Okay. We're doing this month's "travelling through books" post today. Woot!
In the month of February I read ten books. Which sounds like a lot, but most of them just happened to be shorter than normal.
1.) The first book I read was "Me Talk Pretty One Day", by David Sedaris. It was very funny, so it was what I needed at the beginning of February and it took me to North Carolina, New York, and France. Nice.
2.) I read "Arcadia" by Lauren Goff next. It took me to a Hippie commune in upstate New York in the early 70's through the near future. I really liked this book. It was a hard trip to take in some ways, but very gratifying.
3.) "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman, was a kind of, sort of, sequel to "American Gods". I thought it was great escapism. the characters were lovable pains in the asses and it took me to Florida, England, a Caribbean Island, and another realm altogether.
4.) "What is Yours is Not Yours" by Helen Oyeyemi was a collection of short stories that were like fairy tales, which I love. So, we went to different places in Europe and met many interesting people. A very nice trip indeed.
5.) My fifth journey of the month of February was "Babycakes (Tales of the City #4), by Armistad Maupin. This is such a fun series. Now, we're in San Francisco in 1983, at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, and it also took me to London in 1983. I would've loved to have been able to travel to those places for real my senior year in high school and my first year in college, but this was the next best thing.
6.) In my quest to read more classic fiction, I did pretty well last month. My sixth book was classic non-fiction, "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen (aka Karen Blixen). It took me to Africa at the beginning of the 20th century. It was fascinating, even though it was hard to deal with the colonialist ideals of the time.
7.) I followed up "Out of Africa" with "Devil in the Blue Dress", by Walter Mosely. I loved this book. It is a detective novel that takes place in Los Angeles after World War II with a Black protagonist. It took me right out of Iowa.
8.) Next I read "Little House in the Big Woods". I loved the Little House series when I was a kid and haven't read them since then. It was really fun to go back there, and remember reading them for the first time, and being obsessed with the TV show.
9.) I ended the month with two classic novels. In my pursuit to read every Jane Austen novel this year, I read "Sense and Sensibility" last month. I liked it better than "Emma", but not as well as "Pride and Prejudice". Of course, that's all relative, because they're all so good. I'm really enjoying reading her novels so far.
10.) The last book I read this month was a doozy. "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert was amazing. It wasn't great escapism, because no one was very happy, but it was so well written and riveting. Plus, it wasn't too bad going to France at the end of February either.
I doubt I'll read anywhere near ten books in March, but I'll give it the old college try.
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