 Hey friends! How are we all doing? That was a weird clap. It was very, very airy clap. How are we all doing? Today is time for my February wrap up and let me tell you, thank god February was better than January. February was actually a pretty good reading month for me, so I'm really excited to go through it and chat about it with you. But after the horrors and the debacle, the diabolical debacle that was January, February was a really good reading month for me and I'm hoping trend continues. So if you haven't seen my wrap ups before, the way we structure them is we go through reading stats first, we blitz through them, then we go through every single book and I just say what rating I gave them because pretty much every single book here is in a reading vlog on my channel bar, maybe my Patreon book club book, which there's a reading vlog for on my Patreon. So everything you can find in my opinions in greater detail. So we don't spend forever talking about all the books because sometimes when I read 15 books a month, can you imagine how long that would be for a wrap up? Absolutely not. So we give the ratings of each book and then we talk about the disappointment surprises and hits, aka the important grullies of the month. So so we just dive into it and get into the reading stats. Let's go. So in February, I read 11 books, which was much more like my usual. I say I usually say my average is 12 to 15, whereas in January I read eight. So 11, we're getting closer to my average. Still not quite there, but we are getting closer. In terms of pages read, I read 3682 pages. The average is out to pages per day of 127 or pages, average pages per book of 334. So a little bit longer in terms of books, I read some longer books this month compared to, I don't think I really read any novellas. I think they were all full length novels that I read this month. My average rating this month was a 3.9. So we just need every other month this year to be like that in order to get my highest average rating of a 3.8. So 3.9, I'm very happy with considering what all four starts a year. I think my average rating in January was maybe like a three or something like that. It was very low. So 3.9, we're on the, we're on the up, we're on the up. But that brings our year average rating so far to a 3.5. So still a little bit low, but I feel like we did a lot of good work this month in bringing that average rating up. In terms of average time, a book I spent on my TBR was six and a half months, but that is completely, like I'll show you on my, on my spreadsheet. Most of the books this month were books I bought and read immediately. So they've been on my TBR for zero months, apart from a few, which were like the longest book, been on my TBR for the longest of all the books, like one was a wrapped up retro book and one was a book that had been in wrapped up retro, but I think it was ended up being my Patreon book club pick. So they are completely skewed the results. Most of the books I've read this year have not been books my TBR, which is something that I'm going to try and correct in the next few months. And how much I spent on books in February was 30 pounds, 95p. So I say that's more average for me. But like I was saying, every single book I've bought this year has been for a video or for a book club. I have not bought any book this year so far, like because I, because I wanted to, that sounds bad, but like just because on the whim, you know, just because, oh, that's a book I'm interested in and I want to buy. Every single book I bought this year, I have read bar one, which I'm reading this month for my book club. Every single book I've read, I bought this year I've read. So in some ways you could say that's good because I'm like reading book systems, they come onto my TBR. In some ways you could say it's bad because I haven't actually got through much of my physical TBR. I haven't bought that number down that much. So that's not as good. But you know, on the whole, I'd say good that I spent less money on books this month than I did in January. I think I spent like 80 pounds in January and good that I'm at least reading the books when I buy them. Okay. And then let's go through the charts quickly. So in terms of genre, I read one classic, can you believe it? One literary fiction, my goodness, my talent knows no bounds. One magical realism, two memoirs, two mystery, two nonfiction, one romance and one thriller. So a nice mix of genres. In terms of author status, one was a debut, seven were new to me and three I had read from before. So finally I read some books from people I'd read from before this month, which I didn't do in January. My only book from an author I'd read from before was a reread. So I feel like it doesn't really count. So finally I was reading some authors I'd read from before and they were mostly the authors that were more successful for me. So I really need to try and prioritize in March, like making that skew way more towards authors I read from before because that is way more successful for me usually. Oh, rating. I haven't shown you the rating. So I didn't have anything below a three star this month, which I feel like was partly why it was so successful. So I had two three stars, three 3.5 stars, three four stars, one 4.5 star and two five stars. In terms of how I read the books, two were physical and nine were