Life has been more than a little hectic lately with since I went back to work in January and since the little guy started daycare in April. My free time for reading has felt like it's disappeared, and we've also been battling a string of nonstop sickness in our house since starting daycare. I didn't mean to fall this far behind on book recaps, but alas here we are. 

So here's a round up of the handful of books I've read over the last three months.

February Books

Four Stars

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nothing like a good neighborhood drama to really suck you in. There are secrets in the neighborhood and uncertainty and competition between the women who live on this street. But when a young boy falls out his bedroom window, the neighborhood rallies in some ways and in other ways, they try to dig deeper to find out what was really going on in that house. This was a good book that had me continually trying to guess what was coming next.

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Three Stars

The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought this book took a little while to get going. A young nanny is found dead and the police rule her death a tragic accident. But when the girl's mother seeks out Tash, a freelance journalist and insists there had been foul play, Tash finds herself being sucked into a group of glamorous, rich mothers from a local children's playgroup. The circle welcomes her and soon Tash finds herself sucked into their world. She claims its all part of the investigation, but she might be in too deep. This book picked up a lot toward the end, but I wish it had had a bit of a faster pace throughout.

March Books

Five Stars

The Women by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though I definitely thought the first half of this book was stronger than the second half, this is a five star book. It was beautifully written. I keep telling everyone to read it and I keep wanting to talk about it. After her brother is killed in the Vietnam War, Frankie McGrath signs up to be an Army nurse. The first half of the book covers her time during the war, and the second half covers life when she gets home. Parts of this book made me so mad I wanted to chuck it across the room, but I loved it. I also felt a really personal connection to this story since my aunt served as an Army nurse in Vietnam -- in one of the hospitals mentioned in this book -- and it was something that I didn't know much about. This book touches a lot on how the women who served in Vietnam were often unseen and their service was unvalued when they came home. It's a must read.

Three Stars

One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In by Kate Kennedy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this book so much and I thought I would with all the nostalgia it packed into it, but I found the essays to be a bit of a mixed bag. Some were really good and enjoyable, and others I just struggled to get through.

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was really excited for this book that reimagined the Ted Bundy story through the lens of one of the women in the sorority house in Florida, but I found it fell a little flat for me and at times felt like a real slog to get through. I did like the push back that Bundy was this incredibly intelligent person, but I just think I had such high expectations of this book, and while it wasn't bad at all, I just found it a bit slow.

April Books

Four Stars

The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really loved this book. It follows two Black women in the 1950s. Ruby lives in Philadelphia and is dreaming of being the first in her family to go to college. Eleanor just moved to Washington, D.C. to attend Howard University where she meets and falls in love with a man from a very wealthy family, where she also feels she doesn't fit in. I didn't realize when I picked up this book that it would center so much on babies and trying to build families, but I loved the way Johnson bounced back and forth between both characters and their unique circumstances and how she eventually brought them together.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was such a fun and fast read. A group of female assassins have been working together since they were in their 20s. They're now in their 60s and ready to enjoy retirement -- except their employer puts a hit out on them. This was a great read with characters I loved working together to take down the man.

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was another fun and twisty read. Evie Porter isn't who her boyfriend Ryan thinks she is. In fact, Ryan is her mark and while she's awaiting the next instructions from her boss on how to gather the intel she's been assigned to gather, she learns this job might not be as straight forward as it seems. This book flashes back and forth in time so you get a glimpse at Evie's other jobs and what led her to this life. I enjoyed the twist at the end and thought this book was great overall.

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It's been a little over a year since I was medically benched from running because of complications discovered during my 20-week ultrasound when I was pregnant.

I remember how hard and disheartening it was at the time to get scary news about a pregnancy complication and in the same breath find out that all my favorite ways to manage stress (running, working out in general) were largely wiped off the table. 

I cried a lot, but eventually with a few weeks of space from the news, got to a place mentally of knowing this was just a temporary setback. I started plotting my postpartum running comeback. 

But that comeback has been so humbling and not at all what I imagined it would be. 

Originally, I had a target half marathon in mind for March. I figured I had all summer to heal and then in the fall could slowly start building up my mileage and by winter, I'd be back to my normal training volume. 

Then I had all those postpartum health issues and needed surgery again in September, and I threw the idea of a March 2024 half marathon right out the window. 

I set my sights on a five miler in December 2023 instead, thinking maybe I could do a run-walk situation, under the impression from my doctor's initial thoughts that this recovery would be quicker. It wasn't quicker, and that race got thrown out the window too. 

Ever since then, I feel like it's been one step forward and a bunch of steps back trying to get back to regular running. 

I got an initial clearance to slowly work some running into my walks around six to eight weeks after that second surgery. I proceeded cautiously, introducing running in 1 minute increments. Then bumping to 1:30 and 2 minute increments. 

And then I had some more surgery setbacks and more doctor follow ups, and finally, finally in December, I think I was really cleared. 

All that time healing meant, I was unable to run for almost my entire maternity leave, and that was rough. But I told myself that once I was back to work, I'd be able to get back into a running groove. 

Pre-baby, I either worked out before work or over my lunch break. I knew before work was largely going to be out of the question, at least for running, while I'm still breastfeeding. That's a level of discomfort I'm not really into. So I was ready to really embrace lunch time runs. 

And then I went back to work and was so overwhelmed by trying to catch up that for the first three weeks, I don't think I took a single break of more than five minutes. 

As I've settled in more, I've managed to run about once a week, sometimes twice. It's not what I envisioned, but it's better than nothing. 

And I'm finding a new problem cropping up with my toes, that I think is related to perhaps some slight foot growth I had during pregnancy. I got it checked out by a podiatrist and he told me I didn't need to stop running as long as I've adjusted my shoe size.

Now the only other main barrier to getting into a really good running routine is the constant daycare sicknesses that seem to be cycling through our house. Every time I get in a string of consistent runs I feel like we knocked out with another illness. As of now, it's been about two weeks since I've run last because I've had some combo of strep throat, some other upper respiratory virus, maybe bronchitis, and who even knows what else. 

The baby has been home sick from daycare for over a week too now so that's been rough to juggle. 

I'm hoping we're coming out of this phase soon. I'm so antsy to get back to running, especially as the weather is getting nicer. I'm eyeing races for the fall, and I'm hoping I'll get this huge part of my life back soon.