So do you know how we normally complain about how the month has been short and we basically haven’t noticed how it flew by? Well, this time we have good reason to. February IS an incredibly short month! So there.
But despite it being a very short month, I actually managed to do a lot of reading! Most of it is because, as you have already heard countless times from me, I had a full day of basically deep-cleaning the house with text to speech reading me back my ARCs while I was toiling away. Best day ever. I mean, if I were to tell my 16 year old self that I’d say that one day about 10 hours of cleaning plus listening to books?
What have I accomplished in this super short February though?
- I have finally caught up to my blogging calendar. And it’s SUCH a relief! I have already had a few really, really and seriously busy weeks now, and it’s already paying off.
- So I didn’t quite mention it yet, but I read 13 books. That’s more than last month, and February’s shorter! I’m super happy about that. Two more months like that and I’m done with my reading challenge o.o (for… the year.)
- I hauled 15, and I have failed to read more than I hauled, but hey, it’s pretty close!
- We also celebrated boyfriend’s birthday, mom’s birthday and Valentine’s. A full month of celebrations!
- Yes, we have gone to the awesome cafe several more times. It can not be avoided.
- My blog has kind of grown a lot. I look back and keep being surprised… Thank you, everyone!
~ The Stats! ~
I have noticed one sad thing though. Book Bards are the last team ;_; come on, Bards! I’m not accustomed to losing xD KICK BUTT! There’s loads of time still!
Now, onto the books. Actually, this month’s reading has been pretty great! Two incredible 5 star reads, quite a lot of 4 stars and some middling books as well. I approve!
~ 5-Star Miracle Books Read ~
Well, you’ve already heard me rave and rave and rave about Freshwater, so I think the message went through. But you also have to know that All Systems Red was BEYOND AMAZING!!! And in a really entertaining way. Yes, it also has important material when it comes to respecting others and emancipation, but it doesn’t deal strictly with tough stuff like Freshwater. All Systems Red is a book that will have you laugh (and cry!) all the way through! Gosh, I loved that book SO much. I will be posting a review on March 12th, so please, PLEASE read it!!
~ 4-Star Steady Good Books Read ~
Doorways in the Sand was a truly fun and dynamic scifi that I’ll be reviewing on March 19. And most of you will have read my review of Heart Berries already, which is an #ownvoices Native American / First Nations memoir, also touching up subjects of mental health and feminism, which is definitely worth your attention. The Long Way Down was an incredibly pleasant surprise – it’s been a while since I’ve read such an amazing urban fantasy (it’s actually been a while since I’ve read an urban fantasy at all), and I truly loved this one. I’ll be reviewing it in the coming months, and I can’t wait to continue with this series – has anyone of you read more books about Daniel Faust? And The Girl Who Chased the Moon was the sweetest magical realism story ever, and although normally I don’t like magical realism much, especially if it’s THAT cute, this was just the right cup of tea served at the precisely right time. I absolutely loved it!! And No Sad Songs is a really cool YA about responsibility and dealing with a tough life that I’m going to review on March 7, so check it out then.
~ Okay Books Read ~
We Care for You was an alright psychological scifi about synthetic humans and how they know better than us. It’s an okay but, if a little bit boring. My goodreads review can be found here. Dragon’s Future was an alright fantasy, sadly, with a lack of world-building, review is here. On Being an Introvert or Highly Sensitive Person was useful enough, if you’re a beginner, but not more than that. Goodreads review here. The Sea Beast Takes a Lover was yet another quite strange short story collection, featuring a few gems, and yet even more really odd stories – you will see my full review on March 5. And The Feed was an alright dystopia – original, but slow to take off. I will be reviewing it on March 14.
~ Totally Meh Books Read ~
Well, what do you know, only one meh book! It was alright up to the middle too, when it got veyr cliche and I just started skimming. The end though, tops it all. I just do not agree with the way this book ends (and that it’s okay for some of the things to be forgiven), and if you want to read more about why, you can find my goodreads review here.
