What I Read In January

Every January I set myself a Goodreads challenge to read 50 books in the upcoming year. I’ve only achieved it once (thanks to a heavy university reading list!) but I’m hoping I might come close in 2018. With that in mind, I thought I’d put together some quick reviews of what I’ve read each month. Here’s my January reads in review.

La Belle Savauge – Philip Pullman

I’ve already mentioned this book in a previous blog post, but I thought it was good enough to warrant its own review! Having grown up falling in love with the world of the ‘His Dark Materials’ series I had to get my hands on this as soon as it was released. The story is set years before the original trilogy,  Lyra is still a baby, and follows young Malcolm as he is drawn into a world of dark secrets. It’s definitely a slow burner and it took me a couple of weeks to get completely immersed but the story picks up the pace in the second part. I’m looking forward to learning more about how Lyra came to be at Jordan College in the rest of the series.

4/5

Lyra’s Oxford – Philip Pullman

My boyfriend bought me this as an anniversary present, safe to say he knows the way to my heart! In this short story, the reader is thrown back into the world of the famous trilogy and follows Lyra as she adventures once more through the streets of Oxford. Having visited the city recently, I felt I could picture the spiralled towers and cobbled streets even more vividly and I wished that the story was longer, especially with mention of Lyra’s first love Will. However, this is a wonderful accompaniment to the series and fans won’t be disappointed.

4/5

Elanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

This book recently won the 2017 Costa Book Award prize for First Novel and I’m  a huge fan of previous winners, such as Emma Healy’s Elizabeth Is Missing and Nathan Filer’s The Shock of the Fall. Although I enjoyed the book, which follows the life of the unstable and terribly lonely narrator, Elanor Oliphant, I found it quite predictable. Disappointingly, I’d already guessed the ending around halfway through and, at times, I felt the book was trying too hard to maintain it’s tone. However, there are some very moving and funny movements throughout, which is typically a winning combination for me. If you liked Bridget Jones, you’ll love this.

3/5

All in all, this year’s off to a good start. What have you been reading? Can anyone recommend me a book to get stuck into in February?