January 2021 books

unrelated photo of our giant Christmas book collection

I might as well keep documenting my books read like I did last year, right? I love hearing others' reviews so I selfishly assume other people might enjoy my own. ;)

Peace Like a River

by Leif Enger

★★★★★/5

I've had this book recommended to me many times, even to the point where I had a physical copy on my bookshelf, but the last time I picked it up I was completely put off. This time I was enthralled from page one and WOW. I have thought about it so much since finishing it, and if that's not a sign of an actually properly good book then I don't know what is. The combination of family, heartbreak, trauma, Western tropes, and winter scenes made this book a perfect thing to read in January. 5 stars.

Death Comes for the Archbishop

by Willa Cather

★★★★★/5

I started this one early in the month with Close Reads, and although I was piecing it out and didn't finish it until a couple of days ago, I had to include it in January. I consider myself considerably well-read in Cather, as I did take a class in college (in Nebraska, where Willa Cather is from) solely about her, from one of the preeminent Cather scholars in the world, but somehow I hadn't read Death Comes for the Archbishop yet. (Our class was focused more on her books set in the Midwest, understandably.) I'm not sure I'd recommend this if you're new to Cather, but it might be my second-favorite of hers now! Shadows on the Rock is my favorite. ;) Her portrayal of two missionary priests is incredibly sensitive, real, and loving, and I know I'll be rereading this some day. 5 stars.

The Thief

by Megan Whalen Turner

★★★★★/5

I read this incredible YA series back in 2017 or 2018 and for a solid 3 years since then haven't been able to stop talking about them or thinking about them or recommending them to people. Since the last in the series was released in 2020 and I preordered it, I knew I owed it to myself to reread the series before completing it, so I started again with The Thief. Simultaneously these books are about a famous thief, court politics, humor, the best love story you'll ever read, and a fictional world that's so engrossing you never want to leave. They're also all short and quite easy to read (they are, after all, YA) and I can't recommend them enough. 5 stars! Again! Perfect escapism with deep themes for corona times.

A Memory Called Empire

by Arkady Martine

★★★★/5

This book has been floating around the scifi/fantasy recommendations for awhile (I think it won or was nominated for a Nebula?), and I finally grabbed it off the hold list at the library after two long months. It's about a new foreign ambassador to the universe's biggest empire, and comes with plenty of intrigue, mystery, and a murder to investigate. Its intricacies are a little tough to follow at times (wouldn't be my first recommendation if you're not a scifi fan) but I truly loved it. I'm excited there will be more in the series, let's put it that way. 4 stars!

A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving

★★★★★/5

I realized at the end of 2020 that I'd kept seeing John Irving's name pop up in different literary circles but hadn't read anything of his before. A Prayer for Owen Meany was available as an ebook so I jumped on it. I'm kind of glad I jumped into this without knowing anything about it -- what a treasure of a book. It's the story of two friends, John Wheelwright and Owen Meany, from childhood to adulthood, and I'm truly struggling for how else to describe it because I don't want to give anything away but READ THIS BOOK. It's incredible. I was alternately laughing out loud and weeping throughout the whole thing (good thing my Paperwhite is waterproof). 5 stars!!!

Right now I'm in the middle of G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy, and I read a couple more Thief novels at the beginning of February, and I got Piranesi from the hold list which I'm half excited and half nervous about! What else should I be reading this year?

HG