Feb wrap up + March TBR

Feb was not a great reading month for me. I read two full length novels and one poetry collection in Feb. I also read 4 graphic novels/comics which I reviewed here – Comic book wrap up for Feb. I have been lately in the mood for graphic novels so I am planning to read at least two or more of them every month.

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – which I have already reviewed here – Jane Eyre: Book review. Like I mentioned in the review, some parts in this book were truly amazing while some parts were dreadfully boring. But I fell in love with Jane Eyre as a character and I am happy that I finally got around to reading this book. 
2. A natural history of Dragons by Marie Brennan – I picked this book as I was looking for a fun read. This book started out as a 5 star read. First 35-40% were really good and then it went downhill. I was interested in reading this book as I heard the main protagonist is a woman living in Victorian era where women were not given enough freedom to study or explore anything they wanted. In such a society, she becomes a dragon naturalist. The premise sounded extremely interesting to me as I am always on the lookout for books with strong female characters. And I love dragons!

   The book was fine until this woman sets out on a dragon expedition. This expedition was extremely boring and yawn inducing. Like many people complained, there are hardly any dragons in this book as the focus of the book is on this dragon naturalist and not on the dragons. But still the story could have been better. The plot was hardly there and this one expedition took like 100s of pages to explain. There wasn’t much happening and this book could have been just a small novella, instead of such a big book (felt it was never ending) talking about trivial things and people who were irrelevant to the story.

   I wish it was written in a better manner as there was a lot of potential. I was pretty sure I was gonna love it after reading first few chapters but didn’t end up enjoying the second half that much. Just like there is a genre called cozy mystery, this book should be termed “cozy fantasy” I guess. I read this book while on a trip. It was perfect for that – light, breezy read. 

3. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur – I have never read a poetry collection in my entire life (at least not one meant for adults). This collection was very popular of late and that made me pick it up. I am not well versed with prose poetry or any form of poetry. But I loved some poems in this book so much that I had to send them to people in order to make them read the book. The first half of the book didn’t impress me much as the themes (sexual abuse, romance) were difficult to read about. But I could relate with the second half much better and some of the poems touched my heart. Some poems on feminism and love were amazing!
   Some poems which made me love this book –

   what terrifies me most is how we
   foam at the mouth with envy
   when others succeed
   but sigh in relief
   when they are failing

   our struggle to
   celebrate each other is
   what’s proven most difficult
   in being human

   if you were born with
   the weakness to fall
   you were born with
   the strength to rise

   If poetry books are this great, I would love to read more poetry in future.

TBR for March –

I am not sure how many of these books I can get to in March. But I am definitely planning on reading “Ninefox Gambit” this month. There is a book club in an Indie bookstore close to where I live and they are reading this book in March. I am planning to participate this time hopefully. I will most likely finish “Six Wakes” in a day or two as I just have 100 pages of the book left. I started this book in Jan and still have not finished it. I also started reading “The Circle” in Feb and loved the first 100-150 pages or so. After that my reading slump took over but I am hoping to finish it in March since the movie is coming out this month. I am not sure about the rest of them. I will pick and choose whichever I feel like reading this month. I am hoping to get to “The Lathe of Heaven” as I have not read anything by Ursula K. Le Guin. I started “The left hand of darkness” by her but did not like it. The premise of this book sounds interesting to me so hoping that I will like it. I want to read the “Quantum gravity” book by Carlo Rovelli soon, so hoping to finish “Seven brief lessons of Physics” by him this month.

Any book that you think I should prioritize and read in March?