After cranking through several books in December and January, I relaxed a little in February. The slower pace wasn’t intentional…really, I just got distracted learning how to knit socks. Now, I have to fit a few rows of knitting into my 45 morning minutes. Really delays the pace of reading. Smh, hobbies be hobbying.

Anyways, for the month of February, I’ve been reading The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste and A View of the River by Luna B. Leopold. The Shadow King is my novel for Ethiopia. I’m about halfway through, and liking it so far. It takes place during WWII, during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. I don’t know anything about that section of WWII, having grown up in the US and therefore more familiar with the European theatre and the Pacific theatre (did you know the Japanese used a strategy called Island Hopping?). There are some intense, although not graphic, sexual scenes in this novel, so it is one you want to be prepared to read.

A View of the River is far slower paced. It’s something like a very short textbook and contains charts and graphs showing various river characteristics, such as bankfull flow vs. drainage area, how floodplain terraces are formed, et cetera. I picked it up because I’ve decided to get [more] serious about my career and you know, spend a little extra time outside of the work day getting the big picture view of things. As is typical with textbooks, some sections are easier to read than other sections. But on the whole, A View of the River is moving along with a good, steady flow.

Since we’re already six days into March, I’d better get these wrapped up pronto. Easier said than done when you have your regular job, a ceiling to fix, miles to run, dinner to eat, a cat to be fed (and cat vomit to be cleaned up). But it’s the little things in life, bits of progress every day, and there is no rush or schedule to finish these books. Moving forward, I’m finding books for countries along the route of United Airlines’ Island Hopper…I’ve been feeling those end of winter winters and vibing to the Moana soundtrack and thinking about travelling through the warm skies.