What I Read in March #whatjanessareads (18 Books)

For the last day of the month, what else would I post than what I read?
I got through several more of the Canada Reads books (including the one that won!) as well as some more relaxing ones. As usual, most of my reading was on my KOBO, so the picture is pretty barren.

Check out my Goodreads 2016 challenge here! I'm waayyy ahead of the 100 I pledged to read. Nice.
What I read in February
What I read in January
What I read in 2015 (200 books in one year)

Not sure what to read? The Novel Cure gives you suggestions based on your mood. Homesick? Travelling on a train? They've got you covered.

My Top 3 Books in March:
"Mr. Churchill's Secretary"
"Jesus Feminist"
"The Heart Goes Last"

"The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading: An Encyclopedia of Independent Living" Nicole Faires
I bought this book several years ago while I was working at camp. It teaches so many insane things: how to deliver calfs (and even human babies), how to check your soil, making soap, hunting... It knows everything. After many years of perusing, I have finally finished it. I'm very excited to use the gardening section this summer with my friends in our "community" garden.

"Mr. Churchill's Secretary" Susan Elia Macneal 
During WWII, Maggie who is a British and American citizen, moves to England to sell her grandmother's house. She happens to be a math genius who has to defer her PhD at MIT for a year because of it. She ends up working as a secretary for Mr. Churchill, the new Prime Minister. Maggie gets involved in some IRA and Nazi conspiracies as well as a murder or two. Seriously great book, the whole time I had no idea what would happen.

Leviticus NIV
Probably one of the most boring reads in the Bible, but at the very last chapter in my student NIV Bible from Zondervan, it explained that God was giving them laws so that they could reclaim the identity as his chosen people. The Israelites had been slaves of Egypt for 400 years, so they now needed their own identity. When you think about it that way, it's kinda cool. It also shows God caring about every aspect of their lives.

"All the Broken Things" Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer
One of the Canada Reads books for 2016. Probably my second favourite of the 7/15 I've read so far. It's a super weird story: Bo is a refugee from Vietnam during/after the Vietnam War with his mom and sister who has been severely affected by Agent Orange (chemical warfare used on Vietnam). He ends up being a bear wrestler for various fairs in Ontario.

"Life-Changing Magic: A Journal: Spark Joy Every Day" Marie Kondo
So many YouTubers read Marie Kondo's book and said it was the best thing that happened to them. Since I'm a hoarder and not too neat, I figured I'd check it out. Her basic concept is to reduce your personal items, and then find places for everything. For each item, it needs to "spark joy," otherwise you can't keep it. While I won't be getting rid of everything, I did take some of the ideas to heart and am in the process of sorting through everything.

"The Readaholics and the Falcon Fiasco" Laura DiSilverio
New mystery series focused on a mystery book club. The main character is a party planner who is hired to plan her ex-boyfriend's wedding, and one of her friends gets murdered. It was alright.

"The Outside Circle: A Graphic Novel" Patti Laboucane-Benson
The one graphic novel in Canada Reads. It discusses issues faced by a young Aboriginal man in Alberta. It's pretty upsetting at times when they include stats of abuse and violence, but don't worry, it has a semi-happy ending. Very dark.

"Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women" Sarah Bessey
I tried to read this once before and the library reservation ended, so I didn't get to read it. This is a phenomenal book which details why Sarah is a feminist (because Jesus was one, and she is a Christian) and how we should be feminists if we are Christian. She has lots of really great interpretations of the Bible.

"The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" Alan Bradley
This book is pretty funny. Flavia is a young girl in the 1950s who comes across a murdered man in her garden. She is a very advanced chemist, sassy, and somehow solves the mystery. I'm excited to read more of the series.

Gospel of Matthew - NIV
Reading Leviticus was divided up through Matthew, which was a good way to handle the depressing rules in Leviticus.

"The Illegal" Lawrence Hill
This book won Canada Reads. I still like "Station Eleven" and "All the Broken Things" more, but I'll have to watch the debates to see why the book won. It's set present time and follows a boy from the made-up country of Zantoroland. He becomes a marathon runner to escape the political danger in his country, and ends up having to hide from authorities in the Freedom State, which represents any democratic country.

