52 Weeks of Reading - January

It is interesting to relate to books in relation to the number of pages.  I've never really done that before.  Number of pages isn't ever a factor in my reading choices.  It doesn't even cross my mind.  Short, long, middling.  I don't mind if the story is good.  So, I keep joking to Matt that I'm reading books that "don't count."  What I mean, of course, is that I am reading books which are not 200+ pages long and thus I cannot record them against my 52-Books-in-52-Weeks challenge.  I am not letting that stop me from reading them though...they just don't "count," as it were.  I thought I might do a monthly re-cap of the ones that do count though.

January 4th-11th:
*The DUFF: Designated Ugly, Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

January 12th-17th:
*The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
*The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

January 18th-24th:
*The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
*33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners by Jonathan Franklin

January 25th-31:
*Light in August by William Faulkner

My favorite book of the challenge for this month would be The Book Thief.  I've always had an interest in historically based fiction and with WWII.  It was a moving story told in a very interesting way.  I loved the narrator!

I also quite liked The Dressmaker.  Here is another historical fiction this time centering around the voyage of the Titanic and dressmaking.  Frankly, it was almost like someone set out to write a book around my interests.  

33 Men made me feel like perpetually counting my blessings.  What an amazing story!  I mean, I knew that it was from what I saw of the news coverage, but I had no idea what it was like for them down there until I read this.  It is a miracle that they all survived underground under such conditions for so long as they did.  It was pretty inspiring.

Light in August deserves its own post, which is currently in the works.  I am sort of in love with Faulkner at the moment.  I am not sure that we'd ever been acquainted before.  I am quite taken by his style.  Oh, those compound words!  I love it.

The Husband's Secret seemed too much like a soap opera for me.  It may have been packed full of suspense, but I just didn't buy it.  The DUFF was a so-so teenybopper story about love, friendship, and accepting yourself.  It wasn't bad necessarily, just not great.  

Fungus growing on a tree during a snowshoe walk on January 11, 2015

And with that I am four weeks down, six books up.  Yay.  Wiggle room.