Turning the Page on January 2017

*The most exciting part of January was picking out a boxer puppy! She'll be coming home with us next week and we're so excited! Isn't she just darling?

*With getting adjusted to my new job, I hardly went to the beach at all in December, but I think I rectified that pretty well in January.

*I made a fun Valentine's-themed staff picks display at work. And since one of my co-workers just left I get to take over the giant wall display in the kids' section. I'm enjoying getting to be crafty at work!

*It wasn't the healthiest month for my family. On New Year's Day, Jarrod stepped on a chunk of glass at the beach while he was heading out to surf and sliced his foot open. It was deep, it was gory, and anyone else but my husband would've gone to the E.R. to get stitches. My mom broke her foot and is in a walking boot. I spent two weeks hacking and snotting because of the excess vog (volcanic haze) that blew up to Oahu from the Big Island. And my grandma was just discovered to have an aortic aneurysm and has to have immediate surgery. Hopefully this just means we got all the health problems out of the way at the beginning of the year and the rest of 2017 will be smooth sailing.

*At the beginning of the month we binge-watched season 5 of "Homeland" in advance of the new season. Since then we've been catching up on episodes of "Elementary" on the DVR and I started watching "Victoria" on Masterpiece. We also finally got to see "The Secret Life of Pets" (adorable!). And I watched "Bridget Jones's Baby," which was ok... I just can't understand why they decided to deviate completely from the third book ("Mad About the Boy"), which I really liked!

*Songs on repeat: "Waiting For A Girl Like You" by Foreigner (from "Stranger Things" -- it put me on an '80s music kick), "Paris" by the Chainsmokers, "Give Me Love" and "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran.

Books read: 8

Currently reading: "The Lonely Hearts Hotel" by Heather O'Neill and "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren

Favorite book: "The Fire by Night" by Teresa Messineo, a dual narrative WWII story. I also really enjoyed "All Our Wrong Todays." And I know the memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" will stick with me for a long, long time. And of course there's "Saga"!

Biggest let-down: "The Mothers." Pretty much everyone else loved it and I was expecting it be a a favorite of mine too, but it just didn't do it for me.

February release I'm most excited about: "Swimming Lessons" by Claire Fuller. I really enjoyed her first book, "Our Endless Numbered Days."

Book I'm most looking forward to reading in February: "The Chemist" by Stephenie Meyer; I've got it checked out from the library, but I have to get through a few advance-read books before I can pick it up.

Books won: "Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk" by and "The Mother's Promise" by Sally Hepworth, both from Goodreads giveaways. (Yay!)

Books added to my to-read list: 16

Most intriguing TBR addition: "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid. From Goodreads: "In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through."

Favorite bookstagram: Definitely not the most interesting book-themed picture I took this month, but I really like it. Maybe it's the muted colors, the hint of Hufflepuff scarf, and the dog and the acorn. ;) 

I didn't do a ton of knitting in January; I whipped up a baby hat for our new niece who's due to greet the world any day now (that yarn is from a little shop on Kauai and it makes me think of sunsets and plumeria flowers). I also made a little owl puff as a thank-you for my wonderful Broke and Bookish Secret Santa. Now I'm working on a Newt Scamander Hufflepuff scarf from "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" for a friend. It's slow going, though -- I way overdid it with early-winter advance-read books so most of my free time has been devoted to reading.

Favorite post: Kauai: October 2016. I enjoyed looking back through the photos of the gorgeous trip we took there when my mom was out for a visit in October. It's Jarrod's and my favorite Hawaiian island and I feel so rejuvenated every time we go. The vibe there is a lot more mellow than Oahu, and the natural beauty of the island is breathtaking.

Favorite link-up post: So Many Books, So Little Time: 2016 Releases I Didn't Get To (But Will Soon -- Right?!). It's always fun looking back at the year's releases and remembering which ones I really wanted to read! (And -- success! -- I read two books from the list in January!)

Book reviews:
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (4 stars)
The River at Night by Erica Ferencik (3.5 stars)
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers (3.5 stars)

The Fire by Night by Teresa Messineo (4.5 stars)

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance (4 stars)

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai (4 stars)