On the bookshelf in February

I started off the month of February in quarantine due to being exposed to Covid-19. It was the first time I've been quarantined so far this school year & if I'm being totally honest, I was kind of surprised it took that long. One of the blessings that came out of that time being forced to stay at home was that I was able to do a lot of extra reading. So let's dive in to some of the books I read during the month of February!

First up was A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum. My Mom read this one before me & prepared me that it is a pretty tough read. & y'all, she was totally right. This book follows a Arabian family through moves, marriages, & children. I grew up in a very small, rural conservative town in the middle of Kansas. I remember thinking I knew so much about the world until I went to college (at K-State) & realized that I was incredibly sheltered & naïve. Going into this book, I have hardly any knowledge of the Arabian culture or their religion. & I'll be honest, this book fascinated me & horrified me at the same time. It is mind boggling to me that this culture & way of living is what is expected for them. But who am I to judge? I caught myself being shocked at the things I was reading, & then reminding myself to stay humble & that I truly have no right to judge someone else by the way they choose to live their life, or the religion they choose to follow. However, I do believe that violence is never the answer, especially domestically when families & children are involved. I've seen the effects of this firsthand with my middle school students & their families. There is no good that can or will ever come from it. End of story. & while I don't consider myself a feminist, I do love a good female underdog story & this book has that to its deepest core. I finished this book feeling wildly thankful for the life I live & the endless freedoms + opportunities that I've been blessed with so far. I ended up giving this book four out of five stars.

Next up was Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. I flew through this book because it was such an easy read! The story follows Cassie, a young female firefighter. Cassie has some big life changes that take place in the beginning of the book. The book addresses the challenges that women face in the firefighting industry & the sexism that takes place as well. This was very eye opening for me because it's something that I just assumed was fine now. I'm a big believer in justice — right is right & wrong is wrong & we should all be held accountable. For a while, the book rubbed me wrong because this wasn't taking place, however, it did in the end. Overall, I gave this book three out of five stars.

Trigger warning: The book indicates that a rape scenario took place, but does not reveal the details or actual story until the end of the book.

Next up on my *theoretical* bookshelf (since I clearly have been loving reading on my kindle lol) was In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn. This book really shook me. It tells the story of a horrific + traumatic event that happens to a family & their close friends. It made me start to think really deeply about myself & the things / people that matter the most to me. In a traumatic event, it is so hard to know how we would handle things. I would like to think that I would make the right choices, but this book shows just how challenging those decisions can be. Like I mentioned in my review of the book above, I am a big believer in justice & consequences -- both positive & negative. When someone does something wrong, specifically illegal or detrimental to someone else, I do believe that they should be held accountable & should have to face the consequences. So that was my mindset while I read this book. If you have a bit more grace to give than I do (lol) then you might have a totally different take on this book. If that's the case for you, I would absolutely love to talk it through & hear your point of view! In the end, I gave this book four out of five stars.

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren was probably my favorite one that I read this month! I will say that there are a few R-rated scenes throughout the book, just a warning. Overall I just really liked it! I gave it five out of five stars, but my Mom only gave it three out of five stars. When we were talking about our different opinions on the book, it was very interesting to hear why we had such different views! I think part of why I loved the book is because it’s kind of what I want for myself. Like I don’t want some mediocre blah type of love. I want book-worthy love! The two main characters understood each other on such a deep level & that’s also something I’m looking for. They’re a quirky pair, but I fell in love with them & their story all the same. This book just really satisfied the hopeless romantic in me!

Have you ever heard of the “goodreads” app? It’s a free app that lets you track your reading progress, rate books you’ve read, keep a list of your want-to-read books, set yearly reading goals & follow along with what your friends are reading as well! It even gives you suggestions based off of your ratings & the types of books you read. We both really like it. You should check it out!

past book reviews...

I’ve been doing book reviews for awhile now & I’ve read some really good ones! Click here to go to the ‘book’ section of my blog to scroll through them.

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