What I read, January 2013

For many years, I've kept track of books I read, in various ways (journal, blog, etc) - this year, I decided to do a monthly round up, preferably with some notes - mainly because looking back several years later I can often not recall what a book was about or whether I liked it (the ones I hated and ones I loved stand out, the others, sometimes not so much).  So, here's a start to that.

• Daughter of China, Xu Mehong.  This was fairly good, though I found it quite disjointed as it kept jumping back and forth in time. Not as good as Wild Swans, but an interesting (true) story.
• Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson. Only read about half of this one, just didn't really grab me. 
• Homeland, Clare Francis. Not to be confused with the television series of the same name. I liked this a lot, really got interested in the story and the lives of the post-WWII Polish refugees.
• Crazy as Chocolate, Elizabeth Hyde. Not sure where I picked this up, but I am trying to read though my two shelves of unread books (or get rid of them). I liked this better than expected, a good story about family relationships and mental illness in a not-too-depressing way, though not light and unrealistic either.
• The Third Child, Marge Piercy. I've been a big Marge Piercy fan from way back, but I hated this; it just felt contrived and predictable.  I didn't finish it (though I did, of course, read the end!)
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor.  A very solid, entertaining fantasy novel, the first in a trilogy. I'll be interested to see the next one.
• The Story Sisters, Alice Hoffman. I always like Alice Hoffman; this one is a bit darker and has only a very tiny bit of magic in it, but it was an excellent story.
• The Road Home, Rose Tremain. Another good one - a Russian man comes to England to work to send money back home; this is the story of his friendships and experience (fictional).  Thought this was super, really enjoyed the characters and pleased with how it all came out.
• The Book of Summers, Emylia Hall. A Richard & Judy Book Club book, which sometimes puts me off, though usually the books are fairly readable.  This was good, and I liked the bits of Hungarian history and culture.
• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe and Appointment with Death, Agatha Christie.  I'm sure I've read both of these before; I think I've read all of Christie at some point or other. But I just fancied something like that and these two were in the library. What can I say - you can always read Agatha Christie.
• Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams, Jenny Colgan. Another light read, a little fluffy, but well enough written and entertaining.  Not quite finished in January, but I expect to finish on the 1st or 2nd of Feb.  I read most of it in January, so that's good enough.