Reading Wrap-Up: February 2025
Highlighting the 12 books I completed this month, including mystery, poetry, historical fiction, contemporary, and abundant nonfiction!
I pretty much always have a fiction, a nonfiction, and an audio book going at any given time. As a mood reader, this honors my need for variety; it also periodically allows for multiple books being finished on the same day - an oddly satisfying experience!
A variety of reasons allowed me to finish a dozen books this month, definitely more than usual for me. When I have abundant reading months like this, I may start posting mid-month and end-of-month wrap-ups to break them up a bit. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to subscribe so you catch them all!
Thank you so much for being here! Let’s get into the books.
Word By Word by Kory Stamper
Imagine listening to a 10-hour audiobook all about words, definitions, and ‘The Secret Life of Dictionaries’ (this book’s subtitle) and being completely enthralled the entire time. That was me with Word By Word! As a lexicographer with a rich work history at Merriam-Webster, Stamper gives an inside look at everything I never knew I needed to know about dictionaries, word histories, regional word differences, profanity, defining words like ‘the,’ and so much more. I chuckled much more than I expected to and also learned so much while reading this word expert’s words about words!
Birding For A Better World by Molly Adams & Sydney Golden Anderson
My bird era continues! Put out by the Feminist Bird Club, this book provides an enlightening overview of birding, with an emphasis on how to make it accessible to all. The authors address a bit about birds, birding details (I liked the tips and tricks for successfully using binoculars), and the environment, and a lot about inclusivity, safety, and building community. The book is quite a quick read, with many of its pages featuring really lovely artwork as well as numerous journaling prompts and space to write. I appreciated the considerations shared here to enhance lives through birding, as well as the tips and facts interspersed throughout - like learning that over 11,000 known bird species exist across the globe!
The Right To Read Handbook by the American Booksellers Association
If you are upset by the rising acts of book censorship (challenges, bans, and the like) and are looking for actionable ways to make a difference, check out this handbook. Created by the American Booksellers Association, The Right To Read provides a solid overview of the history of book banning, as well as why and how it is happening today. This insightful resource then offers facts, language, and specific action steps to support the right to read; I also learned a lot from the interviews with a variety of authors and advocates, as well as the additional organizations and resources provided. I tabbed a bunch, including this line near the end: “Instead of letting book bans divide us, we have a chance to let literature bring us together.” I have definitely experienced, and am grateful for, the power of literature bringing incredible people together!
How To Carry What Can’t Be Fixed by Megan Devine
This was one of those rare and delightful cases of hearing about a book for the first time one morning, purchasing a copy that afternoon, and reading it the rest of the day (Super Bowl Sunday, actually…I’m more of a book fan than a football fan, to the surprise of no one!). I absolutely loved the warmth, gentle support, and thoughtful ideas for walking with grief provided in this journal/workbook-style resource. The artwork is gorgeous, and I really liked the reminder throughout the book that even though you may have experienced grief before, you’ve never experienced this particular grief before. I also wrote a bit more about this one in my ‘A How-To Guide For Life?’ article here, and I’ll be sharing additional details with our Reading And Purpose Nonfiction Book Club members (which you can join at any time).
Exit Interview by Kristi Coulter
My heartfelt thanks to the Reading And Purpose subscriber who mentioned this in the comments of a previous article I posted - I found the book in my library soon after and whipped through it! This memoir covers Coulter’s highly ambitious career path, the support she found along the way as well as the massive lack thereof, and how she navigated the various stages of her years in an executive leadership role. Many of my coaching clients are leaders and executives within organizations and nonprofits, and I appreciate how Coulter addresses things like drive, expectation, personal vs. systemic changes and barriers, burnout, and more. An insightful read, and a good reminder that you are more than your job, even when you love - and are highly successful at - what you do.
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
I had the same reaction upon reading the last page of Long Way Down as I did when reading another of Reynolds’ books a few years ago: Sitting in silence, staring out the window, and wondering how someone can tell so much story in so few words. This book follows a young teenager taking the elevator of his building on his way to seek revenge on his brother’s killer; the way the story is crafted around the elevator stopping at each floor as it goes down is unique, poignant, and so thought-provoking. In many ways, I find this book hard to describe but incredibly powerful to read. Reynolds is truly a master of his craft and I need to get to more of his books ASAP.
The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis
Fiona Davis and Chanel Cleeton are probably my two favorite historical fiction authors at the moment and, lucky for me, they both seem to publish a new book every year or so. Davis’ newest release follows two timelines going back and forth between the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and archeological digs in Egypt. I enjoyed being transported between these timelines and scenes, and I always love the strong female protagonists around which Davis centers her stories. She also has a tendency to send me on deep dives to learn more about the history of whatever she is describing! I believe I’ve read all of her novels to date, and I will continue to read everything she writes.
