February Reading Stats

 Another month gone, and I didn't read as much this past month. Too much going on. But still, I read a few good books. 

My recs for the month:

My favorite book of the month was one I found randomly, and I'm so glad I did. The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros takes place in turn of the century Chicago during the World's Fair. The main character is a young Jewish man trying to make his way alone in a world far from the small Eastern European town he was born in. And then one of his friends is murdered, and he finds himself involved in a murder mystery along with an old friend from when he first arrived in the US. Historical, mysterious, a little fantastical, and also involves being gay and Jewish at a time when both were very bad for your health. It's so good, and I will definitely be keeping my eye on this author for more.

Runners up for Feburary are: 

Firefly: Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove, which follows up directly from the last episode aired on TV. The crew get into yet another scrape. Shocking, right? If you're a Firefly fan, you'll love it. Just trust me on this. 

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell, a sci fi story about a prince who has to take his cousin's partner as his own for the sake of the kingdom, or their kingdom will risk a war they cannot afford. A very sweet gay romance with a bit of a mystery behind the first prince's death and dealings.

Ship It by Britta Lundin, about a girl who has fallen for a tv show, so when she gets the chance to go to a convention where the cast will appear, she goes for it. And causes a tangle for herself and the crew of the still-new show. Will she be able to help them keep the show on the air? Will she be able to convince the creator that the two main characters are in love with each other? A story about Slash and falling in love, and why people Slash at all.

All great books, and I highly recommend each of them, if they sound at all intriguing. 

My newest book for the month was The City Beautiful, which was published October 5, 2021. The oldest was Foundation by Isaac Asimov, which I'm glad I finally got to. It came out August 20, 1951. I think I need to make a list of classics I really need to read. I have a few random ones, but I think I need to beef it up by a lot.

Stats for the month: I finished a total of seventeen books. Not bad, just not as much as I have been doing, hitting at least twenty each month. I did DNF one book, the Roseblood book. It just wasn't drawing me in. I may try it again another time, but I think it's time to stop for now. And I also finished a series this month, the Kane Chronicles, by Rick Riordan, which means I can start the Apollo books now, I think. Back into Percy Jackson realms, though I really did enjoy what he did with Egyptian myth. I'll be curious to read what Apollo has to go through for his punishment.

Of the seventeen I read, fourteen were Audio, two were E-books, and only one was a physical book this month. I just prefer audio. It works for me. Of the books I read, they were evenly split between male and female authors, nine each, because one book was co written by a guy and a gal. twelve books had male main characters, and ten had female main characters. Definitely not a bad split, though I do wish I could push that to a more even number. Six had LGBT major or main characters, while only three had major characters of color. Definitely need to push that one much higher. The audience for my books were eight YA and nine adult books. 

My top three genres were Romance (no shock there, really), Sci Fi, and Fantasy. I definitely like seeing the Sci Fi in there this month. Hopefully I will mix things up with my second and third genres a lot more this year than I did last year. I do wonder what would happen if I did a top five genres each month, but I think that would thin things out too much. It was definitely eye opening last year to see what I read. This year, I'm keeping to how I did my genres during the second half of last year, so it will probably shift numbers around a bit more, but I seem to have most of the genres I'm likely to read on my little graph I use to keep track of them now. If anyone's interested, I could always share a list of the genres I track, and how I track them. Just let me know, and I will.

My current and future reading:

Currently I am reading:

• Spindle Fire (Spindle Fire #1) by Lexa Hillyer (Part 8 of 9 at the moment, not sure what percentage)
• March (March #3) by John Lewis (54%)
• The Soldier (Free Men #2) by Kate Aaron (14%)
• Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (10%)
• The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan (6%)

My Current Libby list to read:

• Aurora's End (Aurora's Rising #3) by Amie Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff

My Library Hold list:

• Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
• Crowbones by Anne Bishop
• Lover Arisen by JR Ward

A bigger list, and half are own voices authors, so I'm looking forward to those. Should be a good month.

So what do you think? What do you consider classics? Do you have mental rules for that? Do you have some classics you think I should read? And are you interested in hearing about my genres, and how I track them? And what did you read in February? 

See you all again next month!