My Reading Spot

Thank you winter- the kids got back in school and there were some perfect “cuddle in a blanket and read” kinda days! I finished 10 books, although one was a cook book, but since we made a lot of the recipes and liked many of them, and it also a subject I have been reading more about on blogs and such (what to eat for best running performance), I am totally counting a cook book towards my goal.

Besides the point of this post – I also would love to know – do you count cook books in reading time? Do you count audible books? You probably already know my opinion, since I’m counting the cook book, but if my kids sit down to read, and it’s a cook book, a comic book, or a magazine, I count it towards their reading time. If it counts for them, shouldn’t it count for us as adults?

Back to the point of this post – some of my favorite books from January! I read 10, and I really did enjoy a lot of them, so it was hard to narrow it down to just a few for this post. You can always keep up with what I read day to day on my Instagram.

Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

I keep seeing this book everywhere on Instagram and social media, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and see what it was all about. It was good, I enjoyed it.

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

This coming of age novel was really interesting, I though that the setting was beautiful and really well done. The mystery was intriguing and kept me interested in the book. I was happy with the ending, but I can’t say it was my absolute favorite book of all time. It was probably like a 4 (4.5) star book out of 5. A few read-a-like authors: Educated by Tara Westover, Laine Mortiary, Kristin Hannah, Barbara Kingsolver.

Almighty, David Butler

What do we believe and how do we explain them, besides just reciting articles of faith, how can we help our youth, kids and even strangers know the answers to this question? David Butler is one of my favorite authors and this book is geared towards youth, but would be fanatic for anyone who wants to learn more about Heavenly Father, who He is and how He feels about us.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise, Dan Gemeinhart

This book was suggested to me by Amazon and they really must know me by now, darn Amazon algorithms. Coyote, a 12 year old girl, and her dad live in a school bus and have been driving all over the place for 5 years – since her mom and sisters died in a car crash. Coyote is on a mission to get back to her hometown to save a time capsule she made with them, but she really can’t tell her Dad that reason – she just needs to somehow trick him into driving home. The story is fun and engaging – I kept telling my kids parts of the story and I think they would really enjoy reading it (it is perfectly geared towards middle reader). I think some of the concepts would be a little hard for kids under eight to understand, but older kids/pre-teens would really enjoy it.

Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow, Shalane Flanagan & Elyse Kopecky

A friend was telling me about this book at a favorite things party we had last month at our church, it sounded really interesting and I’ve been trying to really figure out what and how I can eat better this time around marathon training. I had seen this book around a couple other times searching through blogs and posts – so with her recommendation I decided I better try it out. We have tried the super hero muffins (my kids were very worried about these because of the carrots, but ended up loving them), sweet potato waffles (we made them into a pumpkin version), pesto tuna melt (a super easy lunch option), the slow cooker pulled pork (this was a little spicy but we still all really liked it – and I think next time I would just add less chipotle), we paired that with the cabbage slaw, and I think my favorite treat out of the book we have made so far has been the chocolate coconut cashew energy bars. The drawback I don’t love about the book is it doesn’t include calorie information – you should just eat good, healthy, real food. I also felt it it was nice that some recipes had substitute ingredients, but at the same time, I felt it was kinda vague that way too (if that makes any sense?) But I did love that this book had some great information and sample menu plan included too.

Romancing Lord Ramsbury, Ashtyn Newbold

Newbold is one of my new favorite authors that I discovered last year. This is book three of her Brides of Brighton series and each book is super cute and clean. You wouldn’t necessarily have to read these in the right order either- but they really do make more sense this way, and now that there are three out you could read more in sub sequence order, instead of waiting between each book like I had to do! I love that we get to revisit some of the older characters – this one, Lord Ramsbury, was such an interesting guy in the first two books it was nice to finally hear and read his story. Another bonus – if you are an Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscriber than these books are free for you! (I highly recommend being a kindle unlimited member! Totally worth it, IMO)

Match me if You Can, Tiana Smith

A friend in our stake (church congregation) told me about this book and how her friend, also in our stake, wrote it! Of course, if it’s a local author, I had to look it up!…Who am I kidding, it wouldn’t have mattered if she was local or not, when someone recommends a book I add it to my list and can’t wait to read it! Match me if You Can is a super cute romance – set in high school and perfect for your teen to read, but interesting enough for adults too love too! I’ve seen a couple mother/daughter book clubs around online and I really think this would be such a fun book to read together. Since it’s February now, romance books are always fun to read and this would be a great one to add to your list – or a perfect Valentine’s Day gift for those who don’t like chocolate or flowers! I think this would be a fun made into movie book – I could see it in on hallmark for sure! It was a great debut book and now I can’t wait for more!

Now it’s your turn, leave me a comment and let me know what you’ve been reading this month! I would love to hear if you’ve read any of these or what you think!