January Wrap-Up // I Went Back to School But Read 14 Books!

Happy February, friends!

Normally when a month ends, I feel like it went by both too fast and too slow at the same time, but January—at least to me—lasted so long. Still, it feels so strange saying that we’re one-twelfth of the way through 2021!!

This month wasn’t the best start of the year, but it also wasn’t terrible. As you can tell from the title, I was able to read 14 books and really enjoyed almost all of them! I also had Spotify on almost all the time and listened to a ton of great music.

There’s not much else to say because my month was pretty boring, so let’s just get on with the wrap-up!

I enjoyed my last week of winter break at the beginning of January, and I mostly spent that reading and enjoying freedom from school!! I wish we had a longer break because going back to school after that was the worst, but thankfully the workload hasn’t been as bad as last semester, and I really hope it stays that way.

One highlight of my month was that I started going on (social distanced) walks outside almost every day with my family, and it’s been so fun! My mental health was also really great in January, which I’m so grateful for.

I had Taylor Swift’s reputation on repeat the entire month, and I love it so much!! My favorites off the album would probably be Getaway Car and King of My Heart. Also, (G)-idle released their mini album I Burn in January, and I really enjoyed listening to all the songs!

i love them 🥺🥺

I also got into Loona and they’re now one of my favorite kpop girl groups – all the girls are so talented!! A few of their songs I’ve had on repeat are Star, So What, Butterfly, Why Not, and Chuu’s solo Heart Attack (it’s the cutest song ever plus it has a sapphic mv!!).

In terms of TV, I watched a few episodes of The Legend of Korra, but other than that, I barely watched anything else! I’ve been struggling to finish The Legend of Korra for… a long time (I think I started it in October), and currently I’m only halfway through season 2. 😭 I really want to try to continue watching it because!! Korrasami!! but I unfortunately don’t love it as much as ATLA.

I read 14 books in January, and since that’s the most I’ve ever read in one month, I’m really proud of myself!! For today’s wrap-up, I’m just going to be showcasing my 5 favorites of the month (excluding rereads because I reread Picture Us In the Light as my first read of the year and cried again at its beauty!!), as well as my February TBR.

If you’d like to see every book that I read in January, you can find them here on my Goodreads reading challenge!)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo // 4 stars

I finished this in one sitting and truly enjoyed following the story, holding my breath as details unraveled and spun together to weave the full picture! The feminist themes were so powerful, and each character was fleshed out in such an intriguing way. [read my full review]

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai // 4.5 stars

Pie in the Sky embodied everything I love in middle grade novels, and it was truly a love letter to family, friendship, and cake! I really enjoyed reading it, and it’s so underrated so I would highly recommend picking it up. [read my full review]

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden // 4.5 stars

I’d heard such great things about this graphic novel, and it was truly as good as everyone else said it would be!! The art style was absolutely gorgeous, and it featured a (sapphic!) found family set in space, which was so lovely to read about. [read my full review]

Dating Makes Perfect by Pintip Dunn // 4 stars

This was such a cute contemporary novel that featured an adorable friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romance!! I binged it in a few sittings because it was such a fun read.  [read my full review]

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko // 4.5 stars

I honestly can’t believe this was a debut – almost everything about it was written amazingly, especially the immersive worldbuilding, beautiful prose, and fleshed out characters! I can’t wait to read the sequel when it comes out later this year.

✧ ♡ ✧ ♡ ✧

February TBR:

I received an eARC of When We Were Infinite after my first time emailing a publisher in January, and I’m so grateful that I was able to! I’m really hoping that it lives up to my expectations when I read it in February. I’m also very excited for the rest of these books, and I hope I can get to all of them—especially the nonfiction ones.

I… didn’t write anything in January, so as usual, this section is pitifully short!! However, I did make aesthetic boards and playlists for my WIPs, and I also made Picrews of the main characters for a new WIP I recently got the idea for! (credits to Poika)

I’m hoping I can try to get out of my slump and write at least something next month, so wish me luck. 😭

I’m pretty happy with how blogging went for me in January, because I posted 5 times and  was able to (at least kind of) keep up with blog hopping!!

My Posts (click on the graphic to read):

 

AROUND THE COMMUNITY…

• Eleanor gave 4 great tips for studying, which were so helpful! (She’s also launching a new writing related blog series which you should definitely check out!)
• Anna talked about warm LGBT hug books in this amazing recommendation post!
• May, Caitlin, Sophie, Dezzy, Sophie, Ilsa, Ruby, and Prutha all wrote amazing 2020 reading wrap-ups that I had so much fun reading!
• Sophie and Cielo wrote a love letter to Nocturna in this important post that also talks about why representation matters!
• Marie recommended 10 YA books with the friends-to-lovers trope, and as someone who absolutely adores that trope, I loved reading this post!
• Sophie wrote a really detailed and important review about the harmful representation in Cinder by Marissa Meyer!
• Wendy wrote a lovely review of Picture Us In The Light that I would highly recommend checking out!

I didn’t set any goals for January, so here are my February goals!

• Write!! Something!!
• Journal more often.
• Don’t look at your phone first thing in the morning! (This was one of my yearly goals for 2021, and I am not doing well at it so far…)
• Continue going on short walks every day.
• Post on Instagram more often! (I haven’t posted or interacted on my Instagram account for a few weeks, and I really want to get back to posting regularly!)
• Read 7 books (and at least 2 nonfiction ones!)
• Post at least 4 blog posts.

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how was January for you? what music did you listen to? what were your favorite books of the month?

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