Mrs. Ram's Jams

Well. It’s happened. I screwed up my I-must-write-my-mini-book-reviews-as-soon-as-I-finish-books New Year’s resolution. I didn’t pen a single one in February. I blame the flu-like virus that made me miserable last week, Little Thing’s flu bout, two out-of-town friends coming to visit, and sheer laziness.

Oh well. At least I read 13 books? And February is a short month. Huzzah!

Here’s my February reading list:

• All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin:  Easy peasy breezy read. I’ve always enjoyed Giffin.
• Bird Box by Josh Malerman:  Do I even need to review the book since everyone’s seen it on Netflix? I refuse to watch it, but I sure as hell loved reading it.
• The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton: This. Book. Killed. Mrs. Ram’s. Jams. Seven. Times. I hated it. It was 200 pages pages too long and hard to follow.
• The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan:  The best thing about this book is its gorgeous cover. I love magical realism, but I haven’t encountered a spectacular YA one yet. After Leigh’s mother commits suicide, Leigh’s convinced her mom has turned into a bird. Leigh also talks and thinks in colors. Her best friend constantly asks her, “What color”? By the end, I was color blind and gagged at every pretentious color mention.
• The Common Good by Robert B. Reich:  Reich argues that America has lost sight of its founding ideals. I wholeheartedly agree with him.
• Always and Forever, Lara Jean (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #3) by Jenny Han: Lara Jean for life! Book 3 was better than book 2 but super predictable.
• Without Merit by Colleen Hoover:  I’ve not had much luck with Hoover. I picked this up because I thought it was her rather well-reviewed suspense novel, but it wasn’t. Sigh.
• Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai:  This middle grade poetry read stunned me. Ha and her family evacuate Saigon during the Vietnam War and find safe harbor in Alabama.
• The Trouble With Poetry–And Other Poems by Billy Collins
• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne:  Romance is my least favorite genre, but I loved this book. Lucy and Joshua’s repartee was hysterical.
• Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1) by Neal Shusterman:  YAL gold. For realz. In the dystopian future, people live forever, but for population control, scythes select people to be killed.I haven’t had this much fun reading a dystopian novel since Red Rising.
• My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren:  After finishing The Hating Game, I thought to myself:  Hey maybe I do like romance novels. I’m going to try another one out. Bad choice Mrs. Ram’s Jams. Bad choice.
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne:  It’s no secret that I eschew reading World War II and Holocaust literature, but I teach this novel in 8th grade ELA. And it breaks my heart every damn time.

What are you reading?  And as always, conversations are welcome!

(All book art is taken from Goodreads.com.)