"The Martian" Andy Weir
I loved the movie, which I watched in theaters. Somehow the movie followed the book exactly, so I didn't actually enjoy it that much. Especially the math. Anyway, the book is about Mark Watney, who gets marooned on Mars, his attempts to survive life on Mars, and NASA's attempts to recover him.

"The Pirate's Wish" Cassandra Rose Clarke
Still a really weird series. Ananna the pirate and Naji the assassin are still trying to break the Unbreakable curse that has linked them together. They travel to mythical islands and meet some royalty. I had kind of expected there to be a third book, but it just ended. It was fine.

"Landing Gear" Kate Pullinger
This book confused me. Another of the Canada Reads books. Basically the book follows the crazy intertwinings of characters following the volcanic eruption in 2010. There were some crazy moments but it wasn't the most interesting.

"Murphy's Law" Rhys Bowen
First in a series about Molly Murphy who escapes from Ireland to America after committing defensive murder of her attempted rapist. She ends up posing as the mother of two kids who are going over to America since the mother is sick and wouldn't be allowed past Ellis Island. While they're on the island, a man she argues with on the boat is murdered. Molly goes badass on us.

"Dead and Gone" Charlaine Harris
Number 9 in True Blood. The werewolves and other shifters "come out" on television. Of course, this causes even more upset. Sookie's pregnant sister-in-law is murdered and strung up on a cross. Is it just regular murder? Or a hate crime?

"Sweetland" Michael Crummey
The most boring Canada Reads book I've read so far. Basically Sweetland lives on an island off Newfoundland that the government is trying to empty. They're paying off everyone to leave the island. Everyone agrees except old Sweetland, who tries to fake his own death and stay there.

"The Heart Goes Last" Margaret Atwood
Love Atwood. In this post-modern book, Charmaine and Stan agree to be a part of a social experiment where half their time they live in a perfect town and have jobs, and the other half they are in jail. Obviously, it's weird. Stan falls in love with the elusive woman who lives in his apartment while he is in jail. That's a problem.

What I Read in February #WhatJanessaReads

My Goodreads challenge for 2016 is 100 books. Looks like I'll be ahead of myself for a long time, which makes things easier in case I'm in grad school in September and won't have time to read for fun quite as much. Check out my January books post, follow along on #whatjanessareads, and look at which Canada Reads 2016 books you're interested in reading!

This post is considerably longer than my January one, since I actually wrote about every single book, instead of picking certain ones to highlight. Hopefully you love it!

Top 3 Books of February:
"Station Eleven"
"Bad Feminist"
"Silent in the Grave"

"Birdie" Tracey Lindberg
One of the short list for Canada Reads 2016. It was an easier and faster read than I had expected, but I would recommend reading it on a hard copy, not an e-book. There are a bunch of footnotes explaining references and Cree words which I couldn't flip back and forth to, so that was frustrating. The book is about Bernice/Birdie, a Cree-Metis woman, who grows up on a reserve in Alberta, and later migrates to Gibsons and Vancouver. Lindberg has a very dark sense of humour, which makes childhood sexual abuse scenes a little less (or more?) shocking. I enjoyed the book, but I got a little confused sometimes with the changes in timeline and narrator.

"Foul Play at the Fair" Shelley Freydont
Liv moves from NYC to be the festival organizer for Celebration Bay, New York. The day of their fall festival, a man is discovered in the apple press. Turns out he is the long-lost brother of the owner of the farm, and he was a major troublemaker. Without spoiling the book, I was disappointed by the end.

"A Hedonist's Guide to Art" Laura K. Jones, ed. 
I purchased this book years ago at the National Art Gallery, and never got very far. I decided to start it this month, and read a few essays a day--it worked, I finally finished it! The book discusses modern art, collecting and selling art, and the process of creating it. Some of it was hilarious, other parts shocking (most of the pictures included were very phallic), but I found myself frustrated that it was obviously UK-centric. Most of the essayists were British, or had moved there, so I didn't recognize most of the important names. Also, some of the people used big words I had never heard of.

"To Brew or Not to Brew" Joyce Tremel
It's about time that someone came out with a cozy murder mystery series to do with beer, with all the craft breweries everywhere now! Max (Maxine) is starting up her brewery when her assistant gets murdered, but no one believes her. There is also some opposition in her Pittsburgh neighbourhood about opening a brewhouse, so she has to convince the naysayers. Cute characters, and actually made me interested in drinking beer--I'm a strictly Corona on the dock beer-drinker.

