Balancing the Books – January 2024

janetemson

February 1

It's the first balancing of the books of the year and without giving away any spoilers, the scales are definitely leaning more one way this month. I've had a relatively slow reading pace in January as I came down with a virus or two and didn't have the energy to do much more than sleep and cough. It's also a good job I don't use speech technology to write these posts as I've gone and lost my voice too. I did manage to have a book cull before I was struck down in my prime. As always it was initially hard but cathartic in the end.

Here's what arrived in January:

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan, sent for review by OneWorld.
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, a charity shop find.
Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami, sent for review by Tandem Collective.
Helle & Death by Oskar Jensen, sent for review by Viper.
Meet Me When My Heart Stops by Becky Hunter, sent for review by Corvus.
After a Dance by Bridget O'Connor, sent for review by Picador.
Fear Stalks the Village by Ethel Lina White, sent for review by the British Library.
Dallergut Dream Department Store by Mi-ye Lee, a treat to myself.
The Ghost Orchid by Jonathan Kellerman, sent for review by Century.
When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein, sent for review by Pan Macmillan.
Wordsearch Challenge.
Su Doku Challenge.
Crossword Challenge.
Big Book of Su Doku.
Big Book of Crosswords. All of these were sent for review by Collins.
Better Left Unsaid by Lia Louis, sent for review by Zaffre.
Estella's Revenge by Barbara Havelocke, sent for review by Canelo.
Rodolfo Walsh's Last Case by Elsa Drucaroff, sent for review by Corylus.
Profile K by Helen Fields, sent for review by Avon.

Here's what I read this month:

The Favourite by Rosemary Hennigan.
The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C L Miller.
Helle & Death by Oskar Jensen.
Miss Austen Investigates by Jessica Bull.
Paper Cage by Tom Baragwanath.
After a Dance by Bridget O'Connor.

I also posted out two prizes from giveaways and sent off three bags full of books to a friend. If I counted properly there were 74 (She won't keep all of them but the ones left over will be going to work so it's easier to count them as all outgoing this month.) So that's 19 in and 82 out. Definitely not balanced and it's a deficit which might carry me through the year!

I hope you had a lovely New Year and an uneventful January. Here's to February and the extra reading day.