January is over and it's time for the first check in of the Indie Challenge 2023! How has your reading been going so far? Please do leave links to blog posts, tweets etc with what you've been reading in the comments so I can check them out (and inevitably add to my TBR). And don't forget if you've somehow managed to complete a line of bingo already, you can enter here for our big prize draws later this year!
Personally, my reading this month has not gone quite the way I wanted it to, and I've finished 4 books, and only one was indie. I started 2 other books for the Indie Challenge and haven't currently finished either of them!
First, I started reading The Enchanted Life by Sharon Blackie (September Books) which is so completely up my street - all about reconnecting with the Earth and seasonal living and all of the things I love so much. I don't know if it was just a case of reading it at the wrong time, but although it's interesting and parts of it have been really engrossing, I'm finding it very hard to get into. There's quite a lot of information in it and it's been sort of heavy going, but I'm so convinced that I will end up loving it that I'm persisting!
I'm also taking my time with Animal Life by Audur Ava Olafsdottir (Pushkin Press) but that's purely because it's a slower paced book. I've been reading it on the way home from the school run (don't worry, I walk and don't read while crossing roads!) and thinking about it while doing my morning exercise, and I'm actually writing notes about it in my review notebook (a new addition for this year which I'm loving so far) and will be sharing my fully formulated review in hopefully a few days.
The book that I did finish for the challenge though was also not one I put on my TBR, but it was great! I was kindly sent a copy of Juniper Mae, Knight of Tykotech City by Sarah Soh (Flying Eye Books) which is coming out later this month and I love it! It's such a fun story about a girl who discovers mysterious things in the forest outside the city where she lives. She is a little bit of an inventor and makes all sorts of cool gadgets, which is fantastic as my eldest recently asked for recommendations of more books with girl scientists in them! It's the first in a series and I'll be sharing a full review nearer to publication date, so watch out for that...
The non-indie books I read this month were all pretty great too - Hungry by Grace Dent, People Person by Candice Carty-Williams and The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse. I also started Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner, but then realised I'd already read it, which has to be one of the more annoying things in life!
I'm not making any plans for February, and just seeing where the reading inspiration takes me - if January's anything to go by it'll be faaaaar away from my planned TBR!
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