State of the ARC is a monthly meme temporarily hosted by Sarah at All The Book Blog Names Are Taken meant to motivate you to finish up your long overdue ARCs (Advanced or Early Reader Copies). This is its original intention, while some bloggers have tweaked it a bit for their own purposes, such as just keeping ARCs in order by due dates. Or you can just be a hot mess like me who sometimes misses publishing dates (or ignores them altogether) and needs a way to stay organized on what has been read, reviewed, or is still begging for attention. Thank you to Evelina @ Avalinah’s Books for coming up with this super helpful monthly meme.

I finished December with 15 ARCs left to be read and 1 review to publish. 

January is one of my favorite months of the year. There’s a combination of the slow pace after the rush and bustle of the holidays, the fact that my birthday is at the end of the month, and usually, snow, which is something I love seeing. It looks like I’m going to have to settle for two out of the three, since we’ve had a couple of days where it flurried, but it was too warm to stick. 

I promised myself that I was going to request less books on NetGalley, in order to give myself time to work through the backlog of books that I already have piling up, but … I think we all know how that goes. Here I am with a request list a mile long, and a bunch of approvals for this month. However, I’m still working really hard on my NetGalley ARCs and have managed to actually raise my ratio back up to 96% (up 2% since last month), and I’m super close to getting my list into single digits.

I’m still holding back some of my reviews in support of the Harper Collins Union strike. So far, I’ve read and written reviews for two books published by Harper Collins and their imprints, and I have a few more on my TBR, so hopefully they come to the table and are able to negotiate with the union.

I got approved for 7 new books in January:

• The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende
• Moon in Bastet by Elizabeth Danon
• Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen
• Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok
• The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter
• Guided Tarot for Teens: A Beginner’s Guide to Card Meanings, Spreads, and Trust in Your Intuition by Stefanie Caponi
• Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

These are the ARCs that I reviewed but haven’t posted yet:

• The Institution by Helen Fields — review held in support of the Harper Collins Union strike.
• Tear Down the Throne by Jennifer Estep — review held in support of the Harper Collins Union strike.

These are the ARCs that I read and reviewed, with links to my reviews:

• The Sapphire Altar by David Dalglish — see my review here.
• The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth — see my review here.
• Damsel by Evelyn Skye — see my review here.
• Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen — see my review here.
• Moon in Bastet by Elizabeth Danon — see my review here.
• Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker — see my review here.
• A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher — see my review here.
• Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee — see my review here.
• Silver in the Bone by Alexandra Bracken — see my review here.
• Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez — see my review here.
• Guided Tarot for Teens: A Beginner’s Guide to Card Meanings, Spreads, and Trust in Your Intuition by Stefanie Caponi — see my review here.

Here are the ARCs I still have to read:

• Pieces of Me by Kate McLaughlin
• Sizzle Reel by Carlyn Greenwald
• The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter
• Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
• The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende
• Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall
• Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler
• Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok
• The Déjà Glitch by Holly James
• Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen

Which ARCs are you excited about this month?