February Wrap Up

Illustration by Jungho Lee

February has come to an end and I have to say that I'm pretty happy about that. I had a hard time this month and was really struggling with some mental health issues. Thankfully, I seem to be coming out of the worst of it now, and the start of a new month approaching gives me the opportunity for a fresh start. 

At least my reading stayed on track. I continued to read around 100 pages a day every day this month. I ended up finishing ten novels, which totaled 3,963 pages. My overall ratings for the books I finished were a little bit lower than last month, but still, most things I read earned 4 or 5 stars from me. I also finished reading the Court of Thorns and Roses series, which I ended up enjoying to a surprising degree.

Here are all the books I finished:

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (4 stars)

The Golden Hour by Niki Smith (4 stars)

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas (4 stars)

Salt Magic by Hope Larson and Rebeca Mock (3 stars)

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas (4 stars)

Heartless Prince by Angela De Vito and Leigh Dragoon (3 stars)

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas (5 stars)

Run Away by Harlan Coben (3 stars)

The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir and Amber Padilla (5 stars)

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios (3 stars)

My favorite read of the month was A Court of Silver Flames, which I found to be the strongest in the Court of Thorns and Roses series so far. I truly enjoyed reading Nesta's story, and I thought that Maas handled the emotional aspects of it very well. It was a long book and it truly felt like an epic journey reading it. I loved it. I also really enjoyed The Secret Garden on 81st Street, which was a very charming modern retelling of The Secret Garden.

My least favorite read of the month was tied between Run Away and I'll Meet You There. Both of them were okay, but neither were especially memorable for me. Run Away had the interesting problem of having too much boomer energy for me and I'll Meet You There had some moments of insensitivity that prevented me from really getting into the story. 

I hauled way too many books this month.  I couldn't resist all the new titles I discovered browsing around Amazon and Barnes and Noble! Luckily, I had a lot of gift cards that I was able to cash in for some of these books, so not everything was paid for out of pocket. I still spent too much though. Chalk it up to the depression. Here's what I added to my shelves:

When you Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller (middle grades magical realism, physical book)

The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. by David Leviathan (middle grades magical realism, physical book)

The Beatrice Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo (middle grades fantasy, physical book)

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor (adult historical fiction, ebook)

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (young adult historical fiction, physical book)

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen (middle grade graphic novel, physical book)

The Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt (middle grades graphic novel, physical book)

Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James (adult fantasy, physical book)

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas (adult fantasy, physical book)

When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (middle grades graphic novel, physical book)

Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff (middle grades paranormal fantasy, physical book)

The Hideaway by Pam Smy (middle grades paranormal fantasy, physical book)

The Mermaid in the Millpond by Lucy Strange (middle grades fantasy, physical book)

I added a total of 13 books to my shelves. Yikes.

I decided to donate The Golden Hour, Salt Magic, Heartless Prince, Runaway, and I'll Meet You There, so five books left my shelves.

In March, I plan to start another series of books and continue to chip away at my reading challenges. I also want to make it a point to read at least two middle grades books that aren't graphic novels this month. Here's what I would like to accomplish:

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Northwind by Gary Paulson

The Art of Running Away by Sabrina Kleckner

I did continue to keep my reading journal this month, although the issues I was having with mental health made it less enjoyable than it has been. Still, now that I'm starting to feel better, I want to keep going with it.

For my non-reading activities, I am sad to report that I did not make any more progress on my diamond painting this month. I was feeling so exhausted and sad for almost all of February that I couldn't bring myself to work on it. I definitely still want to finish it though, so I plan to get it done throughout March. 

I did manage to complete one small project in February - I made a jigsaw puzzle! I got this one in December from my Secret Santa. It was 500 pieces and was really fun to work on. The pieces were the tinniest I have every worked with, which was nice, because it meant I could spread them all out on my table at the same time. 

I didn't watch a ton of new shows or movies this month, but I did see a few things. I watched Glory Road for the first time with my students (it was a school-wide treat), and I thought it was pretty good. Sports movies aren't usually my thing, but I liked this one. I also saw Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile (the newer ones with Kenneth Branagh) and thought they were both good too. Death on the Nile was better, which was a nice surprise since we went to see that in the theater. We also finished watching Peacemaker season one on HBO, and that was surprisingly excellent, especially its amazing theme song. 

One special thing we did this month was take a trip to Hartford to see Swan Lake at the Bushnell Theater. I haven't seen many ballets in my life, so I don't have much to compare the performance to, but I thought it was absolutely fantastic. It was very nice to get away for a night. I wish the timing had been a bit better so that I could have felt happier while I was there, but it is what it is. It was still really fun.

I didn't get to do much else this month, since I was having so much trouble mentally. I did practice my uke a little bit and got better at "Tomorrow" from Annie. I started the process of learning "Surface Pressure" from Encanto too, but I still have a long way to go on that one. I want to try and fit more practice time into March.

So, while my February was definitely not what I was hoping it would be, I still got a few things accomplished and I didn't completely disintegrate, which feels like an accomplishment. In March I'm hoping to have a better time and get myself back on track.