Hi, Friends! I hope you had a good reading month! I got a chance to read some wonderful books in February – some old, some new, some yet to come! As always, I have a one-word review of the titles books below, but please head to my Bookshop.org shop to learn more about these books and purchase a copy of any that catch your interest! (All purchases made using the link help support my site!)
P.S. Distilling my thoughts down to one word to describe these incredible books is really, really hard!! 🙂 I will have longer, professional reviews coming for The Formula and The Wives, so stay tuned for when those are published! For the others, be sure to follow me on Instagram @gracerajendran for brief reviews as I read them!
Every year, starting February 18, thousands of people around the world participate in a free community project known as “The 100 Day Project.” The purpose is simple – to unlock dormant creativity, encourage consistent creative practice and joy, and/or to improve pre-existing skills by repetition and practice. All are welcome to join in and the project can be anything that inspires you. Possible commitments could include: listing three things daily that you are grateful for, spending 10 minutes a day learning a new language, knitting one row of a scarf, or learning one guitar chord each day. It can literally be anything that you would like to spend time learning about or practicing.
What I’m doing for my own 100 Day Project in 2024:
I have a large number of beautiful fountain pen inks and I am really into fine writing and stationery! Unfortunately, I don’t get to use all of my stash regularly, so this project is the perfect way for me to give my inks some love. Therefore, this year, my project will be to swatch my fountain pen ink collection!
What are the supplies I’ll be using? Mainly a paintbrush and dip pens in a 2023 A6 Hobonichi planner. I never got around to using it as a planner last year and, this way, this beautiful journal will have a second life! I also ordered Col-o-dex rotary card refills that I will also be swatching to create a customizable catalogue of all of my ink, present and future! (See photo below. I got mine from Cult Pens.)
I’m looking forward to sharing my progress here and also on Instagram. You can follow me @gracerajendran and the hashtag #GraceRajendran100DayProject .
How long will my project take?
Since it takes time to create the pages, photograph things, and write up posts, I am going into this realistically noting that I will take more than 100 chronological days to complete this project. And I am absolutely fine with that! So many times, I find myself rushing through challenges and tasks to post an end-result on social media or meet some other arbitrary deadline. We have so many deadlines in our (day) jobs anyway, that I want to leave them out of my creative practice as much as I can. So, for this project, I want to take my time, enjoy the process, learn what I want to learn, and do things as slowly as I need, or want, to.
How you can share your own project:
All are welcome to share their 100 Day Project progress on Instagram using the hashtags: #The100DayProject and #DoThe100DayProject.
Here are the new releases in February that I’m excited for! I have reviewed JoyFull so when that review is published, I’ll link to it here and make a separate post for it but, in the meantime, here are some brief blurbs from the publisher. As always, I’ve created a collections page on my Bookshop.org store where you can learn more about each book and author and purchase a copy if you’d like!
MY BELOVED LIFE by Amitava Kumar An absorbing, exceptionally moving novel that traces the arc of a man’s life, an ordinary life made exceptional by the fact that he has loved and has been loved in turn. (Feb 27, 2024; Knopf)
THE FOX WIFE by Yangsze Choo Manchuria, 1908. In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. (February 13, 2024; Henry Holt & Co.)
