a bookish life

You may or may not know this about me, but I like to have a plan. I love goals. I love things I can check off. I have a planner. And notebooks. And notepads in my purse. My obsession with lists has only deepened as I get older. During the past month my thoughts on "monthly reading plan" evolved. I don't like the feeling I get when I don't check everything off the list. I am going to try a shelf that is "books to choose from" - a little more variety, a little less pressure by expanding the choices.  I have goals for my reading. Other than reading 52 books during the year, I try not to make them numerical goals. I do not like "read one of these every month". I am trying to increase variety in my reading and giving myself room to find something that suits the mood today fits that goal. That's why I am usually reading multiple books. I have at least 2 books that need to be read during the month - book club and the online book challenge. The rest sh...

  February started with a stack of books. Every month starts with planned reading and wishful reading. The trick is to discover how much I can actually accomplish. So many books, so little time is my long-standing mantra. I managed 5 books and they were all at least 4 stars. February's book club was a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ favorite - The Rose Code by Kate Quinn . I love World War II historical fiction, and Quinn found an exciting piece of the struggle I hadn't read before. Britain's top secret code breaker program and the work done at Bletchley Park had been hidden for many years by the Secrecy Act the participants were required to sign. At 656 pages, it takes a commitment but at the halfway point I was reading it in every spare minute The focus on the women who were employed at Bletchley Park, the restrictions on their lives imposed by their work and how those meshed/clashed with societal rules for women in the UK during the war years drew me in. The restrictions didn't drop away fol...