Another glorious month filled with the happy distraction of many books. Of note, I’m working on shifting my book tracking over to The StoryGraph. Although Goodreads is convenient (specifically because it syncs with Kindle), I much prefer StoryGraph’s data visualization, and I find the recommendations on StoryGraph are better tailored to my reading tastes (vs. popularity).
I’ve tried several reading trackers over the years (Fable was a fun one), and most of the time they aren’t strong enough competitors to contend with Goodreads’ ease of use. But I’m finding that the more I use StoryGraph the better I like it because the features fit with what I’m looking for in a reading tracker. Also, I like that real people (with pictures!) are running the app, and that one of the creators is regularly engaged with feature and bug updates.
Anyways, on to February Reads!
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan has been on my list for a very long time. I loved the fact that women’s lives were the common thread of this book, and the ways their lives affected the mother-daughter dynamic and how they all understood the world. Glad I read this one.
Good golly did I enjoy this The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. I’m currently waiting for the next in the series to become available from the library.
The adventures of a young woman who is probably a witch (which just means common sense, mostly) figuring out how that works in her absurd world felt deeply meaningful and often surprisingly familiar.
I’ve read several books by Pratchett and, while I usually enjoy them, I haven’t connected personally with any until this one. Loved it.
My first installment of healing fiction in February was Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. No magic, just decent people learning to attend to their own needs and being supportive for those around them who are doing the same. It moved more slowly than I’m used to, and I liked it.
The book club selection for this month was The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood and it was good fun. Loved reading women (it’s me!) as the main characters and really enjoyed the ways they worked together to solve the mystery and catch the baddies.
I loved The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai because it combined two of my favorite things: food and mystery. The food descriptions were a sensory joy; I found myself in the middle of major cravings more than once.
The way this book treated mysteries – problem and reveal, with zero step-by-step following of the investigation – was a fun departure from American treatment of the mystery genre. Knocked out all the suspenseful in-between bits, which are the parts I usually struggle with!
I’m a sucker for magic systems and The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee went there. While it’s not “magic” as I usually read it, Dallergut imagines what the conditions are around dreaming, which ends up feeling pretty magical. This is another healing fiction book that I deeply enjoyed. I even shed a stray tear or two from being hit squarely in the feels.
The latest installment of the Percy Jackson series, Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan doesn’t have the same world-ending stakes as the earlier books but it’s just as fun. I especially appreciated the focus on a female goddess, her followers (and admirers), and the ways existing in the Greek-mythology universe complicates their lives.
So I’m noticing a focal theme for February: I enjoyed books with main characters that were like me (i.e., female) and I enjoyed healing fiction books. I wrote about the healing fiction genre midway through February and I think I’ll keep looking for books in the genre. They’re quite nice.
On deck for March is a pile of new orders from my local library, who must have gotten some healthy Q2 funding, because all my requests came in at once. I’m most looking forward to reading Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor. I’ve read a handful of her books and am always spellbound by the worlds created and the subjects explored.
Thanks for stopping by. Happy reading!