Everything I Read in February
I read 11 books in February. Here’s the rundown in order:
No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby
Katharine Hepburn by Grace May Carter
Pathogenesis by Jonathan Kennedy
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
A Bargain with the Fae King by Megan Van Dyke
Medusa by Jessie Burton
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
The Retreat by Sarah Pearse
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Superior by Angela Saini
For more in-depth thoughts on these books, see below.
No Life for a Lady
Hannah Dolby’s debut novel is a delightful mystery set in 1896 in which Violet Hamilton attempts to find her missing mother and battles with greasy men and misogyny by the seaside.
This one was a pretty quick read and I enjoyed the mystery and escapism. The main character had some character development, but many other characters were a little flat. I rated it four stars.
I have a dedicated book review for this book, which you can read on my website.
Katharine Hepburn
Grace May Carter’s biography of Katharine Hepburn was one of my favorite books of February. I have already admired Hepburn for years and this book solidified my love for this brash and unapologetic woman. Hepburn was not only an accomplished and talented actor, but her private life was also extremely vast and deep. There was her years-long affair with Spencer Tracy, but I thought her familial relations and friendships were more interesting.
This biography is short and sweet but managed to encapsulate Hepburn’s life and personality without feeling rushed. I rated it four stars.
Pathogenesis
The first non-fiction book on the list for February. I am fascinated by disease ecology and the legacy of colonialism, so this book was perfect for me. If you like This Podcast Will Kill You, then this book is definitely for you. I read Laura Spinney’s book on the 1918 influenza pandemic, and since then I have wanted to read so many more non-fiction books about disease, epidemics, and pandemics. Kennedy reckons with the devastating impacts colonialism had on indigenous populations in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, which I deeply appreciated. It’s easy to file disease under apolitical acts of God, but this book makes sure to unmask the political factors that contribute to epidemics and pandemics. I rated it four stars.
I have a dedicated book review for this book, which you can read here.
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
I read this book for my feminist book club. It is billed as a romance, but it is really an exploration of grief and finding human connections to process that grief. I did not realize where the plot was going until I talked to a friend who said she did not know how to feel about the main character in her twenties falling for the father of a man she is seeing but not really dating. It was an odd pairing to be sure, but their long talks about their deceased partners and their mutual support and understanding made up for my initial discomfort. I rated it four stars.
A Bargain with the Fae King
Fantasy Romance February (or FaRoFeb) kindly made a list of free fantasy romance ebooks this month and I couldn’t resist downloading a few or ten. This one made the cut. I won’t say it’s good, but it is enjoyable. It’s a guilty pleasure romance with an interesting magic system, though I found parts of the narrative and world-building confusing and silly. I rated it three stars.
Medusa
A lovely take on a well-known myth. I recently also read Stone Blind by Natalie Hayes, another Medusa retelling, and I think they work well together, even if their narratives are slightly different. I am already a Jessie Burton fan because of The Miniaturist and have her other books on my TBR. She is a talented writer, made more obvious in a myth retelling because the reader already knows the plot. I have the illustrated hardback edition with artwork by Olivia Lomenech Gill, which complemented the writing style and story very well. I rated it four stars.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton
I have seen so much promotion of the new TV series on ITVX and wanted to watch it. I do not generally watch media based on books without first reading said books, so when Frannie Langton went on sale on Kindle for 99p, I jumped. Frannie is a compelling main character who exerts agency in her life even when others in positions of power over her try to grind her down. She grows up in Jamaica, enslaved on a plantation, but travels to London in the 1820s to be given to her owner’s friend for a social and scientific experiment. The book is comprised of her “confessions” in her own words, as she is accused of the murders of the residents of the house where she is in service as a scribe. The mystery at the center of the story drew me in, but the real MVP of the narrative is Frannie herself and her character development. I rated it four stars.
The Retreat
This is a sequel to The Sanatorium which I got on Audible with a free credit because it was narrated by the one and only Gemma Whelan. Luckily, it turned out to be a great story too. I have been salivating for the sequel since racing through the first book and I have finally been sated. Unfortunately, now I am pining for a third installment. Pearse has crafted modern mysteries with a classic Christie feel. I was proud of myself for figuring out aspects of the mystery in this book, but I was mostly surprised by the twists in the narrative. I rated it five stars.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
I have been meaning to read this classic for years and finally got around to it. I listened to the audiobook version of this and the narrator, Ruby Dee, was great. It is obvious to see why this is a classic and I would like to read more of Hurston’s work. I rated it four stars.
The Radium Girls
Another great non-fiction read! I had been aware of this story through the episode of My Favorite Murder and a brief cameo appearance on Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (S3E8, the very last episode), so I wanted to dig deeper into this subject. This book is a comprehensive look at the lives of many of the young women employed to paint the dials of watch faces with radium paint in the 1910s and 1920s and their ill health that followed. This story is a bummer, but worth reading to understand the lengths companies will go to in order to gain record profits while actively making their employees sick. The women impacted by the radium paint launched several legal complaints against their employers and the landmark decisions are still in use today. I rated it five stars.
Superior
I’ve had this book since it came out in 2019 and I am so happy I finally got around to it. I supplemented my print copy with the audiobook narrated by the author. It’s still so relevant to today’s political and scientific landscape and built on a lot of history (mostly colonial) with which I was already familiar. I am especially lucky to have timed my reading of this book with Pathogenesis, as they have so many overlapping and complementary themes. Saini also has a book Inferior, about the staying power of patriarchy that I am planning on reading soon. I rated this book four stars.
