Hi everyone! Welcome back. I'm Di and
today I'm bringing you my February
Wrap Up. In February, I read six things, two
novels and four volumes of manga. If you
watched my January Wrap Up you may have
heard me say that I thought I was coming
out of my reading slump and I did.
However, not wanting to read books turned
into wanting to read all the books, so I
did start several books in February but
I only managed to finish the six things
that I mentioned. So let's just get into
it. The first book I finished in February
was Second Street Station. This is the
first book in the Mary Handley Mystery
Series by Lawrence H. Levy. This is
historical fiction and it follows Mary
Handley who has become the first lady
detective at Second Street Station in
Nineteenth-Century Brooklyn. In this book
Mary is investigating the death of her
friends fiancé. I did have problems with
this book.
Mary, as a character, was very enjoyable
to read. I liked how she handled
situations that she got herself into.
I liked how she handled the workplace
bullying she was subjected to being the
only woman detective at the station. The
things that bother me have to do with a
storyline that I don't feel was
necessary to this story. In some of the
flashbacks, you get introduced to one of
Mary's friends as she was growing up, who
happens to be the daughter of Chinese
immigrant workers.
This friend got bullied in school for
being Chinese. Some of the things that
were said disgusted me. In a later part
of the book the derogatory name for a
Chinese person is spoken.
I feel like the storyline regarding the
Chinese characters was not necessary.
That family's inclusion in this story
was basically a plot device to explain
how Mary learn Jujitsu.
Now keep in mind, Jujitsu is a
Japanese martial art and we're talking
about Chinese immigrant workers, and yes,
they may have learned it in China,
However I'm not sure if that even crossed
the author's mind because the author is
white. But brushing that aside, what
bothered me where the things that were
written about these Chinese people.
It made me question how the author came
up with such phrases...hateful phrases.
Did he hear it from someone else in his life?
Is it something that he made up on his
own?
Is it really how he feels towards
Chinese people? Things like that crossed
my mind and it was hard not to think
about that. I had to step away from this
book a couple of times after I read
passages like that because it got on my
nerves.
I was infuriated. So I did take the time
to set this down, collect myself, cool
myself down, distract myself with
something else before I revisited the
story to finish it out. Now I did have to
read this book because I got the second
book in the series for review and I
don't like to read series out of order
so
that's why I had to (not really) I really
wanted to finish this one but like I
said, it disturbed me. I had issues with
it. It took me a really long time to read
it and though I will be continuing to
the next one because I did get it for
review, this one kinda left a bad taste
in my mouth. Now like I said, I did really
enjoy Mary's character. Uncovering the
mystery was very interesting.
There are historical characters in here
such as Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla,
JP Morgan. We go across the time where
Coca-Cola is invented. That being said,
there is mention of cocaine usage and
lots of alcohol consumption and I think
that just has to do with the time period
we are talking about. But yeah, this one
was my lowest rated book of the month. I
ended up giving it three stars and I'm
hoping that the things that bothered me
in this book don't continue to the next
book. But those phrases that I read and
the experience I had are going to stay
with me. To this day, it's been about a
month,
yeah I think it's been about a month
since I finished this book and I still
think about those phrases and my anger
starts to peak again. But anyway, let's
just get on to the next novel that I
read. I read PS I Love You. This is by
Cecelia Ahern. I buddy read this with my
friend Janie over at Bookworms Buddy. I will
link her channel down in the description
below. As you can see, I have a movie
cover. I actually watched this movie
before I knew it was a book. I really
enjoyed the movie.
What made me watch it? Gerard Butler. I am
a big fan of watching Gerard Butler's
movies and I'm not usually one to pick
up like romantic or sad movies or
stories, but this one interested me and
like I said, Gerard Butler. After watching
the movie, I really wanted to read the
book and so that was several years ago
that I watched this movie and I picked
up the book shortly after and it's been
sitting on my shelf collecting dust.
So I finally was able to get it out. Janie & I
had a great time reading this book. This
book follows Holly in the aftermath of
losing her husband Gerry to cancer.
Gerry and Holly have a really great
relationship and as Gerry knows that he
is going to die, he leaves Holly with one
final gift, and that is a box of letters.
