Happy second day of spring! It’s later in the month than I like for my monthly reading update, but it’s technically still March, so we’re just going with it. We spent a week on spring break and I kept thinking I would write the post while we were gone, but it just didn’t happen! But here we are! February was a good reading month. I finished a good variety of books, and am steadily working through my longer educational reads. Right now I’m hoping to have a handful of those totally finished by the end of the first quarter (shockingly only 10 days away) so I can move some new ones up.

The Books of February

1. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. I read this memoir for a book club. It reminded me of Educated in a lot of ways. Overall a very good read, but emotionally difficult to read.
2. The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat. This is one of Eva’s school books that we finished together. It is a historical novel about 4 orphaned children, set during Cromwell’s rebellion in England. We really enjoyed it. Technically this is the third time I’ve read it with a kid (It’s an assigned literature read for Ambleside Online Year 3) but Eva is my first child to enjoy it and I enjoyed it so much more this time too.
3. The Measure of Silence by Elizabeth Langston. Family secrets and a side of history in this dual timeline book. I love the ‘unravel-the-family-secret’ trope and this was unique, with the historic aspect of it set in the sixties around JFK’s assassination.
4. The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebecca Raisin. Light fiction, but enjoyable read about a small town bookshop owner who trades shops with a parisian bookstore owner. Nothing very remarkable in the story line, but it’s pleasant way to spend a couple hours.
5. A Traitor in Whitehall by Julia Kelly. World War Two whodunit. Evelyne Redfern is invited to work in Mr. Churchill’s mysterious underground offices, but shortly finds herself nearly a witness to a murder. Happy to have an excuse to use her amateur detective skills she finds herself collaborating with a secretive agent, who has been tasked with finding a mole in the cabinet. Murder mystery mayhem ensues. Enjoyed this one very much!
6. Eloise and the Grump Next Door by Emma St. Clair. Light small town romance. Eloise has been tasked with fixing up her late grandmother’s old house to sell, and finds herself falling for the grumpy executor of her grandmother’s estate. Emma St. Clair is one of my favorite authors for light, clean romance. This one didn’t disappoint.
7. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling. Our Harry Potter read-aloud journey continued pell-mell through February. It was like trying to stop a runaway train at this point. I love sharing these with my kids so much!
8. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Finished this series this month! It was lovely to re-read it with my youngest two kids, and I was surprised at how invested they were, even in this last book where Laura is more grown up. Even Sieg (my 5 year old son) loved the story and made sure we kept reading.
9. Beyond Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins. This book on motherhood is really encouraging and inspirational, but also down to earth. I enjoyed it a lot and was so encouraged by it. Also, she shares book recommendations at the end of each chapter so my to-read list grew a LOT by the end. Definitely a 1 step forward, 14 steps back kind of situation for my TBR. Ha!
10. Sisters of Night and Fog by Erica Robuck. Historical novel spanning 2 world wars, and another family mystery. Overall good, but did feel like the plot was slow in the beginning.
11. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. Second book in the ‘Court of Thorns and Roses’ series. I have seen Maas’ books recommended for years and just never got around to reading them until this year. I think I’m hooked now. Fully expect to read all of the multiple series this year but I’m trying to pace myself. The world and character development is just fantastic. Fantasy is usually a hard sell for me, but this series has my interest and I’m excited to read more!
12. Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou. Really enjoyed this series of short essay/letters. I haven’t read much by Angelou, except for the obligatory famous poems, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Definitely plan to search out a more exhaustive collection of her work.
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling. Told you it was a runaway train this month. This series never gets old. I enjoy it more every time we go through it. Utterly delightful.
14. Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. Really entertaining story about the Gilbreth’s and their dozen children, narrated by two of the children. I remember reading this as a kid and thinking it was hilarious. As an adult reading it aloud to my kids, there were definitely some *slightly* off color things I did not remember. Kind of added to the hilarity of it. Sometimes it gave us good conversations, sometimes it went totally over the heads of my children and I just let sleeping dogs lie. Read with caution. Overall very amusing read.

That’s it! Not too bad for the shortest month of the year! If I can keep this up, I might have to move my goal to 150 books for this year! How was your reading life in February? Drop a book recommendation for me below 🙂