February is done. How is this the shortest month but also it was 1000 years long and ALSO over in a flash? Witchcraft, that's what this month was.
In the Northeast we're coming off of a blizzard (at least at the time I'm writing this) and while it could have been worse in my area (I see you, Providence and Boston with like 30 inches of snow) it was still not fun to deal with. OK, I mean, the snow is a little fun, but there's just been So. Much. Of. It. We spent basically all of Monday trying to clear the snow. And we have a snowblower* but it still took all day, mostly because it's battery powered and it demanded mandatory breaks every 1hr 45min, which, tbh, I did not mind. AND THEN, after digging ourselves out and dealing with 2 snow days, we got more snow. Not much, sure, but enough that schools were delayed.
All that is to say, if whatever I write below feels a little...off, please know I'm writing this in that frame of mind, which is to say exhausted, both physically and mentally. You're welcome.
Did I spend any time relaxing and reading? Hahahaha. I did a few times decide, when I had a second to sit down, to set a stopwatch to see how quickly I get interrupted and how often. First attempt was 11 min of trying to relax with 4 interruptions. I did get one almost 5 minute stretch so. That was something. But I did get reading done so let's take a look
Number of books read
7
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen
The Maid's Secret by Nita Prose
The Wizard of Oz (graphic novel) by L. Frank Baum & Ben Caldwell
Little Bosses Everywhere: How The Pyramid Scheme Shaped America by Bridget Read
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
I can't quite remember when I picked this up but it was relatively recently on a trip to a bookstore. I recognized the title as a show my husband and I had started before getting distracted (this is not the show's fault) and we should really go back and watch it again. The book is a bit hard to describe. It's not a straight narrative. Willis Wu is Generic Asian Man in this world with dreams of becoming the pinnacle of what is available to people like him: Kung Fu Guy. Sometimes a screenplay, sometimes character background, a look at race & stereotypes in TV & movies, and in American more generally. "Who gets to be American? What does an American look like?...After two centuries here, why are we still not Americans?" "Why doesn't this face register as American?" and topics dealt with subtly (to an extent) at times, and then very direct (those are quotes, after all). The story is clever and entertaining and a quick read (once I finally had some time to sit down and read it).
Rating: 4.25 stars
May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin
A sequel to Knife Skills Paul Delamare is back, this time on a luxury superyacht headed from England to the Caribbean to celebrate the recent wedding of an old friend. But then a priceless necklace goes missing, a person is found dead, the ship seems to be drifting off-course and Paul is trying to figure out what is going on, what secrets do the other guests have and how is he going to get out of this one? All while things back at home in London seem to be falling apart. These books are mostly...fine. The mystery is interesting enough, the characters are colorful and there is some charm in the fact that, generally, Paul is SO BAD at detectiving. He tries and he's in very precarious situations where he finds himself without much solid footing and he's not a detective. He's a chef (so there are many lovingly-described food scenes) so he shouldn't be good at this and that piece works, even if it can get frustrating. At times the story drags and it was easy to zone out a times.
Rating: 3.25 stars
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Bedtime read for the little guy (when I can tear him away from Captain Underpants and Dogman. No shade to either of those series, btw). He was a big fan of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG and I realized I didn't remember much of this book except there's a huge flying peach and some giant talking insects. The whole story is wild because there is all of that, as well as an eccentric man that appears out of the woods offering James a special concoction that will turn his sad lift around, attacking cloud men and a trans-Atlantic voyage. Also a cadre of giant talking insects. It was weird and silly and also a bit "Oh. OK." It was fine. Strange things happen and it's a bit of a series of things that happen that ultimately don't ladder up to much.
Rating: 3 stars
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen
Historical figures have shown up in modern times and listen, that is honestly not a big deal for the story. Everyone is fine with that. The important thing is now Harriet Tubman has returned, is in NYC and is looking for a producer to help her with a project. She's going to make an album and looks for our narrator Darnell. Darnell doesn't entirely know why he was chosen or if he's even up for the challenge. He listens to stories Harriet and the others in her entourage (of course she has an entourage) can tell her about their time, about slavery, about their lives. Darnell is also dealing with is own concerns and secrets. This was clever and moving and funny and highly recommended.
Rating: 4.25 stars
The Maid's Secret by Nita Prose
The third Molly the Maid novel. This time, things seem to be going pretty well for Molly. She is engaged, work is going well, and she recently learned, via an Antiques Roadshow-esque show, one of her gran's items turns out to be worth more than a small fortune. That is, of course, until the item goes missing. There are no murders in this book. Instead we spend a lot (a lot) of time in a diary her grandmother started keeping late in life to explain to Molly some of her (gran's) early life. These chapters make up what I would estimate to be like 60% of the book. Was it actually 60%? I dunno but it was a lot and I gotta tell you, it wasn't for me. The second book had a lot of flashbacks (which is essentially what these were) but they still centered on Molly and seemed more connected to who Molly was and the present-day mystery. This one...less so.
Rating: 2.75 stars
The Wizard of Oz (graphic novel) by L. Frank Baum & Ben Caldwell
I didn't actually mean to take out a graphic novel version of this when I was looking for something to read to the boy (the risks of borrowing books on the app and also not reading descriptions). But it all worked out because this story treatment was fun, the artwork was evocative and at times funny and there is some praise on the fact that none of the images looked like the oh-so-famous movie. Given it's place in culture, that is impressive. Was this close to the actual, original story? I have no idea, but I liked it and the boy liked it.
Rating: 4 stars
Little Bosses Everywhere: How The Pyramid Scheme Shaped America by Bridget Read
I don't know why but I am drawn to pyramid schemes (or MLMs). Not in a participatory way, but in a "I wanna hear about these scams" kind of way. I don't know exactly what it is about them but I can't seem to get enough. Maybe it's because they're cult adjacent but typically don't end in mass violence. So why not read about how MLMs / pyramid schemes have had a much bigger hand in shaping America since the early 1900s? I mean, other than the fact that it's sort of depressing to see how much powerful people have lobbied and shaped consumer protections and basically did whatever they could to keep the money flowing to them (and keeping most people in the downline in the dark for just how much they were actually spending). I wished there was a bit more about the people affected by MLMs today but overall this was a very good (if infuriating) read.
Rating: 3.75 stars
Number of pages read
1,913
Fiction
86%
Female authors
29%
US authors
57%
BIPOC authors
29%
Rereads
14%
Book club
14%
Format
audiobook: 57%
ebook: 29%
paperback: 14%
Where'd I get the book
library: 86%
chain bookstore: 14%
Decade Published
1960s: 14%
2010s: 14%
2020s: 71%
Resolution books
71%
Interior Chinatown is by an Asian author
May Contain Murder is by a UK author
James and the Giant Peach is by a UK author AND published before 2000
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert is by a Black author
The Maid's Secret is by a Canadian author
*AMAZING foresight on our part to decide to get one this year
