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With all the Winter Olympics excitement in February, it’s a miracle I managed to read this much. Thankfully, I had a great mix of titles to keep things interesting.
Let’s dive into this month’s roundup, ranked from my least to most favourite.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
- Theo Decker is 13 years old when he and his mother are victims of a terrorist attack at a museum in NYC. Theo survives, but his mother doesn’t.
- In the chaos of the aftermath, Theo leaves the museum with a small painting, The Goldfinch—a decision that will shape the rest of his life.
- As he grows up between New York and Las Vegas, Theo carries grief, guilt, and the stolen painting with him, becoming entangled in a world of art, loss, and survival.
I wanted to love this book, and at times I really did. By the end of it, I had tabbed many beautiful passages. It’s a coming-of-age story about a boy suffering misfortune after misfortune that, through the enduring power of art and love, finally begins to see light at the end of the tunnel. I love that idea and resonate with it.
But for everything I admired, there were parts that didn’t work for me. The writing often felt unnecessarily dense and drawn out, and the high points didn’t always make up for the long stretches leading to them. I found Theo’s behaviour plain frustrating by the third quarter of the book. It reminded me a lot of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara—an extremely long story that never quite gives you the satisfaction of watching its main character choose better for themselves.
Then again, that may be what is most true to life. People can take years to figure things out, and sometimes they never do. After trauma, loss, and subsequent substance abuse, the path forward is rarely linear.
It’s Not You, It’s the World: A Mental Health Survival Guide For Us All – Joanna Cheek
I was especially interested in this book because I’ve experienced severe burnout and depression. The COVID-19 pandemic, a soul-sucking corporate job, and reaching an age where I was becoming more aware of myself and the world created the perfect conditions for a downward spiral.
As Joanna Cheek explains, what I experienced during those years was actually alarm bells pointing to deep dissatisfaction and misalignment. Those alarm bells eventually led me to leave that job, and then build this blog down the line. It’s the reason I can sit here and write this today.
I wish I had a book like this at the time. Not because it would have magically fixed everything, but because feeling heard and validated might have eased some of the shame and guilt that made those years even harder.
Some of my favourite takeaways: the way shame about our thoughts can intensify emotional distress, the reminder that bad feelings usually have good reasons, the value of detaching from the stories our thoughts create, and the importance of compassion, connection, and community in a stressful world.
It’s well written, thoughtfully researched, and includes helpful exercises grounded in the author’s personal experience. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone experiencing burnout, anxiety, or chronic stress, or to readers newer to psychology and self-help.
Thank you to NetGalley and Balance Books for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.
Billy Summers – Stephen King
- Billy Summers is an ex-Marine and the best hitman in the business.
- When he gets an offer to do one last job that will pay him enough to comfortably retire, he takes it—even though it doesn’t feel quite right. Of course, nothing goes according to plan.
- Billy lives undercover as a writer as part of the setup, and begins writing a book about his life and experiences in the war.
Despite the length of this book, I managed to finish it in less than a week! Stephen King has a tendency to write in excess, but for this story particularly, the details are well-thought out and create an intricate plot full of clues and hints.
Billy Summers himself is hard not to love, especially once you understand more about his past and why he makes a living doing what he does. I don’t want to give too much away, but there’s an unexpected element of the story that brings the intrigue—and the multi-dimensions of Billy—to even greater levels.
I was so anxious at the end of this book I could barely get through it. A beautiful and bittersweet story.
Yesteryear – Caro Claire Burke
- Natalie is a picture-perfect woman with a picture-perfect life. She lives on a farm with her six kids, hardworking husband, and a social media account with millions of followers.
- When she suddenly finds herself transported back in time to the 1800s, Natalie must face the harsh realities of the era she romanticized online.
- As she struggles to survive without modern comforts, she’s forced to confront the gap between the curated life she presented to the world and the truth of what that past really meant for women.
This was one of the most anticipated titles on my 2026 release list, and I was thrilled to receive an early copy. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Books.
I’ll be careful not to give too much away, because part of what made this book so enjoyable was the constant sense of uncertainty. I never quite knew where the story was headed and it kept me on my toes until the end.
Natalie is both an unreliable narrator and a difficult character to like, which is not easy to pull off in fiction. It quickly becomes clear that her perspective on the world—and the people around her—can’t be fully trusted.
At its core, this book raises uncomfortable but compelling questions about authenticity, belief, and the roles women are expected to play. This is an excellent pick for book clubs.
And that wraps up my February reading! If you’ve read any of these books, I’d love to hear your thoughts—or let me know what your favourite read of the month was.
See you soon,
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