby and anxiety is just creeping on me again?

I haven't made much progress of several of the books I was reading before the slump really hit last year but since I was still enjoying them, I'm hoping to get at least one of those done this month. That's my main goal for February: Get through at least one of the books left over from last year without putting myself back into a slump. Of the six books I'm "currently reading", only one was started this year, last week in fact. I've always been a mood reader to the extreme but now we're approaching a year on one of these and it needs to go. It doesn't help that after DNF'ing so many books last year, I'm hoping to avoid adding to that list this year by only choosing books I really think I'm going to enjoy.

[bookishadventuring]

January reading wrap up 📚🌿✨

This month I read five books (including the netgalley arc for Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Chloe Liese) which isn't as many as I hoped to read, but I had a good time rereading (Tress, Way of Kings, and Amina) and got to read Emily Wilde 3 which was a highly anticipated 2025 release!

Way of Kings as always was a five star read, and Amina was also five stars, which was a great way to start the year 🙌

I never intend to reread this much, especially not three books at the start of the year, but I do love doing it!

Instagram

[asexualbookbird]

It sure has been a Year huh. Ups and downs this month, as life happens. Saw friends I haven't seen in years, went into the city and met new friends, tried new foods, saw some birds, tried new crafts, read new books.

The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Hm! Interesting! Didn't hate it, but something feels missing? Almost like it could've benefited from being at the very least a short novel. It needed more. I also have qualms at this being pitched as sapphic when there is no romance at all and the main character talks a lot about being betrayed by her last romance with a man. One mention of Woman With Hot Thighs. Not mad I read it, might even read it again.

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming ⭐️⭐️ ‐ I'll be honest, one star is Mean but I had a lot more fun reading Fourth Wing and that was two stars. The tone is what dragged this one down for me. It reads like YA, but it's very much not. I do not believe for a second the MC is 24, she doesn't act like it at all. The sex scenes. Are there. I could make an entire post about the book ending on them having penetrative PiV sex. Part of my grievances are me not liking the genre, but I truly think this just isn't that good. Plenty of people on the internet write better more filthy works for free. Why was this sitting unassumingly on the library shelf.

*amended to two stars if this is indeed satire

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P Djèlí Clark ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Fine. Not much to say because it was Completely Average. Not mad I read it, but don't wish to repeat the experience. I think maybe Clark isn't an author for me, as I recall feeling similarly about A Master of Djinn. It's not so much that the characters or world feel flat, but something definitely feels missing. It was silly and lighthearted and gory and I did like that though!

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Another hit from Sarah Beth Durst. I see your Themes. I see your Tropes. Kindness. Found family. Accepting help. All personal attacks on me. Adorable, fun, some sort of cross between T Kingfisher and Becky Chambers, I didn't want it to end, and now have a name for my spider plant. It also seems like I need to get my spider plant a friend.

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo ⭐️⭐️ - I have very mixed feelings about this that are really summarized as This Wasn't For Me. I like the idea that yeah you're a monster but someone loves you anyway. I like using the monster to punish those who called you one. I think there's some very specific midwestern religious trauma that I'm missing to really Get It, though. On top of that, while I recognize the themes and significance in the age gap, a 30 year old going after an 18 year old icks me out. I'd still recommend it with very very heavy reservations.

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal ⭐⭐ - Going to be honest, I just finished this and I'm already moving on. The writing was fine and I'm not put off of the author entirely, but I never felt wowed. I was annoyed more than anything. I didn't love any of the characters, but I didn't really hate anyone either. The amount of people Tesla let pet her service dog drove me nuts. The ending felt slapped together. It never really felt cohesive. I feel vindicated reading that fans of her other books also were unimpressed with this. I wouldn't steer people away from it, but I didn't have a lot of fun.

I'm tentatively excited for February. I have art ideas I'd like to get started on, I am working on a craft thing that I might be able to profit a bit off of, I'm flat out ignoring the world, book club is approaching. I'm looking for good things in the world, and I will find them. That is a threat.

[the---hermit]

January 2025 reading wrap up

My reading year started strongly with a lot more reading than I expected, but also not as well as I would have hoped. I read a couple of books I really didn't enjoy and ended up dnf-ing two books, and pausing one. I feel like in general I am truly doing what I said when setting my non-goals of the year. I am letting myself do what feels the most natural, so I am picking up books, leaving them if I am not vibing with them, and so on. The only thing I am doing strickly is to track my reading to then see what happens, as for the rest no rules at all, no goals, no expectations other than enjoying myself when I sit down to read. And I am having a great time with this approach.

Books read:

Goblin mode by McKayla Coyle

Migrazioni e intolleranza by Umberto Eco

Iliad by Homer

1984 - the graphic novel illustrated by Fido Nesti

Elettra by Jennifer Saint

Animal farm - the graphic novel illustrated by Odyr

Powers of darkness by Valdimar Ásmundsson

Torino magica by Vittorio del Tufo

Books I dnf-end:

Nel buio della casa by Fiore Manni and Michele Monteleone

La vita quotidiana degli alchimisti nel medioevo by Serge Hutin

[theinquisitxor]

January 2025 Reading Wrap Up

I read 10 books in January, which is a very high number for me right now, but January always tends to be the month were I read the most books. I was super happy with what I read this month, and I enjoyed a lot of 5 star reads, but there were a few disappointments.

