My Reading Frenzy

What I've Read - What I am Reading - September 28, 2020

This week has been less about reading and more about minimizing and organizing in the new place, but I have managed to get in evening reading time just about every day.  

 

Read:

On Wednesday I went out to the Fairfax Public Library where I have a card because I work in Virginia. I picked up two more volumes of Giant Days: Volumes 12 and 13 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell. This series is fun. The university students are now on the edge of graduation and wondering what will be next for them and how their friendships will fare when they go their separate ways. Every character is delightfully quirky and endearing. Volume 14 is coming in October and includes graduation plus a post-grad adventure. 

I finished, A Suitable Vengeance by Elizabeth George and placed the next one, For the Sake of Elena, on hold at the library. It should be a few weeks before it is available. While I like George's Lynley mysteries, I found this one less satisfying that the others because of one plot hole. Hole might not be quite the right word. There was an element of the mystery that occurred to me long before it did to them, which in itself isn't a problem, but was totally unrealistic given the obvious nature of the clue they should have looked at more closely sooner than they did. 

 

Reading:

I am continuing to read The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty. There are so many political and strategic twists I can only read this when I am wide awake. 

I have The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver who wrote One Day in December (Yes, another London romance with December in the title, which I thought was cleverly done) and If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane from the library to start reading after I post this. 

 

Listening:

I have 45 more minutes left in Eat a Peach by chef David Chang. I have appreciated the detail he provides into how he made decisions about opening and closing restaurants, making changes based on reviews, and the role his mental health issues played in his interactions and decisions. If you enjoy his shows Ugly Delicious and Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner then you will certainly want to read this since it has a similar mix of food, personal stories, and social commentary. 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

Who are the Top Authors I Would Like to See in Person?

A few weeks ago I wrote about the authors I have seen in person (or virtually).  

Today I want to share some authors I would like to see if given the opportunity and others who are long gone, but who I think would have been great in person.

• Phillip Pullman - I have been reading Pullman since the His Dark Materials series in the 90s. As far as I have seen, he does not do book tours or festivals. I respect this if it is his preference, but I would enjoy hearing him talk about his work. Especially now that he has been writing another trilogy (The Book of Dust) set in Lyra's London. I have also read his Sally Lockhart mystery series.
• Connie Willis - Given my feelings about her time travel books, Willis is an author I want to have tea and a good chat with. I'd also like to see her talk about her work. 
• Erin Morgenstern - I rarely read books more than once, but I have both read and listened to The Night Circus. I haven't yet read her second novel, The Starless Sea, though I have owned it since it was released in the spring. I know I will be sorry to have waited, but there isn't a bad time to read a good book.
• Jason Reynolds - In reality I have seen Reynolds speak, but it was in his capacity as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, not in connection with his own writing. This is a goal.
• Tana French - The more mysteries I read, the more I am intrigued by mystery writing. 
• Ann Patchett - The first of her books I read was Bel Canto, the most recent was The Dutch House. In between I have never been disappointed. She is one of this generation's greats. AND she owns an independent bookstore!
• Glennon Doyle - I so enjoyed listening to her book Untamed recently. I am on the wait list for Love Warrior. I connect to her real voice because she sounds like a friend and to her written voice. She says things that make sense and encourage me to look inward.

I could probably write all day about authors I would like to hear talk about their work, the world, philosophy, life, but these are a few of the top who I will seek when there is again an opportunity for in person events. Until then I will look for virtual events, like the National Book Festival, which begins tomorrow.

 

 

I also made a list of authors who are no longer living who I would like to have had the opportunity to see and hear in person as well. They mainly include authors whose work I have taught, but in most cases I chose works I loved or found merit in so the authors are those I respect and whose work I would love to hear more about.

• Oscar Wilde - I love his satire from The Importance of Being Earnest to The Picture of Dorian Gray. I visited his resting place in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. It is a beautiful memorial to a favorite writer.
• Edgar Allan Poe - Poe's work is attractive to students and therefore fun to teach. The short stories are masterful examples of the power of brevity. Despite his final resting place being in Baltimore, I have not visited, an oversight I hope to rectify soon. 
• The Transcendentalists and their friends - After visiting Concord, Massachusetts last summer for a National Endowment for the Humanities educator workshop I came to know this remarkable group of writers and philosophers more deeply than I had from only their writing. Seeing the places they wrote and spent their time offered insights that have made their work more meaningful to me. The writers I include are:
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • Louisa May Alcott
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Margaret Fuller
• The poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson - 2019 was the 100^th anniversary of Whitman's birth. The Library of Congress had a special open house during which were displayed rare works and special publications. The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City had an exhibition as did the main branch of the New York public library. I was able to see all three.
  • I consider Dickinson and Whitman to be parallel poets, whose words resonate with me in similar ways. I have participated in an all day reading of Dickinson's poems to commemorate her birthday and visited her home in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
  • I think a walk in the park with the two of them and some time on a bench in conversation would be intellectually stimulating  and nourishment for my creative soul.
• Zora Neal Hurston - Because she was a groundbreaking writer, a talented folklorist, and Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of the most gratifying novels I have ever taught because of the ways in which almost all students find a point of connection with Janie Crawford's story.