~ On The Blog In February ~
My blog in a nutshell? Seems to be mostly about sad/strong/empathy inducing stories AAAAND helping out other bloggers. It really does seem to be the theme in February! So if you’ve missed any of those #NewBloggers 101 posts, catch up now, and the books I’ve reviewed are almost all really recommended – and you can see just how much by the number of stars in the screenshot. Go find your next read:
~ Books Hauled ~
So this is a pretty interesting assortment of books! I’m currently reading The Sons of Ares, The Zanna Function, and I’ve already finished Sugar Money. They are great so far!
~ Next Week ~
Next week we will have the review of The Sea Beast Takes a Lover, then also the review of No Sad Songs (which I greatly recommend), and a #NewBloggers 101 series post – guest post by Pam @ Reverie Society – and an important subject this time – bookstagram props, and how they can be affordable. So come back to read about it on Friday!
~ #New Bloggers 101 Content On Other Blogs! ~
I also wanted to bring attention to these posts by other bloggers who have helped the #NewBloggers cause or have released relevant content even before we had the group:
Sushma @ Spunky Reads shares her bookstagram journey and what you can learn from it and take for yourself
Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books talks about how you should go about writing a really great blog post
Nandini @ Unputdownable Books gives us an etiquette guide for book blogging
Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books (again!) shares tips on how to be on top of your commenting game
As usual, I’m linking up with Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday post, also with Stacking the Shelves at Tynga’s Reviews and Feed Your Fiction Addiction.
And that’s it for my February! What about you? Share your links with me in the comments!
I’m Evelina and I try to blog about books that matter, with a bit of fun there too! Disability and equality will be topics you see a lot, but there’s also a lot of scifi, fantasy and… GIFs. I’m also the proud founder of #ARCsAnonymous.
It sounds like you have had an amazing reading month – and I do love your idea of listening to books while cleaning – I MUST get my Kindle Fire going so that I can do the same – it’s just a question of getting around to it… Have a great week:)
Thanks, SJ 🙂 actually, you don’t have to get a Kindle Fire. Do you have an Android phone? (might even work on iPhone, I don’t know). There’s an app, it’s called Pocketbook – it will read back any mobi or epub, even PDF (but I don’t recommend PDF because of the page numbers) – you can read your ARCs that way, and the American narrator sounds like a real person! Not mechanic at all.
Thank you for your help:). That’s really useful.
Happy to help 🙂
Oh wow, Evelina! You did have a great February. And it had me smile how you were happy to clean – for ten hours no less – because you could listen to books at the same time.
And of course your blog is growing! You’re dong so much for the bookish community, so everybody wants to hang out with you 🙂
I’m glad you’ve been able to keep up with your calendar so you won’t feel stressed out about your blogging.
Have a wonderful week ahead and happy reading.
Thanks, Lexxie 🙂 yeah, listening to books has been a gamechanger for my cleaning xD
Thank you!!
Months of celebrations are always good things. 😉
I hope you are enjoying The Zanna Function. I really liked it when I read that last year. 🙂
Zanna Function was AMAZING and I’m having a bookish hangover over it!! 🙂
Sounds like you accomplished a lot in February! The idea of cleaning to me though just…or tidying even. I’m pretty much living in organised chaos unless my parents tell me to tidy and even then I’m not happy to do it. So props to enjoying the cleaning 🙂
Thanks Clo 🙂 that’s the thing about cleaning – when I was living with my parents, I also hated cleaning So. Much. But then I started living in ‘my own’ home (rented but whatever, I’m the QUEEN of the place lol) – and now things are so different. The rules change when it’s your space and YOU’RE responsible for it! I can’t even explain it xD
Cleaning and listening to books sounds fun to me too…looks like you had a great reading month…I want to read Freshwater too…also thanks for mentioning my post Avalinah!
My pleasure 🙂 Freshwater was amazing! You should definitely grab it.
Congratulations on finishing 13 books in February. I am very jealous of that accomplishment 🙂 You read some great looking books.
It has been a long time since I read anything from Roger Zelazny. He was such an imaginative and difficult writer. I have not read Doorways in the Sand. I look forward to your review of it.
Thanks, Brian 🙂 it was actually the first time I read anything by Roger Zelazny! What have you read by him?
Well done, Evelina, 13 books in 28 days is excellent!
Thank you, Paula!
I had my eye on No Sad Songs. Can’t wait to read your review. I want to Bookstagram more, but I had to get rid of so much stuff when I moved. Eager to see that post about props too. And 13 books!!! Great job!
