March 2021 Books, Thus Far

At the beginning of March I was in the middle of seven books. That's too many! So for the first weeks of March my goal was just to finish some of them. Hahaha! (I did finish six of them and decided I wasn't going to finish the seventh one so I returned it to the library.)

It took me awhile to get into this book, and parts of it were very dark, so I could only read it during the day, but once I got about 150 pages in, I couldn't put it down. The fact that this book is inspired by a true story, makes it even more engaging. And why are there still so many stories to tell about World War II? I feel like I've read so many and each new one I read adds another piece to a very big, very complicated puzzle.

 

I don't know how I discovered Jenny Colgan but she has become a favourite author I can count on. Yes, people often fall in love in her books but there are a lot of things which happen first. Plus this book made me want to go to the Scottish Highlands. Or a Proclaimers concert :) I also loved the stories of each main character managing life outside of their comfort zone.

 

I read The Simple Wild before our Yukon-Alaska trip in 2019. I really enjoyed it and while we didn't get to experience that wilder side of Alaska, we really loved what we saw of it. It was fun to reconnect with Calla and Jonah in this book and get introduced to new people with new reasons for being in Alaska. At times this book felt a little long, but the story really did suck me in. And yes, parts of it did make me cry. Again.

I read part of this book back in January, and then I had to return it. So I tried to start from where I left off and that didn't work very well. So I started over again. This book really needs to be read in one or two sittings because it does bounce back and forth between the past and the present. What was most intriguing to me was the marrying of science and religion. As someone who believes the two aren't contradictory, I love how Gifty reconciled this with herself.

As much as I don't like to admit it (I don't know why), I LOVE a good romance. This book was hilarious and, for me, it's always about the community that the main characters build around themselves. Can I please just own a cupcake shop on a fun street somewhere? This book was just fun!

I'm not usually a fan of Elin Hilderbrand books and I still don't know how I feel about this one. I was annoyed by the premise and I feel like Jake should have left his wife and committed to a relationship with Mallory. I don't condone extramarital affairs and that bugged me the whole way through, even though I thought Jake and Ursula's marriage was not good.

While I enjoyed this book, physically it hurt my hands to read it. I took a picture of the width because it was 926 pages long. I sped through it though, ignoring my family for a few evenings, and finishing it in four days. I wanted to know how it ended. I think it could have been a lot shorter but I did enjoy getting to see more of Robin and Cormoran's relationship. I think Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) could have written the same story in a shorter book though.

I am going to buy a copy of this book and read it with Sam. Some of the content might be a bit mature for him but the basic concepts are important. And as we all know, BIPOC kids have to deal with this stuff at a very young age so why should white kids be exempt from having these conversations? I highly recommend this book for talking about racism (and how to be an accomplice) with pre-teens and older.

Clearly I don't learn my lessons very well because I am currently in the middle of three books, which is better than seven, but still...! Do you read one book at a time or do you often have a few books on the go?