Anyone who knows me well, knows that I'm a self-proclaimed bibliophile. In fact, I love books so much that it took me a really long time before I finally caved and bought myself a fancy Kindle. And by, "fancy," I mean, the most basic model there is.

There's just something about holding an actual book; the sound of a crackling spine, the smell of the pages, it's a treat for the senses.

However, apartment living has made it difficult to collect books over time, as I inevitably run out of space to store them. I used the library for a while, but it was honestly just too inconvenient having to go in-person to pick up and drop off the books.

Thus, entered the Kindle. I have to say, I like it a lot more than I thought I would. It's super lightweight, which makes reading in bed a sinch, and it provides me with endless reading options at my fingertips, which is great for travel.

With that in mind, I thought I'd share the books I've read in the month of January:

A Man Called Ove

This book follows curmudgeon, Ove as he navigates through daily life after forced retirement. He's extremely set in his routines, so it completely throws him off balance when a bubbly young couple and their two curious children move in next door to him one day. Ove may seem bitter and tempermental, but he slowly begins to let down his guard as they get to know him. Alternating between past and present, the reader is able to get a sense of Ove's history and begin to realize that he may not be so one-dimensional after all.

The Glass Castle

This is the beautifully written memoir of Jeannette Walls' turbulent and nomadic childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood with her three siblings, her carefree mother, and her alcoholic and often abusive, but brilliant father as they move from town to town, evading law enforcement, and often occupying decrepit homesteads. Walls writes with both an innocence and a hardness that comes only from living such an unconventional, poverty-stricken lifestyle.

Into the Water

Into the Water recounts the events that led to the untimely and mysterious death of Nel Abbott at the hands of the town's foreboding Drowning Pool. The story is told from multiple points of view, making the narrators extremely unreliable. Written by the author of The Girl on the Train, this is definitely a page-turning thriller. However, it did not live up to the hype of its predecessor.

Little Fires Everywhere

This book begins with a house fire and then immediately jumps back into the past to examine the events leading up to it. It follows the story of a young artist and her teenage daughter as they settle into their new home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, one of the first ever planned communities in the United States, where everything is in order and the residents live in seeming harmony with one another. They quickly befriend a prominent Shaker Heights family and things begin to stir up, uncovering secrets both past and present.