You should definitely read No Sad Songs, I think it would be right up your alley 🙂 and the humor! It’s just such a good book.
Thanks!
You just reminded me that I need to deep clean my house Seriously, 13 books is way more than I have time for, Congrats! My March is already starting slow with very little time to read this past week, but I hope to catch up soon.
Hahaha 😀 yeah, me too! I really don’t know how it worked out for me like that. Must be because most of them were text to speech. I’ve been working insane amounts this month, most of the time till 10PM, like way more than usual, so finding out that I read 13 books too – the most I’ve ever read? Hell, I don’t even know what happened!! Now I’m struggling to review them all xD I hope you can catch up soon 🙂 maybe I should initiate you into my world of text to speech, which makes reading eARCs so… Read more »
Awesome collection! Enjoy your week! I am riding out the storm that took out our power at a friends. So surreal looking at all the downed trees and power lines cut in half. They say we won’t have power to our area till Wednesday!! Have a good Sunday!
Mary #SundayRoundup #8
Thank you, Mary! Oh wow, I hope you have power soon, that is intense :0
Great month for you, indeed. I do like your feature on Content on other Blogs.
That’s quite a haul. Happy reading.
Thank you!
You had a great month! I also read 13 books and was surprised, since it was a short month.
The Girl in the Blue Shoes looks so tempting…
Enjoy March, and thanks for sharing. Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES
Thanks 🙂 yay for us! Well, March isn’t going as well so far for me, but maybe it is time to wind down.
You really have had a great month, I’m very jealous. And so close to your gains not being more than you read, it’s still pretty impressive anyway. I would be pleased with that. And you’ve read so many books! I aspire to read lots of books but it just isn’t happening of late. Hopefully March is full of good books and good posts too.
Thanks, Becky 🙂 I hope you can get back your reading batteries for March. March isn’t going that well for me so far, at least, certainly not as good as February was 😀
You’ve been a reading machine !!! And as usual I loved all your 101 posts. happy Sunday!
Indeed! Thank you, Sophie 🙂
I love how we find joy in things, that our younger seleves would think uhhhhhh wtf . The wonders of growing older and discovering happiness in things we never would have thought we would Awww the joy of life lol!!
And yay, 13 books is amazing!!
OH I hear you…..I’m on book bards too and I don’t know if people don’t just enter points? It’s so sad to me that we’re last, but hopefully we’ll come back one of these months
Oh, you’re a book bard too? Yeah, I just don’t know xD of course I managed to join the team that’s last. Oh well, there’s still some time 🙂
Aw yay, I’m so happy to hear about the blogging calendar and reading progress and blog growth! You’re so deserving of it, Evelina 🙂 And I’m really intrigued by Between Two Thorns in your haul pile. (I love graphic fonts like the one it uses!) Curious to see what you think of it 🙂 I hope your March goes even better than February did! ♥
Awww, thanks, JJ 🙂 you always make me feel so good about my blog and myself. I know next to nothing about Between Two Thorns, apart from the facts that:
a) it was written by an awesome author
b) that author has recommended it to me to quell my hangover for the other series xD
I think those reasons are solid enough for me to grab the boook 😀
Oh wow Evelina, seems like you had a great month of reading. 13 books? That is really incredible.
I can’t listen to the books and do some other works. I know this is really helping you a lot. But it’s not for me.
And I am happy for you and your blog It is growing fast for sure. Off course you are doing great things so obviously the returns should be favourable
I hope you have an amazing March too ❤️
I also used to not be able to listen and do other things. But I think it’s a learned ability 🙂 I just kept trying and somehow my brain adjusted. It is hard for most people at first.
Awwww, thanks! 🙂 that is very sweet!
Sounds like February was a great month for you. You read a lot of books and I loved your review of freshwater, it was thoughtful and detailed. Glad your blog is growing, wishing you the best this month.
Yeah, it was 🙂 Freshwater was amaaaaaziiiing! I want MORE books like that. If you’ve ever got any recommendations, shoot them my way 🙂
And thank you!!
Well I don’t really know any other books like freshwater but I can recommend Under the Udala trees by chinelo okparanta if you are looking for more Nigerian literature . It’s the story of a girl growing up during the Biafran war and falling in love with another woman. It had a sort of sad ending though.
