I had to travel to Wichita for work this week. Leaving town always makes for a hectic week. Insane teaching schedules. Long rehearsals. Extra sessions for rehearsals I will miss. Gathering all of the materials for the trip. It is a lot. Then once I get to the destination, there is work to be done. A lot of work and not a lot of downtime for quiet activities like reading. I was able to read this week’s fluff piece while manning the recruiting booth, so there was something accomplished toward my reading goals. Here’s hoping that this week will get me back into a normal routine and reading rhythm.

What I Finished This Week

Next-Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin. The title of this cute book really tells you everything you need to know about it. A woman returns to her Ohio home after a disastrous relationship in Los Angeles ends. Once there, she crosses paths with the man who broke her heart in high school. They hate each other. Or do they? Not a deep plot at all, but actually a really fun read and something that I could manage to get through while on the road in Kansas this week. 4 stars.

What I’m Currently Reading

An Indecent Obsession by Colleen McCullough (p. 142 of 317). The novel has proven to be a challenging read for me this week. Many of the patients in Ward X suffer from some form of sexual deviance, at least what was considered deviance in the 1980s. It seems that McCullough’s use of euphemism is intended to allow her readers to tolerate and explore the issues she presents, specifically homosexuality. While the novel is not graphic, it is a challenging read as I try to determine what she is actually attempting to portray in the action. This is one of those times where attempting to avoid any level of discomfort ends up making the novel less powerful and much more difficult to read. Hopefully, this book becomes less muddied as I continue to make my way through it.

February in Review

February proved to be a tough month. Two work trips, an illness that knocked me flat, and rehearsals for UIL and children’s opera meant that I had very little time in life for anything else. Somehow, I managed to still read at least a book each week. I’ll take that as a win.

• Books read in February: 6 books (down 4 from January)
  • 3 physical
  • 2 ebooks
  • 1 audio
• Pages read in February: 2,126 (down 166 from January)
• Highest rated book: The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros – 5 stars
• Lowest rated book: The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe – 3 stars

2026 Reading Challenge Progress – The 52 Book Club

February saw the first mini-challenge of 2026. I decided that this year I was going to try to complete the minis as they were presented rather than saving them until the end. I had fun with the challenge, but it didn’t do wonders for my progress in the overall challenge.

The mini was called “This or That?” We were given the titles of three famous books (The Scarlet Letter, Crime & Punishment, and Fourth Wing) and were to read a book that was inspired by one of the words. I wasn’t super excited about Fourth Wing by the time I got to that prompt, but I really enjoyed the other two books.

I only added three books to the overall challenge this month, but I really enjoyed all three books. That is what is most important to me. I have now read 7 of the 52 books. This is the beginning of week 10 of 2026, so I’m a little behind my goal of a book a week for the year, but I’m still in an okay position. I know that I have Spring Break and summer vacation coming up; both of those have traditionally been really good times for my reading life.

Posted in 2026 Reading Challenge, international, romance, The 52 Book Club

---