February 2024 in Books

You wouldn’t know from looking at this list but I was in a serious rut in the beginning of February. After finishing The Haunting of Hill House (disappointing), I just couldn’t figure out anything to read. As you’ll read below, I definitely blew through that but the beginning of February was so BLAH. I didn’t want to watch anything or play any games or do anythingggggg. I felt like a bored toddler. I hate those moods. When nothing sounds like fun and everything is lame. It might be because this month has been WET and STORMY. Going outside is a serious gamble – do you need a raincoat? If I bring an umbrella, will the wind tear it from my hands? It’s been pretty miserable on the weather front, with only a few good days peeking through. I understand why people experience seasonal depression. I just want the sunshine!

In an effort to get out of my funk, I did plan a lot of cool stuff. My husband and I went to the Oakland Zoo (my mom is a member so we get in for free!), my cousin and I went to Southern California for an Alkaline Trio concert (and Disneyland, duh), and I started planning a Portland/Seattle roadtrip with my husband for later this year. Quite a bit is planned for March already and I’m nose deep into a thirteen book series (whoops)!

Oh also? I’ve been obsessed with Podcasts again. But short ones that have an ending. I finished The Girlfriends (be careful who you date) and Believable: The Coco Berthman Story (absolutely WILD). It’s why I haven’t finished many audiobooks (just one) but each time I look at a book to listen to, I don’t want to (another rut) so for now, these will have to do.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

My Rating: 3/5
What’s it about: It’s a haunted house story filled with equally as haunted human beings.
My Review: I may have already told this story but I’m going to tell it again because it makes me feel special. In 8th grade, my class had to choose a short story to read and analyze. Everyone got to choose their short story… but me. I was one of the only big readers in my class and my teacher would routinely tell me about books I should read (well above the 8th grade reading level). When this assignment was up, she had me read “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson cause she thought I’d love it.

To this day, I’ve wondered if that was a compliment or her way of saying, “You’re a weird fucking kid”.

Either way, thanks Mrs. R.

I didn’t touch Jackson for years. I randomly picked up “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” because it was free on Kindle. I became obsessed. I understood why she’s such a beloved weirdo author and in my opinion, that’s her best book. I’ve tried a few other books after this (a collection of her short stories [extremely hit or miss] and “Hangsaman” [I still don’t understand what happened in that book]). Maybe Jackson isn’t for me and I haven’t decided if I’ll dive into her other books after this one. I absolutely loved the Netflix series but whoever read this book and was able to create that series is a genius. I’ve seen all the movies that were inspired by this book (“Rose Red” and the 1999 version of “The Haunting”) and I saw where the creators picked and chose what they would use from the original novel, which was pretty cool. But overall, I was incredibly let down. The characters were undeveloped and the house was just a location – not an actual character (as all good haunted houses are). I finished it to prove to myself that I could. Jackson really is wonderful at endings (Stephen King could learn a thing or two from her), so I am glad I finished it but I won’t be revisiting.

Cursed Objects: Strange but True Stories of the World’s Most Infamous Items by J.W. Ocker

My Rating: 3/5
What’s it about: It’s about cursed objects.
My Review: I bought this book in Portland, during our RV Road Trip. It’s more of a reference book, so I put off reading it but after The Haunting of Hill House, I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to read next. Every book on my shelf seemed excruciatingly boring and I didn’t want to spend money buying more books when I had perfectly good books at home. So I picked this up in desperation. Something to read that wouldn’t need my full attention. Each object only had a few pages and the research for this book was clearly important, which I appreciate that. The artwork is very cool. Overall though, it was lackluster. The “cursed” object stories weren’t told in the haunting fashion I thought it would be. Instead, it seemed more like the author was trying to convince me that there’s no such thing as cursed objects – which seems like the opposite thing that should be done with a book called Cursed Objects. I wanted more out of this but it was a lot of “This 90 year old who bought the ~cursed object~ died 2 years later from a heart attack ooooo it was the cuuuuuurrsssseeeeeeeee”. Like no bro, it was the fact that a 92 year old is probably going to die sooner rather than later. 

Pretty Boys Are Poisonous: Poems: A Collection of F**ked Up Fairy Tales by Megan Fox

My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: It’s a poetry book about how much men suck.
My Review: In college, I was an English Major. I chose this because I love reading (duh) and writing (double duh). I preferred writing a million essays instead of taking a million tests. While in college, one of my professors would make fun of me because I didn’t like poetry. Apparently, I was the only English Major in history that didn’t like poetry.

Turns out, I just don’t like the poetry of dead white guys (except Percy Shelley but that might be because he married a badass).

