Book Reviews for January

I've decided that I'm going to do a monthly round up of what I've read each month. I am concentrating on reading more books this year - last year I only managed 40some which just isn't enough for me. I would like to get to 52 this year. We shall see!

I'm on Goodreads here, feel free to add me and recommend stuff to me! I read in many genres - I love Young Adult as that's my MA specialism, I like crime writing, I like literary fiction, and I like plain easy reads, especially about women and their lives. I like non fiction about people's real lives, too.

I have so many books - in fact one day I might do a post about my bookshelves. I say MY because nearly all our books are mine - Lee doesn't read much. He likes Stephen King and non-fiction, but that's about it. I also have a Kindle with TONS of books on it that I've collected for free over the 3 years that I've had it. I swap between the Kindle and a paper book and have no preference for either - I love them both, for different reasons.

I've kept a list of books read for a few years now, but this year I'm adding whether it's an ebook or a paper book or from the library. I'm adding the date that I finished. I rarely tandem read, so mostly it will show how quickly I've read a book. I'm excited to see what the year brings!

Here's what I've read this month:



1) This is a Dan Brown-esque novel about the Romanov family, saying that Alexei and Anastasia survived the massacre at Yekaterinburg, and that in the present, Russia is trying to elect a new Tsar, and an American lawyer must rush to unravel the truth. I like conspiracy novels like this so I enjoyed it.
2) I read Animal Farm when I was a teenager but hadn't read it since then. I devoured this (it is short) and enjoyed the reread.
3) This was an anthology of new women writers and was a mix of poetry and prose. I really enjoyed all of the stories and a lot of the poetry, and I like to support new writers.



4) I loved the Ramona books when I was small and recently bought them on eBay for less than £10. They're so funny, and clever. I recommend them for small children
5) This has been all over Young adult forums and I got it on Kindle to see what the hype was about. It was interesting. It broke all the rules of YA fiction! I did like it, but with reservations
6) I don't read many classics but I liked this one, it was an interesting story.



7) I got this for free on Kindle and it was a nice enough story. I liked the main character and the setting. We need more boys in YA, so I liked it for that
8) Again I read this when I was small and loved it. I found it while tidying recently and read it. It's one of the better Blytons, I think.
9) I bought this in a charity shop a couple of years ago and picked it up on a mooch around my bookshelves. I've read The Outcast by Sadie Jones and enjoyed it, but this is very different in style. A lot of people hated it - I didn't, but it is a very odd book.

What have you been reading this month?