January Reviews

January was a good month for reading, I finished my To-Read list for the month and added one more, though I just finished reading it yesterday so it counts for February. Currently, I am 2 books ahead of schedule, and I am aiming to keep it that way in case the slump that happened last year occurs again.I have several books from the library to keep me occupied and continuing on with the 2017 Popsugar Reading Challenge.

The first book I read was The Maze Runner by James Dashner. It was a good, quick read, and I managed to read it in one day. I wasn’t looking for anything specific when I started reading the book, and I know it’s got a lot of mixed reviews, though I didn’t read any before reading the book. I have also not seen the movie

The writing was what I would expect for a YA novel, not bad, but not fantastic either. The author painted enough of a picture of the various aspects of the world, that my mind could fill in whatever was missing. However, there was a point where I found myself being slowly brought out of the world of Maze Runner by thoughts of “Really? That’s all there is to that?” or “Why would they do that? It doesn’t make sense!”

Overall, I did enjoy the book. I went in with no expectations on what it was like, and I found it enjoyable to a point. Probably would never read this book again, so it’s going into my To Donate pile.

The second book I read was The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht. This book took me 10 days to read, mostly because I had to work and life kept getting in the way. It was an easy read, and quite enjoyable until I got to the end. To me, it felt like the ending had been rushed. Too many story lines were quickly closed up and threads were left hanging. The book left me wanting more, and not finding any. There are too may questions and not enough answers left at the end of this book for me. I did enjoy it, but will never read it again. Currently, I have lent it to a friend for her to read.

The third book I read was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This is a book I started in June 2016, and kept putting down and not getting back to. The beginning of the story had me hooked, but then it began to slow down and I lost interest. I never really cared for any of the characters, though moments of Old Man Jacob, as I will call him struck home with me, as he struggled against dementia (though this was never explicitly stated) in his nursing home. I watched my Grandmother battle with dementia, and I work as a Unit Clerk on the neurology/stroke/neurosurgery floor, so I watch some of our patients and their families struggle with it as well. Having personal knowledge of the struggle people with memory loss go through, and how dementia can demoralize and bring fear, is the only thing that gave me a connection to the character. Again, this is a book that will move on in my To Donate pile.

Finally, I started reading Hell Bay by Will Thomas, the latest book in the Barker and Llewelyn series. Work and life got in the way, so it took longer than usual to read a book in this series, but I did sit down and finish it yesterday. I will include a review of it in my February Review post. For now, I am going to go work on my February Reads post, and get started on reading!

*Note: I do not take any credit for the images in this post. These are all book covers from Goodreads, and they all belong to the authors and artists who created them.