January Books

I read several books during the month of January.  I am very pleased to say that this is one of the New Year's Resolutions that I actually maintained!  The rest of my resolutions?  Spotty at best.  It's okay.  It just leaves room to improve!

But on to the books!

I like the idea of reading a book for pleasure and then one that is self enriching.  I ended up reading more pleasure this month.  Once again, perfectly fine.  I'm reading more than I have in several years, and that makes me happy.

The year started off with a book I found at the online library.  I don't have any delusions that my blog is read by millions (or even tens!), but on the off chance that one of my students finds this and reads it, I don't want to encourage an 8th grader to read my first choice of the year.  It dealt with teen bullying, premarital sex, abortion, and teenage death.  Pretty heavy stuff.  I liked the book from the standpoint of a teacher watching kids deal with some of these issues, but I can't recommend it outright due to the sensitive topics.  If anyone really wants to know the name of the book, email me at heatherforcey@yahoo.com.  And I am extremely sorry for being so vague, but I wanted to remember that I had read the book for my own purposes.

After that book I started Andy Andrew's The Seven Decisions.

Loved this book!  It really made me think about how I move through life.  It is all about the types of decisions we can make each day to gain personal success.  These are not earth shattering concepts and are things we can all do, but sadly most don't.  Things such as accepting responsibility and choosing to be happy are well within our ability to do.  There are "assignments" that accompany each chapter that I did not complete.  I started doing this but decided I wanted to read through the entire book first.  I need to go back to do the self reflection to really put the decisions into action in my life. Easy to read.  Makes you think.  Strongly recommend this book.

This is the second pleasure book I read.  I liked it.  HOWEVER, I did not pay close enough attention to the inside cover where it said it is BOOK 4 in a series.  AND there is another book due out in February.  Grrrrr!  I had no intention of getting into a series, much less starting on book 4!  That all being said, it was a pretty easy and engaging read set in England about an influential family and the evil man trying to attack them from all sides.  I was able to pick up the characters and piece together their past stories without having read the previous books in the series.  I would only recommend the book if you are interested in a series.

These are the three books I started and finished in January.  I also started three other books in January, but didn't finish them until February, so I'll recap them in my February book post.  I'm very happy to be reading again on a regular basis.