Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for February, 2021.
My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell – What a way to begin a winter month! With back-to-back snowfalls, I wanted to read about someplace warm, and Corfu sounded lovely. It was. Durrell’s classic (loosely factual) memoir of five years he spent with his mother and siblings on the Greek island was absolutely hilarious. His writing about the folk and fauna of Corfu was wonderful, but obviously I most enjoyed the hysterically funny scenes featuring his family and their reactions to the never-ending stream of wildlife “Gerry” brought into the house. Poor, poor Mother.
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison – To celebrate Black History Month, I finally ticked off a long-standing TBR entry and read Song of Solomon. As expected, it was absolutely mesmerizing. The story of an affluent Black family in mid-twentieth-century Michigan, it packed healthy doses of magical realism and lots of wisdom – I can’t recommend it highly enough. Fully reviewed here.
Winter: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons, ed. Melissa Harrison – I have had my eye on Harrison’s collection of seasonal anthologies for months now, and it was time to dive in. Winter is actually the fourth in the series, which I didn’t realize until I had already started it, but you don’t have to read them in any particular order. In Winter, Harrison collects contemporary and historical nature writing, poems, and literary excerpts about the season. They were all wonderful, but it will not surprise you to know that my favorites were the (many!) essays about birds. Also: it may be my fourth favorite season, but when it comes to books I am eagerly anticipating Spring.
Crossed Skis: An Alpine Mystery, by Carol Carnac – A mystery taking place on the ski slopes seemed like a perfect choice for a stretch of wintry weather, and it was. In London, a house burns on a grim and gloomy January day. Inside is a corpse – but police investigation reveals that the victim was killed before the fire. There are a few clues on scene, and one points to the involvement of a skier. A world away, a party of friends and acquaintances is enjoying the bright sun and sparkling snow of the Austrian Alps – but one of the party is not who they claim to be. The action bounces back and forth between the police investigation in London (which caught just a few too many lucky breaks, my only complaint) and the growing unease among the skiing party in Austria. Such good fun, and one I will revisit again and again.
Me and White Supremacy, by Layla Saad – I added this book to my Kindle back in summer of 2020 and have been meaning to get to it ever since. Overall, I found it disappointing. The tone was extremely confrontational, which I think could certainly be warranted, but needs to be combined with useful information; this was not. Each “day” (the book is intended to be a 28-day workbook with journaling prompts) begins by reviewing a concept such as white privilege, white supremacy, white feminism, etc. – all important concepts that should be examined in detail and with honesty and directness. Unfortunately, the examination sticks to the very high-level and never goes beneath the surface. I was expecting more research-supported discussion of government-supported and economic injustice, along with concrete examples of how that injustice can be dismantled. There are plenty of well-researched and useful long-form articles and infographics out there for the finding on subjects like the direct connection between slavery and the so-called “War on Drugs,” or the systematic discrimination in finance and real estate that has led to a growing wealth gap between white and Black families – I know those articles and infographics exist, because I have found and read many of them. I think this book would have been much more helpful if some of those concrete subjects were examined, but they weren’t. Still worth keeping the book around, if for the bibliography and suggested reading list alone. But I don’t think I’ll be revisiting the main body of the book – I plan to check out Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Anti-Racist instead, which I hear is better.
The Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith – What took me so long to get to this slim little book? Charles Pooter is a mid-level clerk in Victorian London. When Pooter and his wife, “dear Carrie,” move into a rowhouse in the suburb of Holloway, the clerk begins to keep a diary – mistakenly assuming that every tiny detail in his life is (1) worth recording and (2) of interest to future generations and the book-buying public. The result is hilarious. Between the antics of Pooter’s friends – the vulgar Gowing and the bicycle-mad Cummings – his sarcastic ne’er-do-well son Lupin, and the inscrutable Carrie, I laughed at least once on every page. (I loved Cummings, who regularly goes missing for a week or two, then turns up furious that he has been bedridden and none of his friends noticed; his response when they point out that they didn’t know is always, “It was in the Bicycle News.” And Carrie! You can never really tell whether she finds Pooter’s jokes funny, and I love that.) Only complaint: way too short.
Betsy-Tacy and Tib (Betsy-Tacy #2), by Maud Hart Lovelace – A re-read for me, and a read-aloud for me and Peanut. We’ve been gradually working our way through the Betsy-Tacy books and wrapped this one up this month. Just as good as I remembered, and Peanut loved it. It’s been such fun to start introducing her to classic literature – and I think the Betsy-Tacy series is a little more approachable than Anne of Green Gables, even though L.M. Montgomery will always have my heart.
Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville – Read for the Classics Club, and I really didn’t care for it. Although there were flashes of brilliance, most of this doorstopper of a tome was devoted to toggling back and forth between long, dull descriptions of everything you never needed to know about the whaling industry, interspersed with gory cetacean murder scenes. No, thank you. Fully reviewed here.
That Can Be Arranged: A Muslim Love Story, by Huda Fahmy – A graphic novel-style memoir of the author’s meeting, falling in love with, and marrying her husband, this was a quick read and a pure delight. Fahmy opens her memoir by paraphrasing Jane Austen, so you know it’s going to be good. I laughed out loud on just about every page (the cat hotel! so good) and loved every moment. My only complaint: it was too short; I could have read hundreds more pages. I’m definitely going to seek out her other work, and soon.
A Winter Away, by Elizabeth Fair – I have heard such wonderful things about this novel of a collection of misfits, and their various misunderstandings, in a Dorsetshire village in the post-World War II years, and it absolutely lived up to the hype. Young Maud Ansdell has moved in with her elderly cousin and taken a job as secretary to the irascible local squire, “Old M.” Feniston. Maud is intimidated at first, but she soon finds herself growing fond of old M., and of his owlish son Oliver and estranged nephew Charles. As Maud clumsily navigates the village gossip and intrigues, the reader is entranced by marvelous scene-setting and humor on every page. I adored it, and I can’t wait to read more Elizabeth Fair.
The Woods in Winter, by Stella Gibbons – Another Furrowed Middlebrow title, the last novel Stella Gibbons wrote for publication follows thrice-widowed Ivy Gover from her attic flat in London to a cottage in the countryside. When Ivy first receives a solicitor’s letter explaining that her great-uncle has left her a life estate in his country cottage, she thinks it might be a “take-in.” But it’s not, and soon Ivy – curmudgeonly, solitary, preferring animals to people – is settled in the country, where she encounters everyone from the local Lord to a twelve-year-old runaway. There were moments of humor, but this isn’t an especially funny book. I enjoyed it, but it did suffer in comparison to being read immediately after A Winter Away.
A Gardener’s Year, by Karel Capek – I’ve had my eye on the Modern Library Gardening series for years now, but this slim volume was the first I have actually picked up. I loved it. Between the beautiful writing and the charming line drawings (by the author’s brother) it was a delightful way to spend an evening. The end is poignant – the author reflects on the many years it takes a tree to grow, and expresses a hope that he will see one of his plantings fifty years hence; in fact, he only lived nine years after writing this lovely book, dying at the young age of 48 of a combination of bronchial infection and broken heart after the Nazis were permitted to annex the Sudetenland of his beloved Czechoslovakia.
Terms and Conditions: Life in Girls’ Boarding Schools, 1939-1979, by Ysenda Maxtone Graham – I’ve been meaning to get to this one for years now, especially after reading and enjoying Graham’s Mr Tibbets’s Catholic School. Terms and Conditions lived up to its predecessor, and to all the hype that surrounded it (at least in one little corner of the bookish world) when it first came out. I am not a boarding school “Old Girl” myself, but I still found the book fascinating – rather than relatable, for me it was a glimpse into a completely different world, and I loved it. Funny, too, in that dry British witty way. A definite winner, and one I’ll re-read.
Pigeon Pie, by Nancy Mitford – One of Nancy Mitford’s earliest books, this little volume – barely out of novella category – is a romp. Lady Sophia Garfield has “clear” ideas about what will happen when World War II begins. She pictures herself stumbling through the rubble, searching for “her husband, her lover, and her dog” the moment war is declared. Lady Sophia’s active imagination also casts her as a beautiful spy, but with her rather dull wits, she fails to notice “a nest of German spies” right under her nose until it’s almost too late. Definitely not up to the standard of Mitford’s later works, like her masterpieces The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, but still a fun way to spend an evening.
Well! After a slow January, I guess I more than made up for lost time in February. Fourteen books in twenty-eight days is a fast pace, even for me – and while some were quite short, the work of one evening, Moby-Dick was in there, too. As for highlights, there were several. I had such fun with winter-themed reading this past month, especially Melissa Harrison’s anthology, Carol Carnac’s Alpine whodunit, and of course Elizabeth Fair – a new discovery that brought me such delight. Terms and Conditions was another highlight of the month, and now I can’t wait to read the final Graham currently on my shelves – The Real Mrs Miniver – and to order her newest, British Summer Time Begins, which I am saving for warmer weather, naturally. I’m still having such fun reading through my own shelves, and I’ve got my eye on a few gardeny reads for March and April.
How was your February in books?
covered in flour 