What's On Your Nightstand - September

This month has been a rough reading month even though I do have a nice pile of books stacked up for September. I think most of my reading happened at the beginning of the month and then a few were finished in the last week. I'm sure most of this I can attribute to getting our school year kicked off in the midst of my son hurting his knee and needing surgery. That was not on my radar at all! Thankfully, he is recovering and we are finding our groove for school, so maybe there is some reading renewal on the horizon!

For October's Nightstand:

From September's Nightstand I read:

• The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers:Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity by Meg Meeker - I heard this book recommended on a podcast and decided to check it out. There were some chapters that I really enjoyed and thought they were spot on and others were just okay. Still I felt a worthwhile read.
• Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce - Wow! What a story!! This will definitely be going down as one of my favorite reads for 2018. The first few chapters are a little slow, but when the story picks up you can't put the book down. I found this book recommended since I had liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and it did not disappoint. It is a very different story compared to Guernsey but not one to be missed!
• King Lear (No Fear Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare - The Circe Institute has a new podcast called The Play's the Thing and the first play they read was King Lear so I dived right in. I have never read King Lear and I really enjoyed it--at least as much as you can enjoy a tragedy.

I also read:

• The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green - This was a read-aloud book with my 10 year old. We finished it off before diving into this year's school work. In some ways it's sad since I have read it aloud to all four of my kids. I guess it goes on the shelf for a while waiting for a new generation to enjoy it.
• The Floating Admiral by Agatha Christie, The Detection Club - I came across this book and was instantly intrigued. Every chapter is written by a different mystery author. I enjoyed the book though there was one chapter that really needed some major editing and it lost its momentum at that point. It still was a neat idea.
• Kate Hardy by D.E. Stevenson  - This was one of Stevenson's so-so stories. It was a quick easy read and since I've been in a reading rut it at least made me feel accomplished!
• Murder in an English Village by Jessica Ellicott - Again another so-so read. I kept telling myself to just return it to the library and then lo and behold the action picked and I made it to the end. There is a sequel but I'm not going to bother with it.

I listened to:

• Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie - A great read!
• Wait Till Next Year - Doris Kearns Goodwin - This memoir gives a great peak into life during '50s.