January Books Read

[tjs_whatnot]

Last year I broke my reading slump, but I was so shocked by it that I was ill-prepared to organize my cataloging, let alone my thoughts and reviews. I'll probably spend this whole year fixing that mistake because I don't want to forget one book I read last year.

I'm determined not to do that again this year. So here:


Books Read/Listened to in January 2024


How to be a Normal Person by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gus isn't normal. He doesn't care. He doesn't need to be. His life is fine. Really it is. He doesn't need friends, he doesn't need a life, and he really doesn't need a asexual hipster. Except... maybe he does. ♥ ♥

I've never laughed so hard or saw myself in every character so much EVER! Oh my God! ♥

Glitterland by Alexis Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

MY Year of Hall last year did NOT prepare me for the gut-punch of this book. And he puts trigger warnings in his books-- like the legend that he is-- but it was WAYYYY more real and painful then the Paris Dalleincourt is About to Crumble one.

The way his characters deal with mental illness (depression and bi-polar specifically), not only the one suffering, but his friends and lovers too. It's a lot. But in there is the heart and the humor that I love and need so much that Hall is a master of. GUH. SO GOOD.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It's dystopian and futuristic and only one human in the entire book, but my God is it EVERYTHING. Just the heart of it, the character development and heartache of it. It, I think, is to read like a retelling of sorts of Pinocchio, but I have always been creeped out by that story, and I wasn’t creeped out at all about this one.

I had found the other Klune book on a list of Ace Representation books, but this book should have been on the list too because, lord, did it hit in all my spots. *sigh* I can already tell Klune is going to be my everything this year. ❤️

The Night Raven by Johan Rundberg ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I don't even know where this book came from. It just showed up on my Kindle one day and I just...IDK, starting reading. Something about it reminded me of The Ailenist if that book had been written for a younger crowd, and if it had made Stevie its main character... and made him a girl. 😉

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

In my literary art connoisseur days, this book would have been like catnip, the prose was lovely, the imagery visceral and exquisite and I wanted to love it way more than I did. Mostly though, I just wanted to get through it.

Here's to Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Speaking of things I wanted to love more than I did. I read the first of the series--What If It's Us-- because I wanted more Silvera after They Both Die at the End, but my heart wasn't ready to trust that he wouldn't rip it out, I thought Albertalli would help with that, and she did. What If It's Us was delightful and I really rooted for the couple, but two years later in the characters' timeline and two new boyfriends and I was less certain that they should have actually wound up together.