Showing posts with label Books in 2025. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books in 2025. Show all posts

Sunday, March 02, 2025

The Books I Read - February 2025

February was the month I was really focused on recovering from my health stuff in January. I didn't sit down a read as consistently as I'd have liked, but I always had an eBook and an audiobook on the go.

If you look at this month's author cloud, it's very funny how tiny Victoria Goddard is because "The Tower at the Edge of the World" and "Aurelius (to be called) Magnus" were probably the two most memorable books, for all they were only a few pages long. Victoria Goddard has definitely grown to be one of my favourite authors over the last few months.

The mysteries were alright. I continue to struggle with Louise Penny, just from the mix of Canadiana, warm comfort, and gritty murder. The Daisy mysteries by Carola Dunn are definitely giving me the "I ate too much of that" feeling you get if you eat too much popcorn and I didn't really find much to love in "The Case of the Murdered Muckraker" (although the audiobook narrator really didn't make the American accents fun listening).

I revisited "Altered Carbon" for the first time since 2019. The world is very interesting and provides a natural environment for a Noir mystery to unfold. On this read through I found that the plot didn't really engage me and the use of Noir tropes didn't flow well into the plot and the world building. Having started on its sequel "Broken Angels" I also feel like there's just some first-time author in "Altered Carbon" which grated for me.


Stats for February (Year To Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 12 (23)Pages Read - 3117 (6650)

Collage of the covers of the 12 books listed above.February 2025 Covers

Authors

Unique Authors: 9 (11)

Author - books read - pages read

Anna Lee Huber - 1 - 431 (4 - 1571) Becky Chambers - 1 - 336 (4 - 1492)
Carola Dunn - 1 - 273 (1 - 273) Iona Whishaw (1 - 409)
Katharine Schellman - 1 - 327 (1 - 327) Louise Penny - 2 - 497 (2 - 497)
Martha Wells - 1 - 234 (1 - 234) Richard K. Morgan - 1 - 544 (1 - 544)
Susan Cooper (1 - 363) Tomohito Oda - 2 - 402 (2 - 402)
Victoria Goddard - 2 - 73 (5 - 538)

Word cloud of the authors I read in February. Richard K. Morgan is the largest at the bottom, Anna Lee Huber, Loiuse Penny and Tomohito Oda are about the same size above then Becky Chambers, Katherine Schellman, Martha Wells and Carola Dunn are smaller and fitted in. Victoria Goddard is tiny and tucked in the middle.February 2025 Author Cloud

Publication Decade

1970s - (1) 2000s - 4 (4)
2010s - 4 (10) 2020s - 4 (8)

Source

Audible - 1 (4) Kobo - 5 (8)
Libby - 5 (9) Libro.fm - 1 (2)

Formats

Audiobook - 3 (8) eBook - 7 (13)
eBook Comic - 2 (2)

Friday, February 14, 2025

The Books I Read - January 2025

I had some health stuff to deal with in January, which kinda skewed how I read over the month. Sharing "The Dark is Rising" with my partner was great; we listened to a radio play version during the height of the pandemic, and we both really appreciated getting the whole text.

Victoria Goddard's writing continues to entertain and "The Return of Fitzroy Angursell was great to read and made me happy. I really enjoy the way Fitzroy fully abandons himself to the adventure and so adventure embraces him back.

I also reread the first three of the Wayfarers books by Becky Chambers. I was thinking about the emotional intelligence that you find in "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" and that it would probably be soothing post health stuff. These books have excellent examples ways to approach the differences between people and cultures, but they are a little bit clunky to read and end up with a real "and then" structure where things feel disjointed between scenes and characters.

I'm on the mend so blogging should slowly start again now.


Stats for January

Reading Stats

Books Read - 11Pages Read - 3533

Collage of the covers of the 11 books listed above.January 2025 Covers

Authors

Unique Authors: 5

Author - books read - pages read

Anna Lee Huber - 3 - 1140 Becky Chambers - 3 - 1156
Iona Whishaw - 1 - 409 Susan Cooper - 1 - 363
Victoria Goddard - 3 - 465

Word cloud of the authors I read in January. Anna Lee Huber is large and in the centre, with Becky Chambers slightly larger below. Above, Susan Cooper, Iona Whishaw and Victora Goddard are about 1/3 of the size.January 2025 Author Cloud

Publication Decade

1970s - 1 2010s - 6
2020s - 4

Source

Audible - 3 Kobo - 3
Libby - 4 Libro.fm - 1

Formats

Audiobook - 5 eBook - 6

The Books I Read - February 2025

February was the month I was really focused on recovering from my health stuff in January. I didn't sit down a read as consistently as...