Monthly Wrap Up: January 2019

I know January wouldn’t rank as many people’s favourite month (it’s not mine) BUT I do like it for its power to focus my mind. I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions, but it is nice to open that brand new diary and actively take stock; think about what I want to achieve / do / learn this year and good-old January always makes me do this, not like those other slacker months that just let my mind weave all over the place.

Evidence of my newly focused mind can be seen in my 2019 reading goals post from earlier this month and I even took it a step further for 2019 by committing to a digital Agatha Christie book club, hosted by Maidens of Murder on Instagram. The plan is to gradually work my way through Agatha’s extensive back-catalogue (not just in 2019, as long as it takes), so this seemed like a pretty good way to keep that ticking over.

Now, onto the books! Five reviews, all featuring (I’ve literally just realised as I write this) female authors. This was not intentionally done, but is serendipitously perfect as it ties in with my January book themes, which have a distinct feminist feel. Starting with… We Should All Be Feminists – yep, the title pretty much sums that one up; Vox and Last Ones Left Alive are dystopian reads that have female lead characters, Vox specifically looking at a society where women have been stripped of their voices, only allowed to speak 100 words per day; Sleeping Murder features Miss Marple, arguably the greatest female fictional detective ever written; and finally Blood Orange, also with a female lead character, it looks at how women’s reputations are so often sullied for behaviour that men get away with all the time.

Read my full reviews for each of these books right here:

/ Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff

/ Vox by Christina Dalcher

/ We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

/ Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

/ Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce

Have you read any of my January choices? Let me know your thoughts!