Things I Read in February

And another month has gone byyyyyyy! I tend to kind of hate winter, and by the time we get to February I'm just so ready for it to be over. And now it is, and everything's great! So. I didn't get a whole lot of reading done in February, which I pretty much put down to busyness- I worked three Sundays out of four (please kill me), found myself busy on most of my Wednesdays off, and Saturdays I had to do household things usually that prevented that much reading. Still, I made an effort and crammed a few books into my brain. Voila:

Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

I am so into Ogawa's writing that I can't even tell you. Although I started with The Housekeeper and The Professor, which is beautiful and sad, I've come to discover that her typical style is something slightly more disturbing and unsettling- a Japanese Shirley Jackson, if you will. Hotel Iris is about surface impressions and about what's going on underneath, about inappropriate relationships and teenage obsessions, and then everything gets a little bit S&M-ish and I was shocked and intrigued. Very interesting, very unsettling, definitely worth a read (did everyone see the Japanese Shirley Jackson part? EXACTLY.)

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

I read The Shock of the Fall in about four days, and by the end I was sobbing quietly. The Shock of the Fall is a story about encroaching mental illness, at the same time as being the story of how someone tells a story. It contains such insights as "I think people who are generous with food have a goodness about them" (same) and "I think she decided to become a teacher to give her life a meaning, or to distract her. I don't suppose there is much difference" and I am into books with insights and shit. If forced to criticise this book (which no one is forcing me to do, and yet here it comes!) I'd just say that I didn't necessarily LOVE the writing style, but there aren't that many writing styles I do love, so it's only really a minor point, especially when you consider the crying at the end. I got attached to this character, and wanted good things for him in the end. What more can you ask for from a book?


One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson

I have legit written a review of this already which is very rare and also exciting! So yeah. This was what I was reading for the majority of the month, and it was totally worth the time it took to read, trust me.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I think it would be fairly redundant for me at this point to once again say how much I love Rainbow Rowell's writing and storytelling and literally everything about her, plus this book deserves a full on review, but I will just say this: I was really nervous about the premise of this book when in fact I should have given Rainbow my full trust because she has never steered me wrong before. If you've been putting off reading this because you're not sure about it then you need to stop and read and oh my GOD you're going to have so much fun, I can't even tell you.