This might be a new thing on the blog, especially if I want to talk about the books I read in a month, so maybe it would be a good idea to include these subjects together. Let’s start with the books.
💚 Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare 💚 Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare 💚 Stranded with a Dirty-Talking Shifter by Olivia T. Turner 💚 City of Bones by Cassandra Clare 💚 Stranded with a Ravenous Shifter by Olivia T. Turner 💚 A Deeper Love by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnston 💚 The Sirens by Emilia Hart
It’s been a Cassandra Clare month.
I started reading The Infernal Devices series back in November. I really enjoyed the first book and gave it five stars and then quickly attempted to read the second, but I had a difficult time connecting to the story at the time and I decided to push it back. In a way to make sure I didn’t do what I did with Janette Oke’s When Calls the Heart back in 2024, I put the series on my reading challenge and I’m very glad I did it as I had a reason to go back to it–not to say the characters and events weren’t enough to pull me back.
I’m still a little bit confused by certain events, but I really enjoyed that world and fell deeply in love with the characters, and then after I finished the books, I decided to give the original series The Mortal Instruments another try, even if I didn’t include it into my original lineup. Honestly, I wanted another series by Cassie, The Last Hours. I’m currently in line for the audiobook of “City of Gold” as it’s the next series in line and includes the children of the characters mentioned in the TID books. I have already read “City of Bones” in 2020, so it was just a refreshment and now I’m in line for “City of Ashes” and I’m hoping the audiobook will still be available when it’s my turn so keep your toes crossed for me.
As I was swept up in that world, I found another set of books that were shorter but kept the ‘fantasy’ theme alive, in case anything diverted me and I found series called Marooned for the Night written by a few authors, one of which was Olivia T. Turner. I had never heard of her or the other books, but I read the fourth book first and then went back to the beginning and so far, they are pretty good and I would like to read the ones written by Olivia; I’m not sure about the others, but open to it at a later date.
My next book was a surprise. I had wanted to read it back in September, I think. The cover and blurb were intriguing to me, and I had one of those moments where I knew I would enjoy it wholeheartedly, but I was just not in the mood to have it without the audiobook. I couldn’t find it on my LbbyApp so I had to ignore my gut again and push it away. I was going to include it in my reedling challenge. but I just kept it off for some reason. However, I went looking on the app again and there it was ready to borrow and luckily it was still available on KU so I took the opportunity and I definitely don’t regret it.
It was SO good! We may be entering our fourth month of the year, but I really believe it’s my favorite so far. I also took the hint that since it was my fourth book that talks about sirens/mermaids that I think it’s officially safe to say I’m in my oceanic era. So, if you know anything that would resemble The Sirens by Emilia Hart, please send them my way! Hopefully I can find the audio through my local library.
Now, let’s switch our focus on the music I was enjoying–honestly, music takes a step back whenever I get on my audiobooks for obvious reasons, but I’ve been watching more reels on Facebook, and my algorithm has been giving me a lot of music I wouldn’t be able to find on my own. Most of the time, it’s Instagram doing this, but I try to keep myself open to new stuff on all of my social media platforms.
Here are my Top 15 for this month. If you’re interested in checking out the full playlist, click here.
The Woods by Lydia the Bard For The Girls by ASTON Bed (On Your Knees) by Ash to Eden Underneath by Phix featuring Ryan Oakes Words Are Worthless by Sleep Theory 1×1 by Hollywood Undead Everybody by ADONA Sun Killer by Spiritbox Go Off by M.I.A. Click Clack Symphony by RAYE featuring Hans Zimmer Death Above Life by Orbit Culture Waiting For Your Love by Jamie Bower Bones by Young Guns Cry for Mercy by As The Structure Falls Puppet Master by Xstitch featuring Dre Tamashi
What have you been reading and listening to lately?
Ah, the new year! I’m still surprised we’re a part of a new year. Am I the only one who feels like this?
I am excited to talk about my 2026 Reading Journal and share everything I’ve been doing so far! By the time you’re reading this, I would hope to have gotten my stuff done for the second quarter, but for now, this post will be my process over the overall theme and then the spreads I’ve made for the first half of the year.
