February is a month celebrating love. This would be a good time to create a page in one of my journals just for listing all the people and things I love.
Word of the Month
Endurance
Bible Verses of the Month
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” – (Romans 5:3,4 NLT)
This month’s reading diary is at the bottom of this page, after the book list.
My Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/lindajm
★ – I’m reading it.
✓ – I finished reading it. Yay!
⇗ – Still reading at the end of the month.
⇓ – I did not like it or finish it.
∅ – Stalled – I started but didn’t finish.
Challenges
1. Becoming vegan – I’m transitioning to the Forks Over Knives diet – with books!
2. The 2025 Biblical Studies Challenge – this challenge asks us to read one book monthly on a topic one would study if lucky enough to attend a Bible college. The February topic is prayer. A link to the book I’ve chosen is posted below: Moms In Prayer.
3. The Virtual Theology Christian Reading Challenge (goal: 73 books)
4. The David McCullough Readalong continues throughout 2025. This is my second month of reading The Path Between the Seas, which is about the history of the building of the Panama Canal.
5. Reading Books I Already Own – During 2025 I commit to reading books I’ve already bought, and not buying more… hopefully, for the most part. I’ve made a commitment to read 100 books I already own because there’s no sense in buying more when I’m not taking time to read the books I’ve already got. I made an exception for audiobooks. Also library or Libby books don’t count because I’m not buying them.
This video tells more about my new book-buying diet:
Finished Reading This Month

★ Survival Literature: Left For Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World , by Eric Jay Dolin
My current “survival literature” nonfiction read features five castaways in the Falkland Islands during the war of 1812. Published May 7, 2024.
I finished reading this on February 11 and am very pleased with the outcome of a difficult, complex adventure. Review

✓ Memoir: The Man Who Walked Through Time, by Colin Fletcher
In 1963 Colin Fletcher hiked the entire length of the Grand Canyon (per the 1963 boundaries) and he was the first to do it in one go. His memoir is thoughtful and meditative. It will take you there as much as any book could. Review
What I’m Reading Now

★ History: The Path Between the Seas, by David McCullough
A history of the building of the Panama Canal.

★ Christian Nonfiction: The Story of Christianity, by Justo L. Gonzalez
My sister bought this for me on my birthday, along with another book on Christian history. The month for history during my Biblical Studies Challenge will be November, but this is a big thick book and I have no hope for finishing it in November unless I start early. So far I’ve read only the introduction.
This video is about the Biblical Studies Challenge I’ve embarked on during 2025.

★ Christian Nonfiction: Moms In Prayer, by Fern Nichols
I started this a few months back but did not finish reading it. Now I’ve chosen it for my February book for the Biblical Studies Challenge, since the February topic is prayer.

★ Christian Nonfiction: Defiant Joy: Taking Hold of Hope, Beauty, and Life in a Hurting World, by Stasi Eldredge
I’m reading this with a group on Booktube.

★ Epistolary Mystery: The Examiner, by Janice Hallett
An epistolary novel.

★ Ergodic Fiction: Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov
Ergodic fiction – a man obsesses over a poet, who has died. The foreword, poem, and commentary are all parts of this novel. There’s also an index. Definition of ergodic: “Relating to or denoting systems or processes with the property that, given sufficient time, they include or impinge on all points in a given space and can be represented statistically by a reasonably large selection of points.” (per Oxford Languages Dictionary)

★ Classic Fiction: Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo
I’m not giving up on this one.

★ Art: The World of Urban Sketching, by Stephanie Bower
Because… ART. I love urban sketching!

★ Health: Forks Over Knives Plan, by Pulde & Lederman
A great health book. I’m going to try to transition to this diet over the next few months. I’ve been a vegetarian most of my adult life but I’d like to be vegan.

★ Ergodic Fiction: Cain’s Jawbone, by Edward Powys Mathers
I am buddy-reading this with a friend. This book: Is it a puzzle? Is it a hobby? I’ll find out. I read the first ten pages and so far didn’t understand a thing. Each page must be carefully researched using outside sources.
More Books Planned for February

☆ Epistolary Fiction: Up the Down Staircase, by Bel Kaufman
I wanted to read this during Epistolary January but didn’t have time for it then. This will be a reread of the first epistolary novel I ever read, more than 50 years ago.

☆ Epistolary Fiction: Dear Mr. Knightley, by Kathrine Reay
I hope I like this book.

☆ Epistolary Nonfiction: Diary of a Forty-Niner, by Chauncey Canfield
This diary is epistolary, but it isn’t fiction. I love to read about California history!
My February 2025 Reading Diary
February 1 – I love books, but books should not be an idol for me. God is supreme over all books. Books are a gift from God.
February 5 – Let me start by telling you about yesterday. I’m not sure when I woke up in the morning, but the electricity was already off. This should not have surprised me as we had about a foot of snow on the ground outside. Our little town is surrounded by many miles of National Forest so this is a fairly common thing. Snow and electric outages seem to go together for us.
The outage lasted all day long, and ended at 10:46 pm. Unfortunately my home is all-electric, including the heater. As the day wore on it got progressively colder inside my home and I spent a lot of the day in my bed under thick blankets as it was the only warm place in the house!
Fortunately I own an emergency battery and when the electricity goes out I can plug my wifi router into that and continue my regular internet activities on my phone or computer. The battery also charges those items… so I’m not completely cut off from civilization.
That was yesterday. Today I finished listening to an audiobook version of Colin Fletcher’s adventure memoir of hiking the length of the Grand Canyon. It is called The Man Who Walked Through Time. Five stars! It made me feel like I was there again.
My poetry about snow.
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