The 52 Book Club: 2025 / 2026 Challenge discussion

WEEKLY CHECK-IN
February 26, 2023 -- Week 9

And just like that we're starting week nine of this year's challenge and drawing another month to a close. So, tell us, what was your favorite February read? (Or favorite prompt completed this month?)

I just finished Beyond Wounded Hearts by Cynthia Roemer and it was fantastic! It doesn't officially release until March, but I received a complimentary copy as part of the launch team. It's the second book in the Wounded Hearts series but can be read as a stand-alone. If you like historical fiction, especially Civil War, it's a must-read.

I read some pretty grim books this month, so I wouldn't say I enjoyed them, but I did like Here and Now and Then for the time loop prompt.

Favorite book of February was Call of the Bone Ships by R.J. Barker. I plan to use it for either prompt 14 (Survival Story) or 16 (Featuring One of the “Seven Deadly Sins”—wrath, in this case).

Well, and this came as a total shock to me given the genre (but the audiobook brought it up a full star) I gave 5 stars to All the Dangerous Things so at this time it's my favourite, but last night I started a book that is probably going to get 5 stars as well. Not sure yet about prompts because I've been busy helping with a monthly challenge elsewhere and so I'm behind updating my list. Off to take care of that now!

My favourite book of february was To kill a mockingbird, which I used for Prompt 20: A book about siblings

My favorite fiction book this month was The Love of my Life by Rosie Walsh for prompt #11 book about secrets

My favorite nonfiction book this month was Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann for prompt #50 related to murder

I re-read Anne of Green Gables. It had been so many years so I'd read it and I'm happy to have picked it up again. I forgot just how wonderful it is. I will likely use it for #38 - an enemies to lovers plot or #43 - a book everyone has read (which could also be a book everyone SHOULD read).

My favorite read for February was The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. It is the final book in the Ruth Galloway series and one of the best if you are a fan. I really enjoyed the way the author brought all the favorite characters back and ended some of the story archs.

My favorite book this month was Outlander. It was very long (627 pages) but I read it in 5 days alternating between the physical book and audiobook. Both were 5 stars.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah - can't believe it too me this long to read it. I listened to the author read the audio and it was amazing.

My favorite this month... Probably not one of the finished ones.
They're all good, but... On the other hand, The Blinding Knife flew by, all 600 pages. And the audio version of Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green was really good. But I'm near the end of A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong. That will probably end up as the best of February. I'm about 25% through That was Now, This is Then by Michael Z Williamson. Doubt I'll finish before Tuesday...

I had two ties for favorite, Our Missing Hearts for Shadow On The Cover and VenCo by Cherie Dimaline for Typographic Cover

I read Ready Player One for Typographic Cover and made the terrible mistake (it is always a mistake) of watching the movie afterwards. I loved the book!

My favorite read of February, hands down, was Project Hail Mary. I have been wanting to read since it came out but I never got to it last year. So glad it lived up to (or even succeeded) my expectations.

I've read several good books this month, but I think my favorite is going to be Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the last trial of Harper Lee. I have about 25 pages left, so I'll finish it today. I originally planned for this one to fill the prompt Related to Murder, but now I think I'm going to use it for Time in the Title. I found this one to be well-researched and the writing was solid.

Anna wrote: "My favorite read of February, hands down, was Project Hail Mary. I have been wanting to read since it came out but I never got to it last year. So glad it lived up to (or even succe..."

I loved this one!!

Ale wrote: "My favourite book of february was To kill a mockingbird, which I used for Prompt 20: A book about siblings"

My all-time favorite!

Two books are still waiting for me to finish them this month: A hazugság tézisei and The Advent of Dreamtech. The first on could be a favorite - it's a collection of speculativ fictions from a really talented hungarian SFF writer - if I finish it this month.

If not - I liked Dune Messiah the best from what I've already read in February. I liked it a bit better that Dune - liked the philosofical aspect, the slow-paced writing, and I'm also fascinated by how Frank Herbert views divination/seeing the future and it's inevitability.

And Then There Were None - Originally for the Alliterative Title Prompt, but I went with a different novel for that prompt afterwards. Still, out of a month with many 4/5 reads, this was the only 5/5. Glad to have read it!

My favorite book this month was The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman. I used it for prompt 41-A character who is a refugee. It is such a unique book.

Anna wrote: "My favorite read of February, hands down, was Project Hail Mary. I have been wanting to read since it came out but I never got to it last year. So glad it lived up to (or even succe..."

Project Hail Mary was one of my favorite reads in January.

favorite February book was The Tyranny of Desire but I'm over half way through an ARC of House of Cotton and so far it may surpass it in favoritism.

I had some eclectic reads this month, all of which I really enjoyed but I think my favorite translated from the French novel One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin, a French mathematician. It has a very strange-for-me style, based on developments from a group called Oulipo, of which Michele is only one of two women who have published. The story itself centers on three fictional mathematicians and their experiences during WWI and WW2.

My review here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

This month I enjoyed
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie and
Spare, the audio book version read by Prince Harry

My favorite February read is the novel I just finished: The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa. Wonderful historical fiction spanning the decades from WWII through the fall of the Berlin Wall.

My favorite read so far this year (2023) has to be

Verity by Colleen Hoover

My favorite books for February were Mağaradakiler by Cemil Meriç and Aşıklar Delidir ya da Yazı Tura by Ayfer Tunç.

I guess The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton would be my favourite this week though not by much unfortunately

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries hands down!

Best of February was Fifty Words for Rain

4 books for this post.

Rome Monuments Past and Present: Guide With Reconstructions by Romolo Augusto Staccioli for the prompt #7 A city or country name in the title,

Mythical Beasts: 30 of the World's Most Fantastical Creatures! by Joanne Rippin for the prompt #34 Featuring mythology

Prestens hemmelighet: De ukjente historiene fra aids-epidemien i Norge by Pål Vegard Hagesæther for the prompt #11 A book about secrets

and Josef by Tor Åge Bringsværd for the prompt #14 A survival story