Thank you! That sounds interesting. Too bad about the sad ending though 🙁
Oh I am so glad to hear you had such a lovely reading month and yay for catching up on your blogging calendar. I’m not really surprised your blog is growing so quickly, you’re doing so well and so much for the community, I’m really happy for you 🙂 <3 13 books read, that's also such an amazing accomplishment, I wish I could read that much in one month! 🙂 Happy you enjoyed No Sad Songs, I read that one as well a couple weeks ago and I really enjoyed it, too 🙂 Thank you so, SO much for sharing… Read more »
Thanks, Marie 🙂 I saw your review of No Sad Songs on Goodreads! I’m glad this book has circulated through the blogs, it really deserves some attention. And sharing your posts is definitely my pleasure 🙂
Maybe I should give text to speech a try? Getting audiobooks can be so complicated 🙂
If you’re going to, make sure you use the app called Pocketbook and use the US narrator (not any other). For the best experience 🙂
Thanks, I’ll think about it 🙂
🙂
You’ve accomplished a lot for the month! Congrats. I wish I could get into audio books more, I have a couple, but I get so side tracked while listening to someone else read to me. Enjoy all those amazing new additions to your reading shelf.
Thanks, Jenea! 🙂 I actually solved the getting sidetracked problem – I just read at a really high speed, so I have to concentrate to be able to catch it 😀
Ha ha it’s funny how certain things that are exciting now would not have been exciting to 16 year old us, right? Glad you had a great reading month! My reading in Feb was a little down from January, but still decent.
Glad you liked All Systems Red! I did too, it’s a favorite. and there are two more coming this year, can’t wait for those.
Have a super week Evelina!!
Thanks Greg 🙂 yeah, I absolutely can’t wait either!
Looks like February was a great month for you. I’m curious about All Systems Red now and I’m going have to check back and see what your thoughts are on it. Have a great week!
All Systems Red was indeed amazing 🙂 and thanks!
An amazing post about an amazing month. February was so good for you. And so many great reads too. I like to listen to a book while cleaning. I also listen while working in the yard. Got carried away today and acquired a sunburn. LOL
Thank you, Laura 🙂 oh man, sunburn xD here we are still under tons of snow…
Wow! You had such a great month. You got a lot of books reads, lot of cleaning time :), and had a lot to celebrate. Congrats on the blog growth! That always feels really good. I love audiobooks so I decided to try the text to speech on my kindle and nope, not for me at all, but at least I tried. Have a great March!
Thanks, Carole 🙂 the text to speech on the Kindle really IS weird. I don’t like it either. I use a different text to speech, isn’t like that at all.
Yes, February is a short one but you did amazing! Sounds like you had a great month all around – both with your books and your blog! That’s great. Hope March is good too! Have a great week!
Thanks, Yvonne 🙂
Wow, you’ve read 13 books this month, Evelina??? That’s such a huge accomplishment! <3 Teach me your ways, please! I'm so sad about Beat The Backlist challenge because I've been mostly reading ARCs since I have a huge pile of them on Netgalley and some physical ones too and there is no time left for older books. I'm so saaad. It looks like you had a great month, you're definitely goals blogging-wise and reading-wise! Keep up the great work and happy reading! <3
Well, it’s really mostly text to speech that helped me read that many 😀 that’s about it! Every time you shower or do the dishes, you listen to a book 🙂 you’d be surprised how much time that saves.
Yeah, I agree, I seem to also have been reading mostly ARCs :/ I need to do better about that Backlist challenge!
Thanks 🙂
13!!!! That’s insanely amazing. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on All Systems Red too. Look forward to that review of yours. Hopefully a longer month, like March, will be filled with productivity! Happy reading, Evelina. 🙂
All Systems Red was AMAZING 🙂 unfortunately, so far, March is not as efficient 😀
I didn’t realize you got through all four audio books in a day – that’s crazy! (Oh – and I’m super jealous of all the cleaning you must have gotten done). Can’t wait to read the guest post on bookstagram props – I’ve always wondered where people get those things 🙂
Yeah, that was both a lot of cleaning and a lot of audiobooks xD and the bookstagram post is out now!
