Hello hello! I hope you had a good month. This month for me ended up pretty work-heavy, but I still managed to read quite a bit – let’s get into it!

February in General

February started out as fairly calm, as I always want it to be. But things sort of escalated from there. Work got really busy, and I really wanted to get my certification this month (thankfully I’ve passed), and I started interviewing again? It’s definitely been bordering as too much on my plate, but thankfully it’s starting to cool down. This does mean that I haven’t read as much as I wanted to, but I didn’t do too bad despite the circumstances!

Although I’ve been working a bit much, I’m happy that I’ve achieved the career goals I’ve set this early in the year. But that being said, next month will certainly be centered around organizing, both physically and digitally, because in that area, I did fall apart a bit – case in point, I was absent for the blog for a couple weeks! 

In terms of reading, I thought the books I read for the most part were pretty strong ones! Here are my thoughts: 

January In Stats

BOOKS BREAKDOWN

February In Books

The Greatest Thing
Sarah Winifred Searle
⭐⭐⭐.75

Goodreads | Bookshop

This tender YA comic is perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier’s Drama and Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham’s Real Friends who are ready to graduate to their first teen graphic novel.

It’s the first day of sophomore year, and now that Winifred’s two best (and only) friends have transferred to a private school, she must navigate high school on her own.

But she isn’t alone for long. In art class, she meets two offbeat students, Oscar and April. The three bond through clandestine sleepovers, thrift store shopping, and zine publishing. Winifred is finally breaking out of her shell, but there’s one secret she can’t bear to admit to April and Oscar, or even to herself—and this lie is threatening to destroy her newfound friendships.

With breathtaking art and honest storytelling, rising star Sarah Winifred Searle delivers a heartfelt story about love, friendship, and self-acceptance.

Thank you to FierceReads for the eARC! I loved reading about these characters and their stories, and I think the exploration of difficult topics such as mental health, self-harm, eating disorder and others could be really helpful to readers that share those experiences. I’m hoping with the ending that there’s a second volume!

Dead Silence
S.A. Barnes
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads | Bookshop

Titanic meets The Shining in S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence, a SF horror novel in which a woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn’t yet ended.

A GHOST SHIP.
A SALVAGE CREW.
UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS.

Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.

What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.

Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.

Thank you to Tor for the e-ARC! Sci-fi horror is one of my favorite genres and this book absolutely delivered. The unknown number of possibilities that exist in space was definitely taken advantage of in the unfolding of this story. Definitely one of those stories that was difficult to put down.

Memory Speaks
Julie Sedivy
⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads | Bookshop

From an award-winning writer and linguist, a scientific and personal meditation on the phenomenon of language loss and the possibility of renewal.

As a child Julie Sedivy left Czechoslovakia for Canada, and English soon took over her life. By early adulthood she spoke Czech rarely and badly, and when her father died unexpectedly, she lost not only a beloved parent but also her firmest point of connection to her native language. As Sedivy realized, more is at stake here than the loss of language: there is also the loss of identity.

Language is an important part of adaptation to a new culture, and immigrants everywhere face pressure to assimilate. Recognizing this tension, Sedivy set out to understand the science of language loss and the potential for renewal. In Memory Speaks, she takes on the psychological and social world of multilingualism, exploring the human brain’s capacity to learn–and forget–languages at various stages of life. But while studies of multilingual experience provide resources for the teaching and preservation of languages, Sedivy finds that the challenges facing multilingual people are largely political. Countering the widespread view that linguistic pluralism splinters loyalties and communities, Sedivy argues that the struggle to remain connected to an ancestral language and culture is a site of common ground, as people from all backgrounds can recognize the crucial role of language in forming a sense of self.

Distinctive and timely, Memory Speaks combines a rich body of psychological research with a moving story at once personal and universally resonant. As citizens debate the merits of bilingual education, as the world’s less dominant languages are driven to extinction, and as many people confront the pain of language loss, this is badly needed wisdom.

I really enjoy books on language and this was such a detailed exploration on concepts such as the evolution and extinction of languages as well as the cultural impacts of learning a second language. However, I do wish this was organized a bit better – there was a lot of content explored and it wasn’t broken down in such a way that presented the information well.

The Love Poems of Rumi
Rumi
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads | Bookshop

Translated by renowned Rumi expert Nader Khalili, over 120 poems about love from the Persian mystic poet and Sufi master have been carefully collected and curated in this beautifully illustrated edition.

For more than eight centuries, Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi—commonly referred to simply as Rumi—has enchanted and enthralled readers from every faith and background with his universal themes of love, friendship, and spirituality, which he seamlessly wove into resplendent poetry.

The verses herein perfectly express and are centered on the theme of love, along with the quest, desire, and deeper meanings of love for not only ourselves, but also of our fellow humankind.

With intricately designed and richly colored covers that mirror the beauty of the words within, the Timeless Rumi series presents themed collections of poems from the great Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi that serve as cherished tools for self-reflection.

I’ve been reading more poetry lately, and as of late, poetry by Rumi specifically. I love analyzing the many meanings that can be construed from these poems, and am all around beginning to learn more about reading and analyzing poetry from his works.

King of Battle & Blood
Scarlett St. Clair
⭐⭐⭐.25

Goodreads | Bookshop

Their Union Is His Revenge.

Isolde de Lara considers her wedding day her death day. To end a years-long war, she is to marry vampire king, Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him. ⠀

But her assassination attempt is thwarted and Adrian threatens that if Isolde tries kill him again, he will raise her as the undead. Faced with the possibility of becoming the thing she hates most, Isolde seeks other ways to defy him and survive the brutal vampire court. ⠀

Except it isn’t the court she fears most—it’s Adrain. Despite their undeniable chemistry, she wonders why the king——fierce, savage, merciless—chose her as consort. ⠀

The answer will shatter her world.

I’ve also been trying to dip into romance a bit? And the way I figured would be best to do that is by starting with fantasy romance. And while I overall enjoyed this, I think part of me wanted more from the storyline as well – the middle just got really cloudy for me.

Ace of Spades
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé 
⭐⭐⭐.75

Goodreads | Bookshop

An incendiary and utterly compelling thriller with a shocking twist that delves deep into the heart of institutionalized racism, from an exceptional new YA voice.

Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light.

Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power.

Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high-school game…

This was a really good read – I found myself so invested in the characters and hoping for a much better ending for them. However, it was a bit frustrating to know who Aces was far ahead of when they did.

March Hopefuls

I will be traveling for part of March so sadly I can’t bring a ton from my physical TBR! I do have some ARCs I will be reading again this month though – so we’ll see how the month goes!

That’s all for my February 2022 Wrapup. How did your month go this February? What were your favorite reads? Let me know! I’d love to know if you’ve read any of these as well and what your thoughts were!

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