January Book Report

January 2021

Part of my reading plan for 2021 was to post monthly about how my reading life is going so this is the first entry toward that effort.

I finished 18 books last month, mostly because there wasn't much else to do but read during a pandemic in New Hampshire in January. This is a lot more books than I typically finish in a month. I also did a lot of book sorting and I feel like I have a good idea now of what I own.

A quote from this month's reading:

“It has been said, by myself and others, that a love-interest is only an intrusion upon a detective story. But to the characters involved, the detective-interest might well seem an irritating intrusion upon their love-story.”― Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 3 were non-fiction and 1 was a book of poetry (good start on my goal of 10 non-fiction books and some poetry this year)
• 3 were books I own but hadn't read before (#unreadshelfproject2021)
• 2 count toward the Turtle Recall Challenge
• 1 counted toward the Canadian Book Challenge 
• 1 was from my Classics Club List  and also counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge

Here are the books I finished in January 2021:

1. A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell (4-stars)
2. The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas -- I like how this series plays with the Sherlock Holmes mythology (3-stars, audiobook)
3. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (4-stars)
4. Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth (4-stars)
5. Help the Poor Struggler by Martha Grimes -- I read these out of order because my reserve of #3 in the series took forever to come in (4-stars)
6. Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively -- definitely the prettiest book on this list (3-stars)
7. Lucky Stiff by Deborah Coonts -- fun series, will definitely read more of these (3-stars)
8. Let the Great World Spin by Column McCann -- possibly the most depressing book I have ever read (3-stars)
9. Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters --the Amelia Peabody books are ridiculous, but I do enjoy them (3-stars, audiobook)
10. Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (3-stars)
11. The Perfect Paragon by M. C. Beaton -- Agatha Raisin books are as ridiculous as Amelia Peabody, but just as entertaining (3-stars)
12. Guards! Guards! by Terry Prachett (4-stars)
13. Brooklyn: The Once and Future City by Thomas Campanella--this took me eight months to read but I learned some interesting stuff (3-stars)
14. Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher -- I had never read her before, even though she was a favorite of my Mom's (4-stars)
15. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout -- I always enjoy a Nero Wolfe mystery (3-stars)
16. Dearly by Margaret Atwood (4-stars)
17. Busman's Honeymoon by Dorthy L. Sayers -- A reread (4-stars)
18. Love by Roddy Doyle (3-stars)

A month of solidly good books.