January 2022 Wrap Up

January was not a very auspicious beginning for the year, but considering that it was all award reading, I'm going to say the year didn't really start until February. I read 5 books in January.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna - This was a Fantasy book about a bunch of girls whose blood was gold instead of red. They were outcasts from their communities, so they were taken to the capitol to be trained to be a fighting army for the prince. The end got real weird. Nobody was who they say. You can't trust anyone. It was a hot mess.

Revolution In Our Time by Kekla Magoon - This might be my favorite book of the month. I learned a ton of stuff about the Black Panther Party. I even got to use some of the information for my program at the library in a few weeks.

Himawari House by Harmony Becker - This came through when I needed a quick read, so I read it. It's cute. It's a graphic novel about a Japanese-born, American-raised girl who goes back to Japan for a time to see if she feels a connection. She lives in Himawari House with a girl from Singapore, a girl from Korea, and two Japanese guys. It's very cute.

The Backups: A Summer of Stardom by Alex de Campi et.al. - Once again we have a graphic novel that I picked up for a quick read. Three teen girls get picked to sing backup for a huge pop star, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. The star is a bitch, one of the girls meets her idols and it doesn't go well, there is a massive dog on the loose, well you get the idea. It was a lot of fun to read, and I highly resonated with one of the girls. She's hilarious.

The Year of the Reaper by Makiia Lucier - I had a hard time remembering what this book was about because the one I read after it was similar. Now I remember. I enjoyed reading this one, though it had some problems. Cas is the brother of the lord of his neighborhood? county? Anyway, he shows up at home after being a hostage of a foreign country for 4 years and the King and Queen are staying at his house. There are several attacks on people around the Queen and Cas and the King's sister get together to find out who is behind it. The plot is pretty good. My biggest problem is that it is revealed that the brother is gay, but it's absolutely hushed up and pushed under the rug. Not good representation. Also, the author is from Guam, and the characters are all described as having black hair, but otherwise, they are all white? It's very weird. Anyway, there you go.

Those are the five books I read in January. Hopefully February will be more fruitful. I have already finished a book this month, so here's hoping.