Monthly Wrap-Up: January 2020

I cannot believe it’s the last day of January! Time flies at supersonic speed! Uff!

Bookish wise, January 2020 has been a mixture of good, bad and ‘eh’ reads. The best part of my reading has definitely been the two buddy reads I did this month. One was The Caribbean Mystery with Kate @CrossExaminingCrime and the other was Harlequin Tea Set and other stories with LA @WakingUpAtTheWrongSideOf50. We had fun discussing the above-mentioned titles. If you haven’t done a buddy read yet, I highly recommend it. Speaking of buddy reads, we have made plans to do another in a couple of months. Which author is it this time? Guess… 😀 Hint: The author is one of my favourites. 😀 😀

By the way, it is just a coincidence that Kate and I, and, La and I, chose an Agatha Christie book for our first buddy read. And, for the second buddy read, we have again decided on one author. COINCIDENCE.

I welcomed the New Year with DNFing a book. Lol! A historical cozy with many rave reviews on Amazon and I just couldn’t connect with the story or the characters. Until 30% of the book, the characters were repeating the same stuff – she said, he said, she said, he said…. ugh! I wonder if some of the 5-starred reviews on such sites are paid for. This has happened twice so far – I borrow a book from Kindle Unlimited reading the rave reviews and the story turns out to be hopeless!

Moving on, I read a total of 23 books this month. A pretty good number, eh? Last year, I used to randomly post reviews – usually as soon as I finished reading a book. But from this year, I have decided to stick to a 5-reviews-a-week schedule; Monday to Friday. 😀 Also, you might have noticed that I have also reviewed one non-fiction a week. There will be more changes in the coming weeks. I am also planning to read a couple of Contemporary and children’s fiction. This might put me out of a reading rut if any.

Least Favourite Reads of the month

Philanders Gone by Beth Byers and Bettie Jane (DNF)

The Berlin Spy Trap by Geoffrey Davison

Most Favourite Reads of the month

Death by Baguette by Jennifer S. Alderson

The Case of the Seven Whistlers by George Bellairs

Murder in Piccadilly by Charles Kingston

Non-Fiction Reads of the month

Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss by Joel Minden

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Plans for February

I have a couple of Inspector Littlejohn series to binge read. *Fingers Crossed* I haven’t read the latest additions to the Braxton Campus Mysteries so let me add that to the list. *scribbles some more titles to the TBR list* I also have plans to write at least one flash fiction a week – I will be posting it on Medium.com. Non-bookish plans include starting my first quilt (been postponing it since 2015!!!) and completing one oil painting a week.