THE BOOK OF LOVE by Kelly Link In the long-awaited debut novel from bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle. (February 13, 2024; Random House)
SMOKE AND ASHES: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh Ghosh unravels the impact of the opium trade on global history and in his own family―the climax of a yearslong project. (February 13, 2024; Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
THE UNCHARTED FLIGHT OF OLIVIA WEST by Sara Ackerman 1927. Olivia “Livy” West is a fearless young pilot with a love of adventure. She yearns to cross oceans and travel the skies. When she learns of the Dole Air Race—a high-stakes contest to be the first to make the 2,400 mile Pacific crossing from the West Coast to Hawai’i—she sets her sights on qualifying. But it soon becomes clear that only men will make the cut. (February 6, 2024; MIRA)
THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace An abandoned English manor. A peculiar missing portrait. A cozy, deviously clever murder mystery, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz. (February 13, 2024; Hanover Square Press)
JOYFULL by Radhi Devlukia-Shetty A passionate self-taught cook and nutritionist, Radhi Devlukia-Shetty’s JoyFull is abundant and inviting. With more than 125 plant-based recipes, it is designed to balance health and satisfaction. (February 27, 2024; S&S/Simon Element)
BIRDING TO CHANGE THE WORLD by Trish O’Kane In this uplifting memoir, a professor and activist shares what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment. Trish O’Kane is an accidental ornithologist. In her nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist, she’d never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrine destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin. (February 27, 2024; Ecco)
THE CURE FOR BURNOUT: How to Find Balance and Reclaim Your Life by Emily Ballesteros In The Cure for Burnout, burnout management coach and TikTok influencer Emily Ballesteros combines scientific and cultural research, her expertise in organizational psychology, and the tried-and-true strategies she’s successfully implemented with clients around the globe to demystify burnout for our post-pandemic world – and set you on a path toward a life of personal and professional balance. (February 13, 2024; The Dial Press)
ON LOCATIONS: Lessons Learned from My Life On Set with The Sopranos and in the Film Industry by Mark Kamine and Mike White This page-turning account of starting at the lowest rung on the production ladder among enormously famous & outrageously demanding people will be devoured for its insights, gossip, humor, & storytelling. Married and with a child, the author takes unpaid gigs to get a foot in the door, and eventually ends up working on all seasons of The Sopranos, often named the best TV show ever. (February 6, 2024; Steerforth)
BIG MEG: The Story of the Largest and Most Mysterious Predator that Ever Lived by Tim Flannery and Emma Flannery Internationally bestselling author and renowned scientist Tim Flannery and his daughter, scientist Emma Flannery, deliver an informative-yet-intimate portrait of the megalodon, an extinct shark and the largest predator of all time. (February 6, 2024; Atlantic Monthly Press)
What books are you looking forward to in February and are there any here that you’re interested in checking out? Let me know in the comments or on Instagram!
http://gracerajendran.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/GraceLogo2.jpg00Gracehttp://gracerajendran.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/GraceLogo2.jpgGrace2024-02-02 19:50:282024-03-03 19:22:01February 2024 New Book Releases
Receiving a beautiful, old copy of Moby-Dick for Christmas has really made me want to read some books set on the ocean this year. I’m not ready to re-read Moby-Dick (again), but I’ve never read Hemingway’s Old Man And The Sea and I’ve been wanting to for a while so that’s on my list for March.
However, I’ll be starting off the year with a book that was just published this month and that I’m eager to read! Wild and Distant Seas by Tara Karr Roberts. I talked about it in a couple of posts this month already if you’d like to read more about it!
And, in February, I will be reading Whalefall by Daniel Kraus because I’ve been intrigued by it for months now! Publisher MTV Books describes it as a “scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.”
I’m not going to write out my list for the entire year because I want to be able to add things that I may discover as the months go by.
You can read more about and purchase copies of these books on my Bookshop.org page HERE.
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I LOVE literary totes and have quite the collection – totes I’ve bought, totes I’ve been sent by publishers – and now, it’s a dream come true that my own art is on a literary tote too!!! This features a quote from the Seattle Arts & Lectures event back in September 2023 with Ann Patchett in conversation with Melinda French Gates. I was struck by the beauty of something she said during this event – “We, as humans, communicate with stories.” – so I illustrated the quote, which now lives on forever in the form of these beautiful tote bags available through Seattle Arts & Lectures.
The totes are 100% cotton in a natural canvas color, 15″W x 14″H x 3″D, with 22″ webbed handles in forest green.
You can purchase the tote bags and support the transformational work of Seattle Arts & Lectures HERE.
http://gracerajendran.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/GraceLogo2.jpg00Gracehttp://gracerajendran.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/GraceLogo2.jpgGrace2024-02-02 14:10:002024-02-02 14:33:28Seattle Arts & Lectures Totes Featuring My Art
