February 2026 Wrap Up

February was a much slower month than January as far as reading goes – but I did get my first 5 star read, so let’s say I’m finally finding some quality instead of just quantity.

I read Swordheart by T. Kingfisher and was reminded all over again about why I just adore her writing. This book was my first 5 star for 2026, and was magnificent. I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series.

I tried to read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, which was a book club read. Unfortunately it is just not my type of book. It felt long winded for zero reason and the first portion of the book was spent re-hashing things that we had already gone over. I decided not to waste any more time on it, and marked it as DNF. No shame there, I’m sure it’s a lovely read for some folks but it just wasn’t for me.

I stumbled back to my Witch Hat Atelier series which is coming out with an anime in April – VERY excited about this. I hope it stays true to the manga, but we shall see. Another 5 star from me, no surprises there.

I do have some individual reviews coming for the books of February, but I’m (as always) a bit behind. I am struggling to make my way through The Artists’ Way, which I personally feel is a horrible book to motivate artists but it came so highly recommended by people I admire that I am trying to give it a fair shot. I’m already part way through a new book and it’s only the 2nd of March, so we’ll see how this goes. Hopefully it’s full of wonderful reads and I’m able to settle. I’ve been bouncing around a few books unable to find one I really want to read, so we’ll just have to see how it goes.

I did also choose to leave the two book clubs I was in. I found that I wasn’t really interacting or making use of them in a way that I wanted to. Whether it’s because I still haven’t found the one for me or maybe I’m just not a book club person, I’m not sure. Since I was barely using either of them to begin with I haven’t really noticed that I left, which I suppose is the point.

Happy reading!

January 2026 Wrap Up

How are we already into February?!

January was a very typical month as far as reading goes. In 2024 I didn’t have any 5-star reads, and the same held true. Maybe I’m just not that great at picking out books at the start of the year, lol. I did a few audio books but most were e-books on my Kobo, the two self-help were audio books from my local library.

The Emily Wilde book was for the Goobers book club, and I didn’t actually get around to my ‘Books out of the Blue’ challenges, but I’m hoping to make up for that this month. I did work on my TBR, which is where A House with Good Bones comes in – but I thought it would be a 5 star read, and it was not. Through no fault of the author, it just wasn’t the book for me (details are posted in my regular reviews). As always these statistics are taken from my profile over on The StoryGraph, which I am using as an alternative to GoodReads.

Still, I’m counting 7 books as a huge win. I have some fantastic reads lined up for February, so maybe that elusive 5 star will be uncovered then. Happy reading!

3/5 Stars: Nobody Wants your Shit, the art of decluttering before you die, by Messie Condo

This was a strange book. Lots of swearing, it was hard to tell if it was because the author wanted to feel more edgy or what. The information presented wasn’t new, but it could act as motivation for the right person. I did not enjoy the way the book worked in absolutes. It talked about decluttering before moving – a lot – and I DO move a lot, but none of their information was relative to any of my moves, and in most cases was just outright incorrect. I think these types of books are difficult because there is no one true method to serve every person in every situation. Still, it passed some time. I borrowed this book from the library because it was available as I was searching, without a wait (and now I see why). Also, curious about the author’s name, is it their real name? Are they making a play on Marie Condo? I don’t get it. It’s odd.

3/5 Stars

3/5 Star Review: Automatic Noodle, by Annalee Newitz

This was a fascinating read about racism/acceptance/tolerance but presented in a really unique and yet still relatable way. It felt odd to read it given the state of the world right now, but also really good. The end was insanely abrupt, which is why I only gave it 3 stars, because it left a bad taste in my mouth to leave it like that. This was a novella so I wasn’t expecting too much, but it did affect my overall view of the book. Enjoyable read, but that ending messed with my brain.

3/5 Stars

2/5 Star Rating: The Primal of Blood and Bone, by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This book was horrible. It felt very off compared to the previous 6 books and I didn’t understand why. Cas was behaving like an obsessive abusive boyfriend and not like the lover that I had seen him as in the previous books. I think I am done with this series even if more books come along, because it simply was not for me any more.

2/5 Stars

2025 Reading Wrap Up

OK I know I’m a bit late posting this, but better late than never. 2025 has come and gone, and we’ve started the 2026 week – so let’s look over how it went in terms of books, for me.

First of all, I do have to say that I read far more this year than I expected and I think that’s because of a number of things. I joined an active book club, I kept a reading journal, and I was motivated and inspired by the books I had available. I also read a LOT of books from the library this year and that really helped to save money and keep costs down. If there was two ‘factors’ that really helped me read more in 2025, I would have to say it was the reading journal and the library. I’ll (of course) be taking advantage of both in 2026.

My goal was to read 25 books in 2025, and I read 51. I marked 5 books DNF because life is too short to read bad books (they are not included in the 51 books read). I avoided things like BookTok after attempting to dive in because it turns out that those types of books, those influencers, are NOT for me. That’s OK.

I spent around $300 on books this year, and read most of the ones I purchased (the rest I hope to finish reading in 2026). One of my biggest purchases was a 1-6 box set of Witch Hat Atelier, which came to $120 and I admit right off the bat this was for a ‘I want to collect it’ reason – though I did read and enjoy it a huge amount. I also saved more than $300 by borrowing books from the library, and this also afforded me the opportunity to explore authors I had not heard of before, along with browsing through a lot of Canadian authors which is something that I actively strive to incorporate in my reading each year.

