I didn't read a lot of books in January, but the ones I read were so good. Three five star books in one month, not a bad way to start the year. 

Five stars

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I cannot stop thinking about this book, and I really want to talk about it with people (good thing it was my book club read for the month). It reminded me a bit of The Displacements in that Florida gets hit with devastating hurricanes. I liked how this book imagined what could happen if the storms became too much that it was impossible to repair critical infrastructure. I loved many of the characters in this book and despised others. All around a great thought provoking book.

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is so wild it’s hard to believe it’s nonfiction. It tells the story of the KKK’s resurgence in the 1920s, and the woman who brought them down. The way the author wrote some of the court scenes made it feel like a thriller and I just kept reading to find out what happened next. It’s hard to make a story that compelling when people already know the outcome. But this was so good. Highly recommend.

Gone Missing by Linda Castillo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I tore through this book in like a day and a half. It’s another great mystery thriller featuring Detective Kate Burkholder trying to find three Amish girls that have gone missing. This book is five stars despite the fact that I hated the ending and that I felt one of the characters ended up with an unresolved storyline.

Four Stars

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun and fast read about about a mother, daughter and grandmother that unwittingly get sucked into a murder investigation when a body is found at the daughter's work. When the police question the daughter, the grandmother is determined to find out who really killed the victim and clear her granddaughter's name.

Three Stars

Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission by Eileen M. Collins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I always enjoy a good astronaut memoir, though I wish at times this book would have given some deeper details about various aspects of the life of an astronaut. At times I felt it just bounced from one event to the next without some deeper insight that only Eileen could have shared. But despite that, I still enjoyed hearing Eileen tell the story of how she became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.

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