Hello, what’s this? A month in review? That’s a first for this blog, but since I’ve started tracking what I read (not just when I post), I have been toying with the idea of doing monthly roundups.

Also, I enjoy reading other people’s roundups and wanted to try it myself.

What I Read in Feb

^That rhymed in my head, I hope it did for you too!

I read 10 books in February, which is much better than I expected! Of course, it helped that one – A Teacup Collection – is basically a picture book but everything counts. The books I read were:

• How Iceland Changed the World (review up)
• Jesus and John Wayne (review up)
• Sweep (review up)
• Love, Terror, and Brainwashing (review up)
• The Secret of Bow Lane (review up)
• Re-Enchanted (review to come)
• The Monopolists (review up)
• The Girl Who Drank The Moon (review to come)
• Witch Week (review to come)
• A Teacup Collection (review to come)

It’s been a good month for nonfiction, fantasy, and MG books, with 6 of my reads being non-fiction books, and three being MG fantasy and thus hitting two categories at one go.

The Secret of Bow Lane is part of the Kat Holloway mysteries, which I adore and cannot recommend highly enough if you want historical mysteries that showcase amazing friendships and has adorable romances (this is coming from someone who isn’t a huge fan of romance!!)

Feb Teas

In general, it’s been a quiet month for teas, as I only opened three new teas and have been steadily working on them since then!

That said, at the beginning of the month, I did have friends over for tea and our activiTEAs (sorry, I cannot resist a tea pun and you’re going to see this a few more times) gave me an idea for a post that I hope will be up in the next couple of days!

I have also been toying with the idea of writing a Tea 101 book, with the aim to demystify tea (I am not going to repeat the Shen Nong story wholesale, for example) and make it useful. To that end, I’ve been going through a “how to write nonfiction” course but I’m not sure if that’s preparation or procrastination – perhaps both.

Off the Blog

I’m a bit sad to announce that the Hanfugirl Kickstarter has failed – we were hoping to ride on the Make 100 movement and get enough people to produce the sashes, but we didn’t get enough. Still, it was a very interesting journey and it did give me a lot of food for thought on why we do what we love and what role money should be playing in that.

On that note… I have been taking a bit step back from Instagram (going from posting 5x a week to 3x a week to now 1x a week) and I find I’ve not been missing it much. Of course, it helps that the IG algorithm is demanding and I never liked the feeling of the rat race. Coincidentally, this blog went down for 8 hours yesterday because of the Instagram plugin, which I’ll take as a sign that I should remove the plugin from the blog. While I was deleting that widget, I also deleted the newsletter pop-up. I am still toying with the idea of a substack if I can actually write something worth putting in a newsletter, so for now the sidebar signup will stay so that I can reach people and be like “hey, starting something new if you want to join” if that ever happens.

On a more personal note, my health has been really poor this year! I had gastric flu last month, and I spent most of last week feeling really terrible… only to find out on Saturday that I’ve had a virus (it was an “I told you so” moment for my boyfriend, who has been on my case to rest more). Fingers crossed March is a healthier month for me because I would love to have the energy to exercise and carry out all my side projects – I’ve basically just been doing the bare minimum.

One thing I have been proud of is that I’ve continued French classes! We finished the A2 textbook last week and I was supposed to take a test yesterday, but I postponed it because I’ve not had the energy to study because I was sick. So I shall be spending a bit more time on la langue française this week because I would really love to be able to take (and pass) the B1 this year! It would be a nice achievement to be able to say that I lived in France for a while and am now passable in French, even if I only achieved that a year or more after I left!

Right, so this is the first time I’ve written a month in review and I’m sure there’s a lot more I could do to make it better, but done is better than none so this is where I’ll end so that I can also catch up on the blogs that I’m following.