I have to admit that listening to a book while cleaning definitely makes cleaning the house more fun. I need to remind myself of that more often. Or listen more often to audiobooks . . . Sounds like you had a great February! I am really happy with the reading I managed to do too, even if my blog suffered. It was worth it though. I read some great books and was taking care of necessary family stuff. I hope you have an even better March! I will be taking a couple weeks off of blogging–guilt free.
Yeah, sometimes you just need to remind yourself – sometimes I also forget to put on a book to listen to. Thanks 🙂 yeah, taking some time off is a good idea – I mean, we get vacations from work, so we should get vacations from blogging as well 🙂
What is a blogging calender?
Read more about that here 🙂 I wrote an instructional post on it.
Thank you 🙂
No problem!
Sounds like you’ve had an amazing February! Audiobooks really do save the day when you clean! I hope you have a wonderful March!
Thanks Jenn, yeah, reading-wise – it has been amazing 🙂 thank you!
February seems to have been such a great month for you – all those celebrations plus you read thirteen books?! =O That’s amazing! I’ve thought about listening to audiobooks, but I don’t think I have the kind of attention span needed. I’m too easily distracted.
Wishes of a great week! 🙂
Thanks, Tania 🙂 it was pretty good, yeah. I don’t know how I managed 13 books, to be honest xD struggling to put the reviews into the schedule now, lol 😀 audiobooks are something you get used to though! It was also hard for me at first 🙂
Looks like you had a very successful month! Also, the months DO fly by fast, and ESPECIALLY Feb. Like, what was that?! It felt as if Feb took up 1 week… hahaha. Great post 🙂
Thanks, Flavia 🙂 they do fly by, sometimes it’s scary, isn’t it 😀 I’m pretty sure it’s our hectic 21st century lifestyle, though. I wonder if it was the same for our grandmothers, when they were our age?
Wow, sounds like you had an awesome February. I knew it was going to be a short month and kind of planned ahead but then I never manage to read everything I want to so……
Hope you gave a great March!
Thanks 🙂 aw, that’s too bad – I hope you do great in March though 🙂
Ahh!! I’m glad you’re liking Sons of Ares! I really want to read that one, but hoping I can library it at some point. When…you know…I manage to procure a library from somewhere. Ahem. But afjdkslad I just love everything in the Red Rising world SO MUCH, and just finished rereading the trilogy. <3 Ugh it's so good and my heart was a mess even knowing what would happen. Lmao. I love my terrible memory. Also congrats on being a superpower reader in February AND getting all that cleaning done. I tend to read + exercise which is also terribly… Read more »
I actually really messed up with Sons of Ares xD it’s never really happened to me yet. Since it was a phone-only ARC (no Kindle), and I had the two busiest weeks ever (working till 10PM) and it just ran out 🙁 meh! So now I can’t read it. Good thing Edelweiss doesn’t really have a ratio, huh. This also means that I’ll never read it though. No library here will have it 😀 oh well, what can you do. I just learn time and again that reading comics on my phone is horrible. It’s too small :/ I really… Read more »
13 books in one month is great! I managed four and I’m pleased with myself 😉 congrats on the growth of your blog! I can’t say I’m surprised, you always have unique, well written content.
I’ve heard of All Systems Red before– I just haven’t given it a chance yet. I really should; I’ve heard such great things and I love sci-fi.
Thanks 🙂 awwww, thanks, Anna! It’s so nice of you to say that 🙂 you should definitely try All Systems Red! It’s SUCH an amazing book.
I’m *still* laughing at that gif… only because it’s so true! Try telling a teenager how satisfying it can be to accomplish housework AND get loads of reading done. Boom! Yeah, they’d never believe it. LOL Thirteen books read in the shortest month? Color me impressed! The Sea Beast Takes a Lover… now that’s one of the more interesting titles I’ve come across! 🙂
Haha, thanks 😀 I know right! I would have never believed it myself 😀 and yeah, I believe I chose that book because of the name, precisely 😀
What a super powered month you’ve had Evelina! I don’t know how you read all the books you do, wow! I especially couldn’t read them from the genres you do, too heavy for me. ♥️ I
LOVE all your blogger 101 posts, very smart.
