A new year means a new TBR reduction battle against Crini means new motivation to read more again – that’s why January turned out to be a much better reading month than the past three months 😀 I managed to read 12 books overall which is almost twice as much as in December and since I only got 5 new books last month this makes quite a successful January for me 🙂 Also my blog turned 5 years old last month (and I’m still giving away some of my favorite books to celebrate my blogiversary!)
Books
I finally managed to read „The Knife of Never Letting Go“ by Patrick Ness and it was just as amazing as everybody says! At that point I didn’t even now that it will be the theme of the next Bookish Games and now that I’ve read the book I’m even more excited that the madness will return soon 😀 I also read the short story „The New World“ that was included in the PB and enjoyed it as well.
„Now that she’s gone“ by Gregg Olsen was an eARC from Netgalley and even though it was an entertaining and fast-paced thriller I was a bit disappointed by the villain because I found the female serial killer to be a bit cheap – definitely no competition for Chelsea Cain’s Gretchen Lowell 😀
Another Januar highlight besides TKoNLG was the Jackaby sequel „Beastly Bones“ by William Ritter which was so much fun because DINOSAURS!! 😀
My favorite thriller last month was „Totenprediger“ („Blood Mist“) by Mark Roberts which was VERY gripping and evil, I can’t wait to read the next book in this series!
With „Schmutziger Schnee“ by Christoffer Carlsson and „Farbenblind“ („Color Blind“) by Colby Marshall I also read two German review copies and liked them both, especially the latter was pretty intense.
Audiobooks
Unfortunately I didn’t have that much luck with my audiobook choices in January because „Mit Zorn sie zu strafen“ („The Slaughter Man“) by Tony Parsons, „Die vielen Leben des Harry August“ („The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August“) by Claire North and „Schneller, toter, weiter“ by Dietrich Faber couldn’t live up to my expectations and I was especially disappointed by North’s time loop story because it was pretty boring most of the time. But at least „Der Opiummörder“ („Murder as a fine art“) by David Morrell could save the audiobook month because this historical crime novel set in the Victorian London was really exciting and interesting!
Red Rising re-read
Last but not least I also decided to re-read „Red Rising“ and „Golden Son“ before „Morning Star“ comes out in February and it turned out to be a wise decision because I had to notice that I forgot quite a lot since the first read – what a surprise… not.
TV shows
I only watched another two episodes of MAKING A MURDERER and am therefore still stuck in the middle of the series but not because I didn’t find it interesting but simply because I forgot to continue watching 😀
Crini visited me last month to celebrate New Year’s and we partied hard (= watched lots of TV xD), so we finally got to finish season 2 of FARGO and PENNY DREADFUL and the first SCREAM QUEENS season – unfortunately all these shows were a bit lame.
What can I say, I still haven’t finished season 1 of JESSICA JONES – like I said before I do like the show but just don’t find it very addictive /o\
Netflix finally added season 8 of THE BIG BANG THEORY and I immediately started watching it but I’m trying not to rush through this season too fast so that I don’t have to wait that long for the next one.
LIP SYNC BATTLE returned with season 2 last month so I finally managed to finish season 1 and OH MY GOD I CAN NEVER UNSEE TERRENCE HOWARD IN THAT OUTFIT THAT SHOWED WAAAAY TOO MUCH XD
Another show I’m not making a lot of progress with is BONES but since there is no continuous story line it’s always good for watching one or two episodes now and then.
I watched episode 4 of DER TATORTREINIGER last month and it was the first episode of the new season that I didn’t like, so in my disappointment I forgot to watch the other two episodes and finish season 5 😀
Sometime around mid-January I heard that DOCTOR WHO would expire on Netflix at the end of January so I panicked a little bit and made a plan to watch all the available episodes I hadn’t seen so far which meant seasons 3-8. I had a really good start with this project and stayed on track for a whole week but all these specials after season 4 then ruined my schedule and killed my motivation – which wasn’t that bad because I’ve just learned that the series is still available on Amazon Prime, so all the panic was in vain XD
At the end of last month I also watched the last season (ever?) of LUTHER which was just a 2-hour special and I have to admit that out of the four seasons it was my least favorite – where the hell was Alice? Nonetheless I really hope that Luther returns, if not for a new season then at least for a movie. And if this doesn’t come true, too, then please make Idris Elba the next James Bond!
Movies
New Year’s Day wasn’t only good for watching boring TV shows but also for watching crappy B (or rather Z) movies, so Crini and I watched SHARKNADO, SHARKNADO 2 and – it can always get worse – SHARKTOPUS. I think I can genuinely claim that I have never watched movies that were more ridiculous and had worse special effects – that shark/octopus monster made even the first Doctor Who episodes look like a million dollar Hollywood production 😀
Don’t ask why but I also watched ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO last month. Dear Elizabeth Banks, I really like you, but please don’t make crappy movies like that ever again. Thank you.
This may come as a surprise, but I’ve watched some good movies in January, too 😀 One night I saw that NOW YOU SEE ME was on TV and I just couldn’t resist watching it AGAIN, even though it came with German dubbing.
THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE and SE7EN were part of my new „Make Maraia watch all the awesome movies that she missed while living under that massive rock“ challenge and once again I realized that I really do love these movies A LOT, especially because their endings are amongst the best movie endings EVER.
Reviews
Other blog posts in January:
- Happy New Year! There will be changes in 2016… 😉
- [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Bucket List
- [Rückblick] BuchSaiten Blogparade zum Jahresabschluss 2015
- [New Books on the Shelves] December 2015
- [Roundup] December 2015
- [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Depths of Winter
- [Top 10 Tuesday] Top Ten 2015 Releases I Meant To Get To But Didn’t
- [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Wanderlust
- [Tippspiel] Oscars 2016 – Preisträger tippen und gewinnen!
