What I read in February

penny on March 7, 2019

Apparently today is #worldbookday. Yay! I made an extra effort to read more during the short month of February. Winter was getting to me and I would rather get lost in a book.

  1. Ayiti by Roxane Gay
  2. Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents by Pete Souza
  3. Art Matters by Neil Gaiman (Author) and Chris Riddell (Illustrator)
  4. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
  5. The Unicorn Anthology★ by Peter S. Beagle
  6. The Secret Language of Cats★ by Susanne Schötz, Peter Kuras (Translator)
  7. A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark
  8. So you want to talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  9. Terra Incognita: Three Novellas by Connie Willis
  10. The Psychology of Time Travel★ by Kate Mascarenhas
  11. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
  12. Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse
  13. No Country for Old Gnomes (The Tales of Pell #2)★ by Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne
  14. Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad★ by Austin Kleon
  15. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
  16. Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking by Jason Logan

★ indicates that I received an eARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for a review. The FTC wants you to know.

Further Thoughts

Where to begin? I’ll just go through all sixteen books in order. Yes. They were all that good.

  • Ayiti – This is an amazing collection, I stayed up long past my bedtime to finish it.
  • Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents – Souza’s brilliant. I’d enjoyed many of these on instagram, to hold the book and be able to see the juxtaposition side-by-side was fun.
  • Art Matters – If you haven’t read this yet, read it. If you have read it, reread it.
  • Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics – Catching up on the reading I skipped by not taking a women’s studies course until grad school.
  • The Unicorn Anthology★ – There’s a review! TL;DR? This is not your standard pretty white unicorn and rainbows anthology. It’s much more. And enjoyable.
  • The Secret Language of Cats★ There’s a review! TL;DR? A linguistic professor loves cats and has diligently researched to work on what each sound means. (Fun fact, I wrote the review with Shadow purring on my lap.)
  • A Dead Djinn in Cairo – I loved this steampunk SFF story set in an alternative 1912 Cairo.
  • So you want to talk about Race – Doing my work. I know I’ll need to reread this again soon.
  • Terra Incognita: Three Novellas – I am a known Connie Willis fangirl. I enjoyed both “Uncharted Territory” and “Remake” more than DA.
  • The Psychology of Time Travel★ – There’s a review! TL;DR? An amazing debut novel that explores what happens to the people who time travel, how does their approach to life (and death) change?
  • Early Riser – I was excited to see a new Jasper Fforde title. There was something about reading it during snow/ice storm that hooked me in.
  • Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) – Go read this. So good. I can’t wait to read the next book Storm of Locusts, to be published in April.
  • No Country for Old Gnomes (The Tales of Pell #2)★ – There’s a review! TL;DR? This is a fun read and less in your face than the first book. The puns are just as good and the overall story felt more thoroughly developed.
  • Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad★ – There’s a review! TL;DR? This plus Gaiman’s Art Matters deserve spots on your shelf. Think of this one like a bound version of Oblique Strategies.
  • Ocean at the End of the Lane BraceletThe Ocean at the End of the Lane – I now own and almost daily wear, a bracelet with the quote “I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else”. The time felt right to reread this gem, and I’m very happy I did.
    ♥
    Do you want your own wearable quote?
    Choose yours at Papyrusaurus.

  • Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking – Ideas are brewing.

March Reads

I hope to catch up on a few more netgalley reads and reviews this month. I’m still working on the collection edited Nisi Shawl, New Suns. I took a side tour to read Dark Matter, edited by Sheree R. Thomas. I’m also making my way through Jane Yolan’s How to Fracture a Fairy Tale. Last week I checked out Joyce Antler’s Jewish Radical Feminism from the library and I need to finish it. I want to get my feedback ratio closer to the suggested 80%. It’s currently at a very embarrassing 41%. I’m trying to review two books for every one I request (even if it’s not approved).