Books I Read in February

 

This first photo is a selection of the books I read independently this month. I'm pleased that I managed six books considering we started school and I had to develop a new daily routine for myself. Here are my thoughts on each of them...

"Nine Perfect Strangers" by Liane Moriarty - it took me a LONG time to read this book, but not because I didn't like it. I have yet to read a Liane Moriarty book that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. I just set this book aside for awhile as I needed to focus on library books for awhile.

"House Rules" by Jodi Picoult was another book that I own and therefore took an extended break from while I focused on finishing library books that needed to be returned. This was an excellent story and I didn't even mind the ending. Usually I find Jodi Picoult endings too realistic and a little bit depressing. The ending of this book was different and left me wondering.

"Daughter of Grace" by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella was a light and enjoyable read. I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them so I knew this book would be a good read. I have passed all three of these books that I owned on to other readers as they didn't pass the test to remain in my home library. While I enjoyed all three, I'm unlikely to re-read any of them so I sent them to other homes.

"The Kelly Hunters" by Grantlee Kieza was an excellent read. I found it fascinating to read a book about the Ned Kelly Gang that sympathized more with the police than with the outlaws. I always like to have a balance when reading non-fiction even when I side heavily with one perspective of the topic I'm reading about. I have several more books on my "to-read" list about the Kelly Gang so I will reserve the next one soon.

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott was a re-read. I read the book for the first time in the eighth grade as part of my English requirements for the year and recently decided I needed to re-read the book since so much time had passed. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I suspect I had a much different perspective of the story now having read it as an adult instead of a child. I'm eager to read the other books in the "Little Women" series now.

"Half a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was a book I borrowed after a recommendation from a friend and I'm glad I took her up on the suggestion. It was fascinating to learn more about life in Nigeria in the 1960s - though the author explained that she took a fair bit of creative license in telling the story. But the story was compelling and I would be interested to learn more about this time in history because of reading this book.

I decided to include my collage of the reading aloud I did this month as well, even though all these books have already been highlighted in my weekly review posts through the month. I am part of a group on Facebook called the Scary Mommy Bookclub Facebook page. At the end of every month we each make photo collages of all the books we've read and share it with the group. I always do two collages, one of my independent reading, and one of my reading aloud for the boys, to make it easier for the other people to distinguish my reading. 

I wrote more specifically about these books in my weekly reviews, but I will mention here that my favourites of this selection are the two Jackie French books, the two Indian in the Cupboard books (it has easily been 35 years since I've last read those), and I also really enjoyed the Planet Earth book as well.