February 2026 in Books

This was a slow reading month for me. Just a lot going on I guess combined with some books that were only so so. Recaps are below:

Bad Bad Girl - Gish Jen - historical fiction - five stars - Really loved this one. It's anautobiographical novel about her mother's life as well as, later, hers. Jen's mother grows up in a well to do Shanghai family, she leaves China to study in the US just as the Nationalist government is failing and ends up staying in the US. Jen's mother was the rebellious daughter, her father's favorite and her mother's least favorite. Much of the book focuses on the dysfuncitonal relationship b etween mother and daughter. That dysfunction is repeated in the relationship she has with her daughter, Jen. As a first generation Chinese American, many of Jen's experiences resonated with me, although thankfully, not the dysfunctional piece. Great read.

My Beloved (Mitford Years, #15) - Jan Karon - fiction - five stars - It's been quite a while since Karon wrote a Mitford book, and it was lovely to rediscover all these characters. Everyone is older. Father Tim is fully retired now, Dooley and Lace well into their marriage and careers, older folks are aging, retiring, etc. There was nothing groundshaking/earth shattering in this book, but just a fun check-in with the folks in Mitford. Left me smiling.

The Book of Lost Hours - Hayley Gelfuso - science fiction - four stars - Three and a half stars rounded up. This was an interesting premise. Kind of a historic fiction science fiction mash up. The idea is that there is a 'time place' that is accessed by using special watches. Whenever someone dies, their memories are collected and appear in a book in this time place. Countries with the technology/watches allowing them to access the time space destroy selcted memories to suit their needs/propaganda. Honestly, that idea/piece of the story was kind of weak. My practical mind didn't really get how destroying memories in the time space actually adversely/positively affected people in the real world. In any case, during Kristallnacht, a Jewish watchmaker hides his daughter in the time space to save her, and she becomes trapped there. In the time space she learns how to travel into memories, and also hide from the different timekeepers. Years later, following the war, the US/CIA is now trying to control the time space, there is animosity with the Russian timekeepers, but also a group of resistance timekeepers. Honestly, this just kind of gets messy and doesn't tie together well from a making sense kind of perspective. If you are able to let go of that part, it's a decent read, but at the end of the day it had too many holes for me to be able to really enjoy it.

The Tell: A Memoir - Amy Griffin - memoir - three stars - I have really mixed feelings about this book. I listened to it on Spotify, and I can't tell if that made me like it more or less. Griffin was abused as a child, but she has no memory of this. She just senses that she is running from something/hiding something. Eventually, her husband encourages her to undergo an MDMA counseling session, something that has helped him. When she does this, it all comes back to her. The book then transitions to her trying to decide what to do with this knowledge and then trying to get justice. Honestly, I struggle with the whole idea that you could have something that traumatic so hidden for so long, and that the only way you remember is through MDMA. I guess as a person who likes proof/verifiable information, I have a hard time with this book because while I want to believe, there is just nothing corroborating. It also doesn't help that the woman is generally somewhat annoying.

The Last of Earth - Deepa Anappara - historical fiction - two stars - This was two and a half stars, normally I round that up, but this book was just frustrating and I rounded down instead. It follows two individuals trying to get to Tibet in 1869, a time in which the country is closed to foreigners. Those caught inside are executed or deported, and those whole help them are killed or enslaved. Balram, an Indian surveyor, is helping a British Captain map the Tsangpo river, while Katherine, and English woman/explorer is trying to become the first European woman to reach the city of Lhasa. Balram's motives are to rescue his frien Gyun who he believes is imprisoned in Tibet after having been accused of being a spy. Katherin is trying to prove herself after having been rejected by the Royal Geographical Society. Overall I liked Katherine's story better, and the relationship she developed with her guide Mani. Balram just seemed completely lost and incapable at times, but in general the characters were mostly annoying and the book itself seemed somewhat pointless.

Favorite book this month was Bad Bad Girl, and least favorite was The Last of Earth. I'm hoping I can pick up the pace in March, and have a decent pile going. What have you guys been reading?