January: Best and Strangest

Ah! This year is already flying by and leaving me to wonder if there will ever be enough time to do all the reading I want to do (obviously, the answer is no - I won't ever be able to read as much as I want to). This month, I managed to read 14 books and published 9 blog posts. All in all, not a bad start to the year. Below are this month's best and strangest:

BEST OF JANUARY

• Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci - This was a surprising favorite for me. I really enjoyed this book and was excited to read it, but I didn't realize how much I'd use the knowledge I gained from this book - it's benefited so many conversations, a lot of my classwork, and just helped give me a better understanding of the dangers and benefits of social media. I highly highly recommend this book for everyone.

STRANGEST OF JANUARY

• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - This is the first month that I've read a Dark Tower book and haven't nominated that as strangest. It was close, but Howl's Moving Castle ended up sitting in my head a lot more than The Waste Lands did, so it won out this month! Full of moving castles, scarecrow stalkers, green slime, and fashion magic, this book was delightful and hilarious and certainly kept me on my toes. It's bizarre and adorable and totally worth the time.

OTHER JANUARY BOOKS

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My most popular blog post this month was On books to read if you want to learn more about music, which kind of surprised me! My music posts aren't typically viewed as often as other posts, so I was glad this one got a lot of attention.

What books did you read this month? What were the best and strangest books you've read recently? What blog posts really caught your eye?