Monthly Wrap-Up

Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2026

Dini @ dinipandareads23 Comments

She blinked and somehow JanuaryFebruary was already over. I know February is a short month, but it felt like it was only two weeks long with how quickly it flew by? Looking back on the month, I’m not really sure what happened? We had some farewells at work with two colleagues leaving us, but other than that, it was just a whole bunch of work (🎶work, work, work, work🎶) and little else. One farewell involved karaoke and I hadn’t been to one (sober) in ages but it was actually a lot of fun. I still can’t sing to save my life, but I had a great time with my colleagues! We also had our office iftar (the evening meal to break the daily fast) on Friday hosted by our Head of Office. His wife arrived from Egypt with some amazing treats and she cooked up a delicious feast for us. It was fantastic! I drool still thinking about it. 🤤

Despite the shorter month, I still managed to finish 10 books. It was less of a successful reading month in terms of ratings though, with more of my reads falling in the 3-star range. I also didn’t have a 5-star read this month, but I did find a new favourite in ✨What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah.✨ This was a beautiful collection of short stories centering relationships and a wide spectrum of emotional experiences from a Nigerian lens. I’d highly recommend it!

My blogging still felt a bit of a mess this month. I missed several days of blogging because I wasn’t organized enough to schedule posts ahead of time, and I wound up having zero time or energy on the day to churn something out. Hopefully, I’ll be more sorted in March! 🤭

It was also another fun month co-hosting the Let’s Talk Bookish weekly meme. You can learn more about it, read all the discussions, and see the upcoming month’s topics HERE.

TEXTis linked to my review (if available)

4.5 pandas

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah, Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

Book Review: What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah

4 pandas

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio, Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy by Faith Erin Hicks, A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

3.5 pandas

Iron & Embers by Helen Scheurrer, Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood

3 pandas

A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid, Always and Forever by Beverly Jenkins

less than 3 pandas

Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton

I’ve finally decided on my reading challenges this year and these are the ones I’ll mainly be focusing on: the Goodreads Reading Challenge, the 2026 Buzzword Reading Challenge, Beat the Backlist, and Year in Aeldia 2026! So far, I’m happy to report, that I’m on track with all of them! 🤩

✔ Goodreads Reading Challenge: 21/100
✔ Beat the Backlist 2026: 📚 9 backlist books // 📱 0 backlist ARCs ⇢ 3/25 Bingo Spaces
✔ 2026 Buzzword Reading Challenge: January (“keyboard keys”) ⇢ Graveyard Shift
✔ Year in Aeldia 2026: February (Top Right Shelf) ⇢ What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

And with that, we’re down one month in the year. How was your reading month? I hope everyone is doing as good as can be and taking good care. Hope March treats you well, friends! 🫂

Blog signature that reads: Let's Chat! xoxo, Dini

23 thoughts on “Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2026”

  2. You had a great month! Dini, all the food looks amazing and now I’m hungry!! I was on the fence with Beat the Backlist challenge. I completed the big BINGO board last year and thought I would take the year off. I do love the Space theme though. Maybe I’ll do the small board. I need to go actually start my monthly wrap-up! I hope you have an amazing March!

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    • It was a pretty great month, thanks Leslie! 💜 Haha, the food was delicious and thinking on it makes me want it again. I need to hunt down some recipes! I think the small bingo is a good compromise if you’re not too sure about the full one — that does have a lot of prompts! If you decide to go for it, I hope you enjoy it. Have an amazing March as well, friend! 🫂

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  6. You always have very interesting life updates, and I love your photos! It seems like you have a really nice relationship with your workmates, which is great to see. The food looks incredible, and I have always wanted to go to a karaoke, but I am way too shy, and it’s not common here.

    I’m very intrigued by Ava Reid’s books. It seems like you read A LOT but you had very different ratings, sadly.

    So glad you’re staying on top of your challenges, but I am not surprised.

    H

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    • Aww, thanks Anna! I was just thinking wow, my life is so boring. I usually have no social life (and I’m more than fine with that) but these past two months since 2026 started have been startlingly social, haha. I’m ready to just chill out a bit. 🤭 The food was delicious though and I had a great time at Karaoke despite initial reluctance. I’m glad I pushed myself out of my comfort zone!

      I hope you enjoy Ava Reid’s books if you give them a try! I’m not sure how much you enjoy “dark” reads but her books can get dark and gruesome. Happy reading, Anna and have a great March!

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    • The food was so good! I still salivate thinking about eating it before and I need to figure out how to make it myself so I can indulge, haha. The cat is my brother’s little fur baby. Her name is Snowy and she’s an absolute grumpasaurus. I love her 💜

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  8. I really feel like this year is flying by. I think how much time I’ve let catch up completely take over hasn’t helped but I am improving (she says after promising to switch to reading by half 7 and seeing its now 9 already… 🙈) Anyway the food looks lovely, im not surprised youre still thinking about it and youre braver than me doing karaoke 😂 is that you cat? They dont look happy with the cone but then I think no animal ever is. We had to give up and remove my lasts dog because he was more likely to injure his bad poor whacking it against the cone in an effort to get it off himself 🙈

    Im glad you had a couple of 4.5 stars and hope March sends some 5s your way. Im glad A Study In Drowning was a success but I’m nervous about the sequel as I keep seeing lower ratings for it 😬

    I hope you have a lovely March and am so excited to start the group buddy read title. Diving in after two more posts and a quick look at my Instagram messages.

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    • At the rate these months are going, I have no doubt that this year is also going to pass by in a blink! It’s so wild to think it’s already March and we’re already into the second week the day after tomorrow! 🫣 Time and schedules always get away from me so you’re definitely not alone there—you just do it at your own pace however that may be! 😁 The cat is my brother’s fur baby. She had an infection and had to have topical medication but she just can’t stop licking herself and so the cone had to go on! Her name is Snowy and she’s super duper grumpy (as you can tell from her natural resting face, haha) and I love her! I feel chosen every time she deigns to show me any affection or attention, haha.

      I hope you enjoy the sequel when you get to it! It was a much tougher read than I expected it to be, and I think I just kind of wanted more happiness for both of these characters. I’m still glad I read it despite not loving it as much as the first! I hope you enjoy it if you give it a go 🙂 Have a lovely March as well, Charlotte!

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      • I fear it’s going to pass in a flash too, its crazy how fast it seems to be going. I definitely need to get better at stopping when I say I will 🙈 I dont know how I always spend more time doing things than I plan to and still feel behind 😬

        Aww well you’re allowed to be grumpy when youre that cute 😂 I imagine thats what my own cat would claim anyway. Hope she doesn’t have to wear the cone for too long and the infection clears up quickly. And cat cuddles are always lovely 🥰

        Thank you, hopefully going into it with the right expectations will help 🤞 and thanks ❤️❤️

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  10. I don’t know what’s happened this year, but it almost feels like January and February have swapped places lol. I normally have a meh Jan and then it starts to pick up, but this year has been the polar opposite. I did have a few things going on at work which probably didn’t help… let’s hope both our March’s end up better 🙂

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