February 2025 Reading Wrap Up
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!
How is it that even though it's the shortest month of the year, February, without fail, ends up feeling like the longest? Maybe it's the psychology of it being the second month of the year, so we're coming off the high that the new year brings...I don't know. All I know is that it felt like I was sloughing through the month. These past four weeks went on forever.
That could be, in part, due to my reading. For the first time in well over a year at this point, I have a book rolling over into the next month. It's this quarter's pick for the Game of Tomes book club (hosted by my favs, Emma and Carolyn), The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I got about half-way through with it, but obviously it had to be carried over into March. There was no way I was going to finish this tome in a single month. Forget the page count (as we've seen, I've read much larger books in much shorter spans of time), the subject matter takes a significant amount of brain power and concentration. This is a classic that feels like a classic, does that make sense?
Anyway, aside from The Magic Mountain, I read a grand total of 10 books in the month of February: 5 novels, 2 novellas, 1 nonfiction, 1 poetry collection, and 1 play. 3 of these books were book club books, and 1 of them was translated. Most of these were adult, except for 1 middle-grade novel. This is more books than last month, but there was also a greater variety of books this month than in last month. That lends itself well to reading more overall.
Let's get into the wrap up, shall we?
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Novels
Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult
Means of reading: E-book
Star rating/CAWPILE: 2.5 stars/3.62 CAWPILE
Page count: 502 pages
Day(s) read: 2.09 - 2.13
Final thoughts: Read for my IRL book club. Unfortunately, this was not it for me. I know Philippa Gregory is a super beloved author, but I did not enjoy her writing. The actual story I was pretty interested in (meaning the War of the Roses and the beginnings of the Tudor Dynasty) but the execution of the story was less than satisfactory. It also bothered me to no end that the author chose to include magical components. Like, this was a time where literal witch burnings were happening. They were in the book! Our protagonist was accused of witchcraft herself. I don't know, it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mythology, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4 stars/7.80 CAWPILE
Page count: 432 pages
Day(s) read: 2.17 - 2.19
Final thoughts: This book reminded me a lot of The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec. I say that if you liked that book, you should absolutely try this one. While it focuses on the mythological figure of Baba Yaga, it takes place during the very real historical period of Ivan IV's reign over Russia (also known as Ivan the Terrible, I'm sure you've heard of him). I highly recommend watching a few videos about this time as well as the people, because it seriously helped me know the context surrounding the story.
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Middle-Grade
Means of reading: E-book
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3.5 stars/6.94 CAWPILE
Page count: 416 pages
Day(s) read: 2.20 - 2.23
Final thoughts: This is book two in the Dragonwatch series, which is a spin-off of Brandon Mull's first series, Fablehaven. I grew up reading Fablehaven but never continued on so that's what I'm doing now. I feel like the first book in this series (just titled Dragonwatch) was kind of all set-up, establishing the characters and the setting. This book was really the beginning of the overarching story, and what a beginning it was! A lot of big, important things happened in this book. And that cliffhanger! I'll definitely try to pick up book three in March, I have to know what happens next!
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian, Adult
Means of reading: E-book
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3 stars/5.63 CAWPILE
Page count: 304 pages
Day(s) read: 2.24 - 2.25
Final thoughts: This was fine. It was one of my most anticipated releases of 2025, but I felt a little disappointed by it, not gonna lie. It brought to mind a lot of other dystopian sci-fi that I've either read or watched. It bears significant resemblance to Station Eleven and The Parable of the Sower, but I also thought it was based off of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" as well as "The Last of Us". We didn't really have time to get to know any of the characters, which I feel was at great detriment to the story because I didn't care about what was happening to them. It was just action, awful thing after awful thing happening, and after a while I got kind of bored.
