January Reads Roundup

I started out the month with a good reading pace, but had to slow down when school started, but nonetheless, I'm very happy with the books I picked this month--there were several stand-out excellent titles and picking a favorite was more difficult than normal.

Best Pick of the Month:
The Keep by Jennifer Egan -- this was a difficult choice, because I read several Best of the Month worthy books, but this one wins it by a hair. Haunting, magical, hilarious, complicated, frustrating -- this book will have your head running in circles.

Worst Pick of the Month:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld -- I cannot emphasize how disappointing this book was. I'm more frustrated by good books with rotten endings than books that were rotten all the way through, because at least those I can stop reading before I become interested in any of the characters.

Also Read this Month:
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga -- give it 100 pages, it starts out slow but builds into something scary and engrossing.
Sherlock Holmes was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles by Pierre Bayard -- this was in the picture finish for favorite of the month. An absolutely hilarious and engaging literary criticism for those who don't read literary criticism.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini -- beautiful.
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas -- this book is a lot darker than I was expecting, in a very good way. Complicated characters overlaid with romance and adventure, what's not to love?


Yearly Stats to Date:

Total Books Read: 6
Total Recommended: 5

Male Authors: 4 (4 Recommended)
Female Authors: 2 (1 Recommended)

See last month's roundup here.
Visit the reads roundup archive page here.