It’s Monday! What are you reading?
I have been sharing a reading photo of the week each week. Now that it is summer and I am not surrounded every day with little readers, what can I do? Choose favourite, not yet shared moments of course! From the classroom 2014/2015 archives: Mr. Putter and Tabby love shared 🙂 Because sometimes, life needs to be all about tea and neighbours and cozy cats.
Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. Follow the links to read about all of the amazing books the #IMWAYR community has read. It’s the best way to discover what to read next.
This is my annual July novels only #IMWAYR post. Every summer, my family and I (sisters, husbands, parents, grandparents and children galore) travel a few hours out of the city and spend a week making kids happy. Lots of sorbet and gelato, swimming multiple times a day, lake appreciation, farms and goat cheese and quirky small town places. I also pack a pile of novels and try and read as much as possible. This week it was these titles, all 5 titles were 5 star books for me:
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
How do you read a book like this and not be changed? I couldn’t put this book down. I felt like I may not have blinked. As I read this I was convinced that humanity is the most beautiful and the most horrible thing all at the same time. And when it felt the most horrible, this was a hard, hard read. I am grateful for Beah’s memory, his ability to tell his story, his sharing of hurt and pain and absolute mind numbing despair. A must read novel.
Call Me By My Name by John Ed Bradley
Well. Where to start? This book is about so many things. It is a love story. It is about racism and judgement. Prejudice and fear. It is about characters who you will root for in times that don’t support them. It’s about football. If you love the sport, you will appreciate it. If you aren’t that interested, it’s about these characters playing football. And you will read about these characters doing anything. Highly recommended.
The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall
Reading about the Penderwicks is soothing. It’s celebratory. It is like coming home after a long trip and being absolutely charmed by the known, the ordinary, the nuances of family. I love every little detail on every page. If you too are a Penderwicks fan, then story details don’t matter, reuniting with these characters is as wonderful as you hoped it might be.
Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
The courage of a student, the compassion of a teacher, the celebration of spirit. Loved this little gem of a book. And a big shout out to the character of Albert – you are my kind of super hero!
One Thing Stolen by Beth Kephart
I am such a fan of Beth Kephart’s writing. I get lost in her words. I reread for beauty, not clarity. I am okay with confusion. I am reminded that the world is a beautiful place, to be aware of all of my senses, to see what I might have been missing. This is a story of Nadia. A neurological disorder removes her from her own narrative. So she weaves (literally) stability and reality into nests, takes refuge (strangely) in stolen and beautiful things and races away from her own fear of what is happening to her. Set in Florence. Rain, blossoms, cups of tea. Gorgeous, gorgeous story telling.
Updates on my 2015 Reading Goals:
2015 Chapter Book Challenge: 35/80 complete
Goodreads Challenge: 229/415 books read
#MustReadin2015: 14/24 complete
Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: 47/100 titles
Diverse Books in 2015: 25/50 books read
Up next? I spotted The Paper Cowboy by Kristin Levine on Kellee’s #MustReadin2015 update last week and just picked it up at the library. Other titles in my “will be reading soon” pile include Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff and Blue Birds by Caroline Starr Rose (both on my #MustReadin2015 list)