mixtures. I promise I'm going to cut down on that at some point. I promise. But it's it's how I'm getting my reading done at the moment. I'm also doing a lot more things where like I need the audiobook. But I'm just yeah, I'm just really enjoying like listening to an audiobook and playing games, like playing my fruit game on the Switch. Super game. I'll be pronouncing it. The obsession that I got with it was was borderline unhealthy. I don't know how I'm going to integrate in society after this. I just really am enjoying listening to audiobooks at the moment. But I also like then reading some with the physical. Okay, I know it's a problem. I know it's a problem. But a lot of audiobooks I've been listening to have been either from Everand, which I have like a monthly subscription to well actually guys, you guys have used my Everand code so many times where you get two months free and I get one month free that like I don't have to pay till like 2060. It's kind of crazy. So I basically have that for free. And then a lot of them were from my library as well because I finally figured out where my library actually houses audiobooks because I have the library app and I couldn't, they had some on there but it wasn't working. And then I had Libby and they have some on there but this lecture was awful. I found out they're on Borobox. So as soon as I discovered that, quite a few of them were from Borobox in particular. In terms of how I acquired the books, eight books I bought myself and three were books that were gifted to me. In terms of audience, nine were adult, one was YA and one was middle grade. At least it's not 100% adult guys. I do want to read more YA. Do I? I feel like in my heart I do, but in my brain I don't. It's so strange that I can't see. I think a pretty good reading month. Let's get into each of the books and what I rated them. So I read The Woman and Me by Britney Spears and I rated that four stars. The Wager by David Gran, which I gave four stars. Holly by Stephen King, which I gave five stars. Being Henry, The Fonds and Beyond by Henry Winkler, which I gave three stars. The George Moth by Catherine Woodfine, which I gave four stars. Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond, which I gave 3.5. What did I give this? Yes, 3.5 stars. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Everisto, which I gave 4.5 stars. Check and Mate by Ali Hazelwood, which I gave five stars. Everyone in my family has killed someone by Benjamin Stevenson, which I gave 3.5 stars. Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Chajimura, which I gave three stars. And The Feast by Margaret Kennedy, which I gave 3.5 stars. But before we get any further into the video, I want to say a moment to thank the sponsor of today's video, which is Skillshare. If you don't know, Skillshare is the largest online learning community for creatives with thousands of classes led by industry pros across film, illustration, design, painting, crafting, music and beyond. I have used Skillshare for years, on and off. Whenever I've needed to really perfect a creative skill, be that Photoshop, be that Premiere Pro, be that writing. I have gone to Skillshare. Skillshare has been my place because I think it has such a wide array of classes that you will find something that works to you that teaches you the skills. You know, I am completely self-taught across all things, really, when it comes to my job in terms of the creative side of it. And Skillshare has really been what's helped me level up. I cannot recommend it enough. And since I've been reading so many memoirs this month, or I've read two, but that's more than I usually read, it really got me thinking about nonfiction, but it comes to personal writing, personal essay writing. And I found out that Skillshare has this new feature called learning paths. And these are created class collections that help you master a specific skill. So I took the created essay writing, explore the personal and powerful learning path, which includes classes from Ashley C. Ford, Roxanne Gay and Suzanne Orlean. Roxanne's class was particularly enlightening for me because it really highlighted how when you're writing personal essays, you can't just look inward on your thoughts and feelings, but you have to look outward and make what you write a conversation between you and the audience and how what you experience is informed by broader social contexts that they can understand and how it's really, it's not a diary entry, but it's something that you are engaging with with another person. So I found that particularly insightful. So if you're thinking about writing more, you know, we all start as readers, all writers start as readers. They have tons of learning paths and classes about creative writing on there. So I would really recommend it. And I've got a great deal for you guys. The first 500 people to use the link down below in my description will get a one month free of Skillshare. So get started today. I cannot recommend Skillshare enough. You can use it to explore any skill that you've been interested in growing. Okay, let's get into my disappointment surprises and hits of the month. For disappointments, I have two. They're both from the same video. I'll leave all the reading blogs from this month linked down below. But the subscribers pick what I read episode of Year of Rex was not the