As I read books this year, my plan is to write monthly reviews chronicling my recommendations and missteps. The short monthly format of these posts was inspired by 52Books, and is bound to be an improvement from my well-intended, poorly executed weekly posts from past years.

January 2013 Books

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

I’m always skeptical of books that are on everyone’s must-read lists – including this one. It was constantly showing up in my GoodReads feed and getting five star reviews. That said, it was absolutely wonderful. The imagery in the book is beautiful, breathtaking, and quite literally magical. I won’t go into the plot of the book, as there are plenty of other reviews written on that, and the twists and turns are worth keeping a surprise. This is the very best work of fiction I’ve read in a long time. Thanks Kristen Abell for lending me your copy!

Etymologicon, Mark Forsyth

This book took me back to one of my favorite undergraduate courses: History of the English Language. The author writes in an almost stream of consciousness style – introducing words and their histories and seamlessly connecting that explanation to the next set of words. My biggest complaint is that I couldn’t memorize it all (though I gave it the old college try). Also? The book is hilarious. I found myself reading parts of it out loud to anyone around me who would listen.

The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg

I picked this audio book up after Joe Ginese shared it as recommended reading. Although I’d file it as a Business Book, it was a nice change from the books I’ve read in this category. Duhigg blends stories, research, and commentary into an easy to read (and listen to) book. Reading it in Jnauary timely, as the book shares insight into so many of the habits people are trying to build and break as the new year begins.

I Like You, Amy Sedaris

Two-thirds of the book were pretty good. The last third of the book was uninteresting and mostly Amy Sedaris sharing recipes. As an audio book — this made my commute miserable for a few days. I didn’t want to risk fast-forwarding for fear of missing out on her witty commentary in between recipes, but in retrospect I would absolutely skip ahead. She’s funny and I want to hang out with her, but I don’t want to read her book.

What are you reading?