Happy Tuesday! It’s Show us Your Books Day with Steph and Jana, and I can’t wait to add some books to my TBR list 🙂

February in general was a VERY slow reading month for me, quantity-wise. 🙂 Some reasons for this:

• Less time commuting to work (3 day week instead of 5 day so less bus time/less reading time)
• Reading long books AKA Quality over Quantity which was a goal for 2016 for me
•  Busy busy busy times at home with the kiddos/lack of sleep/bedtime at 8 pm many nights hahaha!

That being said, I  read some VERY amazing books this month and I can’t wait to chat about them today!! I also have a separate section at the bottom for the first time in my Show Us Your Books post about kids books (I know this section isn’t for everyone, but skip it if you want!!!)

Here are the books I’ve gotten through since my last update:

WINTER GARDEN by Kristin Hannah (5/5 stars)

This was my first book by Kristin Hannah and it certainly will not be my last. Although it took me awhile to get into this book, I became TOTALLY absorbed and read the majority of it in one day/night. Once I got partway through it, I couldn’t put it down and the story was really captivating. I still have The Nightingale by her on my list for Erin’s Book Challenge to read sometime soon.

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr (4.5/5 stars)
I started this book in November or December and put it down for a bit until I got it on audio from the library this month which really helped me finish it. The writing is absolutely beautiful, and it won the Pulitzer for a reason. I actually enjoyed the switching between characters more than I thought I would. It was a wonderful reading experience though and I would highly recommend the book although it’s not neccesarily a re-read for me. PS: Isn’t the cover absolutely gorgeous?!?!
—Thanks to Anne Bogel’s several podcast guests who talked about this book and motivated me to finally finish it 😉 Speaking of which, one of my favourite book bloggers, Janssen from Everyday Reading, is today’s guest on What Should I Read Next? (Off topic, I know!)

THE CARDINAL’S SIN by Robert Lane (3.5/5 stars)
***I received this book in ebook format from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*** 
This book was approved for me on Netgalley months ago and I just didn’t get around to reading it for awhile, but I started it (finally) on a whim last week and I quite enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of James Patterson’s Private series as well as Dan Brown’s books. The only thing I didn’t love about it was that I got a bit lost in some of the dialogue because it was more like:
“blah blah blah”
“blah blah blah”
instead of “blah blah blah” said Him. “Blah blah?” said her.
Haha. Anyway, I just had to go back a few times and see who was talking, but that’s the only major complaint about the book. It had a decent and intriguing plot. Apparently it’s the third in the series, but I think they stand alone too.

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I’m currently still working through my reads for Erin’s Book Challenge including Bridget Jones’ Diary and Enders Game. Can I just say that one thing I have appreciated SO MUCH about this challenge is that it is 4 months long?! Totally attainable and still gives me time to read “non-challenge” books.

FAVOURITE KID READS LATELY (skip this section if you don’t care! haha!) 

Room on the Broo by Julianne Donaldson We love Julianne Donaldson’s books in our house and I first discovered them through the Virtual Book Club for Kids. The Gruffalo is another great read by her, but Molly really loves Room on the Broom and loves witches too! #FutureHarryPotterFan

LMNO Peas by Keith Baker This is an adorable take on your typical alphabet book and my kids love watching all of the little peas hard at work. The pictures are really cute too.

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beatty I had this one on hold from the library for awhile because Brian is an engineer so we talk about it a lot in our family 😉 This is a fun book about a little girl who loves to build things, and learns that failing isn’t a bad thing as long as you keep trying!

The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak My in-laws just bought this book and it is hilarious!!! This video of B.J. Novak reading it also makes me laugh. Molly thinks this book is the best thing ever and she has even started to read it to us so that she can say the funny words. This book is such an awesome concept for a children’s book.

Children’s Books I received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review:

Glory the Lion Cub and the Dunnos by Marianne Perry
This book was a bit above our age range, so we didn’t really get through it all, but I read most of it on my own. It isn’t one we’ll be running out to purchase, because we generally like books with pictures right now (except for BJ Novak’s? haha?) I might check it out again for Molly in a year or two when her attention span is a bit longer.

Leo Can Swim by Anna McQuinn
We are anticipating swimming lessons coming up again in the spring, so this was a great book to read with the kids right now. The pictures are so cute 🙂 Also, hilariously, Lucy, who doesn’t talk very much, was convinced that the baby on the front of this book was her friend Emma and she thought the whole book was about Emma swimming, haha.

Jake’s Kindergarten Checkup by Chrystal De Freitas
This was an appropriate read with Kindergarten in our near future too. Molly hasn’t gotten her shots yet (at least not since age 18 months), so it was nice to prepare her a bit for this. She is also really into doctors right now because of Doc McStuffins, so this fit in well with that interest. I liked the sibling dynamic here too. I can always get on board with books that teach kids something or help them to understand scary experiences.

The Storybook Knight by Helen Docherty I love rhyming children’s books, and we love dragons in our house, so this book was a huge hit. My daughter has asked to read it again almost every night, and my younger daughter loves the pictures. I will be buying this in print sometime soon.

This is just a small sampling of our kid reads over the past month. My kids read a million books a day and we have a lot of favourites, but these were some that I wanted to especially highlight 🙂