A Year of Reading: Month Two

I know, it's been increasingly quiet around here.  But I have a good reason, I swear.  Every time I felt motivated to write I got distracted.

And with so much obsessive reading it has been really hard to knit anything of blogging interest because all I want to work on is stockinette.  I was working on a pair of stripey socks, but then I had the horrid realization when beginning the toe that I knit two identical socks, rather than two mirroring socks.

I would show you a photo but I don't really remember where I stashed the project.  It was that traumatic of a moment that I think I blacked out.  One minute I was knitting and reading Sleep Donation on our porch and the next I was on the couch watching something stupid and eating my weight in sugar.  Don't tell me I can't eat my feelings.  That was an entire Easter weekend's worth of knitting.

But what I lack in knitting content I can more than make up for in books!  Let's talk month two, shall we?

Actually, February saw the least amount of reading of any month this year.  But not for lack of trying.  I had two false starts in the beginning, first with Fever Pitch and then with Oryx and Crake.  If you look at my Goodreads (oh yeah, I've started using Goodreads again / actually using for real this time -- I have a grand total of two friends), you'll see that I have Oryx and Crake still listed as "currently reading".  I am hopeful that I was just in a bad concentration place when I started reading it and that I will be able to finish.  I adore Margaret Atwood and this is the first of her novels I have been unable to get through.  Fever Pitch, on the other hand, I will never be able to finish.  The writing style infuriates me to no end.  I know it is a style, but my inner editor wants at least a subject and a verb in most sentences.  It's just not for me.

I am most proud that I conquered The Dinosaur Feather in February, the latter half while we were snowed in.  It is a pretty engrossing novel, but is quite large and translated from Danish into British English (at least my copy was), which made understanding some passages a little difficult.  The basic premise is that a scientist at a premier university is brutally murdered --  As the details of his death unfold it becomes pretty sickening.  What a lot of reviewers seemed to dislike I actually enjoyed.  Yes, the backstory of all the characters got a little long, but it was fascinating to take a look at each new character and see how they figured into the overall crime narrative.  That coupled with the extensive discourse on the scientific study of birds made it a nice departure from the typical murder mystery set-up.  I did end up throwing the book across the room when I finished, but that was because I figured it out and then spent the second half of the book hoping to be proved wrong.

After The Dinosaur Feather I switched back to urban fantasy with Seanan McGuire's Indexing.  I found this one on a must-read list for January and was fascinated by the concept, even if it felt reminiscent of Once Upon a Time.  The only similarity between the book and the show is that in both universes, fairytales are real and are not what we thought.  In Indexing the protaginist works for a secret government organization that looks for active fairy tales and tries to stop their development.  Every fairytale is an entry in their index and fairy tale incidents are categorized according to the story.  I read this one on our business trip to New York and it hit just the right balance of engrossing and lightness to make it perfect airplane reading.  I've read a lot of good books so far this year, but this was one of my favorites.

The other book I read in February I am almost embarassed to admit.  I keep an eye on the Kindle Deals section and try to have something to read on my phone at all times just in case I find myself stuck somewhere without a book.  In February that book was Witches of East End, which I was intrigued by because I really enjoyed the Blue Bloods series.  This one did not hit the same level of world building, but it was still a fun read.  The idea of witches forever reborn in a world in which they are forbidden to use magic was intriguing, though their decision to refute the rules was rather predictable.  I don't really recommend it for those looking to get into urban fantasy, but for the $2.99 I paid it did the trick.  If the second book is ever marked down that far I will probably pick it up as well.

March and April have both been busy reading months and I'm hoping to get those updates up soon.  But until then if you want to be up to date you can check out my Goodreads page.  I don't post reviews but I have kept everything current with progress and ratings.  We'll see if I can keep it up.