January Book Roundup

I started off the year reading a ton of books, and then I started Broadchurch and all of my leisure time is now devoted to the team of Hardy and Miller. I did find a new respect for audiobooks, which are always a second choice for me, and am hoping to finish one audiobook per month.

Here’s the roundup for last month!
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Turtles All the Way Down – Apparently my husband remembered me pointing this out in a bookstore and it made its way under the tree. I was thrilled and finished it in a weekend. I think this one comes in right behind The Fault in Our Stars for me. I really loved the resolution of this book. I won’t say more except to say that I really love a book where the end is all tied up with a bow, even if the ending isn’t happy in the truest sense.

Artemis – Andy Weir is a genius. I loved The Martian, so that is a tough act to follow, but this was fantastic. It’s really smart and sciencey, and mostly I think he knows people aren’t going to understand the how of most of the book, but it was just absolutely wonderful.

Two Girls Down – I’m back on the Book of the Month train for a few months and this was my first pick. It was the sort of suspense novel that kept me picking it back up every single time I would put it down. I read some reviews that wondered if it was the start of a series, and I could easily see that working, but this works perfectly as a standalone novel.

Sourdough – Hmm. This was clever and charming and quirky as was his previous book, Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, which I adored. There were certain details that I loved, like the Lois club, which is a real thing that makes me wish my name was Lois. My one complaint is that I wish the characters were more fully developed. When I’m done reading a book I want to miss the characters and all I really miss are the descriptions of the sourdough starter.

Ship of Brides  – Based on actual story of wartime brides riding aboard a naval ship to be reunited with their husbands, this is a bit of a departure from Me Before You or One Plus One. I found it a little sleepy, but in a nice way. It wasn’t the sort of book that I wanted to race through, but it was a great bedtime read and a fun peek into a piece of history that I was clueless about.