My baby has kept me pretty busy this year. With all the diaper changes and constant feeding, I don’t have as much time to write, photograph, or draw as much as I’d like to.
However, I do get to enjoy one hobby a lot more: reading.
During late night feeding sessions, my son can nurse easily for 30 minutes at a time. As a newborn, he’d wake me up every hour and a half to two hours to eat. As a result, I had a lot of time to rock him with one arm and read with the other. Although I can’t juggle a traditional hardbound or paperback book in one hand, I can read via the Libby App on my phone.
I think I’ve read more in the last few months than I have in the last few years combined. Here’s my current list of books I’ve read.
January didn’t see as much action because I was still adjusting to life with a tiny infant. I was exhausted and often turned to scrolling Reddit to keep my eyes open. However, near the end of the month, I found my groove and finished the following:
Tress of the Emerald Sea really kicked off my reading. I realized that Brandon Sanderson had released a few Cosmere books that I needed to catch up on. And then I had the idea that it would be fun to re-read all of his collections. The old content would feel fresh in my memory for when I tackled the new content.
February started out with the first book that really sold me on Brandon Sanderson as a writer: Mistborn The Final Empire. While I had no problem borrowing that first book from the Libby app, it seemed that a bunch of other people were suddenly interested in reading the series, too. I had to place the second book on hold, and I ended up reading a wide variety of books while I waited.
Of the books I’ve read this year, Radium Girls and the Woman They Could Not Silence really caught me off guard. I’m typically a light-hearted fantasy reader. I like to breeze through happy stories in search of those feel-good hormones. These two non-fiction books, however, were so fascinating and so down-to-earth and raw and real that I wanted to watch a movie adaptation.
Apparently Radium Girls does have a movie, but it wasn’t highly rated, and I didn’t want to have my perception of the book shattered too quickly, so I haven’t watched it yet.
March got a bit intense with reading. I had found my groove and it seemed as though I couldn’t get enough good books to fill my time with. I ended up re-reading some old favorites in addition to rereading Brandon Sanderson’s books like I planned.
Radium Girls in February put me in a wartime mood for a little bit, so I was happy to snag a copy of The Book Thief and the Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society fairly close together. My sister recommended that I read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr to keep the momentum going, but alas, the waiting list for that one is particularly long. It might be a while before I add that one to my list of books I’ve read this year.
Halfway through April, I managed to finished my re-reading of the earlier Mistborn books and finally catch up on the latest ones in the series. I’m so glad I read the old books first because they made me better appreciate all the tie-ins in the later books.
My plan after the Mistborn series was to snag a copy of Elantris and go from there, but alas, it was on hold for quite a while. I had to pivot in my plans a little, but I’m glad I could add to my list of books I’ve read so far.
Way back before my site crashed, I tried to do a little JenniBee book review on a regular basis. I have distinct memories of sharing my opinions on Confessions of a Shopaholic and the Elegance of the Hedgehog. I may have reviewed them too critically, however, and my dreams of creating a book club on my blog didn’t last long.
But just because I don’t run a book club doesn’t mean you can’t share your thoughts and suggestions here. If you have a favorite book you want me to read, please list it in the comment section below or shoot me a message through my contact me page. I’d love to see what you enjoy reading, and I’m looking to expand my horizons and add to my list of books I’ve read.
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