Whew, February flew by so fast! I can’t believe it’s already March. We’ve got a bit of false spring going on, and I can’t say I hate it. It’s following a fairly nasty cold snap, so I’ll take not freezing to death for a bit, although I’d still enjoy a really big snow (CAN YOU HEAR ME, WEATHER GODS???). The milder weather has me excited about long sweaty days at the garden where I volunteer, which is one of my favorite places in the world – the other places being, of course, libraries. : )

February wasn’t a bad month, so to speak. The world is an absolute dumpster fire, and the people in charge are absolutely barely sentient pools of diarrhea, but I’m finding joy in the little things, and it’s helping. More on that in a bit, though.

Let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in February 2025

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

2. Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret (read out loud to my daughter)

3. How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (read out loud to my daughter)

4. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

5. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

6. Don’t You Know There’s a War On? by Avi

7. The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us by Rachelle Bergstein

8. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

9. Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill

10. Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

11. The Meth Lunches: Food and Longing in an American City by Kim Foster

12. Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson (read out loud to my daughter)

13. The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

14. The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke

15. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

16. Cooking for Gracie: The Making of a Parent From Scratch by Keith Dixon

Kind of all over the place this month, but that seems to be how I roll these days. A mixture of books from my own shelves and stuff I grabbed from work. Remarkably Bright Creatures is absolutely delightful; if you haven’t read this yet but have been considering it, this is your sign to pick it up. It’s the sweetest story of a random group of people, brought together by, of all things, a wildly intelligent octopus. The Genius of Judy is also fantastic. I grew up reading her books and this is a great trip down memory lane, through Judy’s life and the changes in the culture she and her books brought forth (all told in a super fun and readable style). Year of Wonder is FINALLY off my TBR! I enjoyed listening to the classical music within and I’m keeping the book for future use; I’d love to revisit all those pieces again at some point. 

The current dictatorial bullshit in the White House can’t stop me from celebrating Black History Month, and that’s why I picked up Black AF History, which I HIGHLY recommend. Michael Harriot is brilliant, and the book is informative, funny, infuriating, thought-provoking, and an all-around phenomenal read. I read Just Mercy to my daughter for the same reason; I’d read the adult version years ago and found it incredibly moving, so I was happy to find the Young Reader’s edition at work. It opened some excellent conversations between us.

Now.

There are no words for how much I loathed, loathed, LOATHED On the Road. That. Book. SUCKS. Every character in there SUCKS. I wanted that car full of misogynistic little mouth-breathing twerps to roll over the edge of a cliff and vaporize immediately upon impact pretty much on every single page. By the end, it was making my skin crawl. I’m glad I read it so I can rage at exactly how horrible it is to everyone I know and never, ever stop (and also avoid anyone who says it’s their favorite book, because NO THANK YOU). 

Phew. 

Sixteen books total. Six fiction, ten nonfiction. Seven from my own shelves (includes one ebook). Not a bad total, considering this is a shorter month and I’ve been busy studying otherwise. ONE was from my TBR! 

34 for the year so far.

State of the Goodreads TBR

4 last month; 4 this month. I’m on hold at work for two of them, one doesn’t come out until later in the year, and the other is out and we’re getting a copy at work, but it may be one that I need to wait until I have the mental space for it. We’ll see.

Books I Acquired in February 2025

…did I acquire any books this month? I don’t honestly think I did! I think we came home from a thrift store with two books for my daughter, but none for me.

Bookish Things I Did in February 2025

I worked at the library, of course! I also used my community college library card to check out their copy of The Meth Lunches. None of the other libraries around here had a copy of that one, but the community college did, so I swung by there on a Sunday afternoon and used my free-because-I-live-in-the-community-and-pay-taxes-for-this-college card (you should check your local community college; many of them offer free community library cards! There may be restrictions; you may only be able to check out a certain number of items – I’ve lived in places where the total checkout was limited to 2, but I’m able to check out 40 items from my community college), and walked out with the book I wanted. I was super excited to be able to do this!

Current Podcast Love

Guys, I’m in trouble. I’m back to listening to What Should I Read Next? with Anne Bogel. It’s definitely helping me to stop doomscrolling, walk away from the internet, and pick up my book, but omg, they talk about so many awesome books on this podcast and I want to read them all!!!!

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Welp, I finished On the Road, which I had started as part of my Read Harder Challenge a year or two ago. I’m still super busy with studying and preparing to go back to school in the fall, so I’m not sure where I’m going next with this. I’m going to have to put some thought into it…

Real Life Stuff

Phew, it’s a dumpster fire out there, friends! But in here, I’ve got books, and my kids, and things to study, and the garden where I volunteer, and working at the library, and so I’m trying to keep things as calm and peaceful as I can.

Work didn’t slow down much at all in February (those 43,000+ items we circulated last month had to come back at some point, and more went out!). We’ve been busy, busy, busy. I started shadowing passport appointments, so that’s nerve-wrackingly fun! (It’ll get better the more I go through the process, it’s just a little scary now because it’s new.) And, and, and…I GOT A RAISE!!!! It’s because of the increased duties being a passport agent, so YAY FOR THAT!!! I’m pretty proud of myself there. : )

My daughter and I cleared out a bunch of old books that she no longer needs, so we’ve got three bags ready to go. I’ve said we’re going to take them to Little Free Libraries, but the organization that puts on used book sales in the area over the summer will be collecting soon, so I may wait and drop them off all at once there. We’ll see! We’re going to go through some more books later on, maybe during spring break, because I’ve got a ton of old homeschool books that are too young for her these days (first grade stuff isn’t going to cut it for a kiddo going into middle school next year, if we ever need to homeschool again). Might as well go to someone who can use it, and free up some space for us!

What’s next in March? Work, of course. Studying. Mid-month, I have to make an appointment with an advisor at the community college I’ll be attending next year, to see exactly which courses I’ll need to sign up for (and then I can sign up for classes in April; all of this is already plugged into my calendar). I’m SO excited about getting all of this going, you have no idea. The weather will hopefully cooperate with us getting the garden where I volunteer up and running, or at least pre-up and running (we were able to get some rewilding work done in February, plus play in the snow a little, so that’s been great!). And reading, of course. I’m still working through my own books and trying to balance that with all the amazing books I come across at work. It’s not easy!

Hang in there, friends. Wishing you a month of finding peace wherever you can, because it’s in short supply out there. There are still great books to be read, and we still have each other. Make it all count.