Despite being cold and rather strange, February was a satisfying month in my reading life. I finished 11 books, although two were comic books and one was a deluxe edition of a comic. Without those, I finished eight prose books — about average for me, I’d say. Here’s the list:
- Fathi, Nazila: The Lonely War (nonfiction)
- Vaughn, Brian K. and Harris, Tony: Ex Machina, The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1 (comic book)
- Hawkins, Paula: The Girl on the Train (fiction)
- Jonathan Luna: Alex + Ada, Vol. 1 (comic book)
- Carey, Mike: The Unwritten, Vol. 1 (comic book)
- Morris, James McGrath: Eye on the Struggle (biography)
- MacLaughlin, Nina: Hammer Head (memoir)
- Kondo, Marie: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (nonfiction)
- Gawande, Atul: Being Mortal (nonfiction)
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: Americanah (fiction)
- Ferguson, Mark Andrew: The Lost Boys Symphony (fiction)
I don’t think I can pick a favorite nonfiction read for the month. I loved The Lonely War, Hammer Head and Being Mortal all pretty equally, but for different reasons. I have reviews planned for Hammer Head and Being Mortal, so look for those in the next few weeks. My favorite fiction read was probably Americanah, although The Lost Boys Symphony came in a close second — look for more on that one near the end of March.
A Look Ahead to March
March is, historically, my least favorite month of the year. I start to get desperate for spring to arrive, which can make me antsy and a little crabby (sorry, boyfriend and family). But I’m trying to look on the upside — if the weather is terrible, I’ll have more excuses to stay inside and read!
My new feature over at Book Riot, recommending nonfiction reads for popular fiction, has me reaching out to a lot of backlist nonfiction to find good pairings. One of my goals is to only recommend books that I’ve read, so I testing out some books for upcoming posts will take up a chunk of my reading this month.
Other than that, there are a ton of great releases coming out in March. A couple that are on my radar are The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me by Sofka Zinovieff (March 31 from Harper) and That’s Not English by Erin Moore (March 24 from Gotham).
Happy almost spring, everyone! What books are you looking forward to reading this month?
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I always feel like March drags a bit, too, especially after such a quick February. Really looking forward to seeing what you dig up in the nonfiction backlist department! I was just looking at my nonfiction shelves the other day and thinking about some that I really need to get to.
That’s part of it too — 31 days after a month with only 28. When it’s cold or winter drags, it feels like March never ends.
I’m with you! March makes me super irritated as well, waiting for Spring. This time, it has started a little sooner, so part of Feb was spent mooning around. Hope you have a great March – you have a good stack ahead!
Interesting. March isn’t nearly as bad as Feb for me. In march I start planning my garden and starting seeds indoors. It’s enough to make me believe spring is around the corner.
I think it’s a matter of expectations. I never expect it to be nice in February, so when it’s horrible I’m not disappointed. I hope that spring will come in March, and so when we get that late season snowfall it gets me down.
I like the fact that March has the time change to Daylight Savings. Makes the evenings seem longer and here in Texas, our wildflowers usually are coming out by mid-ish March. And spring is my favorite season here.
Looking forward to your review of BEING MORTAL. Such a book, an important book. Not cheerful, but full of thoughtful discussions.
While I hate losing sleep to spring ahead, you’re right, more light in the evenings does help.
February is my ick month. It’s short but feels like it drags forevvvvver 😉 As always, you inspire me to look into different nonfiction titles. (I didn’t read a single one in Feb. which is super weird, boo.) On to March! I hope it’s a good one!
I figure March has to be better than February was.
Hmmmm…. do I have a favorite month? I think it is July. 🙂 I am a sun girl. You had an excellent reading month!
Mine is probably July too — I get to go to my parent’s cabin for the Fourth and it’s my birthday month!
I’m happy for it to be March because even though I know most of the month will probably still be cold and gross, there’s the promise that it WILL finally start to get warmer. For the first time in half a year, I can be reasonably sure that the month will end warmer than it started.
It looks like you had a great reading month! Your reviewlette of Americanah has me itching to finally read it.
That’s true. By the end of the month everything should be consistently warmer. That’s a plus!
I love that you have a least favorite month. I’ve never actually considered what month I dislike most.
February is normally my least favourite month of the year, but it didn’t go TOO bad this year… I am thinking March will take its place this year. It depends on the weather, really.
On the whole, February wasn’t too bad here either. And yeah, it can be a toss up… depends on what the weather does for me too.
Looks like a good month! I’m not all that sad to see the back of February, but I am INCREDIBLY sad that it is still snow/icing everywhere but California, it seems. Looking forward to exploring your new fiction/nonfiction series on BR!
The snow/ice is terrible everywhere! We just got about six inches of snow today, but it’s supposed to be warm by the weekend so I think it will all disappear soon.
I’m hoping March will take me into more prose reading. January was so great for that, and February was only so-so.
I hope you find some great books!
March is definitely a long month. What spring? We got two more inches of snow and ice here yesterday! 🙂 I’m excited about That’s Not English as well. It’s looks interesting and amusing. I hope you enjoy it!
We got about six inches of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday — in like a lion indeed!
You had a great February, Kim. As for March for me, I’ll be playing it by ear, as always. I never know what I’ll be getting from the library, which always seems to have precedence over my TBR piles which, thankfully, continue to wait patiently for me to get to them.
I’ve been terrible at mixing in library reading lately. I’ve checked out several books and had to return them unread — I hate doing that.
Recommending only books you’re read is such a struggle for me, too. Mainly because I gleam so many good recommendations from my fellow book bloggers that I want to pass along and then don’t know what to say when people ask me what I thought of the book.
March always meant spring break for me. Now that I’m out of school, though, I’m not sure it will continue to be a favorite month.
Yes! When I’m talking to people, I often haven’t read the books that are being discussed, but I have read reviews or hear info from other readers that I trust. In most cases I am happy to pass that on, but I’m challenging myself a bit with this feature to read all of the books, if I can.