What I read in January 2024

January seemed to go on forever, but I did read 15 books, not least because there were a few days where I didn’t feel well enough to do anything more demanding than reading!

Not much happened writing-wise beyond some rough scratchings at writing sessions and workshops (although I did very much enjoy those). It’s Emotional Madness next month, so I really need to get a wiggle on.

Past Lying, by Val McDermid - 5*

Figurehead, by Carly Holmes - 4.5*

Strong Female Character, by Fern Brady - 4.5*

Night Side of the River, by Jeanette Winterson - 4*

Little Eve, by Catriona Ward - 3.5*

Halfway House, by Helen FitzGerald - 4*

A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett - it’s… fine. 3.5*

Plague Birds, by Jason Sanford - 4*

The Half Life of Valery K, by Natasha Pulley - brilliant. 5*

Emotional Ignorance: Misadventures in the Science of Emotion, by Dr Dean Burnett - 4*

In Memory of Us, by Jacqueline Roy - 5*

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, edited by Jordan Peele - 4*

Bodies: Life and Death in Music, by Ian Winwood - 4*

Death Flight, by Sarah Sultoon 4*

The Fallen, by Ada Hoffmann - 4.5*

Looking ahead…

I’m feeling rather smug because I’ve already read five of the six books I bought in the Waterstones sale! Old Babes in the Wood, by Margaret Atwood, is the sixth.

I love my Mastodon compatriot Sarah Jackson’s writing, so of course I jumped at the chance to review her newly-hatched short story collection, The Haunted Tea Set & other stories!

I know I said I’d read The Infinite, by Ada Hoffmann, last month, but that’s because I initially mistook it for the second in the series – hence, I read The Fallen instead. I love how neurodiversity and mental illness are so integral to this imaginative speculative/sci-fi series.