September, (October), November 2019 Reads

I'm doing a bit of throw-back as I try and catch up with my reading blogs for this year.  Please excuse the backlog :)

In September, school started up again, so my reading life slowed down a bit, but I still managed to read several good books:

• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Scythe by Neal Shusterman
• Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty
• Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban

October was an abysmal month in terms of reading and I didn't finish a single thing, but in November, I finished these books: 

• Last Things by Marissa Moss
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• Smile by Raina Telgemaier
• Croquette & Empanada by Ana Oncina

I'm lucky that most of these were incredible reads, but I will just talk about a handful of them, since they have managed to stick with me well after I have finished reading them!

Last Things by Marissa Moss

I went and sold a bunch of book club books for school with a teacher friend and while we were wandering around the book store waiting for our offer, I stumbled upon this guy.  I've found that one of my favorite things to read ever is graphic memoirs.  I just love being able to look into other people's lives, even for a short while.

This book gives you a glimpse into what it looks like to see someone slowly decline from ALS.  I felt a lot of different things while reading this.  I felt for Marissa's husband, who just wanted to live as normal and as independent of a life as possible, all things considered.  But I think roughly halfway through until the end, I felt nothing but anger towards him.  I thought he was being awfully selfish (especially when he refused to do things that would make his family's life a little easier) and handled the end of his life rather poorly, but it also feels weird to say that and feel that about someone who is dying and really going through someone.  You want to offer some grace as they tie up loose ends in their life to the best of their ability.  But I won't deny my feelings about this.  I mostly felt for Marissa.  She is the glue to this entire story-- she does as much as she possibly can to make sure her sons are okay and that they have a chance to process and more importantly that they get a break every once in a while from this situation.  She tries to ooze love and care when she feels that her husband is lacking in this area.  She takes on so many roles because she has to and I think that's admirable, even though she is absolutely exhausted.

It's not a light book if you're in a reading slump, but it is a really engaging read.  I couldn't put this book down until I had finished.  I hope this book can be that for you too.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Another teacher recommended this book to me.  It's a story told in verse and it centers on a boy who lost his brother to gun violence.  It highlights other people in his life (and who are in the margins) who have also been cut short by gun violence.  There is a discussion about revenge and recovery after such violent ends from people close to you.

I could see this being a really engaging read for students since this is a topic they want to read about and talk about.  I think this is a good medium to start this conversation because it's a fairly quick read.  But this book is also worth revisiting and I'd love to read this again in 2020 (and I'm going to try and give myself that space to do just that in 2020, but I'll talk about that more in a separate post). 

This is a great book if you're in a reading slump, but this is also a great book to read if you're looking to hear more about the conversation around gun violence and police brutality, especially because this time you're invited to hear from people whose lives ended.  They have perspective now that they didn't have before.  But you're also being asked to pay attention to the people who are left behind after these lives are ended.  Really important read.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

This book snuck up on me a little bit this year.  My math teacher friend started reading this book and texted me saying something along the lines of, "OMG THIS BOOK."  So I listened through Audible and was immediately hooked.

In this society, death doesn't really exist.  People don't just get killed or die.  But you can't have people living and regenerating forever, so someone has the job of ending lives.  That is the job of the Scythes.  You can't have this job unless you don't want the job.  It was weird to think of death happening in this way and it was even weirder, once you were involved in this world, to see people who actually relished the job and enjoyed seeing people suffer as their lives permanently came to an end.  It's just an interesting world to get yourself involved in, even for a short time, while you're reading this book.

This is another book where I feel like I have so many thoughts that I can't speak eloquently about it.  I will say that I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series in 2020 and then maybe I'll be able to speak much more clearly about my feelings on this book.  This is an incredible read and I hope you choose to spend your time reading it next year.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs by Caitlin Doughty

I have loved Caitlin Doughty's previous books about her experience starting out in the death industry and then about death practices around the world.  This book is all about the questions that young people (kids, really) have about death that, I would wager to guess, adults are also wondering the answer to.  They're weird questions about what happens after you die and what happens if you suffer a certain kind of death... it's just a cool read.  I love the illustrations that are scattered throughout (I think at the beginning of each new question).  I also appreciated the really short chapters.  Short chapters motivate me to keep reading because I feel like I'm making more progress than I actually am.

If you want an interesting read or are interested in learning more about death and death positivity, this is a great place to go!

----

I'm happy that I get to read such neat books like the ones I just told you about.  Hopefully, my luck continues into the 2020 year!

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

July and August 2019 Reads

July was an incredible reading month!  I managed to read all of these:

• Her: Vol. 1 by Pierre Alex Jeanty
• Her: Vol. 2 by Pierre Alex Jeanty
• Teach Like Finland by Timothy D. Walker
• On The Come Up by Angie Thomas
• The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
• Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
• Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
• The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
• The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
• The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates
• My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn
• A Way Out by Michelle Balge
• The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
• The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
• Invisible Ghosts by Robyn Schneider
• With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

August wasn't as great of a reading month in terms of numbers, but I did finish one incredible book:

• Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

I am fortunate that a number of these books made for incredible reads.  There are some books I have already taken a moment to highlight in my Reading Rush post (which you can check out HERE), so here are the rest of the highlights of July and August!

On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

This was one that both my students and I were really excited to see come out.  A student brought it back after reading it and another mystery student swiped it, I assume for summer reading, while I wasn't looking.  So surprisingly, getting ahold of this book was quite tricky!  But I'm glad I fought for it!

