What I Read in February
The horrors persist, but I read a stand-out nonfiction.
I’m not sure why we as a society have decided it’s acceptable to have a month with only 28 days, but here we are. February has absolutely flown by. My saving grace was the Up North trip my husband and I took to the arrowhead region of Minnesota for a getaway sans kids. We were so far north and so remote that on the rare occasions we had phone signal, we were picking up reception from Canada. Truly a delight!
Six days of nothing but ice fishing, snowshoeing, and reading by a log fireplace goes a long way toward restoring the soul. Without that dose of extreme slowness, I’m not sure where my headspace would be at this point. Two intense theology courses this semester are taking their toll, not to mention *waves hands at the general state of things in the US.* I feel like someone from a viral video who is just moments away from tripping on the treadmill and going flying backwards.
I assumed I’d have plenty of time to read on that trip—and I did read—but I also felt a call to put the books down and just be. I stared out the window. I poked at the fire. I got lost in my own head. I recognized my tendency toward escapism through fiction when my real life becomes stressful (is there anyone for whom it’s not stressful at the moment?).
Books are my go-to life preserver. But I don’t want to become so reliant on them that I never do the hard work of swimming through the crashing waves. I’m contemplating how this balance between mental health and actually doing something might play out this Lent. Stay tuned.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Me and all the romantasy TikTok girlies1 are all nursing book hangovers from the third installment of the Empyrean series. As a refresher, this series features dragon riders at a brutal war college, where leadership continues to make absolutely nonsensical political decisions. The plot has mainly been relationship driven up to this point, as main characters Violet and Xaden navigate their complicated bond.
Spicy scenes aside, I found Onyx Storm to have more a more strategic, politically focused plot than the first two books, which is more to my liking. Yarros has a knack for keeping the pacing fast and the stakes high. In the previous book, Iron Flame, this combination caused a kind of readerly whiplash. Onyx Storm has toned down the dramatics without losing the urgency of the plot. This my favorite book of the series so far.
Making Time by Maria Bowler
The algorithm presented me with Maria Bowler’s2 Instagram content just days before this book was released. I watched two of her reels and immediately pre-ordered Making Time, both for myself and for a friend. The title and “self-help” genre shelving would lead you to think this is a productivity book, but it’s actually the opposite.
What Bowler is really talking about here is Sabbath (though that’s not a term she uses): how to divorce our identities from what we produce and instead recognize our value in being. This is how we escape hustle culture and consumerism and learn to nurture our own creative longings. The chapters in Making Time are short, only a few pages each, but I savored this book through the whole month. There’s not a single chapter in which I didn’t underline at least one line that stopped me in my tracks, written in Bowler’s poetic style.
I’m already confident in naming this one of the best books I’ll read this year. Would pair well with Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, Sacred Time by Gary Eberle, and The Life We’re Looking For by Andy Crouch.
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
I started this second book in Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series in November and am finally finished! I know that makes it sound like a slog, but this book is phenomenal. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a series that explores character motivations in as complex a way as Sanderson manages—and I’m not even halfway through the series yet. There are still thousands of pages to go!
Having gotten the second book under my belt, I’m now looking at the first in the series, The Way of Kings, as a kind of prologue to everything that comes after it. I can understand why people wouldn’t want to commit to thousands of pages of character development to get to the final cascade of dominoes, but if you’re up for it, Sanderson’s plot endings are legendary.
I’m planning to slot in another book from Mistborn Era 2 before carrying on with the next Stormlight book as a palate cleanser. Having them on audiobook, even as a former self-proclaimed audio hater, has been my saving grace with these doorstops.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
I picked up this memoir from one of my favorite little bookstores, Drury Lane Books in Grand Marais, MN. The shop is small but excellently curated. If I find a book there in a genre I’m interested in, I can almost guarantee it will be a winner. And it was! Despite seeing it make the rounds on social media years ago, I didn’t actually know what You Could Make This Place Beautiful was about until I started reading.
Maggie Smith (the poet, not the British dame) writes poignantly about her divorce, but the words on the page aren’t just about what went wrong. Smith beautifully shares the shifting shapes of her marriage, her family, and her career. This is so much more than a book about a relationship ending—it’s about a woman who belongs to herself.
The real selling point, for me, is that Maggie Smith is a poet. Yes, this is a memoir written in prose, but in my experience poets really only know the one way to write. Smith’s words brought me down from a ledge of anxiety on more than one evening last month. Highly recommend.
I’m on spring break this week and my kids are still in school, meaning I have some big hopes and dreams3 about actually getting some posts scheduled soon for Lent! In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you’re reading, how you’re feeling, and where you’re finding joy in anxious times.
I’ve never had TikTok, but rumors have it that this is where the romantasy fans hang out online, yes?
Fun fact: Maria Bowler is the sister of Kate Bowler, who I’ve long followed for her anti-prosperity gospel messaging.
Please do not point out to me that I still have two midterm papers to write this week. This will spoil my fleeting feeling that I actually have some free time. Also do not point out that the glory of this week will be matched by the difficulty of next week, when my kids are on spring break and I am not. :(
Well, now I'm *really* stoked to read Making Time after that review. So many books, so few quiet afternoons to set aside for reading!