This month has been strange, with the coronavirus things happening closer and closer to me. My state of mind had also been deteriorating since last month, and only got better slowly towards the end of this month, thanks to my recognizing the situation and taking care of it.

I noticed, looking back, that I’d picked easier-to-read titles this month, mostly fictions, and that might be why.

The Life We Bury - Joe Talbert - 3.5/5 - An easy detective story of sorts. The story’s got a lot of potential, but the narrative failed to embrace it fully, and I was left unsatisfied and disappointed. More like a detective chick-flick to me.
Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig - 4/5 - There are a lot of things I don’t agree with the author, and the thing reads like a memoir of a stubborn, desperate person dealing with illness(es). If it hadn’t been for the fact that the book somehow got me to think of my own reasons to stay alive, I’d have given it 2 stars.
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (30 Minute Expert Summary) - The 30 Minute Expert Series - N/A - enough to make me put the full book on my to-read list
Life Will Be the Death of Me: . . . and You Too! - Chelsea Handler - 4/5 - Chelsea is, on more than 1 aspect, the complete opposite of me, and it is fascinating to read her life story from her POV. I can’t help but like her, just from this book alone, even though I’ve never heard of her before (being me living under the rock with celebrities).
The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman - 4/5 - A cute short story based on a famous fairy tale. Love Gaiman’s writing.
Design thinking handbook - Eli Woolery - 4/5 - A lot of insights and advices for my profession, though I will have to research more into some topics the book mentioned.
50 Below Zero - Robert Munsch, Michael Martchenko (Illustrator) - 2/5 - I’m more for children’s stories that make sense.
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho - 3/5 - Eh… I started reading this back in New Zealand, and dropped it a few pages in because it was boring… I was determined to finish this time, and it only got more interesting about 1/3 way in. This reads like a religious fairy tale, a romantic bible-ish short story. I can understand why some consider it a classics, though I personally don’t.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie - 3/5 - Poirot is cute, but I hate the narrator so much.
Daddy-Long-Legs - Jean Webster - 3.5/5 - The heroine is so captivating I can’t help wanting to be her friend, if she was real. The ending felt abrupt and weirdly out of place though.
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - 5/5. Such a classic. Don’t think I can ever rate Holmes anything less than 4/5.

I also started on Becoming by Michelle Obama, but couldn’t get past 2 chapters. I think memoirs are simply not for me.

Feb was a hectic month for me, as the amount of books (and pages) I read decreased from Jan.

I started going through the classic ones I could find on my Libby, as you can see.

Watchmen - by Alan Moore (Goodreads Author), Dave Gibbons (Illustrator/Letterer), John Higgins (Colorist) - 5/5. Such a masterpiece that only gets better with time.
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi - 4/5. I could feel the quicken in pace turning into a rush through to the end of the book, as he tried to wrap it up as best as he could. Eye-opening, and sad.
I'm Not Dying with You Tonight - Kimberly Jones, Gilly Segal - 3/5. Eh- A fun read to kill time, if nothing else.
Animal Farm - George Orwell - 5/5. Again, a masterpiece that ages like good wine.
Men Without Women - Haruki Murakami - ~4/5. Like other Murakami works, exudes an overwhelming, yet gentle, lingering, kind of loneliness.
Matilda - Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (Illustrator) - 5/5. I watched the movie when I was little, in a foreign hotel somewhere that I’ve long forgotten, and was so mesmerized by it. The book is a cuter? version, and the movie certainly did it justice.
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - ~4/5. I’ve watched so many cinematic interpretations of this book, yet I’d never read it in full. Now that I have, I can safely confirm this genre is not for me lol.
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (Illustrator) - 4/5. Yet another cute one, and also with a good movie adaptation.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - George R.R. Martin, Gary Gianni (Illustrator) - ~4/5. G.R.R. Martin’s is definitely something else. Some parts of the stories were kind of a lull, but his world-building and narrative skills are absolutely top-notch. Which reminds me, I have to go back to finishing ASOIAF, but I also don’t want to wait in agony for the next ones like the other peeps…
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle - 5/5. I vaguely remember reading this when I was little, but maybe it was a Viet translation, so it was a good run to jog up the memory, and to marvel at Doyle’s writing at the same time. I especially like how Holmes isn’t a perfect man in his stories, unlike his many cinematic representations - with the coke addiction and all. Explains a lot, and also makes him more relateable to me a great deal.