It’s the end of January (finally). It wasn’t a bad month, reading wise. It started out slow, but picked up near the end, I think. And that’s a good thing. On a side note: do y’all like my commentary on the jacket flaps or not? Sometimes, I don’t know what to say and so I’m wondering if I should just leave them to speak for themselves. Something to think about, anyway.

My three favorite jacket flaps from the books I picked up this month:

Odd and the Frost Giants (Harper): “In this inventive, short, yet perfectly formed novel inspired by traditional Norse mythology, Neil Gaiman takes readers on a wild and magical trip to the land of giants and gods and back. In a village in ancient Norway lives a boy named Odd, and he’s had some very bad luck: His father perished in a Viking expedition; a tree fell on and shattered his leg; the endless freezing winter is making villagers dangerously grumpy. Out in the forest Odd encounters a bear, a fox, and an eagle — three creatures with a strange story to tell. Now Odd is forced on a stranger journey than he had imagined — a journey to save Asgard, city of the gods, from the Frost Giants who have invaded it. It’s going to take a very special kind of twelve-year-old boy to outwit the Frost Giants, restore peace to the city of gods, and end the long winter. Someone cheerful and infuriating and clever… Someone just like Odd…”

The Year My Son and I Were Born (GPP Life): “With six other children at home, Kathryn Lynard Soper was prepared for the challenges another newborn would bring. But after Thomas’s complicated birth, his diagnosis—Down syndrome—forced her to face her deepest fears and weaknesses, her ignorance and prejudice, and her limitations as a mother and as a human being. Her struggle, coupled with the demands of caring for a fragile baby and juggling her family’s needs, sparked the worst episode of depression she’d experienced in decades. The Year My Son and I Were Born is Kathryn’s brutally honest yet beautiful account of how she escaped a downward spiral of despair and emerged with newfound peace. Antidepressant therapy restored her equilibrium, and interactions with friends and family brought needed perspective. But the most profound change came through her growing relationship with Thomas. His radiant presence shone through her outer layers of self, where fear and guilt festered, and reached the center of her very being—where love, acceptance, and gratitude blossomed in abundance.”

My Most Excellent Year (Dial Books):
“TCKeller: What’s ‘flap copy’ anyway?
AugieHwong: It’s what they put on a book jacket to tell you what’s inside, you rock-head. We can use the one from Liza Minnelli’s bio as a template.
TCKeller: Or not.
AlePerez: This is positively mortifying. They were just supposed to be classroom essays! I can’t believe the entire world is about to find out how I played Anthony like a violin for five months.
TCKeller: I let you do that. Hey, why don’t we open the flap with a quote about the 1918 Red Sox–
AugieHwong: No way, dude. If you’re looking for a warm-up act, we open /with Bette Davis in All About Eve.
AlePerez: Hello? Jacqueline Kennedy would be a far more appealing, not to mention intelligent, choice. Besides, I outrank both of you.
TCKeller: Oh, yeah? I have a Carlton Fisk rookie card.
AugieHwong: I have Angela Lansbury’s autograph.
AlePerez: I have a Secret Service agent.
TCKeller: Guys! Why don’t we just forget the flap copy and start at the very beginning?
AugieHwong: A very good place to start….”

Other books read this month:
Calamity Jack
Dream Girl
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
Saving Maddie
Wrinkle in Time
Front and Center
Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart
Unfinished Angel
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Carter Finally Gets It

Running Total: 13
Adult fiction: 2
YA: 5
MG: 3
Non-fiction: 2
Graphic Novel: 1