Happy 2nd quarter of the year! I remember complaing to my husband in January about the dinner/auction committee I was on at school and how much time that was taking up and then also about how much longer the wrestling season seemed and now...one of those have been done for 2 months and the other for a month! Certainly helped the winter fly by, in a way where we still made plenty of memories but also got us to the warmer season, which I appreciate SO MUCH. I never realize how much the cold and gloom get to me until we get sunshine and warm days. I feel like a whole different person.
Reading another thing that helps chase away the winter blues and March was a decent month for me! It really helps when I can kick off the week with a strong reading day on Sunday (which schedules don't always allow for). I'm really noticing how important starting strong is. Such as, if Monday morning goes well getting out the door for school, then the rest of the week tends to follow suit. If Monday is a disaster...well we try the rest of the week but it's never great.
I'm very active on Goodreads here, somewhat active on Instagram here, and linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy on the 15th!
Other book posts in the past month:
MANY Seasonal Picture Book Series
Now everything else I read in March:
Just My Type by Falon Ballard
Hum....romance set in LA, around two former rivals set-up to act like they are dating or about to date or just broken up or something. They think they hate each other but, surprise!, they don't. I don't read a lot of LA set books so it was nice to have a change of scenery from NYC and it was a fine story. 3.25 Stars
The Sweet Spot by Amy Poeppel
This book was a delight and a hard genre to pin down although I like them when I read them! Set in NYC and following three different women whose lives are intersecting in strange ways. There's an unfaithful husband and a private school and a dive bar and hippies and a lot of animals. The story weaves all the threads together in surprising ways that left me empathetic for characters in the end that I very much disliked in the beginning. Just a good time. 4 Stars
The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth's Legacy and the Future of the Crown by Katie Nicholl
This book was published last fall, after the Queen died, but had to have been written before that. That instantly made a lot of this feel out of date, so much about what would happen when Charles took the throne (which isn't exactly how it all happened). I knew much of it already and then there was a couple of pages about if Harry and Meghan's kids would get prince/princess titles and if Edward would end up getting the Duke of Edinburgh title...all of that I read the same week both those issues were resolved or at least announced which made it feel extra dated. It would have been a more worthwhile read before the Queen died...but it wasn't published yet then. Unfortunate timing. 3 Stars
Begin Again by Emma Lord
YA set on a college campus and secret societies that I just couldn't get myself to care about. I don't know, sometimes YA can still land with me but it's less and less lately. Also, obvious where this was going although there was one twist I didn't see coming so that was nice. 3 Stars
The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull
This was our book club (I use that very loosely) pick for the month, about the older sister of Anastasia, the one who got the animated movie in the late 1990s even though at the time it was already known that she didn't escape the fate of the rest of her family. However, this book was sad but also interesting, reading how the family's situation devolved to where it did and knowing what was coming for them. It also led to an internet deep dive into how all the Europe's royal houses are related and how close the families were that were leading countries and fighting, leading to World War I. I appreciated it, as sad as it was at times. 3.75 Stars
The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve
This was a quicker read about big fires in Maine and a woman able to escape a terrible marriage because of said fires. More literary than I usually read a but still a page turner. 3.75 Stars
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
Not my favorite of theirs and I forget all the details right now but it was still light hearted romance between some harder reads. I think childhood friends...I think it was similar in story to Every Summer After which was written second but I read first. And I really liked that one so this was just too close but not as enjoyable to me. 3.25 Stars
Minimalista: Your Step-by-Step Guide to a Better Home, Wardrobe, and Life by Shira Gill
I've been really working on getting rid of things lately so this came at a good time, even though I've read many books on the topic AND this is already my 2nd this year. I was ehhhhh on it for much of the book. She talked about clearing the piles of laundry from your bedroom (we never have those) and some other basics and we've long mastered. But then she got the part about clearing out attics, garages, basements...those are our problem areas and that felt very relevant! And about what kinds of keepsakes to keep for yourself and your kids. But then she also suggested the one in one out rule which is great for clothes, shoes, purses, vases, etc. BUT SHE SUGGESTED IT FOR LEGO SETS. I do not know in what universe someone could box up a complete Lego set that kids have played with and then pass it on. We have SO MANY Legos all in pieces and if we could find all the right pieces, my kids would build them again themselves. I thought that advice was crazy. Also, she came for tea hoarders, apparently people who don't drink tea keep more on hand than I, a person who usually has 2 mugs a day, drinks. But at least she mentioned DVDs and not VHS tapes like the last book. I can't get over that Lego advice though. Still....3.75 Stars
Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - The World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
This was about the atomic bomb building BUT it was written to pre-teens/teens (I pulled it from the kid section at the library although it's too advanced for my 4th grader) so that meant it didn't get lost in the details or the science. I knew the basics of the Los Alamos project but didn't know about our attempts to steal the Germans' attempts. Also, I didn't realize Hiroshima killed 70,000 people. Seventy-thousand. I thought it was more like 7,000?? Which is still a lot of people but given the attention given to 9/11 in the US, still decades later, and that was a fraction of deaths compared to 70,000. Just...a lot to think about. It was a pretty quick read and I appreciated the knowledge. 3.5 Stars
The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon
Middle grade about two brothers who befriend a slightly older kid, in the woods between their houses, over the summer. It's set in Indiana which was part of the draw for me although that's not a huge plot point other than Indianapolis being mentioned and the Children's Museum (which is very good but I haven't been there in....nearly 30 years). It turns out the boy the brother befriend is in foster care and has had a harder life. That slowly comes to light as the boys embark on an "escalator trade" where they started with one thing and keep slowing trading up to get the one thing they collectively want. It was a bit heartbreaking at times but also good summer fun. 3.5 Stars
A Simpler Motherhood: Curating Contentment, Savoring Slow, and Making Room for What Matters Most by Cas Aarssen
I read this on my phone because that's the only way my library had a copy of it. Ebook reading it not my favorite which I'm sure affected my like of this one. These are all lessons I need to learn. Focusing on the kids and less on the to-dos. There was a big chunk at the end about savoring the days and I read it on a day my kids were driving me up the wall and it just felt like a lecture. One I probably needed but I wasn't in the mood to receive that then. Still, it was probably a little too close to what I needed to hear which made me grouchy about reading it. 3.75 Stars
10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston
I heard this was cute so I picked it up. It was fine, a newly single teen is set up on 10 blind dates around Christmas by her extended family. Really, the premise was cute and maybe I would have liked it a bit more if I read it around Christmas BUT...even coming from a big family and marrying into a big family, I found THIS big family overbearing and TOO close. There were like 20 some cousins and a bunch of aunts and uncles and they all spent Christmas Eve night at the grandparents' house. HARD NO. I want to sleep in my bed, not a floor, and hundred percent not on board with staying at some level of in-law's house for a crazy Christmas morning. Again, I LIKE big families. But they need a little bit of space. 3 Stars
Read with Luke and/or Sam
The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling
I didn't realize this book was so old when I picked it to read to Luke (or, rather, he picked it from a list of options I gave him). Written in the 1950s so a bit dated and the solution reminded me of a Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book (all of which I read him a few years ago). We also read this between Harry Potter books and that's a high level to match. It was fine. And much quicker than Harry. 3 Stars
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Read this with Sam and he LOVED it. Much more than Luke seemed to care about it a few years ago (and Luke liked it fine). Sam was just so delighted to read this and was eager to pick it up again and again. It was a fun reading experience with him (we're now on the second one). 3.5 Stars
What have YOU been reading lately??
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