Sunday Post: Welcome February (With February TBR Poll)

New to My Shelves: I couldn't pass up recent Kindle Deals when they popped up for two books on my wish list: China Dolls by Lisa See and A Portrait of Emily Price by Katherine Reay. 

I also signed up for an upcoming book tour for Tessa Arlen's A Death By Any Other Name, the third in her Lady Montfort mystery series. I very much enjoyed the two earlier books and am excited to read the latest.

January in Review: I took a much needed break from blogging this past month, but I was reading.  I finished 7 books (not including children's books), including 1 audio book, and none in the bunch was bad. It was a good mix too: a couple of nonfiction books, two fantasy novels, a graphic novel, a classic, and a fiction novel. Look for my reviews of each book in the near future.

January 2017 Reads:

• The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
• Monstress, Volume One: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
• As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden
• The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman

I am trying to track the children's books I read this year as well, but may have missed a few at the very beginning of January. Here's what I remembered to log (many of which I read multiple times throughout the month, sometimes back to back):

• Folk & Fairy Tale Easy Readers: A Collection of Classic Stories That Are "Just Right" for Young Learners by Liza Charelesworth
• Flat Stanley: Flat Stanley Show-And-Tell, Flat Stanley! by Jeff Brown
• Flat Stanley and the Very Big Cookie by Jeff Brown
• The Princess in Black (#1) by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale & LeUyen Pham
• The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party (#2) by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale & LeUyen Pham
• The Princess in Black and the Hungry Bunny Horde (#3) by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale & LeUyen Pham
• The Princess in Black Takes a Vacation (#4) by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale & LeUyen Pham
• Merry Moosey Christmas by Lynn Lourde & Russ Cox
• I've Seen Santa! by David Bedford & Tim Warnes
• Santa's Reindeer Games by Samantha Berger & John Manders
• Kindergarten, Here I Come! by David Steinberg & Mark Chambers
• The Littlest Elf by Brandi Dougherty & Kirsten Richards
• The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by Kevin Whitlark
• Secret Santa by Margaret McNamara & Mike Gordon
• Itsy Bitsy Christmas: You're Never Too Little for His Love by Max Lucado & Bruno Merz
• Strawberry Shortcake comics, Issues 0 - 4
• The Nian Monster by Andrea Wang and Alina Chau

What I Am Reading: Earlier in the week, I began reading Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, which I am reading as part of a read a-long. I am also reading the third book in Tessa Arlen's Lady Montford mystery series set in Edwardian England called A Death By Any Other Name.

What I Am Listening To: I thought I would keep it light and try a historical romance on audio. I am listening to Julia London's The Devil Takes a Bride at the moment.

What I Am Watching: I re-watched the first season of Orphan Black this past month. It's a show that never gets old. The main actress does an amazing job, playing so many different parts. It's a science fiction show about clones and conspiracy. I have only seen the first two seasons, but want to re-watch the first two before diving back in and catching up. I also binge watched The Travelers, a Netflix show about a group of people from the future who have entered the bodies of recently dead people in present time and are trying to change avert the future.

This past month in movies, I got to see Hidden Figures, The Butler and The Imitation Game, all of which were very good historical films based on real people and events. If you haven't already, I highly recommend seeing each of them.

What's Going On Off the Blog: January was a very wet month in Southern California. It rained, and rained, and rained some more. Streets flooded, school districts were closed (although not my daughter's), and the winds caused a bit of damage in the area (fortunately not any for us). The snow on the mountain tops is a beautiful sight.

Even though I have not been blogging or around much this past month, life has gone on. I hurt my back while cleaning up spilled orange juice and ended up missing a week of work as a result. The doctor was very adamant in her orders to "rest and do nothing", repeating it several times as she stared me down to be sure the message sunk in. Sitting was impossible. I was most comfortable laying down or standing up--although the getting up and down was a problem. I still have some pain and discomfort and so have to limit my activities, but I am getting better day by day. One of my daughter's reports for school last month went something like "My mom broke her back. It hurts her a lot. She cannot play with me now." Mouse is now learning how to write narrative sentences in school, writing three sentences a night. It is fun to see what she comes up with.

It is Girl Scout cookie selling time, now through the first half of March. Mouse will be taking part in her first booth sale this Sunday. She's been out walking the neighborhood some, and I have to give a lot of credit to my coworkers for supporting her by buying cookies. If this keeps up, Mouse may just meet her goal!

Soccer started up again this weekend, and Mouse is excited to be playing again. We were able to spend some time at the park after as well. You'd think playing soccer would wear her out, but that girl never runs out of energy.

This Past Week In Reading Mews:

• The Classics Club - Exploring the Classics
• Where Is Your Bookmark - The Handmaid's Tale Read-Along

Tell me about what you have been up to! What are you reading, listening to and watching? How was your week? Do you have anything planned for this coming week?

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Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

Read or Clean? Read or Bake? Read or Make Dinner? What would be your choice?

Why, reading, of course! Cleaning the house is much more fun with an audio book playing on my cell phone. My husband is the family cook and baker--and so reading would be my pick over those two activities any day. I am not good in the kitchen. Unless it's cleaning dishes, and even then I'd prefer to read. So, yeah, no competition there. 

What about you? Which would be your choice?

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Thank you for helping me decide what book from my TBR collection I should read next:

My TBR List is a meme hosted by the awesome Michelle at Because Reading. It’s a fun way to choose a book from your TBR pile to read. The 1st Sunday of every month, I will list 3 books I am considering reading and take a poll as to which you think I should read. I will read the winner that month, and my review will follow. While I will attempt to post my review that same month, I make no promises--it may go up the following month. 

As I thought about which books to choose for this month's poll, I kept coming back to my book-related cozies. All three of these sound like great comfort reads, don't you think? I really need to settle in with a comfort read right now. I can't wait to curl up with whichever one of these you pick for me!

In Kate Carlisle's Books of a Feather, San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation of the man who has asked her to restore a book of Audubon drawings. Trouble seems to find Brooklyn at every turn in this cozy mystery.

On the other coast, in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, Terrie Farley Moran's Read to Death features Sassy Cabot and Bridgy Mayfield, owners of a bookshop cafe. Upon returning from a day outing, the women and their book club find their driver murdered. All suspicion falls on the book club members--could a killer really be among them? And if so, who?

Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flowers is the first in a new cozy series about a magical bookshop, where the books choose their readers. There to visit her not-as-ailing-as-she's-led-to-believe grandmother, Violet Waverly doesn't expect to find herself in the middle of a murder investigation with her grandmother as the prime suspect.






Thank you for voting!

I hope you all have a great week. Happy Reading!

The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimba, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and gives us all a chance to recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. 

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© 2017, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.