Hello! A new blog post I want to try to consistently do every month is a monthly wrap-up, where I discuss the books I read each month and some statistics about my reading.
So, January 2019.
In January I finished reading 5 books, and read a total of 2,635 pages. I kind of have mixed feelings on these numbers because, on the one hand, I read more books in January of 2018 (at 10 books) than I did this year, and I would have liked to kept that number the same or increased it; as well, January is a pretty long month, one of which I spend most of my time outside of class, so I really should have been able to read so so much (because, honestly, what else do I do in my free time?). But, on the other hand, I read so many pages, and even surpassed my unspoken goal of reading 2,500 pages each month (this is the number of pages I need to read each month if I want to succeed at reading 30,000 pages in 2019). So yeah, definitely a bag of mixed feelings.
The rest of my stats were also quite a mix. First off, I read 3 books I owned, and 2 that I borrowed from my library; this I'm fine with because I did read more books I spent money on, but didn't neglect the library, which is something I never want to do. I had 0 rereads, which I'm fine with, and I finished 2 series, which I'm really proud of because these past couple of years I would pick up all the series...but never complete them, so the fact that I finally finished 2 is awesome. I also was completely fine with the authors' genders of the books I read: 3 of the books were written by males, and 2 by females; pretty even, which is how I want to continue on with doing. For genres, I read 2 self-help nonfiction books, 2 fantasies, and 1 science fiction suspense; I'm pretty proud of reading not one, but two nonfictions, while not neglecting my favorite genres, so again, I've got nothing to complain about here. When it comes to reading level and original date of publication, however, I will complain a little: I read 4 adult books and 1 middle grade; I read 3 books published in the 2000s and 2 from the 2010s. In both of these areas, I am a little disappointed because I would prefer to have more variety, though I will say that the reading level doesn't bother me as much as the publication date does. Finally for my reading statistics, I read 2 five star books and 3 three star books which is pretty good; while I didn't love the majority of the books I read, I didn't hate any.
With those boring statistics out of the way, here are the books I read in January of 2019 along with a mini review!
1. Sekret Machines: A Fire Within by Tom DeLonge & A.J. Hartley
This is the second book in DeLonge and Haryley's Sekret Machines series, the first of which being Chasing Shadows, a book I read in 2018...and actually was my favorite read of the year. Obviously, then, I was extremely excited to continue on with this series to see what happened next. Sekret Machines is a multiple perspective suspense series set mostly during the present (though some perspectives do take place in the past). Really there are four main perspectives, and the reader doesn't really know how they connect, or if they do connect at all, but, we see how all of these characters experience weird phenomena that entirely flips their worlds upside-down in different ways. These phenomena have hints of science fiction, just enough to make you curious about what is going on, and totally adds to the already suspenseful plot of the story. Admittedly, this second book does contain more science fiction elements, but it still isn't at the forefront, overpowering or detracting from its realism. A Fire Within was just as gripping as the first novel, if not more. The stakes are raised, and the main characters have grown to face them. I really just loved this sequel, and therefore gave it an A rating. Without spoiling anything I just wanted to end with this: because this novel had an open-ended cliff-hanger ending, I'm really hopeful that there will be more books in this series. If there aren't going to be anymore books, though, I do plan on checking out DeLonge's other books!
2. How to Think Like Einstein: Simple Ways to Break the Rules and Discover your Hidden Genius by Scott Thorpe
As you would expect, this is a nonfiction book focused on helping the reader to open their mind in order to solve their problems. While it was interesting to read about the different suggestions on how to effectively think outside of the box, a lot of the advice was very repetitive; this could have been easily cut in half and would have said the same things if all the redundant inclusions were removed. Additionally, it was hard to understand a lot of the examples given to support his advice, and because of this, I didn't find this very useful. I especially found the last section of this book, which focused on solving corporate issues, to be less transferable to more personal or non-work related issues, and therefore found it very unhelpful. I also really didn't see why this was connected to Einstein, yes there were some quotes from Einstein used as section headings, but it really didn't seem fitting, and honestly just seemed like the book-form of click-bait. In the end, while still an intriguing concept, I didn't really enjoy this, and gave it a C-.
3. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
This novel is the third and final book in the Farseer Trilogy, the suggested starting point within Hobb's collection of series called the Realm of the Elderlings. As I plan on posting a full series review for the Farseer Trilogy, and because this is the last book in that series, I won't go into too much detail about Assassin's Quest here. All you need to know right now is that I thought that this was a great conclusion for the trilogy. This one is definitely more fast-paced in comparison to the first two books, but it still is quite slow, but I found this fitting and necessary as there were a lot of aspects of the character arcs and relationships, changes in the setting, and rise and resolutions of various conflicts that all had to be included and described. And not only were all of these aspects addressed, they were magnificently written in a way that concluded the store in a naturally clean way, but also hints at further issues that will be prevalent possibly in the later series within the Realm of the Elderlings. I truly loved this book and gave it an A; I can't wait to continue with the next trilogy within this overarching world.
4. The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes
Unfortunately, I was disappointed with once more with a Rick Riordan Presents novel. This is the second I've read (the first being Aru Shah by Roshani Chokshi), and again it felt kind of like a bad rip-off of Percy Jackson, especially with the types of myths that were woven into the story. This is a Mayan mythology-inspired novel following Zane Obispo who 'mistakenly' released the god of death from his imprisonment. While I enjoyed the inclusion of Mayan mythology (honestly, this was the only aspect of the story I enjoyed), the story started in a weird place which led to the pacing to be off and preventing me from building a connection to the characters. And, overall, the plot wasn't doing much for me either. I really don't have much more to say about this book, other than I was deeply disappointed, and therefore gave this a C rating. I will say though that I still commend the Rick Riordan Presents novels for their inclusion of diverse people and cultures, and would still recommend these to young readers, but come on, I want a win with this imprint!
5. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
This is the last book I finished this month, and unfortunately it was not what I was expecting or wanting. I thought this would be a self-help book about not forcing happiness in your life, as you only find true happiness when you least expect it...but that expectation was totally off. This is more so a psychological study that doesn't even really focus on the concept of happiness, but on theories such as perception and rationalization. While learning about these theories were admittedly interesting, I just did not see how they connected to a book titled Stumbling on Happiness. If there was a concluding chapter tying all these concepts together back to happiness, I would have enjoyed this so much more. But as this was not the case, I gave this a C-. Again, it was interesting, but I just felt that the title was a misnomer in comparison to the subject matter actually being discussed.
These are all the books I read in January of 2019. Because I'm posting this months late, you can expect my February 2019 reads soon! Until then, let me know if you've read any of these books and what your thoughts were on them!