What I Read: January

This month's book count is brought to you by a combination of some shorter books and having Covid this month. I was so thankful to have books to read when I was sick or stuck at home. Reading The Sun Does Shine definitely made me thankful that I have access to books!

Books:

• Love That Dog by Sharon Creech- The library right by our house has librarian recommendations shelves. One of the librarians always has books I've read and loved on her shelf so when I saw there was one on her shelf I hadn't read, I grabbed it. This was that book. It was very cute and was written in poems by a fictional boy. It was a super short read and I finished it in one day. 

• The Museum of Rain by Dave Eggers- I saw this displayed at the library and it caught my eye. I don't normally pick up short stories but when I read the back, I decided to read this one. It was lovely.

• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi- I loved Homegoing so when I saw this one was coming out, I bought it. The timing of when I chose to read this wasn't the best and the content was a bit heavy and hit too close to home. There were times I would set it down and my heart would just ache. Gyasi is an incredible writer. Her descriptions of the lab mice and what she was studying were fascinating.
  

• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver- I love the way she writes. The beginning of the book really sucked me in. The characters were easy to love and I was excited to see there's another book in the series. 

• Lucky by Marissa Stapley- I found this one in the discount section at Books a Million and liked the cover. It was a fun book but a little predictable and an overly happy ending. I could see it making a really good movie.

• Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman- I love her poetry. I liked the individual poems but reading them all in one work with so many about being stuck inside during the pandemic and the pandemic as a whole was just too soon. It made me a little depressed.
  

• The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton- This story was so heartbreaking. At the end of the book, I was reading while the kids played and I had to leave the room to cry. If you believe in the death penalty, you need to read this book along with Just Mercy to gain a new perspective. The way our criminal justice system works is so flawed. 

• Happiness for Beginners- I love Katherine Center. Her books are always fun and have a happy ending. This one I especially enjoyed as the main character was a teacher and she went on a backpacking trip. It cracked me up when she used her different "teacher voices".
  

eBooks:

• The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright- This was one of those books that you would think they got a little carried away and made things a bit too far fetched if you knew it was strictly fictional. But this was based on a true story and the main events in the story were all things that happened in real life. I loved it and I always love reading books set in India.

• Pax, Journey Home by Sara Pennypacker- I loved Pax and the sequel was even better. I was so glad it ended more hopeful and with Peter in a better place than the first book. 
  

• The Wedding Setup: A Short Story by Sonali Dev- I was looking to see if her newest Rajes book was out (she is writing a retelling of each of Jane Austen's books) and saw this one. I was sad the Rajes book wasn't out yet so I went ahead and bought this as an ebook. I liked it.

Audiobooks:

• The Husbands by Chandler Baker- I loved Whisper Network by Baker so I was excited for this one. It was kind of annoying because I just wanted to yell at the main character to speak up and tell her husband what she needed. If she would have just been more assertive, I felt like she could have gotten more of the help she needed. I love the issues Baker brings up in her books and I can always relate to huge parts of the female experience she writes about. In this one it bugged me that these women were hard working career women but were portrayed so heartlessly. I don't think a woman has to treat other people like that to be successful and have a partner who helps at home. This was still good and kept my interest but definitely wasn't even close to as good as Whisper Network, in my opinion. 
  

• We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby- I wanted something funny so I decided to see if our library had added any of Irby's books as downloadable audiobooks. They had! This one had me cracking up laughing on runs and probably looking like a crazy person. I love Irby, but will never meet her in real life, haha!

• Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother's Letter to Her Son by Homeira Qaderi- This story was heartbreaking. There was so much pain and suffering in Homeira's life. As a mother, it's incomprehensible to be kept away from your child. I could feel her pain as I listened to this book. Every time I read the story of a woman from a country where women have no voice or choice in their lives, it makes me sick. Homeira is an incredibly brave woman and hearing her story made me proud to be a woman.
  

• The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller- I noticed this on the Quick Pick shelf at the library and decided to get it as an audiobook. Had I been reading it as a regular book, I might have abandoned it. It took me about half the book to get into it but then once I did, I couldn't stop listening. I'd get excited to do chores so I could listen to it.

• The Duke and I by Julia Quinn- I had heard so much hype about Bridgerton on Netflix, but never really had much interest in joining in. Our book club chose to read this book for our February meeting. When I finished it, I was so excited to watch the show. I loved listening to it as an audiobook because the narrator had a British accent. Lady Whistledown's Society Papers was my favorite part of the book. Having read a lot of Jane Austen I enjoyed how Quinn gave the women a bit more say and freedom in her story. I felt like it was more of a modern day version of what life would have been like at the time. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading the 2nd book, but it wasn't anything super special, just fun.

• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins- This one started out so good and I started to get a bit bored with it in the middle, but I liked the ending.