February is my birthday month. I received hardcovers of R.F. Kuang’s Babel and Seanan McGuire’s Tidal Creatures. I’m not sure how I missed acquiring a hard copy of Tidal Creatures last year but glad to have one now! I’m preparing to do some light rearranging of my bookshelves, in order to accommodate the collection growth of recent years (including 12 volumes of The History of Middle-earth that I recently ordered 😁). I saw a TikTok of someone using an egg carton to double stack their books, placing the books in the back row on top of the carton so they’re still visible. I am going to try that.
The temperature through February was wildly up and down. Like, -30°C to +5°C. I did get a few good skates on the river in. Hard to believe it’s March already. Historically my new year resolutions for blogging and reading fall off in March… I should fare better than March 2024, at least. There won’t be any overtime offered at work this year.
Books Finished
- Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf by deke moulton (MG speculative fiction)
- The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard (adult speculative fiction)
- Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods (adult historical fantasy)
- Long Live Evil (#1) by Sarah Rees Brennan (adult portal fantasy)
- The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (adult folk fantasy)
Posts Written
- Reviewed Stream Big: The Triumphs and Turmoils of Twitch and the Stars Behind the Screen by Nathan Grayson (adult non-fiction)
- Reviewed When Fragments Make a Whole: A Personal Journey Through Healing Stories in the Bible by Lory Widmer Hess (adult non-fiction)
- Reviewed Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods (adult historical fantasy)
- Listed 2024 releases I was excited to read but still haven’t gotten to for Top Ten Tuesday
- Discussed Scott Alexander Howard’s The Other Valley with my Dad for Family Reads
Challenges Check-In
This section tallies up my annual goals. (Posts and views are the only two metrics which are per month.)
- 14/80 books read
- 7/30 middle grade fiction novels
- 0/10 owned books
- 1/9 Family Reads
- 1/4 “I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read that Yet”
- Reviewed 29% of what I read (goal = 50%)
- 13/66 posts in 2025
- 6/6 posts in February
- 2,975/2,600 views in February
- So close to 3,000! Too bad I couldn’t stick to my posting schedule, instead of publishing late on Feb 28 lol. But this is only an 18% decrease from January, which I’m pretty happy with given that February is 10% shorter than January.
Shared on Bluesky
On My Radar in March
Representation indicated below AFAIK. Please notify me of any errors or places where I can be more specific.
- 4 Mar – Release date of The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (adult folk fantasy, queer rep), Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey (adult historical fantasy), Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (adult thriller), and They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tran (young adult horror, Vietnamese and queer rep)
- 18 Mar – Release date of 13 Ways to Say Good-bye by Kate Fussner (middle grade contemporary, lesbian rep)
- 25 Mar – Release date of Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen (adult historical fantasy, queer rep)
How was your February? What new books, or bookish events, are you looking forward to this month?
Just checked out your review for Kell Woods’s new book & glad to see you thought it was an improvement from her debut. I haven’t read either, but I am curious about STARLIT TIDE. Also, happy belated birthday!
Happy belated birthday month! The River Has Roots is on my radar as well! Hopefully it’s good. 🙂
Happy belated birthday! It was a busy month for me but we got some travel in right at the end so it feels like it was an okay balance. Now just to make time for reading lol, I think I read one book in February
Happy belated birthday, Jenna! I am so excited for The River Has Roots. Eagerly awaiting my preorder of it to arrive. Hope you have a lovely March!
Happy late birthday! River Has Roots and Once Was Willem are HIGH on my tbr too! And I’m dying to read Colour of Revenge, but I really want to reread the earlier books first and I haven’t had the time yet, alas. Do you think you’ll do a reread first, or do you remember the main trilogy clearly enough?