February Reads

I finished 10 books in February:

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, Ph.D.
Killer Weekend by Ridley Pearson
Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
Little Beauties by Kim Addonizio
X by Sue Grafton
The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall
Second Chance at Perfect by Caridad Pineiro

My total for the year so far is 22, so I am a little ahead on my goal of reading 120 books this year.

I read a lot that I really liked this month. Isla, in particular, was a wonderful wrap-up to the trio of books by Stephanie Perkins. The three books are able to stand on their own, but the stories intertwine. Isla connects the dots and circles back to book one in a way that makes sense and serves all three stories.

Probably my favorite read this month was X. I have read all of the Kinsey Millhone books to date. It has been a while since W is for Wasted, so I was worried that I would enter X a little lost, that it would take me some time to find my bearings, re-introduce myself to Kinsey and her 1980s world.

I didn’t need to be worried.

Sue Grafton knows this character so well (she should after 24 books, but it is still impressive) that the stories are seamless. Kinsey is right there, on the page. Reading the previous books makes the reader know her (almost) as well as Sue does. Picking up this book was like having coffee with someone I haven’t seen in years, but it feels like we were just together yesterday. We just pick up where we left off.

I also really love that these books are written in Kinsey time, not real-world time. The first book took place in the ‘80s. Each book after has continued on Kinsey’s timeline, with no regard for time that has passed in the real world. This means there aren’t gaps in Kinsey’s story (and it is still the 1980s). When you pick up the next book in the series, very little time has passed for Kinsey. I think this helps keep the reader in touch with the stories.

I am a little curious what Kinsey would be like as a P.I. in this century, though. What would she be like with access to today’s technology? While I like watching her scrabble for information in a time when information was hard to find, it would be fun to see her with today’s relatively open access. Maybe once Sue reaches Z and runs out of letters we’ll get that jump forward view. I would be open to a book 27 that flies forward in time.

What was your favorite read this month?