Wrapping up my first month of blogging!

Wow, January has really flown by, I can't believe it's been less than a month since I started this blog! Not only have I discovered many, many great blogs in the past month, I've also read more books this month than I had thought possible - I was aiming for 1 book per week but ended up reading almost twice that! Somehow being able to discuss my reading and finding out about great new books on everyone's blogs has really motivated me and I've managed to make reading a priority for once, which I'm really proud of. Thanks to everyone who's visited my fledgling blog and for welcoming me into the book blogging community!

Moving on to what I read this month... I think my favorite read this month is a toss up between Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier and The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran. I love DuMaurier's prose in Rebecca, but was completely engrossed by The Heretic Queen, making it hard to choose a favorite between the two!

Here are all the books I read this month, in chronological order:

1. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
2. My Life in France by Julia Child
3. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
5. Firmin by Sam Savage
6. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
7. Roses by Leila Meacham
8. The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
9. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella (review to be posted later this week)

Overall,  a great month in terms of reading! All of the books I read this month were really enjoyable,  with the exception of Her Fearful Symmetry, which I wanted to throw across the room (but didn't, because it was a library book) when I finished.

This month I signed up for 5 challenges:  The Flashback Challenge, The Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge, The Memorable Memoir Challenge, War through the Generations: Vietnam War Challenge, and the Social Justice Challenge. So far, I've only managed to read one book for my challenges (My Life in France, for the Memorable Memoir Challenge), but it's only January... right? I also completed Bloggiesta, hosted by Maw Books, which came at the perfect time to really get things rolling on my blog!

In other news, three lovely bloggers have given me awards this month. I'm planning to post about each separately when I have time, but in the meantime a thousand thank you's to

• Wendy at W.M. Morrell's Musings from Down Under for giving me the Kreativ Blogger award
• Emma Michaels for giving me the Cupcake Award
• Marquetta at Love to Read for Fun for giving me the One Lovely Blog award

And thanks to everyone who reads/comments at my blog... I've had so much fun blogging this past month, and am looking forward to more bloggy goodness in February!