most successful. I'm very sad to say now part of that could be me, the books I chose, but I chose books I was very excited to read and had a lot of hope for. It just didn't work out this time. So one was Lonely Castle in the Mirror, which I gave three stars. This is following seven children, I believe in Japan, who are all going through stuff. They're all struggling and they find through their mirrors this castle that they can go and stay in together for a year kind of on and off. They can go back home, but they can go and stay in this kind of portal fantasy world. And it's really about what they're going through and them learning things about themselves and each other. And I stand by my statement that if this was a novella, it could have been a four above. I really think that there was a lot that this book I enjoyed what it was saying, but it just went on too long. But book where nothing happens and his thing I as many a book that I love that can be critiqued as nothing happening that like that charge gets levied at me quite a lot. I would like to defend myself, but sadly that's the truth. But just in this case, I didn't love the writing initially enough for that to be okay. And I didn't love the characters and become emotionally attached to them enough for that to be okay. So in the end, it ended up being a three star for me, which was disappointing because so many people told me this is gonna make me cry. And I have been searching for a piece of media to make me cry. I just feel like I need a good cry. I went to see iron claw, the movie the other day, which everyone said they made them cry. I didn't make me cry. This didn't make me cry. I need something to make me cry. I want to feel something too much to ask. Listen, we've all seen how easy it can be to make me cry. So that was a little bit of a lockdown. So I can see why so many people love this. And I think it's the kind of book that if you vibe with immediately, you can have a really successful time with it. But I just did not vibe with it immediately. So yes. And then arguably a bigger disappointment than that one, even though this is a slightly higher rating at 3.5 is everyone in my family has killed someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Now there was just a lot of comments on that video about me paying too much pressure on myself to get a five star. That is not the case. That is not the case. I can assure you I am not paying pressure on myself on my reading. I just felt pressure surrounding this book because it was a five plus star prediction. And I feel like that's natural whenever we have a book that any of us read that we think is going to be like beyond a five star prediction. When you sit down to read it, you can sometimes feel a bit of pressure around that because you're kind of scared as to how it's going to shake out for you. This didn't do it for me in the way I wanted to. So the idea of this is we're reading from a character's perspective. He's writing the book, it's very meta. He tells us at the beginning, these are the pages that murders are going to happen on. Everyone in my family has killed someone. I'm going to try and play by these fair play murder mystery rules like it's everything I should love. I love that it's really picking apart the mystery genre because I think the mystery genre is one that you can really do that with with the kind of tropes and styles and you know, conventions of the genre. It has some really interesting ones and particularly because you are you are putting together like a puzzle for someone. I just think it's so interesting and I loved that side of it. There was just something about the writing that didn't vibe with me and this is a problem I have a lot where if I just don't, if there is friction between me and the writing, that is going to severely severely impact my enjoyment of the book. Like I sometimes can't look towards the plot that I love, the methods that I love, these characters that are interesting, if me and the writing just aren't getting along. It felt like I was wading through like, I don't know, boggy water, quick sand. I was stuck in quick sand trying to read this book is how I felt. It just felt not easy. It felt like a difficult thing to get through, which is sad. And I tried the audiobook, I was not enjoying the audiobook either. So I am going to continue on with the series. I'm going to give the second one a go and see what I think, although I have had some not as good reviews and people who like really loved this one and haven't loved the second one as much. I'm going to give it a go. But yeah, I can really admire what this does in the premise, but that's what I kind of knew going into it. I would enjoy those elements. The writing and the execution for me was not always it, sadly. Okay, time to surprise is I have two again. My biggest surprise of the month was Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Everisto. I read this for my Patreon book clubs. There's a reading vlog and a discussion live show over on my Patreon for it. But I loved this. I thought this was incredible. So if you haven't read this before, we are basically following 12 different people who are predominantly black women. There's a few people in that list who aren't black women. But it is majority black women, I would say, in the UK and it's following their lives. And we kind of