Well friends, we are better than halfway through June and I’m still super behind!! Part of me thinks I should just skip ahead but… I just can’t quite bring myself to do that!! The good news is that work has calmed way down and I don’t start at the orchard until the beginning of August. So I have over a month to get my life completely organized and caught up!! I’m confident that’s going to happen. :-D
Favorite February Read
Even thought 1984 and Murder on the Orient Express technically rated higher, I think I’m going to go with The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold. Something about the story and the characters just really drew me in, and it’s one I definitely see myself rereading, looking for more clues about the mind-bendy bits.
Most Disappointing February Read
Definitely The School for Good & Evil. This one just gave me the weirds super hard, which is a shame because the concept sounds really good. But it was not for me.
Other February Reads
- 3*
- The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
- Of Beasts & Beauties by various authors
- You Have a Match by Emma Lord
- 3.5*
- Gods of Jade & Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- The Greatest Beer Run Ever by John Donohue & JT Malloy
- Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
- A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell
- The Substitute Guest by Grace Livingston Hill
- 4*
- The Big Six by Arthur Ransome
- Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
- 4.5*
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
February Stats
- Total Number of Books Read: 17 (1 Kindle, 16 physical)
- Total Pages Read: 6196
- Average Star Rating for September: 3.5
- Longest Book: Of Beasts & Beauties (810 pages) although it feels like a bit of a cheat since it’s an anthology haha
- Shortest Book: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (88 pages) and actually I never reviewed this one because it was just… there lol
- Oldest Book: Murder on the Orient Express (published 1934)
- Newest Book: The Electric Kingdom and You Have a Match (published 2021)
- Number of New-to-Me Authors: 10
February DNFs
Only had one DNF in February, a book that’s been on my personal shelves for a long time – The Covered Wagon by Emerson Hough. I’ll admit that I wasn’t completely in the mood for a pioneer story, but this one, published in 1922, was absolutely absurd. I read over a hundred pages and it was a complete soap opera, with two dramatic young men in the wagon train competing for the hand of a beautiful young woman. I finally gave up when she wandered away from the camp, then looked and saw a prairie fire. In order to alert the wagon train… she STARTED A FIRE AND USED SMOKE SIGNALS. TO ALERT THEM ABOUT A WILDFIRE. I just couldn’t deal any more!
TBR Update
This I keep updated as I go, so it’s current as of today, rather than as of the end of February. Still a million years behind on reading blog posts, though! :-/ I’m sure I’ll get caught up over summer break, right? RIGHT?!
For those of you who don’t know, I’m weirdly obsessive with organizing the TBR, and have it on a spreadsheet divided into six different tabs:
- Standalones: 513 (holding steady)
- Nonfiction: 127 (up two)
- Personal (which includes all books I own (fiction and nonfiction), but lists any series I own as only one entry…): 649 (up eleven!)
- Series (each series counted separately, not each book within a series): 251 (down two)
- Mystery Series (each series counted separately, not each book within a series): 115 (holding steady)
- New Arrivals – (I have a lot of books that I have been gifted or that I pick up somewhere and they get put on my “oh I’m so excited about this shiny new book” shelf… and then of course don’t actually get read.): 137 (up nine!)
Current Reads
I’m doing multiple buddy reads on Litsy. I should finish a reread of Emma this week. I’m about halfway through The Magician’s Nephew (CS Lewis) and maybe a quarter of the way through Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (and yes, Harry is just as obnoxious as ever in this one). I’m also reading Russian Magic Tales as part of the Food & Lit Challenge where we “visit” a different country every month. June is Russia, and since I’ve had this one on my TBR for a while it felt like a good fit!! I’ve also been reading a Nora Roberts romance series and am almost finished with the last book, Considering Kate.
Up Next
The probable next five(ish) reads…
- The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell is due back at the library, so I need to get it checked off!!
- The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer is my June book for the traveling book club, so also due soon haha
- The Perfect Horse by Elizabeth Letts has been on my shelf (from the library) for literal months now and it’s about time to actually read it!
- I’ve also had the first five books of the Leaphorn & Chee mystery series checked out for quite some time. If I enjoy them, there are 24 books in the series sooooo
- The World of Pooh is the next book on my quest to read every book I own.
We’ll see what happens!!! Hopefully coming soon – March minireviews!!!