February 2019 Reads
- mbergie1313
- May 26, 2019
- 7 min read
Hey guys! So I'm back again with a post about all the books I read in the month of February, 2019. Before we get into the actual books themselves, let's first go over my statistics.
In February, the shortest month of the year, I somehow finished a total of 7 books...what?! This was not only an increase from last month (in January, if you haven't seen my post about my reads, I read only 5 books), but also from February of 2018, where I only read 4 books. I'm so proud that I was able to fit in so many books in a short amount of time, especially when I was totally busy with classes starting up and work. That being said, I only read a total of 1,991 pages, therefore not meeting my goal of reading 2,500 pages every month. While I'm really okay with that, as this goal is more so a loose guideline, I am glad that I did surpass my page count last month (though it still doesn't make up for this month), and hopefully I can also surpass this count in March and be completely caught up. We'll see if that actually happens...
Out of the 7 books I finished, 3 were books I owned, and 4 were borrowed from the library. While I'd prefer to have the majority of the books I read be from those I already own, I'm still pleased that they are quite even, so I'm not completely annoyed by this. I didn't have any rereads this month, nor did I finish any series; in fact, I started 2 new series, good job me! (That is sarcasm if you couldn't tell, because I really should finish the bajillion series I started in 2017 and 2018 before starting new ones). As for the genders of the authors of the books I read, I am a little sad that they weren't more even, as 5 were written by male authors and only 2 by females, but hopefully I'll have a month were I read more books written by female authors and it will all equalize by the end of the year.
I definitely read a variety of genres this month: I read 1 sociopolitical book, 2 fantasies, 1 historical nonfiction, 1 literary fiction, 1 science fiction, and 1 biography. I'm really pretty proud of this diversity, and hope to continue on with it (though I'd love to read more fantasies and sci-fis). I'm extremely proud of the fact that in both January and February I've read at least one nonfiction book, and I'd absolutely love if I continued this trend for the rest of the year (though I don't want to pressure myself too much).
Once again, I read a majority of adult books, which had a total of 6, and read 1 young adult. While I am glad to be reading more adult level novels, I'd like to have a bit more variety, but again, this isn't an area that I'd like to focus my attention on. When it comes to original date of publication, though, I did improve a bit from January, as I read 2 books from the pre-1800s, 1 from the 1950s-90s, 1 from the 2000s, and 3 from the 2010s. I definitely want to keep this up.
Finally, when it comes to ratings, I had a pretty good reading month: I read 2 five star books, 2 four star books, 2 three star books, and upon further reflection, 1 two star books.
With these stats out of the way, let's get on to the books themselves!
6. Republic by Plato; translated by Robin Waterfield
Even though I studied parts of this during some of my Classics courses in undergrad, this is the first time I've read Republic in its entirety. I found it really fascinating to learn about Socrates' (or Plato's) ideal community, even if I might not agree with or believe in all of his points. Basically, and this is a very simple overview, he believes there should be a tripartite society, resembling the three sections of the mind/soul, where every class has their own specific duties that contribute to their unification under the philosopher kings. I do hope to write a more in-depth review about this book, so I will summarize this review by saying that I really enjoyed this discussion, and therefore gave it a B.
7. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
I found it very fitting to read this alongside Plato's Republic as both are cultural studies concerning human nature, society, and politics. I'm sure I would have still enjoyed this on its own, but reading these two books together was really enlightening, especially when comparing the two. But anyway, in Gulliver's Travels, we follow Gulliver as he chances upon strange lands and people who have never been discovered before. These people range from miniature human beings to giants to sideways people who live in the clouds to rational horses. And while this does include humor (I mean, talking horses?!?...also, there is quite a lot of discussion of... ahem, feces), the satirical aspects somehow doesn't detract from the insights and discussions about different government systems and human nature. I really enjoyed the contemplative/philosophical nature of this book, which is similar to Republic, and rated this as a B.