In 2026, I want to be mindful of consumption. I’ve created some TBR lists and they include many books that I own that I have yet to read (a lot of them were gifts) and I want to continue to make use of the library. I am also participating in a few challenges this year, I’ve joined a second book club called Books Out of the Blue, (quite casual, I’m not too worried about the reads in this one) along with returning to the Goobers who Read book club. I love having communities of people to talk books with, and they are just good people.

My TBR pile has 11 books on it, a mixture of digital and physical books that I’ve had in my collection for a while. I did also pick up an art resource book, so I’m making my way through that. I am going to continue with my reading journal, though I haven’t quite gotten it set up the way I want, yet, that’s a future project. I did finish off the 2025 reading journal, and I really like how it turned out. I’ll also have to go and back date a bunch of posts for the December reading statistics and all of that good stuff. As far as ‘goals’ go, I’ve kept it simple. I’d like to read 26 books in 2026. I’m not sure if the 51 books read was an anomaly or not, but I also know that this is meant to be fun, and low pressure. I’m looking forward to sharing my 2026 reading journal once I get it all set up, and I’ll be sure to take some pictures and share more statistics in my 2025 one next week.

December 2025 Wrap-Up

A lot of books made their way to me this month, as I tried to round out the year. I picked up Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas because it is constantly suggested to me, over and over again. On BookTok, on Facebook, on Twitter. I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I had avoided it so far because I had a feeling that it just wasn’t for me, but I wanted to validate that feeling so that I wasn’t simply judging what might be a good book, on feeling.

Nope. I was right. This is not a book for me. It was awkward and difficult to read the first few pages, the story didn’t connect, I felt like we (the reader) was tossed into a book that was part way completed with no context. I feel good about my decision to leave this one in the DNF pile.

Along those same lines, a free book called ‘Dragon his Heels’ came to my TBR pile, and since I am a fan of romance, I figured why not.

Another DNF from me. There were some personal triggers within the first few pages that I was just not willing to see past. I’m sure this book is good for someone, it’s just not for me.

Two amazing reads for the month were ‘When Among Crows’ which is a trilogy that I hope to continue, and ‘Piranesi’ which is a stand alone novella. Piranesi in specific really caught me off guard, and I found it fascinating, I really enjoyed it (it was also a library read, yay). Automatic Noodle also came highly recommended by mutuals, and it was on sale so I picked that up (another Novella, I don’t imagine this one will take me too long to read). For Christmas I received the Art of Witch Hat Atelier, which is just absolutely gorgeous. I spent the day just lost in the images, it was so inspirational. I love the details. I did not make much progress on the Emily Wilde book, but that is not the fault of the book, I simply wasn’t in the mood this month. I hope to continue it and finish it off in January, but if not, that’s OK too.

Happy reading!

November 2025 Wrap-Up

November was a pretty good month as far as reading went, and it tends to be that way as we approach the end of the year and I look for ways to relax and ‘get back to my roots’ as it were. I managed to complete 5 books this month, though some were very long reads that I had been working through for quite some time. I will do a more in-depth look at each of these books and they’ll be post dated to the day that I completed them on.

The best read of the month was discovering Witch Hat Atelier. This is a manga, and I dove into it head first – reading a few chapters for the first volume, and then promptly buying a box set of the physical books to begin my new collection. The manga does currently go to volume 13, but I couldn’t find an english box set for the volumes after 6, yet. I hope they release it in the future.

I am having a difficult time getting through Primal of Blood and Bone even though I devoured the first 6 books in the series. I’ll talk about this in depth once I complete the book but it’s taking a back seat right now so I have no idea when that might be. Maybe December, if I give it a push. I’m about half way through it at the time of this post.

I can’t believe we’re almost to the end of 2025! That means new goals starting for 2026, and I’m pretty excited about it.

October 2025 Wrap Up

Another month passes where there wasn’t all that much reading going on – well, not exactly true, but looking at my stats, I only completed one book. Still, I did manage to get some reading done each day, even if it wasn’t much. What I tend to do is head to bed with my kobo for a few pages each night, instead of bringing my phone. That way I don’t spend the night scrolling. I do often fall asleep while reading, but that’s not a big deal.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls was a fantastic choice for my October read, and I’ve got some great books by friends on the go right now, including Midwinter’s Heart, and The First Sin. I’m hoping to finish those up in November, but it will depend on how real life is going. Look here for reviews on all of these reads in the future!

4/5 Star Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

This book by Grady Hendrix came recommended to me by a good friend, and I’m so glad that I decided to pick it up even though it’s not my usual genre of choice. This book was absolutely brutal and graphic – but also well written. I think if people who read it couldn’t relate to the book, they might have a difficult time seeing it as ‘horror’. It was moving in a way that I can’t really put into words, and the author took some obvious pains to learn their subject. It really showed (I know this all sounds quite cryptic, but I don’t want to give away the plot of the book). I did feel that there were some ‘over the top’ moments, but it didn’t feel like it was ‘too much’ considering the subject. It was a fantastic read.

4/5 stars