It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. As she says, it’s “a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!”

I slowed down my reading so I could catch up on reviews, and it certainly worked – I’ve finally caught up on reviews from January! But I still have 6 books from February to review, plus some Hugh’s Library posts to cover all the picture books I’ve been reading (and reading, and reading, and reading again!) lately – new acquisitions mostly, and some from the “backlist”. Honestly, the amount of times I read one single picture book must count as a short novel by now!

While you’re here, head on over to my Literary Giveaway Blog Hop post to enter my giveaway: your choice of two of my favourite books!
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I READ:

The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
It’s My Birthday by Helen Oxenbury
Shake a Leg! by Constance Allen
Oops! and David Smells by David Shannon
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
Dear Sir, I’m Yours by Joely Sue Burkhart

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I REVIEWED:

Short Soup by Coleen Kwan
Raising Boys in a New Kind of World by Michael Reist
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

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CURRENTLY READING:

While the Sun is Above Us
by Melanie Schnell

I did start reading a completely different book on the weekend, Abigail Gibbs’ The Dark Heroine (or is it called Dinner With a Vampire? It’s so confusing!) but I wasn’t really into it so I’ve put it aside for now.

This is a Canadian novel set in Sudan, which I picked up for the Around the World in 12 Books Challenge. Somewhere along the way I decided to aim for more than one book per country this year, and I’m feeling determined to succeed in that goal.

This book is about two women: Adut who “is brutally captured and held as a slave for eight years” during the civil war; and Sandra who, “fleeing her life in Canada, travels to South Sudan as an aid worker but soon finds herself unwittingly embroiled in a violent local conflict. When chance brings Adut and Sandra together in a brief but profound moment, their lives change forever.” It comes with a handy – and very clear – map at the start, too. I only started reading it today so the quote I’m sharing is from the beginning.

The story you will hear is a strange one. Perhaps you will choose not to believe it. But I am certain you will believe it, you must believe it. I know you have seen things you never thought you could see in your entire life. You have learned things you did not want to learn. You have stepped on these lands, alongside my people, and so you have lived some of this war, khawaja. I am sorry for this.

This story may answer some questions for you, if you are still with us, Insha’Allah. Before you arrived here, perhaps you had heard of terrible things happening in a faraway place, from your newspapers and your television sets. This faraway place is my home, and our stories bear a different kind of burden from what your own land holds.

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WHAT’S NEXT:

Once again, I need to plot out the books I definitely intend to read in February, otherwise I tend to forget, make other choices, and then run out of time to meet my personal goals.

And my pre-ordered copy of Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi arrived last week, which I’m super excited about reading as soon as I can!