What I Read In February

So let me ask you a question. Do you consider listening Audiobooks “reading” ?

I ask because I have recently bought a subsription to Scribd. I love to read but findign the opportunity to sit down with a book can be a challenge.

I have found I really do enjoy listening to books, especially when the voice acting is done well. But I am also a little bit of a traditionalist and enjoy the printed word and holding a physical book in my hand.

But I digress, I only read, umm listened to 1 book during the month of February. My first Scribd read was Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.

I think I assumed that because I could listen to the book while still doing everyday tasks such as cooking, folding laundry and running errands I would get through books faster.

But some books just require time to digest, and as much as I enjoyed Before We Were Yours, I also found it a challenging book to read.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

While not complex, Before We Were Yours was anything but an easy read for me. Written during 2 time periods, I found myself deeply affected by one of the storylines and while the other storyline provided a respite from the heavier material, I just not that interested in it. The storylines that alternated throughout the book where:

Present day, Avery Stafford a senator’s daughter returns home to help aid her sick father and family in any way she can. Some questions come up about her grandmother’s past and as Avery digs into her grandmother’s history leads she is led down a path she never imagined.
Memphis in 1939. Rill Foss is the oldest child of a couple that live on the river in a shanty boat. One night her parents have to leave all five children home alone to rush their mother to the hospital. While they are gone the police show up and take the children into custody.

The 1939 fictional story of the Foss childeren who were essentailly kidnapped from their parents storyline was one heartbreaking scene to the next, rooted in the real-life corruption that occurred under the supervision of Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children’s Home Society from the late 1930’s – 1950’s, when children were kidnapped from the poor and sold to the wealthy. While I found the story intensely interesting, I also found it emotionally exhausting and I had to take a break for a day or two before carrying on.

And then we have the alternating current day story of Avery Stafford, a DA in Washington, whom is currently being groomed to be the next Senator should her father’s health take a turn for the worse. These chapters felt more like they would have been more at home in a cheap and cliche paperback romance novel than in the same book following the fate of kidnapped siblings struggling to survive one of the most devasting and unimaginable situations. Avery’s family is affluent and political, and she was raised to be concerned with outward appearances, propriety and political implications. I wouldn’t go so far to say I didn’t like Avery’s character, but I didn’t connect with her either, she felt one dimensional in comparison to the other characters in the book.

I knew that the lighter modern day storyline was probably added to break up the heavier material of the Foss kids ordeal and that eventually, the storylines would intersect. But I just I felt that Avery’s part was overdone, had her storyline been a little more interesting I would have given this book 5 stars.

I rated this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

I am looking foward to some much lighter reading in March, and already have a stack of books ready to dig into.

What have you read this month? Did you read Before We Were Yours? What were your thoughts?