For this month’s life update, I have more work changes. While my acting term ended on Fri February 9, optional overtime began a week later on Mon February 19. I’m currently doing 5-10 hours/week of OT. Not sure how long it will last for but I’m striving to bring in the extra dollars while I have the opportunity. Of course, the trade off is that I’m not keen to hop on the computer and blog after work. So 8 posts this month is already looking optimistic… Additionally, nothing I’ve read lately has ignited the sort of thinking and reflecting which lead me to write reviews. I gave The Parliament a sporting chance but DNF’d it after about 130 pages. Will that change in March? Stay tuned. (Currently I am engaged in a reread of Nevermoor, which is delightful but again, probably won’t give me anything to blog about.)
February was also my birthday month 😊 I had a lovely weekend spent with friends and family and plenty of good food and drink. I had my parents and sister over one evening. My mom cooked my favourite dinner: roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, and Yorkshire pudding. I made mai tais for pre-dinner drink and chai lattes for post-dinner drink. As for bookish gifts, I received J.R.R. Tolkien’s Tales from the Perilous Realm illustrated by Alan Lee. I can finally tackle “Leaf by Niggle”! (which I had to spell out for my sister; she was like “WHAT exactly are you saying is that more than one word??”, lol)
Books Finished
- Gently to Nagasaki by Joy Kogawa
- Long Lost by Jacqueline West
- What You are Looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
- Hidden Truths by Elly Schwartz
- Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
Books Reviewed
- The Empress of Salt and Fortune and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (The Singing HIlls Cycle #1 and 2) by Nghi Vo
- Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa
- Tolkien & Alterity edited by Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor (academic non-fiction)
Posts Written
- Discussed Bad Cree by Jessica Johns with my Dad for February’s Family Reads
- Listed 10 books to read when time is short (5 middle grade and 5 adult) for Top Ten Tuesday
Challenges Check-In
This section tallies up my annual goals. (Posts and views are the only two mterics which are per month.)
- 4/30 middle grade fiction novels
- Not counting rereads in this
- 2/9 Family Reads
- 1/6 “I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read that Yet”
- My hold for Of Salt and Shore by Annette Schaap finally came on, so this is on track.
- 15/81 books read
- Reviewed 47%/40% of what I read
- Reread The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings – have not started
- 5/8 posts in February
- Hm, well. If I say 8 posts/month, then after January and February I should be at 16 and I’m at 15… so that’s fine by me 😙
- 1,858/2,200 views in February
- I expected a drop off from January (which cracked +3,000), though not one quite this steep. Part of it can almost certainly be attributed to less psoting and blog hopping this month.
- 1/12 books for 2024 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge
- I made a graphic for this which I forgot to include in my January wrap up. However, I didn’t make progress on this challenge in February so I guess I’ll save it for another month 😛
On My Radar in March
Representation indicated below AFAIK (I haven’t read these books). Please notify me of any errors or places where I can be more specific.
- 5 March – Release date of Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi (adult fabulism, Black author) and Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport (adult non-fiction)
- 19 March – Release date of The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (adult historical horror, queer trans rep), The Divorcées by Rowan Beaird (adult historical fiction), and The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le (YA fantasy, Vietnam-inspired world)
- 12 May – Release date of Sleeping Giants by Rene Denfeld (adult thriller)
How was your February? What new books, or bookish events, are you looking forward to this month?
Good luck with your overtime at work. At least it sounds like it’s your choice😁 I’m very curious about Sleeping Giants, if it gets good reviews I may buy a copy. Have a good month!
Thanks Tammy! Yes, happily there is no pressure from management to do OT – I am just keen to add to my retirement/travel savings, haha. Have you read any Denfeld before?
Happy belated birthday! And ahh another Helen Oyeyemi, I am still so far behind with her backlist!
Thank-you! 😊 I’m pretty excited about this Oyeyemi; for some reason I feel like I will be able to comprehend it better than her last few books but probably once I actually start reading, I will be reevaluating that thought haha.
Well, I saw Silverborn was delayed again until January 2025. I guess I’ll have to read the series again, too, to make sure I’m caught up by the time this book finally gets released!
I was getting excited about Silverborn as I saw that Townsend was speaking about it at a writer’s festival earlier this month, but then I also saw someone comment about the delay on my Goodreads review of Silverborn and I was like “🫠 … I’m sure that’s fine…”. It seems like only the North American date has been pushed back? https://www.reddit.com/r/Nevermoor/comments/1b95v1u/jessica_townsend_at_adelaide_writers_week/
Well, that’s rather a relief! I don’t mind if the North American release date is later, as long as it’s confirmed this book is finally actually happening!
That’s too bad about The Parliament. I was super intrigued by that one. Happy belated birthday! It sounds like you had a lovely time with your family. Wishing you a lovely March!
Thank-you! 😊 I hope your March is also off to a good start. Yeah, for me, The Parliament was trying to squeeze in too many genres at once and I couldn’t get into it.
Happy belated birthday! Yeay for Nghi Vo reviews. 😀
Thank-you! ☺
Happy belated birthday!
I’m glad at least the overtime is paid.
Thanks Charvi! 😊 Yes, I am lucky to have the opportunity to take on as much or as little optional paid OT as I feel like this month.
Happy belated birthday! I’m glad to see that you got a copy of Perilous Realms! I hope you have a blast with it! 😀
Thanks very much 😁 I’ve got too many books on my ‘current TBR’ right now but hoping I’ll get to it by summer!
I’m a whole month late, but Happy Belated Birthday! It looks like you had a great reading month in February. I’m also intrigued by Sleeping Giants and have added it to my TBR.
Haze
https://thebookhaze.com/
Thank-you! 😄 I feel like it’s been ages since I saw anyone in the blogosphere talk about Denfeld’s books – I would be curious to hear your thougths if you pick that one up.