There are certainly far more authors I could add to this list as well.

 

What authors do you want to see in person? Who are you sorry to have missed?

 

 

 

 

What I've Read - What I am Reading - September 21, 2020

This week was more busy than I was expecting, but I had some satisfying reading time anyway.

 

Read:

Late in the week I finished The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai. It was a relatively quick read, but one I almost did not finish. Had it been more difficult to read or longer I might have abandoned it, but I persevered and ended up finding it to be just ho hum. The main character is a children's librarian in Hannibal, MO. She is the weak link in the story. She just wasn't interesting to me. This is why I don't like to do traditional reviews. A character who was difficult for me might not be an issue for another reader. The other main character was Ian who I liked quite a bit. Finding out how the story ended for him is why I stuck with it. 

On Wednesday I picked up a bag of books from school from the carts of new arrivals. I jumped in right away to the graphic novels and read Giant Days: Volumes 10 and 11 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell. Also in my bag was The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown. It is the story of Isabel and Jane, conjoined twins in the 1920s whose parents sell them to a "freak" show where they perform as the Extraordinary Peabody Sisters until a doctor, looking for fame tries to separate them and only one survives. The details about the traveling side show life were well researched and the art was simple but effective for the story being told.          

When I signed into my DC public library account early in the week, I discovered a book that was about to be due that I had not even cracked yet. Eep!  So I read We Met in December by Rosie Curtis over the past two days. It was a fairly standard London romance. My favorite parts were when the two main characters Jess and Alex would amble around London seeing sites and visiting nooks and coffee shops. It was nice to revisit places I have been with them and note down new places for another visit. 

 

Reading:

I am continuing to read The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty because I want to savor this last book in the trilogy. 

I also started A Suitable Vengeance by Elizabeth George, the next in the Inspector Lynley series. I don't usually read the same author's mysteries so close together, but this one came up from the library more quickly than I was expecting and is due back in about a week. 

 

Listening:

I finished Dreams from My Father, written and read by Barack Obama. I voted for and supported Obama as president but this book revealed many things about his early life that I had not known. His early commitment to racial equality is impressive. I also learned a lot about his family, which is diverse and spread around the world. 

My next listen is Eat a Peach by chef David Chang. So far it is an interesting hop and skip through his early life. Since he is from northern Virginia he references many places and characteristics of the area that are spot on about local food, schools, and towns. He has just started describing how and why he started his first restaurant. I have no interest in going into the restaurant business, but I am fascinated by its inner workings from having watched every season of Top Chef and listened previously to Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

Favorite Reads about a Minimalist Life

Despite the number of books I own, I have been working toward a minimalist lifestyle for almost 5 years. It started when I moved from southeastern Virginia to Washington, DC. This was a move from a large suburban home I had filled with "stuff" to first a studio, then one bedroom apartment. Now, since I have moved into a bigger place with two bedrooms and more living space I need to revisit my most inspiring minimalist reads to keep me on track to continuing to remove possessions without adding more. More living space does not mean I need to bring anything in to "fill" it. Instead, I want to enjoy the mental rest an uncluttered space offers. I look forward to doing yoga in the living room without having to move furniture or other clutter. I anticipate the satisfaction of passing possessions along to someone who will find them more useful, beautiful, or needed than I did. 

I first discovered minimalist through the Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus and their book Everything That Remains: A Memoir by the Minimalists (2013). The book is a series of essays they published on line, then collected into a book. I continue to read their blog and saw their documentary Minimalism when it was released on Netflix. Their work is inspiring because they are open about how each came to minimalism: one through personal loss and the other because he saw how much happier his friend was with fewer possessions. I will continue to follow their work. 

The next book I read was about minimizing the stresses of work life and personal life rather than possessions. Greg McKeown's Essentialism (2014) is a philosophy and guide to wading through the things we THINK we must do and getting to what is essential. He presents a simple concept with straightforward advice couched in the science and psychology behind why our work and personal lives can be streamlined for productivity and contentment. I go back to this one regularly.