Yeah, I read ALL over the place 😀 that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. My blog isn’t very popular, compared to others, particularly because of this 😀
Thank you! I’m so glad you love the #NewBloggers 101 series 🙂
Quite the month! That is a lot of celebrating but sounds like a good time 🙂 Yay for some great reading, too!
Thanks! 🙂
I am not even counting how many books I haul monthly, but maybe I should. Congrats on reading so many books. Maybe I should do one of those deep-cleanings too.
I love all the #NewBloggers101 posts, especially the one on blogging calendar – btw, congrats on catching up. I am working on posts in advance and it feels amazing so thank you!
You should xD what I did last year was catalog all my owned books into goodreads shelves (I just made two shelves, owned ebooks and owned physical books – all unread). Once I read them, they leave the shelves (they’re exclusive), so now I always know the size of my TBR. It’s especially hard with ebooks, so before I did that… I had no clue xD when I first catalogued them, I had like 550+ books o_o I now stand at 552. So hey, at least I’ve been keeping my TBR level! And I’m super glad the post series has… Read more »
Will definitely try to catalog them, and with The Sunday Posts is easier now.
Oh, definitely – after drafting every Sunday post, I now just add those to my owned shelf, it’s like a set thing I do now 🙂 the initial cataloguing was hard though 😀
Yay for catching up to the blogging calendar! I’m still sorely behind on everything but hopefully this year will be the year that I catch up and keep up! 🙂 You never know!
13 books is a HUGE amount! Well done! The haul sounds great as well and you’re right – it’s close!
I love that you were able to listed to your books while doing something else – I wish I could focus on audioooks but my mind just ends up wandering! I’ll have to keep trying.
Hope you’re having a great March!
Welcome back Di 🙂 you know, maybe you don’t have to catch up all the way – maybe you need to adjust your schedule to match your needs? 🙂 I actually tried that, and while it didn’t quite work (cause I have a huge backlog and I need to post it out anyway xD), but it made me feel a lot less stressed about blogging 🙂 so maybe just try and post less instead of trying to catch up all the time? Could work 🙂 And thank you! I don’t even know how I managed the 13 books 😀 my… Read more »
Wow! looks like you’ve had an awesome reading month! I’ve just posted my wrap up for February (a week and a half late but who’s counting?) and I was very proud to have worked my way through 6 books this month! I find I don’t have tons of time to read these days, so anything that keeps me on track with my Goodreads goal is a win for me!
Thanks 🙂 I always post my wrap ups late! So not to worry 😀 and great job, 6 months is great 🙂 yeah, I also haven’t had time to read too much, which is why that text to speech app is such a savior. I’m not managing so many this month cause I haven’t had a chance to use it much 😀
You did have an excellent book month for such a short one. Not bad reading 13 out of 15 you hauled. I never can do that. I did enjoy listening to an audio book while folding laundry and other mind-numbing tasks, so awesome about your cleaning day. I’m off to clean bathrooms soon and keep procrastinating as this is my least favorite chore ever.
Thanks! I hope you put on a good book for those chores then 😀
Wow congrats on your reading !!
My february was quite eh.. I read one and that’s it x) not quite a slump but just, I don’t know.. work went busy and I didn’t quite felt like it. Hopefully this month will be better, and that yours is as productive !
I hope you can read loads this month then 🙂 when you’re busy, reading can just be tiring, so it’s definitely important to just rest if you need it 🙂
Wow, reading 13 books in a short month is impressive. I’m glad your blog is growing. The New Blogger posts are really helpful, even though I’m not a new blogger :). I hope you’re having a good March!
Thank you, Aj 🙂
It sounds like you had a good February, especially with reading 13 books with 10 hours of cleaning. If only I were addicted to addicted to audiobooks! Anyway, it seems like you had a good time making the best of the shortest month!
Well, I don’t like audiobooks either 🙂 cause the narrators are weird! I listen through text to speech. Way different 🙂
Thanks! 🙂
Glad to hear your blog’s doing well!
And there’s nothing wrong with a day of listening to books! (And you’ve officially created your own audiobooks. *Nods sagely* Impressive!)
Thanks 🙂
Thanks for mentioning my Twitter guide, Evelina!
My pleasure 🙂