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I am a multi-tasking reader, and I typically have several titles going at once.  There is an audio-book, something on my kindle app, a book by my chair at home, a professional text at my table.

I re-read and keep discovering more about the books I love.  I set books aside and go back to them.

This is me as a reader, and for that reason, dates of completion may seem odd, and you may see books show up more than once.

What kind of reader are you?

Enjoy and add to it.  Let's inspire each other to spend a little time reading this summer.

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Suspense from a popular author.  Mystery and suspense, teen protaganist.  A little danger and a little romance.

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Recommended by a fellow teacher-reader.  I had set this aside for a couple of months when life got busy and picked it up again to burn through in summer.

Elizabeth Packard was committed to an insane asylum by her husband because she did not agree with him. It was within his legal rights to do so at that time before, during, and immediately after the US Civil War.

The story details her three years in the Institution, and the way that she fought back against the injustice to women while institutionalized and after. Inspiring and amazing!

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James Patterson and Kwame Alexander together!  Part written in verse, part in prose.  

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I love this book! I grew up in the era of Muhammad Ali, and while I knew the basics--"The Greatest,"  "Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee,"--I never understood how much he stood for or why he meant so much to so many.

Really accessible to kids with the novel in verse format, but I think they will need some pre-teaching and background information to really enjoy it. Bring it on!

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I have been hearing about this book for a few years and I finally got there. It did not disappoint. I think most appealing for 8th grade + and adults. Family, friendships, and the fragile mind after trauma. Haunting narration. "IF ANYONE ASKS YOU HOW IT ENDS, JUST LIE." (book jacket). No spoilers here, but this book is worth it...and no peaking ahead!

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Where The Deer and the Antelop Play - Book 1￼

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Where The Deer and the Antelop Play - Book 1￼

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I listened to this book on the 22 hour bus ride on the way to the Tetons Science camp trip. It was perfect for this trip. Nick reflects on our National Parks system, agriculture, and the joys of the RV road trip. It is both hilarious and thought provoking.

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Won the Odyssey award for Audio Books, so of course I chose to listen to this one. Gateway Award Nominee for this upcoming year, written in verse, LGBTQ, and Own Voices novel. The narrators are two teenage sisters, one living in the Dominican Republic, and one in NYC. However they do not learn of one another until the tragic death of their father in a plane crash as he was traveling from NYC to the DR for his summer stay in his home country. A great story that questions what defines family and culture. The coolest takeaway from this book for me was talking to an old family friend a few weeks later (old as in, he's 93) who lived 10 years in Haiti/DR. Apparently the representation of Vodoo in island culture was spot on! This book made me more interested in the DR, and led me down a fun rabbit hole after I finished. TW: Stalking, Assault

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Audio book selection, Good Reads Award Best Fiction 2020. There is a library between life and death. An opportunity to un-do regrets, examine what ifs, and try do-overs. Infinite realities, unlimited opportunities to find your "best life." Nora Seed, a young woman living in the English suburbs, finds herself in this strange library after attempting suicide. A strong story about the twists and turns a life can take, and how the smallest choices can make the biggest difference. TW: Suicide, Sex

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The central professional text for Book Love Summer Bookclub this year. 

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This is the PD book for all levels of the Book Love Summer Bookclub.  I believe in the idea that all teaching must be social justice teaching, especially in these times.  I love the central traits of Textured Teaching, as defined by German:

Textured Teaching is:

1) Student-driven and community centered
2) Interdisciplinary
3) Experiential
4) Flexible

There is so much gold in this book, and I have loved the chats through Book Love Summer Bookclub and the Zoom meetings I have attended with the author, both last summer and this summer.  One thing I appreciate about her is that she is fully aware that in this climate and culture, we can only do what we can do...but we must do that!  She presents a few ways to show our students our love, respect and expectations that support their critical thinking so that they can feel ready to engage in social justice ideas themselves.

