February 2013 Reads

Read a little bit more in February than in January, 35 books instead of 32, but much of this occurred toward the last week or so of the month when I had adjusted to my new work schedule and thus had a bit more time to read.  Unfortunately, the non-English language books read dropped from 13 in January to only 6 in February (should note, however, that I did read 9 books in English translation in addition to these 6).  However, the number of female authors read increased from 12 to 22 and the month closed with more books by women being read than those by males.  Now for the titles themselves:

33 Adam Mansbach, Rage is Back (very good)

34  Molly Tanzer,  A Pretty Mouth (story collection; good)

35  Jamaica Kincaid, See Now Then (already reviewed)

36  Raymond Queneau, Exercises in Style (this was the newly-expanded edition; excellent)

37  Lauren Elkin and Scott Esposito, The End of Oulipo? (very good)

38  Angélica Gorodischer, Trafalgar (already reviewed)

39  Charles M. Schulz, Sreća je...toplo kučence (re-read; Serbian translation; very good)

40  Karen Russell, Vampires in the Lemon Grove (story collection; already reviewed)

41  David Albahari, Mamac (Serbian; excellent)

42  David Albahari, Bait (excellent)

43  Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son (re-read; review possible in near future)

44  R.A. MacAvoy, Lens of the World (good)

45  Danilo Kiš, Gronica za Borisa Davidoviča (Serbian; excellent story collection)

46  Danilo Kiš, Unha tumba para Boris Davidovich (Gallician; excellent)

47  Danilo Kiš, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich (re-read; excellent)

48  Karen Lord, The Best of All Possible Worlds (might write a formal review later, but this was a disappointing novel for me)

49  Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference (story collection; very good)

50  Carlene Bauer, Frances and Bernard (epistolary novel; very good in places, but inconsistent in tone)

51  Lucia Perrillo, On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths (poetry; National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; very good)

52  Juli Zeh, The Method (excellent; may write a formal review later)

53  Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums (very good)

54  Czeslaw Milosz, Road-Side Dog (excellent)

55  Carolyn Ives Gilman, Isles of the Forsaken (good)

56  Rosa Montero, Crónica del desamor (Spanish; very good)

57  Amy Lowell, Selected Poems (re-read; poetry; excellent)

58  Elizabeth Claire, ESL Teacher's Activities Kit:  Part One (non-fiction; read for work; OK resource but more geared for elementary students than the middle school ones I teach)

59  Gwendolyn Brooks, The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks (re-read; poetry; excellent)

60  Honor Moore (ed.), Poems from the Women's Movement (poetry; very good to excellent, depending upon the poet)

61  Zoran Živković, Последња Књига (Serbian; review forthcoming)

62  Zoran Živković, The Last Book (re-read; review forthcoming)

63  John Thavis, The Vatican Diaries (non-fiction; review in the next few days)

64  Grozdana Olujić, Wild Seed (very good)

65  Beverly Cleary, Ralph S. Mouse (children's lit; re-read; still excellent after 30 years)

66  Edna St. Vincent Millay, Selected Poems (excellent)

67  Barbara Hodgson, The Tattooed Map (illustrated; very good)


Don't know if I'll read as many this month, as my second (evening full-time) job starts on Monday.  But I hope there'll be more excellent stories to discover.