Books I Read in January

 

These are the books I read in January. Normally I read MANY more books in a month, but firstly, I don't read anything other than the Bible and our character book aloud to the boys during school holidays, and secondly, life was a little bit busy with the move. Therefore I'm extremely happy to have read these five books. Here are my thoughts on each of them...

"Tiny Habits" by BJ Fogg was my absolute favourite read of the month. I highly recommend it and I really feel like his ideas are feasible even in the busiest of lives.

"The Birth Order Book" by Dr Kevin Leman was my second favourite for the month and one of two books that I chose to re-read. My pastor mentioned the book in passing a couple of months ago and I decided a to refresh my memory. I'm glad I did and I have some ideas and techniques to help me navigate the near future with our youngest now.

"Jewel" by Bret Lott is an Oprah Book Club from the old days (when she first started the club) and was also a re-read selection for me. I'm slowly working my way through all the books I own, reading any I haven't read yet, and re-reading any I've already read. The purpose is to decide what books I own that will become "forever" books - those that I will either read aloud to grandchildren or will read and re-read for my entire life. I enjoyed re-reading this book and then made the decision to donate it to one of my local "free little libraries" as it isn't a book I would want to read again.

"Our Country Christmas" was a light book meant to balance out the two Christmas novels I read in December that were Northern Hemisphere based. There were five stories in the collection and whilst I enjoyed the lighter reading during a hectic time in my life, some of the stories weren't written particularly well, and all the stories were romance books. Having said that, two of the stories were written better and I did enjoy those, but I definitely won't be re-reading and I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone either.

Finally, I read "Doctor Zhivago" by Boris Pasternak as it was on my list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. The book was definitely the most difficult one to read (being a classic) and I found it a bit choppy, which I attributed it to the fact that it is a translation. Finally, I wouldn't consider it the greatest love story - he basically just needed a woman with him wherever he was and that doesn't constitute a great love story in my humble opinion. Still, I'm glad I read it.