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February is a short month, but I finished to read another seven books in addition to the seven I read in January. After reviewing what I read in January, I mentioned my intention to read more fiction. I did a direct flip and six out of seven were fiction in January. Some of these will count towards a challenge that my book club is doing. After being in a reading slump for a lot of 2020, it feels really good to be off to a great start. According to Goodreads, I am seven books ahead of schedule for my 2021 goal. Let’s talk about February’s books. Click the images or anything underlined to be taken to the book on Amazon.

Fight Club

Yeah, I elected to use a shirtless picture of Brad Pitt instead of an image of the book. This movie used to hold the record of the most times I had seen a movie in the theater… until 300 was released, so you might see a theme there. I had read several other books by Chuck Palahnuik but hadn’t gotten to Fight Club yet. My kiddo and I were discussing it one day in light of how some dudes read it and view it as a glorification of toxic masculinity instead of the critique that it is. Then I started talking about it with some friends and decided to finally read it. It didn’t disappoint me. It’s really good, even if you know about it from the movie. I feel like the movie was really well done, but of course there is more depth to the book and potentially additional twists, depending on how you interpret it. Several other people in book club are reading this, and I look forward to the discussion. If you read this book and your favorite quote is “We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.” I highly suggest you take off your misogyny hat and read it again.

The Sparrow

Our book club had a holiday zoom meeting and someone asked what was the best book each person read in 2020. My answer was Where the Crawdads Sing. My friend Kathy replied that hers was The Sparrow. To be fair – she warned me. This book is emotionally harrowing. It’s heartbreaking. I don’t even know what else to say about it. Read it. Then we can talk about it. This was the most unputdownable book that I have read in some time. And I’m still sad thinking about it.

Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones

I read Every Heart a Doorway after The Sparrow, because it was short and YA and I thought thought it would be a lighter read. HA! Nope. At least it was short. I needed a quick read while I waited to get Eight Perfect Murders from the library hold list. This is not light reading for YA. It’s pretty dark and there is a lot of death. I liked the first book better than the second. I’m including an image of the first five books to give people an idea of how it progresses. These are the ones I have. I appreciate the diversity in these books. And I appreciate the darkness. It might not have been the best time for me to start the series immediately following the sadness of The Sparrow. I may get back to this series as the days get warmer and longer.

Eight Perfect Murders

The worst part about this one is that it spoils eight other murder mysteries for you, including one written by A.A. Milne before he wrote Winnie the Pooh. Lucky for me, I don’t remember many details of the spoilers, so I might check out that story anyway. I went through this book quickly. There was so much abut this that wasn’t what I expected and I noticed that this is book one of a series and I don’t know how they can make this into a series. I am rather uncomfortable with the idea. But I also want to read the next book. I don’t read a lot of murder mysteries, so I wonder if people who do love this book or hate it. I think it must be one way or the other. I am grateful to a book club member mentioning this one. It wasn’t on my radar. I’m glad I didn’t miss it.

Trauma: Healing Your Past to Find Freedom Now

This month’s lonely nonfiction read was a doozy. If you suffer from PTSD, reading about trauma is not going to be easy. I preordered this book and watched the docuseries that was also released this month. There’s a lot of overlap, so I don’t think you necessarily need to do both. I am glad to have the book to reference as needed. The one thing I don’t like about it is how they call things a “big T” or “little t” trauma. They acknowledge that which of these a trauma qualifies as can be objective, but they continue to refer to things that way. And for Pete’s sake, they list finding out that your spouse is cheating as little t trauma. Gee whiz, that’s only the one person on the planet that was sworn to never betray you. I should note that I heard about this book from Dr. Debi Silber, who specializes in Post Betrayal Transformation. Some of her knowledge is shared in the book. Also, I understand that me having such a strong reaction to that is because of my own trauma. I’m working on that, and there is a lot of good info in this book to help me. This is challenging subject matter, and some sections recommend that you skip them if you think they might be an issue, but if you want to know more about trauma, this is really well done.

Cemetery Boys

This is a book for my reading challenge task of a romance written by a transgender or nonbinary author. This was also another recommendation from a friend. There was the added bonus of being set in a Latinx community with a cast of characters that were all Latinx. It wasn’t until the book was over that I realized they don’t mention anyone in any other demographic. That being said, there is a lot of diversity in this community… and they have MAGIC! I read this one quickly. I have to admit that I found it to be predictable and one of the characters attitude annoyed me towards the end, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. One of my kids is Latinx, so this was a fun way to learn more abut the culture, especially surrounding Dia los Muertos. There’s a lot to this book, themes about family, acceptance, death, friendship, patriarchy, tradition. This book would make an interesting addition to the syllabus of the “Ghosts and Gender” course that I took for my lit degree. I actually emailed the professor about it. I’m that much of a nerd.

What’s Next?

I am already in the middle of a few books that will hopefully be finished in March. I have no intention of keeping up a seven books a month pace. I need more rest and more sleep. I have to ward against the difficult things in my life and get as many kinds of support as I can muster. Sometimes reading is supportive. Sometimes I need something else. May bob grant me “the wisdom to know the difference.”

Leave a comment and let me know what you’re reading!