What We Read in February

Hey hey! I'm alone in my house for the first time since last Friday! Huzzah! After the longest, most endless stretch of illnesses - which luckily Phil and I miraculously dodged - the kids are both back in school. It's a big week for me as I return to the office tomorrow. Sob! I am honestly not very excited about it but hoping I feel good about it once I am back in the routine... But being showered/hair done/make-up on, packing a lunch, and being out the door by 6:55 each day sounds daunting! I've decided to cut myself a break this week and buy lunches. I can tackle packing lunches next week when I'm more used to leaving the house looking, well, professional! 

But back to the subject of this post - reading! February was another EXCELLENT month of reading! In general, my 2022 reading has been really great. I can't quite put my finger on why, though, but I think part of it is my recommendation sources have shifted slightly. I started to listen to 2 new-to-me book podcasts last year (Current Reading and Sarah's Bookshelves Live) and my reading tastes seem to be compatible with the hosts. I read 9 books in February, and my average rating was around 4 stars. Here is how my reading broke out. 

Excellent/Great Reads

Honor by Thrity Umrigar was a 5 star book. She is an auto-read author for me and her latest book really packs a punch. It's an extremely heavy topic (an honor killing due to a family member marrying outside of the family's religion). It was excellent. I also loved These Precious Days and Fight Night, but the other 2 were great as well. 

Just Ok

I felt men to just ok about the last 4 books. 

DNF

I also had my first DNF of 2022 - Wintering by Katherine May. I've seen this memoir recommended several places and it seemed like the perfect time to read it. But the tone of the book kind of bothered me from the start. It started at the beginning of the book where the author expresses frustration about having to leave the park (I think it was the park they were leaving?) because her husband is not feeling well. It turns out her husband has appendicitis. I just struggled to relate to being frustrated about leaving the park. We go to the park A LOT with young kids. I'm never frustrated to leave - my child is, but I'm not. And I would certainly not be upset if we had to leave because Phil felt awful. I just felt  like she was kind of uncaring towards her husband? I guess I would feel like an a-hole if I had to write out that I was upset about leaving the park and it was because ultimately my husband had appendicitis? If I am feeling annoyed toward an author, especially when it's a memoir, it's a sure sign that I need to abandon the book. Others have loved this book so I may be the outlier. Perhaps I sound like an a-hole for sharing my reaction to her reaction to her husband, but I thought it would be helpful to share what drove me to give up on a book. I'm trying to be better about abandoning books this year. Life is too short to read books that don't resonate with you. 

The boys' reading:

We've brought home some great books from the library lately! I borrowed an idea from fellow blogger, Elisabeth, and started a kid lit shelf on goodreads so I can keep track of what we've read and loved. These were the 4 favorites from last night. Shout-out to Elisabeth for suggesting the Dinosaur book. It was read multiple times and made all of us laugh! I think that was the only book I requested ahead of time - the other 3 were serendipitous grabs from the shelves. Zero was a funny book about the number zero. He's envious of the other numbers because they are worth something. As a math major, I really loved this book and Paul enjoyed it, too. I'm Sticking with You was a cute book about a friendship between a bear and squirrel. And Little Witch Hazel is a 4-part book that is pretty long, but something Paul really enjoyed. It features an owl which is an animal that Paul has loved from a young age. 

Will's interest in books continues to be a little meh, but he did say "ma ma ma" (how he says mas which means more in Spanish) when I read a book to him at naptime last weekend so it's good to see he can be interested in books. He's just not nearly as interested in books as Paul was at this age, so I worry I didn't read to him enough as a baby? Much of his reading was "second hand" while I read to Paul. But maybe it's just his temperament? Time will tell and we will keep trying to get him interested in books.

Did you read anything great in Feburary?