Read:
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant – Michel Tremblay (Talonbooks, 2008)
The No-Cry Sleep Solution – Elizabeth Pantley (McGraw-Hill, 2020)
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (W.W. Norton & Company, 1977)
The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick (Mariner Books, 2011)
The Man Who Saw Everything – Deborah Levy (Hamish Hamilton, 2019)
Last Impressions – Joseph Kertes (Viking Canada, 2020)
Agnes, Murderess – Sarah Leavitt (Freehand Books, 2019)
Currently Reading:
No More Nice Girls – Lauren McKeon
Ducks, Newburyport – Lucy Ellman
2020 Goals:
Books Read: 19/100
Books Reviewed: 17/75
Translations: 1/20
Writers Fest Challenge: 4/10 (announced so far)
Current TBR: 161 (previously 195)
I probably need to explain how my To Be Read list made such a dramatic drop since I obviously didn’t read so many books this month. Basically, I went through and winnowed it down. I’ve been keeping track of my TBR in the same notebook for about four years and as it’s now filled up I began the process of transferring titles into a new notebook. This seemed like a good opportunity to look at each title on the list and think about if I’m really going to read them.
Rose did not want to be in the picture.
What’s Next:
Ducks, Newburyport probably. I’m really enjoying this mammoth, stream-of-consciousness book but, let’s be honest, I’m not going to be finished anytime soon. While I do hope to finish it in March, I won’t be surprised if it takes me most of the month.
I have a few library holds I’m currently waiting on. My next Writers Fest Challenge book is I Saw Three Ships by Bill Richardson. I am also waiting on a library hold for Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon, which is currently the oldest book on my TBR. Other library holds include Five Wives, Apeirogon, and The Vagina Bible. Apeirogon, which is Colum McCann’s newest book, was just released and I’m the only one waiting for it so that will likely be my next library read.
My goal for ARCs is always to read them before their release dates. That means March should see me reading If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons, and Lost Boy Found by Kirsten Alexander.
What was your best book for February? What’s next on your reading list?
Karissa Reads Books 
Hmmm, best book for February was Death’s Hand by S.M. Reine. It’s the first book in a fantastic urban fantasy series. Up next, I’m reading Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, which is about zombies and is set in a store similar to Ikea.
Zombies in Ikea reminds me of the fact that when I was in university, people loved to discuss what their game plan would be for a zombie apocalypse!
LOL, what kind of college was this!? Everyone knows you should hole up in a dorm that has a dining hall in the same building, duh. 😀
That makes a lot of sense but our dorms were all spread out and we had one common dining hall that wan’t connected to any of the dorms. There was no IKEA near by either but Costco was a popular choice. My personal preference was to make it to one of the ferries that connected us to the mainland and take it off shore. (They had a restaurant and survival supplies on board so I figured I could last a while.)
Whenever I’m in a mall, I look around and wonder if that would REALLY be the best place to survive zombies, as George A. Romero would have us believe. I’m pretty sure that I, after I had eaten all the pretzels in that one kiosk, would die.
A mall doesn’t really seem like a good place. So many exits and not enough weaponry! That said, I’m pretty sure in any sort of apocalypse situation I would die very early on.
I assume you didn’t say what your book of the month was because it was so obviously Bleak House? 😉 Mine was probably I Married a Communist, though PG Wodehouse was considerably more fun.
It was Bleak House! Yeah, Roth can hardly be described as fun!
Hurrah! 😀
I’m so glad you’re enjoying Ducks!! I will never not be disappointed that it didn’t make the Women’s Prize list, but I’ll continue to encourage people to read it anyway… 🙂
Looking forward to your thoughts on Bonnaffon’s The Regrets, I’ve been so curious about that book but haven’t managed to pick it up yet!
In some parts I feel like Ducks is describing my exact thought process! So I’m disappointed that it didn’t make it even though I can kind of see why.
The Regrets was fun. Weird but fun. I should have a review up next week!
I had very little in common with the narrator but also found myself agreeing with her thought process surprisingly often! She has such a compelling voice.
Yay, looking forward to it!
I just love how Ducks elevates that normal, everyday woman’s voice into literature. That’s why I think it would have been a great choice for the Women’s Prize since that is still a relatively uncommon thing in lit.