Reading, Writing, and Me

Last month, I was stuck in a bit of a The Nix  rut trying to finish one super long book all month. I also struggled to find audiobooks I connected with, which didn't help the reading slump situation. I spent a lot of my reading time doing research for my final capstone project as well. February, however, I fell back in the swing of the reading thing. After the binge reading of winter break, I've finally recalibrated and I'm able to fully appreciate books again. This means that February gets a much more traditional wrap up post. I'm going to structure these almost as mini versions of my year end posts and give insight into what I read this month (so you can hear a bit about the nonfiction I don't post about and get a preview of fiction reviews coming your way), chat a bit about what I'm hoping to read next month, and then have a quick space for non-bookish stories grabbing my attention.  If February is the month of love, then my great love of the month was fallin

Greta & Valdin  by Rebecca K. Reilly Overview: Greta and Valdin are siblings in their late twenties in New Zealand. They share an apartment and are each other's support system. Valdin is reeling in the aftermath of his break-up with a much older man and adjusting to a major career change from physics to hosting a travel show. Greta is finding herself and panicking about how she'll ever make enough money to live with her Russian and English literature masters degree. Zooming further out, they're surrounded by a large and chaotic family. An older brother who has a teenage son and a young daughter who has no filter. A Maaori mother and Russian immigrant father. A gay uncle and his shipping magnate partner whose brother happens to be Valdin's ex. They're a tight knit bunch but full of tangles as they're trying to figure out how to live, laugh, love in these conditions. Overall: 4.5  Characters: 5 Most of the book alternates between Valdin and Greta's perspec