I try to change my theme every year and for 2026, and I decided to pick a similar aesthetic to last year, as I’ve chosen the five women’s stories featured in the Ladies of Devon series. I read Kasey Stockton’s books last spring and immediately fell in love with them. So, my idea for 2026 is to dedicate each of the four quarters to the main four girls, Giulia, Mabel, Amelia and Hattie. However, the series itself has five books, and Mabel’s little sister we get to know in the second book, Pippa, will be included in my second quarter plans.
In November, I started to create a sort of vision board of sorts of the things I wanted to bring out in my journal for each woman/couple’s stories.
Giulia has a fascination with these lemon tarts she has at tea and I’ve definitely let that steer me into using lemons everywhere in my journal. However, the cover of the books is full of a dark green and I really loved that and knew that I could definitely work with that as a main color, and I realized I had two color combination that matched each story fairly early on while reading the books. I didn’t know what I was going to do with that information at first, but once as the year drew to a close, I ultimately decided to use all of the things I’d gathered from the books, my Pinterest board, etc. and use it for my reading journals.
As far as set up goes, I’ve kind of kept everything the same as I’ve done in last year’s spreads. I find nothing wrong with a couple of them, and I like to keep them going, adjusting them here and there but for the most part everything is the same.
The Troubled Opening
I have decided to do two A5 lined journals by Papergate on Amazon. They’re cheap and the paper is thick enough that none of my marker’s bleed through the pages. I still wish they sold their sticker labels you always get as a secret gift in the back pocket because they’ve become my monthly stats boxes. Even if you purchase their travel or pocket journals, they also have the boxes in a smaller size and unfortunately, I didn’t know they were smaller until I was busy creating my Stats pages… that was a bit of bummer on my part, but I’ll learn to live with it.
The first thing I did when it arrived was of course clear out the back pocket space but fix the first two pages. If you’re part of the journaling community, you know the annoying two pages at the start that are awkward and will not stay open, so I went at that section quickly and it almost discouraged me as the pages did NOT want to work with me nor did they like the tape I used so I had to rip them out and start over.
In my way of recreating my opening page, I used my new stickers that are these little washi pictures of random things and picked four that represented the characters and put them at the spine as I had damaged it in my haste, but I also added a border to each one with their colors; afterwards I stamped the first page with my name and the year. I also thought it needed a little bit of Pippa, so I added some bubbles and sea creatures here and there.
Floating Shelves and The Box Garden
When I moved onto the next layout, I had even more trouble getting my first row of floating shelves and then glued those pages together and I decided to do something completely different. Instead of putting the shelves together, I thought it would be cool to separate them, so I have my first three shelves that hold 35 empty spaces on the left side, I did one part of my Reading Tracker or as I’m calling it this year, “The Box Garden” on the next page. As you turn the page, the process is repeated again. The next part of The Box Garden and three more shelves rounding out the 66 books of the year. As I learned last year, I will be happy to get through as many books as I can in the next nine months.
For someone who doesn’t enjoy the color pink nor the whole minimalist trend either, these are probably my favorite pages. I think it showcases the girly and old-timey vibes of the Regency era.
Stats Page & Alphabet Challenge
Next up is my statistics section. This is my first spread dedicated to Giulia and Nick’s story with the amount of green and lemons. I wasn’t successful at finding any lemon tart stickers or paper, but I was able to an easy sticker book full of citrus fruit, but mainly lemons. There are a few odd things associated with the summertime included, but it’s been a great addition to my growing collection.
This layout is made for the first half of the year. Since I have the second notebook, I will do it over to highlight either Amelia or Hattie. This is where those little label boxes that is included with your purchased notebooks, comes in handy, but as I was writing everything on them, I realized I kept “Bingo” on the lower right corner. What I forgot were my reading challenges. I’m doing two this year, for now. You already know about the 26 in 2026 challenge. It’s been a fun way to get through multiple books at a time, especially when it comes to 13 series. By the time this post comes out, I will (hopefully) be done with three separate book series: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare and The Folk in the Air by Holly Black.