A few years ago, I started picking up random poetry by female authors (that aren’t Emily Dickenson – but maybe I should revisit her). These poetry books held feelings that I hadn’t ever been able to put into words so eloquently. My feelings would be paragraph and page long laments that never seemed to sound beautiful when boiled down.

I like Megan Fox. I haven’t always but over the past few years, she’s really appealed to me. Jennifer’s Body is one of my favorite films (after I gave it a second shot – my first was during a really bad date that I wrote about here). The pain she felt while writing these poems is evident. They’re short and to the point. Some poems are only 3 lines (not haikus) but I felt every word drain through me. It’s painful – all of it. It’s messy and toxic and abusive but I never once thought she was romanticizing the relationships she talks about. I can see how this book is therapeutic and cathartic for her. She doesn’t hold back! I remember how the world treated Megan Fox, I was there (and as someone who has the same thumbs as her – I saw everything you guys wrote too 🙂 ). It was gross. I can’t imagine having to deal with that much ignorance on a global level. 

A bunch of bad reviews on GoodReads said that it’s a pity this wasn’t released during the Tumblr Girl era (of which I was a part of) – as if that was an insult. We would have eaten this shit up and left no crumbs. 

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson #1) by Patricia Briggs

My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: Mercy Thompson is just a mechanic in a small town – or is she? She’s really a walker (she can turn into a coyote) who was raised by a bunch of wolves (or rather, werewolves). When the local werewolves daughter gets kidnapped, she turns to her family (and a few vampires) to try and get her back.
My Review: I am going to be brutally honest. I avoided the shit out of this book because of the cover. I bought it years ago at Half Price Books because I wanted more “paranormal romance” books. I picked up 3 books – one I hated (a J.R. Ward book that was practically porn) and one that I loved (Jeaniene Frost’s “Night Huntress” series – which I devoured).

I thought I was going through a rut. The last two books weren’t novels because I simply could not get myself to decide on a book to read. I even pulled titles from my “Adventure” jar (a jar I made with a slip of paper that lists all the books I own – for times when I just can’t decide) and read Jane Eyre for a while. I could not decide on a book and it was driving me insane.

Queue President’s Day weekend. A 3 day weekend for me. I picked it up because the reviews were quite good and it seemed like an easy read.

This book was SO easy to read. I think it only took me a little over a day to finish it (and that was only because I had things to do on Saturday). The characters are well developed and although the lore (werewolves, skin walkers, fae, witches, and vampires – so far) was different than what I’m used it, it was well explained and I think that I get the gist of it. Which is good cause there’s THIRTEEN BOOKS!! Finally, a series to sink my teeth into. There’s no real romance (yet) or spicy scenes but I do have a feeling that it’s coming up. I appreciate that the author took the time to develop so many characters and set up a love triangle (or square??) to pull you in. All the books in the series have over 4 stars on GoodReads so I have a feeling I’m going to get exactly what I’ve been looking for. 

Tangled Up in You (Meant to Be Series #4) by Christina Lauren

My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: It’s Tangled… Rapunzel.
My Review: This was an Advance Readers copy that I got for free at my local bookstore.

I didn’t realize it was part of an upcoming Disney Themed series. The series is called “Meant to Be” and it features different authors who will reimagine a Disney Princess romance. This one was Rapunzel. From what I can see, the other books will be Cinderella, Belle, and Ariel! I am not a Disney Adult (says the woman with a Snow White tattoo) but I do like Disney (mostly the old stuff). You clearly don’t need to read 1-3 to read this one.

Anyway, this book. I was disturbed by the parents from the get go. Ren (Rapunzel) was so sheltered and had so many rules, it was absurd. They set her up for failure in the real world and she’s really lucky she met Fitz because he actually cares about her. This was a split POV and it was done really well! I enjoyed being in both Ren’s and Fitz’s head (especially knowing how naive Ren is, it was nice to see that Fitz wasn’t a disgusting human). These books only take me a day to read so saying it’s a “slow burn” seems weird. It wasn’t slow but it wasn’t fast – it was the perfect pace and so well done. We have the classic “Oh no, there’s only one bed and two of us, what are we going to do?”, which is one of my favorites. Trying to figure out Ren and her upbringing/parents was a real wild ride. I didn’t expect anything to go the way it did! There wasn’t much smut – or any at all. I assume this is due to the fact that it’s a Disney related book so Disney can’t have that. I would easily let my niece read this one – they don’t go much past making out.

Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson #2) by Patricia Briggs

My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: Mercy is called upon by Stefan to help intimidate a new vampire in town. Unfortunately for both of them, the new vampire is also a sorcerer who’s housing a demon (stay with me). After Stefan, Warren, and Ben all go missing trying to locate this vampire/sorcerer/demon, Adam and Samual go after him (cause testosterone) and they also go missing so guess who has to save the day? Let’s go girls.
My Review: I really wish these covers weren’t so cringy. There was a point in time (specifically the early 2000s) where fantasy and romance books had cringy covers. It really hit on high cringe for paranormal romance books. I know for an absolute fact that these types of books are not as popular as they could be due to the really terrible covers. Luckily for me, I have decided to get these on Kindle (specifically from Libby so it’s free through my library!).

The problem with reading a series and talking about it online is that you probably haven’t read this series and I desperately don’t want to spoil anything for you. I will likely read all 13 of these books pretty quickly so here’s my compromise – if you think you even remotely want to read these books, don’t read my reviews. If you think you’ll never read these, feel free! I will try to be entertaining.

Are we getting a love square? Yes. Yes we are. And I don’t even know who I’m rooting for at this point, it’s too early in the game. This book is a tad far fetched and seems to have the lore comfortably form around the plot but I will take it. Mercy is asked to go after Littleton (vampire/sorcerer/demon) because werewolves freak out around demons and the vampires are scared of this dude (aka: The Mistress doesn’t want to lose anymore of her own). From what I gather, becoming a werewolf or a vampire is iffy business. You can’t just do what they do in Buffy: “They suck your blood, you suck their blood. It’s all one big sucking thing” and I kind of miss that because I’m greatly confused on the lore. If you’re bonded to a vampire (meaning they’ve drank your blood for literal years), you have a good chance of being able to become a vampire. If you’re not bonded, you’ll likely just die. For werewolves, it’s not a simple bite that changes you. You have to be literally close to death, then saved, then let’s just wait and see if you end up becoming a werewolf… Unless you’re a chick cause if you are and you don’t immediately find a mate/a pack, you’ll likely just die? Idk. It’s very confusing and the reason it only gets 4 stars cause my brain cannot compute. There’s also no spice still (I’m waiting dammit) BUT Mercy did kiss Adam, Samual, and Stefan in this book so I am ready.

---

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner [audiobook]

My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: This is a story about family, food, grief, and endurance. Michelle goes over the trauma of losing her mother (who is Korean) and therefore her connection to her Korean heritage.
My Review: Hi, now I’m crying. Just not in H Mart. I honestly didn’t know much about this book other than the fact that it was SUPER popular. It was only a 7 hour audiobook and it’s the only one I listened to all month because I have been in such an audiobook rut as well.

My mom is Native Hawaiian. This is where my middle name (Kaleopunahele – Kaleo for short) comes from. When you grow up multi-ethnic, people always ask, “But what are you?”, which really means “You’re not fully white so what else are you?”. People like to pigeonhole you. Like Michelle (who is Korean and white), I had a very generic name with my maiden name: Lauren White. And that’s who I desperately wanted to be. Lauren. White. A faceless white girl who was just like all the other little white girls I went to school with. But I grew up with my Native Hawaiian family who all called me Kaleo. Every time my grandmother (Puna) came to my school (which was a lot – she was very integrated into the church community), she would yell my name so I heard it across the yard. And all the kids with the regular middle names: Marie, Ann, Robert, Anthony, etc, would start laughing. Anything foreign was weird and worth making fun of. I never wanted my middle name on anything and took lots of steps to avoid saying it. I danced hula with my moms hula company on the weekends (and every weekday after school) but I never wanted anyone to know that. I was embarrassed of my house because there was Hawaiian art everywhere. My mom always had Hawaiian music (or Cher) playing in her car. My dad’s “fancy” shirts were all Hawaiian print. I hated it. Just like Michelle hated her elementary school friends knowing she was Korean.

I spent so many years being ashamed. I wanted blue eyes and blonde hair SO BADLY. I wished I didn’t brown in the sun. I wanted to chop off my long hair so I looked like the other girls. I spent so long hiding my middle name that many of my family doesn’t even call me by it anymore because they remembered how I’d blow up at anyone who called me by that name. Because I would remember those little kids laughing and teasing me for having a weird middle name. Kids are mean. I didn’t have a lot to make fun of so they really clung to this one.

Sorry, I went on a tangent about my life. But I saw a lot of myself in Michelle. Especially when she talked about her middle name and how she was never white enough for the white kids but wasn’t Asian enough for the Asian kids. When I say I’m Native Hawaiian, I can see the other person searching my face, looking for “Hawaiian” features and being disappointed that I’m not fitting their version of what “Hawaiian” looks like. When Michelle talked about losing her mother to cancer, I felt every word like I was still watching my aunt die from cancer. It was rough. It was really really rough.

If you want to cry, this book is for you. It’s so sad but so beautifully written and raw. Zauner is a fantastic storyteller.

---

There goes my goal of whittling down my physical TBR shelf that I only set in January.