Hi all. Happy February. I know it’s been chilly on the East Coast — and freezing in the Toronto area — but it’s been mild out here in the West. Go West, they say.
I think we’re warmer this weekend than parts of Florida. Go figure. We’ve made it into the 50s and they’ve apparently been under a pile of blankets. Sorry to those out there, like Tina at the blog Turn the Page, I hope it warms up soon and that the citrus trees don’t get damaged.
This month should be short and busy. Along with the Olympics hoopla, I have a few doc appointments and we’ll be going on a short trip mid-month for a family reunion that we’re gearing up for since our senior dog Stella (pictured above with Willow) will need a home sitter. We’re hoping she can handle it. Stella is a proud, stubborn girl who needs things just so and has trouble with her wobbly legs. Still she is happy and bossy and we’re trying to give her her best life possible.
And now let’s see what’s good that’s releasing this month. There’s new novels by such popular authors as Anna Quindlen, Kate Quinn, Sadeqa Johnson, and Allegra Goodman among others. These should be good, but I’m steered to the commotion over the debut novel Good People (due out Feb. 3) by Patmeena Sabit.
Apparently it’s about an Afghan refugee family who comes to live in Virginia but then when the older daughter of the family is found suspiciously drowned, it turns into an electrifying whodunit. The novel is said to be written like an oral history in which a complex portrait of the family emerges from interviews along with others in the community. Authors Ann Patchett calls it a “thrilling tour de force” and Khaled Hosseini says it’s the Afghan novel he’s been waiting for. So I need to check it out.
Next up I’m curious about Tayari Jones’s new novel Kin (due out Feb. 24) about two motherless lifelong friends from Louisiana in the 1950s whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of much adversity. In it Booklist says “Jones deftly conveys the nuances of Southern Black culture in her novel full of depth, pain, and beauty.” And calls it a “tender love song to southern Black families, communities, and female friendships.”
I read and liked Jones’s writing from her last novel An American Marriage in 2018 — and though this one is said to be much different — I’ll have to check it out.
There’s also Lauren Groff’s new book Brawler (due out Feb. 24), which is a collection of nine short stories about “families transformed by desperate circumstances,” according to Publishers Weekly. Granted I’m not a big short story reader, but every once in a while when something is praised to the rafters — a bit like this one, I’ll go there.
In short stories, I last read Amor Towles collection Table for Two and Fannie Flagg’s Something to Look Forward To, so now I plan to check out Groff’s. I haven’t read Groff since her 2015 novel Fates and Furies and that one was a bit crazy about a marriage gone haywire. But she likes writing short stories — her collection Florida from 2018 was a finalist for the National Book Award and this one might follow perhaps.
Lastly in books, I’m looking at the darkly humorous unhinged novel Evil Genius (due out Feb. 17) by Claire Oshetsky about the volatile inner world of a 19-year-old woman in 1974 San Francisco who fantasizes about a life beyond her abusive marriage. Apparently “Celia is a fetching character for whom the reader dearly wishes a positive outcome, despite all the dead bodies that seem to be accumulating around her,” according to Kirkus Reviews.
The novel sounds different and unsettling and one in which author Chelsea Summers says is “perfect for comic-horror girlies who’ve read Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle and want more mayhem.” I’m not sure if that’s me, but I will investigate it.
Meanwhile, there’s much to watch this month especially if you’re into sports … such as the Winter Olympics in northern Italy (Feb. 6 to 22) — I say bring them on! I love the action. Or there’s the Super Bowl (on Feb. 8), which drew an estimated 127.7 million viewers last year. Sadly, my NFL teams did not make the big game, so perhaps I will opt for the Puppy Bowl XXII instead, which happens a couple hours before the “other game” and features 150 puppies from 72 shelters competing in a friendly game on Animal Planet. It’s for a good cause (dog adoption) and will introduce some senior dogs at the halftime show, yay.
But if you’re allergic to sports watching, you might opt for checking out one of these TV series: The Lincoln Lawyer – Season 4 on Netflix starting Feb. 5; or Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette on FX/Hulu starting Feb. 12; or maybe The Last Thing He Told Me — Season 2 with Jennifer Garner on AppleTV+ starting Feb. 20. There’s also The Gray House (on Prime starting Feb. 26) that’s an eight episode Civil War drama about four unheralded women who helped turn the tide of the war in favor of the Union. But maybe the series about JFK Jr. might be the juiciest and most tragic of these.
There’s also the new major movie of Emily Bronte’s 1847 classic Wuthering Heights out Feb. 13 in time for Valentine’s Day, lol. It was budgeted around $80 million and stars Margot Robbie as Catherine and Jacob Elordi as the brooding Heathcliff. I think it will be the fourth movie version of Wuthering Heights — which has been done in 1939 with Laurence Olivier; in 1992 with Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes; and in 2011. There was also apparently a TV series of it in 2009 with actor Tom Hardy as Heathcliff.
I admit I have not seen any of these productions — have you? But I plan to check out the new movie, which looks to be a doozy. I hope it will be up to the snuff of Emily Bronte’s turbulent tale of obsession on the West Yorkshire moors. What do you think — will it be able to make the cut?
Lastly in music this month, there’s new albums by Mumford & Sons, Moby, Bruno Mars, Iron & Wine, Jill Scott, and The Sheepdogs among others. I’ll pick Mumford & Sons’ The Prizefighter album which comes out Feb. 20. You can hear the single Rubber Band Man here, which features the singing of Hozier and Mumford. Enjoy.
That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you looking forward to this month?
