Looking Back: February Reading & Writing

February gets me EVERY YEAR, dammit. How can it be almost March?

Despite the shorter month, I had some great reads. I'm feeling a bit burnt out keeping up with deadlines, so trying to get a bit ahead and manage my time better moving forward... plus, I do like to read things for fun, too, not just for review. But that doesn't mean what I have read hasn't been great:

Trigger Warning, by Neil Gaiman: Ya'll know I'd never pass up an opportunity to read Gaiman's short stories, and this collection did not disappoint. It's like a map of Gaiman's incredible imagination, sure to delight long-time fans and those new to his work alike. Full review.

Find Me, by Laura Van Den Berg: I *still* haven't managed to read VDB's short stories, despite having checked them out from the library multiple times, but I did pick up her novel, and proceeded to devour it. Her words! Her language! Her ideas! The story of Joy's experience in a post-plague United States is not as post-apocalyptic as you might imagine, and therein lies the strength of Van Den Berg's debut novel. Full review.

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, by Laurie Chang: This was the second pick for Curious Iguana's Our Women, Our World book club, and though it wasn't what I expected, I did enjoy Chang's account of migrant culture in China. Chang's approach is very matter-of-fact: here are the facts, make of them what you will, and at times, I longed for more in-depth exploration of some of the topics she breezes past (prostitution? unwanted pregnancies? the Cultural Revolution?). The book club seemed to agree, but overall, I'd call this educational--and never dry.

My Sunshine Away, by M.O. Walsh: Walsh's debut novel has been getting lots of praise, and for good reason. It's a compelling story of memory and guilt and friendship and first loves and small-town America. Full review.

Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn: I'm reading this for the Estella Society readalong, and I'll be the first to admit I won't be finished in time. I'm still not sure what to make of Dunn's strange story; it's interesting, weird, and a little stand-offish--though I think perhaps that's the intent. More thoughts to come.

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So far this year, I've finished:

• 5 books for the Read Harder Challenge (with two more in progress)
• 1 book for the 2015 TBR Challenge (with one more in progress)

Of the 27 books I've picked up so far:

• I've finished 17
• 4 were DNFs (the rest I'm still reading... shit, am I really in the middle of six books right now?)
• 16 were by female authors, 11 by male authors
• 25% were written by non-US authors
• 22% were written by non-white authors

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Other February activity (here and elsewhere):

• My common sense takeaways from Getting Things Done (with many thanks to all who recommended Omnifocus, which I'm using for my work GTD; I'm testing out Asana with limited luck for at-home GTD)

• Andi's brave and wonderful post about not being Wonder Woman; an important reminder for all of us, book bloggers or no (plus, new site design!)

• A list of new-to-me (mostly) podcasts from Shannon at River City Reading has my Stitcher app filling up in the best of ways (another blog with a new site design!)

• This reaction from Steph of Bella's Bookshelves to Claire Fuller's debut novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, has me moving it up on my TBR stack, pub dates and deadlines be damned.
• I wrote this list of 13 books about love for Martha Stewart Weddings, which was pretty damn fun to put together.

• April at A Steadfast Reader is reading (and reviewing) all of the ToB books, something I wish I could find the time to do, but I can't, so instead I plan to read vicariously through her.

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What were the best things you read in February?