"Interview with the Vampire" Anne Rice
I thought I had watched the movie in grade 8 with my friend Anya, but it turns out we must've only watched the first half, because I got very confused and surprised. The book follows Louis, a plantation owner in Louisiana through his vampire life both in America and Europe. It was a little slow at times, so I interspersed it with other novels, but I did really enjoy it. Also, I'm apparently in a "vampire phase" if you look at what books I've liked to read!

"Star Wars Lost Tribe of the Sith" (Secrets, Pandemonium, Purgatory, Savior, Paragon, Pantheon, Sentinel, Skyborn, Precipice) John Jackson Miller
This is the second set of books I've read in the Star Wars chronology, and it takes place 5000-3000 years before the destruction of the first death star. A ship of Sith and their humans crashland on a planet with little hope of finishing their mission or returning to space. The humans survive and implant themselves in the native theology, become their rulers, and encounter rebellions over the 2000 years. I read each of the novellas which can be found together in a very large compilation, or separately.

"From Dead to Worse" Charlaine Harris
I was kind of surprised where this book started out after the crazy drama of the previous one. There are some werewolf battles, new vampires in town wanting to claim the kingdom, and Sookie gets to learn about her heritage.

"Scent of Magic" Maria V. Snyder
This is the second in the Healer series. I hadn't read the first book for a while, so it took me a few chapters to remember everything that had happened before. Avry is caught between warring kings and queens, and is also supposed to be dead. Avry infiltrates one of the armies, and is her usual badass self. The series involves re-animated corpses, which is a fun, fantasy take on zombies.

Reading date at Box Car Social

"Station Eleven" Emily St. John Mandel
This was absolutely one of the best books I've read in a while- no wonder it was on the Canada Reads 2016 long list! The book starts day one of a world-wide pandemic, and travels back and forth in time to explain how the characters are related and how they experience the pandemic. It's very realistic, and makes you only a little freaked out for the future!

"The Remains of the Dead" Wendy Roberts
This is the first in a new series about Sadie, who owns a crime scene cleaning company. Not only does she have a really gross job (wiping up blood splatters, picking up brain fragments) but she sees ghosts. In the book, Sadie is hired to clean a murder-suicide scene, but something is off, and she's on the case!

"Undead and Unwed" Mary Janice Davidson
For some reason I thought this was going to be a murder mystery. Nope. The series is probably more of a fantasy-romance, so that was surprising! Betsy gets fired on her birthday, then killed in a car accident, and wakes up as a vampire. Because she reveals herself to her family and friends, she gets caught between two vampire factions.

"This is How you Lose Her" Junot Diaz
This collection of short stories was mentioned in "Bad Feminist," and I immediately requested it from the library. I won't say that I enjoyed it. The short stories follow Yunior, an immigrant from the Dominican, through various relationships, hookups, and his family life. I think what made me uncomfortable during the read was how raw some of the writing was, and I also missed out on a lot of the Spanish references.

"Malice at the Palace" Rhys Bowen
Lady Georgiana Rannoch is 35th in line to the English throne, but is penniless in the twenties. She is hired by her relative, the Queen of England, to welcome Prince George's bride, Princess Marina to England. George is a playboy, and one of his ex-lovers shows up dead outside the palace. Uhoh!

"Silent in the Grave" Deanna Raybourn
Lady Julia's husband dies at the beginning of the book, and a local detective tells her it is murder. Julia, who didn't really love her husband much, dismisses it, until her year of mourning is over and she discovers a threatening letter in his desk. Julia and the detective have to navigate the rules of the Victorian period to solve the mystery.

"All Together Dead" Charlaine Harris
Serious vampire summit- all the kings and queens of the States get together to solve legal issues. Unfortunately people get murdered and there are bombs planted. Shit goes down.

"Bad Feminist" Roxane Gay
I bought this book of feminist essays last year and never got around to reading it. I'm glad that I finally did. Roxane talks about patriarchy, gender roles, homophobia, racism in pop culture, and everything else. I have tons of underlining in my book of the "WOAH" moments throughout the essays, and would definitely recommend this book to any people who like to think hard.