1.A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft, 3/5 stars. This was my first book of the year, and a bit of a let-down. I've read Saft's other books and liked them all, but this one was an outlier. I liked the folklore and magic, but didn't care much for the characters and themes.

2.Spindle's End by Robin McKinley, 4/5 stars. I want to read everything McKinley's written, and this was the next one I picked up. I loved the magic and worldbuilding, as well as the changes she made from the classic or disney story. I loved the focus on friendship and family love as well.

3.The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This is a new essay published by Kimmerer which I listened to on audio. Another thought provoking and necessary essay about how we live and interact with the world.

4.Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant, 5/5 stars. This was my Random TBR pick for the month, and this book had been on my tbr since 2020. I had such a good time reading this sci-fi horror, and I did not want to put this down. I enjoyed the deep sea horror, our ensemble cast, and the plausibly mad biology.

5. A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett, 4/5 stars. This was my other Random TBR pick for the month, and has been on my tbr since 2018. This was a classic I never read growing up, but I was glad to read it as an adult. I didn't love this as much as The Secret Garden, but I can see why it's so beloved.

6.Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik, 5/5 stars. I don't typically gravitate towards short story collections, but I'm so glad I picked this up. This was a mix of short stories from her publishes series, plus original works. The sneak peak at her newest project was a treat, I recommend picking this up if you are interested!

7.Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid, 2/5 stars. This was another disappointment, but one I can't say I didn't see coming. I've liked all of Reid's other works, but this was not good. I do think Reid is a talented writer, and the writing is very strong, but the rest of this is just not good. Bad portrayal of the middle ages, xenophobic of scotland, butchered the characters from the original. :(

8.The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by HG Parry, 5/5 stars. A new favorite, and HG Parry keeps getting better and better. This is a dark academia magic school book about faeries, portals, 1920s England, classism, friendship, and trying to fix things. I loved this book from start to finish, and it's my favorite I read this month.

9. Melmoth by Sarah Perry, 3/5 stars. An interesting little gothic (horror-ish) novel set primarily in Prague. This was much more gothic and dark than I was anticipating, with a bit of a speculative twist. I can't say I enjoyed this book a whole lot, but rather appreciated the writing, the story, and craft of it.

10. Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer, 5/5 stars. A reread that I enjoyed just as much as the first time in 2022. This is one of the few YA series I'm still reading and loving, and I can't wait to pick up the second book which just released at the end of the month. I've been waiting years for it, and can finally see what happens next!

Overall, very strong month and a good way to start the new year! I hope the rest of my year stays as strong, and I'm hoping to pick up a new series to start in February!

[bookaddict24-7]

January was a stressful reading month for me because Libby + the holidays had me with a ridiculous amount of library loans. ✨

• I read 41 books

• 22 of those were books I owned.

• Fave book: Lotus by Jennifer Hartmann

• Least Fave: Suddenly by Isabelle Autissier

• I DNF'ed II books

• 1 Unhauled 9 books

[godzilla-reads]

❄️ January Reading Wrap Up ❄️

The first month of the year has me at 14 books, which felt like a lot to me. My Top 3 Reads are starred below:

🖤 My Gothic Heart edited by Charlie Castelletti

🦎 Dorohedoro Vol. 1 by Q Hayashida

☀️ East of the Sun & West of the Moon by Mercer Mayer

⭐️ Dragon Lore: A Treasury of 10 Dragon Tales by Emma Roberts and Tomislav Tomić

👒 My Aunt is a Monster by Reimena Yee

⚔️ The Bronze Dragon Codex by R.D. Henham

🎶 The Book of Ballads and Sagas by Charles Vess

❄️ The Ice Dragon by E. Nesbit and Carole Grey

🐣 Domnall and the Borrowed Child by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

⭐️ Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Dragons

⭐️ Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

❄️ The Little Winter Book of Gnomes by Kirsten Sevig

🧚‍♀️ The Fairy Universe by Olivier Ledroit

🧚‍♂️ Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book by Terry Jones and Brian Froud

[jems-library]

January reads

A court of thorns and roses by Sarah j maas ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The poppy war by r.f. kuang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Book Of Doors by Gareth brown DNF

A pirates life for tea by Rebecca Thorne ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Malice by john gwynne ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An honored vow by Melissa Blair ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Onyx storm by Rebecca yarros ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

January stats

6 books read

1 dnf

2 from the library

2 new releases

2 from personal tbr

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

Read in January 2025

new year, new books! this month stretched on forever and ever so I read a lot :3 it's been fun revisiting the fantasy genre after not being into it for a couple of years

my favourites were definitely Skysong and Where the Dark Stands Still. oh, and the Assistant to the Villain series, those ones are so much fun! ah!! and The Spellshop! and A Letter to the Luminous Deep! they were all just so good!

