All the Books I read in February

I read Short Books in the Short Month

Oh hi! It’s only midway through March and here’s my reading recap for February! What an improvement.

Actually, I’ve got two other pieces I’m working on and need more time for those, so here we are.

I read 9 books in February, and most of them were ‘Short’ books.¹ The idea is to read short books in February, since it’s a short month, and I find it a great way to read all of those odd little books hanging around that I’d never get to otherwise.

Here’s the thing though: I didn’t enjoy them. I wouldn’t say I disliked them, just that I’m not the target audience. I don’t need thought experiments when my entire existence is a thought experiment.

While completing my reading journal for the month, I realized that many of these ‘small’ short books are considered experimental literary fiction, and that’s not my jam.² It’s not the end of the world, and I’m glad to push my boundaries word wise, but not my fav. At least the small books gave me a bit of lead on my reading goal for the year, so I can go back to reading giant fantasy books.

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1. Odd Spirits, S.T. Gibson
   I talked about this in my Massachusetts is Haunted post, so I won’t belabor the point, but this was a great book to start the month with. Haunted house in Boston? Yes please! Only downside: it was not a standalone like I originally imagined. Now I have to go read another book series.

2. Evocation, S.T. Gibson
   Enter said series. You know the benefit of having a literal library’s worth of books in your house? When you realize that the book you thought was a standalone isn’t, and that you actually have the first book in the series in your possession. I’m just speaking hypothetically, here. Couldn’t be me. Only (minor) gripe: that a research librarian and a witch/thrift store worker make enough money for a townhouse in JP. Fantasy Boston, indeed.

3. After the Funeral, Tessa Hadley
   I am certainly not the first to point out that short story collections are notoriously hard - instead of having one unified story, there are 8-12 smaller ones collected together. It can be hard to shift gears so frequently as a reader. I will say while Hadley’s prose was beautiful, I don’t remember most of the stories. Looking back at the table of contents, only 3 of them stood out to me as memorable.

4. Things I Don’t Want to Know, Deborah Levy
   I’m late to the Deborah Levy train, and this was a lovely read. The first in her autobiographical series, Things I Don’t Want to Know covers the early part of Levy’s life in South Africa during apartheid and how her father was imprisoned for his activism. The family eventually immigrates to the UK, and Levy recalls all of this during middle age while she’s on a writing trip trying to make sense of her life. While I enjoyed the book, I’m not necessarily pressed to read the rest of the series. I’m sure I will at some point, knowing me, but the story didn’t feel ‘urgent’ here, in the sense that I won’t miss anything if I take my time getting around to the sequels.

5. The Party, Tessa Hadley
   I’m glad I gave Tessa Hadley another try because I enjoyed this book (novella?) much more. Hadley’s language is (still) beautiful here, as she charts the journey of two sisters in post WW2 Britain, as they evolve from young women into adult women. A bildungsroman of sorts. It was much easier to enjoy Hadley’s prowess during a unified story instead of trying to switch gears every 20-30 pages. Also, book #s 1, 3, 4, and 5 were acquired on my November trip to the UK, so if nothing else I’m doing a great job of reading my own library.

   

   Graphics, as always, courtesy of TheStorygraph.

6. Tone, Kate Zambreno & Sofia Samatar
   This cover is beautiful; look at those blues! Zambreno and Samatar write together, using ‘we’ to discuss tone in literature. They examine their central question - what is tone? - throughout different works of literature, most of which I was not familiar with. On the one hand, I learned about a lot of new books. On the other hand, it was a very academic read, and if you’re not into that sort of thing, you will not enjoy this.
   
   In the end, I did learn a thing or two about tone. More importantly, I learned about Seasonal Associate, which I thought sounded interesting in the first place, but then realized it had THE EXACT SAME COVER PHOTO as a book I had already read. (The Tessa Hadley short story book.)

7. Seasonal Associate, Heike Geissler
   Whoever the lady on the cover of this book is must be making a killing in residuals. As I mentioned, I learned about this book from another book, and found it too uncanny that it had the same cover photo as another book I had already read this same month. The Universe works in mysterious ways etc etc.
   
   The premise is simple: Geissler takes a job at the first Amazon distribution warehouse in Germany and details her experiences. But here’s where things get blurry: the narrator is Geissler, or a fictionalized version of Geissler, or us. See, the first person I is used, but then the second person you is also used. As in, Geissler is talking to us (the reader) who is taking her place in the Amazon warehouse, telling us about training, how we’re doing our jobs, what we’re feeling. Second person already creates a sense of immediacy, and the combined usage of both ‘I’ and ‘you’ compounds this. The book was translated from German, and there’s some German language grammatical stuff that doesn’t translate that emphasizes this point in the original.
   
   This book was fun in the German sense of the word: not so much exuberant and whimsical as very earnest and creative in its premise. This was the first book I read on Libby this year. 1 down, 7 to go for that reading goal.

8. Children of Fallen Gods, Carissa Broadbent
   We continue on the Carissa Broadbent journey. Children of Fallen Gods is book two in the War of Lost Hearts Trilogy, Carissa Broadbent’s first published trilogy. My bookclub (ACOTAO) has renamed this series the Trauma Trilogy because OH BOY. How much can you make your main characters suffer? We’re reading the 3rd book for March and by the time you read this, I’ll have finished book 3. I regret nothing.

9. Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other, Danielle Dutton

   What an odd little book. Acquired on the same bookstore trip as Tone, Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other is divided into four titular sections. I enjoyed some of the Prairie short stories, and the Dresses section was great - a compilation of descriptions of 66 dresses. Ingenious. But the other sections were, again, a little too academic for my taste. The Art section was entirely on ekphrasis (art and writing in response to other art) and veered way too into the theoretical for me to follow. This is the type of thing that I think is best experienced as a classroom discussion. Overall, a mixed bag.

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No New Books™️ Challenge

Look, look. How can you expect me to adhere to the rules of a challenge that I, myself, invented? I’m just a girl. I wish I had some sense of shame about this, but I don’t. ‘Twas another special edition box that got me.

• Longest streak: 38 days (January 1st - February 6th)

• Last streak: 6 days (February 27th - March 4th)

• Current streak: 7 days (March 5th - Present)

Mug Moment of the Week

If you can count on nothing else, you can count on the fact that I will find my way to every single High Tea place in New England. I’ve already been to 2 this year.³

This time, it was Jolie Tea Company in Salem (yes, that Salem). It was Mischka’s mom’s birthday, so obviously our writing group had to celebrate. The last time I went was pre-Substack, so does it even count if not documented here?

The desserts were very tasty, and the color of the china and mug-ware was exquisite. Very springlike, which was helped by the fact that it was 40 degrees and sunny. And while teacups are nice, having an actual mug is preferable for tea consumption. More interesting was the number of people in Salem. Why were they there?? It’s not October.

That’s it for February, and good riddance least favorite month. Sorry to any February lovers. How did your February reading go? Did you read any short books? Did the short month throw you off?

1. Defined as being under 250 pages.

2. Ha, a High Tea joke.

3. Pictures of which were included in the last monthly roundup, ironically enough.