February Reads

I am so excited about all the books to be read in 2019! I read 4 great ones this month. HERE are my January Reads and if you click HERE you can read through my 2018 reads. Grab your beverage of choice, a cozy blanket, and get reading!

1. The Day I Went Missing by Jennifer Miller: This book came on my radar through Pinterest. I had pinned a bunch of suspenseful novels and this one came up on my feed. The local library system didn't have it, so I ordered a used version on Amazon. This is the true story of a Hollywood writer who is duped by a therapist and basically, she is conned out of tons of money. The ending is truly bizarre. I enjoyed the suspense and wanted to keep reading to find out how this whole disaster would end. It's a chilling picture of how quickly and easily one can fall prey to a scam. I didn't love this read, but I did enjoy it.

2. Glow Kids by Kardaras Nicholas: I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. If you are a parent, read it. A teacher, read it. A concerned citizen, read it. The tagline to this book is, "How Screen Addiction is Hijacking Our Kids and How to Break the Trance." This book is written by an addiction expert and it chronicles the research on how screen time, specifically violent video games, impacts the developing brain. Beyond the basics of how excessive (emphasis on excessive. This book does not promote being Amish nor does it bash technology. It calls for a balanced approach. I can get on board with that) technology harms young people, there were two sections that I found especially appealing. One of those is about the uptick on mass shootings in this country and the new psychological conditions that are emerging due to isolation and lack of human contact for young people. Another section that was fascinating to me was about the big business of technology, curriculum, and money. There is, no doubt, an "educational technological industrial complex" and it's alarming how misguided and uninformed some of these policies are. This book should be required reading. It's important now and will only continue being more so.

3. Final Girls by Riley Sanger: This book was good! It's a thriller about a young woman who survives a horrific murder and her relationship with the other "final girls" who also survived their own respective traumas. There's some shady characters, some steamy scenes, some gore and violence, and believe it or not, some classic elements of chick lit (the main character is a New Yorker, living with her boyfriend, and she runs a baking blog). I suspected the "twist" within the first 20 pages, but then abandoned that theory as the book went on, and I ended up being correct in the end. I consider it a sign of a good read that I went on this twisted journey and was surprised when my original idea ended up being correct. This one is dark but good.

4. Becoming by Michelle Obama: I FINALLY I got my hands on this book. I've been on the waitlist for this one even before it was published. This is just a solid, great biography. Michelle Obama is truly admirable and her story is told in a beautiful, reflective manner. Random fact about me: I wrote my senior thesis about First Ladies and how they interacted to the media. When I wrote that paper, in 2008, Barack Obama was running for President and I remember thinking what a wonderful first lady Michelle would be. This is a really interesting read and as I closed the book I definitely felt like I had a nice picture of the kind of person Michelle is and what her experiences were like. I'd recommend this one.

I read a statistic from the public library that 24% of adults did not read even part of a book in 2018. How sad is that? I love love love reading and I hope that if you don't enjoy it, 2019 is your year to get your hands on a book to make you fall in love with reading.
Savor Your Sparkle,
Leslie