My January Reads!

Six Books to Kick Off the Year

I am an avid reader and since I’ve been in Dakar and on a bit of a social media fast, I’ve read six books this month. My reading interests vary wildly between romance, politics, novels and really anything quite frankly, except murder mysteries, no thanks!. My goal this year is to read 52 books! As always, if you have recommendations, please send them over. But only share if you would rate them 5 out of 5!

Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan: I’ve read several books by KR. This is the third book in the Skyland series. It was off to a slow start and it took a lot of leaps but I appreciated the reference to the Fearless Fund and the disgraced Clippers coach. 3/5.

I Am Not Sidney Portier by Percival Everett: When I fall in love with a book by an author, I immediately add their other books to my list. This read came off the backs of my completion of James, last month. This book is hilarious, bizarre and wildly well written. Everett is a masterful storyteller, albeit quirky, confusing and causing unnecessary pain for Not Sidney. The ending is as bizarre as the rest of the book. Fascinating and gripping. Everett’s mind must be a very fascinating place because his novels are fanciful and intelligently biting critiques of social issues. I listened to the audiobook and the voice actor did a phenomenal job. 4.5/5

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto: After falling in love with the first book in this series, Dial A For Aunties, I was happy to be reunited with the aunties in this follow up. I wanted to love this book, but it felt a bit over the top. Chaotic if you will. 3/5

The Good, the Bad and the Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto: The third book in the series, I enjoyed this better than the second one and these are aunties are a crazy riot! 3.5/5

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo: I had no idea what this book was about when I selected for this month’s book club. The wide ranging book is made up of vignettes of a variety of women in London, across several generations. The stories intertwine in interesting ways and the Epilogue was the perfect surprise ending. the lack of punctuation was an interesting style. Her prose is interesting and I’m not sure if I love it, but really enjoyed this book. Please sign up here if you’d like to join next month’s book club. 4/5

Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola: This is the second book in the Honey & Spice series and WOW. It is my first five star read of the year. I love a good romance novel and I love following the stories of characters across books. This brought me joy, made me nostalgic for a past relationship and in awe of the lives of these characters and the ability of the author. Her character development is phenomenal. I really need this turned into a TV series. I listened the audiobook and the narrator is EXCELLENT! 5/5

Have you read any of these books? Did you enjoy them?

I started a monthly book club last month, aptly titled “Catch Us Reading.” I will be announcing next month’s select on Monday. If you are not already on the book club email list, please sign up here.

Be well. Travel well. Live well. Until next time: catch me if you can!

- Jessica