Genre: Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 5 stars/9.21 CAWPILE
Page count: 295 pages
Day(s) read: 2.26 - 2.28
Final thoughts: Holy shit. I am completely shooketh. I knew that Octavia E. Butler could write (I still find myself thinking about The Parable of the Sower nearly every day) but damn, she could write! It's a completely different story than her Earthseed duology, but it still felt deeply like Octavia E. Butler. I knew more about slavery and the Antebellum South more than I did, say, about reform schools (like in The Reformatory by Tananarive Due) but this book took all of my knowledge about this time and just threw it out the window. I learned things I never wanted to learn, but ultimately I am so glad I read this book. It was horrible and scarring, but I will never regret reading it.
Novellas
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4 stars/7.59 CAWPILE
Page count: 160 pages
Day(s) read: 2.06 - 2.07
Final thoughts: This is book ten in the Wayward Children series. I always enjoy the stories set in the other worlds more than the stories set at Eleanor West's home, so I knew I was going to enjoy this book. I thought Nadya was a wonderful protagonist. The messaging surrounding her missing arm was a little heavy-handed (no pun intended) but I still appreciated it. I feel like as the series goes on, the inclusivity and diversity is becoming more and more transparent. I also really enjoyed the world in this book. It's not my favorite (that title still belongs to the goblin market in book four) but it was close, probably third or fourth overall, second being Persephone's garden.
Translated from the Russian by Katherine E. Young
Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3.5 stars/6.67 CAWPILE
Page count: 144 pages
Day(s) read: 2.12 - 2.17
Final thoughts: Read for the World Tour book club run by Emma over on Fable. Though this was translated from Russian, it's actually a book from Azerbaijan. Due to the political upheaval centered around this book, there isn't actually an edition written in the author's native Azeri language. The author, Akram Aylisli, has been under house arrest since 2013 and is forbidden to leave his apartment in the capital city of Azerbaijan, all due to the publication of this book. It's a fascinating and heartbreaking situation, and I highly encourage you all to look up more information about it.
Nonfiction
Genre: History, Adult
Means of reading: Mixed Media
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4.5 stars/8.14 CAWPILE
Page count: 496 pages (18 hrs 16 mins audio)
Day(s) read: 2.02 - 2.11
Final thoughts: I do love Stacy Schiff's writing. I think she might be my favorite history writer and I will continue to read her books (though I'm pretty sure I'll be giving her biography on Samuel Adams a pass). The Salem Witch Trials is one of those points in history that I am and have always been fascinated by. I've read countless other books about this time, both fiction and nonfiction, but none in my adult life (meaning in the last ten years). This was, however, the most well-researched and well-written of the bunch. I highly recommend this book if you're interested in learning more about the trials.
Poetry
Genre: Nature, History, Adult
Means of reading: E-book
Star rating/CAWPILE: N/A
Page count: 96 pages
Day(s) read: 2.25 (ONE DAY READ)
Final thoughts: A very beautiful and very sad poetry collection. Technically it's really just one long poem broken up into other, little poems. It might be short but the impact is anything but. This was my first Bell Hooks, and I will absolutely be reading more from her because this was exquisite. I could feel the pain and the love she had for the Appalachian mountains just bleeding through the pages.
Plays
Genre: Historical Fiction, Tragedy, Adult
Means of reading: Mixed media
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4.5 stars/8.77 CAWPILE
Page count: 429 pages (3 hrs 32 mins audio)
Day(s) read: 2.14 - 2.20
Final thoughts: Read for the Well Read book club run by Carolyn over on Fable. This was in response to reading Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell in January. I know that this is widely considered Shakespeare's masterpiece but it just isn't my favorite, though it comes very close. Subjectively, I just think Macbeth and King Lear are better. After I finished reading, I watched the 2009 adaptation with David Tennant, and it was utter perfection. David Tennant made the perfect Hamlet (I know I'm biased because I love everything he does, but still).
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Total page count: 3,274 pages (21 hrs 48 mins total audio)
Favorite book of February: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
DNFs this month: Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Unfinished books this month: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
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And that's all for February! I'd love to know your favorite read of the month. Let me know in the comments, or DM me on Instagram (link in sidebar under the heading "More Media").
Until next time, friends!
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