M. Suzanne Terry

Happy January, friends! As you can deduce from the picture, I’m utilizing my library card a lot these days. Trying to reorganize the shelves to make room for the books I own is a whole cozy project and one of the first on my list to tackle this year. Anything I can do to slow the inflow of new books that need to find a space will help.

To be clear, I’m not…not buying books. Don’t be absurd. Just not buying as many.

Anyway, here are the reading plans this month. I’ve finished a few from this list already, but I’m looking forward to the rest!

Book Clubs

• The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter – I listened to this one on the way to and from the farm at Christmas. So good! Although the male voice on the audio gets low and hard to hear at points. That added some stress I didn’t need in holiday traffic. Delightful otherwise, though.
• The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi – This is for the second meeting of the fantasy book club at a local bookshop that has just announced they’re CLOSING!!! Sad times! I guess we’ll see tomorrow what the plan is going forward, if there is one.
• Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee 
• Constellations of Care by Cindy Barukh Milstein 
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone 
• I may not be able to attend the Rise & Shine book club this month. The theme is “something old,” so I would love to gush over Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, which is one of my faves. Of course, it falls on the one Saturday this month I have to work. And of course, March’s meeting (when the theme is “something funny” – I love funny things and would love to get all those recs!) does, too. UGH.

Series

I’m a sucker for series. I devoured most of the Rebel Blue Ranch series (next up is the enemies-to-lovers one – one of my favorite tropes!) and the Dream Harbor series last month, and the series tab is the largest by far on my TBR. This format is excellent for character development, which is one of my main requirements for really enjoying a book. This year, I’ll be diving into new series as well as re-reading some favorites. I loved Catherine Newman’s Sandwich, so I’m hyped about the follow-up. One of my book clubs is reading The Long Goodbye later this year, so I’m finally starting the Philip Marlow mysteries!  I’m re-reading Inspector Gamache this year, and I quit a few pages into the latest Thursday Murder Club because I forgot some things from previous books that I know would make it more enjoyable, so I’m re-reading those as well. Here are the ones that I’m planning for January.

• Wreck by Catherine Newman
• Still Life by Louise Penny 
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler 

Reading Challenges

So many reading challenges! My, aren’t we ambitious? I’m going back to fitting books into multiple challenges, and I’m trying to fit as many of my book club selections into them as well, so you’ll see quite a few repeats. Here goes nothing.

Anti Brain Rot Challenge

• Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray – A historical fiction book
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – A science fiction book
• Just Our Luck by Denise Williams – A romance book
• The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward – A book by a Black author who is alive
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich – A book by an indigenous/Native American author

Another facet of the Anti Brain Rot Challenge is giving yourself deep-dive studies (and designing their corresponding curricula) throughout the year. I have three planned for the year, and the first is going to be learning to play the organ. I already play the piano, so it’s mostly a matter of incorporating the feet. I think. We’ll see. I’m working through an online basics course and brushing up on theory right now, but I imagine there will be several books I add to the syllabus before the end of the “semester.”

Popsugar

• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman – A book that features a platonic friendship between a man and a woman
• Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer – A book you meant to read in 2025
• Just Our Luck by Denise Williams – A book with a character who has curly hair
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich – A book that takes place during harvesting season
• The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick – A book that makes you want to travel to Italy
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – A book told entirely through letters

52 Book Club

• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – a kangaroo word on the cover (a word with a synonym/similar word inside it – “history” includes “story”)
• Starter Villain by John Scalzi – Bookface (a book you could do this with)
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman – Day of the week in the title
• Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer – Grumpy sunshine trope
• Still Life by Louise Penny – From a series at least eight books long
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich – Started on the 26th of the month
• The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick – A book that costs you nothing
• Enchantment by Katherine May – A book with a dust jacket

Libro.fm

• Christmas Days by Jeannette Winterson – Listen to an audiobook read by the author

OWC (Overeducated Women With Cats)

• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler – A book that starts a series
• Endling by Maria Reva – A book long-listed for an award (Booker Prize)
• Enchantment by Katherine May – A nonfiction book about science or nature

BBBC (Bad Bitch Book Club)

• This Winter by Alice Oseman – A book with a red cover (which is not the cover of the book that popped up on bookshop.org – but here is its red cover, which is super cute)

Alphabet Challenge

The goal of this one is, in this year of ‘26, to read books where either the title or the author’s name begins with each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. To add a little more spice to the challenge, I’m also going to limit it to books I own.

• Just Our Luck by Denise Williams – J
• The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas – C
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich – E
• One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon – Y
• Enchantment by Katherine May – M

Read Your Bookshelf

January’s prompt is pretty easy – title includes an article. So any “a,” “an,” or “the.” Look at The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich, fulfilling all sorts of different prompts this month!

Book Riot Read Harder

• A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey – Read a YA book by a Latine author
• The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas – Read a gothic novel published in the last ten years
• True Biz by Sara Nović

Tournament of Books

I don’t know how much I’ll participate in this one. The start date of the tournament is March 6, and it seems like it would be more fun if I had read all of them by then (and even in my woozy, ambitious New Years state of mind I know that’s not going to happen). But maybe I’ll start with these and see how it goes.

• Blob by Maggie Su
• The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward
• Endling by Maria Reva
• Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

So there we are, starting off the new year with a bang! And by bang, I do mean lots of cozy nights of reading.