These were my reads in February 2025. I was still struggling staying focused on reading so finished another month this year with only 8 books.
- I am pleased that I read 2 non-fiction books: one is about Victorians and the other about near-death experiences and research by medical professionals into that.
- From Blood and Ash is a new fantasy series I started. It proved to be pretty fast moving so I am definitely going to continue.
- The Soul of the Sword is the second book in a fantasy trilogy inspired by Japanese mythology that I really enjoy.
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey is a short beautifully written book from the point of view of 6 astronauts orbiting the earth. It is a love song to Earth, a poem in verse. Here is a quote from it that I wrote out:
*** Art is a set of illusions and tricks and artifices within life. Life is a set of illusions and tricks and artifices within a consciousness that is trying to understand life through perceptions and dreams and art.***
- The Forest Grimm was a new take on well-known fairy tales. I think a sequel is coming out later this year, but the book can be read as a stand alone. I think it was mediocre and frankly quite forgettable so I don't think I'll be picking up the sequel.
- Alien Clay is probably the most thought-provoking Sci-Fi I've read in a long time. It challenges the Darwinian survival of the fittest, and posits instead that perhaps it is not the strongest that survive, but those who are able to get along with others.
