January Monthly Report/Wrap Up

[Jonathan]

Greetings Everyone,

I want to start this with a little reminder. On the last day of every month, we post our monthly Report/Wrap Up and this is how we keep track of everyone's reading. In order to be counted, we need you to respond to this.

Below I'll post my information, which can be used as a template if you so wish. If you want to post more, you are free to do so. If you only want to do the minimum, that's ok as well. Every month we ask that you provide information on

1. How Many Books You Read that Month.
2. What your Overall Total Is
3. What was your favorite book this Month?
4. Are you ahead or behind of your yearly goal?

Beyond that, anything you want to add is completely up to you. So, kicking this off, here's my report.

This month I read 11 books, and that brings my overall score to 10 books. My favorite book that I read this month was a toss up between "Light of the Jedi" by Charles Soule, "Sometimes the Magic Works" by Terry Brooks, and "Steelheart" by Brandon Sanderson. I need to read around 8 books each month to reach my end goal, so I am 2 books ahead of schedule!

Some additional information, I also read "Vengewar" by Kevin J. Anderson, "Bearers of the Black Staff" by Terry Brooks, and "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry" by Fredrick Backman and I loved all of these. I also read "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" by Tom Clancy, "Revelation and Dust" by David R. George III, "A Test of Courage" by Justina Ireland, and "To Lose the Earth" by Kirsten Beyer. I thought these books were ok, but not great. I also read "Winter of the Witch", and I just didn't like it.

I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's reports. Remember that February is shorter so reading fewer books is understandable.

[Joanna]

This month I read 12 books, bringing my overall book total to 12 books. My favorite book has been “Court of Swans” by Melanie Dickerson mostly because my girls and I had waited and waited for it. I am waaay ahead of my yearly reading goal and need to rethink that.

[Lauren]

This month I read 10 books, which is far more than I expected to read, as January is usually a pretty busy month for me. My favorite read was The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny, book four of her Inspector Gamache series. I have enjoyed this murder mystery series so much. I love the depth of the characters and the fictitious town of Three Pines so much. So much quick wit. I’ve never loved a town so much from a book. My favorite Christian non-fiction was Analog Church, a book about the importance of real community in a digital world. It was written pre-pandemic, which made it an incredibly meaningful read for me.

[Erin]

This month I read 8 books, bringing my total to 8 books. My favorite book of the month is The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley.

[Gavin]

This month I read 8 books bringing me to a grand total offfff 8 books! My favorite book this month was Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. I am ahead of my goal for the year.

[Heather]

(edited)

This month I finished 16 books, totaling 16 books. My favorite book was "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness. It is the first in a trilogy, of which I am halfway through the third book. That said, I have been guilty this month of the (bad) habit of reading multiple books at once.

I've also been sucked into the "cozy mystery" genre for the past couple of months...you'll probably notice some cheesy looking book covers on my read shelf! haha They're quick and easy to finish and pretty mindless entertainment. Some are much better than others!

An honorable mention read this month was "The 1976 Psychological Assessment of Ted Bundy" by Dr Al Carlisle. That was my one and only non-fiction, and I couldn't put it down. Ted was quite an interesting guy, not your typical serial killer at all. The book honestly made me chuckle a time or two!

As of right now, I am 4 books ahead of schedule for my goal.

[Dan]

This month I read 5 books, totaling 5 books. A bit ahead of my goal for the year. January is one of my busiest months work-wise, so I am excited I was able to read 5 books. Now that January is over, I hope I can pick up the pace and increase my goal for the year.

My favorite book was Red Platoon by Clint Romesha. A true, first-hand account of the battle for COP Keating in Afghanistan. An incredible story of bravery when faced with insurmountable odds. I hope one day he decides to write other books because he is an exceptional writer. Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell was a very close second.

I typically read a lot of fantasy/sci-fi, classics or military fiction so I'm trying to branch out and read more biographies and non-fiction this year.

[Shannon]

I’m so sorry I’m so late in responding. Teacher probs! Kidding... all is good! Here are my answers:
1) I’ve read 4 books this month.
2) My goal is to read 2 books a month so 24 books total. It’s hard to read more than at night for me since I’m a teacher and some nights I fall asleep after a couple of pages.👵🏻🤣
3) My favorite book this month was none of them. A couple I read because I’m waiting on a bunch of books I really want to read to get off hold from the library. So the books I read in January were more fillers and some of them were truly awful. I didn’t even want to rate them. I guess if I had to pick it would be Cross my Heart which is like a family saga.
4) I am currently ahead of my goal.