Month in Review: January 2025 #readingupdate #favoritereads

 

And finally, January is over! Was it not the longest month ever? At least it was a productive one…and I hope moving forward, every month is as productive! I have made a few goals for myself concerning the blog and my reading and so far, so good! Here they are:

• Keep up with reviews!
• Keep up-to-date with Goodreads tracking
• Balance new ARC reading with my own books and some backlist ARCs
• Participate in more bookclubs/buddy reads

To help motivate me with some of this, I’m changing how this update is done. I want to keep track of how I’m doing with these goals and so I’ll update my progress each month. We’ll see how this goes…hopefully it continues to go well!

 

READING STATS:

• Read this month: 23
• Year to date: 23

 

1. Dark Pines — Will Dean (audio book)
2. Don’t Let Him In — Lisa Jewell
3. Sweet Fury — Sash Bischoff (audio book)
4. The Perfect Home — Daniel Kenitz (audio book)
5. The Lotus Shoes — Jane Yang
6. Stolen — Ann-Helene Laestadius (audio book)
7. The Last Room on the Left — Leah Konen (audio book)
8. River of Lies — James L’Etoile (e-book)
9. Cross My Heart — Megan Collins (audio book)
10. The Lost House — Melissa Larsen (audio book)
11. Mask of the Deer Woman — Laurie L. Dove (audio book)
12. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls — Grady Hendrix (audio book)
13. Penitence — Kristin Koval (audio book)
14. Five Little Pigs — Agatha Christie
15. The Kennedy Girl — Julia Bryan Thomas (e-book)
16. Cross Down — James Patterson, Brendan DuBois
17. Head Cases – John McMahon (audio book)
18. Carolina Moonset — Matt Goldman (audio book)
19. Trust Issues — Elizabeth McCullough Keenan & Greg Wands (audio book)
20. Dead Money — Jakob Kerr (audio book)
21. The Dark Hours — Amy Jordan (e-book)
22. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus — Emma Knight
23. Not a Happy Family — Shari Lapena (audio book)

 

RECAP OF JANUARY

***I am once again modifying this to make it align with my goals for the year (see above). We’ll see if it works the way I envision it…

1. Favorite book(s) of January – these books are the ones I absolutely loved and will be recommending to everyone. They will be staying on my shelf and might even be rereads at some point in the future.
   • Don’t Let Him In
   • The Lotus Shoes
   • Mask of the Deer Woman
   • Penitence
   • Trust Issues
2. Book Club/Buddy Reads for January: This year I am determined to participate in more buddy reads and follow along with some of the Celebrity Book Club picks. I’ll share which ones I participate in and what we read here:
   • #ReadChristie2025 – Five Little Pigs
   • Jordy’s Book Club – Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
   • Read With Jenna – The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
   • Celadon’s Read Together Initiative – Penitence
3. Backlist Review Books Read: Each month I hope to read one or two backlist review books that I didn’t get to when I was first sent them:
   • Stolen by Ann-Helen Laestadius, published 2023
   • Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman, published 2022
4. Read My Own Books: I also hope to read books from my own shelf – whether purchased this year or years prior:
   • Dark Pines
   • Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
   • Five Little Pigs
   • Cross Down
   • The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
   • Not a Happy Family
5. Book/Author Events Attended this month – I love attending author/bookish events and hope to attend as many as I can this year.
   • Fiona Davis – dinner and book signing for The Stolen Queen
   • Alice Feeney – signing for Beautiful Ugly
   • Melissa Larsen – signing for The Lost House
   • Elizabeth McCullough Keenan & Greg Wands – launch event & after party for Trust Issues
   • Author Night at Lindenhurst Library – featuring Alafair Burke

 

 

So tell me, what was your favorite read of the month? Did you participate in any book clubs or attend any author events?