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Welcome to my monthly wrap-up for January 2022!
This is the first monthly wrap-up post I’ve written. I’m a little worried that it will overlap too much with my weekly update posts but there are some things I include there that would work better here. We shall see. I like the idea of the monthly wrap-up because I think it will be easier to write my year in review if I have these to look back on. And what better month to start than January, right?
Reviews Posted:
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Young Readers Edition) by Jeanne Theoharis, adapted by Brandy Colbert
The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar
They Better Call Me Sugar: My Journey from the Hood to the Hardwood by Sugar Rodgers
Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask (Young Readers Edition) by Anton Treuer
Bookish Posts:
2022 Reading Challenge Sign-Up
Ten Recent Additions to My TBR
Ten Anticipated Book Releases in Early 2022
Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2021
Favorite Books of the Month
I finished 13 books in January and my ratings were all over the place. These were my favorites.
I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site.
Hello, Star by Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
Navigate Your Stars by Jesmyn Ward, illustrated by Gina Triplett
The Preservationist by David Maine
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey, read by Frankie Corzo
Other Books Read:
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall, illustrated by Hugo Martínez
Ganymede (The Clockwork Century #3) by Cherie Priest, read by Edoardo Ballerini
The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar
Kim Reaper Volume 2: Vampire Island by Sarah Graley
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by David Roberts
The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner, read by Ana Clements
At the Crossing Places (Arthur Trilogy #2) by Kevin Crossley-Holland, read by Michael Maloney
My Family and Other Animals (The Corfu Trilogy #1) by Gerald Durrell
Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, written and read by Chelsea Handler
Reading Challenge Update:
Challenge title links go to my personal progress page and host links go to the relevant sign-up page.
- Books in Translation Reading Challenge (hosted here at Introverted Reader) Progress: 0/4
- Southern Literature Reading Challenge (hosted here at Introverted Reader) Progress: 0/7
- Classics Reading Challenge (hosted at Tea and Ink Society) Progress: 1/12
- Nonfiction Reader Challenge (hosted at Book’d Out) Progress: 0/12
- Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge (hosted at girlxoxo) Progress: 1/12
- Space Time Reading Challenge (hosted by Jemima Pett) Progress: 0/5
- Classics Club (hosted at The Classics Club) Progress: 9/50 by April 15, 2026
- Bookish Resolutions Challenge (hosted at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life) I’m on track with 4 of my 5 resolutions. I haven’t managed to read fewer books compared to this time last year though.
Watched:
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Season 1–This is the one show that I watch on my own when my husband has to stay late at work. I mostly love the gorgeous costumes but the stories are good too. Miss Fisher’s forward-thinking ways are scandalous in 1920s Melbourne but I have so much fun watching her shatter perceptions of what respectable women should do. There’s a slow-burning romance that I hope develops further as the series continues. Oh, and before you ask, I haven’t read the books. I didn’t even know the show was based on a book series when I started it. I stream the show through my library Hoopla account.
Jim Gaffigan: Comedy Monster–My husband is more likely to watch comedy specials than I am but I do like Jim Gaffigan. HIs newest special was hilarious and all-too-relatable when he talks about the chaos of the pandemic. We streamed this on Netflix.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 1–I really liked Sonequa Martin-Green back when I still watched The Walking Dead so I was interested to see her take the lead in a Star Trek series. Martin-Green leads a fabulous cast but there were a few issues. The first few episodes feature a lot of discussions among Klingons, in Klingon. It’s cool that Klingon is an actual language, but it is miserably slow to listen to someone chew up all those consonant sounds! Those scenes totally killed the pacing. The story eventually moves past that, thank goodness. There are some plot holes and logic gaps that we had to overlook. And if I never hear the word mycelial again, it will be too soon. Still, the cast, including Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs, were amazing and we’ll continue on to the next season. I checked this out on Blu-Ray from my local library.
Wonder Woman 1984–We have gotten really behind on movies during the pandemic. We haven’t been to a theater since before it began and we got used to ignoring Redbox in the early days when no one was sure how the virus spread. My subconscious finally registered that there’s a perfectly safe Redbox in my grocery store and I decided to go for it. We liked the first Wonder Woman a lot so I decided to rent this one even though we’d heard it wasn’t great. It wasn’t. It was a bit of a hot mess. Too many bad guys, too many explosions, events I didn’t understand…. You get the idea. I did enjoy Gal Gadot’s performance and was surprised by the role Kristen Wiig played. I like Pedro Pascal a lot and he did what he could with his role but his entire character was part of my problem.
The Monthly Wrap-Up is hosted by Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon at It Starts at Midnight. Link your post each month and enter their monthly giveaway!
18 Comments
Love that cover for Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians, and Vashti Harrison looks gorgeous as well. I love Vashti Harrison’s illustrations!
I don’t think I’ve come across Vashti Harrison before but I loved her illustrations in Hello, Star.
I really enjoyed Miss Fisher and her scandalously progressive ways too! Right now I’m doing a comfort re-watch of Poirot 🙂
I haven’t watched that but it sounds good! I read a lot of Agatha Christie in my teens.
Looks like you have a good reading month.
I did, thanks!
It looks like you had a great reading month. I understand the feeling about falling behind on movies over the past couple of years. We haven’t watched many new releases, unless they were on Disney+.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
Yes, exactly. But I’m even behind on Disney + !
I’ve been writing a “monthly wrap-up” for a few years now and I enjoy being able to look back on those posts (I have a link in my sidebar for easy access), but they do get a bit long. I’m toying with the idea of having a separate post for the movies & shows we watch each month, which should cut the other post in half.
You had a great reading month! I haven’t read any of your January books, but have noted a few. Thanks for the heads-up at Chelsea Handler’s memoir. Ugh.
My husband binged on Jim Gaffigan videos last month and we wound up watching Comedy Monster, too. He’s a funny guy!
I had no idea there were blogs hosting “Monthly Wrap-Ups” so thanks for the heads-up!
This did get long. I’ll have to see what I want to do differently and/or if I want to continue. This does feel very similar to my weekly updates so we’ll see.
Handler was trying to be shocking but it wasn’t terribly funny even when that form of “comedy” was so popular and it hasn’t aged well at all. It’s a shame because the parts where she was just being funny instead of racist/mean-spirited were actually good. The bad definitely outweighed the good though.
I noticed that Katherine at Book Date always links her monthly wrap-up post so I followed her lead.
Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said your ratings were all over the place in January! Happy reading!
I know! I usually happily read away in the 4-star range. I don’t know what happened this month!
Sometimes these things happen! For myself, I just always find it interesting when so many books outside my regular rating range happen at the same time.
It is funny how that happens. I have to wonder if it was my mood or if it was because I ventured too far out of my comfort zone…? Or maybe it’s just a coincidence.
Great job!! I like that you add everything to it! Happy February!
Thanks!
I like seeing things laid out by star level! Hope you have a great week.
I liked seeing everything categorized by stars too. Hopefully next month won’t be quite so varied!