Books of 2022 – January

Hello lovely people. You’re looking rather splendid today. We made it out of January largely in one piece despite it lasting for about 300 days. But we’re now in February, the days are ever so slowly getting longer and brighter.

What better time then to turn our attention to books? I’ve been meaning to tidy up my TBR pile this year, and the aim is to get my Netgalley backlog down to manageable levels, but that hasn’t really happened this month.

Ooops.

Books read (5)

Great selection of books read this month.

• Dolphin Junction – Mick Herron [Christmas present, hardback]
• The Great Silence – Doug Johnstone [ARC, Orenda Books]
• A Loyal Traitor – Tim Glister [e-ARC, Point Blank Crime, blog tour]
• Windswept and Interesting – Billy Connolly [audio, Audible sub]
• Truly, Darkly, Deeply– Victoria Selman [e-ARC, Netgalley, Quercus]

I loved Dolphin Junction. Huge fan of Mick Herron’s books, but his short stories are just superb.

The Great Silence is book 3 in Doug Johnstone’s Skelfs series, about three generations of women who run a funeral home and a private investigation business. This is the best one yet, and that’s a pretty high bar.

A Loyal Traitor is a cracking spy novel with undertones of Bond. I enjoyed it a lot, blog tour review up in February

Windswept and Interesting was, err, interesting. Narrated by Billy Connolly himself it was entertaining, though at times it felt a bit stilted. Then there are sections where he’s like his old self and going on a ramble and cracking up at the story, which was lovely to hear.

Truly, Darkly, Deeply was absolutely brilliant. I loved Victoria Selman’s Snakes and Ladders and this standalone had me gripped.

Books bought (4)

• Iron Gold – Pierce Brown [ebook]
• Dark Age – Pierce Brown [ebook]
• And Your Enemies Closer – Rob Parker [audio, Audible sub]
• Broken Girls – Joy Kluver [ebook]

I’ve got Iron Gold and Dark Age in hardback (signed) but haven’t got around to reading them yet as they’re both absolute chonks and it’s been forever since I read the first trilogy. I picked up the kindle editions as they’re much lighter in the hand. Plus they were on offer.

And Your Enemies Closer is the follow up to Rob Parker’s superb Far From The Tree. Narrated again by Warren Brown (of Luther fame), I’m very much looking forward to this.

Broken Girls is the new book by my bookblogger friend Joy Kluver. Always happy to support my writing buddies!

Books received (9)

• The Reacher Guy – Heather Martin [hardback, signed, competition win]
• Wheel of Time books 1-3 box set – Robert Jordan [paperback, Orbit Books]
• The Goodbye Coast – Joe Ide [ARC, paperback, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, blog tour]
• Quicksand of Memory – Michael J. Malone [ARC, paperback, Orenda Books]
• River Clyde – Simone Buchholz [ARC, paperback, Orenda Books]
• The Shot – Sarah Sultoon [ARC, paperback, Orenda Books]
• The Interview – CM Ewan [hardback, Macmillan, blog tour]

Very excited to win a copy of The Reacher Guy, signed by Heather Martin.

The lovely Nazia at Orbit was kind enough to send me a box set of the first three books in the Wheel of Time series that’s been showing on Amazon Prime. Big chonky books too, should keep me busy!

I’ve heard a lot of good things about Joe Ide, and jumped at the chance to read The Goodbye Coast for the upcoming blog tour. Ide has taken Raymond Chandler’s iconic detective, Philip Marlowe and put him in LA, present day. Enjoying it enormously.

A book parcel from the lovely Orenda Books is always a splendid thing, and I’ll be adding these to my TBR, though I do feel a little guilty that I’ve not finished the last parcel yet!

Finally, CM Ewan’s The Interview looks fantastic – big fan of his books, especially his Good Thief’s Guide series, so very much looking forward to this

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So, dear reader. That was January. Have you read any of these? Any catch your eye? Would love to hear what you think, and what you read in January!