My February Reading

A bit delayed, a bit shorter, with reasons.

February is a shorter month, so one might expect to read a bit less than in longer months and that was the case - though I did read five books, most were quite short with one exception. Some of this was also a five day golf trip which just did not lend itself to idle leisurely reading (spoiler alert - the same will be true next month). Still, the books I did read were generally really good. Let’s get into it.

In the order read (above), I first read Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V.E. Schwab. 4.25 out of 5 stars.

I had read another book by Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue) that I really liked so I grabbed this from the library when it became available. It’s long - 535 pages - and all I knew was that it followed three different women in three different eras. Or … does it? Because it takes about 20-25% of the novel to reveal that what, in fact, we are reading is a vampire novel. (I tried so hard to find a way to make that a spoiler hidden text, but Substack simply can’t handle it.) That’s not my usual genre, but for me, this was done in a way that was both reminiscent of the older Anne Rice novels I really liked way back when, but also a very engaging epic novel across time. I really enjoyed it and it suprised me enough that I ended up giving it 4.25 stars. The only real quibble I have is that the final scene felt short and maybe not as dramatic as one might expect. Other than that, it’s really fun and worth the read.

Flesh, by David Szalay. 3.75 stars out of 5.0

I’d read a collection of stories by Szalay that I really liked, and this book won the prestigious Booker Prize for 2025, so I was really excited to read it. It’s a story about a Hungarian boy named Istvan who we meet as he’s being inappropriately seduced by his middle aged neighbor. He’s passive throughout this and the entire book, as his life takes him through jobs and relationships from shady dealings to the most elite wealth of Europe and I can’t say it isn’t well written or engaging but … he’s SO passive, and we get so little out of Istvan that it relies on a lot of assumptions on who he is, etc. In one sense, it’s a portrait of someone who was traumatized at an early age and still perseveres in his own way, but I wanted a bit more.

Perfection, by Vincenzo Latronico. 4.25 stars out of 5.0

It’s worth noting that Anthony Jeselnik - yes, the snarky comedian - is someone who I’ve listened to for advice about books for years. He reads a TON and has just started a book club (more on this in the last book discussed) but also goes through his favorite reads of the year. He raved about this novel, so I grabbed it from the library and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a weird book - there quite literally is no dialogue. It follows a couple, Anna and Tom, who are two ‘creatives’ living in Berlin who are enjoying the modern, childless life they’ve built, going to hip bars and restaurants, with splashes of designer drugs, sexual liaisons and politics as a way to find a bit more excitement. It’s a really subtle commentary on what modern life has become, with a note that wherever they go, "the brand of oat milk in their flat whites was the same." I don’t think this book is for everyone, but I really quite enjoyed it.

Antarctica, by Claire Keegan. 3.0 stars out of 5.0

I love Keegan’s spare, sad writing and was excited to read this collection of short stories but like so many collections - especially those from the start of one’s career like these - it’s really uneven. Some stories take place in the American South which felt tonally bizarre, while others are quite solid. For what it’s worth, it’s a gorgeous book cover.

The Getaway, by Jim Thompson. 3.75 stars out of 5.0

This is the January book recommendation by Jeselnik in the book club noted above. If the title sounds familiar, it’s been made into a movie twice - the first with Steve McQueen and the second more recently with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. I’ve seen neither, and I think while I might watch one at some point, the most interesting part of this novel - a gritty crime caper about a truly bad criminal trying to evade the police - is how it ends. Obviously I won’t spoil that but suffice it to say it’s not the same as the movies. (Which, even though I haven’t seen them, I’ve done enough research to ensure this is the case.) It’s really well done - almost nobody in it is redeemable or innocent - and I can see why Jeselnik likes it. In the same genre, I would recommend Hard Rain Falling more than this, but both are fun crime novels from the middle part of last century that I wouldn’t have read without a recommendation.

What books did you read last month worth noting?