There is one letter for every month
encompassing (about) a year after he has
passed and in each letter he leaves
Holly a mission to kind of help her
learn to live life without him. Like I
said, I did watch the movie so I kinda
knew where this story was going, but this
book was very different as movie
adaptations usually are. I really really
enjoyed this book. I ended up giving it
five stars. This is my first book by
Cecelia Ahern. I do have two others which
are Thanks for the Memories and Love,
Rosie (which I have also seen that movie Love, Rosie) really enjoyed it. I just,
I really loved Ceceila Ahern's writing style. It
was so realistic. The characters felt
more like friends than characters
and when they hurt, I hurt and some of
the situations that they were going through
were very real. I don't know what other
word to use for it, but it was like I was
going through those situations with them. We
do get flashbacks of Gerry, so it kind of
brought this story full circle
because we do get to know Gerry while
he was alive. We do get to understand
what his thought process was in
putting together these missions and why
he decided on these specific things to
have Holly do. Again, there were things
that were very different in this book
than in the movie and I think the book
was much better.
Most of the time they are but yeah, I
really enjoyed this book and I look
forward to reading more of Cecelia Ahern's
work. So five stars. The last four things
I read were volumes of manga. I read volumes
36 and 37 of Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima.
You know I've been reading this series for
a while. In the manga, I am still in the
wizard games. It looks like it's starting
to wrap up and so this arc is coming to an
end and I'm really excited to see how it's
going to turn out. At the end of volume
37 something surprising happened and so
I'm really looking forward to getting
into volume 38. I gave both of these
volumes four stars as I've given all the
other volumes in this series so far. The
last two volumes of manga I read were
from Fullmetal Alchemist. I read volumes one
and two. This is by Hiromu Arakawa. I
watched the Fullmetal Alchemist anime
maybe a decade ago,
but I haven't watched Brotherhood, which I
hear is closer to what is in the
manga. It has been a while since I watched
the anime, so things aren't as fresh in
my mind as to how the story goes.
I also didn't watch the entire series.
This series follows two brothers Edward
and Alphonse Elric and they are
Alchemists. They can do things with
alchemy, I don't know how to explain it.
It's slightly magical, slightly
scientific I guess, but they I think are in
their younger teens. When they were very
young they lost their mother and they
studied alchemy to try to bring her back
from the dead. A theme in this story
is equivalent exchange and so in trying
to bring back their mother they lost
things.
Edward lost a limb and Alphonse lost his
body and so if you've seen a cover of
this anime or you may be able to see it
right here,
Alphonse is actually a suit of armor.
Several years go by and Edward and
Alphonse practice alchemy. Edward
actually becomes really good at it and
becomes a State Alchemist and is
able to perform alchemy without having
to draw the circle. It's something
that alchemists usually have to do in
this story is draw some kind of circle
in order to pull their power. Not
everyone is able to do alchemy without
having to draw the circle so this makes
him rather powerful and kind of a
prodigy.
Edward and Alphonse have decided that
the reason that they weren't able to bring
back their mother was because they
needed a Philosopher's Stone. You're
probably most familiar with the
Philosopher's Stone because of the first
Harry Potter book. But anyway, they are
on the lookout for that at the beginning
of this series. In volume 1, they have a
lead as to where this Philosopher's
Stone might be. I really enjoyed these
two volumes. Edward is rather comical. He
is rather short and when people comment
about his height or have something to say
about Alphonse being Edward, because Edward
is rather well-known. Being that he's
so young and a State Alchemist, lots of
people know about the Fullmetal
Alchemist and Alphonse constantly gets
mistaken as Edward and that bothers
Edward. But the worst thing you could say
to Edward is that he is short.
Anything that has to do with his height,
he gets so upset. But those scenes are
just so comical because he just flies
off the handle and Alphonse like "No, no
calm yourself down! You're going to get
in trouble!".
Alphonse is the younger of the two brothers
by the way. Anyway I really enjoyed
these two. Comical moments were really
something I needed, especially after
reading Second Street Station and having
feelings like I discussed with you
already,
I really needed some comic relief. So I
ended up giving both of these volumes
four stars. I am going to be continuing. I
did purchase the anime series and I will
be watching that later as well. But that
wraps up my reading for February! Now as
I mentioned, in February I did start
several
books and I didn't finish very many of
them, so I have a feeling that March's
wrap-up is going to be rather lengthy.
That and I am participating in March Mystery
Madness. I am a host of March Mystery
Madness.
If you plan on reading any mystery, a
mystery, one mystery, two mysteries, the
#Book1CoziesClub pick, please join us in
talking about those in our Goodreads
group which is Mystery Madness. I will link
the group and our Twitter page below so
that you can interact with us. But yeah, I
have a feeling I'm going to have several
finished books in March. So let me know
what you read in the month of February
or if you read any of the books that I
mentioned in this video. I hope you're
all doing great and until next time Take
care and Smi-Le Always!
Bye!
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