have chapters and we have trios of perspectives within each chapter. And often they are linked to one another. So you might have a mother, then her daughter, then another relative or a friend of theirs or something. And I just thought the writing in this was incredible. I absolutely, in complete contrast to the other book, I loved the writing in this. And I loved what it was saying about particularly black women's experience within Britain. Like I said, there are other perspectives. But I think particularly what it says about black women's experience in Britain and how particularly like the context of it in Britain and how they are one of the most, you know, underrepresented overlooked demographics of the population. I just thought it was a brilliant piece of work from Bandy Neveristo. And I feel like I'm going to read more of her books because I just adored this. And the reason it wasn't a five star is there are some historical perspectives at the end that I felt felt a little bit out of place within the rest of the book. We have other characters who we meet them when they're older. And then some of their perspective goes into their back throw when they're younger in a historical perspective. But it's still placed in the present. And then we had like two perspectives at the end that we're in like we're historical. And I just didn't feel like they worked. Like the whole book was really flowing for me up until that point. And then they felt a little bit out of place. So that's the only reason it wasn't a five. I would really, really recommend this. I think it was incredibly deserving of the Book of Prize. It is the second I looked it up. I was like, I don't think I've ever had a Book of Prize when I'm four. I have read The Blind Assassin by Margaret, which I really enjoyed. I think I gave that a four star but that was like five years ago. I read that I read that a long time ago. So this is my second Book of Prize winner. Yeah, good. That's cute. You're so clever. Oh my God, you're so clever. And like maybe I'm going to become a Book of Prize but I don't think I'm going to end up as maybe I'm going to become a Book of Prize winner. Dear God, Megan, don't get ahead of yourself. Maybe I'm going to become a Book of Prize winner reader. I don't know. I really, really enjoyed this and I'd be excited to read more books by Bernardine Everesta in the future. And then a little little surprise, a little honorable mention to The George Moff by Catherine Woodfine. I don't want to spend too long on this because there was a whole reading vlog just for this book. And it's only like a, it's a minor surprise. It's a minute surprise. But this is the second in the Sinclair's Mysteries which are middle grade historical mysteries. And this was just a surprise to me because I enjoyed it so much more than the first. The first was like a three star. This was a four star. I thought it was a big improvement on the series in terms of the mystery, in terms of the characters, in terms of the pacing of the book. I felt like it really came together in this one. This one, the mystery is very much to do with like higher society within London. And I thought that was interesting. I often when I read middle grade, I try and think like, what would I have thought of this when I was younger? And I think I would have thought it was so fun. It's got a little bit of humor, but it's got horror, but it's got high jinks. It's got tension. I just think for middle grade, it really, it really did that. I really, really enjoyed this edition. So a little, a little honorable mention because I wasn't like, oh my god, like this is incredible surprise. But I was surprised by how much more I enjoyed it than the first book. It's time to talk about the hits for the month. I had two five styles this month. And the first was Holly by Stephen King. Now I do want to preface this by saying this was the book that got me out of the trenches of just like every book I'd read up into this point was a little bit of a struggle, a little bit of a slog. I was struggling to hit three books in January. I really did not have many books I enjoyed. This was the first book where it was, it was good. Finally, some good fucking food. The pacing in this book I think is incredible. So we're following Holly and Ness, who is a character we've followed for a long time. She's originally in the Miss Mercedes trilogy, then she's in The Outsider. She's also in The If It Belies short story collection. I haven't read that because she's only in one short story and that's why I didn't feel like that was essential before reading this. A lot of people have asked me like, what do I have to read before reading this? And this is like the Holly Gibney series, as marked as The Outsider, then If It Belies then this. My controversial opinion is you need to read the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, but you don't necessarily need to read The Outsider, I don't think. For me, what is important about Holly's character is the journey she goes on with Bill Hodges in The Mr. Mercedes trilogy. So that's what I think is important to read before reading this. I think you could skip The Outsider. I don't know if that's controversial. Please don't mind if there's something important that happens in it, but I don't, I don't really think so. I think you could just go straight to this. But anyways, in