Reading into a new year

A couple of days ago I began reading The Fifth Season, the first novel in N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. I'm feeling very late to this series; seems as if everyone's already read it, and here I am, just beginning. But I like that books are patient; they'll wait for you, however long it takes you to come to them. A book always has a right time to be read, and there's no sense rushing it.

This is the eighth book I've started this year, and it occurred to me the other day that, unintentionally, I'd only been reading books by women. I think I'm going to stay this course for the rest of the year.

Here are the other seven books I've finished this year:

• Finding Langston, by Lesa Cline-Ransome
• Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, by Danielle Evans
• No One is Talking About This, by Patricia Lockwood
• The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
• Tokyo Ueno Station, by Yu Miri
• Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata

(Finding Langston was a recommendation from Felicia and Squish, from Squish's reading list. It's Black History Month, and if you'd like to read for the occasion, you can't go wrong with this novel. Langston tells the story of a son and his father who move to Chicago as part of The Great Migration, leaving behind their Alabama home and family. The child, Langston, is adrift in his new home, until he finds an anchor and learns where his name came from. It's a beautiful book. And if you want other recommendations for what to read this month, Powell's Books has a whole bunch of great ideas.)