Happy February, everyone. I, for one, am glad that it’s only 28 days; it somehow makes the month more bearable… The first month of the challenge is come and gone; I’m glad to see everyone (mostly) enjoying their books. And my TBR pile thanks you.

This week’s quote is from last week’s reviews: Nicole’s of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, to be exact:

“I don’t think of myself as the type to ply turkey menfolk with brandy and hoodwink them into fatherhood. But a girl needs to know her options.”

I have no idea the context of the quote, but it made me giggle.

If you have any quotes from the books you’re reading, leave them in the comments or email me. Contact info on the side.

It was a light week, overall. Perhaps we were all distracted by the Newbery news?? Or maybe January is getting to us after all. 🙂 You can see all the reviews here.

Corinne read a graphic novel, Aya, the story of the Ivory Coast in 1978. Corinne writes, “Despite the very post-adolescence nature of the plot, I think the book as a whole sheds a revealing light on a another side of African life than we usually read about. Wealthy businessmen, working class “peasants” and villagers interact in a society that is constantly changing.” Sounds fascinating.

Tricia read Dear Exile and hit upon the main drawback of memoirs, possibly especially those that consist of letters, “I have a hard time trashing the characters here, because they are real people with real feelings. But, if you are going to publish your private correspondence for all the world to see, I guess you open yourself up to a lot of scrutiny. ” At least half the book was good, though.

And yes, Amira checked in with a couple more books, this time it sounds like dinner: Pomegranate Soup and Salt: A World History. Though, I suppose, I wouldn’t want to eat just salt. I did like what she had to say about Salt, though: “But it did feel as if the author was scraping to find mentions of salt besides the big ones. Of course salt is important, and so are lots of other things that aren’t very noticeable, like water.” True. I can see it now, the next big book: Water: A World History.

She also provided our stop in China this week, reading Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China, on Corinne’s recommendation last week. Amira liked it, though she said, “There are a couple of brief mentions of some other regions of China, but the focus of the book is unquestionably Beijing and China, which was disappointing to me.”

Happy reading, everyone!