Welcome to our wrap up for the first month in 2023. How was your January? Tell us in the comments.
January Book Selection
January has been a productive reading month for me! I enjoyed a variety of genres and formats.
The Scotiabank Giller Prize obsession
I finished 2 more of the Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists! The Sleeping Car Porter [Goodreads], the winner of the 2022 award, was a thought-provoking read. Considering this was a competition, it made me reflect on how important historical fiction is and the advantage it likely has over other genres. Stray Dogs: Stories [Goodreads], another short story collection that made the finals, was a unique book. I had a completely different reading experience and approach for it than the other collection, Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century [Goodreads].
I am currently making good progress in We Measure the Earth with our Bodies [Goodreads]. I am excited to dive more into the overall finalist themes in March when I post all the reviews and wrap up. 🙂
Non-Fiction
December had been heavy on Non-Fiction with five reads. January was slower.
I spent the first part of January working through Grief is Love: Living with Loss by Marisa Renee Lee [Goodreads]. Dealing with a grave loss is a journey. This book has been very helpful to me as I work through losing Abu. It has given me words I could not come up with, it validated a lot of what I was feeling while also reminding me of things that are unique to me.
The first book of my year 29 that I picked up was The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Dr. Moiya McTier [Goodreads]. I finally finished it. The audiobook was fun to listen to and I loved the personality of the Milky Way. More of this book in the coming months.
Based on the 1937 bestseller, Think and Grow Rich, Michelle Nassar’s New Ways to Think and Grow Rich [Goodreads] is a quick read, taking concepts from the well known book and condensing them into easy to digest chapters. I liked how each chapter starts with a quote from Napoleon Hill’s classic. I hadn’t given any thought to how people think about getting rich and it was very interesting to see words from almost a century ago still meaningful and applicable today. Read my full review and stay tuned for an interview with the author.
Fiction
Ariel and I take on big books in January. Last year’s buddy read was Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children [Goodreads, book discussion]. This year, we read Our Share of Night [Goodreads], a Spanish translated literary horror. An intergenerational saga about a father and son with powers of Darkness, this book was an intriguing narrative set around a cult. We will be sharing our discussion mid-February.
A beautiful retelling of the Ramayana, I reread The Forest of Enchantments [Goodreads] to gush about it [review]. It gave me the opportunity to reflect on the story from my childhood and I am super excited to hear my mom’s thoughts on it. She is reading it on my recommendation. 🙂
Out on Valentine’s Day, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi [Goodreads] is the author’s first adult fanasty novel. It is a book like no other. It takes a scholarly perspective on fair tales and their interpretation while weaving it into a world of magic and reality, set in the context of a marriage. Read part of my review here. Stay tuned for a longer-more detailed one later this month.
In the scifi realm, I continued my adventures with Murderbot in Rogue Protocol [Goodreads] and Exit Strategy [Goodreads].
Lost and Found by Natalie Shampanier [Goodreads] was a cute kid’s picture book. You can find my review on Goodreads. I am looking forward to hosting the author on the blog and chatting with her about the book and her experiences.
Total TBR: 302 (Jan 1) -> 313 (Feb 1)
Do you analyze your TBR? I recently went through my non-fiction completed pile, categorized them into groups – self-love, the physical world, resilience, routines and relationships. I then went through my non-fiction TBR and added books to the relevant category. I have been focusing a lot on self-love. I will be diving into three related books about resilience and change: Worth the Risk [Goodreads], Becoming a Changemaker [Goodreads] and Scare your Soul [Goodreads].
A few books I added to my TBR this month were:
- In reading two short story collections for the Scotiabank Giller Prize award, I am open to picking up more! I feel a particular connection to Indigenous books, trying to glimpse new ways of living the old ones. Clinton gifted me with Buffalo is the new Buffalo [Goodreads] and I hope to find many pearls of wisdom there.
- A few family and friends have worked in the oil sector in Alberta. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton [Goodreads] is on the shortlist for this year’s Canada Reads and I am interested to find out the experience of a woman in this man-dominated sector. I am also excited to chat with Clinton and Mike, his best buddy, about this book, contrasting their experiences with the authors’.
- Episode Thirteen [Goodreads] is the horror I received from Orbit. It reminds me of The Children on the Hill [Goodreads, review] and also gives me House of Leaves [Goodreads] vibes. Let’s see what it ends up being.
- One of my favorite indie publishers, Bayou Wolf Press, is coming out with a YA fantasy novel, Love Like A Cephalopod [Goodreads]. Cassondra Windwalker has piqued my interest in her YA novel aimed for adults with a 60 year old main character. I am excited for this one!
