What I Read in February
The month where I got really into audiobooks
Ah, February. The longest shortest month. It was snowy and cold here in New England and there were several moments where I thought I was going to snap if I walked outside one more time and the cold hurt my face. This last week has been warmer and the snow is melting and the sun has been shining and it’s giving me life.
This was also an excellent month for books.
Let’s get into it.
Kristin Hannah, The Women
It’s 1965, and twenty-year-old Frankie McGrath’s brother has just shipped out to Vietnam. Daring to imagine there’s more to life than her idyllic, moneyed upbringing in Southern California, Frankie joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows her brother.
The first half of the book chronicles Frankie’s time in service and the absolutely harrowing things she witnessed and experienced as a field hospital nurse. I didn’t know a whole lot about the Vietnam War leading into this book, and I found myself stopping to Google things every few paragraphs. Everything I learned was horrifying and enraging.
The second half of the book follows Frankie through the years after the war, and the difficulty she had reintegrating into a changed society where people would rather pretend the war wasn’t going on at all, and the soldiers returning were treated with disgust rather than honor.
This is a long book, and it started to drag at the end. The parts during the war fascinated me, but I think the back half of the book went on a bit too long.
Rating: really liked it 💕
Percival Everett, James
This book tells the story of Jim, the slave and friend of Huck Finn. Admittedly, I’m not sure I’ve ever read The Adventures of Huck Finn (which I plan on remedying soon), so I don’t know how closely James follows that narrative, but I could not get enough of this book.
I snagged the audiobook and I highly, highly recommend. The narrator does an amazing job.
Rating: loved it ❤️
Evie Dunmore, The Gentleman’s Gambit
This is the fourth book in the League of Extraordinary Women collection. You don’t need to read the other three to enjoy this one, but the characters overlap.
Catriona Campbell is quite content to read her books, help her suffragette friends with their cause, and continue her work at Oxford. What she is not content with is the handsome Elias Khoury who comes to her family estate looking for help gaining access to some ancient artifacts housed at Oxford.
As Catriona and Elias’s relationship grows, she begins to wonder if becoming closer to him is worth the risk - especially when she learns he’s come to Oxford under false pretenses.
I’ve read another of the books in this collection and enjoyed it, and I enjoyed this one as well. They’re fun, frothy historical romances along the lines of Bridgerton.
Rating: liked it 👍🏻
Stuart Turton, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered every day until Aiden Bishop can solve her murder and stop the cycle. Every day he fails, he wakes up at Blackheath Manor in a different body of one of the manor’s guests. He has eight days, and eight hosts, to solve the mystery. If he doesn’t, all his memories will be lost and he’ll start the cycle all over again.
This book was a wild ride. It drops you right into the middle of the action with Aiden having no idea who he is or where he is, and it does take awhile to orient yourself. A purposeful choice by the author, as you are immediately put into Aiden’s shoes. I flew through this book and thought it was masterfully plotted. The revelation at the end was also very well done.
Rating: loved it ❤️
Frieda McFadden, The Locked Door
Nora Davis is an accomplished surgeon - and she’s also the daughter of one of history’s most notorious serial killers. This fact is something she keeps well hidden, choosing not to ever get close enough to anyone that they might find out. Until her female patients start turning up dead, killed in the same manner her father used with his victims.
But her father is in prison with no chance of being released. So who is killing these girls? And what’s in Nora’s basement?
This was a quick read, but it wasn’t a good read. The characters were blah and the twist at the end was truly terrible.
Rating: not for me 👎🏻
Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary
Ryland Grace wakes up in a space ship. He doesn’t know his name, how he got there, or why he’s there. Oh, and he also discovers he’s accompanied by two corpses.
As he explores his new surroundings, his memories start to come back to him. Told in flashbacks of Grace’s life before he woke up and the challenges he faces in the present, we learn that he’s the sole survivor on a suicide mission meant to save the Earth and everyone on it from dying.
His sole focus becomes completing the mission, but he has to do it all alone.
Or does he?
This book is extremely far out of my normal wheelhouse. I hate space. Hate it. Don’t like thinking about it, don’t want to go there, no thank you. But I loved this book. I laughed, I cried, I cheered for these characters. It was wonderful. I don’t even want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything. This was another audiobook pick and again, the narrator was spectacular.
Rating: loved it ❤️
Not only a great month for books, but also the one year anniversary of Katrina Wrote This! I’ve been doing these monthly book review posts for a solid year now, and I’m incredibly proud of myself.
Thanks to all of you for being here, whether you’ve been here since the beginning or this is the first post you’ve read. I adore you all.
Now tell me: what did you read this month? And when are you going to grab Project Hail Mary?
