January Books

I read all these books! In January!

And then I remembered why I haven’t done a book summary post in a long time because I read a lot of cheesy and terrible books when I don’t feel like reading, you know, Great Literature or whatever. I have to remember that you are not judging me (wait, YOU are, but not YOU), and it is going to be fine that you know all the ridiculousness that I read. It will be fine! It will be fine! I’m not including book links because I’m lazy. But you knew that already.

1. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

I’ve been meaning to read this for ages. It’s about a girl who’s in love with a dead boy, or at least, that’s the beginning of the book, but no one knew they had a Thing. And…depressing much? Yeah. But it turned out to be not depressing, and well-written and yeah. Thumbs up.

2. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

It took me almost the entire month of January to read this. It’s a book of spiritual essays, so maybe that’s OK? I really liked it, and it had some amazing insights, and I don’t know about that writing style at all. Thumbs sideways and slightly up?

3. Fallen Too Far by Abbi Glines

I….Uh…..Um…..This book was about a girl who falls in love with her stepbrother. And they do sexy things together. Ick. Iiiiiiiiiiiiick. Thumbs amputated.

4. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorenson

This book was actually pretty decent. A good romance without too much smut (that can be either a negative or a positive, for me: positive)  except that as Temerity Jane pointed, unfortunately contains the phrase “a-wall” (for AWOL). Copyeditors, people. Hire them. Thumbs up.

5. The Secret of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorenson

So you see, I thought, Hey! That other book was really good and this has great starred reviews on Amazon and it’s 99 cents so why not! I read it in a day, so it was well-paced and well-plotted and all, but I think there’s only so much of “girl has a secret and boy is trying to help her overcome her past and his too and they fall in love” type books I can read in a given month. I had apparently exceeded it by this point. Again, it was well-written, it was just not my thing. Thumbs sideways.

6. In Search of a Love Story by Rachel Schurig

My friend Josie told me about this book because it was free for the Kindle and a romance and she knows how I like, what she calls “senseless books,” but this was not that. Nope. One thumb down, the other a-wall.

7. Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

I have heard rave reviews about Colleen Hoover’s romance books. The book was well-written, but see above re: too many books about girl with a secret, etc etc etc. Oversaturated. Thumbs sideways.

8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread)

Hey! F. Scott Fitzgerald is a pretty good writer! Who knew! Two thumbs and a dog paw up.

9. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (reread)

I started writing a thing about Paris, so here is where I started reading books about Paris. This held up pretty darn well on reread. Thumbs up.

10. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (reread)

This held up even better on reread. In my future life, I would like to be reincarnated as David Sedaris, except without the weird medical equipment fetish. Two thumbs and a rusty scalpel up.

11. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple

I have only one tiny gripe (plot hole ahoy!) about this book, but otherwise, it is perfect. It is funny and well-written and the characters are just so how you want book characters to BE, and people EVOLVE and my God, this is probably going to be my favorite book of 2013, which is a shame that I have 11 months of books that won’t match this one. Seventeen thumbs up.

12. Reasons I Fell For the Funny Fat Friend by Becca Ann

It was fine? It was fine. Had some good one-liners. Thumbs uppish.

13. The Unwanted Wife by Natasha Anders

Oh my gosh, stop looking at me like that! I know my taste in romance books is questionable at best! But I wanted an exact something, and this was it. Riddled with mistakes a copyeditor could have fixed (HIRE THEM), but otherwise? It was…pretty good. The exact something I was looking for was, apparently, a book about a spurned spouse whose husband comes around to loving her in the way that every single romance novel is written, and yet this one worked for me. Also? The cover of this book is HORRENDOUS. I shouldn’t have paid 99 cents for it on that alone, but I still liked it. Thumbs up.