The Books I Read in February& Share Your Shelf #11

 Marilyn, Jennifer, Tanya, and I are so happy to be hosting this monthly link up (that goes live on the first Thursday of every month) dedicated solely to books and book reviews. Through this link up I've gotten lots of great ideas on what books to read next!

This time of the year it's so hard to pick which prompt to fit each of the books I'm reading into the 52 Book Challenge since so many of them fit in multiple spots! But I love the ease of it. 

I read lots of great book this month but I'm starting to wonder about myself... I read at least 3 books that I can think of off the top of my head this month where the cast of characters was large and by the end I was having a hard time remembering who was who. I mean I definitely followed along with the main storyline and enjoyed them but I do feel like I was missing some of the side stories and details. Perhaps there are just some stories I should NOT be listening to. At least with the physical books I can glance back and remind myself who is who. 

1. Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon-- I was so happy to see a second book come out with these characters because I just LOVED Today Tonight Tomorrow. This books picks up at the end of summer when both of the main characters are heading off to college and facing a long-distance relationship. Rowan and Neil are determined to make it work even if she is heading to college in Boston and he'll be heading to New York City. Both struggle with fitting in and adjusting to their new life, they struggle to maintain their bond living far enough away that they can't see each other every day. At times this was so sad but I really enjoyed it a lot. 

2. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yaros- I never in a million years thought I'd love this series as much as I did but I was beyond thrilled to finally get my hands on book 3! I was afraid I wouldn't remember the storylines and people since it had been so long since I read book 2 but I feel like I still remembered enough to follow along with what was happening (though despite having the physical book and the reminder of SOME of the characters in the front I always struggle to keep them all separate; especially since sometimes they use a first name, sometimes a nickname, and sometimes the last name or rank for each character). In this 3rd book Violet travels beyond the wards seeking out help and information from far off lands. She's trying to save her home, her family, her dragons, and her one true love.. but about 2/3 of the way through the book I realized I probably wasn't going to like the ending at all and while I was oh so right, I did not expect for the ending to make me wish I hadn't even bothered reading the book. Not only did I not get the happy ending I was rooting for but I felt like the book just ended and I had SO MANY questions!  Plus I feel like hardly anything was resolved. I hate that. I am slightly mollified that there will be more books coming but I just don't know that I'll be nearly so eager to seek out the next book in the series... I'm actually thinking I'll wait for them ALL to be published then pick them back up from book 1 and read through them in one long binge. 

3. Camino Island by John Grisham-- This was a fun listen and a pretty different book than I normally listen to. 5 people work together to steal a handful of priceless original manuscripts from the Princeton Library but things go wrong from nearly the beginning. Mercer Mann is a struggling writer who is approached by a women looking to find the missing manuscripts, hoping to set Mercer up as a spy on the small island off the coast of Florida. Mercer spent summers on Camino Island growing up and the money proves far too tempting to resist. Once on the island she meets Bruce, the local bookstore owner, and a gang of his literary friends. Mercer is encouraged to dig up as much as she can since Bruce is suspected in dealing with black market stolen books and manuscripts. I had no idea this was part of a series until I started writing this up to share but I'm definitely interested in listening/reading to the others in the series. I enjoyed it a lot despite feeling like everything was not wrapped up quite the way I had hoped it would be. 

4. Grave Talk by Nick Spalding-- Alice is struggling with the loss of her husband and while grieving graveside one day she encounters Ben, dressed as Kermit the Frog. Turns out Alice's husband is buried next to Ben's brother and Ben's brother has a very specific set of instructions he left behind for Ben to follow. These instructions include things like what to dress up as each year when he visits his grave.  With very little in common Ben and Alice strike up a friendship, slowly over time, meeting just one day a year. I loved this sweet story and the friendship that developed between these two! 