this, Holly Gibney is running a detective kind of agency and a girl has gone missing and she gets contacted by the girl's mother and she's trying to solve what happened. And I just thought the pacing on this was great. This is by far my favorite Stephen King I have read. I've only read The Holly Gibney universe. I have not read any other Stephen King. So I know that does not leave me best place to say, oh my god, this is a great Stephen King. But it just, it was what I needed in the moment, right? It's not horror, it won the horror category, the Goodreads Choice Awards. And it should have been a mystery thriller, which I, when I did my predictions, placed it as, because I was like, it's Holly, she's runs a detective agency. Of course, there's like, with these genres, they can bleed into one another. There are horrific elements, but I would not say it's a horror. I just really, really enjoyed this. I really like Holly as a character. I thought the writing was really good. I loved, by this time, when you're like five, six books into like knowing characters, you know, seeing Jerome again or seeing other characters, Barbara characters that we've known throughout the whole series, it just feels kind of comforting. But I just thought the way that Stephen King lets you as the reader know things just before the characters do, and the way that makes you feel so tense and worried for the characters, because you kind of know the situations that they're walking into or what they may be experiencing. I thought was really, really effective. So lesson, would I recommend this to everyone? No. Do I think Stephen King should keep winning the Goodreads Choice Awards? No. Like, there's a lot of caveats to this, but I really enjoyed it. And it was what I needed in the moment. And then my other five star, very, very different. We're making a swift turn here. But my other five star was Check and Mate by Ali Hazwer. This is Ali Hazwer's YA debut. And I thought it was incredible. I loved it. So this one we're following basically we tonight is a romance between two kids, two kids, two kids, they're actually quite old. She's 18, I think, and he's like 20, maybe. So like, you know, I'd say it's verging between YA and adult, but it has been marketed as YA. And yeah, we're following these two people in love who love chess. And I love it. I love, I love, I say this all the time, I love anything that like a book that centers around like a nerdy topic and you really get into it. Like, I'm sure Ali Hazwer is not expert chess. I'm sure there's like lies and deceit in terms of chess rules and, you know, how it works throughout this book. But I did not care because I loved these characters were into this and I loved how it framed the romance and I thought the romance was really good. Now in terms of the YA, there are a few like sex scenes, you know, it's not explicit in the way that adult ones are. But it is older YA. But I often think like when I was reading YA, I could have read this. I wouldn't have killed me. Do you know what I mean? Like I think it is the way it's framed and the way the sex scenes happen. Sex scenes. I would say that it's pretty fade to black. And I think it's just suitable for YA. She's really scared in the line because I was worried about how Ali Hazwer would have transferred to YA. I'd never thought of her rising YA before. But it just had me kicking my feet, giggling. I really love these characters. I loved the journey. So they went on some more of the kind of YA familial tension kind of storylines that you get a lot. I thought we're handled really well. I just, Ali can do me no wrong. She's incredible. She's a beautiful person. Her talent and brilliance is beyond. I know. I've got Love Theoretically and I've got Bride. Oh, here's Bride right here on my TBR and Love Theoretically is there. I know I need to read them. I know I need to read them. Ali, I've never given her any less than I think a 4.5. And that was up on the brain and I feel like I should raise that to a 5. I feel like she's all 5 stars for me. She can do no wrong. I love her. What do you think? I think I gave the short stories in, you know, she did those three short stories. I think I gave them lower ratings but they don't really count. In terms of novels, I've never given really less than a 5 star. So yeah, I really, really enjoyed this. I would really recommend it. I think it's a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. I really, really enjoyed it. I love, it just, you know, it made me so like, I really just think the writing was great. I love you, Ali. So that is my February wrap up. A pretty successful month. A 3.9 average rating is pretty good. And we're going to try and even level up on that in March. I have really good feelings about my reading. I'm feeling very positive. I'm feeling very excited about a lot of the books we've got coming up. So yeah, that's it. I love you guys. Thank you for watching. Let me know how your February reading went down below. And again, make sure to check out the link in my description for the first 500 views. Quick link will get one month free of Skillshare, which I cannot recommend enough. I feel like I owe a lot of my creative development to Skillshare. So definitely go check it out down below. Thank you guys so much for watching. And I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.