February Monthly Recap

Time for our our February monthly recap! Find out which books were favorites and which were duds. We’ll end our wrap up with a a list of books due out this month and a glimpse of our upcoming content. We also want to hear from you so let us know what you read this month and what you look forward to reading in March.

Jen: I read 12 books in February although 3 of those books were graphic novels. Half of the books I read were by written by women, 7 were set in other countries (or worlds), only 2 were written by authors of color.

Favorite book read in February: My favorite book of the month was Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.    This blew all the competition out of the water. Honorable mention goes to March by John Lewis. This was probably one of my favorite graphic novels and I look forward to picking up volume 2 in March.

Least favorite book read in February: Overall I had a rather lackluster reading month with many mediocre books and it’s hard to pick a least favorite. I’m making my way through Infinite Jest which I’m enjoying but requires an enormous amount of concentration and analytical work. As such, I’ve read a lot of “filler” books — the sorts of books that require minimal concentration and energy. If I had to pick a least favorite I’d say that honor would go to the comic “I Hate Fairyland.” While funny at times, it was way too violent for my tastes.

Future Goals: My primary goal is to finish Infinite Jest and continue cutting down on my TBR. I also hope to explore graphic novels a little more to see if I can find one that I love.

Book Worm:  I only managed to read 7 books in January which is not good as it puts me behind for my goal of 110 books this year. Of the books I did manage to read, 4 were written by women and 5 were written by authors not from my country. In terms of diverse reading I read 1 non-fiction book. I don’t normally read non-fiction so this counted as diverse reading for me.  Interestingly, it was also my favourite book of the month.

Favorite book read in February: Wishful Drinking by Carrier Fisher. She was such a gifted writer and great a loss to her family, friends and fans. Honorable mention must go to Julius by Daphne du Maurier, another great book from a great author.

Least favorite book read in February: The Plumed Serpent by D H Lawrence. I found this a real struggle to read.

Future Goals: I am still working on reducing the TBR pile this months stats are:

DTB books bought: 1 (bought and read) DTB books read from the TBR 2. Net count -2
-Kindle books bought: 1 (bought and read). Kindle books read from the TBR 1. Net count -1

Year to date DTB read from TBR: -3

Kindle books read from TBR:  -3

What can you look forward to on our blog in March? March will see the end of our Chutes and Ladders challenge and the beginning of our March Madness Challenge. Want to sign up for March Madness? You can read the instructions on our challenge page. We’ll continue on with our featured posts including Love it or Hate it, Read Around the World, and Terrible Reviews of Great Books.

March 2017 book releases. I’m excited about a few upcoming releases. Here are a few coming out in March:

Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude McKay
South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
White Tears by Hari Kunzru
My Darling Detective by Howard Gorman

We want to hear from you. So what are your plans for March? Which books were your favorites and least favorites in February? Will you be joining in our March Madness challenge?