January 2017 Monthly Round-Up

January 2017 Monthly Round-Up
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January Reading / Life

  • And…we have a very late January round-up! I changed up last week’s posting schedule at the last minute, so the round-up got pushed to this week. I promise there will be better planning next month.
  • My 2017 reading kicked off with a bit of a lackluster month…even though I read 11 books, which is more than I usually finish. Quantity rather than quality in general.
  • I liked many of my 2017 reads (The SleepwalkerThe Most Dangerous Place on Earth, Always Happy Hour, and Swimming Lessons), but none of them completely blew my mind. And, The Futures was just a flat out dud.
  • I read/listened to 3 books from my Ten 2016 Books I Missed list (Imagine Me Gone, Adnan’s Story, and Mothering Sunday) and liked them all. Plus, one was this month’s Best Book of the Month!
  • Two of my audiobooks were misses: The Almost Nearly Perfect People, which I think might have been more successful in book form, and Relentless Spirit (Olympic gold medal swimmer Missy Franklin’s memoir), which just shouldn’t have been written in the first place (at least at this point in her life).
  • I also got all introspective about the state of this blog (here and here) and shared that I’d be trying some new things in the coming months. The first “new thing” is a monthly feature commenting on the Book of the Month Club selections…and sharing which book(s) I would choose. Check out my commentary on the February selections!

Best Book of the Month

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift (April 19, 2016)
Fiction, 192 Pages
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon

February Releases I’m Excited About

A Separation by Katie Kitamura (February 7)
Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller (February 7)
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter (February 14)
The Brain Defense by Kevin Davis (February 28)

Most Popular January Posts

Eight Underrated Gems of 2016
My Most Anticipated DEBUTS of Winter 2017
Ten 2016 Books I Missed

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18 Comments

  1. Okay, okay, I have to get to Mothering Sunday soon,

    Posted 2.7.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Yes, yes!

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply
  2. Wow! You really got a lot of books in during January! I felt good at eight. I’m going to add Mothering Sunday to my TBR list. It’s short, so it should be easy to squeeze in at some point.

    Posted 2.7.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Well, lots of my books were super short. It was definitely a high number for me. I’m usually around 8. Hope you can squeeze it in – you can finish it in an afternoon!

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply
  3. Arianna wrote:

    You are a MACHINE! I was pleased I finished one book last month. 😉 (Although that would normally be a low # for me…) I’ve added The Brain Defense to my TBR, that looks great! I look forward to your review of it…and hopefully maybe someday get around to it, hehe.

    Happy reading this February!

    Posted 2.7.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Haha – Jan was an especially high month for me…and it was b/c the books were especially short.

      And I might end up pushing The Brain Defense to Nonfiction November, but we’ll have to see what I end up being in the mood for.

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply
  4. Tara wrote:

    Guh, I was really going to try to do a monthly roundup for January…uh, it may be a little too late – ha! I guess I could still post one; there are no “rules,” which is the great thing about blogging. You read a TON of books this month! WOW! And then audiobooks, too? I’m sorry that none of them were amazing, but I have high hopes! Your comment about Missy Franklin’s book really cements my initial thoughts about it; I haven’t read it, but I remember seeing it and thinking, “hmm, this seems a little premature.”

    Posted 2.7.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Premature, yes, but also she just has lived kind of a picture perfect life (prior to back injury and Rio struggles). There’s not much meat to share. My favorite part was the very end (and it really didn’t come until the very end) about the injury and Rio…b/c it showed the struggle.

      Someone like Dominique Moceanu’s (gymnast) memoir focused mostly on her life prior to age 20, but she’d faced a ton of obstacles and it was a good story.

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply
  5. I think, for me, the issue that I had with The Almost Nearly Perfect People is that the author didn’t seem to really LIKE his subject matter. Like he was just out to prove that their existence was dark, boring and slightly odd. I learned a lot from it, despite the author, but it’s not one that I’m likely to recommend very much!

    Posted 2.7.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      I definitely found some of it really interesting, but I thought it was just way too long. And, you’re right, he didn’t seem to like it, but that didn’t bother me as much b/c I felt like the whole point of his book was trying to debunk the shiny happy people myth that’s out there.

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply
  6. Athira wrote:

    Wow, I am impressed with you January! That’s a lot of books read. Bummer though that you were not so happy with the quality but hopefully Feb will be better on that count.

    Posted 2.7.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Well – I think it was partly b/c I read short books! Not really intentionally…just worked out that way. And I hope so too!

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply
  7. It looks like you had quite a few readings and listenings in January. I’m impressed and envious. lol I did manage to read two in January, and both were winners for me, so I’m okay with falling behind. 😉

    I really like your new feature about Book of the Month choices. I had a hard time deciding whether to choose or skip this month, but I eventually chose.

    Posted 2.7.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      I’d take a 2 for 2 any day!

      And thank you! I’m hoping they will be helpful to BOTM members that don’t follow the book world as closely as I (we) do and may not know much about the selections.

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply
  8. Andi wrote:

    I just love your round-ups. I’m sorry the books, on the whole, were just OK this month. Sometimes that’s the most frustrating place for me to be as a reader.

    Posted 2.7.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Thank you 🙂 And – yes – I’d almost rather 1 huge winner amid a bunch of misses than all “good enough” books (as you aptly described them in your post!).

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply
  9. I absolutely loved Mothering Sunday — we’re discussing it in my book club tonight, and I’m sure we’ll have a great discussion. My favorite quote: “Yet something that was clearly and completely fiction could also contain — this was the nub and the mystery of the matter — truth”. And thanks so much for mentioning my post on Books for Living. If you get a chance to hear Will Schwalbe speak, go — he has a pretty extensive tour for this book with several appearances around NY. He’s coming to Chicago in April and I can’t wait to hear him. I met him when he was on tour for The End of Your Life Book Club (and even got to drive him back to his hotel). Many authors just want to talk about themselves and their books (which is fine) but he wanted to talk about all the books he loves.

    Posted 2.8.17 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      I love that quote too and remember highlighting it…among a ton of other highlights! Hope your BC enjoyed it too.

      And I love hearing that about Schwalbe. It’s so great when the flesh and blood author behind the book turns out to be fantastic. I still need to read this one.

      Posted 2.8.17 Reply

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