If anyone wants to do a book club reading of this one, I am in!  I am also happy to share with folks some of the wonderful learning I've gotten from fellow Book Love members.

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Top 10 2019 ALA Rainbow List, and winner of the William C. Morris YA Debut Award. This book brought to you by: Tea, Star Trek, Soccer (Non-American Futbol), and Depression. Darius is a teen torn between two words. He's too Persian to feel at home in his American HS, and too American to fit in with his family in Iran. After his grandfather is diagnosed with terminal cancer, his family decides to go visit to say goodbye. Though for Darius, who has never been to Iran, this is also hello. Told with humor, sarcasm, and kindness, I found Darius to be very relatable and was cheering him on as he discovered family, friendship, and himself in modern day Iran.

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It’s no secret that I love being outside and I love hiking. I picked this book because I have a very romanticized view of through hiking on a long trail (at the same time knowing this is absolutely something I do not have the mental fortitude to actually do and I am fine with that). This book is Scott Jurek’s memoir of his attempt to beat the Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Appalachian Trail (AT). (I am also listing to a book about the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) so be ready for that). He had is wife, that was part of the crew, that made the journey possible both tell the story and it’s is very interesting to see it from both side. To see their internal and external struggles was very refreshing and made me look at some things I have been struggling with. The final lines of the book really spoke to me so I will leave you with them.

“Out there in the wild, on a long journey, you hike your own hike, blaze your own trail, and only you can find what you’re looking for.”
- Scott Jurek

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Novel in verse. A middle grades selection for Book Love Summer Bookclub this year. 

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Beautiful.

Reha lives in two worlds.  Growing up in the 80's in the US, she is the daughter of recent Indian immigrants.  At home, her world is Indian, at school she is the only Indian girl there, and her world is white.

There are a lot of fun references to 1980's music, as part of the soundtrack to the book.  Reha grows and changes as she tries to navigate and grow up in a confusing world.  Students may also enjoy a sweet and non-traumatic romantic story.

Rajani LaRocca is an Indian American and a practicing MD, and she skillfully and beautifully brings us into Reha's world and the challenges she and her family must face, especially after her mother becomes dangerously ill.

This book will stick with me for its beautiful and sensitive treatment of Reha's situation, and how she navigates life in her world.  I loved it.

TW:  life-changing loss.

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This is a story about Corey, born a boy but transitioned to a boy. It is a graphic novel and goes into detail about the hardships at school and the support from family. I liked this book because it did a nice job at talking about her feelings as a child and her experiences in middle school. I thought it was a little distracting when they went into detail about her mom’s life. I guess they put it in the story so we know a background to their transitioning story.

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This book was a wonderful surprise for me.  I selected it because I went to high school with Lindy.  I decided to go with an audiobook because I can very easily get bogged down with non-fiction when I try to sit down and read it.  I get antsy part way through and have trouble sustaining my attention when things get dry.  And Lindy is a geologist and Principal Investigator on a NASA mission to Psyche, an asteroid in space.  I'm the gal who actually got bored at the National Air and Space museum...who does that?...my chances of getting through the printed book felt slim.

Lindy's memoir is about more than her scientific career and her science, and it's more than a memoir as well.  It was fun for me to hear some of her Ithaca memories and ponderings, and to realize that our weird hometown had as much impact on creating her adult personality as it has had on mine.  But you don't need to be from Ithaca to appreciate this.

Lindy reflects on life as a woman in academia, and the culture of academia itself, especially in the sciences.  Most of my adult life I was married to a scientist in the academic world, and her stories rang true.  (I already know that I'm giving a copy to Scott and I can't wait to talk to him about it.) She is clearly a true teacher, and she talks about her own educational philosophy and how she applies it.  She also talks about leadership and team culture in ways that are unique to the sciences in the academic world. And she wants to change that culture and has in her own work.

I learned so many things that I want to remember and apply to my own life, that I actually need to have a copy of the book for myself.  I look forward to going through it again, post-its and pencil in hand.

