February Books

Here are the books I read during the month of February.  It feels like a lot for the month, but some of these books were started in January and finished in February.

1. For the Right Reasons

Loved it!!!  Loved it some more!  I had so much fun reading this book in two days.  I've been a Bachelor/Bachelorette fan forever, so it was fun to read about some of the behind the scenes details that happen on the show.  I also loved learning more about Sean himself.  I read the book and ate candy hearts and was pretty happy wrapped up in the story!

2. Bossypants

I borrowed this book from the online library.  It was pretty funny.  I'm not a huge SNL fan, so I didn't understand all the references, but the story was funny enough to keep me interested.  I do like Tina Fey, and have seen her in a few movies.  I always enjoy biographies/autobiographies about famous people.  It's fun to imagine what life would be like as an entertainer.

3. When You Reach Me

This was a sweet little book I borrowed online from the library.  The chapters were broken up into short two or three page segments...although it's sort of hard for me to tell exactly how long or short they were because I read the entire book on my phone.  It took place in the 1970s in New York City.  Sixth grade Miranda was trying to make new friends when her long time friend Sal stopped speaking to her.  She had to figure her way through 6th grade and figure out how to be friends with Sal again.  It also had some time travel themes woven into the story.  This was another book I enjoyed.  While I thought it was easy to read, I thought my 8th graders might have a hard time understanding the time travel concepts.  

4. Love & Respect

This book was a true eye opener for me.  Eric and I have a great marriage.  He is my favorite person.  However, at times we have communication breakdowns.  If there is a disagreement, I want to work it out, hash it to death, beat a dead horse and on and on.  Eric wants to talk after he has thought the disagreement through.  In his eyes, it is taking time to process and not say something he'll regret later.

We have gone round and round on this argument in our marriage.  Now mind you, it's always something we get past, but this book opened my eyes to WHY we both react to disagreements the way we do.  I understand my reactions, but now I have a bit of insight to understand his.

Women want to be loved.  Men want to be respected.  It's as simple and as complicated as that.

I absolutely loved this book and am actively trying to incorporate these ideas into my daily life.  I am trying to show Eric often how much I respect him.

5. Call Me Irresistible

Cute book!  I found this one with my library app.  I read most of it while sitting at Urgent Care waiting to see a doctor earlier this month.  It was perfectly romantic!  It starts out as a spoiled rich girl who winds up broke and desperate in a Texas town.  She makes an enemy out of the town saint, and eventually falls in love with him.  Shocker, I know!  I enjoyed the sarcastic dialogue and found myself cheering on the sassy character.  I enjoyed the book so much, I "borrowed" two more books by the same author.

6. Lady Be Good

This was another book by the above author, and it was written before the one I read above, so the characters were already somewhat familiar to me.  This was the story of a British Headmaster who traveled to Texas to do research for a paper.  She met up with a Texas pro golfer and sparks fly.  Easy read.  Easy romance.  Funny dialogue.  Witty Texas characters.  It's a good summer beach type read.  I need to take a bit of a break from the super easy and predictable romances.  Not that I don't like them, but they don't give much variety.

7. American Sniper

I bought the book the day before Eric and I went to see the movie in the theater.  I usually like to read a book before I see the movie, but in this case, the book was still a really good read.  I thought it would be hard to read a military type book, especially about war, but the tone of the book was so conversational and "good ol' boy" that it made it feel me feel like Chris Kyle was here telling a story.  I admire our military service members tremendously and thank God that there are people with his tenacity that are able to leave behind family to serve this beautiful country.  I am not one of those people, and I am grateful that they exist to protect my freedoms.  I stalled in the middle of the book and read a few other things in between.  However, over the last few days, I got back into it and finished quickly.  A powerful story.

8. What Would Grace Do?

This book was given to me by my partner teacher.  She looks a little bit like Grace Kelly and it made total sense that she'd share this book with me!  I enjoyed the book a lot!  I didn't know much about Grace Kelly before reading this book, and I am glad to know more about the actress and princess who captured America's heart.  The book was filled with details about Grace's life and also gave advice on how to be more like the blonde beauty.  If you enjoy want to learn more about Grace Kelly's life, it is the perfect little book.

9. Are You There, Vodka?  It's Me, Chelsea

This book is so funny and so inappropriate!  If you offend easily, definitely don't read this book.  If you like to laugh at vulgar things, it's the book for you.  If you like Chelsea Handler on tv, you'll probably like this book.  If you think she's trash, then you probably should skip this read.  I laughed out loud several times.  I'm not going to pretend that the things she writes about are witty, but I have to admire her gumption to "put it out there."  Literally!  In any case, I'm pretty easy to entertain and I don't offend easily, so I enjoyed the book, smutty as it was.

10. Counter Culture

I ordered this through Amazon Kindle because it was free and it intrigued me.  It was short - only about 60 pages.  It might have even been less than that because I was reading it on my phone and it is hard for me to gauge page length.  My opinion of the book was just meh.  I wasn't bored, but I wasn't overly intrigued either.  The author writes about the topics listed on the front cover and calls people not to go along with mainstream society, but to instead resist temptation or speak up to defend rights or oppose sin.  

I think I was hoping for a few more details about some of the topics.  Instead, the author spoke in very general terms about the plight of each of the topics and then offered prayer suggestions an Bible verses to contemplate.  Do I recommend the book?  Sure, if it's free like it was for me.  Would I spend $14 on it?  No.

11. The Antelope in the Living Room

This book was free on Amazon Kindle one day, so I downloaded it.  Funny stuff!  I don't know this blogger, but I had seen reviews of the book on blog feeds.  There were a few times when I was laughing out loud.  The story is about how Melanie met her husband and they learned to live life with each other and all of the funny things that happen to married couples along the way.  I enjoyed this book very much.

I think 11 books for the month of February is a pretty good number.  I'm in the middle of four other books and I just finished a fifth book tonight while hanging out at soccer practice.  I'll recap those in my March books post.