Quick Lit: February 2015
Quick Lit: Short and sweet reviews of the books I’ve read in the past month. What have you been reading lately? I’m always looking for recommendations!
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Oh, Flavia de Luce! I adore you. The protagonist of this fun mystery is a quirky 11-year-old chemistry enthusiast. I loved seeing things through Flavia’s eyes as she sleuthed her way through this story. I didn’t feel like I was ready to jump right into the next in the series as soon as I finished this book, though. I’m sure I’ll read it eventually, but for now I’m satisfied.
This was a sweet, heartbreaking love story. It’s got everything you might want in a book: romance, humor, dark secrets, sibling squabbles, trials, a strong and quirky family, heartbreak, wit, travel, friendships, death and more. I fell right in love with the characters and enjoyed watching their story develop.
This book is all about motivation to accomplish the most important tasks on your list first thing each day. My major takeaway was to ask myself constantly throughout the day, “What is the most important thing I could be doing right now?” That one habit has made a huge difference in my day-to-day life and schedule.
Fascinating memoir about hoarding and its devastating effects on families. This story hit especially close to home for me since hoarding is a compulsion that runs through my extended family. I have observed from the outside what it does to relationships and to the people who struggle with it. The author does an excellent job of sharing her story and the anger/forgiveness cycle she went through.
This cold-case murder mystery had well developed characters and plenty of plot twists to keep me on my toes. It definitely touches on some tough topics and I think included some bad language (I can generally tune that out pretty well, so I honestly can’t remember how much is included). Though it was somewhat predictable, I still enjoyed this debut novel.
I re-read this for a book club, after having read it several years ago. I love the idea it presents: if you are seeking your Personal Legend (what you were put on this earth to do), the Universe will do all it can to help you accomplish it. And also, we may go searching far and wide to find our treasure, only to discover it was at home all along. But the journey to find it is worth almost as much as the treasure.
This was a read-aloud for our parent/child book club and for our current history unit. The kids and I loved this book. I especially appreciated the gentle introduction to slavery and the horrors slaves endured. There were definitely some difficult scenes to read, but I felt like they were presented in a tasteful way and in a suitable manner for elementary aged children.
Check out the books we read for our homeschool unit on Slavery and the Underground Railroad.
Head over to Modern Mrs. Darcy for more book review and recommendations. I always add several books to my list!