Best Books of January

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from January.

You Be Mother (Meg Mason): I own Sorrow and Bliss, but I haven’t read it yet, so this was my first Meg Mason book. It was a gorgeous, beautiful, heartbreaking book. You will love Abi and want her to win. Such a great piece on how we form family and what we mean to each other. And how people can let us down, and we can still find a way back to each other and trust again.

Mr. Wilder and Me (Jonathan Coe): I listened to the audio version while on trains, and I was sucked into the story despite never seeing any of the films mentioned in the book. Coe is an extraordinary writer, and the writing here is so subtle and clever. My only quibble is that I feel like he may have missed sides of Billy and Iz’s life that would have turned them from black and white to technicolour, but even black and white and even without ever seeing a Billy Wilder film, I loved this book.

The List of Suspicious Things (Jennie Godfrey): This book has been on my to-read list for a long time, and I bought it for myself now that it’s in paperback. I wish I had gotten it sooner. It will go down as one of the best books I read this year. I want to get it for everyone I know. I plan on re-reading this one a few more times this year — it was that good.

All Her Fault (Andrea Mara): Solid thriller with great pacing that (I think) is being turned into a tv show. It feels very tv show-y. I don’t usually read child endangerment thrillers, but I wanted to read an Andrea Mara book. And this one was so solid that I bought another one immediately after.

Strange Pictures (Uketsu): It was billed as a horror-mystery, but I can’t say that I was ever scared or challenged. It was neat how the stories fit together, but the answer to the mystery was usually delivered a page or so later, and the horror didn’t feel like traditional horror. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t know if I would read a second book like this.

What did you read last month?