by I spent at least five minutes (actually much longer, but we don’t need to talk about that) sitting in front of my cursor wanting to type cliches about how short the month of February is and how it always slips away from me and how 28 days feels far more like 2 and some change, but I have held myself back for your sake (and mine). Too bad I can’t hold myself back from writing a run-on sentence. Anyway, here are the books I read in February.
On Being Ill (Virginia Woolf)
As a chronically ill person, this essay hit hard for me! I think that fanfic does an amazing job of devoting time to illness and examining what it does to our psyche and to our relationships with the other weak and merely human people who we love and who love us, and traditional literature would do well to take a leaf out of their book.
“Literature does its best to maintain that its concern is with the mind; that the body is a sheet of plain glass through which the soul looks straight and clear, and save for one or two passions such as desire and greed, is null, negligible and non-existent. On the contrary, the very opposite is true.”
Waiting to Be Heard (Amanda Knox)
After watching the Netflix documentary (seven years late to the game), I ran to the library to get my hands on Knox’s memoir and found myself first and foremost deeply impressed by her writing ability. She mentions several times that she had wanted to become a writer before her life was blown up, and I think that she has a real future in that. That’s fairly exceptional for a memoir to come out of a huge news story – I’ve read countless memoirs written (or ghostwritten) by people with exceptional stories but rather unimpressive writing finesse, and this was certainly not one of those. Additionally, I was genuinely horrified by Amanda’s treatment in prison and was struck by her strength and composure under conditions that would devastate anyone. Hearing her story in her own words is, in my opinion, the best way to listen to it.
Till Death Do Us Purl (Black Sheep Knitting Mysteries #4) (Anna Canadeo)
I LOVE COZY MYSTERIES! And boy do I love the Black Sheep Knitting Mysteries. They are definitely written for an older audience than me I think, probably closer to late thirties or early forties, but it’s still a pleasure, and the mysteries are always so well developed.
Playing with America’s Doll: A Cultural Analysis of the American Girl Collection (Emilie Zaslow)
I am at my core an academic, and I live for intense examinations of things I love, complete with thick bibliographies. This hit for me, as an American Girl doll kid growing up and as someone who recently dug their collection out of the basement.
Catherine: The Great Journey, Russia, 1743 (The Royal Diaries) (Kristiana Gregory)
As I mentioned last month, I’m once again comfort rereading as many of my childhood favorites as I can get my hands on, and this was big for me. Any book that can get an eleven-year-old thinking about learning Russian is a win in my book.
Punning with Scissors (Becky Clark)
OCD twinsies!! Neurodiversity rep, what I’m hoping is going to turn into a slow-burn childhood besties to lovers romance storyline, and a cozy mystery where the main character definitely doesn’t have everything all figured out.
Season of Love (Helena Greer)
Sweet, soft, and sapphic. Deals with the intense complexities of family and of what running does to a person (and to the people they leave behind). The perfect Christmas queer romance novel and the cottage-core dream life we’re all looking for. Of all the books read in February, this one was my favorite.
