February was a much slower reading month than January for me (which I expected). In all, I read six titles that I really enjoyed and made a dent in my black history month booklist.

Work at my full time job plus work for the blog and the upcoming rebrand really kept me busy and left me with less time to read. I also started binging Game of Thrones, and broke my rule of keeping screens out of bed and reading before sleeping.

I instantly regret that last one. I’m being much tougher on myself to leave all of the tech in the living room and keeping the bedroom focused on rest.

My March to read list is has some great reads on it, so look out for that wrap up next month! But for now, here are all of my February reads…

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

I was originally going to add this book to my black history month reading list. It’s the story of an immigrant family living in New York City, trying to navigate a foreign land and the immigration process. This book shows us the way race, class and gender play out in society. Our main character, Jende lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a Wall Street exec for Lehman Brothers, right before the financial class. The juxtaposition of Clark’s family and Jende’s is exquisite and I loved every part of this book.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Continuing my quest to reread the entire Harry Potter series in 2017. I doubt I have to tell you that this book was amazing and reliving the magic got me through some tough logo revisions and hard projects last month.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntzoke Shange

I’ve seen this play on film, but never read it. I bookmarked so many of the poems (the play is comprised of a series of poems read by Black women representing different perspectives) to come back to later. I’m so glad I have this on my shelf.

Underground Railroad by Coleson Whitehead

This was another read from my Black History Month booklist. I love a good historical fiction retelling, and this one was excellent! I was so attached to the main character and was rooting for her til the end. Given the current times we’re living in, I highly recommend picking this up and really taking the moral questions posed to heart.

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

This is the second book in the Shades of Magic Trilogy. I loved this book even more than the first! The third book was released last month, but I haven’t picked it up yet because I don’t want the series to end. The characters (old and new) are so well developed and wonderful. If you’re into fantasy done well, add this series to your list.

Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately by Alicia Cook

I ended the month with a book of poems that dealt with everything from self love to grief. Each poem in the book includes a song that either inspired the poem, or that the writer played while writing. I really loved the collection and have tons of post it notes marking poems to reread!

That’s it for February! Which books did you read last month that you really enjoyed? As always, you can follow me on Good Reads to see what I’m reading, how I’ve rated books and what books are on my radar!

The next time I share a reading wrap up, we will likely be on the newly rebranded site! If you haven’t submitted your feedback on content you’ve loved or would like more of, please take a minute to fill out this survey! Thanks to those who have submitted feedback already!

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3 Comments

  1. The Underground Railroad sounds like a really great read. I studied a module in University about literature written by black women and it was so fascinating, particularly the things we learned about African-American writing and slavery. I am so open to learning and reading more about those topics, so I feel like I’d really get into this book! Have you read Grace Nichols’ ‘I is a long memoried woman’? It’s a great collection of her poems about slavery in the Caribbean – it’s really powerful material!

    Olivia – The Northernist x

  2. My favourite reads of February have both been short story collections: Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein, and Story of Our Lives and Others by Ted Chiang. Unfortunately, I haven’t been reading too much during the past two weeks because I was busy with midterms, and then my spring break got unexpectedly busy, although I had originally planned to binge read of spring break. Ahh, I think I need to ease myself back into it by reading just 5-10 minutes before bed instead of saying I need to read for 3 hrs straight 😛 -Audrey | Brunch at Audrey’s