Before I go to Sleep is another one from the Amazon Book of the Month list. I read this whole book in one sitting. It was weird, interesting, obvious, captivating all at once.

The premise was very interesting and I was confident the author could have done so much more with the plot. And yet, I felt like it was relatively melodramatic and predictable towards the end. But, if you’re into mysteries and psychological ones at that, you will possibly like this one.

I will admit that I resisted reading Lean In for a long time.

I had a lot of my own ideas about the topic. I’d read a lot of articles about Sheryl and I wasn’t sure how much the book could add to what I had already listened to in her TED talk.

But I finally did read it and I am so glad I did.

I really really liked this book. I have no inspiration to be a CEO, CFO, CTO or C-anything. I really like working but I am not sure how much I like the corporate world and a lot of the politics that is invariably a part of that world. While it’s still a struggle, my current balance seems the closest thing to ideal I have at this moment. And I’ve never really thought of myself as a feminist in any way.

I’ve been good at “male-dominated” subjects my whole life. As early as third grade, I went head to head with a boy in my class for which one of us could do math faster. (I won by the way.) I was never told that, as a woman, I wasn’t supposed to be good at math. It truly never occurred to me to question my love of math, computers or anything else. Even though my mom didn’t encourage me to go to college specifically, she and my dad supported me a 1000% and helped me make all my dreams true. Not once along the way did I hear that I was a girl and that I shouldn’t aim to go to the US or study computers or anything along those lines. I personally never felt like being a woman stood in the way of my choices, career and life.

And yet.

Reading this book, I could easily see that I stood in my own way many, many times.

This is not to say that I would have done much differently but I definitely agree with a lot of what’s outlined in this book and it gave me a lot of food for thought. I am still processing much of it.

It is also well-written and easy to read. I recommend it.

I read Delirium a long time ago and have been a big fan of Lauren Oliver since her first book. Delirium wasn’t my favorite compared to her first book so I decided I’d wait until the full series was out before I read the next book. So I finally read Pandemonium and Requiem and the Delirium Stories. It was quite fun reading them all together.

While I liked the series, I still don’t like it nearly as much as I’ve loved Before I Fall. To me, that book was magical, profound and thought-provoking. This one was okay. Especially since the ending wasn’t all that amazing, unpredictable or even profound for me.

If you’re into dystopian stories, you will likely enjoy this. I think Lauren Oliver is a good writer and develops her characters well so they are not 2-dimensional. I know I will always enjoy her writing.

I read March for book club, too.

It’s been on my list to read this book for a long, long time. I am not usually a fan of historical fiction and even though I wanted to read it, I kind of thought this would be a hard read.

It was not at all.

I sat and read it in two days. There was something about it that pulled me in and I just wanted to keep reading. I think Geraldine Brooks’ storytelling was beautiful and I loved remembering Little Women which I really should reread at this point.

If historical fiction is your genre or you liked the Little Women, you might like this one.