Blogging Book Club - February

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Being a stay at home mom is definitely overwhelming at times, and sometimes when I feel like running away, I pick up a book and do just that.  I run away into the story....

These are the books I read in February  - Have you read any of them?  Share your comments/thoughts.... One of these days I'll be on top of things and give you the list at the beginning of the month so we can read together. 

1.  Shanghai Girls by Lisa See - Left me with a "bleh" feeling.  I don't know what exactly I thought about it.  I'm grateful for the time and place where I live...

2.  Dreams of Joy by Lisa See - The sequel to Shanghai girls, I just can't not finish the story.... This kept me turning the pages more than the first, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend these two books. 

3.  Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans - The sequel to the book I read last month, the one after this comes out in the spring I think... Once again an easy read, liked it, and thought provoking.  Here's one of my favorite quotes from the book: 

"In college I took a social psychology course, something I thought useful for a career in 
 advertising.  Psychologist tested the story of the Good Samaritan.  What they learned
 gives us reason to pause.  The greatest determinant of who stopped to help the stranger  
 in need was not compassion, morality, or religious creed.  It was those who had the  
 time.  Makes me wonder if I have time to do good."

4.  The Giver by Lois Lowry - What it would be like to live without joy, pain or love.  To have your life chosen for you.  This book kept making me think about Heavenly Father's plan for us.  Before we came to earth Satan wanted the plan to be that no one had a choice, that we followed a plan without having a choice.   This book made me think that that is how are lives would be if we had to follow Satan's plan. 

5.  Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - While reading this book, I often found myself thinking, "That was written so beautifully."   Though, the prude in me (as my neighbor calls me) wouldn't necessarily recommend this book. Remember my grading criteria is, if I wouldn't watch it in a movie, then I don't really want to read it either.  However, this wasn't a book I stopped reading after only a few chapters like a few books last month either. 

6.  Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister - I walked by this book at the library, and really liked the title, so I checked it out.  A woman who is just recovering from her cancer treatment gives her friends a challenge to do something that terrifies them, and she chose the things her friends had to do.  I liked the concept of the book.   It was an okay book...I think I had higher expectations for it given the title and subject...   It was kind of like The Valentine's Day and New Years Eve movies where it jumps from person to person, but they are all intermingled. My favorite's from the book:

"Adults need to have fun so children will want to grow up."

How much would all of us mothers like to have a friend like Hadley, or be a friend like Hadley:

"And then there was Hadley, Sara's next door neighbor, who had walked across the lawn  
and into Sara's living room that morning not long after Sara moved in, gently taking one 
of the babies into her arms when Sara had in her exhaustion completely forgotten shew 
as holding two.  The way, after that day, Hadley would come over at five in the evening -
witching hour, they called it - and create a pasta sauce for dinner or entertain a baby, the
afternoons she would take Tyler to the bookstore to find a new book, or for a walk around the neighborhood.  Hadley felt like family to Sara, someone who knew what she needed without her saying a word."

7.  Divergent by Veronica Roth, LOVED it.  If you like Hunger Games, I think you'll like this book too. It is going to be a trilogy, with the next book, Insurgent coming out in May!  A quick read despite it's almost 500 pages.  I didn't want to stop reading when it ended!!