The newspaper isn’t one of them

January is a great month for reading. (Then again, what month isn’t?) If you need some recos, here are some good ones I’ve read lately:

Where the Moon Isn’t is beautifully written, heavy, and pretty depressing. Think The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night with a Flowers for Algernon kind of tone. It’s a quick read though, so at least you’re not mired in Matthew’s fascinating but heartbreaking mind for very long. Definitely read it, but have something lighter ready as a digestif. Like some light YA.

Lola and the Boy Next Door was lovely and sweet, just like Stephanie Perkins’s previous novel, Anna and the French Kiss. Charming, well-paced, well-written, and with a predictably happy ending.

Then I picked up Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, since I really liked Eleanor and Park. I liked Fangirl even better–it’s a romance that also dealt with growing up, family issues, and best of all–being a writer! I don’t know much about fanfic–I’ve always found there is too much actual fiction out there to get into it–but I became curious about it when I started reading Cassandra Clare. Now I think I’ll explore it a little more. (Any suggestions?)

Side note: I didn’t know you could classify a book as Young Adult if the protagonist is already in college–doesn’t that fall under New Adult? But I’m happy about that since in my current WIP my protagonist is 18, but a young, naive 18, so it definitely belongs more in the Young Adult world than the New Adult one.

I decided my next book needed to mix it up a bit more, so I picked up a book with a non-teenager protagonist (who is also male!) I’m about a quarter of the way through Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s kind of like a modern Shadow of the Wind (loved that book). I really need to quit my corporate job and start working in a bookstore.

Happy reading! And if you have any suggestions for me, please leave them in the comments!

Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash