what I read in January

penny on February 1, 2018

January reading is a challenge–I want to meet the reading goals I set, but also want to curl up and reread my favourites. This year began like all the others, and in January I read seventeen books. To my surprise there were no rereads though it’s been hard to keep my hands off a few favourite titles.

January 2018 Reading List

  • Coding Literacy: How Computer Programming Is Changing Writing by Annette Vee
  • Writers of the Future: Volume 33 by Robert J Sawyer (Ed)
  • City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2) by Cassandra Clare
  • City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3) by Cassandra Clare
  • Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II by Liza Mundy
  • The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffmann
  • City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4) by Cassandra Clare
  • City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5) by Cassandra Clare
  • Of Darkness, Light, and Fire by Tanya Huff
  • What Unites Us by Dan Rather
  • Hidden Women: The African-American Mathematicians of NASA Who Helped America Win the Space Race by Rebecca Rissman
  • Cured Meat, Smoked Fish and Pickled Eggs – Recipes and Techniques to Preserve Protein-Packed Food by Karen Solomon
  • Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
  • Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
  • Trading in Danger (Vatta’s War #1) by Elizabeth Moon
  • Marque and Reprisal (Vatta’s War #2) by Elizabeth Moon
  • Engaging the Enemy (Vatta’s War #3) by Elizabeth Moon

Highest Recommendations

If you haven’t yet read What Unites Us by Dan Rather you should. He and I are birthday buddies and I grew up listening to his voice as the news. Listening to him narrate his book was delightful in ways I didn’t anticipate. This is an important book, blending memoir and history to discuss our imperfect and wonderful country.

Code Girls is also important and fascinating. It is the type of book where I want the technology of Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book now. So much is unknown or lost and becoming silent. These women and their contributions are important to know and to inspire.

Leonardo da Vinci and Smarter Faster Better were fun to read together, a serendipitous occurrence I recommend. If you have to choose one, decide if you want the biography or business psychology book.

I also recommend Rules of Magic.

I love space opera. While I’m only halfway through Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series, I am fascinated by Ky and Stella. I stopped by the library today to pick up the other three books so I could finish uninterrupted. I expect I’ll discuss this series in more detail next month.

Reading in February

This month I’ll finish Vatta’s War and then we’ll see. Pictured are a small selection of the books I have checked out. Some are for knitting research and are rereads that I should purchase. I’ve maxed out my ebook allowances too. Let’s not forget the NetGalley review obligations or the double-shelved bookcase of unread books. In all honesty? Something tells me I’ll finally read Master and Commander, it’s been gathering dust on my nightstand for years.

This quote by Doris Lessing sums up my reading philosophy:

There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag-and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.”