February Books and Delights

Every month I like to share the books I read that month. And this month I’m also sharing other little things that delighted me. So here are my February books and delights!

“Reading, like love, is a habit, and as our attention spans grow shorter and shorter, it requires a paddling upstream against the cultural tide to sit with a book and just …read.”
–Tsh Oxenreider, “You are What You Love”

Even as a reader, I find it hard to sit and enjoy a book sometimes because I’m distracted with other things. The quote above reminds me that I’m not alone, and it takes effort to retrain our brains to go after the more satisfying option over the “quick hit” option. It’s more satisfying to spend hours on a book than on social media. But I forget that sometimes.

Tiny, Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

“You will learn a lot about yourself if you stretch in the direction of goodness, of bigness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of emotional bravery. Be a warrior for love.”
-Cheryl Strayed, Tiny, Beautiful Things

This is not like other books I would recommend to you. This book is full of bad language and disturbing scenarios that you may not want to read. But it is real life for these people that have written in asking for advice from “Sugar.” She’s not Christian so her responses may be offensive if you are a Christian (and it’s very likely you are if you’re reading my blog!).

However, I was moved by three things. 1)Everyone has something they are battling, a heartache they are suffering, maybe without anyone else knowing. 2)I admire the author’s decision to always empathize first before giving advice (something I’m not always good at doing even when people aren’t asking me for advice). And 3)Even though we have different religious beliefs, Sugar’s answers almost always pushed the advice-seeker towards more love, more compassion, and more kindness. Cheryl Strayed “Sugar” has lived a life marred by tragedy and trauma herself, but she has made the choice not to live hardened and closed off. We can all learn from that.

Amazon Description: Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice. Find it here.

The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris

Historical fiction is my comfort genre, the one I turn to when I don’t know what else to read. This one was good, but a little long for my taste. I like when a book jumps right into the action. I felt like this one had too many paragraphs and pages of descriptions and thoughts-running-through-the-narrator’s-head. Although I prefer action and dialogue, I enjoyed the premise of a magical talent called to use her skills for the war.

Can we just talk about airplanes on book covers for a minute? The airplane has become the symbol of WWII. If it has an airplane on then cover, then it’s almost certain to be a WWII genre book—and I’m almost certain to pick it up! Just look at these recommended reads from this book’s Goodreads page. All four with airplanes (I almost missed them in that last one)—

Amazon Description: As a little girl raised amid the hardships of Michigan’s Copper Country, Fenna Vos learned to focus on her own survival. That ability sustains her even now as the Second World War rages in faraway countries. Though she performs onstage as the assistant to an unruly escape artist, behind the curtain she’s the mastermind of their act. Ultimately, controlling her surroundings and eluding traps of every kind helps her keep a lingering trauma at bay.

Yet for all her planning, Fenna doesn’t foresee being called upon by British military intelligence. Tasked with designing escape aids to thwart the Germans, MI9 seeks those with specialized skills for a war nearing its breaking point. Fenna reluctantly joins the unconventional team as an inventor. But when a test of her loyalty draws her deep into the fray, she discovers no mission is more treacherous than escaping one’s past. Find it here.

The Little Delights of February

In January, I listened to the book I Guess I Haven’t Learned that Yet by Shauna Niequist. In one chapter, she talked about delight in such a way that I said, “Yes! I want that!” Here’s a piece of it she shared on Instagram and quoted below:

“One of my goals is to be a person who is easily delighted, who can find great cause for celebration in a fig or a familiar face. If you need fireworks and perfection in order to crack a smile, you’re going to be disappointed over and over when life fails to be spectacular on command. I want to live with an extremely low bar for delight. It takes almost nothing at all—a good song, a ripe piece of fruit, a perfectly packed tote.” –Shuana Niequist, I Guess I Haven’t Learned that Yet

I say yes to more delight, so I started a list in February. Here are some things I listed:

• Teaching my daughter to play Rummikub, a game I’ve played with my aunts and uncles
• Seeing ice on our Japanese maple
• Watching a big bird perched on our fence—is it an owl? or a hawk?
• Pizza for dinner
• Creating haikus and art to go with it. This was a challenge by Brooke Petermann on Instagram.

• Lazy mornings
• Good news about a family member in the hospital
• Watching my kids be creative while making cards for sick family member
• Trying a new ice cream flavor
• Finding the right pieces in a large puzzle
• Banana nut muffins
• The sun sparkling off the ice in the trees
• Making these love-inspired phone wallpapers in all the pinks and purples
• Hearing “best day ever” again from my five-year-old
• Rewatching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Watching her hunt for fairies

• Early signs of spring
• My daughter’s response to “If I Were President”: I would go to Target every day to pass out food. Everyone would be kind.
• Being outside by my pool, even if it’s too cold to jump in
• My son turning 13
• Watching my daughter play volleyball
• Playing trivia with 5th and 6th graders at church
• Turning 42
• Getting a manicure AND a pedicure on the same day for my birthday treat
• The cake my husband made for me
• Heart-shaped leaves
• Sending these two off to the Father Daughter Dance

I’d love hear what books you read recently or where you have found delight!