#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!

[shroomsprite]

2025 Reading Wrap-Up

i will come back to this and update it every month! my reading goals this year are to borrow physical copies of books from my library & to work through my personal library tbr! * = a book i own

JANUARY

The Return of the King, Tolkien *

loved her!! the hobbit & fellowship remain my favorites i think! this inspired me to think deeper about fantasy tropes & concepts ans what authors are trying to say in their fantastical worlds—as well as tolkiens influence on contemporary fantasy & those who have tried to rebel against it or those that tried to replicate its success

The Ones We’re Meant to Find, Joan He *

felt this could have been more intentional with one of the sister’s tone of voice when she narrated—is she just Like That or is it something else? it’s never really addressed. i did enjoy it! i enjoyed the themes: ecological impact via humans, humanity, sisterhood, and so forth

Red Paint, Sasha LaPointe

a memoir about returning to her indigenous ancestral lineage on her journey to heal deep personal & generational trauma. beautifully written & heartbreaking in parts.

In the Dream House, Carmen Maria Machado

heartbreaking memoir about an abusive queer relationship the author experienced. i think it’s an important read—it puts us as the reader in the driver seat for most of it, and i think the writing here is really powerful. a book i will think about for a long time, for sure.

FEBRUARY

(i was very slow with reading this month lol)

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, Akwaeke Emezi *

a story about romance, finding solace in each other’s grief, and uh, being messy af. really loved the complexity and humanness of the characters :)

My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite

when your sister is messy and a little bit too knife-y 🔪 and you also have a hopeless crush on your male coworker BUT he has a crush on her, and also you have fealty to your family & feel a responsibility to clean up her messes: you get this book.

[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.

[lenorayoder]

January 2025 Reading Wrap-Up

I was getting my February wrap-up ready and realized I never posted January's. Whoops. Anyways...

A decent start to the year! As far as my annual goals go, in January I:

Read 4/75 or 5/75 books (does The Lexington Letters count? I'm undecided)

Read 1/12 books I already own (The Fault In Our Stars, in the divest box as we speak)

Read 1/5 award-winning books (Ender's Game, Hugo Award and Nebula Award. I don't think Who Goes There? is technically award-winning, but correct me if I'm wrong)

Read 3 books for my Winter reading challenge (I'd already read 2, so only 4 left!)

Read 1/10 book for the StoryGraph Genre Challenge

Read 4/30 books for my local library's reading challenge

Read no books for StoryGraph’s World and Onboarding challenges

Much progress! Which is good because I know I didn't finish shit in February lol

[starasphodel]

Some sexy books I read and enjoyed in January!

I read The Love Hypothesis as an audiobook through Libby.

I read the other three as eBooks through Kindle Unlimited!

Woven By Gold is the second book in a series, and is reverse harem!

The Faithful Siren & The Holiday Hussy by Merry Farmer are quick and steamy reads under 200 pages. There are 13 books in the series, and those two are books 10 & 11.

Sexy February Reads coming soon!

[abbyisdoublebooked]

[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

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Psycho Shifters by Jasmine Mas

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ & 0.5

-----

Psycho Fae by Jasmine Mas

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ & 0.25

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A Cursed Kiss by Jenny Hickman

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐& 0.25

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Her Shadow by Elliot Ason

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

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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

[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

[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

[slaughter-books]

Day 31: JOMPBPC: Read In January

My January, 2025 reading wrap-up! 🩷

[bookaddict24-7]

💜What was one of your favourite reads from January?💜

📚✨Here is my slightly delayed January wrap up! ✨📚

Stats ⬇️⬇️

1. I read 23 books in January

2. Although most were audiobooks, 17 of those 23 were books I owned.

3. My favourite read of the month was Confessions by Kanae Minato (House of My Mother by Shari Franke was a close second.)

4. Least favourite read was The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

5. I DNFed 16 books (I’m convinced I was very close to a reading slump.)

6. I unhauled 18 books.

7. And though I wanted to go on a book buying ban, between preorders, impulse purchases, and books coming in that I ordered in December, I added 22 new books to my library—does it help cancel out the unhauls of the month? 😅

.

I hope everyone had a great reading month! Have you read any of the books in my stack? Check out my Goodreads for more info on the other books I read! 📚

Happy reading!