February Reading List

Umm, I find this hard to believe, but I only finished one book this month: Babbit by Sinclair Lewis. I found it fascinating. Set in the 20's, I realized that human nature is human nature -- it's only the technology that is different. He was worried about his children, frustrated with his marriage, struggling with relationships and dedicated to his job and friends. I don't know that I've ever read Sinclair Lewis before, and his writing style didn't make me want to run out and read more, but I'm glad I read this classic.

I do have quite the pile on my bedside table, though, including a fun craft book that I will be reviewing soon. Hopefully March will be a better reading month for me.

It's been a crazy month, and just when I thought we were leaving illness behind (illnesses that started around Thanksgiving, going round between my sis, me, my kids, my husband -- and different illnesses! It's not like we've been passing the same bug around! Stomach bugs, bronchitis, pneumonia, colds, kidney infections, colds) C has a rotten sinus infection and I've managed to completely lose my voice. I'm hoping that resting it completely tomorrow will bring it back because I have to teach on Monday, and then again Thursday and Friday.

I'm hoping to be back to regular blogging this week, but I can't make any promises. DH picked up a 2nd job, I am teaching more, I have more writing assignments, and these pesky kids want to be cared for on top of it all.

January Reading List

A couple years back I tracked the books I read each month. I liked having a record like that, so I'm starting back up. While it looks like I didn't read much this month, I actually read a ton while researching a writing project I completed and doing more research for another project. This month, for fun, I read:

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls. I read this one on Alexa's suggestion (thanks, Alexa!) It was an interesting story, and I liked the fact that it was non-fiction. The author clearly had a great love for her parents, even though they were selfish and mentally unbalanced. I did like that it showed sometimes people choose a certain way to live, but I also wondered about all the early memories she shared. She seemed to remember way too much about her toddler years, which left me with a bit of disbelief about her story.

Bread Alone: A Novel I really wanted to like this book, but I didn't. The story wasn't new in any way, and I found myself skipping ahead and skimming just to get finished with it.

Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters This was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the stories I read. I never thought about how useful George Foreman's grills were for the homeless population, or how they cooked at the racetrack during NASCAR events. My complaint about this book? They printed a lot of the text in yellow . . . which was extremely difficult to read. Maybe this was an issue only with the hardcover edition, but it was distracting and disappointing to me. I struggled to read the yellow text, but my old eyes just couldn't manage much of it, so I know I missed chunks of the book. Not sure why a decision like that was made?