Wrap-Up: February

• Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco (★★☆☆☆)
• Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody (★★★★☆)
• Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (★★★★★)
• Nevernight by Jay Kristoff (★★★★★)
• Policing Egyptian Women by Liat Kozma (★★★★★)
• Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao (★★★☆☆)

MONTHLY TOTAL: 6
YEARLY SO FAR: 14

I kind of challenged myself to read six books this month and ended up finishing off two books in the last two days of February, so huzzah! I think this is pretty cool considering I was quite sick for most of February and didn’t really up to doing anything except sitting in bed and staring at the ceiling, haha.

I finally finished Policing Egyptian Women which was incredible but it took me a long time to read because I was taking pretty detailed notes as I read through it.  I started Nevernight at the end of January but it took me like a month to get through the first 100 pages, but then after that I read the whole thing in like four days. Overall a decently solid reading month, with a few duds, but nothing so terrible it made me want to tear my hair out.

I am currently reading Things a Bright Girl Can Do because Chelsea gave it a fantastic review, and because I am currently writing a book that revolves around suffrage, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to get a sense of how another writer might structure a book like that! I started Hunger by Roxane Gay yesterday and am nearly finished with it! It’s a punch in the gut, but very readable and compelling. I don’t think I’ve ever read a memoir or a series of personal essays before, but it goes by really quickly and as a genre I think it’s a good palate cleanser between speculative books.

Next I am planning on starting a buddy read of Madeline Miller’s Circe with Rachel, and Chelsea and I have been planning to buddy read Jane Eyre literally since the start of the year, so maybe we can get to it this month? I don’t know. No pressure, Chelsea.  Also, I’ve had Red Sister out from the library for a while, so I need to get to that before it has to go back. Oh, and I just requested The Haunting of Maddy Clare, so I have to go pick that up from the library and start on it too!

Finally, a bit of shameless self-promotion here: my short story, Your Damnation Will Be Infinite, was published on The Dark Magazine today! Check it out if you’re interested in stories about murder and Lovecraftian horror in Cairo!