February Wrap-Up and March TBR

Hey all, Dani here.

We have reached the beginning of a new month, and before I can really focus on the road ahead, it is worth taking a look behind to see what all I’ve accomplished so far in 2020. Honestly these wrap-ups really help to reinforce that I actually am doing a lot. Sometimes I feel like I suffer from impostor syndrome and feeling like I’m not doing all that much.

So, in January I forgot to continue with the wrap-up format that I had established last year, where I talked about the progress I made each month towards my personal yearly goals. When I realized that a day or two after the post went up, I thought about going in and editing it, but decided against it. I’m not going to forget it this month, but I also feel like I don’t want to skip over my accomplishments in January, so I’m going to discuss both months this time around.

• Reading: I have completed 46 books so far this year, which is pretty great. I’m already thinking my goal of reading 125 books will have to be edited in a few more months, but we’ll see what happens. Anyway, I read 23 books in January and 23 books in February, so I’m pretty darn happy with that. Yes, there was more of my February TBR that I hoped to get through, but I still accomplished quite a bit.
• Blogging: I have blogged every single day so far this year, which is incredible, and I still have quite a large list of reviews and other posts I need to write. While drafting up this post I looked at my list of posts to write and if I just posted once a day without reading a single new book, I could probably still have posts for at least two months, which seems baffling to me. So, I suppose for the foreseeable future I’m going to have to try and post up a bonus post or two each week.
• Writing: Oh man, I pretty much failed on the writing front this month; I mean, unless you count the blogging, because I did manage quite a few words on the blog. I have thought about writing, and I guess technically I have done a lot of mental writing, which is worth nothing in reality, but at least I have more of my book thought out.
• Conventions: Well, we got our hotel room booked for Gen Con this summer, and we’re getting things together for Lexington Comic & Toy Con at the end of March, so that should be a pretty darn good time.

All right, well let’s go over everything that I’ve read this month. If I have the review up already, then I will include a link to the post.

Fruits Basket, Collector’s Edition Vol 3 by Natsuki Takaya — 4.5 stars

A Queen in Hiding by Sarah Kozloff — 4.5 stars

Infinity Son by Adam Silvera — 4 stars

The Unwilling by Kelly Braffet — 5 stars

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin — 5 stars

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima — 4 stars

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood — 4.5 stars

Firefly: Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove — 3.5 stars

My Hero Academia, Volume 23 by Kohei Horikoshi — 4.5 stars

Snug by Catana Chertwyd — 5 stars

Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin — 4 stars

Looking for Group Omnibus (Vol 1-3) by Ryan La and Lar DeSouza — 5 stars

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Volume 4 by Oneida — 4.5 stars

How to Treat Magical Beasts, Volume 4 by Kaziya — 5 stars

Prince Freya Volume 1 by Keiko Ishihara — 3.5 stars

Vox Machina Origins II #5 by Jody Houser, Matthew Mercer, Ariana Maher, Msassyk, and Olivia Samson — 5 stars

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon — 4 stars

Fatal Throne by Candace Fleming, M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Donnelly, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park, and Lisa Ann Sandell — 4.5 stars

The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos — 4.5 stars

Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Volume 4 by Natsuki Takaya — 4.5 stars

The Magician King by Lev Grossman — 4 stars

The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding edited by Janna Silverstein — 4 stars

Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski — 5 stars

Okay, with the wrap-up portion over, I guess it’s time to talk about book haul and book unhaul, and then OwlCrate unboxing. My book unhaul isn’t very big at the moment, so I’ll be holding onto these books a little longer until I have enough to make for a worthwhile trip to Half-Price Books.

Now, for the book haul, I definitely caught up with the extra books I hadn’t bought in the past couple of months, but that’s okay, because I’ve picked up some great books. A few of them I’ve already finished reading, and a few of them are ones I plan to read quite soon. And a couple of them are a little bit out of my normal reading comfort zone, so I am very much looking forward to giving them a try.

Then there’s the OwlCrate unboxing, and this might be my favorite OwlCrate box so far. There are so many items I love in this one. The OwlCrate edition cover for the book is absolutely stunning. There is a set of best friend bookmarks inspired by the Witchlands series by Susan Dennard. I absolutely adore the bento box inspired by the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. And, obviously, as a huge fan of the Something Dark and Holy trilogy from Emily A Duncan, I love the art on the cloth wipe for digital screens we’ve been given. The edges of the playing cards are very shiny, and I guess it’s always nice to have an extra deck of cards. There’s also a sampler for the new Cassandra Clare book (that I won’t be reading just yet because I am a few books behind on the Shadowhunters books).

Finally, I guess I need to talk about my March TBR. I already talked about some of the reads in my Middle Grade March post a couple days ago, but I also want to talk about the books I have picked up for Monstrous March, hosted by Kathy at Books & Munches. Because these plans are a bit ambitious, especially with everything else I’m hoping to accomplish this month. Some of these books are filled with monsters and some are monstrously sized, but all of them are ones I’m looking forward to reading (or re-reading in the case of Nevernight).

Well, that is all for now, but I will be back soon with more bookish content.