What I Read: February 2025

Long days, short months.

The day has come: Arthur got “bored” at the library. The toy setup for little kids has finally become un-fun. And then I reminded him: it’s a library. Go pick out a book to read. “Oh yeah,” he says. And off he goes, bringing home one about space and one about wooly mammoths and one a graphic novel that shall remain unnamed because he finds them hilarious and I find them terrible.

Scott took an actual sick day this last month, which is a truly rare occurrence. We squeezed him into our morning madness, a table full of phonics and folk songs and work-from-home emails and LEGOs.

The sun was here until almost 6pm today. Spring is coming.

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Here’s What I Read in February:

The PLAN: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius {nonfiction}

by Kendra Adachi

I’ve been listening to Kendra’s podcast since Episode 1 (she’s on Episode 406 as I write this), and have used her way of looking at life to inform my own for so many years (8? 9?), that I didn’t really need to read this book. Still, I wanted to — both to support Kendra and her work and to see if there was anything in here I still needed to hear. There was. This quote: "In general, a man's life is oriented around him, and a woman's life is oriented around everything but her, all while her body's rhythms are annoyingly inconvenient” (page xiv). I’ve read enough about time management and have implemented what systems I can to bring a bit of ease into my life… and still I struggle to find a sense of flow from week to week. I am often frustrated with this lack, and this quote reminded me that it’s not a failure of character — it’s just the life I have right now. If you struggle to be compassionate toward yourself when it comes to managing your life, I’d definitely give this one a read.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

The Art of Making Memories

by Meik Wiking

I listened to The Little Book of Hygge by Wiking in December (we now have a hygge-appropriate amount of lamps in our living room, and it makes such a difference!) and was intrigued to see that he had other titles available at our library. I enjoyed this one — it encourages you to be intentional in not necessarily crafting memories, but in helping to encode moments into your memory so that you can remember the joyful ones that you do have longer and with better recall. I thought he did a good job giving small steps you can take as you walk away from the book, and it was a good mix of science and anecdote. The print edition seems to have infographics in it? Maybe some of the data would have sunk better if I’d read it rather than listened.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

Farmer Boy and These Happy Golden Years {audiobook}

by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The kids and I continued listening to The Little House Series with Farmer Boy (considered #2, but I waited to share this one with them until we had met Almanzo Wilder in Laura’s life) and These Happy Golden Years (book #8). Farmer Boy focuses on Almanzo’s childhood on a successful farm in upstate New York, and Golden Years follows Laura as she begins to teach school and — spoiler alert! — is courted by and marries Almanzo. The books continue to entertain us all and have provided a lot of jumping off points to talk about the historical relationship between European settlers and Native Americans, the importance of education, and the value of working together as a family to accomplish something big, among other things.

We really enjoy having a series to listen to together (previously: The Vanderbeekers, The Penderwicks, The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates), so if you have a series you love that’s good for the 5-8 year old set and is great on audio, can you let me know about it? Thanks!

Farmer Boy: Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

These Happy Golden Years: Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

I’ve only got a few weeks left in the Winter section of The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, and I’m still two-thirds of the way through The Power of Ritual by Casper Ter Kuile — I barely sat down often enough to read in February. Luckily, March has more days to fit books in.

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What I’m Reading with the Kids:

I found both of these during a serendipitous trip to the library around Chinese New Year. Norman, Speak! is about a family that adopts a dog, and are surprised to learn that he only speaks Chinese (it’s adorable). Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is a sweet book about a girl discovering that her eyes look the same as the people she loves… eyes that kiss in the corners.

Two great recommendations for pre-readers: Flashlight is a gorgeous limited-color book that shows a boy adventuring after dark and the amazing things his flashlight illuminates. The Adventures of Polo was recommended by my friend and author Ron Vitale. It’s a pretty-lengthy graphic novel-esque tale with no words, that follows a dog all around the world on some interesting excursions. It feels a bit like Harold and the Purple Crayon, and both kids have flipped through it multiple times while we’ve had it checked out. I could see this as a win for car trips if you have a non-reader, for sure.

Whenever we end up at the library lately, I find myself sifting through the Folk and Fairy Tales bins. Dragon Feathers is a gorgeous piece of art that the flap copy says took multiples years to create. John Henry is a retelling of the legend of that man, and a great pick if you want an American folk tale that helps to carry Black history into your reading all year long.

Finally, two nature-focused books. Crinkleroot’s Knowing the Birds is a delightful primer on bird ID (must be universally loved, because it’s over $60 on ThriftBooks), and tiny, perfect things is gorgeously illustrated and encourages you to look around and notice what’s right there under your feet.

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What I’m Reading Next:

I’d like to sit down and finish The Power of Ritual, and I think I need a good fiction pick to get me back in the sit-down-and-read habit. Any recommendations?

What are you reading right now? Hit “reply” and tell me!