02/02/2026
Books I read in January:
1. "The Snow Child" by Eowyn Ivey: I picked this one for the monthly challenge theme of "a book about or set in winter", and I really enjoyed it. It's about a couple who move to Alaska. They can't have a child of their own but one day a fairy-like child mysteriously enters their lives. It's a magical realism book that normally wouldn't be a genre I gravitate to, but I liked the flow of the story and couldn't put it down sometimes.
2. "Thank You for Listening" by Julia Whelan: this was an audio book about audio book narrators, and it was narrated by the author herself! I picked it because I have listened to many books narrated by Julia Whelan and I absolutely love the way she gives every character its own personality. I am still blown away that she did every voice in this story, and they were all so unique and different. The overall story was entertaining, and I liked learning about some of the behind the scenes elements that go into recording audio books, especially when there is more than one narrator involved.
3. "The Impossible Fortune" by Richard Osman: of course I had to read the fifth book of the "The Thursday Murder Club" series! It was very good and I liked the storyline of this one. It was fun to be back with the characters again. It was a pretty quick read because I wanted to find out whodunnit. I hope he writes another one in this series.
4. "The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen" by Yuta Takahashi and translated by Cat Anderson: I really enjoyed reading "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" by Toshikazu Kawaguchi a couple of years ago and I haven't been able to read more of these food/cafe-based Japanese books because of my already ridiculously tall TBR (to be read) pile. But I read my niece 's review of this one on Goodreads, and it was available at the library in large print (and you know me and how much I love large print books 🤣) so I grabbed it and read it in less than 2 days! (Kerynne, I cried, too!)
(continued in comments because apparently I wrote too much already 🤪)