The other is my Alphabet Challenge. I knew this would be a HUGE undertaking, but I feel ready to attempt this. My only irritation is that I wish I hadn’t used up six pages. I tried to make enough room for each letter, but also the book covers I plan on sticking on at the end of the year. At the moment, the letters I’ve used have their titles, so I don’t forget–depending on how many letters I take out in a month, I’m trying to include the letters on the labels. This spread is dedicated to Mabel and Pippa, as it’s purple and blue. I even used a Dutch door design and added some of my three-inch washi tape images as decoration, which you’ll understand more in the next quarter.
Once I was finished with everything, I took photos back in late December. I didn’t have any letter stickers in my collection before, and then I found a nice booklet of letters that matched the colors of both quarters, and I was able to finally give these spaces a nice flair; not that the boats and ocean photos were boring.
Here’s the interesting part though, I didn’t have enough room for “Y” or “Z” and I panicked as I glued the final Dutch door flap, so I went looking on Instagram and YouTube, and found something called a “tip in” and I really love how educational JashhiCorin’s channel is for any journal person (what do we call ourselves?) and attempted it.
Do you remember when I talked about the smaller label boxes in the beginning? Well, before I bought my notebooks I thought I found a great deal on a three-notebook deal on Amazon, only to find out that they are travel sized. It wasn’t a bad thing though, as I am using the smaller box labels located in the back pocket of each notebook. I gave the yellow and pink to Nolan and Kimber. Unfortunately, Nolan lost his and Kimber is obsessed with her little pink book. She even steals my pink pen and has some of my pink flower stickers on the outside. Anyways, after realizing my overall mistake, I thought about the little notebook and tested it out if I could add the final letters with a single sheet. I used my knife to cut it out and took my skinnier double-sided tape to make my little tip in flap.
The Dutch Door Calendars Are Back!
It might seem like a hard thing to do, but I recommend everyone doing at least one Dutch door design in their journals. I find them to be helpful, especially for things such as calendars. I use it in my journals since last summer, I think. It’s definitely a spread I need an extra set of hands–so I borrow my mom and she does the cutting process at the end.
Since I use an A5 Lined journal, I am able to give you some measurements, but to be honest I don’t really measure anything out. I’m not great at getting things straight anyways, so I just wing it and go about my day.
However, with this I count out four lines from both the top and bottom parts of each page, as the spaces between them will be where you place your calendars. I use construction paper in mine, and this is actually the part I hate the most because it doesn’t matter how many times I check ahead, I will still mess up the dates and so I end up having to do it over again; like with this photo. I didn’t realize my mistake until I was done that I had switched up the dates. I had to write out the correct days of the week next to the number and oddly enough that made everything better!
First Quarter Beginnings
As far as the monthly pages, I’ve mostly stuck with my regular system. I’ll change up whether I want to use marker or an extra piece of colored paper on the left page that’ll hold my library cards and calendar keys for each month. It is easier to do the markers though as I’ve said before, I rarely get things straight, so I find myself going the other direction the most.
I’ve purchased quite a few sticker books in the past few months and one that has been very beneficial are my letter sticker sheets. I also have my new favorite tool, tweezers. My mom likes to joke that I look like a surgeon doing sutures… I like it as it means I don’t risk stabbing myself with my crafting knife! Although, I will say I have gotten better about that! Anyways, I use my tweezers to pull off the stickers and arrange them across the layout. I’ve lost a few letters since I started but as I continue on this journey, I should become a bit of a pro with them. I don’t know why I continue to put “words” as I don’t collect any words in my books; it’s one thing I lost when I switched to listening audiobooks.
This year, I wanted to do more book reviews in this journal. I allowed myself to do mini reviews last year, but I wasn’t able to really enjoy creating a full spread and I have all of these stickers that won’t fit with the overall theme, so I have some photos to show you what I’ve been reading like all The Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins. I’m not just writing about the books listed in my “26 in 2026” challenge, but for this post these pages have become favorites to look at the most.
I got a gift card for Christmas and found only one mini printer that allowed colored pictures in my price range and It’s a HPRT Mini Photo Printer. At the time I wasn’t able to connect it to my phone, but we put it on my mom’s, it wasn’t ideal at first as I thought if I had it, I wouldn’t have to worry about needing her phone for my journal. but we are so fascinated with it. Back in January, I had to get a new phone and one the first things I did with it was hook it up to the printer and it works like a charm, and I can do it all with my feet! After it prints out, I use my cutter board thingy and trim the little white lip at the end and place my double-sided tape to place it in the top left corner of the spread.