"Death Wears a Mask" Ashley Weaver
I love this series: it follows a young woman in 1930s London, who has a sometimes-cheating husband, and she gets involved in murders. In this particular book, she is roped into solving jewellery thieving at a masked ball, but one of the guests gets murdered. The characters are a lot of fun, and the Dirty Thirties are such a fun period of time.

200 Books in 2015 - Goodreads Reading Challenge

One of my favourite features with Goodreads is that they allow you to set a number of books to read in the year, and keeps track of it for you. Last year, while I was finishing university for two of the terms, I set it at 75 books. Obviously as an English Literature student, I read tons. Then I graduated, and I read about a hundred books in the four months afterwards, all trashy, cozy murder mysteries. For 2015 I set it at 200 books. I was way ahead for a while, but then once I started working full-time again, I fell back.
Here's the link to my reading challenge.
I decided to include 10 of my favourite books or series that I read this past year.

One of my favourite reading spots: the back deck at the cottage

"Wild" by Cheryl Strayed
I like backpacking, but not that much. I prefer to do my outtripping in a canoe with brief portages carrying all my belongings. I've also never been interested in doing a pilgrimage, but this book inspired me. Before I got it from the library, all I knew was that Reese Witherspoon is very dirty in the book trailer and hikes somewhere. Now I'm all raring to go for this summer and hiking some of the Bruce Peninsula Trail with Nic (certainly not for 3 months though).

"The Girl of Fire and Thorns" by Rae Carson
This book features a princess who has the "Godstone" in her navel, literally a stone that demonstrates she is going to fulfill their god's purpose on earth. She also gets married real young to a foreign king, and faces a revolution. During the book she is transformed from a chubby, sad girl into a leader (and of course has muscle, because we couldn't love a princess who was chubby) and makes friends with enemies.

"The Assassin's Curse" by Cassandra Rose Clark
Ananna is a pirate in a world where the landlubbers are the rich people, and all the rest live on ships. When she attempts to escape an arranged marriage, she is hunted down by an assassin. Ananna is also a badass, and has some magic. It's a fun series.

"The Anatomist's Wife" by Anna Lee Huber
One of the more interesting cozy murder mystery series I started this year was about an artist whose dead husband was an anatomist. She did a lot of his anatomy drawings, so she is able to figure out a lot of things about the murders she encounters. It's a really cool look into Scottish society in the 1830s, and Kiera Darby is a very strong character.

"The Winner's Curse" by Marie Rutkoski 
Another medieval-ish period book, set in a colonized country. The main character, Kestrel, is expected to become a soldier at 18 or be married. She would prefer to play piano, which her society looks down on. She buys a slave, who turns out to be part of the revolution of the colonized people.

"Falling Kingdoms" by Morgan Rhodes
This book involves princes and princesses, sorcerers, armies, and lots of fun characters. One of the few times I actually appreciated reading different perspectives in the same novel.

"Scene of the Climb" by Kate E. Dyer-Seeley
For some reason, most cozy murder mysteries feature women in their mid-thirties or up, but never young women, which is often frustrating for me. This series is different! She's recently graduated with a journalism degree, and ends up working for an adventure magazine- because she lied about her outdoor experience. It's a fun book, and I'm excited to read the next one.

"Deja Dead" and other Bones books by Kathy Reichs
I wasn't sure if I should include this series, because of the 10 I've read so far, they go up and down in goodness. I was expecting it to be a closer relation to the Bones TV show than it was. On TV, Bones is semi-autistic, works at the Smithsonian as a forensic anthropologist, and has never been married or has kids. In the original book series, she works in Montreal and Charlotte, and travels all over working. She also has a daughter from her first marriage who is in university. Sometimes the books are incredibly creepy and I can't go to sleep after reading them, other ones I get so bored and can't wait to finish. Check it out if you want.

"Lady Chatterly's Lover" by D. H. Lawrence
This is one of the few "serious" books I read this year (I mostly focused on re-setting my brain after being a Serious English Literature Student by reading cozy murder mysteries). One of my professors recommended it as a very salacious novel, and it was. Constance is in a loveless marriage, and has an affair with the gamekeeper. The book was banned for a long time for its descriptions.

"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
One of my friends told me that she was shocked I hadn't read the Ender series, so I dove in. The first book involves young geniuses who play war games all day in a space station to train them to kill the "buggers," the invading aliens. The series deals with very heavy topics including xenophobia and colonialism.


What were your favourite books in 2015?