Writing
Last month I introduced two new writing metrics – TBP (to be posted – reviews that I have written but not yet published to the blog) and TBW (to be written – books I have read but not yet noted down my thoughts about).
TBP: 9 (Jan 1) -> 14 (Feb 1)
TBW: 8 (Jan 1) -> 7 (Feb 1)
I particularly enjoyed reflecting on Grief is Love, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride and The Forest of Enchantments. Finally, after almost six months, I put down my thoughts on Well-Behaved Indian Women.
I am finding this practice of keeping track of what I have written and what I am yet to write helps me come back to the practice over and over again. 🙂 I do a miny-reviews blog post at the end of each year (see years 27 and 28). Writing about books close to when I read them (even if it’s 6 months later haha) is getting me to be more proactive in compiling the post for year 29.
Have you written something lately?
Blogging
In case you missed it, I posted about two non-fictions this past month – Made for More and What Makes Love Last. Book reviews were for fantasy retelling (The Forest of Enchantments) with a reflection on childhood takeaways from epics, science fiction (All Systems Red), historical fiction (Picture in the Sand) and present-day fiction (What Strange Paradise – highly recommend if you want to read about the refugee experience). I collaborated with St Martin’s Press and interviewed Peter Blauner about Picture in the Sand and had the pleasure to chat with Lindsay Sealey about Made for More.
After a break, I am picking up a few blog tours. February will see two of them.
Staging
My instagram account has been a periodic companion to Armed with A Book. I remember the early days when no links could be shared through Instagram beyond what was in the bio. Nowadays, links can be added to stories and it is possible to post to multiple accounts through a collaboration feature. Ariel and I are going to try it for our buddy reads one of these days.
The challenge with social media is it is easy to curate interests when I’m into it and very hard to clean up when I am feeling like a change. I have spent a long time redefining my relationship with photos and Instagram. It took some time to separate the taking from the sharing. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert has been a great influence in creating better habits and reducing toxicity that comes from social media sharing. Another great inspiration is The Book of Boundaries by Melissa Urban (a lot about that one tomorrow).
In January, I posted six times to Instagram. I did a throwback post for New Years, picking one of my old-time favorites from 2020. A few months ago, I would have cringed at the thought of posting a picture twice on my feed. But now, I am learning to share my favorites and do it however I want (a nod to Melissa in giving me the confidence).
In parallel to the blog, I highlighted Picture in the Sand, Made for More, What Makes Love Last and What Strange Paradise.
I looked through my 2019 photos – when the book blog and instagram started – and curated some of my favorites from there.
For February, I am going to make another collage, centred around 2020. I will be joining Charity Rau for her #artsharesaturday series, hoping it will give me the chance to dive into embroidery or watercolor art. I am redoing my feed to get inspiration. Find me on Instagram if you haven’t already.
The Noteworthy: A random collection of findings
- Have you been hearing about ChatGPT? Have you tried it? It is mind-blowing. Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes, shared her thoughts on AI writing. I enjoyed the article and this line in particular stood out to me: “We don’t spend enough time talking about the sheer delight of creating things we love—things that we co-create with our brains, our hearts, our hands, our whole selves. Things that let us wallow in words and just… play.” You can find it here.
- Clinton and I watched 1899, a new show by the makers of Dark. I need to rewatch Dark and rave about it separately but you don’t need to wait for me. Give this scifi time travel show of three seasons a watch: it has great storytelling and plot. For the sea-farer in you, 1899 would be an appealing show. We are currently on Season 2 of Alice in Borderland. For a live action, it has such an anime feel, I cannot believe it.
- I watched an impactful TEDTalk by Caroline McHugh. Titled The Art of Being Yourself, this 25 min video is jam packed with ideas of self-love, perception and identity. It summarizes many of the concepts I am working on and I have loved revisiting it since I first watched it.
Ariel’s January
It’s been a solid month of reading both nonfiction and fiction, arcs and backlist TBR books. I was able to read some nonfiction that had been on my radar for awhile, and knock off five books off of my Netgalley TBR.
Book Total: 9
Audiobooks: 4
Ebooks: 5
Library Books: 4
Netgalley Arcs: 5
Notable Favorites:
Horror: Lone Women by Victor LaValle
Nonfiction: The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Graphic Novel: The Moth Keeper by K O’Neill
Buddy Read with Kriti: Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
Not books:
Favorite TV Show this month: The Last of Us
Favorite Video Game this month: Coral Island
Thanks for being a reader of my blog. Happy February! May you have a great one.
Lofi Girl art downloaded from UDH Wallpaper
Be First to Comment