Best Reads of February and March

I started my January reading on fire. I was unstoppable. And then the onset of a new Semester and new courses slowed me down. But, I did read some fabulous books. I decided that if I wasn't going to read a lot, I would read the best. And I did. 

I follow The Girly Book Club, and their February pick, Blake Crouch's Dark Matter, is the plot driven, astounding novel you need right now--especially if you don't want to put it down, and you have some hours to spare reading. 

I spent a dark evening without power reading Rupi Kaur's The Sun and Her Flowers. I'd finally settled my toddler to bed, and looked forward to an evening with Netflix when our power flickered maniacally--really, I became Winona on Stranger Things for about two minutes of power indecisio until it was out for the night. I sighed, picked up Kaur's book (and a flashlight), and I didn't stop reading until the end. The power came back on somewhere towards the end of the collection--but I barely noticed. 

Earlier this year I read Nina Riggs' memoir, The Bright Hour, and she mentioned a haunted book she read called Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich. While I read Riggs' memoir I took a minute to check my library and put the title on hold. THIS BOOK! It haunts me still. The voices, clear on the page, reach out at you from a horrific nightmare, and I had to keep reminding myself that this happened. This is not fiction. This happened in my lifetime. Look no where else for your post-apocalyptic tale than this true collection of an atrocity we know too little about. 

I also picked up Brene Brown's Braving the Wilderness from my library holds, and although I'd read Brown before, this title unsettled me a bit. She pushes me out of my comfort zone. I disagreed with her for much of the first part of the book, but she brought me around in the end. 

Long on my TBR list has been Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere. I so loved her first novel, Everything I Never Told You that I don't know what kept me from reading this beautiful book. I kept seeing Reese Witherspoon's Instagram newsfeed--@hellosunshine--popping with film news about this title, so I brought it to the top of my TBR pile, and I read it in two days. It is a beautiful book, just like Ng's first. She captures these characters and gives them such life. Her story of motherhood haunted me. Her ability to show people from all sides equally floored me. I look forward to more books by Celeste Ng, and to see what Reese will do with the film version. 

Over the March break my partner and I took our toddler to Indigo so she could play in the giant tea cup. And while he watched her play, I went straight to the sale books because not only did I have a long forgotten gift card, but they were giving out extra points. I walked out with nine new novels for $43, and of course I've yet to read all of them. A few days ago I randomly picked up the book on top of the pile, The Evening Spider, and started reading. I could barely do anything else but think of this book. It has everything delicious I need in a book: tired young mom in an old house finds an old journal from an equally tired young mom from the nineteenth century? Yes, please! There are so many layers and extra-textual materials that this book just delighted me from page one. Thank you to author Emily Arsenault for such a wonderful read. 

So, my two months of reading didn't add many notches on my Goodreads challenge and 50 Book pledge, but I did read a variety of wonderful books. 

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