Books I Read in February

Oh boy did I read some great books this month!  I honestly could not put most of these down once I began reading them!  I had quite a wide variety of genres going this month too.

1.  Out of the Easy by Rupta Speteys-- I really enjoyed this book and I wasn't surprised since Rupta's books are always favorites of mine.  Growing up in New Orleans as the daughter of a brothel prostitute in the 1950's, Josie is trying like crazy to get out of New Orleans, head to college, and leave her past behind her.  But it's not always easy living in the big easy and when she gets tangled up in a mysterious murder it looks like all her dreams are slipping away.

2.  City of Thieves by David Benioff-- Another World War II novel; which I can just never seem to get enough of!  Set in St. Petersburg as the Nazi's are trying to invade, Lev and Kolya have been tasked with finding a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding or risk execution for their crimes.  This is probably the first time that the main characters were male; most of the WWII novels I have read have female leads so it was interesting seeing the war from a male point of view.

3.  American Royals by Katharine McGee-- I really enjoyed this young adult novel.  The American Royals is a book set in modern times on what life would be like for the Washington family if George Washington had become America's king instead of it's president.  Reading much like a soap opera with sisters that both love each other and struggle with their jealousy for one another's lot in life, two girls vying for the prince's heart, the failing health of the king, and a whole bunch of social media, plotting, and backstabbing it was a wonderful light page turner.  I can't wait to read the other books in this series when they finally come out.

4.  The Glass Castle; A Memoir by Jeannette Walls.  I LOVED this book!  It reminded me quite a bit of Educated but the author is still quite close to her parents.  She did, however, have quite an unconventional upbringing moving from place to place with her nomadic parents, dealing with her father's drinking, and erratic behavior.  I was continually amazed by what this author had overcome to get where she is today.  I watched the movie after reading the book and the two really just don't compare in my opinion.. the movie leaves so much out.

5.  Room to Breathe by Liz Talley-- Daphne and her daughter Ellery are having a hard time working together and connecting ever since Ellery lost the internship she had been hoping for.  Daphne's life has changed so much since becoming a published author and while her daughter is out of college and should be mostly self- sufficient Daphne is struggling with her new demands as a writer and her desired to help and protect her daughter.  Ellery feels like her life is not going according to plan with her missed internship, her absent fiancée, and an accidental on-line relationship brewing.  Turns out what they both need is room to breathe.

6.  Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbooks Got Wrong by James W Loewen. I am definitely limping my way through this one as I am not a huge history fan, but I am finding it rather interesting all the things I am learning that kind of make bits of pieces of what I did retain from my high school history classes click into place in a more cohesive understanding.  Since I began homeschooling my boys and stopped using textbooks completely I have gotten a very different look at history than what I was taught and have begun to realize just how much we leave out and sugar coat when trying to protect our kids from the truth of our history.

7.  Verity by Colleen Hoover-- Against her better judgement, Lowen takes on a job to finish writing up the last three books in a best selling series by the author Verity when Verity becomes incapacitated.  Lowen arrives at their home only planning to stay a day or two to sort through Verity's office and find some outlines for the last three books.  She end up unearthing an autobiography that Verity never published; one that puts family tragedies in a whole new light.  I read this book in 24 hours; I was slightly disappointed in the ending but did find it was one of those books that I kept thinking about long after I had finished.

8.  Pretty Guilty Women by Gina Lamanna-- The DeBleu/ Banks wedding was an all week affair at a luxury spa in California but when one man turns up dead 4 women come forward and confess to the murder.  I loved this book!  I was left guessing until just about the very end who actually did it and what each of the woman's motives were for confessing.

9.  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr-- Marie- Laure is a blind girl living in Paris with her father.  When the German occupation of Paris looms on the horizon, her father takes her to live with family in another part of France with orders to safeguard one of the Museum's most prized possessions. Werner is an orphaned German boy living in a coal mining town.  When he shows real talent with working on radios and with complex mathematical equations he's enlisted to help the Nazi army track down insurgents who are broadcasting coordinates and information to one another over secret networks.  Seeing how their stories and experiences were interwoven was quite interesting.

Linking Up With: Morning Cup of Joe,