Bookwyrm Breakdown: All of Winter Crammed Into One Month

February felt like me back in school again trying to cram at the last minute because I suddenly remembered I didn’t study for this or that (or you know, that time when I had to write a 10-page paper in roughly 6 hours… which I don’t recommend at all).

Basically, February decided, “All right, it was all nice and sunny and very summery, so I hope you enjoyed all that because I’m going to dump a whole bunch of snow to kick off the first weekend.” And for pretty much every week after, we’d get a dusting of snow, and maybe a lot of ice and sleet — depending on how nature felt that week. We love global warming.

Of course, that’s only minor in the grand scheme of things, but thankfully, I didn’t wake up to complete darkness only to realize the power went poof and the temperature dropped real quick like I did last year.

If you’re in Ukraine, I hope you’re staying safe. ❤ For those who are interested and considering supporting Ukraine (and have the financial means to do so), NPR has a list of organizations on their website.

This Month’s Posts

• [1 Feb] Chinese New Year Tag
• [4 Feb] The Iron Sword by Julie Kagawa ★★★½
• [6 Feb] Bookwyrm Breakdown: January consisted of being absolute besties with Netflix
• [11 Feb] How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao ★★★
• [15 Feb] The Winter Charlatan by Victoria McCombs ★★★★
• [25 Feb] Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee ★★★★★

I may have realized this might be the first time in months there have been regular posts?* I mean, I did six (!) blog posts?**

*Poor Lupe has been swallowed by life again so it’s just me for now. One day she’ll write a review and I’ll just hijack her post.
**At least two*** are reviews I wrote last year and forgot about until I started doing some cleanup after getting internet access (but I’ve been doing that for years so now I’m just making excuses for myself).
***I have more and there’s even one from 2020. I know, I have a problem.

Books Hoarded

I didn’t get books more so much as I got more games on Steam… though I did get several review copies:

• Dragonfly Eyes by by Cao Wenxuan and translated by Helen Wang (ARC from Publisher)
• The Stars Between Us by Cristin Terrill (ARC from Netgalley) – When I first saw this, the author’s name looked super familiar and I later found out Terrill is the same author behind All Our Yesterdays as well.
• Together We Burn by Isabel Ibanez (ARC from Netgalley)

Books Devoured

Reading speeds back to less monstrous and considerably normal levels for me compared to last year, I only DNFed one book and finished five. I think it would’ve been less if I didn’t start listening to audiobooks again considering that makes up most of my reading this month.

• Kingdom of Feathers and Kingdom of Locks by Deborah Grace White – Honestly, I’ve been reading this for pure fun with no intent to review and I’m about to start the final book in this series.
  • Kingdom of Feathers was fun and might be one of my favorites, but maybe I just like retellings for The Wild Swans if Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim is any indication. Kingdom of Locks was okay.
• The Stolen Kingdom by Jillian Boehme – This sounded good. I couldn’t make it past 25% in the audiobook.
• Nightbooks by J.A. White
• Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams

Honestly, the only thing I watched was RWBY: Volume 7 and I think that’s just due to the fact it would expire.

Some music for this month, though:

• Super Yuppers by WJSN Chocome
• Can’t Control Myself by Taeyeon – INVU (the title song to Taeyeon’s third album) took awhile to grow but Can’t Control Myself is an absolute favorite from the album.
• the collective soul and unconscious: chapter one by Billlie (EP) – GingaMingaYo honestly sounded like a nursery rhyme, only it’s a catchy nursery rhyme. I enjoyed the b-side as well.
• [Rec.] by Yuju (Mini Album)
• Stay Alive by Jungkook
• Let Me Drown by Hyunjun

I also spent a lot of time in movie soundtracks I enjoyed back in the day (plus it’s nice to change things up a little).

The Breakdown

What catastrophes have the universe handed us throughout the month? Let’s find out. 🧐

It’s been a pretty wild month personally mostly because I might have triggered my allergies somehow after getting sick right before the new year — is that how it works? I don’t know anymore. Either way, my nose is not amused.

Outside of winter storming in (literally), I’ve been working on some personal goals (or at least trying to progress in them) and doing some blog maintenance tasks. Mostly that consisted of going through another chunk of replacing featured images; I think it’s safe to say once I get through this section I started, I’ll be a little over halfway through. I also deleted old posts I didn’t feel were needed anymore as well, and I didn’t want to create the images again. (But mostly for the latter with the bonus of the former.)

Let’s talk, bookwyrms: how was your February? What have you been reading lately?