January TBR: 8 Books

It’s my first TBR with my new 2019 structure and I’m SO excited! I have so many great books picked out and I can’t wait to start the year off strong.

Out of the 5 books on my December TBR I have read a whopping zero of them! Not a great month for me reading wise; I read a lot of audiobooks and I was trying to wrap up all of the books I’ve been drudging through since like October 😅 (I finally finished The Corrections literally last night and I just feel so free.)

I’ve set this post up with the book, a simplified summary from Goodreads, and a short note about the book. Cover photos are linked to their Goodreads page!

TBR Jar Picks:

The Daughters by Joanna Philbin

The only daughter of supermodel Katia Summers, witty and thoughtful Lizzie Summers likes to stick to the sidelines. The sole heir to Metronome Media and the daughter of billionaire Karl Jurgensen, outspoken Carina Jurgensen would rather climb mountains than social ladders. Daughter of chart-topping pop icon Holla Jones, stylish and sensitive Hudson Jones is on the brink of her own music breakthrough. By the time freshman year begins, unconventional-looking Lizzie Summers has come to expect fawning photographers and adoring fans to surround her gorgeous supermodel mother. But when Lizzie is approached by a fashion photographer who believes she’s “the new face of beauty,” Lizzie surprises herself and her family by becoming the newest Summers woman to capture the media spotlight.

I’ve had this on my bookshelf probably since I was a freshman in high school and I’ve gone through many unhauls since then and for some reason there is just something about this book that I’ve been holding onto so while I was originally a little disappointed I picked this, ultimately I’m relieved to finally be reading it!

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition, Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.

I picked this up at Barnes and Noble in their bargain section where I have found so many hidden gems throughout the years so I’m very excited to be read this!

2019 Releases:

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal (purchasing)

When an invitation arrives to the biggest wedding their small town has seen in years, Mrs. Binat, excitedly sets to work preparing her daughters to fish for rich, eligible bachelors. On the first night of the festivities, Alys’s lovely older sister, Jena, catches the eye of Fahad “Bungles” Bingla, the wildly successful–and single–entrepreneur. But Bungles’s friend Valentine Darsee is clearly unimpressed by the Binat family. Alys accidentally overhears his unflattering assessment of her and quickly dismisses him and his snobbish ways. As the days of lavish wedding parties unfold, the Binats wait breathlessly to see if Jena will land a proposal–and Alys begins to realize that Darsee’s brusque manner may be hiding a very different man from the one she saw at first glance.

I talked about this in my January Book Birthday’s post, but I literally am so obsessed with this and I have some high expectations that I hope are met!

The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay (own)

In the wake of her mother’s death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of Kashmir. Certain that the loss of her mother is somehow connected to the decade-old disappearance of Bashir Ahmed, a charming Kashmiri salesman who frequented her childhood home, she is determined to confront him. But upon her arrival, Shalini is brought face to face with Kashmir’s politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. And when life in the village turns volatile and old hatreds threaten to erupt into violence, Shalini finds herself forced to make a series of choices that could hold dangerous repercussions for the very people she has come to love.

This was my Book of the Month pick for December, but it’s actually being released in January so I’m counting it as a 2019 release. This is a hefty novel but I’m already excited to read it so I’m hoping the excitement will carry through to the next month!

Down the TBR Hole: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (own)

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman’s love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

This was on my second Down the TBR Hole ever, and I’ve owned it for a while so I’d love to finally cross this off my list! I read The Kite Runner in high school and absolutely loved it, but I haven’t read anything else by him (yet).

Classic: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (own)

Jane Austen called this brilliant work “her own darling child” and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, “as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print.” The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen’s radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

So I’ve “read” this in college which means I skimmed it enough to take some notes and write an essay and participate in discussions. This was the semester where I took three English courses (hashtag BIG MISTAKE) so I would love to reread this and take the time. I thought it would be fitting to read before I read Unmarriageable, and then I could go on to read Pride by Ibi Zoboi! (This is also on my thirteenth Down the TBR Hole).

Nonfiction: Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides (borrowing)

With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Eric Galt and Martin Luther King Jr. as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel when the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King’s funeral, Sides gives us a riveting cross-cut narrative of the assassin’s flight and the sixty-five-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England—a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover’s FBI.

This was one of the picks for the Goodreads group Diversity in All Forms and I’ve never heard of it before so I thought this would be a great book to challenge myself with in the new year.

ARCs: Enchanteé by Gita Trelease

When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naive sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

I recently signed up for NetGalley, which has been an interesting experience because I don’t own an e-reader or a tablet… so I downloaded the Kindle app on my phone and I kinda hate it. I’m just personally not enjoying reading on my phone and I know a lot of people read that way but like I just get SO distracted give me your tips!!!!

Anyway, this was one of the ARCs I got approved for and I am beyond excited to read it, so I’m hoping this book will make it a more positive experience.

Bookclubs and Readalongs:

I don’t want to go too in-depth into these because these books are a low priority for me, so if I get to them that’s great! But I’m not going to stress out about it, so I’m listing the titles and authors, along with a link to Goodreads if you’d like the summary. I’m also not counting these in the number of books on my official TBR.

Diversity in All Forms Goodreads Group:

• Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan
• Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Everyone Has Read This But Me Goodreads Group:

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Late-a-thon hosted by Destiny @ Howling Libraries

(These are all unread physical copies of ARCs I own that I just chose randomly!)

• The Baker’s Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan
• Solo by Kwame Alexander
• The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
• The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth
• To Be Honest by Maggie Ann Martin

So I have 8 books on my TBR, plus another 9 books that I’d love to get to as well but wouldn’t be heartbroken if I didn’t. Out of the 8 books I picked out, 5 authors are AOC so I’m already off to a strong start!

What are some books you’re hoping to start off 2019 with? Have you read any of the ones I listed?