I’m pretty sure I’m out of that slump and funk now, by the end of February. I had a great month of reading, much better than January. Almost all of these were audiobooks. Since I knew the end of my membership to my library back home in Kansas City was ending in February, I wanted to capitalize on using it as much as possible. I was pretty pleased to get some highly anticipated new releases, as well as discovering some new gems I hadn’t heard of before.
- Dark Money (audio) … Jane Mayer, read by Kirsten Potter
- American Housewife: Stories (audio) … Helen Ellis, read by various
- Fire and Fury (audio) … Michael Wolff, read by Holter Graham and author
- I Am, I Am, I Am (audio) … Maggie O’Farrell, read by Daisy Donovan
- Gratitude (audio) … Oliver Sacks, read by Dan Woren
- Broad Strokes (audio) … Bridget Quinn, read by Tavia Gilbert
- So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed (ebook) … Jon Ronson
- Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life … Jonathan Gould
- Shark Drunk (audio) … Morten A. Strøksnes, read by P.J. Ochlan
- You Should Have Left (audio) … Daniel Kehlmann, read by Robertson Dean
- The Strange Bird (audio) … Jeff VanderMeer, read by Emily Woo Zeller
- This Will Be My Undoing (audio) … Morgan Jerkins, read by author
My favorites were easily Dark Money, Otis Redding, and Broad Strokes, with Shark Drunk close behind. I’m happy I stuck with writing up posts after finishing books here throughout the month too!
Other bookish stuff… I started The Left Hand of Darkness for my Best Friends International Book Club and quickly DNF’d. It’s just not for me. I have trouble getting into high sci-fi fantasy in general, and I could barely follow the story. I didn’t know who was who or what was happening most of the time. Anthony, my book club buddy, DNF’d too, saying, “So many words I don’t know how to say, let alone keep track of. And the narrative voice doesn’t resonate with me; I can’t understand where I am in almost any given sentence.” Some people have the right kind of mind for elaborate, made-up words and worlds, some don’t. Our first-ever BFIBCDNF! I also bought two new Singaporean small-press books, SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century and The Infinite Library.
Right now I’m reading Homegoing (for BFIBC and the TBR Pile Challenge), The Summer That Melted Everything (TBR Pile Challenge), and SQ21.
Otherwise, I’ve been spending time drawing and trying to get out of the apartment more. I went to see the Museé d’Orsay impressionism exhibit at the National Gallery of Singapore last week, which was fantastic, saw the amazing Black Panther movie, and also bought a new bass!! It’s a Fender American Elite Jazz Bass. I’m in love.