All right, well that is it for this post. I hope you have enjoyed reading about all of my mistakes and success in creating my 2026 Reading Journal. I really hope the second quarter post isn’t too long nor takes me an extra month to get out to you either.
Are you keeping a Reading Journal this year? If you are, what is your theme? How are you doing with it so far?
As we move onto the standalones, you will see a wider variety of genres represented below. Historical fiction is at the heart of it obviously, but I have included disability and thriller novels, along with three nonfictions. Technically, there is two, but I’m keeping it back for my holiday TBR for this year.
If you have yet to check out Part One, click here to open that post on another tab after finishing this or maybe keep it for later on.
In 2025, I was successful in a way of my classics. Exploring the classics is better than being forced into it at school, and you can even find the audiobook on YouTube. Anyways, I’m starting off with an important book. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I keep up with PBS’s “Masterpiece” news and from the moment they released the behind-the-scenes photos for the TV adaptation, I have put it on my to-do list. I have tried to read it but I think the sheer size of it has made me feel discouraged lately, kind of like Les Misérables by Victor Hugo did for me last year.
Keeping with the film adaptation theme, I’ve added both The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood and Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. I’m in line waiting for the audiobook on the LibbyApp, so I’m hoping for an opportunity sometime later this year. Despite seeing her everywhere, I’ve never read an Ali Hazelwood before, I would like to read Hamnet more than TLH, but whatever happens I’m cool with it. I think I just put TLH because I didn’t want to be left out of the loop again when the trailers come out. Wonder when that’s going to be?
I recently found The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers while strolling through Hoopla one night. I’m the type of person who judges a book by its cover and something about this cover made me think this could be an interesting read. So, I saved it and went back to find other little gems. Mathilda by Mary Shelley was one of those gems, I’ve only read a little bit of the blurb and it’s strange, but I don’t think it would be a Mary Shelley story if it wasn’t. This is my only novella in this post.
These next two books are probably my second and third oldest on my actual TBR.
Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters by Diane Jacobs. is first and this is a biography focusing on First Lady Abigail Adams and her sisters Mary and Elizabeth. I have become somewhat curious of the lives of our First Ladies, thanks to “Hamilton” for making that even possible. I think this would be an interesting adventure for me.
Let’s go with Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen first. I’ll be honest, I have always thought this was about Edgar Allan Poe’s mother. I literally just found out I was wrong and it’s a historical fiction about Poe and a woman named Frances Sargent Osgood. I’m still keeping it on my list as I am curious to see a different side of Poe, and I want to know more about this mystery woman too.
For these books, I’ve started on them but have yet to actually finish. These were the ones that were screaming at me in the last couple of months. I am so curious to see how the main character(s) do at the end of their stories.
We have a cute contemporary, disability fiction book. The Chemistry Test by Georgina Frankie. It was offered on Kindle Unlimited as an audiobook and that was interesting as I was using my tablet at the time. I don’t use my tablet for my audiobooks, just laptop and TV. If you have Hoopla and a Roku TV, you can sync the app to the TV and trust me, this is the smartest things in my arsenal. and I love that KU is bringing the option to go audio with certain novels. I was very interested in it back in early November, but I was still into my horror books, so I had to stop. I hope to pick this up again in the springtime.
The second was a hopeful two years ago, The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera. This is my only middle-grade book on my lists too. I actually love the story, and I think about it all the time as it has everything I enjoy. Petra is a smart young girl; I love her spirit and can’t wait to see how everything turns out for her because when I stopped reading, things were hitting the fan like crazy.
Next up, is a translated version of Valley of Terror by Haohui Zhou. I would like to get it done in between Chinese New Year. I feel it’s only fitting as that’s where the story takes place. It also reminds of a movie called “The Forest” with Natalie Dormer. I’ve never been able to watch it as I’ve been told by my dad that it’s odd, but from what I’ve seen about it. It’s a bit creepy. I think it’s funny that I only chose one horror book. I think I’ll be kicking myself later on.
