February has been a very enjoyable reading month for me. I’ve kept to my strict abandonment policy and been rewarded with one good book after another.
Book of the Month
Books reviewed in February:
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick 
The Death of Grass by John Christopher 
Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles 
Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé 
Purgatory by Tomás Eloy Martínez 
The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White DNF
Plans for March
I’m going to finish The Half Brother, an amazing Norwegian book, which has been dominating my February reading time because it contains 750 pages of tiny type. I also hope to read most of these:
A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Great Singapore Penis Panic by Scott Mendelson
The Boy Who Fell To Earth by Kathy Lette
Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski
The Roundabout Man by Clare Morrall
We the Animals by Justin Torres
I hope that you have a wonderful March!
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Judging by all those 4 and 4.5 star ratings, you had a great month’s reading! I managed to get through 16 books which is a new record for me (!) and read a few brilliant novels and story collections and some good ones, but thankfully no real stinkers.
5-star reads for me in February were Jon McGregor’s new story collection – I’ve loved all his novels but I reckon this might be his best book yet – such an inventive, original and thought-provoking set of stories. I also thought I.J. Kay’s ‘Mountains of the Moon’ was an astounding debut novel and really hope it makes the Orange Longlist next week. I read my second Alex Miller novel, having loved the first of his I read in January – ‘Conditions of Faith’ was possibly even better than ‘Journey to the Stone Country’ and he’s fast on the way to being one of my favourite authors. And finally I thought Dana Spiotta’s ‘Stone Arabia’ (released in the US last year, UK edition due out this June) was brilliant – all about memory, identity and art and so well written.
I see you’re planning to read ‘We the Animals’ in March – I read that yesterday (it only takes a few hours) and thought it was good. I found it a bit of a frustrating read actually as the first 100-and-odd pages were wonderful, but the last chapter felt tagged on and a bit unnecessary (though I’m sure Torres found it quite cathartic to write).
Lined up for March I have ‘Absolution’ by Patrick Flanery, ‘A Division of the Light’ by Christopher Burns, ‘Painter of Silence’ by Georgina Harding, ‘Heft’ by Liz Moore, Johanna Skibsrud’s new story collection, ‘The Little Russian’ by Susan Sherman, ‘Konstantin’ by Tom Bullough and I’ll probably get around to ‘The Snow Child’ at some point, though my plans might alter depending on how attractive the Orange Longlist looks!
David, Congratulations on reading 16 books! I rarely get that high – especially since I’ve been reading more chunksters.
It is interesting to hear that you loved ‘Mountains of the Moon’. I started reading that last month and thought the writing was fantastic, but the story didn’t really grab me. I can’t say I’ve really abandoned it – I’ve just put it aside as something else has always attracted me more, but after your comments I’ll make an effort to get back into it.
Your list for March looks good and I plan to try most of them at some point. I might try Heft and Painter of Silence in March, but with the announcement of the Orange longlist everything could change
I hope you have another wonderful reading month!
just wrote my monthly review: http://damnedconjuror.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/the-monthly-review-february/
it seems like you have a better reading experience then I did.
I’ve only read Nothing to Envy but I keep hearing good things about The Snow Child so might have to pick that up.
The Great Singapore Penis Panic is nominated for the Diagram Prize. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/diagram-prize-shortlist-revealed.html
A Damned Conjuror,
I first heard about The Great Singapore Penis Panic when I read The Diagram Prize shortlist – I’ve read the first section and it was very good. The rest of the list don’t appeal at all though!
I hope you have a better month in March.
You read some great books last month. Hopefully March will be just as good. I haven’t read any of the books, so have no opinion on any of them.
My March is a busy reading month. I somehow always plan my months rather full. So far, I’ve been reading all the books I plan to read but it’s getting tight!
I hope you have a wonderful March, too!
I was up until 2.30 last night finishing Before I Go To Sleep, something I haven’t done for a long time. I loved it though I do agree with you that the plot doesn’t stand up completely to analysis afterwards. Good read though!
some wonderful books here that will go on my P1DWBR* as my TBR is now called.
*Possibly one Day Will Be Read