February both flew past and dragged. Individual moments seemed to linger—long days at work, or lazy days at home—but looking back it’s hard to believe that the month is already over and done with. And, reading-wise, the month significantly slowed down. That’s ok, given that my list should theoretically allow me some breathing room, and I should still be able to read everything by the end of the year. (It’s only March, but still somehow the end of the year seems like it’s looming up ahead… Clearly my sense of time is a little weird.)

It’s also possible that general Winter Blahs slowed me down. The winter here in Colorado has been pretty mild (*knocks on wood*), especially compared to the east coast. But at the same time, it’s still been cold. Maybe not as cold as some places, but since I start out at a baseline of “already cold” (yes, I’m That Person who still needs a cardigan in the summer), it feels colder to me at all times than it really is. And while that usually means plenty of inside time that could be spent reading, in reality it seems to have meant sleeping longer, and playing more video games with my husband. Which isn’t a bad way to spend that time, but certainly doesn’t make my book list any shorter. Luckily, I have some flexibility, so even if I add more books to my list, I should still meet my personal goal.

17) A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Mary Russell 2) by Laurie R. King
18) A Letter of Mary (Mary Russell 3) by Laurie R. King
19) The Moor (Mary Russell 4)* by Laurie R. King

I learned two important things reading these books: First, they really, really slow me down. They aren’t incredibly long, but there’s a lot in them, and I felt the need to pay extra close attention to everything—even on the ones I was reading for the second time—so I didn’t miss any details. Second, there doesn’t have to be some little detail that suddenly becomes important or that was overlooked in a mystery. Sometimes you solve a mystery by finding a clue, then finding another, and so on until you get to the end. It’s always seemed like mysteries took another level of planning and foreshadowing that I didn’t think I could do, but now I’m not sure it has to be that way.

I definitely want to read more Mary Russell books, but I don’t think now is the right time for that. I thought I might be able to go through the whole series in one go, but I have other books I need to get to. Maybe I’ll try to get one Mary Russell book in every month… Or maybe I’ll just have to save those books for next year and beyond.

In particular, A Wrinkle In Time will be hitting theaters in early March, which means I need to read those books asap. Although, I haven’t quite decided if I want to read all three plus Many Waters (my fave of those books) before the movie, or just read A Wrinkle In Time before the movie and then read the sequels after I see the movie… Then there’s Ready Player One which comes out at the end of March, and I promised my husband that I would read that before we see it, so I’ll be doing that too. I haven’t read that one before, so that will be one of my few “new” books this year.

Added to those things some Patricia Briggs rereads in anticipation of a new book from her, it looks like I’ll be leaving the historical mysteries behind and returning to my dearest friend, Urban Fantasy for a little while.