As usual, our library bag is bursting at the seams with good books! Well, technically, once we get the books home they go onto the library bookshelf in our home library . . . We currently have 92 books checked out.
Here are some of the books that I've been reading this year:
I added this book to my list based on Sarah's recommendation. I really enjoyed it! A fascinating mystery with many twists and turns. It has an element of historical fiction which is genre that I've been exploring recently. The ending might be a bit too perfect, but honestly, I'm fine with that. I look forward to reading more of this author's work!
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
This was the February book for my Library Book Club. Wow. While a work of fiction, it is based on a former real life Florida reform school. It's an atrocious, heart wrenching, and painful book to read and yet I am glad to have read it. It's stylistically on point and I feel the author did his subject justice; something sorely needed.
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
I have a soft spot for fluffy non-fiction, and this book is perfectly that--in a good way. Reichl weaves a delightful story about her adventures as the New York Times' food critic in the '90s and sprinkles in a couple of recipes for good measure.
The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn
"Two researchers from the future are sent back in time to meet Jane and recover a suspected unpublished novel." I mean, with a description like that, how could I not pick it up? Admittedly, not particularly amazing, but a super fun read.
Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand
I really appreciated certain aspects of this book, while simultaneously being really annoyed by other aspects. I found the author to be a good story-teller; pages turned easily and I wanted to know more about all of the characters. All of the mother-daughter relationships are a disaster. I thought the ending was too abrupt. I know "Summer" is literally in the title, so I shouldn't expect the story to go any further than that, but it really felt like a few chapters were missing. (I did have an amusing, albeit slightly uncomfortable moment, at book club when I had to admit that I considered this to be a work of historical fiction to a room full of women with personal memories of '69!)
Many of the books that are currently checked out are for our daily read aloud time. Here's a tiny sampling of what I've been reading with the kids:
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
This story had the kids and me in stitches. Short, sweet, and yarn-y, we really enjoyed every page.
We are studying African geography for the rest of the school year, so I've been on the hunt for a large variety of African picture books. (I'll be constantly updating my list of Picture Books about Africa throughout the next couple of months.) Also pictured is one of our read alouds in honor of St. Valentine's Day.
What is in your library bag this month?
