My Month in Books | February and March 2024

That’s the first quarter for 2024 done! It’s a whirlwind. Personal life and work has been pretty busy but reading still centres me so I still do it anyway. I found myself slowly easing into reading in print/digital again as well and I love it for me. Coming off of my last update for January (which I posted a bit late in February), here’s a combined update of what I’ve read these past two months:

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Books read in FEBRUARY:

• The Exception to the Rule (Improbable Meet Cute, #1) by Christina Lauren – 3.5/5☕
• Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata – 3.5/5☕ [short review]
• Worst Wingman Ever (Improbable Meet Cute, #2) by Abby Jimenez – 4/5☕
• Arrangements in Blue: Notes on Loving and Living Alone by Amy Key – 5/5☕ [short review]
• The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbour, #1) by Laurie Gilmore – 3/5☕[very short review]
• Requiem for a Mezzo (Daisy Dalrymple, #3) by Carola Dunn – 3.5/5☕
• Murder on the Flying Scotsman (Daisy Dalrymple, #3) by Carola Dunn – 3.5/5☕
• Rosie and the Dreamboat (Improbable Meet Cute, #3) by Sally Thorne – 2.5/5☕
• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1) by Heather Fawcett – 4.5/5☕
• Drop, Cover, and Hold (Improbable Meet Cute, #4) by Jasmine Guillory – 2/5☕
• With Any Luck (Improbable Meet Cute, #5) by Ashley Poston – 3.5/5☕
• Royal Valentine (Improbable Meet Cute, #6) by Sariah Wilson – 1.5/5☕

Oh well, I know I cheated a little bit by putting each instalment as separate books in my count but who cares? I was initially wanted to just read read the Abby Jimenez story (because I would happily consume whatever this woman writes) but decided to just read everything since they are all quote short anyway. Very very short review of each: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Expectedly, Worst Wingman Ever was my favourite. One of my favourite quotes from Abby came out of it: “Take responsibility for your own unhappiness, Holly. If you don’t love your life change it.“. There is so much more but I just want to say that I love Abby Jimenez so much. DEfinitely one of my auto-read authors of contemporary fiction.

I continued on going through the Daisy Dalrymple series and read Book 3 and 4 last February. They kept to the formula, and it is nice having people from the previous books pop up from time to time. I also finally managed to read The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore [very short review]which everyone have been raving about last fall. It was okay, but wasn’t mind-blowing – which was a bit surprisingly for me because it has all the elements that I thought I would like. I read that it’s gonna be a series so at least I am hoping the next book would be better.

The other 3 books were some of my favourites I’ve read in a while. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata [short review] is the Murakami Jazz Club January pick and I am glad to finally read something from a book club I’ve been a part of since last year. This is an iconic work from a Nobel Prize-winning author, and reading into it gave a glimpse of how literary works are constructed in Japan during this time – there’s almost a poetic quality to it. I also like that it is really cultural-centric, in a sense that it is steeped by nuances you have to understand and at least have an appreciation of in order for the work to transform. The themes are interesting, and I can clearly see the roots of some authors’ works that has been influenced by Kawabata. I am really interested in the works of authors in this period of Japanese literature so I hope I could read more of them this year.

This month, I gave in as well to several friends’ recommendations to try the very popular Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. And what a journey it was. It was cosy fantasy with a bit of high-stakes plot (would that qualify as cosy still? hmmm) – but it was also comforting without being too deep. It was one of the best portrayals of faeries I’ve read lately, reminiscent of ones from old stories and folk tales. It was really nice. I ended up rating it 4.5/5 stars and I just kept thinking that maybe this type of book can be my gateway to actually enjoying fantasy again. (I know I’ve said this about Babel before, but I enjoyed this much much more.)

And finally – my first first 5-star read of the year: Arrangements in Blue: Notes on Loving and Living Alone by Amy Key [short review]. I never expected to love this book so much. It’s about loving and living and contentment and yearning and everything in between. It’s a pretty complex book to describe; in a sense that it focuses on an idea, rather than a summarization of a life (as memoirs go). And it’s this: a life lived in anticipation of romantic love but finding yourself partnerless and never truly grasping it at the stage in your life that you initially thought you’d have it. I hold this book so close to my heart. I hope you can read it and give it a try. 💙

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Books read in MARCH:

• Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto – 5/5☕
• Damsel in Distress (Daisy Dalrymple, #5) by Carola Dunn – 4/5☕
• Dead in the Water (Daisy Dalrymple, #6) by Carola Dunn – 3.5/5☕
• South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami – 3.5/5☕

March was a bit of a slow month for me but I was able to get my second 5-star in Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advise for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. It was unexpectedly so good! I got to listen to it while randomly looking through Spotify and it was pleasant surprise. Eunice Wong’s narration also added a lot to the experience so if ever you wanted to try this book out, make sure to also try the audiobook version.

Also continued to go through the rest of Daisy Dalrymple’s series and I was able to finish Book 5 and Book 6, the former being (I think) my favorite among the ones I’ve read so far! I swear, it is becoming a comfort read/listen these days. They weren’t spectacular books but it’s nice listening to them especially when you just want to distract yourself or multi-task while doing something mindless (like finishing a paint-by-the-number set 😉).

I was also able to finish the February book of my Murakami Jazz Club this moth, which is South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. This is my the first Murakami I’ve finished in a while I think and I am really glad that I joined this book club because it kind of pushes me to actually finish the books that I really wanted to read in the first place. This has been in my TBR for so long. I always say that there is a specific mood to read a Murakami that’s why I keep on delaying them and I wasn’t really into it when I was reading it so I just took everything at face value. But reading through several reviews after I read it revealed a lot of things I haven’t considered. Now, there are a lot of elements that I wanted to explore more so I sometimes think about it from time to time. I wouldn’t say it is my favourite Murakami but I think I need to reread it to look for something. At the very least, I finally read one of the most devastating quotes from him that I’ve seen floating around for a while:

But I didn’t understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.

What I’m Currently Reading

Here are the books I am actively reading at the moment:

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh – This started as a joke because I initially just brought it to post a picture of “My ‘Weekend‘ of Rest and Relaxation starts now” for my long Easter weekend. I did just that but I also started leafing through it during downtimes and café visits during that time. It is delivering what it promised from the blurb. And honestly, I am a little bit scandalized by it. I’m curious how the story would go on.
• The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East by Christopher Harding – I saw this at the Waterstones display and it was really interesting so I tried to set aside an audible credit to get it. I think this is my first history-based non fiction in a long while and it is proving to be amusing.

What I’m Looking Forward To

I know we’re at week 2 of April but these are books I am still looking forward to reading (or at least starting):

• The Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tujimura / Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami – The March and April book of Murakami Jazz Club – I still can’t decide which to read first. Luckily, both are already in my shelf as a product of random thrift store shopping and book swaps.
• Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki – Something that’s been going around bookstagram and had my curiosity piqued. I just got a copy of the book this weekend. That distinctive yellow cover is delicious.

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That was a really long update post but if you are still here, thank you for reading. I like the rhythm I am setting for reading these days. And honestly, I am glad that I feel this excited about book content creation again – thus, the updates. Hope this continues. ✨

HOW ABOUT YOU? HOW WAS YOUR READING MONTH THIS February and March? DID YOU HAVE ANY NOTABLE FAVE? 

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