On The Come Up was just as engaging as The Hate U Give and in fact takes place in the same universe as The Hate U Give.  Bree's struggles are quite different from Starr's struggles.  Definitely some overlap, especially because she lives in the Garden (which is a vibrant neighborhood, but suffers from gang violence), but those struggles aren't the main focus on Bree's story.  Her focus is on her rap career.  She struggles mainly with stereotypes and self-expression in this story.  Should she say what she wants or do what other people tell her to do, but risk false representation of who she actually is?  There were times when I wished that Bree would just listen to the trustworthy people in her life when they were trying to help her.  But she does have a mind of her own and some people just need to make mistakes in order to learn.  So Bree is kind of a frustrating protagonist in some ways, but I still really enjoyed her story.  I love books that incorporate poetry and show their power.

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

I found out that one of my favorite YouTube personalities (who is a West End actress) was recording an audiobook called The Flatshare and as she was talking about it, I became intrigued.  So once it was out, I used my Audible credit and got it to listen to.

I loved that this book is told in two perspectives (not just because the book is written that way but because it's recorded by two people to help drive this home).  I like that this book is a fairly light read while still touching on boundaries and less-than-healthy relationships.  I love that these two people are drawn together even though it seems to unlikely that they should ever be anything more than roommates in passing.  This is a great feel-good book and one that can help jumpstart your reading if you're in a reading slump.  I feel like I've had a number of those this year... this was a wonderful book to listen to.  I highly recommend it.

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

This one kind of fell into my lap a little bit.  I love my library's digital catalog because I can check things out instantly.  I wanted to read more Gillian Flynn because I remember really liking Gone Girl several years back.  I didn't expect to find one so short though.  I think this audiobook was about 45 minutes.  Definitely no more than an hour.

This book is just as intriguing and just as f***ed up as Gone Girl.  I was literally sat on my bed thinking, "What the hell?!" as I was listening to this book.  This book is also good if you're in the middle of a reading slump and just generally good if you're looking for a jolt to your system.  Gillian Flynn is definitely talented at drawing you in and shaking you to your very core at the last minute and making you stop and think, "Did I really just read what I read?"  I'd love to listen to this again sometime.

The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates

This is a nonfiction book that I thought sounded interesting, but I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did.  Melinda Gates, through her and her husband's foundation, have done a lot of great work to support women and girls around the world in the many ways that they need to be supported-- reproductive health, community health, education, etc.  What I love is that Melinda Gates seems to approach this topic with as much humility as she can muster and is up front about the knowledge that she brings to the table and when she needs others to help bring a vision into reality.  Supporting women around the world is no small task and is less straightforward than I thought.  It's not just throwing money at a problem, but finding the people who can help turn that money into a lasting impact for the women and communities who benefit.  I also love that every opportunity she could, she drives home how supporting the women the foundation supports doesn't just benefit these women in particular, but it also demonstrates how helping these women benefits the wider community and country.  I think that's so powerful, especially when it comes to getting other people to support "women's" issues.  In reality, when women do better, everyone does better.

My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn

Is this the most literary thing I could have chosen to sit down and listen to?  Absolutely not.  But it was very engaging.  This book does a really great job of transporting you from where you are to upper-class life in Tokyo (although, admittedly I don't know how accurate this depiction is... it was fantastic to read about though).  It was interesting to read about places that are so unfamiliar and yet marginally familiar at the same time.  I almost could have forgotten about the plot and would have been just as happy to keep reading.  Obviously, it's good and better off with a plot, but I just want to point out how easy it is to get lost in this book. 

This is a great book if you just need to be transported for a while.  This is also a fairly light and therefore quick read for its length.  I personally liked listening to the audiobook, too.  If you need a book to get lost in and if you are interested even remotely in Japan, this is the book for you!

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

This is one I think I will need to read again.  I assigned this to some of my students last year while doing a unit on humanity and dehumanization.  One of the boys picked it and said that he loved it once he actually finished it.  My recommendations for him have been very hit or miss, so I was happy to find that connection point.

The focus of this book is on two women in particular who are involved with flying and communications for planes in World War II England.  They get involved with these secret missions and then... something goes wrong... I won't give it away because it's the basis of this book. 

I love that this book makes you think that you're going in one direction and then the whole story, very suddenly, shifts on you and tells you how things really are in this book.  Now that I know what that twist is, I want to read it again.  I'll have to make that one of my private reading goals in 2020.  I think there is also a sequel to this book so I'll have to check that out as well.  This is a great book.  I already can't wait to read it again!

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

A former student of mine recommended this book to me... probably a year or two ago and it took me so long to finally sit down and read it!  I told her that I really liked the book Memoirs of a Geisha and she said that that book was based off of this woman's story.  But Memoirs of a Geisha has a lot of flaws to it.  This book is actually written by a Geisha who has lived that life and she does address some of the things that were said and depicted in Memoirs of a Geisha and speaks to their truth or lack thereof.  It was nice to have that expose angle to the book, but this is a great book in its own right.  Her story of how she got started is really interesting and there are a lot more customs and traditions around simply becoming a Geisha than I ever thought there were.  I don't know how they keep track of it all!

I don't feel like I can speak too eloquently about this book because it's just one of those books where you have to jump in with both feet and go for the immersion experience. 

I'll be working on catching up on reading blogs over the next few days and into the new year, so look for more of those posts as well as other life posts!

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude