Quick Lit: February 2015

When I first took this picture it was a lot prettier. Then the sun came out and created funky shadows and glare. But I chose the sun-filled picture. ☺️☀️ #fridayreads #libraryhaul #creamycoffee #SugarFast2016 #michigansunshine #50degreesinfebruary #bookstagram #instareads

A photo posted by Carrie Roer (@carrieroer) on Feb 19, 2016 at 10:33am PST

My 2016 Goodreads goal is 36 books -- 3 books a month -- after not quite making that goal last year.

(This doesn't count the books I read to/with my kids -- I try to post a few times a month what my kids are reading too, click here to read those reviews)

I'm more than a month ahead! [for now...]


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Year of No Sugar: A Memoir by Eve Schaub

I read this one in preparation for my Sugar Fast. My tactics are slightly different from the author's -- I'm allowing local honey and pure maple syrup, and only doing it for about 45 days, and it's just me and not my whole family. This book was inspiring, I liked reading her stories of situations they found themselves in and the solutions they found. I skipped a bit in the beginning as she was describing her reasons for choosing to do this -- I was already committed and didn't need the reminders about how evil sugar is. :)

Cress and Fairest by Marissa Meyer

I'm continuing the Lunar Chronicles and can't get my hands on them fast enough. I started requesting them in both hardcover and ebook from my library at the same time, just to see which came available first (I ended up reading Cress in hardcover and Fairest in ebook :) ). Now I'm stuck waiting for Winter -- because it came out last fall I can't interloan the hardcover -- my library co-op keeps new books in-house for the first 6 months. BUT I discovered it in Overdrive the day it became available there. Now I'm next in line and there are a ton of holds behind me. :)

But I have no idea what I'm going to do about Stars Above. :( I hate buying books that I'm only going to read once... Should I just buy it??

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

This was the February pick for the Reading Together Family Exploration Book Club. I'd read it in probably 4th or 5th grade and didn't remember much. It was fun to re-read! I wrote a Judging Books By Their Covers post about it, and will give a few more thoughts in Monday's book club linkup post.

The Fixer by Jennifer Lynne Barnes

One of my librarians knows how much I like reading YA, and gave this book to me after she finished it. I liked the concept -- a high school girl, Tess, who'd been living with her grandfather, moves in [unwillingly] with her older sister, Ivy, in Washington DC. Ivy is known in all of Washington's circles as a "fixer" -- if a politician has a problem, they confide in her and she fixes the problem. Tess ends up having a fixer personality too, and gets caught up in some big issues with her new classmates and their parents. 

I know very little about Washington DC and the political culture, so this was a unique book for me. What I didn't like was having so many characters to keep track of. Maybe it would have been better if I'd been able to read this for longer amounts of time, but because it was a week of only having 5-10 minutes here and there I kept forgetting who was who. I think it would make a great movie! (in fact, when I Google-searched for a book cover image, I came across some movies and a mini-series by the same title, but not related to this book). 

I'm on my way in MMD's 2016 Reading Challenge!

Linking up with Anne Bogel's March Quick Lit!

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