8. The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie
This novel was an ARC I was given for Review by the Astoria Bookshop ARC Club, so I do have a full review scheduled to be posted closer to the release date that will contain a more in-depth summary of the book and a longer discussion on my own thoughts. For now, though, I will say this: I did not find this book to be fully formed, as it was lacking in nearly every aspect. I had originally given this book a C, but upon further reflection I knocked the rating down to a D+. I'm quite disappointed, because I had read at least the first book in Conie's Matched Trilogy, and remembered enjoying it then (though I don't think it would stand up now), so it's a shame that I didn't enjoy her newest release.
9. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
I picked this book up on a whim from my library, and therefore didn't really have any expectations going into it, which was a good thing. This is a nonfiction book that gives some information on Genghis Khan, a historical figure that I've definitely heard of but have never read about before. Though I have nothing to compare this too, as I haven't read up on Genghis Khan or know much about him, this books didn't feel like a comprehensive history of him, because it seemed to skip around in time. That being said, it would be a good book to read as an introduction to Genghis Khan's history. While it was good in that respect, I don't think Weatherford focused enough on the 'making of the modern world' portion of the title, as I have no idea what Genghis Khan contributed to how life is today. In the end, while I found this to be about an interesting time in history, I found this book to be a little lacking, and therefore gave it a C rating.
10. Poena Damni: Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos; translated by Shorsa Sullivan
Sadly, this book was a bit of a disappointment to me, but it was of not fault to the book, but rather is due to my personal reading tastes. This short novel is written in a very unique and poetic way that just went over my head. While I appreciate the beauty of lyrical writing, I just can't understand it, its too metaphorical for me. I picked this up for two reasons: one, because it is listed as a dystopian and two, because it is written by a Greek author. I did not know anything else about what I was getting into, and that is truly my fault. Even though I still don't know what this book was about, I don't know if I would classify it as a true dystopian, but I could be wrong as I didn't understand what was going on. This is the first book in a series, so the other two books might better explain what was happening in the story, but I'm not sure if I'll pick them up because obviously I don't mesh well with this style of writing. For these reasons, I gave this a C-.
11. The Just City by Jo Walton
I'm calling it now, this book is going to be on my top reads of 2019 list! I absolutely LOVED this book SO MUCH! This is the first book in Walton's Thessaly series, where Athena decides to implement the ideal city described in Plato's Republic as an experimentation. Apollo helps her test this society because he wants to become mortal in order to better understand humans. Not only was this a philosophical enactment of Plato's ideal city, but it also had science fiction and, most surprising to me, romance elements, which were each interwoven in a magnificently well-written way, to the point where I devoured the story. Obviously I loved Walton's writing and plot, but I also found her characters to be well-rounded as well. Furthermore, this had dystopic/utopic (depending on what character's perspective you are viewing it from) elements, which just added to my already high enjoyment. In the end, I gave this an A, and literally bought the final two books in this trilogy right after completing this book.
12. Eleni by Nicholas Gage
This book absolutely killed me. I think I truly sobbed each and every time I picked up this book to read. This is a memoir of Gage's mother, Eleni, who was murdered by Communist guerrillas during the chaos in Greece after World War II. Within it, we see him investigates what really happened and why, as he was a young child when this occurred. Obviously, you would expect this to be difficult to read due to the subject matter, but it is even more so because Gage doesn't hold back or sugarcoat what exactly happened to his mother, his family, and his fellow villagers of Lia. But for me personally it was even harder to get through because of my familial connections: my mom's side of the family is Greek, with my yiayia's name being Eleni, like the main protagonist, and my papou's name being Christos, coincidentally like Gage's father; both of my grandparents grew up in Greece during this time, and therefore experienced similar turmoil (though they lived closer to Athens, so it wasn't exactly the same). I couldn't help but picture my own family going through these events and it absolutely broke my heart even more. Eleni is definitely a must-read in my opinion, as I feel like it provides insight to a place and time in history that, we Americans at least, don't learn about. Not only should we remember these courageous and brave villagers like Eleni, but we must realize that the evils of the world are not straightforward, but usually hidden or disguised. We can't forget this of history nor of present day. While I don't feel great rating the content of this book, I believe that the writing and passion of Nicholas Gage deserve an A rating.