Wow, finally January is done. I’m not sure why, but every year January feels like it’s so crazy long and yet it can go by oddly fast. I don’t know, January is always an odd time, it feels like a liminal space month to me every single time. As always, with the month ending it’s time for my monthly wrap up, so if you wanna know what I was up to this month keep reading!
The reading month definitely started out strong for me. I started off with an ARC of A Very Novel Murder by Ellie Alexander which I gave 4 stars, and then did a reread and annotation of People We Meet on Vacation. Winterween was this month and I knocked 4 books off of my physical tbr during that week which was such a great feeling, and during that week I read my top 2 books of the month which were The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark and The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. My reading definitely got a lot slower as the month went on, especially as work got busier, but I do think that overall I had a pretty successful reading month to start off 2026.
Books read this month:
- A Very Novel Murder by Ellie Alexander (4 stars)
- People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (reread, 5 stars)
- Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang (4 stars)
- The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark (4.5 stars)
- I’ll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong (2 stars)
- All Manner of Things Shall Be by Olivie Blake (3 stars)
- Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (4 stars)
- Hazelthorn by C.G. Drews (4 stars)
- The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst (4.5 stars)
- The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell (3.5 stars)
- The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall (3 stars, ARC)
- A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith (2 stars)
- Masters of Death by Olivie Blake (3.5 stars)
Blog posts and vlogs I loved this month:
- I love Anticipated Releases videos and here are some that I really enjoyed this month
- The videos where Kayla Guesses Readers Favorite Books is always one of my favorite vlogs and her latest was really fun!
My posts this month:
This month has been a lot, I won’t lie. While, luckily, my general anxiety has been pretty low this month (I have started tracking my daily anxiety in my bullet journal as well), this month has not been easy. Work has been a lot lately; not necessarily in a bad way, just lots of stuff to do so I’ve been really busy with that.
I’m definitely dying for the NWSL and MLB seasons to start again — thank goodness they both start in March! We did have 2 international matches for the US Women’s National Team to watch this month which was great; I definitely missed watching soccer! It was announced that the National Team is coming back to my hometown in April to play Japan, and when they were here last year I couldn’t go because I had tech week, but I don’t have anything going on for the week they’re gonna be here this year so I jumped at the chance to get tickets and I’m really looking forward to that!
Because I’ve been so busy with work, I’ve been quite the homebody this month. I’ve been keeping it pretty chill on the weekends and just relaxing. My brother-in-law did help me put up some storage on the walls of my room. I recently bought a purple shelving unit that is just so dang cute and I put it up by my bed, and I finally put up a little wall rack that I’m hanging my mini Trader Joe’s bags on. It’s so nice to finally have those things up and I’m really happy with how they look in the space.
I also finished my reading journal set up after a huge set back (you can read about it in my reading journal set up post), in addition to setting up my February spreads for my bullet journal. I made some really good food; my usual pizza and I made a Caprese Pasta Salad that I was obsessed with and ate for at least one meal a day for the better part of a week 🤣
Percy Jackson and the Olympians — most specifically Percabeth — has fully taken over my life. I seriously love the TV series so much and watching season 2 every Wednesday was truly the highlight of my week. I’m so happy with how this season went and thank goodness they gave us the little season 3 sneak peek (oh my gosh I’m still freaking out) and announced that season 3 is coming out this year. I need a double season 4 and season 5 renewal asap, but I’m really looking forward to rereading the first 5 books of the series and reading Heroes of Olympus, The Chalice of the Gods and Wrath of the Triple Goddess this year. My brain is basically all Percabeth/PJO 24/7 right now.
I started watching the US version of The Traitors and I am honestly so obsessed. No one told me it was basically a big game of Mafia — had I known that I would’ve started watching way sooner! I decided to start with the first season and finished that really quickly, so I’m now working my way through the second season. It’s honestly so fun; I haven’t watched a lot of reality TV in recent years, but this is definitely a lot of fun and I’m loving it. I will say, oddly enough most of the time I find myself rooting for the traitors 🤣
Of course, I watched the film adaptation of People We Meet On Vacation. I meant to post my review this month, but I didn’t get around to it. I will post it in early February though because I’ve started writing it, so you can keep an eye out for that but I did love the film and have watched it multiple times! I did go to the movies this month as well. I went with my sister and brother-in-law to see Zootopia 2 and it was a lot of fun, I’d definitely watch it again.
I’ve been listening to some new music this month too. Obviously, I listened to Louis Tomlinson’s new album How Did I Get Here? and I really enjoyed it! I think that it’s a really well done album, and I think it’s super cohesive and feels very true to Louis. I really enjoyed my first listen, and I’m looking forward to listening to it more. I finally listened to Olivia Dean’s album The Art of Loving, after being obsessed with Man I Need and So Easy (To Fall In Love), and thought the album was so lovely! She has such a beautiful and soothing voice, so I know I’ll be listening to that album a lot as well.
Some other songs that I’ve been listening to and loving aside from my typical favorites are:
- Do I Wanna Know? (Arctic Monkeys cover) by Dove Cameron
- Red Button by Dea Matrona
- The Water is Fine (Crimson Edition) by Chloe Ament
Before I wrap up this post, I want to say that I am absolutely devastated and disgusted by what is happening in the states right now. What ICE is doing is horrific; ripping children away from their families, murdering people in cold blood, snatching people from their homes. It’s awful. This country was literally built on immigrants and the administration wants to act like immigrants are the ones wrecking this country when they’re doing a perfectly fine job of that themselves. It’s so important, now more than ever, that we do whatever we can to stand up for our neighbors and for what’s right. Some places that have resources that you can access for more information on what you can do to help are: Immigrant Legal Resource Center, National Immigrant Justice Center, and Immigrant Defense Project. And we can’t forget and must continue to fight against the genocide happening Palestine. The world feels so dark and heavy right now and sometimes it does feel a bit helpless, but we’re not, every little thing adds up to a big thing, so even though it can feel discouraging sometimes, please continue to use your voice to stand up for what you believe in and what you know is right.
January has been a lot, that’s for sure, but there have been good things, and I’d love to hear about the good things that happened to you this month, including what you read! Let me know in the comments!
Until next time 💜
Leave a Reply