I know! I'm normally not so good at this, but I want to try better this year to actually stay on top of things. I don't really remember how many books I bought in January, because I got some from the Dollar Stores, and I never marked them down. I have to put a section in my book journal for when I buy books....anyway, in February I got 31 books (28 print/2 digital/1 audio).
1. The Deck of Omens by Christine Lynn Herman - I read The Devouring Grey last month and I had to have the next volume in the series. I have absolutely no idea what the synopsis of this one is, other than the fact that it is following May Hawthorne. She is noticing something the others aren't because she is not letting any romantic entanglements cloud her vision. It looks good and I do quite enjoy the cover.
2. The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson - I saw this on BookTube a few times and it looked amazing. We're following a biracial young woman growing up in this very strict religious community where her very existence is thought of as an abomination. There is also some plotline about witches and possibly her mother being a witch, or going to the witches for help, I don't remember, but I loved the idea of it and wanted to read it.
3. The Fireman by Joe Hill - I read the synopsis for this, and it looked brilliant. There is this spore going around and if you get it you get these gorgeous black and gold swirlies all over your body. Slowly you begin to burn from the inside out until you literally burst into flame and just turn to a pile of charred bones and ash. Draco incendia trychophyton...Draconscale. It looks good. I didn't realize it would be quite as large (because I rarely look at the part of the description on Amazon, Goodreads, whatever, that says page count), but it is wonderfully well written and is definitely able to suck one in. I am looking forward to finding out more about this thing that he made up.
4. The Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson - I have absolutely no idea what this book is about. It was the book that was included in our Once Upon a Book Club for....February? January? I don't remember. I know they're always a few weeks behind in shipping so I cannot remember what month this one is for. Either way, I will get to this one shortly I guess.
5. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - I didn't actually buy this. We should, by now, all know what it is about...but I already had a copy. This was one of the gifts in the box from Once Upon a Book Club. It is not particularly well put together and printed, so I'm unlikely to hold on to it, but yeah. I felt like including it here because it is a novel that I got in February.
6. Normal People by Sally Rooney - I heard good things about this on BookTube. So when I found it at Target pretty cheap, I picked it up. Not really sure if I'm going to like it or not, so we are willing to give pretty much anything a try at this point. It appears to be a contemporary [almost] romance between a pair of Dubliners? Not a clue.
7. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams - Another book about being biracial in a world that isn't as accepting as it should be. Though this one is not nearly as fantastical as the other one is. This is a contemporary instead of historical fiction. I thought I would give it a try because I literally saw it and remembered someone somewhere saying nice things about it.
8. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill - I remember reading and hearing about this one and thinking it sounded quite interesting. Every year, a group of people from the village will leave a baby in the woods to appease a witch for a year. Only...the witch isn't evil. At all. Not even bad. She feeds the babies starlight to strengthen them, then gives them to needy families on the other side of the forest. She makes a mistake and ends up feeding one baby moonlight instead. The book tells the story of how the witch deals with this.
9. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - This is one of those modern classics that people really should read and I know I am letting down the diverse readers by not even having previously owned a copy of it. My sincerest apologies. I saw a gorgeous edition available at Target and couldn't resist getting it. I wonder if it will live up to the hype that is around it as a modern classic?
10. You Should See Me In a Crown Leah Johnson - Contemporary YA sapphic romance? I think? She falls for one of the people also running for prom queen. It was well loved last year, and as I tend to wait to read things, I think it's good that I waited now to get to this. Liz is not interested in all the guts and glamor that is the prom pageantry, so this ought to be interesting.
11. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo - This is another of those contemporary YA novels that I don't normally like, but I think I'm going to give it a good try anyway. It's a story about loss and grief and how two girls who don't really know each other come together over the loss of their father and how they need to be there for each other. It looks somewhat interesting and I think I may like it. I don't know if I'm going to start it soon, or let it stew for a bit first before I get to it.
12. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell - I didn't know what this was about, I just liked the cover and I heard people mentioning dark academia around it and saying that they enjoyed it. I did not realize it was going to involve some controversial topics and now I am even more for it. I am putting this book pretty far up on my TBR, possibly even March TBR....it looks good and like the kind of thing I would watch on television and be wrapped up in (and use for inspiration).
13. My Hero Academia #10 by Kohei Horikoshi - I can't say much, since this really is the tenth volume in a manga series....you really need to have read the previous nine volumes to understand what is happening. I picked this one up because I do own and have read the first nine and just want to continue my collection (slowly) of these books.
14. Hitorijime My Hero #2 by Memeco Arii - Someone had suggested the first volume to me, and I was interested in it, and bought that earlier. I was very much intrigued by it and now I need to know what else is going on and I want to know more about what the characters are doing. Unlike some of the manga I bought (to follow), this one is actually a rather wholesome story. I love how sweet it is and how they are feeling their way around each other and figuring out how to trust one another.
15. The Traitor's Game by Jennifer A. Nielsen - The book that had actually caught my attention was The Warrior's Curse because it was facing out on the shelf. However, that is the third volume in this series, and when I read the back of the first one, it looked very interesting. I am intrigued by the political machinations that are going to be in this book and I am looking forward to reading it.
