January wrap up // happy new year!

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well. I have truly had the busiest, most fun January. If I am being honest, most of the books I read were good, but didn’t stand out a lot. However, I am really proud of the fact that I stuck pretty closely to my TBR, there were only 2 books that I didn’t get to.

I did re-read The Anthropocene Reviewed, one of my favorites from last year, and there were definitely a lot of YA books I read and enjoyed this month. I am in the middle of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which I am absolutely loving, and hopefully will be finishing very soon. I am also trying to expand my monthly wrap-ups and generally talk about different things, so please read on and let me know how you like it!

Books Read

• Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala – 3/5 stars ★★★
• Rosalind: A Biography of Shakespeare’s Immortal Heroine by Angela Thirlwell – 4/5 stars ★★★★
• Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli – 4/5 stars ★★★★
• Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn – 2.5/5 stars ★★★
• Better than Fiction by Alexa Martin – 3/5 stars ★★★
• The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey – 2.5/5 stars ★★★
• How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Mia Arlow – 4/5 stars ★★★★
• The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green – 5/5 stars ★★★★★
• The Killing Code by Ellie Marney – 3.5/5 stars ★★★★
• Flip the Script by Lyla Lee – 4/5 stars ★★★★
• Can’t Escape Love by Alyssa Cole – 4/5 stars ★★★★

Note that Kate in Waiting, How to Excavate a Heart, and Flip the Script are all published by HarperCollins imprints, whose union is still on strike.

On the Blog

Begin Again Review
Discussion: what makes a book queer?
2022 Reading Wrap Up

Posts I loved Reading

(Yes, these are all reviews, but I promise they will not always only be reviews, it is just a coincidence.)
Robin’s review of Where Echoes Die
Caitlyn’s review of Lunar Love
Sara’s review of How to Excavate a Heart
Bonus: Op-Ed from Ezra Klein on the comeback of Barnes and Noble

This month’s Listening

NPR’s Book of the Day Podcast
Further Joy by The Regrettes
23 by Wallice

What is up with me

Like I said in the intro, I had a very busy but very fun January! I went to two math conferences, which was incredibly fun for me. I also took a weekend trip to visit my Aunt in New York, where we went to MoMA, the Morgan Library, and saw Moulin Rouge the musical. I also went to multiple amazing independent bookstores this month. And although I did not buy anything, it was so fun just to wander and soak up the atmosphere of the bookstores. Last week, I started the spring semester of my senior year, and I will hopefully doing some blog posts later in the year based on some of the books I am reading in my English class. Finally, something the people in my life are well familiar with is the fact that I have spent the last 4 months applying to math PhD programs, and this month I learned that I have been accepted to two of them! I still have to hear back from more places, but it is a huge relief to know that I will definitely be going to graduate school.

I would love to know what you think about this new wrap-up format! Do you like more things and a longer post? Or do you prefer a short and sweet list of the books I read in a month like I have been doing? Please do feel free to let me know!