February Wrap Up

 I had an awesome month reading-wise. I've read 12 books!

Randomly I decided to listen to The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. This is a domestic thriller about strangers making a plan to kill the man's wife. Some twists and turns. While this was compulsive, there wasn't that many twists and turn and relied heavily on coincidence for the plot. I gave it 3 stars.

Then I picked up the graphic memoir Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder. This was a graphic memoir chronicling a young woman's life when her mom died. I didn't feel like it needed to be a graphic memoir and didn't really care for the art style but was interested enough. I gave it 3 stars.

Craving David Tennant's voice again. I picked up Wizards of Once: Twice Magic by Cressida Cowell. It was good though a little angsty. 4 stars.

Another challenge book, Poet's Corner compiled by John Lithgow. I enjoyed the audiobook with several narrators for the poems. I even found a few poets I want to read more from. I gave it 4 stars.

I reread a favorite The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. Yay. I love to be back in this universe. 5 stars.

In the mood for memoir, I picked up Golem Girl by Riva Lehrer. This is about a woman who has spina bifida. She shares an honest account of the difficulties of her life and the blatant ableism directed towards her. I found it incredibly illuminating. I gave it 4 stars.

Next I read How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. This was more akin to an interconnected short story collection. In a near-future dystopian, an Arctic plague has killed so many. It follows many people and how they are affected. Some of the sections hold less of my interest but there was a section that so perfectly summed up how I felt during this pandemic that I had to give it 4 stars.

Getting in another nonfiction, I picked up A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them by Neil Bradbury. This was very interesting and I was very interested in the stories of the crimes but the actual science-y info was dryer and more dull. I gave it 3.5 stars.

For one of my reading challenges, I picked up Party Monster by James St. James. I had already seen the movie a bunch of times but there were definitely bits that didn't make it into the movie. It wasn't well written, but it was a compelling read. It's about the Club Kid scene in the 80s and 90s and how the "club king" murdered his drug dealer and went to prison. The people are more likeable in the film so I prefer that, but I gave the book 4 stars.

A front list book I was excited to get to was Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it. It's about a man who is on death row for serial murder. The story is told in flashbacks from women who knew him. There was no tension, no mystery, and I felt like it was a slog to get through. It really should be considered literary fiction. I gave it 2 stars.

Then, a book hyped by British booktubers, I read The Appeal by Janice Hallett. This is a murder mystery comprised entirely of emails, text, newspaper clippings, and other miscellaneous print. We don't even know who the murder victim is until 60% of the way through the book. I found this to be an interesting gimmick but once the murderer is revealed, I felt they only had tenuous circumstantial evidence and it fell flat. Overall, I gave it 3 stars for a very compelling first half.

Lastly, I re-listened to a favorite book from last year; Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. despite being near 500 pages, I polished this off in 2 days. I loved it just as much as the first time. I see connections I didn't before. 5 stars easy!