Hi! I'm back from Japan! The trip was wonderful and I can't wait to share some of my favorite parts, but I have a ton of pictures to sort through before doing that. So in the meantime, I figured I'd pop in and do my February book summary.

One sad sidenote: I lost my Kindle on my Japan trip. I left it in the seat back pocket when we landed in Tokyo. As soon as I realized I filled out the lost items form on the Air Canada website, but I haven't heard from them other than to say they are still looking. Maybe they will magically find it, but I kind of doubt it. It makes me sad that the person who found it didn't just turn it in and instead likely walked off with it.

I obviously lost a ton of quality reading time on the plane ride home without my Kindle.

Anyway, as for February reads, it was kind of a mixed bag of stuff -- two kids books, two nonfiction and two fiction.



Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
This is obviously a children's book, but I wanted to read it again because I was going to Hiroshima as part of my Japan trip and would get to see the monument built in Sadako's honor.

One Thousand Paper Cranes: The Story of Sadako and the Children's Peace Statue by Takayuki Ishii
This book is also written for a younger audience, and unlike Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, this book claims Sadako did finish folding all of the paper cranes. I like that this book gave a bit more of the story of the statue being built and more insight into her family since the author sat down and interviewed her parents.

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
I love J. Courtney Sullivan's ability to develop really rich characters. While this book took me a while to read, in part because it was long and in part because the plot wasn't super fast moving, I kept wanting to come back to it and learn what happened to the women in this family and their vacation house in Maine. I also 100% loved the ending of this book. Definitely recommend this.

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
I was so disappointed in this book. Loosely based on the concept of the Scooby-Doo teen detectives, this book follows the club as they revisit one of their cases as adults. But it turns out that instead of just being a regular mystery the kids solved, this one involves weird magic and lake creatures from another space dimension. The characters mostly all sucked (seriously, I didn't really like any of them, which is impressive because I was obsessed with Scooby-Do as a kid). I'm not sure why I finished reading it, it was just that bad.

Single State of Mind by Andi Dorfman
The Bachelor series is 100% my guilty pleasure show so when I saw Andi had a new book out about her life post-breakup from her season on the show, I figured I'd give it a read. After the show, Andi moved to NYC where she was shocked to find apartments were really expensive, went out on a bunch of bad (and not so bad) first dates, and made a new group of friends. It was a fine read, I enjoyed it more because I watched the show, but it was nothing super special.

Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties by Beth Kobliner
This is an awesome personal finance book. I love that it had more than just the basics. Sure there were some general chapters on paying off debt and picking a good bank account, but I found the chapters on buying a home, determining what kinds and how much of insurance you should carry and some of the investing information to be especially helpful. Full of really good, practical and useful information.