Better Late Than Never: January 2019 Wrap-Up

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!

So, yes, it's a few days into February already, but I have an excellent reason. My laptop--my wonderful, beautiful laptop that I've had for six years of my life--died on Friday, and I wasn't able to get a new one until today. I must say, I do really enjoy my new baby. It's smaller and lighter than my old one. It's still a PC, I believe it is a dell Inspiron 13 (insert picture here):

As you can see, it's a 2-in-1 laptop tablet (which is what my old one was as well). I've already ordered a case for it--bright orange!--and a multitude of stickers that I think fit my personality quite well. My overall point is, I have a much better computer at my disposal now.

So if you haven't already guessed, today I'm talking about the books that I read in January. I wasn't able to read too much, what with school starting and everything, but I still managed to fit in five/six books. I say five/six because one of them I had just read excerpts of it, but it was still quite a large portion of the book so I'm counting it. Because I can!

Okay, without further ado, let's get into my January wrap-up!

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1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: 5 stars (REREAD) Page count: 197 pages Read from: Jan. 2 - Jan. 3 Goodreads review (if applicable): Always the first book of the year that I read. I have been doing this since 2015.Final thoughts: This book had such an impact on me when I first read it that I have vowed for the past four years that this is how I would start out my year. This book explains love and wanderlust and duty and want in a way that I have not found since. I am so grateful that this book was assigned to me my first year of college for my mythology course--had it not been assigned, I never would have found it.  2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: 3.5 stars (REREAD) Page count: 483 pages Read from: Jan. 3 - Jan. 4 Goodreads review (if applicable): N/AFinal thoughts: Despite my 3.5 star rating, this is one of my favorite books. I talk about it all the time so I won't bore you with the same details, but I just have such a deep emotional connection to this book that I love it so much. The 3.5 is reflective of my reviewing analysis, as there are some problems with this book. Just because it's one of my favorites does not mean I can critically read it. 3. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater: 5 stars (REREAD) Page count: 439 pages Read from: Jan. 4 - Jan. 7 Goodreads review (if applicable): I don’t think I can fully describe in words how much I love this series and how well this conclusion fit into my heart and soul. I’ll probably say more later but it’s nearly 3 am and I need to sleep, but I stayed up way past my normal bedtime and if that doesn’t tell you how wonderful this book is then I don’t know what will. Final thoughts: Obviously since this is a reread for me I don't have any revolutionizing thoughts about this book, but I can say that I loved it just as much (if not more) this time as the first time I read it. TRC is without a doubt one of my favorite series of all time. 4. War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen: 3 stars Page count: 384 pages Read from: Jan. 11 - Jan. 18 Goodreads review (if applicable): The ending was a disappointment to me, but I am glad I tried this book out. It's not a genre I usually read so I feel like this was a good starter book. Final thoughts: My mom actually suggested this book to me, and she's a big romance and adult mystery reader, which is the exact opposite of what I read. However, I did rather enjoy this book. Like I said, the ending was very disappointing, which is what bumped it from a 4 star read to a 3 star, but up until the last fifty pages or so, I was really liking it. I may have to delve into the adult romance/adult mystery genres some more after this book. 5. Scythe by Neal Shusterman: 4.75 stars Page count: 435 pages Read from: Jan. 22 - Jan. 30 Goodreads review (if applicable): I NEED THE SEQUEL AND I NEED IT NOW. What can I say about this book? I found the idea of anti-heroism and self-proclaimed villainy was done very well. There were parts of the story that reminded me of less than unsavory instances in our history (i.e. WWII) that I thought was extremely clever. I applaud Neal Shusterman on his ability to question the very idea of morality.  And again: I NEED THE SEQUEL. Final thoughts: I am SO happy I decided to bring this book up to school with me. 6. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: no rating Page count: 608 pages (only about 200 pages read) Read from: Jan. 21 - Jan. 31 Goodreads review (if applicable): N/A Final thoughts: I had to read some passages for class, and I thought they were pretty interesting. I bought the book afterward and am hoping to read the whole thing eventually (hopefully this year). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total page count: 2,138 pages Favorite book of January: Scythe by Neal Shusterman Least favorite book of January: War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen Currently reading: Mythology by Edith Hamilton --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So there you guys go, these were the books I read in the month of January! A little announcement: for the next few months, I'm not going to be implementing a monthly TBR. Since I'm at school and don't have very much time to read in between classes and homework and my sorority, I don't think it's fair to put that kind of pressure on myself. Not to mention I'm away from my shelves so I only have a limited number of books readily available to me. The monthly TBRs will come back in the summer time when I'm out of school. Thanks for understanding! Until next time!