Nonfiction:

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado - 5/5

Familiar authors:

The Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst - 4/5

So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison - 3/5

All Shall Mourn by Ellie Marney - 4/5 (ARC)

Rough Pages by Lev AC Rosen - 4/5

Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross - 4/5

Everything Glittered by Robin Talley - 2/5

Other reads:

The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond - 3/5

The Bloodless Princes by Charlotte Bond - 3/5

When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll - 3/5

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall - 4/5

The Violence by Delilah S Dawson - 4/5

Servant Mage by Kate Elliott - 2/5

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett - 2/5

All Hallows by Christopher Golden - 1/5

The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden - 3/5

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner - 4/5

Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner - 3/5

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - 2/5

Foster by Claire Keegan - 3/5

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer - 5/5

Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer - 4/5

Where the Dark Stands Still by AB Poranek - 5/5

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - 3/5

The Honey Witch by Sydney J Shields - 4/5

Sister Maiden Monster by Lucy A Snyder - 5/5

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne - 3/5

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell - 3/5

Skysong by CA Wright - 4/5

[bookcub]

January 2025 Reads

i went a little wild this month reading (and literally did nothing else outside of work) so here is what i read with 1 sentence review and grade each

witch of wild things by raquel vasquez gilliland - i enjoyed the complex family dynamics and magic system but didn't care about the romance. grade: B

rani choudhury must die by adiba jaigirdar - this read like a bad 90's romcom and i ended up skimming most of it. grade: D

counting down with you by tashie bhuiyan - this is a cute and straightforward ya romcom with complicated family dynamics. grade: B

a show for two by tashie bhuiyan - i have discovered i don't like type a characters and their arcs anymore but at least the family stuff was interesting. grade: C

full shift by jennifer dugan - i wanted more girl werewolves but ultimately found this unfulfilling. grade: B-

lightning in her hands by raquel vasquez gilliland- disappointing for the friends to lovers storyline but the sisters' relationship and mc's growth were very engaging. grade: B

firekeeper's daughter by angeline boulley - this didn't quite live up to the hype but i really enjoyed the themes and the mystery. grade: B

witch hat atelier by kamone shirahama (vol 1-4) - a great manga for me to start with, familiar plot with lovely characters and a lovely art style. grade: B+

what happened at midnight by courtney milan - i loveeeee courtney milan but this novella was more forgettable although the themes of abuse were handled respectfully and terrifyingly well. grade: B

unlocked by courtney milan - not many can pull of childhood bully and victim romance but there was so much grovelling and actual repair done that i was fully impressed! grade: A-

a kiss for midwinter by courtney milan - sex ed IS sexy and i thought the set up for this novella was really interesting. grade: A-

the duchess war by courtney milan - my least favorite of the series but milan has never written a bad book in her life so it was still good. grade: B

the countess conspiracy by courtney milan - a new contender for best milan book??? could it be??? i was up until 2am finishing this. friends to lovers done RIGHT. overall grade: A+

the heiress effect by courtney milan - the romances in this were sweet but i really was invested in the sisters' relationship the most. grade: B+

the suffragette scandal by courtney milan - the characters had really interesting histories but i wish they had a little more chemistry. grade: B+

a knot in the grain and other stories by robin mckinley - too many age gap romances, i actively skipped one because the narrative constantly called him a man and her a girl. *shudders* grade: C-

the year i flew away by marie arnold - this was very intense and had a great message although the pacing was a little wonky. grade: B

talk sweetly to me by courtney milan - a lovely coda concluding the duchess war series

unveiled by courtney milan - like many romances, this moved way too fast for me but i did like it overall, especially the personal struggles. grade: B-

pegasus by robin mckinley - wow, i love re falling in love with a book i adored as a child. too bad i'll never get a sequel. grade: A+

cheer up: love and pom poms by crystal frasier - this read like a really good outline of a story but the scenes moved to fast to sit with the emotion. grade: C

the poet x by elizabeth acevedo - acevedo has a way with words that seems magical. and on theme with this month, loved the family shit, didn't care about the romance.

the reappearance of rachel price by holly jackson - i keep forgetting i love a good mystery and this fully delivered. grade: A

is love the answer? by uta isaki - a cute ace coming out book and a really good second manga for me! grade: B-

the grace of wild things by heather fawcett - a year after starting this, i finally finished. an interesting remix of anne of green gables. grade: B-

satisfaction guaranteed by karelia stenz-waters - another reread that remains probably my favorite wlw romance. grade: A

bonus: halfway through the spear cuts through water by simon jimenez and it's intense and sooooo good!

[paperbaacks]

monthly wrap-up ➺ january 𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆

⤷ books read: 5/100

⤷ reviews

☀︎ — new reads:

in the lives of puppets - tj klune she's always hungry - eliza clark get a life, chloe brown - talia hibbert the silent patient - alex michaelides

☾ — re-reads:

animal farm - george orwell

⟡ — dnf:

gold rush - olivia petter

⤷ storygraph

jan ✶ feb ✶ mar ✶ apr ✶ may ✶ jun ✶ jul ✶ aug ✶ sep ✶ oct ✶ nov ✶ dec