January Book Blanket Update

It's Book Blanket update time! Well I'm a bit late but that's how it goes.

Somehow I managed to read 7 books in January! One book I had started just before the new year but finished in January. so it's counting towards the blanket.

Books Read:

• One of Us Is Next (Bayview 2) by Karen M McManus - 4 stars

• And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman - 4 stars (Kindle)

• One of Us Is Back (Bayview 3) by Karen M McManus - 3.5 stars

• Godkiller by Hannah Kaner - 5 stars

• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz - 3 stars (Non-fiction)

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - 3 stars

• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree - 4.5 stars (Kindle)

• How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie DNF (Kindle)

Have you read any of these before? What did you think to them?

Favourite Read:

My favourite read from this selection was definitely Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. It was my only 5 star read of the month!

I loved the world building, the fantasy, the multiple POV, the characters, the action, it was just an all round great read and I couldn't put it down. I've recommended it to absolutely everyone. The second book in this trilogy is out this month and I am beyond excited! I'll be at Waterstones on release day to snag my copy!

Book Blanket Design:

As I said in my first blog post, I wasn't sure that I'd like the different square designs together once I started making them. Really I should have just gone with my gut and saved myself a lot of time, frogging and wasted yarn!

The different colours combined with the different designs was just too much for me. I really disliked the uneven split of the designs too as I read more paperbacks than kindle books. This was with just 8 squares so I'm certain that I wouldn't like the end result with 30+ squares.

Therefore, I have changed my initial design idea. I am sticking with the two tone, 5-round granny squares but altering the order slightly. The squares for physical books will be a traditional alternating colour each round and those for Kindle reads will begin with linen but have the final two rounds in the rating colour. I'm hoping this will make them look fairly balanced when it comes to joining them.

Once I'd finally settled on a design it was fun to go through my Goodreads and see what I'd read, how I'd rated each book then make each square. I cannot wait to see this project build month on month.

What do you think to the first few squares? I love them (now anyway 😅) and I'm really looking forward to seeing more colours come into play over the next few months, although this seems like a good mix already!

Should I join as I go or collect all of my squares together and then join them in bigger batches? I can't decide, let me know what you'd do!

Be sure to check back at the end of the month for my February update, I've already read 2 books and DNF'd one so it's looking like a mixed bag!

Remember, if you're doing a Book Blanket too then use the hashtags #BookBlanket2024 and #BramblesandHartReads so that I can follow along.

Shelley x