My Quest to Read 100 Books in a Year: February, Month Two

Related posts: Check out our fiction reviews, non-fiction reviews, and book lists.

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why I am reading 100 books this year?

Really I am doing this because I want to and because I accomplished this goal once before in 2021. I fell about 25% short in 2022, so it’s game on! I’m taking a different approach to the types of books I read to be more intentional this year compared to last. Read my full story of this year’s challenge in my post here.

where I stand two months in to reading 100 books

So far in 2022, I’ve read 15 books, 7 of which were in February, putting me squarely on track to hit 100 without any room to spare!

books read in february on the journey to 100

Fiction:

The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman - I read this as an advanced reading copy, and it is due to be published June 27, 2023. The Ghost Theatre is British musician Mat Osman’s second novel. It is set in Elizabethan England, the era of Shakespeare, with the focus on a crew of misfit teenagers who are actors and cast-offs from society, who form a unique bond. They inhabit a world that is adjacent to ours, where elements of fantasy are interwoven. While the novel started off with a wild race across the London rooftops, it wasn’t able to keep up the momentum for me, though it may be more appealing to other readers.
The Dead Have Lots to Say: Twenty Short Stories Set in Paris by Anna Redkina - Read my full review of this series of Parisian short stories here. These twenty short stories are set one each in Parisian arrondissements and infuse our modern world with a chance meeting with famous former residents of the city. The stories span widely from Marquis de Sade to Marie Curie, Frederic Chopin, Ernest Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein. And likewise, the stories take the reader across the city, visiting sites such as the Pantheon, Place des Vosges, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, and the oldest restaurant in Paris, Le Procope. This is Redkina’s debut work.
Luster by Raven Leilani - Luster is a novel I discovered in a round-about way. One of last month’s reads, Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence, featured a number of lists of recommended books through it and in the book’s appendix. This one happened to be available through my local library and voila! Luster is a heart-rendering tale of a young adult trying to make her way in a world that has been a combination of indifferent or unkind, and she finds herself in a relationship with a married father that takes unexpected paths that create unique bonds with his wife and adopted child, who is Black like the protagonist, and living in a white world. Leilani’s debut novel is filled with gorgeous language, refreshingly frank descriptions of sex, and it is clear that I have a new author to follow.

Non-fiction: History

God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man by Jack Kelly - Advanced reading copy, publish date is December 5, 2023. Read my full review here. Behind the infamy was a man who actively played an important role in the American Revolution. Arnold’s heroism, unique mind for strategy, and strong, decisive leadership all became a footnote after his final traitorous move. After a century and a half, it’s high time to revisit Arnold’s story, discover the man before and after that moment, and discover interesting tales about the foundation of the U.S.

Non-fiction: Travelogue/Memoir

Feral: Losing Myself and Finding My Way in America’s National Parks by Emily Pennington - Following a dream, Emily Pennington decided to take a year to visit every national park in the US. She had saved up just enough funds to eke out a living. But a couple of things got in her way. First, the covid pandemic hit shortly after she started pursuing her dream and second, she had not intended to begin her year of travel while in a relationship. What unfolds is a story more about Emily finding herself than about the parks themselves and while the premise intrigued me, the delivery was something different than expected with angst over her relationship serving an outsized role. This is worth a read for someone wishing to read a memoir of a journey like this. I wish the author had been more focused on the journey and less focused on the check-the-box nature of her endeavor. I also feel for her struggling to figure her life out while contending with a failing relationship and increasing mental health challenges, all against the backdrop of a pandemic world.

Non-Fiction: Social Commentary

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein - This book should be a must-read for everyone because it is an eye-opening window into the purposeful policy decisions made in the US that created race-based housing segregation and limited the ability for Black Americans to achieve that essential ingredient for inter-generational wealth: real estate. Rothstein explores different policies and communities across the US - from redlining to nefarious actions white people took to control housing. While it was not surprising to me that this occurred, the depth to which it went over decades, including stories from the not-too-distant-past, was an abysmal tale. This book explores one facet of what systemic racism looks like.

Non-fiction: The Natural World

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Read my full review of this book here. Trained as a scientist, raised as a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, and an artist and writer at heart, Kimmerer’s work explores the interdependency between people and the land across cultures and the dependency upon each other needed for success and survival. I can’t in a short description do this book justice because it spans such wide topics, but it is a book that will long stick with me and changed the way I think. I highly recommend it for anyone remotely interested in these topics.

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