I highly recommend this one, but if you are like me and struggle with non-fiction, start with the audiobook! It worked for me!

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Hi friends, so far this summer I have read:

A Spark of Light by Jodi Piccolt

This was an excellent read, as it is about a women’s clinic that goes through an active shooter situation. Very sad, BUT interesting to think about with the recent R v W discussion.

It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

I read the Young adult adaptation, which I borrowed from Margaret. I really enjoyed the book and thought it was funny, and it’s interesting how close to my lifetime the apartheid system existed, so hearing about his experience in his youth undergoing that system was really valuable for me. Also, it had his wit and humor infused. I’d be interested to read the adult version of the novel!

The Numbers Game by Danielle Steel

My mom loves Danielle Steel and this is my first novel by her. I thought it was a really good read about life and age and how it affects us. Classic themes about love and life, etc. though, they were points of life I haven’t experienced yet!

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

I actually read this during summer school and got it from WMS. This novel was about a young girl who finds her voice and learns how to stand up for what she believes in. Typical coming of age a novel, but there’s so much characterization as she learns more about herself and starts this wave of feminism in her small town high school.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

EXCELLENT. Slow starting book and it took me a bit to really get into it, but basically, Piscene is shipwrecked and the only survivor on a tiny lifeboat with a tiger, orangutan, zebra, and hyena. The book is graphic, but only in terms of nature. Ex: there’s a scene where he drinks the blood of turtles and some other sea creatures. This book was really introspective because… well, there’s not a lot of dialogue since he’s alone for most of the book. I did really enjoy it once I got into it!

This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

This one struck a cord with me! It’s about a transgender child who is struggling with identity. In a family of boys, Poppy is the only girl. At first, Poppy’s true identity is hidden, and at school she has to dress like a boy and be called her legal name, which is Claude. The family goes through a lot of growth to adjust to having her around and the parents try and be supportive, but one day, the secret gets out and it basically explodes the life they’ve built.

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Piccult

Typical book for this author. Dawn has a near death experience and goes back to Egypt, where she left the man she loves after she had to quit her doctoral program. She basically just up and leaves her daughter and husband, whom she’s fighting with all the time anyways, in order to pursue what could have been.

-Aitriona :)

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• Their Eyes were Watching God by Zoe’s Neale Hurston
•On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

-Aitriona

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I have been trying to add non-fiction titles to my classroom library and I thought this one looked interesting.  This is a story about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.  It is told from the perspective of two boys (American boy and his house boy who is Chinese).
I enjoyed the story.  It gave a lot of information about earthquakes and how plate tectonics works.  The story incorporated a lot of factual information that the author researched, but was told through made up characters.
It is a quick read. I think it would hold the attention of students who like non-fiction stories.

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I have been hearing about this book, and had a student read a companion book, "Delicates," and was fascinated.  It's a graphic novel that I am certain my students will love, and I have been told by other teachers that it's a great book.  The illustrations are beautiful.

For me, though, this was just a case of trying to read a book when my head and heart couldn't handle it.  As I pushed through the story of a thirteen year old girl who had lost her mother and become the one responsible for the rest of her family--including her father who was not handling loss well--the book made me inexpressibly sad.

Sometimes, readers just need to put a book aside until we are ready for it (if ever). I got far enough into it to see that this is well-written and beautifully drawn, and that it tells a story well and has a wonderful twist to it (ghosts!). It will appeal to many students! I will be recommending it to students and teachers whom I think will like it, but I won't be finishing it myself any time soon.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God is a classic American novel set in the early 1940s in Florida. The story is told backwards with the main character, Janie, returning to her hometown in her 40s after 3 marriages. There’s tons of gossip about why she’s returned, but she considers in her friend Phoeby. Janie is a light skinned Black girl who is granddaughter of a slave. Throughout her life, Janie is pawned off to men through marriage to not only increase her status but her her meet the expectations of women in this time. Janie wants real love and is pretty naive so she runs off with men pretty quickly in order to get what she craves.

