Ninety percent of the books I read come from recommendations on blogs I follow. In the spirit of paying it forward, I thought I’d start sharing my reads as well in a monthly round-up. 

I didn’t read a ton in March but towards the end of the month I realized that I have a lot of “free time” while nursing Paige that I was wasting by scrolling through Facebook thirty seven times each day. I added several books to my library queue and started using this time to get back into reading. As a bonus, I walk to the Green Lake Library to drop off and pick up books. Extra steps and free reading!

The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten. I believe I heard about this while reading Gail Simmons book as she worked for Steingarten back in the day. He is the food critic for Vogue magazine and the book is a collection of food related essays. I really enjoyed some of them but by the end I was reading just to finish the book. Also, it includes thoughts on nutrition from the late 90s (when it was published) that annoyed me to no end.

The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decisions for Your Child by Robert W. Sears. I almost didn’t include this on the list because the last thing I have any interest in doing is having a vaccine debate. I read this book because it explains the various diseases that we vaccinate against (I really had no idea what some of them were), how vaccines are manufactured, and how they work. If you’re curious about any of those topics it might be a good book for you to read. I’m sure there are plenty out there, this is just the one I selected.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. A fun fiction read about a man with Aspergers and his quest for love. I loved the character development and was so impressed that a former IT consultant wrote the novel. Maybe there’s hope for a second career in writing for me? I heard there is a sequel but I feel like there’s no way it could be as good and quirky, so I might just skip it. But I highly recommend this one.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. My favorite book of the month. It was recommended to me last year by a friend from school (hi Nan!) and I should have jumped on it earlier. It happens to be in my favorite (made up) genre – books written about real life events that weave in other plot lines relevant to the time of the story (The Devil in the White City is my favorite example of this). The one also happens to take place locally for me, which is always fun to read. It’s the story of the UW crew team who won gold at the 1936 Berlin (Hitler’s) Olympics.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. I’ve seen Moriarty come up over and over in the blogosphere but had never read any of her books. Now I know what all the fuss is about, this book was really entertaining. It was a relatively quick, fiction read, but it was well written and kept my attention. I looked forward to nursing sessions so that I could jump back into the story. I’ve added several more of her books to my library queue. Quick synopsis: Alice suffers an accident and loses memory of the last decade of her life (during which she had three children and a decade’s worth of life experiences).

Next up is a collection of books on baby sleep. If we’ve talked in real life in the last few weeks I’m sure I’ve mentioned more than a few times that my kid has decided to stop sleeping at night. While all experts (my sister, the pediatrician, the lactation consultant, etc.) have told me it’s just a phase, I’m convinced that if I read enough books I’ll find the answer. Wish me luck!