January 2021 wrap-up

Hello bookworms!! Yes, it’s the last day of February and here I am doing my January 2021 wrap-up… I swear I am trying to stay on top of blogging… it’s just so hard some weeks!! (Months? Years?) On the plus side, I am on top of blog-hopping, so yay me!!

Umm… January was a time. I normally take time off work to enjoy the summer, but this year I went back to the office on Monday 4 January. I was expecting it to be pretty quiet, but that was not the case. It was full-steam ahead from the very start of the year, so I didn’t get to do as much in my “down-time” as I had hoped.

So, let’s look at what I did in January.

January 2021 wrap-up

I read three times as many book in January as I did in December… Not that that means a great deal when I only read two books in December. However, six books is better than none, so no complaints here.

Book	Author	Series	Symbols	Rating	Cover
Crush	Tracy Wolff	Crave #2	❤️ ? ? ?‍♀️ ? ?	4
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London	Garth Nix		? ? ?️‍? ?‍♀️ ? ⏰ ? ?	3
Sticks and Scones	Ngozi Ukazu	Check Please Vol 2	⛱ ❤️ ?️‍? ? ? ?‍♀️ ? ? ?	5
Harvest of Sighs	Sierra Simone	Thornchapel #3	❤️ ? ? ?‍? ? ?	3
Door of Bruises	Sierra Simone	Thornchapel #4	❤️ ? ? ?‍? ? ?	3
Conventionally Yours	Annabeth Albert		⛱ ❤️ ?️‍? ? ?‍♀️ ? ? ?	4

OK, so it wasn’t a great month of books. I did force myself to finish The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Nix because I’d been reading it for ages. It’s a shame this book didn’t do it for me, but I absolutely love everything else Nix has written that I’ve read. I’m still yet to write my review for it, but it was definitely on me, not the book.

Despite the ratings, I have to say my favourite book of the month was Crush by Tracy Wolff. Crave was definitely a bit trashy, but I would say the series overall is a bit like Twilight x ACOTAR. It definitely gets better the further you go on. And the ending to Crush was *chefs kiss*. I will 100% be reading Covet when it’s out next month.

Gaming

OMG. I played a LOT of The Sims 4. I put at least 4 Sims through university, upgraded houses, moved households around, had multiple babies. It was a time. The new expansion pack Paranormal came out at the end of January as well.

Of course there was a lot of Animal Crossing going on as well, but only for the first few days. Every time a new month starts I seem to play the crap out of it to try and collect as many new bugs and fish, and then it goes on the backburner again.

And – most exciting for me – we started a new D&D campaign!! We are playing kind of a bastardised version of 5th edition, and we’re at sea. My character, Karou, is nothing like her namesake. (I always steal one of my favourite character names, except for one. So far I’ve played as Iseult, Sabriel, Tikke and now Karou.) I’ve also moved away from being an elf – so it’s a whole new world for me.

Karou is a tiefling cleric. She has lived her whole life sheltered in a monastery serving Mishakal, the goddess of life. However, she has been sent on a mission to watch over her grandpapi (played by my husband which is all sorts of weird), and to spread the gospel of Mishakal. In terms of playing the character, calling her naïve would be kind. She’s also so regimented in doing things a certain way, that is now completely lost as she’s on a ship heading to a new country and nothing is familiar, that she has started to present with this social anxiety. I’m having so much fun!!

TV and movies

Things I watched in January were:

• Community season 2
• The Witcher season 1 (rewatch)
• Step Up
• The Wedding Year
• Sabrina season 4
• Fate: The Winx Saga season 1

Yes, for the first time since October, I didn’t watch Julie and the Phantoms. I am shocked too. I did rewatch The Witcher though…

And I watched Fate: The Wix Saga and I loved it!! It was so good!! I never watched the original cartoon though – so I had nothing to reference it back to. But I imagine the outrage is similar to the outrage I had when they ruined She-Ra and I ended up hate-watching the first season.

Music

Hello, my name is Meeghan, and I only listen to Taylor Swift now.

I don’t even know why I have a music section any more. I feel like the last six months have just been me crying over folklore and then evermore. And some Julie and the Phantoms songs thrown in for variety.

Top 5 Tuesday for January was a lot of fun!! Topics were:

• Bookish resolutions
• Anticipated books of 2021
• Books I will definitely read this year
• Books celebrating Indigenous heritage

If you ever feel like joining in late (sometimes we are busy people on Tuesdays) please just drop me a comment or a pingback, and I will happily add you to the list.

These are some of my fave posts from your blogs in January:

• Kat @ Novels and Waffles listed her Top 10 movies and shows of 2020, and this list is amazing
• Charvi @ It’s Not Just Fiction gave us 5 tips to get the best out of buddy reads
• Marie and Nyx @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books talked about book blogging insecurities and tips and I’d just like to say “hello! you read my heart…”
• Speaking of Marie and Nyx, they also did a list of 10 YA friends to lovers books and *chefs kiss* ??❤️ – I have emotions
• Sabrina and Vera @ Wordy and Whimsical wrote a joint review of The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, and it’s so beautiful (no spoilers)
• Becks @ The Punk Theory did a comparison of Enola Holmes movie adaptation with the book

There were also a few anticipated book lists for 2021 (thanks for adding to my TBR!!):

• Ash @ The Infinite Library listed her most anticipated releases of 2021
• C.G. @ Paperfury compiled a whole bunch of young adult books coming out in 2021
• Meaghan @ Hail and Well Read did a Pub Day Prophecy list on so many January releases and I added way too many to my wishlist!!

How was your January?

(Yes, I know it was forever ago…)