Books I Want to Read in February 2022

I thought this would be kind of an interesting post to start doing right before the beginning of a new month. I personally get a lot of my book ideas from other people saying this is what they’re reading at the current moment. It helps broaden my horizons for books that I might not have even known existed. Now this is just a rough estimate on what I plan on reading and if you decide to pick up one of these as well to read I would love to know! I may start a book and absolutely hate it and decide not to finish or I may read all of these and still have more that were not on this original list. As of right now I have 7 confirmed books that I plan on reading this month which includes 3 books for different book clubs and 3 hardcover books. Happy reading!

1. The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

San Francisco, April 1906, a deadly earthquake hits at dawn shaking the city and changing the lives of those who live there. When the first shakes being, all that Irish immigrant Sophie Whalen can think about is finding safety for her and her daughter, Kat. She isn’t Kat’s birth mom as she only recently accepted a mail order bride request from her now husband. A husband who is never home and is hiding many things from his new wife. When an unexpected visitor arrives at her front door right before the earthquake hits, it ends up changing her life even more than the deadly quake.

2. Verity by Colleen Hoover

Colleen Hoover has quickly become a household name when it comes to romantic thrillers. Over the past few years she has taken this genre by storm and has created some very talked about books. Her book Verity follows Lowen Ashleigh who is a struggling writer when the chance of a life time lands at her feet. She has been asked by Jeremy Crawford, husband of the legendary Verity Crawford, to finish the current book his wife is working on as she is currently too injured to work on it. Lowen expects to find notes and rough drafts on the current book, but what she finds is an autobiography in process that will highlight all the secrets she has been keeping from the rest of the world. It’s up to Lowen to decide what she wants to do with these admissions that could ruin the Crawford family.

3. The Night Portrait: A novel of World War II and Da Vinci’s Italy by Laura Morelli

A historical fiction novel that starts with the creation of one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous painting, Lady with an Ermine, and a women in Munich, Germany who did all she could to keep the portrait from being bought by a high ranking Nazi and destroyed. Separated by 500 years, this dual timeline story shows how two women are connected by a painting and their journeys to find their own destiny.

4. This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

All families have secrets. Some become public and some will always remain hidden. Rosie and Penn are raising 5 boys when their youngest, Claude, tells them he dreams of being a princess. He dreams of being a girl. They want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be but they are not quite ready to share that with the rest of the world. Everyone in the family is keeping Claude’s wish a secret until it is no longer a secret. It sounds like it will be a moving story that captures the power of change and how a child’s path may not be the right path for them.

5. Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan

When the steamship Pulaski is found 180 years after it sank from a broiler explosion near the coast of Savannah, Georgia, museum curator Evelyn Winthrop is beside herself on the opportunity to handle artifacts that have not been studied by a historian and learn the mysteries behind them. Her findings lead her to a family of 11 that was on board when the explosion happened and two women in the family who lived very different lives. How this tragedy impacted them both.

6. Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

It’s definitely been a minute since a mystery/thriller was in my book line up. I’ve been reading so much historical fiction (hence most of these choices) that I needed to spice things up a little. Catherine House is a boarding school like no other. It has produced some of the best minds around the world but comes with a weird cost. You must give three years to the school, including summers, where you leave everything from your outside life. When troubled teen, Ines, gets accepted into this school, she is originally very grateful for this opportunity but as the months start going by she starts to see that this school has a lot of secrets it’s hiding from everyone. Secrets that may end in tragedy.

7. Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe

A nonfiction novel about the legendary Vanderbilt family. Anderson Cooper, the great great great grandson of the head of the family, works with Katherine Howe on sharing a deeper history of his family and the choices that Cornelius Vanderbilt made that would make him a house hold name. I’m reading this book in my extended family book club and I am already looking forward to our discussion and being able to hear from the different ages and the different opinions they may share.

If you have read any of these or plan to I would love to know!

Until Next Time, The Library Abroad