What I Read: March

March was finally the perfect weather for lots of hammock reading! I got to read out there almost every day over Spring Break and it was glorious! Sometimes I have Tesla's company and other times Elise is on the trampoline or playing in the backyard while I'm in the hammock.

Tesla keeping me company while I read.

Reading on the hammock while the girls played on the trampoline for Fub Club.

Books:

• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix- This book was not at all what I expected, but was absolutely beautiful. I was expecting a horror story filled with witches and spells. What I got was a beautifully written coming of age story that shone light on the maternity houses that were widespread from 1945-1973. My favorite lines from the book were, "...she saw this little igrl that they had pulled out of Holly's body together and she knew that all the magic the witches had ever done was only a pale imitation of what had happened here tonight. This was the Great Mystery that lay at the heart of all things. This was the miracle that passed all understanding. First there is nothing. Then there is." Hendrix signed my book, "Throw Spells & Raise Hell!"

• LETRS: Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling: Volume 1 by Louisa Cook Moats and Carol A. Tolman- I highly recommend this training for all teachers. I learned so much and was able to take things I learned and immediately implement them in my classroom. It was also very affirming that what I'm doing in my classroom to teach reading is best practice and backed by the science of reading. I'm so excited to start Volume 2! This was a very time intensive training. I could have read the book really quickly, but it was broken into sessions and there was online coursework to go with each session along with two 3-hour Zoom sessions per unit. This book had 4 units, so 8 Zoom sessions or one per every 4 sessions. I started reading the book in December and just finished the book, online coursework, and Zoom sessions at the end of March!

Otis keeping me company as I completed some of my reading.

• Pride and Prejudice in Space by Alexis Lampley- I love a good Pride and Prejudice retelling. I really longed for this book to stray more from the original, especially in the first half of the book. It felt like hse got more confident with adding her own flare and made some bigger changes in the second half. All of the artwork was incredible and I loved it being set in space, I think she could have done more with that. It was obvious she loves and is very familiar with the story. I liked that she told the story from different perspectives and gave more life to some of the less developed characters. It doesn't matter how many times I read P&P or retellings, that first time Darcy proposes gets me every time!

• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins- I was disappointed in "Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes" so I went into this one with lowered expectations. Even knowing who the victor of this round of the Hunger Games would be, I was completely sucked in. There were some minor nuggets in the Hunger Games trilogy about Haymitch's Hunger Games, but it had been so long since I read them, I only remembered as I got to those points in the book. This was such a good book and made better knowing the eventual outcome in the end.

eBooks:

• The Measure by Nikki Erlick- This was an interesting premise. It reminded me of "They Both Die at the End" and "Here One Moment". While both those books focused more on the people, this one pulled in the political aspect which felt too accurate to what would likely happen in America and bummed me out more than any other part of the book. I was predicting the surprise at the end of the book, so I was glad that one didn't catch me off guard and unprepared. She also pulled in how string length would be related to systemic racism and short strings would disproportionately affect people of color which was very well done and through provoking.

• James by Percival Everett- This book left me feeling so many emotions. I love when authors write a book retelling from a different character's perspective and this was like nothing I've ever read before. It was at times funny, at times heartbreaking, and so well done.

Audiobooks:

• Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas- There were some big reveals in this one and setting up for things to get interesting in book 3. But knowing Maas' writing style, I'm sure book 3 will just be setting up for something to happen further down the line. This is why I struggle to get into her books, nothing really ever happens until the end of the book and then when you pick up the next book thinking it will start off really good where she left off, it's just more boring to get to something interesting later on. This series is WAY better than ACOTAR but still the same style of stretching things out forever. I have no doubt this is a long series that could have been 3-4 really good books but is instead an 8 books series with lots of boring stuff going on in between all the action to get more books out of the storyline.

• Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham- This book sucked me in and was so fascinating. Now I'm itching to dive into a rabbit hole learning more about the Chernobyl disaster. It was shocking to see how politicians were willing to put millions of people at risk just to save face. This book left me with so many more questions than answers.

• Variation by Rebecca Yarros- This was so good. Allie and Hudson's characters were both so sweet and relatable. Who doesn't want a man who would wait 10 years for them? While that didn't feel super realistic, I still loved it and was there for it. Since I was reading this through Kindle Unlimited, I'd switch back and forth between the ebook and audiobook. I listened more than read so I put it in the audiobook section, but that's part of the reason why my ebook section is lighter than normal this month.

• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk- This book was so odd. I had a hard time staying focused and engaged with the story. There were so many times the plot was interrupted by random ramblings through the old lady's mind. I will admit, I didn't see the ending coming at all, but it felt a lot like Delia Owen's book where the punishment didn't fit the crime and left me feeling yucky because I wanted punishment, but not that.

• The Wedding People by Alison Espach- I loved this book. It pulled me in from the first line and kept me sucked in until the very end. All the characters were so relatable and I was rooting for each one of them. My favorite line was, "It is so much easier to sit in things and wait for something to save us." It definitely solidified for me a big life decision I made the week before I read that line. You can't just stay stuck in a bad situation hoping it will somehow get better, you have to make a change for yourself!