February Brighter Winter Favorites

Operation Read More Books is still going strong. I confess, I'm kinda proud of it. Using the Brighter Winter grids definitely gave me an incentive to read and great ideas for finding interesting books. I'm not the kind of person who keeps a list of "to read" books, and usually part of my reason for not reading more is the fact that I fly through books and have a hard time knowing what to read next. 

This was my stack at the beginning of February. I had fun looking for/ ordering books in through the library ahead of time and, with being able to keep books for three weeks, plus being able to renew most of them, it actually worked out pretty well. I googled ideas for "a book about books" and "a book of letters" and chose something from the selections that came up. I ended up not reading the book of letters. It was the last book I got in, and I had no idea it was going to be such a fat book! It just wasn't quite interesting enough to be worth wading through it. 

My favorite was probably "Knock At Midnight". Forgive me for just copying and pasting a description, but I can't do justice to describing the book myself:

"Brittany K. Barnett was only a law student when she came across the case that would change her life forever--that of Sharanda Jones, single mother, business owner, and, like Brittany, Black daughter of the rural South. A victim of America's devastating war on drugs, Sharanda had been torn away from her young daughter and was serving a life sentence without parole--for a first-time drug offense. In Sharanda, Brittany saw haunting echoes of her own life, as the daughter of a formerly incarcerated mother. As she studied this case, a system came into focus in which widespread racial injustice forms the core of America's addiction to incarceration. Moved by Sharanda's plight, Brittany set to work to gain her freedom.

This had never been the plan. Bright and ambitious, Brittany was a successful accountant on her way to a high-powered future in corporate law. But Sharanda's case opened the door to a harrowing journey through the criminal justice system. By day she moved billion-dollar deals, and by night she worked pro bono to free clients in near hopeless legal battles. Ultimately, her path transformed her understanding of injustice in the courts, of genius languishing behind bars, and the very definition of freedom itself.

Brittany's riveting memoir is at once a coming-of-age story and a powerful evocation of what it takes to bring hope and justice to a system built to resist them both."

It was one of those books that was hard to put down. 

My next favorite was the audio book "Still Alice".

I say it was a favorite. To be honest, I had to push myself to keep listening. Early onset dementia is a rather horrible and painful story to listen to. Not everyone is like me, but I have always had a huge dread of watching a loved one deteriorate either mentally or physically. (Incidentally, in a strange way that personal dread made my mom's sudden death easier for me in some ways.) Listening to a story that not only included watching a loved one deteriorate, but also being that loved one, was hard for me. It was a really good book though, and hard to listen to in a good kind of way. 

Last but not least, I enjoyed "The Story Of You" as well. I am well aware that the enneagram is a controversial subject and I don't intend to get into any of that here. I have found it hugely useful in understanding myself and other people, and this book was an interesting companion to "The Road Back To You", which I highly recommend to anyone interested in the enneagram. 

Using the Brighter Winter grids was fun. With their help, I read/ listened to 17 books in the first two months of 2022! I don't intend to be quite that ambitious the rest of the year, but I have been accumulating a list, and I'm challenging myself to read or listen to at least four books a month. I'm trying to gather lists from multiple genres, and the goal is to read a variety each month. I'm not great at keeping up long term challenges, so we'll see how this goes. Maybe if I report here every month it will keep me motivated!

Of course, that means I need lots of book recommendations. I'd love if you would share your favorites with me! I'm also planning to gather ideas from Gina at Home Joys, where she and her sister will be sharing reading challenges every month. 

I hope your Wednesday is as sunny as mine!