Thursday, January 31, 2013

January in review

Hello! I can hardly believe that January is now finished.  I think it has been an excellent start to 2013 and I am absolutely excited to see what February will bring.  I have some fun things planned for the blog next month, but before that can happen, let's have a little look at what happened in January...

Books read in January

Hidden Among Us by Katy Moran
This Is Shyness by Leanne Hall
Hero Type by Barry Lyga (DNF)
Sister Assassin by Kiersten White
Easy by Tammara Webber (re-read)
Just One Day by Gayle Forman
Reason To Breathe by Rebecca Donovan
Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally
Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce
Geek Girl by Holly Smale
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti
Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz
Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg
The Secret of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen
The Holders by Julianna Scott
Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder
Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder
Abyss by Tricia Rayburn
Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Dramarama by E Lockhart
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley
Skylark by Meagan Spooner
The Disappeared by CJ Harper
Dead Romantic by CJ Skuse

Total: 29

I've had a really wonderful reading month so far! I've had a few more hours in the day to myself than usual and I've made the most of it. I really don't expect this reading frenzy to last much longer unfortunately but it was definitely fun while it lasted!  My favourite of the bunch...?

January Book of the Month


Geek Girl by Holly Smale is absolutely incredible! I totally and utterly loved it and I hope that when it is soon published by HarperCollins that you will look out for it, buy it and read it.  It's fun and funny and geeky and awkward and my review will soon be published on the blog, as well as a special guest post from Holly!

And, I wouldn't normally have an author of the month, but January is the month I really 'discovered' Maria V. Snyder, and I put discovered in quotation marks there because I have actually read her two YA books.  I read Touch of Power and Scent of Magic within the space of 24 hours and was so addicted, I had to locate a copy of Poison Study, again that I read very quickly. I've put the rest of the Study series on my wishlist as well as her Glass books.  I need more.

Books reviewed in January



Night School Legacy by CJ Daugherty
A World Between Us by Lydia Syson
Irrestistible by Liz Bankes
There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff
The Things We Did For Love by Natasha Farrant
Secrets and Sapphires by Leila Rasheed
The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna
Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce
The Taming of Lilah May by Vanessa Curtis 

Easy by Tammara Webber
Confessions of An Angry Girl by Louise Rozett
Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan


I've separated these reviews into those books written by British authors and those that aren't!

Non-review posts in January




UKYA in January 2013

New Year's Resolutions

Blog Tour: Night School Legacy by CJ Daugherty
Love Hurts Blog Tour: Bedside table books from Tammara Webber and Rebecca Donovan
Blog Tour: Confessions of An Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

Interview with Sangu Mandanna, author of The Lost Girl

Fluttering Butterflies turns *7*



In 2013, I resolve to read... (Top Ten Tuesday)
Bookish goals in 2013
Debuts in 2013 (Top Ten Tuesday)
Settings I'd Like To See More of in YA (Top Ten Tuesdays)




Andrew from The Pewter Wolf (Celebrating British Bloggers)
Jessica from Booked Up! (Celebrating British Bloggers)
Sally from Always Lost in Stories (Celebrating British Bloggers)
Sya from The Mountains of Instead (Celebrating British Bloggers)




The greatest accomplishment of your life (Book of Questions) 
Would you want your friends to tell you what they really thought of you? (Book of Questions)

My Littlest at Big Boy school
Fear ... of change

Books that make me want to travel ... to Oregon
Bookworms on television and film
Vlog: The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

I have a great many different features that I run on this blog other than reviews.  Book of Questions posts run every other Sunday and focus on personal things.  I do my best to write other personal posts and some bookish discussion posts on Wednesdays and Fridays respectively. I've taken part this year in Top Ten Tuesdays but may skip those posts for the upcoming few months.  I absolutely LOVE my Celebrating British Bloggers interviews and I look forward to posting these interviews every Saturday.

The big feature for my blog this year is UKYA in 2013! I hope you'll enjoy these posts as much as I've enjoyed writing them!


British Books Challenge 2013


Hidden Among Us by Katy Moran (published in March)
Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce
Geek Girl by Holly Smale (published in February)
Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb
The Disappeared by CJ Harper
Dead Romantic by CJ Skuse

I haven't done such a brilliant job of reading books by British authors so far this year. Especially considering that one of my goals is for every 1 in 2 or every 1 in 3 books I read this year overall will be books by British authors. Let's hope this improves next month! BBC is the ONLY reading challenge I've taken in officially, so I really want to do well with it.  And for my unofficial reading challenge, read further:


Personal Challenge to read 10 non-review books from my TBR pile

This Is Shyness by Leanne Hall
Hero Type by Barry Lyga
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti
Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz
Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Dramarama by E Lockhart
Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley

Monthly total: 10/10
Yearly total: 10/120

I set myself a target this year of reading at least 10 books every month from my TBR pile. Only books that I bought or otherwise acquired myself can be counted.  I debated whether or not to include paid for e-books, but I decided against it as this challenge was started so that I could clear space from my shelves (I read 2 paid for myself e-books this month!). I'm aiming for 120 actual physical books to be cleared from my shelves this year, not including the review books that I will need to keep up with! And hurrah, I've completed my goal for this month. (And, just for my own peace of mind, I counted how many non-review books I own and that number turned out to be far below my 120 estimate.  It's only 77. So I promptly went out and bought 6 more books, ha!)


These are the books I've read/posts I've written in January, how was your month?

16 comments:

  1. Wow, 29 books in a month is very impressive! Well done!

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  2. WOW. How do you do it? :O
    So far this month, I've only finished one book.

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    1. Was it at least a really good book?

      I have no job. And no social life. Therefore, I do nothing but read while my boys are at school! I have a major uni course coming up though, and I'm looking into part-time jobs/volunteering so I sincerely hope that this level of reading does not continue.

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  3. You got off to a great start to the year Michelle! I love your goal to read more of your own books that you've purchased. I really, really need to set myself that task! I love that you had to go and buy some more books for it too LOL. Not that I have that excuse - I think I have about 500 books I've bought but not yet read sitting on my shelves EEEK! LOL

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    1. 500 books? Yikes. The number 77 is just the number of YA books I have that I bought myself. That does not include the hundreds of adult books that I've mostly stopped reading since YA took over my life :)

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  4. Wow! What an amazing start to the year! I have Geek Girl on my Kindle and am so excited to read it, I hope next month is just as good for you :)

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  5. I loved Geek Girl as well. Well done on reading 29 books- that's impressive!
    And I love Maria Snyder- I think Poison Study is one of the best books ever! I hope you enjoy her other books.
    Have a good weekend Michelle :)

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    1. I'm still looking to FIND her other books :( But if they're anything like the three I read this month, I'm sure that I will LOVE them!

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  6. Wow! You read a lot of books. Awesome! :D Geek Girl looks like a fun read!

    Here's my Best of the Bunch!

    ~Stephanie @ Bookfever

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    1. Thanks Stephanie, Geek Girl is DEFINITELY a very fun read! :)

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  7. Wow! 29 books? That's incredible! I haven't heard of Geek Girl before but it sounds like an awesome read!

    My best of the bunch post is here if you'd like a look :)

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  8. You got a lot of reading done this month! Congrats!

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