February's Reads Reviewed

February's Reads Mini-Review Roundup

The Time-Traveling Fashionista and Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile by Bianca Turetsky

For purely aesthetic reasons, these books are a joy to read. Illustrations are peppered throughout, the pages are thick, and there are additional flourishes for the chapter headings and page decorations. I usually prefer e-books, but when I read this series, I make sure to read the print versions. I also love that the chapters are super short. I fly through these books.

But, what about the actual story? Well, it's okay. The main character is nice enough and even though she exudes a miasma of blah with a tinge of dreary, I do actually like her. I love all of the historical settings of these books, and the Cleopatra book had the unexpected but wonderful pit stop to the film setting of Elizabeth Taylor's movie Cleopatra, which was like a mini-bonus destination. All good things.

Also good, is that the books are sprinkled with good historical tidbits, including fashion bits from the times, which is what I really love. I do feel like you can actual learn from these books. But....they're also much less meaty than I would have liked. The Titanic book spent more time really digging into the history and spending time there, but the Marie Antoinette book was more like an overnight visit instead of a week-long vacation, and the Cleopatra book was more like a day trip. I wanted more.

The series kind of petered out, which is a shame because I love the concept, love the presentation, loved the zany old-lady sidekicks, and loved the unexpected heft of the first book. I really wish the author had put in the depth of the first book into the next two and I wish she had continued on writing the series. Had she done that, this would have been one of my favorite auto-buy series, but instead it just kind of trickled away into nothing. Very sad.

Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton

I've been on a real Edith Wharton kick lately and she's rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. Her books are beautifully but accessibly written, describe an era I love (turn of the 20th century), feature memorable characters that are likable despite their flaw, and stories that pull me in and stay vividly in my mind long after they're over.

But, ah, they are often gut-punchy and sad and The Bunner Sisters is no exception. This is not a happy book. Things just go from bad to worse and at the end when you think the final nail has been hammered into the coffin and you're done and lying on the ground beaten and you've cried mercy and you've been left alone to catalogue your cuts and bruises...Edith turns around and gives you one final kick in the stomach for good measure.

I know that doesn't sound appealing at all, and I am not the kind of reader that likes depressing books. I'm actually the kind of reader that runs screaming from depressing books. But there's something about Edith Wharton that just makes me like her books in spite of this.

It does also help that The Bunner Sisters is a quick read. It's one of Wharton's over 100 pages but under 200 pages books (though in some printings they're under 100 pages), and I'm really enjoying working my way through them (she has a lot). I'm not sure if you'd call them novellas or novels and I think depending on the definition you use and who you talk to they're both. I think of a novella as around 60-80 or so pages, but Wikipedia has a bunch of examples of novellas that I'd personally consider short novels so what do I know? Whatever you classify it, Edith Wharton is really good at writing evocative, immersive stories in a short amount of pages.

Thoughts...

I was sick for a lot of February and stressing a lot watching the spread of the virus and wondering what was going to happen. This, unsurprisingly, took a toll on my reading and I only managed to get through two books in February. But, the books I did read were both enjoyable in their own way, and both check "goal" boxes as being series/authors that I enjoy, a book I own, historical fiction, and a "classic" author.

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