Now that February is over, not-winter is almost over. It was a warm and dry month that was very brown, thanks to the lack of snow. The dearth of snow or even rain has made it so dry that parts of the state caught on fire. Thankfully, the fires were contained before they could get out of control. Dry grasslands burn in a flash, and things could have gotten very bad very quickly. So we’re all waiting around to see if we get some rain. There’s a strong chance we’ll get some this weekend, so I’m crossing my fingers that it shows up this time.

But in less dry news, I finished seventeen books in February, which was a lot more than I thought I would get to by mid-month.

---

What I Read in February:

• Revelation (Matthew Shardlake #4) by C.J. Sansom, audiobook narrated by Steven Crossley
• The Shadow Revolution (Crown and Key #1) by Susan Griffith and Clay Griffith, audiobook narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith
• The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
• Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
• The Saga of the Volsungs by Anonymous, translated from the Icelandic by Jesse L. Byock
• The Undying Legion by Susan Griffith and Clay Griffith, audiobook narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith
• The Confession of Brother Haluin (The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #15) by Ellis Peters
• The Conquering Dark (Crown and Key #3) by Susan Griffith and Clay Griffith, audiobook narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith
• False Value (Rivers of London #8) by Ben Aaronovitch, audiobook narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
• Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
• The Queen of Attolia (The Queen’s Thief #2) by Megan Whalen Turner, audiobook narrated by Steve West
• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
• The King of Attolia (The Queen’s Thief #3) by Megan Whalen Turner, audiobook narrated by Steve West
• The Heretic’s Apprentice(The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #16) by Ellis Peters
• A Conspiracy of Kings (The Queen’s Thief #4) by Megan Whalen Turner, audiobook narrated by Steve West
• Thick as Thieves (The Queen’s Thief #5) by Megan Whalen Turner, audiobook narrated by Steve West
• Photography: The Definitive Visual History by Tom Ang

Statistically Speaking:

• 52.9% of what I read was written by women, 23.5% was written by men, 17.6% was written by a writing team with a man and a woman, and 5.9% was written by an unknown author.
• 58.8% was written by American authors, 23.5% was written by English authors, and 5.9% each were written by Icelandic, Australian, and Scottish authors.
• 52.9% of what I read were audiobooks, 29.4% were physical books, and 17.6% were ebooks.
• 58.8% was fantasy, 17.6% each were mystery or nonfiction, and 5.9% were Icelandic sagas.
• 76.5% of what I read came from the library, and 23.5% came from my own shelves. I need to read more from my own shelves or else I’ll never get through my physical TBR.
• Publication dates ranged from 1235 to 2022.

My favorites of the month were Revelation by C.J. Sansom, Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, and Photography: The Definitive Visual History by Tom Ang.

The book I didn’t like was She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan. I didn’t care about the characters, and while it was sold as some lyrical masterpiece, I thought the writing was clunky. I spent the last twenty pages thinking of a different queer, Chinese-inspired fantasy that I liked much more.

Physical TBR, February 1: 83
StoryGraph TBR, February 1: 207

Physical TBR, March 1: 85
StoryGraph TBR, March 1: 199

Because I didn’t end up reading that many books from my TBR, and because I bought a few books, my physical TBR went up a little. My StoryGraph TBR, however, managed to shrink a little thanks to the fact that I’ve been working on completing several series. I’ll be continuing this quest the rest of the year, though as I begin the next series, I’ll be adding the rest of that series to the StoryGraph TBR so that probably won’t shrink by much until I finish these series, which will probably be in the second half of the year.

Books bought in February:

• Titus Groan (Gormenghast #1) by Mervyn Peake
• The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici by Elizabeth Lev
• The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone
• The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man (Burton and Swinburne #2) by Mark Hodder
• The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton and Swinburne #1) by Mark Hodder

I got Titus Groan from my used bookstore thanks to the store credit I have there. I bought The Tigress of Forli and The Lady Queen from BookOutlet for about $7 each, and I bought the two Mark Hodder books from an online acquaintance for $5 each. So I spent about $24 on books in February. I don’t know when I will get to any of these. Hopefully soon. We’ll see.

---

What’s on the Docket for March:

• The Road to Middle-earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology by Tom Shippey
• A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan #2) by Arkady Martine
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
• The Rot (The Raven Rings #2) by Siri Pettersen
• The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry
• Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May (ARC)
• Fierce Poison (Barker & Llewellyn #13) by Will Thomas (ARC)

In addition to finishing up the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters and Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief series, I want to get to the second book of Arkady Martine’s Teixcalaan duology and get caught up to Siri Pettersen’s Raven Rings trilogy ahead of the third book’s release at the end of the month. The Tale of Despereaux has been on my TBR for a few months now. Maybe I’ll get to it in March… I want to read The Bright Ages because Medieval history. Wild and Wicked Things and Fierce Poison are ARCs I need to read this month because their reviews will be due before I know it.

This reminds me that I haven’t written a single book review in 2022. Hrm…

I also want to get caught up on a couple of TV series, namely Young Wallander on Netflix, the fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery, and the second season of Star Trek: Picard.

Granted, I have a very long story that I need to be writing, and writing takes a lot of time, so we’ll see how much television watching I get done. I’ve never been great at sitting down on my to just watch something.

So these are my reading/TV plans for March. I’m sure things will go off track in a hurry because even though I set up plans I don’t always follow them. In fact, I rarely follow them.