What We Read in March

March felt like a slower reading month for me. I read 6 books, which is a decent amount. But the first 5 were read in the first half of the month. I read one book during the last 2 weeks of the month - which is when the COVID-19 crisis started to hit home in Minnesota. That's also around the time when I started to work from home. I guess the combination of working from home (which means I miss out on reading time on the bus) while caring for Paul has sort of worn me out and shortened my attention span in the evening hours. I still read before bed at night, but usually for only 30-45 minutes or so - compared to an hour+ before COVID hit.

I'm finding that I'm drawn to lighter books right now. There are a couple of book club books that are heavier that I'm reading but once I'm through those, I intend to seek out some lighter books.

I usually break my reading down into hits and misses. This month I'll just highlight my 2 favorites.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai - This is a very heavy book as it's about the AIDS epidemic in Chicago in the 1980s. It's fiction but much of it is based on real events and people. It's a heart-breaking read. It took me 2 weeks to finish it given the heavy content.

The River by Peter Heller - This is another book from Modern Mrs. Darcy's summer reading guide. I read it after hearing how much my friend Amber liked it. It was a great thriller that really kept you turning the page. Unlike most thrillers these days which tend to be domestic thrillers, this is a "man vs. nature" kind of thriller. I'd like to read more by this author!

Paul's Reads

Our little reader loves to make piles of books for us to read to him. The Pookie books by Sandra Boynton are by far his favorite. He has a couple new bedtime book obsessions - "I am a Bunny" and "Little Owl's Night." It's interesting what he is drawn to. Neither of these bedtime books are ones we would choose!

He's also been really into the Ranger Rick Cub magazines he gets every other month. Grandma Joan bought a subsciption for him last year and we've kept every one we've received. I'm glad I did that. He was less into them when he was younger but now he's at the perfect age to look through them. I highly recommend this as a gift idea for a toddler in your life. They list an age range of 0-4 on the website.

What are you reading these days? Has your reading increase or decreased during this time of social distancing?