The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer
This is probably my most surprising read of the month. I’m not sure where I first heard of it and didn’t really know what it was about when I started, yet I was fully captivated from its earliest pages. In this story we follow Clover, a 30-something woman who works as a ‘death doula’ - something else I was not familiar with. Upon learning this, I thought the book might be a bit too sad for me in the moment, however I found it to be just the opposite: Yes, it definitely addresses sadness and grief, but I couldn’t believe how touching, uplifting, and heartwarming it also was. I love how Clover grew throughout the novel, the wonderful people she met along the way, and the lives she impacted, too. “Grief is just love looking for a place to settle,” she shares at one point. Oh, my heart.
Who Do You Want To Be When You Grow Old? by Richard Leider & David Shapiro
We often ask children, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and Leider & Shapiro are now asking us, as adults, a revised version: ‘Who do you want to be when you grow old?’ “If we’re able to reimagine our lives and our sense of purpose, then we can look forward to a more fulfilling, meaningful life at any age,” Leider & Shapiro write. “The path of purposeful aging is a process of reimagination.” I like the overall premise and the focus not on ‘getting old’ but on continuing to grow, learn, share, and live purposefully along the way as we age. Some of the authors’ previous works were quite profound for me early in my career, so this was a nice continuation of their thoughts; I particularly enjoyed the interviews they included of people making their difference at all ages. You can likely complete this slim book (144 pages) in just a few sittings.
Murder On The Orient Express by Agatha Christie
I’ve read several Agatha Christie novels at this point but somehow didn’t get to this popular one until now! So far, I’ve found that I enjoy her mysteries, I never figure out the villain in advance, and while I sometimes can get a little distracted along the way (ie, when Hercule Poirot introduces himself one by one to a dozen or so different characters :-)), I am nearly always taken completely by surprise at where the story goes and how the mystery wraps up. That was definitely the case with Murder On The Orient Express! This was a fun ride and I am now interested in watching the movie adaptation as well.
A Fortune For Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib
Abdurraqib has been on my radar for a while now and this month I realized two things: 1) He has written poetry collections - and reading more poetry is one of my 2025 bookish goals, and 2) he is scheduled to be a featured author at my city’s upcoming book festival. Given all this, I was excited to see my library had A Fortune For Your Disaster available as I await holds on some of his other books. I love exploring different works of poetry, and I’ve learned that it typically takes me a while to get into each individual poet’s particular rhythm and style, which was also the case with this collection. Once in, however, I was moved by his unique structuring, poignant topics, and how varied the style was from one poem to the next - yet all carried Abdurraqib’s voice. I have three more of his books on my TBR and hope I can get to at least one more before next month’s festival!
The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan
This was the February pick for my neighborhood book club and I’m so glad - I’m not sure I would have picked it up otherwise and I really enjoyed it! A compelling story, several unexpected turns, and in addition to being an intriguing read it also explored topics like forgiveness, friendship, trust, and family/found family. The book also brought up several ‘what would you do in this situation?’ scenarios that made for a fun and enlightening book club discussion. I listened to this on audio and loved the full cast narration, including one of my favorite narrators, Marin Ireland.
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Have you read any of these books - and if so, what did you think? What’s the best book you read in February? Share your thoughts below, as well as any questions or discussion points about the books mentioned here!
Questions? Comments? Books or topics you’d like me to discuss here? Feel free to email me at readingandpurpose (at) gmail (dot) com or comment on this post directly in the app/website. I love hearing from you and I appreciate your support!
A great reading month! I'm so glad you have the opportunity to hear Hanif Abdurraqib! I live in Columbus so I'm lucky enough to have heard him speak several times and I always walk away in awe and inspired. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us is my favorite.
I'm a Christie mystery completist - I finished reading all 66 of her mysteries in 2020-ish. There are definitely varying levels of quality and MotOE is one of her best. If you haven't read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd yet, I would also recommend that one as Agatha at her most innovative.
As far as adaptations go, there are several of them. I've only seen 2 - the Poirot episode from the BBC series starring David Suchet and the Branagh adaptation. David Suchet is a brilliant and convincing Poirot and if you haven't ever watched Poirot, it's a treat. Branagh's adaptation is incredibly stylish with a fantastic ensemble cast, but his version of Poirot is very different from Christie's Poirot. He does, at least, maintain the integrity of the mystery plot (i.e., he doesn't change the motive or the murderer), which is not always the case with the modern adaptations. There's also a 1970's adaptation starring Albert Finney that I've never seen, but that looks like it lands on the campy end of things.
I think that the best modern Christie adaptation is the 2015 Sarah Phelps adaptation of And Then There Were None, which has the anachronistic bonus of Aidan Turner continually removing his shirt.