everything I read in february

reading diary

This little essay is part of series I’m having fun with this year, where I journal (publicly) about everything I read each month. A love letter to a my bookish kindreds out there. Enjoy!

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Shorter month, shorter list. But there were some dense ones in here so everything took a bit longer. Let’s start on a high note and work our way down.

Babel by R. F. Kuang

I just had to see what the hype was about. This is my first book by this prolific author and overall I really enjoyed it! Dark academia is not really my genre, and parts of this book read slow, the characters did fall a touch flat at times BUT weeks later I’m still thinking about it. This is usually how I decide if I like a book, if it makes a home in my psyche somehow.

The main criticism I observed in the reviews after I read the book was that it was a little on the nose and preachy. I understand these reviews, but personally didn’t resonate with them. It was a fun, long book to sink myself into during these last winter weeks and escape reality for a bit.

Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais

I picked this one up at the recommendation of

Pandora Sykes

even though it’s not something I would naturally read on my own— when I say I adore this book! I read it in two days, just slurped it down, laughing the entire time. It’s a coming of age story about three girls in a small town in France who are voted (by some dickhead bully) as the ugliest girls in school. Piglettes, if you will.

They bond over this public humiliation, become friends, and then decide to bike across the country to Paris for Bastille Day, selling pork and vegetarian sausages along the way.

I know the premise sounds wild, but it’s so tender, it’s so very funny, and the perfect bit of escapism I needed this month. If you were a fan of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever (I LOVED that show), I’d say this book is its spiritual companion. School misfits defying norms, learning about friendship, themselves, and love.

Okay now for the more glum reviews.

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

I keep getting sucked into this author’s book through the blurbs. Contemporary Lit, with a mystery, and an environmental angle. I should love it! And yet… Both this book and Once There Were Wolves were a bit of a struggle to get through for me because of the main characters in each. They are tormented by past trauma, misunderstood, self-righteous, moody, always jumping into save people’s lives, apparently men can’t resist them despite their prickly exterior and lack of conversational skills, and because both books are in the first person, you can never escape their headspace. Which is exhausting.

I did my best to read past it in Once There Were Wolves, but was disappointed to see that apparently, Migrations, is just the same lead character copy-pasted onto a fishing boat following the flight migration of Arctic Terns.

Weirdly, I actually love a lot of the plot, the settings, the facts about nature. But the obnoxiousness of the lead character ruins all of that. McConaghy has a book coming out in a few weeks and I want to read it, again, based on the premise. I’m just hoping for a cast switch up. TBD!

Ice Coven by Max Seeck

The second book in the Investigator Jessica Neimi series. Nordic Noir is a definite flavor, it’s not for everyone. I’m a few pages away from finishing this book and overall just feel like it’s not hitting. But I think my dislike for this book is way more about just not enjoying some of the Nordic Noir tropes than it is about it being not well-written (within the genre).

Plot blurb: Still reeling and licking their wounds from their last case breaking up a serial murdering cult, Jessica Neimi and her team are recruited to investigate the disappearance of one of Finland’s most popular influencers. A day later a body washes up on shore dressed in a Manga costume that looks eerily like some of the missing influencer’s artwork. Neimi and her team quickly realize that there is a much deeper underbelly to this case, and they’re running out of time to solve it.

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes

I wanted to like this book. Maya’s best friend in high school mysteriously drops dead, traumatizing her for life. Maya suspects her high school boyfriend is behind the unexpected death, but no one believes her. Seven years later, married and living in Boston, Maya comes across a viral video of a woman suddenly dropping dead in a diner with her date— the man is her ex-boyfriend from high school. Maya returns to the Berkshires to find out what really happened to these women.

I mean it sounds great doesn’t it? The plot was okay. It wasn’t as “thrilling” or “un-put-downable” as all the reviews claimed. I read it on a singular cross country flight so I guess I’m grateful it kept me company. But the writing was shockingly poor. The characters flat and undeveloped. You see the twist coming a mile off from the end of the book. It was fine.

Okay that’s all for February! All of the links above are for www.bookshop.org where I am an affiliate and will earn a very small percentage if you choose to shop through their website. Wherever you get your books— through my links, the library, thriftbooks.com, etc— I ask you to join me in boycotting Amazon for obvious reasons. BLEEGH.

Much love,

g

xx