I really enjoyed this novel, and though I’ve stopped and started it twice prior, this is the first time I’ve finished it!! I liked how Hurston used dialect, but in the beginning, it was hard to understand for it not to be distracting with everything being misspelled. After awhile, I started to hear the characters voices while reading and thought this was a great technique and gives a lot of insight in Black people and adds characterization.

-AITRIONA:)

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This book was not exaggerating when they said radically engaged in nature! The family only eats meat they have harvested themselves and grow/forage a good amount of their food.

This was a good listen and it is a newer book so it addressed things like how the pandemic effected the time we spend outside as a society.

One thing he talked about was using little every day things as touch points to the outside/nature (ex. Birds at a bird feeder). I do a good job of implementing this in my personal life with my kids but it got me wondering how I can do this more with the kids at West. I have a few ideas that I hope to have some time to add for the students in my class and our students in general.

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This book had been on my TBR for a few years. Sondra read it earlier this summer and suggested I read it so I went ahead a bumped it up to the top of the list.

It was a good read (ok I listened to it) and let’s you know what you can do right now to help our planet. He talks about the ideas of neighborhood national parks where we convert our backyards to thriving ecosystems using native plants and providing all the things a variety of life needs to thrive in our backyard. This allows is to have nature interactions everyday versus when we have to opportunity to go out into nature. This is a simplified description of the process but it a process that is attainable on some level by all of us.

This is very much the frame of thought several of us at West have as we try to manage the land we have and we struggle with getting people to understand that this is a process but one that is imperative for the survival of our world.

As I was reading this I also found out that this is the book that Mike Szydlowski also suggests on this topic.

It is a recent publication so it is incredibly relevant.

Give it a read. I know Sondra, Joe, Robert, and I would all be happy to talk with you about the topics presented in the book. None of us know everything but all have a strong knowledge base and know how to find more info and send you in the right direction to find what you need.

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Great story of a young girl surviving alone. 

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I loved this book.

The protagonist is a twelve year old girl at the start of the story, who suddenly finds herself left entirely alone in her town.  All inhabitants have been evacuated because of a warning of an “imminent threat,” and she has no idea where they have gone or why, or when they will be back.

She has been accidentally left behind.

She knows she must take care of herself until they return, but what she doesn’t know is how long she will have to wait.

The story of this girl and her sole companion, a neighbor’s rottweiller named “George,” is one filled with exciting physical challenges as well as emotional and mental struggles.

I love the character’s resilience and resourcefulness.  I will be highly recommending this!

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How To Keep House While Drowning - book 5

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How To Keep House While Drowning - book 5

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This is the second time I have read this book…kind of. I read her first edition (I lent it out) and decided I needed to listen to her new edition because I really enjoyed her views on things and her TikTok.

If you are struggling with any kind of motivation this book will be very helpful.

She is a mother but this book is not for mother’s. She does talk about how bing a mother affects her as well as having ADHD.

Even if you do not mirror her life the fact that she reminds you that care tasks and having a “messy” house is morally natural is excellent. I know I hold myself to a standard I can not meet….but this book helped me understand that I am not a failure. I am human and I am doing the best I can.

It’s an easy read/listen.

If you are on TikTok she is @domesticblister it’s a good place to get a quick boost when she calls you a sentient ball of Stardust.

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Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

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Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

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I’m going to be honest.  This wasn’t my favorite read, but I learned so much from the book.  I thought the book went into detail that wasn’t needed.  I’m saying this and I love details!
Here’s what the story is about:  this is a story about the author’s childhood, growing up in very rural Africa from 1976 to 2000s.  The story talks about the difficulty and interesting encounters while living in places like rural Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi.  The author’s parents are European and decided to move to Africa for a new and different life. They did everything from raise cattle to running a tobacco farm. They never had money, but always seemed to make ends meet.
There were many times when I laughed, cried, and stopped to be thankful for my upbringing.  Alexandra’s life was hard, her mother was a drunk and was later diagnosed with manic depression and her father was a hard working and eccentric man. She had so many wonderful memories of the African land and the people she met, opposite of a lot of loss and difficult times in her life.
I am very happy I read this book, but I don’t think I will read it again.