Ever since I started on Philippa Gregory’s series “The Cousin’s Wars” I have always been curious about Margaret of Anjou; she does appear in the first four books, but she doesn’t have her own point of view story, and when I saw this on KU I really jumped on this as I thought this would be my chance to really see the devotement of this bold and powerful woman. Marguerite: Hell Hath, No Fury! The Story of Marguerite of Anjou by Judith Arnopp. It isn’t written for any York or Lancaster’s view of the world at that time; it is hers alone. I never made it to the middle of the book, as Judith made it fairly large for readers, but I hope one day I can go back into it and gain a better look into the woman she was.
The First Witch of Boston by was another Kindle Unlimited audiobook I found in my deep horror spell. This is right up my ally as its mostly historical fiction mixed up with some thriller elements. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get too far into the story in order to finish it, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it. And finally, this book is my only biographical nonfiction on my list. This is one of two Ancient Egyptian books I’ve always wanted to read, and oddly enough they were written by the same author: Kara Cooney, this one is called, The Woman Who Would Be King and the other is When Women Ruled the World. I truly love my nonfiction so maybe I’ll bring it back around November as it’s known to be “Nonfiction November” by some readers.
I hope everyone has enjoyed these posts as much as I have, and maybe I’ve inspired you to pick your 26 books for the year too. If not this year, you could think use this format to decide your books for 2027. What would you put on your list? If you have any similar reads I should look into for the next year, please send them to me. If you’re currently doing it, how are you doing so far? What is on your list as well?
I’ve put this off long enough, and now I’m behind and so this post will be about the books I read and the music I listened to in the month of February.
I actually read quite a few books, but I was still in the middle of three of them as the month ended. I wasn’t able to read every day though. I want to say the second to last week, I came down with a sinus cold and the only thing that seemed entertaining were watching reels/shorts on YouTube. I was out for a while, and it sucked because I think I would have finished one other book, but who knows.
❤️ Ensnared By the Mer Fae by Sable Rowan ❤️ Saved By the Leviathan by Sable Rowan ❤️ Trapped By the River God by Sable Rowan ❤️ Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins ❤️ Ravished By the Troll by H.C. Summer ❤️ Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The one thing I am most proud of, is finishing my first series of 2026. It was one featured in my 26 in 2026 challenge. I’m currently on my second and third series; one I started back in November, The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare and then the other is a reread of the Celtic Blood series by Melanie Karsak. I read it five years ago and if you know me well enough, I absolutely loved it. It’s nice to go back to it after years away.
I enjoy novellas. I’m not ashamed of it especially since they’re usually erotica, but I haven’t been able to keep my attention on steamy novels, no matter how hard I try. So, I turn my interests into any little stories I can find on Kindle Unlimited.
The first three novellas were all written by Sable Rowan. I have been curious about the underwater faerie worlds over the years and I actually found myself enjoying the overall story, a little more than the other stuff. I found it interesting and would like to explore that kind of world later on. Out of the three stories, my favorite was “Ensnared By the Mer Fae” but character wise I was curious by the Leviathan.
I think another reason why I tend to prefer novellas is because I am reading bigger stories, and they take up a lot of my time most days. However, I like having a variety with my reads and there’s nothing wrong with that!
I was able to finish the second and final book of The Hunger Games series. I wasn’t much of a fan of either book, but more so with “Mockingjay” the most. I felt VERY accomplished by this feat, and I just finished my second series for my 26 in 2026 challenge. This reading challenge is my biggest priority, and so I felt like celebrating and found another “novelette” as it was advertised on Amazon. I’ve read through two anthologies by H.C. Summer last year. I wasn’t as keen to this story compared to the other three, but the details mentioned in the stories were different, and this story wasn’t full of a lot of description of the characters, more on the love scenes, but that’s common with this style of writing.
All right, now we’re going to discuss what I was listening to in February. Since this is already a large post, I will only be giving you my Top 15 songs. If you want to listen to all of them, click here to visit my Spotify playlist.
