January Wrap-Up

Books I Read
1. How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
2. Playing with Matches by Hannah Orenstein
3. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
4. How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
5. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik (Temeraire #3)
6. Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik (Temeraire #4)
7. Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik (Temeraire #5)
8. Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
9. Small Victories by Anne Lamott
10. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Favorite Books This Month
My favorite books this month were the first and last books I read!

I knew this would be good because it's N.K. Jemisin, but WOW. Not only is every story worth reading, with some special standouts,which I'll get to in a minute, but this collection shows how much Jemisin has grown as a writer and showcases her incredible breadth and depth, especially in terms of voice. Jemisin can go from a pitch-perfect clapback at Those Who Walk Away from Omelas to lesbian steampunk, from a fairytale-like Milan to New Orleans during Katrina. There are glimmers of her earlier work, in stories that would become her novels, and masterful indictments of oppression wrapped up in alternate realities. Highly, highly recommend--though I know anyone who's finished Broken Earth will be rushing the stores and libraries if they haven't already!

I listened to this on audio, and I absolutely loved it. There were a lot of characters and thus a lot of shifting between viewpoints, including the omniscient narrator's, which I often find difficult on audio, but here I found I was able to go with the flow. I wonder if I liked it better on audio than I would have otherwise because it has very much an oral storytelling quality: indeed, part of the story centers around the storytelling culture in the local inn, The Swan. One night, the inhabitants and frequenters of The Swan are interrupted by a badly injured man carrying in a little girl, who appears to be dead. The story swirls out from there. What I loved most are the characters, individually, but also collectively. There is a huge outpouring of love for the little girl from the whole community in the story and that beautiful love overwhelms even the dark villainy that becomes revealed. In particular, there are several sensitive male characters, particularly fathers, that was so nice to see in fiction, and I really related deeply to them--at least one brought tears to my eyes! I thought Once Upon a River was a wonderful tale, definitely my favorite Setterfield.

Blog Posts This Month

1. 2018 Reading Stats

I posted the survey, adapted from Boston Bibliophile, that I do every year. 2018 was best for most books read overall since I started the blog AND most library books read!

2. 16 Favorite Books I Read in 2018

I'd never done this before, but I felt compelled to share my list out of all the amazing books I read last year!

3. How I Did on My 2018 Reading Goals

I'm proud of myself for accomplishing all my goals!

4. Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2018

It was good to take time to reflect on all the fabulous new-to-me authors I read in 2018!

5. What I'm Reading

I finished the fourth and fifth Temeraire books and delved into some nonfiction with Daring Greatly,while continuing to listen to Once Upon a River!

6. The 10 Most Recent Additions to My TBR

I never have a shortage of books I want to read!

Favorite Posts

It's nice to look back on what I thought of my favorite books and to see I accomplished all my 2018 reading goals!

Things I Baked
1. Cranberry orange breakfast buns
I made a test batch on Dec. 30, and when those didn't rise right, I made another on Dec. 31. Both ended up being pretty messy, but delicious "homemade pastry" as my coworker put it.
2. Cranberry muffins
I used my usual Joy of Cooking recipe, but the cranberries were unusually sour unfortunately, and I had to drench them with extra powdered sugar!
3. Brownies
Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies has been my go-to from-scratch brownie recipe for a long time. It was the first brownie recipe I found that I liked better than Ghirardelli's box brownies. However, the other night, I really wanted brownies, but I didn't have any cocoa powder. So, I tried a new recipe. I'm still attached to my favorite, but this did the trick!
4. Pryaniki (Russian honey spice cookies)
I tried these at a high tea and set out to make my own. I've been using this recipe and the texture is perfectly soft and chewy but so far, one batch was overpowered by coffee flavor and the next by anise. I'm trying to get a nice balance of flavors!

Links I Like
1. How Elie Wiesel Taught Me to Grapple with Troubling Religious Texts
2. The Rise of Anxiety Baking IT'S LIKE THEY KNOW ME.
3. Self-Care for People Who Aren't Really Into Sheet Masks and Baths #8, #14, #27, #35 = me