Thursday, March 2, 2017

February 2017 Wrap-Up

I read a ton this month, evidenced by the abundance of reviews I put out. I'm back up to my usual numbers and pretty happy about it. I read 18 books, three more than my average, and was honestly surprised by the final number. I didn't think I read 18 books. But I did finish my TBR early, so I just decided to get a head start on the book that was at the beginning of my March TBR, which is a 675 page behemoth that I'm loving so far. Because I have reviews up for most of these books, with the exception of the classics, this should be a lot quicker than last month's. So let's get into it!

Just a really sweet and dark book about a boy and his mom and a monster. Hits you right in the feels. I really liked it.
A literary fiction novel about a girl, a family next door, and some Christian Scientists. While it was beautifully written, I did find this book lacking, hence the not fantastic rating.
This book would be great for a beginning historical fiction lover, but for a veteran in the genre, as well as someone moving on to more mature books, I found it not as great as it could have been. This was, if you didn’t know, about the Spanish Influenza outbreak in Portland, Oregon in the year 1918, I believe.
My second most disappointing book of the month, this mystery-thriller ended up doing nothing for me, and knocked the author down my author list quite a few pegs. This was about a girl named Scarlett who was missing for like 8 years or so, and recently found again. She is trying to move on but can’t after a girl goes missing at the theme park she works at.

I finally read Nabokov’s masterpiece this month. I decided against doing a full review, because what could I say about this book that would be different from anyone else? This book is also the reason for the review lag in early February, since it took me quite a while to get through for a book of a mere 300 pages. The reason for that is, of course, that Vladimir puts the v in verbose. I loved the language in this book, and honestly can’t believe that English wasn’t Nabokov’s first language, although that might explain how he seems to take pleasure in playing with words, with puns and alliteration and dark, dark humor. This book is funny, believe it or not, in a subtle way, and I found myself snorting or smirking along with Humbert’s snide asides and Dolly’s sarcasm. I also love unreliable narrators, especially when the trope is done well, so with that in mind the book was even more enjoyable (not the best word choice, but oh well) to read. Content-wise, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it’s made out to be. After reading it myself and forming my own opinions on the nature of Humbert and Lolita’s relationship, I find myself siding with those who saw Lolita as the victim. Now, the term “lolita” in reference to promiscuous preteens disgusts me. I had no real love for her as a character- she annoyed me- but I saw the tragedy in her the same way I saw the tragedy in Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire. She was a victim of Humbert’s imagination. Some of the most impactful moments in the book show, in small ways, how his abuse affected her. Humbert himself even acknowledges and in some ways even seems to feel remorse for what he did to her, although given that this book is written by him and meant to garner sympathy, I have no idea how genuine he is. This book is a fascinating character study full of morally ambiguous characters, and it made me want to pick up more by Nabokov. I 100% percent recommend (as if my recommendation means anything!), if just to read others’ thoughts on the book.

I should have liked this book more than I did, considering that it was described as “The Fault in Our Stars meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in Belarus”. While I have strongly negative opinions about The Fault in Our Stars, I do love One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Belarus, so I was hoping it would capture my heart regardless. It didn’t, as I discussed in my review.

This was the second classic I read this month, and I think I should go back to this book and reread it later. It was hard to understand and hard to follow, but I did love how original Faulkner’s writing style was and I could see how Cormac McCarthy was very influenced by him. I also liked the story, once I started to actually understand what was going on in the book, and I did really like the way Faulkner showed these different characters and how they thought and their intelligence levels based off each of their thought processes. There is almost no telling in this book, it’s all showing, and I think As I Lay Dying is one of those books that when I reread it, I’ll end up really loving.

Why do I read these books? Well, I mean, they are super addictive, so there’s that going for them. But I hated the declawed Anne Boleyn, and the overabundance of romance, and all the modern-sounding crap in this book. So I didn’t like it very much, but at least it was better than Gilt.
A really fun melodramatic and more or less brainless romance novel about incest. That one sentence should tell you all my thoughts on this book.
My love for Tana French continues with The Likeness, about a detective, Cassie Maddox, who is thrust into a case where the killed girl not only looks exactly like her, but also carries the identity she carried undercover.
Fairly generic YA contemporary about a pair of boys, one whose being beaten at home with the bonus of being dyslexic, and the other who has ADHD. A perfect palate cleanser for between heavy, beautiful novels, but not so great on its own.

This book continues to stick in my head, nearly two weeks after I finished it. Dark and atmospheric and I loved it. Wolf Winter is about a Finnish family who moves to the Swedish Lapland, and, while herding goats, one of the daughters of the family finds the mutilated body of a man. Loved it. If you loved Burial Rites, you will love this book too.

I’ve written enough about this concluding novel for you to know what I think about it. Which is not very highly. Still, this was a fun journey. I'm happy I picked this trilogy up.
I was disappointed with the third The Luxe novel. Too much nothing happened for me to really like it. Still, can’t wait for Splendor (though I keep accidentally typing Splenda).
I needed to rectify the fact I only read one other novel about Russia this month, so I picked up Sashenka. This book, which traces Sashenka through the first half of the 20th century, could easily have been 100 pages shorter than it actually was. But I still liked it.
Hands down the most disappointing book of the month. Couldn’t even finish it. The portrayal of Zelda in this book was so, so bad. Shame, because I really wanted to like it. Ah well.
The House of Tomorrow is about a kid whose isolated life is shaken up by a chain smoking teenage heart transplant patient and his beautiful older sister. And punk music. So obviously, I loved it.
The first Virginia Woolf I’ve ever read, and I really liked it. Though it did have its super slow parts, I loved reading this book, especially the elements of time travel, even if it was a bit confusing. It was funny, and interesting, and just really good. Not much else I can say about it, other than now I kind of want to read something else by her. Maybe To the Lighthouse?


Page total: 6,359

Average rating: 6.5/10 (rounded down) Genre breakdown: 10 historical fiction books 4 contemporaries 2 mystery-thrillers 1 romance/chick lit book 1 fantasy Of those, 8 were adult and 10 were YA February wasn't my favorite month for reading, but I did get a lot done. I read more YA than I wanted to, and I'm afraid next month will also be very YA heavy as I finally finish my 2017 reading challenge. I actually just finished my first book for March, so that review will be up soon. Hopefully.
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