March Book Review

Hope everybody had a great weekend! Hadley and I were so excited to have Johnathon back from Hono, that we celebrated by logging lots of family time at home, and threw in a trip to the beach for good measure! It was a great weekend, but low on the picture count so I thought today would be a great day for my March book review! 

I only have three books to share with you this month, but they are all REALLY, REALLY good!

ONE

I decided that this month would be the month that I worked in some books with a little more substance to them. I had seen The Nightingale on so many "must read" lists, and after I read the description I thought it sounded like a potentially less intense version of  All The Light We Cannot See. Wrong. Holy intense. It started off kind of slow, and I was afraid I wasn't going to get into it, but the plot finally picked up, and I was hooked after that. The book is about two sisters who live in Nazi occupied France during World War II. One becomes part of the French Resistance and the other is just trying to keep her daughter and herself alive while her husband is off at war. I thought looking at World War II from a woman's perspective was a really unique and different point of view, and I really enjoyed examining the war through the eyes and experiences of the two women. In the beginning, I was kind of disappointed in the book because it was shaping up to be two separate love stories revolving around the two sisters. I hated that the author was going to belittle the wartime experiences of women by making their respective plot lines solely focused on romance. However, my initial impression was not at all how the book turned out to be. I became much more engaged and invested about a third of the way through the book, and it ended up being a much grittier, interesting, and often times depressing book than I originally thought it would be. It was a sad one, but a good one, and I definitely recommend it!

TWO

I talked a little bit about I Said Yes, in one of my Friday Favorite blogs a couple of weeks ago, but I will elaborate a little bit more today. I'm not gonna be ashamed...I really liked this book! I was a huge fan of Emily on The Bachelor and Bachelorette, so I was excited to hear all her behind the scenes tidbits. If you watched her on either The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, then you know that she was engaged to NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick until he died suddenly in a plane crash, only to have Emily find out a week later that she was pregnant. I knew the backstory going into the book, but  I was really surprised how much she shared, not only of her life with Ricky, but of her struggles with her family growing up, getting over Ricky's death, and of her time on The Bachelor. I was worried this book was going to be Emily trying to extend her fifteen minutes of fame, but I feel like she was really honest about what she has been through good and bad, and how it all affected her relationship and faith in God. It was a really refreshing look at the real and sometimes flawed woman behind the cute, Southern, put together exterior that we the viewers got to see of her on television. I seriously couldn't put it down, and I was so glad that her story finally got it's happy ending!

THREE

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is one of my most favorite books that I've read in the last couple of years. This book is the sequel to Fuller's popular autobiography, Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight, which focuses on Fuller's childhood growing up in South and Central Africa from 1972-1990. A big part of Fuller's autobiography is her eccentric mother Nicola Fuller, who is equal parts entertaining and tragic all at the same time. Cocktail Hour focuses on the life of Nicola Fuller and could certainly be compared to Out of Africa or West With The Night. She grew up in Kenya during the time of Britain's colonial rule, but spent her adult life bouncing around war torn Africa, trying to establish a farm and life for herself and her family. Adventurous, humorous, witty, and tragic, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness does a wonderful job of transporting the reader into the heart of Africa, and Alexandra Fuller does a brilliant job of capturing the formidable and fragile woman who raised her. I loved this book so much, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a gripping book that is unlike anything they have read before! LOVED IT. 

I didn't read as many books as I would like to this month, but I will take quality over quantity any day of the week! I hope you guys get a chance to check the books out and tell me what you think! As always, I would love to hear of any book recommendations that you have!