 5. We Solve Murders by Richard Osman--  Amy Wheeler is working as a bodyguard to famous novelist Rosie D' Antonio when she realizes that yet another murder of an old client of her company has happened nearby. Thinking something screwy is going on, Amy calls her father in law Steve to help her investigate. It was a fun story even if I did start getting a bit lost on the characters (especially since some of them had 2 names; an alias and their actual name)-- I never lost the main story line though and am looking forward to the second book in this new series. 

6. Ferris by Kate DiCamillo-- This middle grade fiction story was really cute. Ferris is trying her best to help her family out the summer between her 4th and 5th grade year but they don't make it easy. Her grandmother hasn't been feeling well and swears she sees a ghost, Ferris' sister Pinky is determined to be an outlaw, and their aunt and uncle are splitting up, her parents are overwhelmed in a house bursting with activity and people. But, like all good family dramas to, they all come together in the end. 

7. All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker-- I know so many people listed this as being a phenomenal and favorite book so perhaps that's why it fell just a bit short to me? Actually that's a total misnomer because so many times I thought this was like a never- ending story! Seriously with well over 250 chapters and spanning over several decades this story covers so much. In the mid-1970's Patch becomes both a hero and missing boy when he stops an abduction of one of the wealthiest and prettiest girls in his small hometown. The story that ensues is about the aftermath of the abduction on the whole town with several key players taking center stage. This one catalyst changes the trajectory of nearly everyone in the town with repercussions that last several generations. It was heartbreaking at times and hopeful at others but every time I thought it was wrapping up I'd look down and see that I had much more to listen to. 

8. The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks--  Ronnie and her brother are spending the summer in Wilmington, NC with their dad after having not really seen him at all for the last three years. Ronnie is NOT happy to be spending her summer at the beach instead of in NYC with her mom and friends. This was a very slow paced book that mostly dealt with love, family, forgiveness, and how the choices we make shape us and our lives. 

9. Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber- Oh I just love a good Titanic story and this one really was fabulous. The three Fortune sisters; Alice, Mabel, and Flora are all on their way home on the Titanic's maiden voyage after having spent weeks upon weeks exploring Europe and Egypt with most of their family (only two older siblings that are already married and have their own lives stayed home in Canada). Flora, the oldest of the three and quite dutiful is happy enough thinking ahead to her wedding to a banker and while she may not be in love with him and suspects he's not in love with her she's fine with that until she meets someone who makes her question these very thoughts. Alice is quick to declare that she is madly in love with her fiancée and the two have been writing letters back and forth the whole trip but Alice is concerned that she might never get to experience life outside their happy little home since her betrothed doesn't like to travel. Youngest sister Mabel wants desperately to shuck off societal norms and go to college so spends most of the voyage plotting how to win her father's approval for furthering her education a time where women rarely were taken seriously. Then, of course, one fateful night everything changes. I loved that this book kept going though so we got to see how their lives were changed after the sinking. So many Titanic books stop after they're rescued by the Carpathia and just end. 

10. Happy After All by Maisey Yates-- Amelia runs a cute little motel out in the dessert where she moved after fleeing her own life. She's found a family of sorts with the permanent residents and is settling into life in a small town, running her business, writing her romance novels on the side. Then Nathan shows up one year, a surly author that seems determined to ignore everyone and everything. But sparks fly whenever Amelia and Nathan run into one another. Years pass, with Nathan showing up each summer, when a local tragedy draws them together. I thought this was going to be such a cute and happy little rom-com but it was such a deeper story about love and loss. Both Amelia and Nathan have lost someone close to them and while they hold their grief in common they both deal with it completely differently. I enjoyed this story a lot but even the happy scenes felt a bit tinged with sadness. 

11. If I Lost You by Sheila Norton- I got this book through Netgalley for my honest review and I enjoyed it so much! I love books that tug at the heart strings and this one did just that. Told in the first person, Jo is dealing with so much. Her son is sick and no one seems able to tell her what's wrong, the stress is putting a strain on her relationship with her husband and their slightly older daughter is acting up. To make matters worse Jo's boss doesn't understand all these family emergencies that keep cropping up and she's on the verge of losing her job. Just as her world seems to be in constant upheaval, her biological mother turns up and while Jo so badly wants a relationship with her something doesn't seem quite right. While Barbara rushes in to help and becomes invaluable to Jo, the insertion of Barbara into Jo's life also seems to drive Jo further away from everyone else. This story made me feel all the things-- sadness and anxiety with Jo over her son, frustration at some of her choices, suspicion over Barbara and anger at the lack of support and slow moving cogs of the healthcare system. I didn't want to put it down until I knew how it ended!  

12, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance-- I don't even know what to say about this book... it's a memoir and I hate to judge those since it's a real person's life but at the same time he is the vice president and I'd be lying if I said some of what he discusses didn't me very uneasy-- like the fact that he learned at a very early age to show one persona to the world and another at home or that he adapted and molded himself to be whomever his father figure of the moment wanted him to be. Some of the cultural observations he makes though are also pretty prevalent here. I lost faith in teaching after I had a second grader tell me he didn't need to know anything I was teaching him because he was just going to go on welfare like his parents, or the student who told me she lived with grandma because her mother tried to drown her as a baby, or the first grader who told me South park was his favorite TV show and that he had no bedtime or rules at home... It often felt like I was shouting into the void and teachers can only make up so much for the lack of parenting/drama going on at home. In all I thought it was very depressing but definitely admirable to hear how he has made such huge leaps in his life. 

13. Philly Barker and the Murder at Deverell Grange (Book #3) by Joanne Tracey-- Philly and Robbie have been invited to the Deverell Grange by their friends to look at some old antiques in the attic and enjoy a weekend away with a handful of other couples. Robbie admits that it was the setting of his first unsolved crime scene back in the day and the same family still own the house today so he's excited about seeing it all with fresh eyes. While there a snowstorm traps everyone in the manor house and when Philly and Robbie stumble over a dead body they know that the killer must be trapped in the house with them. This was another fun murder mystery! 

14. Deep End by Ali Hazelwood-- I was surprised that I actually enjoyed this story about Scarlett and Lukas. I generally like Ali's books and ordered this one from our library as soon as I saw she had a new one out but the author's note at the front gave me pause when she warned that "it contains consensual and negotiated explorations of kink- in particular, of power exchange." However the build up to their relationship was fabulous. Scarlett is a college diver, striving to go to medical school and expects nothing but the best from herself at all times. But she's struggling this year after having had a major diving accident the year before. Both her brain and fear and are interfering with her dives and having taken all her "fun" bio and math and science courses is struggling with things like German, psychology, and English. Lukas is also in college and headed to medical school, he's a gold medaled swimmer and revered by just about everyone on campus but he's a pretty closed book.. until he meets Scarlett and they decide to embark in a very openly negotiated sexual relationship since they both find traditional sex and roles to be unfulfilling. 

15. Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means -- This reminded me a lot of a conglomeration of many other books I've read. Much of the science is the same as the Glucose Goddess book I read in 2023; only it breaks down the science components in a completely different way that is still so easy to understand. Basically good cells give off good energy and to have healthy, good, clean cells we need to make diet and lifestyle changes (or keep those changes going!) for longevity and good health. The environmental/health/government sections reminded me of things I read in Ultra Processed People & In Defense of Food.  I can't say I learned anything huge or revolutionary but it definitely made me redouble my efforts to eat better and cut sugar consumption. Though at the same time once she brings up all the stressors, the environmental factors, and household chemicals we all come into contact with regardless made me wonder why I keep trying to hard! LOL

I do, however, think I would go completely broke trying to feed my family the way she outlines-- as even just adopting some of these policies over the past year or two has seen our grocery bill skyrocket and I don't even make sure every single product is organic, pasture raised, and wild caught (though I do try to do as much as I can find/afford). I also can't justify the cost of wearing a continuous glucose monitor or buying into her system ap to help me track. Plus I found many of the BIG picture things to be so depressing- there is only so much I can control about environmental health hazards. Heck, even most of the organic vegetables in our grocery store are often individually shrink wrapped in plastic!

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