What I’ve Been Reading: February 2024

Hello!

I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday….and it’s already the end of February.

Today, I’m sharing the books I read this month.

Well, unfortunately, my book reading average continues to stay at two books a month.

This month I read:

{As always, book summaries are from Goodreads…}

The Berry Pickers:

Summary:

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

Quick Thoughts:

I loved this book. I thought the premise was interesting as well as how the Norma’s past and present are woven together. Also, I thought the ending was very fitting and wrapped the plot up nicely.

Rating:

Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education:

Summary:

Maid was a story about a house cleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.

Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.

Quick Thoughts:

This is another memoir by Stephanie Land. I’ve previously read Maid, and I thought it was such an interesting read. (I also enjoyed the Neflix series.) Like Maid, I thought this book was so powerful and again an eye-opening perspective for those who live below the poverty line. Picking up where she left off in Maid, I was interested to see how life was for Land and her daughter after their move to Montana. I think I enjoyed Maid more than Class, but I’m still glad that I read both.

Rating:

Maybe March will be my lucky month, and I will get three books read? I have started Shay’s Book Club Book from February: The Frozen River, and I’m really enjoying it.

Thanks to a suggestion from a reader, every month, I’m going to try and remember to add the books I read to my Instagram stories and then save to a highlight. Also, feel free to use my book trackers to share what you’ve been reading. I have those saved in highlights as well. I liked creating those and will make a couple for March too.

Happy reading!