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I listened to this book and it kept me engaged.  I think middle schoolers would love this title!

Adele comes from a long line of women in her family who can see dead people and animals.  Adele found a girl from school, dead in the park.  She was able to talk with her and throughout the story, Adele tries to find out who Tori’s murder is.  Adele becomes one of the prime suspects and she has to prove her innocence.

A fun read!

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What a story!  I learned a lot about people living in Vietnam during the 1970-1980s.  This is a memoir presented in a graphic novel.  It is a story about how Thi’s family survived in Vietnam during the war and how they made their way to America.  There was a lot of struggle, love, and anger.  I like how the story was told through Thi’s eyes and from the perspective of her thinking back on her life after she had her own child.
I think this would be an older middle school level book due to profanity and nakedness.
I am happy I read this title and I recommend others to read it.

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Another incredible survival story with a young female protagonist.

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Book 10-The Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling

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Book 10-The Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling

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I seem to be on a survival kick the last couple of weeks.

This book, by the author of Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, is another story of a young teen facing extraordinary circumstances and being forced to do what it takes to survive.

Nora and her father go climbing and hiking in a slot canyon as a way to celebrate Nora's birthday.  Both are experienced climbers and hikers, but both are also suffering from PTSD, resulting from the death of Nora's mom by gun violence a year earlier.

While they are hiking, the canyon is hit by a flash flood, and Nora's father and all of their supplies are swept away, while Nora is able to climb just above the waters and wait it out until the water recedes.

Has her father survived?  Can Nora survive herself, find her father, and escape the canyon?  If she can, how will they get help?

This is a wonderful book about the courage and resourcefulness of a young girl in the face of very real danger, all as she battles haunting memories and great fear.

I will be recommending this!

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"Live as if today were your last."  What really matters, and what choices do you make?

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Ben Wolf is a high school senior in tiny town Trout, Idaho.  He is a star on the cross country team and his brother--also his best friend--is the star quarterback on the football team.  This is going to be a good year.  He doesn't plan to fall prey to senioritis and blowing off the year; he wants to learn as much and experience as much as he possibly can before he heads off to college and this phase of life ends.

Suddenly, though, he gets devastating news that begins with a routine sports physical:  he has an aggressive form of blood cancer, and his best hope is to make it to the end of the year, even with treatment.

Ben is 18, and he holds his doctor to the promise of keeping his condition a secret.  Despite all advice to pursue treatment, Ben figures he's got living to do.  He tells absolutely no-one and refuses treatment. With this new deadline staring him in the face, Ben's mission to make his senior year epic takes on even more importance.

He quits XC and joins the football team, he goes after the girl of his dreams, he reads Lies My Teacher Told Me, and begins challenging the status quo as presented by a bigoted history teacher.  He meets new people and he learns that life and people can be inexpressibly complex.

It's amazing, and it's awful, but he realizes that he does eventually have to tell the truth. As always, it's a lot tougher than he had expected.

I absolutely loved this book.  If you are looking for a fast read with a lot to think about, this fits that bill.  Highly recommended.  For 8th grade and up, but honestly more high school material.

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Tess already told us about this book, but Since I am using this to keep track of my summer reading, I’ll add my 2 cents!

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Carey Mulligan.  She is a wonderful reader and makes the story come alive.  So good!

In a true “life or death” decision moment, Nora is transported to a library where she is the only patron, and which is filled with books telling the stories of her own alternative lives (very quantum!). Each book represents the life she might have had if she had made different decisions at turning points in the past.

Fascinating—sometimes sad, sometimes funny, always illuminating.

I loved it! If you have a long drive, or dishes to do, laundry to fold…these are my classic audiobook scenarios, anyway—check this out!