- [Top 10 Tuesday] Top Ten Books I’ve Recently Added To My TBR
- [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Into The Night
- [Top 10 Tuesday] Top 10 Favorite Movies that were based on books I’ve read
- [Blogiversary] My blog is turning 5 years old! (+ Giveaway)
- [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Off the beaten path
- [Das Jahr des Taschenbuchs] Mein Buch für den Januar
oookay, in Sachen Serie sind wir also unterschiedlicher Meinung – aber das ist nicht schlimm 😛
(Jessica Jones & Tatortreiniger z.B.)
Hier gehts ja überwiegend um Bücher 😀
Und du erinnerst mich immer wieder an „Jackaby“ und es ist immer noch nicht eingezogen…Patrick Ness seh ich in letzter Zeit oft auf Instagram, sollte ich mir wohl auch mal vormerken! Ohja und natürlich „Red Rising“ davon schwärmen ja auch viele (die auch meinen Nerv treffen).
Sebastian, du bist nicht gut für meine Einkauftüte! Gar nicht gut!
Ach, bei vollen Buch-Warenkörben nehme ich gerne die Schuld auf mich. Gerade Red Rising bietet sich ja jetzt an wo gerade der letzte Band erschienen ist 😉
I still have 5 episodes left in Making a Murderer. I wanted to finish last month, but clearly I failed at that, too.
Are you no longer recommending Fargo, then? 😛
I completely forgot about Der Tatortreiniger, I’m glad you reminded me. I still want to finish the season for practice, even if it’s not that great, haha.
I refuse to believe Luther can end without Alice, so let’s plan on there being more episodes and/or a movie. 😀
LOL, did you actually watch all of Zack and Miri? XD
MY ROCK IS NOT THAT BIG. You’re just making me look bad. XD
We definitely have to continue MAKING A MURDERER in March before I’ve already forgotten everything again xD
I’m not sure about FARGO, the first season was definitely fun and quite weird but season 2 was rather boring. But since season 2 is set 30 or so years before season 1 you can still give the series a try and just quit after the first season in case you didn’t like it without having any loose ends…
And yes, I’ve watched the whole fucking movie and it didn’t get any better 😀
And your rock is actually quite big, you just don’t want to admit that 😛
Um, I think it might be too late for me to not forget everything, but what’s new? XD
Okay, I’ll guess I’ll keep it at the bottom of the list, haha.
You just don’t want to admit that I’ve actually seen some great movies! Ones that you haven’t even seen. 😛
Like Fight Club or Pulp Fiction? 😀
Among others. Don’t worry, I’m keeping a list. 😉
Da freue ich mich doch zu sehen, dass der „Totenprediger“ sogar zu einem Highlight avanciert ist. Sage ich nächste Woche mal gleich der Kollegin, die mit dem Autor am Folgeband arbeitet. Werden sich beide freuen. 😀 Ich sag mal übrigens nicht, dass ich hier schon wieder zwei Bücher für dich liegen habe. Habe ich echt nicht. XD
Auf „Jackaby“ bin ich ja sehr neugierig, nachdem was du jetzt auch vom zweiten Buch so schreibst. Und die Cover…*Herzchenaugenkrieg*
Die zweite Staffel von Penny Dreadful fand ich jetzt eigentlich ganz gut. Zwar nicht unbedingt besser, aber auch nicht schlechter. In „Fargo“ habe ich immer noch nicht reingeschaut. Vielleicht schaffe ich es am Rosenmontag/Faultag.
Liebe Grüße,
Sandy
Ich bin echt schon sehr auf die Fortsetzung gespannt, weißt du schon wann da der Erscheinungstermin sein wird?
Und YAY, mehr Bücher! 😀
Ich hatte irgendwie im Kopf dass ich JACKABY schon mal bei dir gesehen hätte aber da hat mich mein Erinnerungsvermögen wohl mal wieder getäuscht 😀 Solltest du aber auf jeden Fall mal versuchen, du würdest mit Mr. Jackaby und Abigail bestimmt Spaß haben 😉
What a great month! I’m SO HAPPY you read (And LOVED) TKoNLG!! A lot of people read that in Jan and I was surprised to hear many say they didn’t like it – seems to be very hit or miss with people. I loved it so much, it hurts me a little inside to hear people didn’t like it but what can you do, we all can’t like the same books.
I’m slightly jealous that you hung out with Crini in real life LOL, do you guys get to do that often?? I also panicked a little at hearing that Doctor Who is expiring on Netflix, but I decided that it was way to many seasons for me to binge right now. I’ll have to find some way to watch it one day…. I haven’t seen the Life of David Gale, I’ll have to check that one out! And Now You See Me looks really good! I have seen Se7en though – it’s a classic thriller!
Haha, until I had finished TKoNLG I had never heard anything negative about this book but since then Joséphine and Inge almost destroyed it with their reviews 😀 Too bad I can’t punish them for it since they won’t actively participate in the next Bookish Games xD
Unfortunately Crini and I don’t get to meet very often since we live about 200 kilometers apart from each other so it’s usually just 2-3 times a year, but then it’s usually several days in a row because we meet for the German book fair every year which lasts almost a week and usually also celebrate New Year’s eve together with a few bookish friends 😉
I just discovered the other day that Doctor Who is still available on Netflix (at least in Germany), so all the panic was in vain XD
And you should definitely check these movies out, they all have such amazing plot twists! 😉