Cossette’s January Wrap Up // a letter from coco

hello, dear friends 💌 how are you? i feel like it’s been a while since we’ve had a proper little chit chat, so grab a cup of coffee, tea, or whatever your preferred drink is, and get cozy 🧸

january simultaneously felt the longest stretch of time, and also the shortest. i actually drafted the bulk of this wrap up in the notes app on my phone while on a plane home from sunny california. i was originally supposed to go to california last june, but came down with covid & ended up rescheduling my flight for lunar new year so i could spend it with some family. lunar new year is one of my favorite times of the year — it’s probably tied for my favorite holiday (the other being valentine’s day; not the hallmarkification of it, but more so, the way we used to celebrate it in primary school & when we would tell everyone we loved them). i’m always reminded of hong kong during this time of the year; always filled with so much joy + homesickness + nostalgia. 

this month, i also went to two nhl hockey games! i’m not really a sports person, but i think i could be for hockey. my best friend and i went to a seattle kraken vs. tampa bay lightning game (we lost), and i went with another close friend to the seattle kraken vs. columbus blue jackets game on saturday (where we won)! i don’t totally understand the rules quite yet, but i’m just happy to be there! 

with all the business of travel + work + other things, i didn’t read as much as i’d hoped to. in january, i read 20 books — four of them were books i annotated, and four of them were rereads. in terms of my reading goals, i’m doing quite well! obviously, i’ve annotated quite a few books and have made some progress in terms of audiobooks, and reading nonfictions, but i didn’t get a chance to read as many ARCs as i would’ve liked, nor did i post as regularly as i wanted to. honestly, i got really overwhelmed with all the things near the end of the month, and just needed a break. 

here’s a list of the books i read this month: 

• Book Lovers by Emily Henry (Reread; ★★★★★) 
• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata + translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (★★★☆☆)
• A Wish In The Dark by Christina Soontornvat (★★★★★)
• So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (Audiobook; ★★★★★)
• Highly Suspicious And Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert (★★★★☆)
• The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Reread; ★★★★☆)
• If Not, Winter by Sappho + translated by Anne Carson  (★★★★★)
• When You Wish Upon A Lantern by Gloria Chao (ARC; ★★★☆☆)
• This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang (ARC; ★★★★★)
• Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood  (ARC; ★★☆☆☆)
• Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (★★★★☆)
• Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton (Reread; ★★★★★) 
• The Fraud Squad by Kyla Zhao (★★★☆☆)
• Masters Of Death by Olivie Blake (★★★★☆) 
• Enter The Body by Joy Mccullough (★★★★☆) 
• The Stranger by Albert Camus (Reread; ★★★★★)  
• You’d be Mine by Erin Hahn (★★☆☆☆)
• A Hundred Other Girls by Iman Hariri-Kia (★☆☆☆☆)
• Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn (Audiobook; ★★★☆☆)
• Fearless by Mandy Gonzales (★★★★☆) 

i also spent some time going through my saved bookmarks on various socials (tiktok, instagram, twitter, etc.) & finally went through some of the essays i’ve bookmarked for far too long. in particular, i really loved It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart by Jennifer Senior & The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna. i’m hoping to read more essays this year, so if anyone has any recommendations, please feel free to comment / message me some! 

in terms of media consumed this month, i watched a couple movies (which is a lot for me) — glass onion & a man called otto are the two obvious standouts, and i’m almost done with derry girls! i’ve been listening to the 1975 a lot, as always (still thinking about how they brought out taylor swift as a surprise guest at the O2 for me, specifically), taylor swift, gracie abrams, maisie peters, isabel pless, boygenius, lizzy mcalpine, beabadobee, and noah kahan. 

i’m trying to set less strict tbr’s for myself each month, and limit myself to a five book priority list for the month. february’s priority reads are: 

• conversations on love by natasha lunn — i’ve been meaning to read it forever! 
• ghosts by dolly alderton — after reading and loving everything i know about love, i’ve been really anticipating this one but never got around to it! 
• strange the dreamer by laini taylor — i started reading this near the end of january, but fell into a slump with it. 
• the writing retreat by julia bartz — i got an arc of this ages ago, but procrastinated on my arcs! i’m hoping to read it before the publication date. 
• wuthering heights by emily brontë, which i’ll be reading & annotating for annotated literature book club 

in case you missed it, here are my january blog posts: 

• let’s talk: 2023 reading goals
• arc review: central places by delia cai
• arc review: last violent call by chloe gong
• arc review: do i know you? by emily wibberly & austin siegemund-broka

and here are some posts i’ve been loving:

• i always love reading people’s anticipated releases, and i always look forward to seeing may’s! there are so many lovely books here that weren’t on my radar, and i definitely recommend checking these out! 
• i really enjoyed reading before your memory fades by toshikazu kawaguchi (translated by geoffrey trousselot), and kath’s review of it was lovely! 
• i’ve been on the fence about checking out never ever getting back together by sophie gonzales, because reality dating shows rarely work out for me but april’s convinced me to give it a try! 
• taylor’s top 10 reads of 2022 was a delight to read; i’ve read & loved a good chunk of these, and added the rest to my tbr! 
• here’s a quick little shoutout to my dear friend cat, who is starting a book & baking blog! you can check it out here. 

something else i’ve wanted to do is to make my wrap up’s a little less structured, a little more conversational. i’m not sure how it’ll go, if i’ll revert back to my old wrap up style later in the year, but i figured we could give it a try and see how it goes!

how has your january been? i’d love to hear about it 🤍