The 16 books I read in January, ranked

In January, I read 16 books. I grouped the books in series together for expedience. Here are those books, ranked from worst to best:

January 2019's books, organized by color and not quality.

13.) Kingdom on Fire trilogy: “A Shadow Bright and Burning,” “A Poison Dark and Drowning,” “A Sorrow Fierce and Falling” by Jessica Cluess: A mediocre trilogy that leaned much too hard on older, better stories, which I thought about and wished I could have been reading while I was reading these books. The story didn’t take risks with characters, and there were too many secrets tied to too many flat characters early on for me to really care when things were eventually revealed.

12.) “Tower of Dawn” by Sarah J. Maas: I’ve been on the struggle bus with this series ever since the 4^th book (“Queen of Shadows.”) It should have been a trilogy, but on it slogs. I’ll get to the last book eventually, but the relationship dynamics of the series at large are super unappetizing. Like, “Twilight”-level gross.

11.) “Snow White Learns Witchcraft: Stories and Poems” by Theodora Goss: This was a funny little disjointed collection of poems and short stories. I’m absolutely a sucker for fairy tale retellings, but this one was a little out there for me.

10.) “Hidden Sun: Shadowlands Book 1” by Jaine Fenn: I’ve been on a sci-fi/fantasy kick for a couple months now. This one wasn’t what I was looking for. Ultimately forgettable.

9.) “The Fever King” by Victoria Lee: This was fine. It was about a virus that either kills the people it infects or gives them magic powers. LGBTQIAP+ themes made it unique.

8.) “Put Your Best Face Forward: The Ultimate Guide to Skincare from Acne to Anti-aging” by Sandra Lee: This was a really interesting medical text that was watered down enough for the regular person to understand. Only Sandra Lee with her Dr.Pimple Popper Youtube/TLC clout could pull this one off. I chose this to review for the San Francisco Book Review because I heard good things about it. It was fine, but it didn’t seem to know what kind of audience it was targeting: Dermatology students, or the average person who enjoys literally washing money down the drain via skincare?

7.) “Waisted” by Randy Susan Meyers: I wrote more about this book earlier this month. This also was fine.

6.) “The Beast’s Heart,” by Leife Shallcross: Like I said, I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings. This one was a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling from the Beast’s point of view. While things got a little creepy, it was a unique story because it showed what Beauty/Isabeau’s family was doing without her. As it turns out, they were actually better off!

5.) “Lovestruck” by Kate Watson: This was a really cute book that draws on ancient Greek mythology. It’s about an immortal teen girl named Kalixta who wants to be a muse, but she’s stuck training as a cupid. I can imagine school librarians recommending something like this to kids who are bored studying the Greek pantheon in English class because I found it fun and relatable.

4.) “Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles” by Mark Russell: I am very happy that one of my Facebook friends is trying to read a comic a week and write about it. (Hi Robert!) I'm keeping an eye on this venture for a lot of reasons: I trust his judgment/taste, I don’t read enough comics, I want to understand more about comic books/graphic novels, and comics are a fun way to boost the amount of books I read because they’re quick and I want to read at least 100 books this year. A volume usually takes me about an hour. While “Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles” was set during the red scare in the 1950s, there were several thinly veiled references to the present day, which I always like. It was very sad, but I am very glad I read it. 

3.) “Thor: God Of Thunder Vol. 1: The God Butcher,” “Thor: God Of Thunder Vol. 2: Godbomb” by Jason Aaron: These were both delightful, but I was apprehensive at first because “The God Butcher” gave me “The Infinity Gauntlet” vibes, and I did not like “The Infinity Gauntlet” at all. In “Godbomb,” (how can you NOT read a comic book called “Godbomb?”) an evil, all-powerful alien guy named Gorr is butchering all of the gods in the universe. He chops them up and throws them into space where three Thors from three different time periods come across his carnage and their ship is attacked by starsharks. It’s wild and very dramatic, but the conclusion of the two books was kind of what I anticipated. Oddly, the comics I read this month were the only books I read that were written by men. Everything else was written by women. I’m hoping to keep it that way.

2.) “Coffeehouse Knits” by Kerry Bogert: My one and only knitting book. The patterns and essays were cute, but I prefer knitting patterns that are more difficult. I wrote about this book, and some of my favorite knitting books, here.

1.) “The Stone Sky” by NK Jemisin: I started listening to Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy on Audible last November. Where do I begin?

First of all, Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy won the Hugo award for best novel three years in a row, and she’s the only author to have done that. (“The Fifth Season” in 2016, “The Obelisk Gate” in 2017 and “The Stone Sky” in 2018.) I grew SO ATTACHED to the characters in her books that I’m still trying to get over them and I don’t think I can go on without them.

The world is just so beautiful and deep. The narrative spans millennia and addresses themes of racism, prejudice, suffering, oppression, environmentalism and survival. Part of it is written in second person, which was unique and immersive. I felt like I was part of the story. I’ve never read/listened to anything like it, and I don’t think I ever will again. The author herself seems like a certified badass.

There are a few, rare books I would call “vital reading.” The last book I felt this way about was Angie Thomas’s “The Hate U Give.” But you need to put down whatever you’re reading now and read this trilogy. It has some important things to say.