Cut It Out by Nail Bite I Hate Everything About You by Eiden XII Burn It All Down by Corvyx Where Have You Been by The UNCRTN featuring BVDMIND Ossuary of Roses by Deathly Hours Killer Looks by Just Peter Murder Scene by Eva Under Fire Safe And Sound by Shinedown Bad Ritual by The Athene Noctua Pathological by Set It Off I’m A Woman by Whissell Devil’s Cup by Jax The Bard Mist by Ekaterina Shelehova Supernova by UNSECRET featuring Sam Tinnesz Wings by ILUKA
Well, that is it for me. I hope you are enjoying the final week of March and stay tuned for most posts coming out in the next couple of days. I may be adding an extra post next Monday… so bye! 💜
What have you been reading AND listening to lately?
PSA: If I finish another book after Saturday, the last day of January, I will try to add a mini review and photo to the collage sometime next week.
For the past year or so, I’ve been updating my monthly reads on social media. At first, it was purely for friends and family on my Facebook, I was only giving out my number stats, with a banner of the book covers in case anyone wanted to search for them. I am asked what I’m currently reading on there and sometimes even on Instagram, so I started publishing my own wrap ups on there for a bigger audience of other readers. I follow Ashley on BubblyBooknerdReads and every time I felt down about my posts, especially the banners, I always saw her stuff and have been inspired to improve on everything.
I’m not sure how I’m going to continue on social media now that I’ve decided to do my posts on here, but we’ll see whether or not I continue to do these posts too.
❄️The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins ❄️ Super Fun Facts: Fascinating Facts About History, Holidays, Science, Traveling and More by David W. Leon ❄️ Interesting Facts for Smart Kids with Curious Minds by David W. Leon ❄️ Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins ❄️ The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Before we start, I wanted to say, I’ve decided to do a reading challenge this year, and it’s called 26 for 2026, and it consists of 26 books into two categories in various genres. I put my own spin with it, and I have made two lists, one is dedicated to the book series and novels. The first post went up on Wednesday, so if you haven’t read it yet, you can click here and it’ll open another tab so you can finish this one and go for that afterwards.
I don’t want to go too into TBOSAS, but I thought it was pretty good, I was worried I would be a bit bias as Snow is considered the villain in the original trilogy, but I was very curious about his origin story. By the way, I’ve never read the other books either, just watch the films years ago. I think I will hold off on watching the adaption of this book until I am finished with all five books.
These next two books are similar in nature and written by the same person. Super Fun Facts and Interesting Facts by David W. Leon. Despite my age, I enjoy these books a lot. It’s a duo of my favorite things, genuine curiosity and trivia.
I find these books so unique because I have yet to find a book, especially a kindle book, that allows you to play along. When you first open it up, it has five sample questions, and your job is to click on the answer you think is correct. However, if you’re wrong, it’ll jump to a page in the back and will give the option to return to the question or you can continue on your way through the book. I give myself three tries before I stop and see the next question. I have left many score sheets in my notebooks in the past while taking the tests. They range from common knowledge to history to food; it’s made for kids young as eight years and what they would know already. I would like to quiz my nephew as he’s pretty smart for his age.
Afterwards, I moved onto “Sunrise on the Reaping” and boy, did I underestimate the emotional roller-coaster that turned out to be! I vaguely remember Haymitch in the films, but I do know he was a sad character, and I was curious to know more about him, and what lead him to become this person. I cried more in the last four chapters than I have in any book in a long time. It broke me. Everything those films project of an older Haymitch Abernathy makes 100% sense now. I knew it was going to be bad but not like that.
Once I was done, I got started on the start of the whole franchise, and I definitely have some issues with The Hunger Games, mainly the fact the other “tributes” were not written–I enjoy learning character’s names, so that was a bit of a letdown, that was fixed in the newer books. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy hearing Katniss’s point-of-view after two males, but I really love the girl on the audiobook, she brings out a sort of energy, emotions of the character. She even reminded me of Jennifer Lawrence, and I thought was a great fit!
I am really curious about doing these posts. I think it would be a way to create mini reviews of interesting books that I know I will not include in my reading journal, but I also want to include everything that could inspire you to read the book–especially if I truly loved it to pieces!
What have you been reading lately? Tell me your favorite(s) of January 2026!