I’m very excited to be participating in Feminist Lit February this month! Feminist Lit February is a readathon run by Jane from ItsJaneLindsey, and I think it’s a great idea for a readathon. Plus I love that it’s a whole month long, so there’s plenty of time to pick up some feminist-inspired books!

If you’re interested in participating, be sure to check out Jane’s announcement video below and use the hashtag #FeministLitFeb on social media!

There are five challenges for this readathon, and since I have all month to complete them, I definitely think I’ll be able to check them all off!

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

The first task is to read a book of feminist fiction, and I’m going to use this task to finally pick up Wonder Woman: Warbringer. It’s a YA retelling of Wonder Woman in which Diana visits the modern world after rescuing a girl who turns out to be a Warbringer, a descendent of Helen of Troy fated to bring an about an age of bloodshed. I’ve heard it’s super diverse and feminist and have been putting this book off for ages for no apparent reason, but this readathon is the perfect motivation to finally pick it up!

Daring to Drive by Manal Al-Sharif

The second task is to read a book of feminist nonfiction. When I first saw this task, I was like, shoot! I just read Hunger by Roxane Gay! What else am I going to read? But then I remembered that I just picked up Daring to Drive from Book Outlet, and I’m really excited to read this book. It’s a memoir about Manal Al-Sharif’s experience as the leader of the movement to support women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia, and I think it will be absolutely fascinating. Seriously, I can’t wait to read this book.

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

I actually have a bunch of books I could pick for the next task of reading an own voices book, but I think the one with the strongest feminist themes is probably Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali, plus I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while ever since I saw Jen from Firewhiskey Reader rave about it. It’s a YA book about a girl who was sexually assaulted and then struggles to deal with that assault within her tightknit Muslim community.

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

I’ve been meaning to read Redefining Realness for ages, and it’s perfect for the task of reading a book written by a black woman or someone who is black and non-binary/gender fluid since it’s Janet Mock’s memoir of what it’s like to be a transgender woman. I’ve seen this book on a number of must-read lists, plus it deals with a topic that I know very little about, so I’m very interested in finally reading this book.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The last task is a feminist freebie, and since it’s black history month and this book is on my list of 18 Books to Read in 2018, it seems like the perfect time to read Beloved. I actually know very little about this book, but I figure Toni Morrison is so widely respected for a reason and I’m majorly missing out by not having read any of her books, so Feminist Lit February is the perfect time to correct that oversight.

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Of course, I have lots of other books both on my physical TBR shelves and on my Goodreads TBR shelves that would be perfect for Feminist Lit February (like Daughters of a Nation, a trio of romance stories about black suffragettes, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s book My Own Words), so there’s a good chance I’ll wind up reading more feminist picks than just these ones, but these five are the ones I really want to make sure and read in February. I’d actually love to commit to reading only feminist books in February, but there are a few other books that I’d really like to get to this month as well.

One of those is Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. I visited Mann’s home in Lübeck when I studied abroad in Germany because he was my friend’s favorite author, and I’ve been meaning to read some of his works ever since. I bought Buddenbrooks with the hopes that having a physical copy would make me more likely to pick it up, but it’s been on my shelf for more than a year and a half and still hasn’t happened, so I’m reading it this month!

I’ve also been making a lot of progress on some of the series I’ve been reading, so I’d like to wrap up the All Souls trilogy this month and read The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness. They’re slow reads, but I’ve really been enjoying these books and can’t wait to read the finale.

I’m pretty excited that my book club will be discussing Roomies by Christina Lauren in March. I actually haven’t read a Christina Lauren book (I DNFed Beautiful Bastard pretty early on), but I’ve heard great things about this particular book, so I’m glad I have to read it this month for my book club.

And because I can’t justify subscribing to Book of the Month unless I’m reading my monthly picks as I get them, I’m planning to read my February pick sometime during the month. The choices won’t be announced until tomorrow, so check my Twitter or Instagram to see which one I wind up selecting.

As far as my reread of the month, I did not make it to Order of the Phoenix last month, and I’m honestly not sure I feel like reading it this month, either. Instead, I’m thinking I want to read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, though I’m also playing around with the idea of reading Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce or A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. I guess we’ll see! I feel like rereading books is going to be one of my toughest goals to tackle because there are so many unread books on my shelves and so many new books I want to read, so it’s hard to make myself pick up a reread. But I always wind up enjoying myself when I do reread a book, which is why I’m committed to doing it more this year.

Oh, and I started reading Grant by Ron Chernow in January and I want to keep making progress on it in February. It is a massive biography (it’s almost 1,000 pages) and it’s slow going, so I’m not sure I expect to finish it this month since I’m not in a rush, but I’m really enjoying it and look forward to continuing it.

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So yeah, lots of reading plans for this month! Maybe a few too many plans, but I’m really excited about all of these books and think it will be fun. And if I don’t get to them in February, then oh well. Except for Buddenbrooks, which really has to happen!

What books are you planning to read in February? If you only pick up one feminist book this month, what would it be? Let me know in the comments!