16. Graceling by Kristin Cashore - Not quite the edition I wanted (I wanted the newest cover that has the anime looking art on it...) but this is the one they had. I have been hearing nothing but good things about this series since Winterkeep has been published. People are talking about it all over and I am wondering how it will compare to Katy Rose Poole's series since that is also about special abilities called "Graces" (although there are significantly fewer Graces in that series than The Seven Realms). Here's hoping I like it.
17. The Last Wish by Andrej Sapkowski - The only reason I got this, is because it is the trade paperback size. I already owned a copy with the same cover in the mass market edition but I didn't like it. I've seen the first two...one...I don't remember, episodes of the Netflix series, but my goblin brain definitely does not like watching something it knows is a book before reading the book. So, I got the same book in an edition that I liked. I will probably look into donating my old mass market or selling it...I don't know.
18. Birds of Shangri-La #1 by Ranmaru Zariya - Yes, for anyone that actually clicked the link, that cover is part of why I bought the book. It was a wrapped BL manga and I have not bought new BL manga in such a long time that I thought I would indulge a little and pick it up. It was so different from what I was expecting when I read it. I had been thinking it would be a cutesy love story that involved actual art of intercourse between men. Nope. That is not at all what it is. The intercourse thing is still correct, but...I was not expecting the 'birds' to be people (men) in a brothel (all-male). I think I will need to continue this one. It was something.
19. Therapy Game #1 by Meguru Hinoharu - It looked interesting. I am aware this is a spinoff, but it doesn't seem that you need to read the first series to understand what's going on in this one. Minato is not one to take rejection lightly. He is the one who has to walk away, not his partner. So he goes all out to get revenge when Shizuma says he cannot remember their passionate night together. I am intrigued. I also now want to look for Hinoharu-sama's first series, Secret XXX.
20. Yarichin Bitch Club #1 by Tanaka Ogeretsu - My friends pointed out this manga to me while we were browsing in Books-a-Million and I recognized the characters on the cover from...things...yeah. I have seen things. Anyways, I thought I would buy it because why not? I was horribly surprised by the actual content of the book. My boyfriend said it is "Ouran, only gayer." and I have to say, he's actually not wrong.
21. Refuge by Dina Nayeri - I have another of her books, I think her only other one, A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea, which looked good (and I still haven't read). I recognized her name when I saw it on the spine of this book. It looks interesting. A young girl escapes from a brutal place and overcomes her past, but also has to contend with it because her father is still there. I'm definitely looking forward to reading this one when I get to it.
22. The Death of Rex Nhongo by C.B. George - No idea. It was pretty and definitely not the second or better book in a series for just $1. So I thought, why not? Let's give this a try. I am hoping it will be good and I already know exactly what book this (the title anyway) is piggy backing off of. A book I already read and adored. I hope this one brings me as much joy as the other had.
23. The Foreseeable Future by Emily Adrian - This one is outside my normal reading area. I hardly ever pick up anything with any combination of the following: YA contemporary romance. I barely read this sort of thing, but when the synopsis talked about them working basically in the same type of environment I do (I'm in an assisted living though, not a nursing home...but there is one right next door), I was intrigued and wanted to know more. I am certainly hoping this one is as good as it sounds.
24. Dealing in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera - I couldn't tell at first if the person on the cover was male or female. Not that it particularly matters, I was just curious. Turns out they're at least female-presenting. I have no idea whether they identify as female now. Another YA novel only this one is more about gangs and trying to rise up out of it, from what I gather. The main character, Nalah, wants to move to Mega Towers and get away from her life now in Mega City (why does this strike me as the most cliché anime name for a place?).
25. Omega City by Diana Peterfreund - I don't know exactly what it was that made me even look at this book. It's a middle grade adventure story. They find a thing that isn't supposed to exist and end up going on this grand adventure to figure out a thing that involves going to a place that technically doesn't exist? It looked fun and it's the first in the series, so why not?
26. Sweetgirl by Travis Mulhauser - I have been in the mood for shorter books lately, and when I saw this one it looked intriguing. The synopsis called to me as something I would like, even though I rarely read these sort of books. I'm planning on adding it to the TBR/Currently Reading in March.
27. How to Behave in a Crowd by Camille Bordas - My only reason for this is that the cover looked kind of cool. I'm expecting this will be one of those hidden gems you find in the bookstore that are outside your regular reads, but is still amazing in the end.
28. A Natural by Ross Raisin - Something something LGBT+ football players? Possibly not LGBT+ but still interesting. The cover sparked my interest despite it being very simple, or in spite of it being simple. I have no idea, but either way, I needed to read it and it was only $1.
29. Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff & Amy Kaufman - Technically I already own this as a physical book, but I used my February audible credit to get it to listen to. Perhaps if I finish A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara during March I will add this one in it's place....or maybe to April's TBR if not...
30. Ashes and Blood by Katie Zaber - What caught me was the part of the synopsis that described this as basically a portal fantasy. It looks interesting and I am curious to see how a handful on nonmagical people from our world find (and/or fight) their way through an entirely unknown magical world they stumble into by accident.
31. Ghost of a Chance by Yasmine Galenorn - Tea & Tarot cozy mystery with cats? Yes please. I think I have another of her books, that I haven't read yet, but this looked too good to pass up. I will be adding it quickly to my currently reading list. It's a step outside of what I have been reading recently and I think will be a good change of pace for me.
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