Best Books of February
As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.
So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.
These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from February.
Reckless Girls (Rachel Hawkins): Summer is coming up, and this is the perfect beach read. I mean, yes, I read it on my sofa, so clearly you can read it on a sofa, too. But it’s a great thriller, speeding you through the plot line. Are there thing you will guess way ahead of time? Of course. But that just makes it an even better thriller because it lets out some of the tension.
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions (Mario Giordano — author +
J. Maxwell Brownjohn — translator): This is the first book in a series. (Thank you, Rebeccah, for the recommendation!) It took me a little time to get into the story, but once I did, I fell in love with the character of Poldi and wanted to spend more time with her. And go to Italy.
Piranesi (Susanna Clarke): I’ve read this before — and reviewed it before — but this time I listened to it as audio book. Is it possible that it was even better this time around? Maybe — Chiwetel Ejiofor has a voice that falls somewhere between sexy and relaxing. ChickieNob and I paired listening to the book with walking videos in Greece. We would get completely lost in the story and forget to stop walking.
The Violence (Delilah S. Dawson): This was incredible. It was one of those books where your brain gets confused after you stop reading and you can’t remember what is real for a moment. Sort of like Age of Miracles. It’s not an easy read because at its core, it’s about abuse. But it’s an important read. This book will stick with me for a long time.
The Invisible Library (Genevieve Cogman): Another first book in a series with a lot of complex world building. If you like Jasper Fforde but often feel frustrated by how much random, distracting, unexplained stuff exists in his stories, this is the book for you. Everything makes sense because everything fits together. I have a feeling I’ll like future books in the series even more because this one slowed down a lot to explain how the world works. But it’s super clever.
What did you read last month?
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I finished 6 books in February (all reviewed on my blog, as well as Goodreads). All really good too — I rated them all either 4 or 5 stars. Not bad (for me), especially for a short month!:
*”Misfits” by Michaela Coel (February pick for the Gateway Women/NoMo book club). This was very short — actually a lecture delivered by Coel, who is a British actress/screenwriter/producer/director, about her experiences as a Black woman growing up in a social housing development in London, and later in the TV industry.
* “Chasing History” by Carl Bernstein. An affectionate coming of age story/memoir about how Bernstein got his start in journalism at age 16 in the summer of 1960 at the Washington (DC) Star.
*”Mothering Sunday” by Graham Swift. Another short one, about one fateful day in a young woman’s life and what happens to her afterwards. Set in 1924, with the grief & loss of the recent Great War hanging over everything. Not much action, but beautifully written. Apparently there is a movie version that just came out.
*”Forever Young” by Hayley Mills. I saw lots of her movies as a kid and quite enjoyed this memoir, with her memories of growing up in an acting family, becoming a child star herself under contract to Disney, and how she made the difficult transition to adulthood.
*”The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family” by Ron Howard and Clint Howard. Another child star memoir, written jointly by the brothers. I really enjoyed this one… it’s a wonderful tribute to their parents, who put their own Hollywood ambitions on the backburner to nurture their sons’ careers and yet ensure they still got to be kids, with a grounding of solid values.
*”Sisters Behaving Badly” by Maddie Please. My sister & I found this book over Christmas and each bought a copy, mostly because we loved the title, lol. This was a pleasant surprise that I enjoyed much more than I expected — chick-lit/rom-com about estranged midlife British sisters who travel together to France to fix up the farmhouse they’ve just inherited from their aunt. Bonus (for me): one of the sisters is childless.
February was kind-of a slow reading month for me. Not sure why. I “read” a few more Georgette Heyer books on audiobook. I also started and abandoned a couple of non-fiction books for no real reason other than that I wasn’t feeling them at the moment.
My best read of the month was Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy. I’m not sure what to say about this book but it was great. Probably should come with a content warning for some of the topics, but very well written.
I just finished Unmissing so it’s not a February read but it was a good thriller. I didn’t guess either of the big twists.
February was a slow month for me too. I listened to the audiobook of “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo, and found it enlightening in many ways, including about some differences in race relations between the US and NZ, but also many similarities.
And I reread the last book of the Discovery of Witches series, before the TV series finished. Which was, of course, very light and easy.
I read We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. Sadly it was my least favorite book I have read in 2 years. I probably should have stopped reading and invested my time is something else, but I haven’t mastered that skill yet. The story all wrapped up quickly at the end, but it took a long time to get there.