Once you find the world of minimalism, you discover there are as many approaches as there are proponents. But that is one of the strengths of the pursuit - there is no one RIGHT way to declutter. If you stick around in the minimalist world for a bit you will run across a quote attributed to William Morris that asserts you should "have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." (If you are interested, wikipedia will tell you all about designer and activist William Morris who was a multi-talented person.) Many of the approaches will use this quotation which is as much as they have in common in their advice for how to begin removing excess from your home. 

Some minimalists I like - mainly in the order in which I discovered them.

1. Joshua Becker: the founder of Becoming Minimalist who changed his life after too much time cleaning out the garage instead of spending it with his family. I have read The More of Less (2016) and The Minimalist Home (2018) both of which are predominantly practical, while also exploring the benefits of owning less. His approach is especially good if you are traveling the path with a partner and children. He is also co-founder of two online magazines Simplify Magazine and Simple Money, both of which are regular reminders of why and how to minimize. 

2. Cait Flanders: Cait is younger than others I have read, which makes her voice unique for me. Her first book is, The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store. The sub-title isn't subtle. What you see is what the book is about. Her personal motivations and reflections differ from mine, but I appreciated her take and found much inspiration in her journey. Her second book, Adventures in Opting Out was released on Tuesday (September 15, 2020) and while I pre-ordered it to take advantage of some extras she offered, I have not done more than flip through it yet. 

3. Courtney Carver: Carver is the creator of the minimalist fashion challenge Project 333. The challenge has existed online for years, but the book Project 333: The Minimalist Fashion Challenge That Proves Less Really is So Much More was released in 2020. Her previous book Soulful Simplicity (2017) wasn't for me. I am much more drawn to the fashion specific part of her approach. 

4. Others I have read and enjoyed include:

• Gretchen Rubin - Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness (2019). Rubin's focus in much of her work is on happiness and a variety of ways to increase it in your life. She also includes organization which other minimalists avoid, instead arguing that really it is better to get rid of things than to organize them. But I like all of her work and this added another layer.
• Erin Boyle - her book, Simple Matters: Living with Less and Ending Up with More (2016) is special because it is a companion to her blog which chronicles her life with a partner and 3 small children in a tiny Brooklyn apartment. While practical, the book is also beautiful because Boyle is a photographer. Her blog is ongoing and also features lovely photography as well as insights in to daily small living.
• Cal Newport - he writes on a variety of topics only one of which pertains to minimalism, Digital Minimalism (2019). This work is a guide to simplifying our digital lives in order to be more productive at work and less distracted in our personal lives. 
• Elizabeth Willard Thames - Thames, is best know as Mrs. Frugalwoods from her blog, hence the title of her book, Meet the Frugalwoods (2019). She and her husband gave up hectic lives in big cities to buy a homestead in rural Vermont where they are frugally raising their two daughters. While not strictly minimalists as she says both on her blog and in the book, they did simplify their lives in order to save to make the lifestyle change. 
• Manoush Zomorodi - Her work, Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self  (2018) is a departure from the others, but one I think pairs well with Digital Minimalism. The book is about the ways in which we try to occupy every moment of our time and that of our partners and children, rather than allowing for boredom which in turn allows the mind to wander, often onto unexplored paths. I find that my mind really gets going when I am lying in bed and have let the concerns of the day go. For this reason I keep a pen and notepad on the bedside table to record these ideas so I can drift off knowing they will not be lost. 

 

 

Have you discovered minimalism? Is it a lifestyle you embrace or reject?

 

 

 

What I've Read - What I am Reading - September 14, 2020

A week and three quarters after the move, the apartment looks like a home and just about everything has found a place or been given away or donated, which does include some books. This means I was able to spend more time reading than I did last week. 

On Saturday I made a trip to Politics & Prose on Connecticut Ave. to pick up the latest Louise Penny mystery All The Devils are Here that was part of our ticket to the Zoom conversation between she and Hillary Clinton. 

 

 

 

 

Read:

Last week I began reading Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore, which I finished this week. I enjoyed it and thought it was sassy, smart, and swoony. I liked both Annabelle and her love interest Montgomery. Each was layered and flawed as well as believably attracted to each other based on backstory and events in the novel. I appreciated the strong friendships between the women working for women's suffrage in the Victorian age in England. This was a slice of history I knew little about which prompted me to do some research to discover how the movement in England compared to that here in the United States the centenary of which is this year. I intend to read the next in the "A League of Extraordinary Women" series A Rogue of One's Own.

Over the week I also started and finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I read Daisy Jones & the Six in November, which prompted me to seek another novel by Reid. The story of Evelyn Hugo is framed around her seven marriages, but the larger frame is that Evelyn commissions a talented but struggling writer, Monique Grant to interview her then write her biography after she passes away. The layers of both women's stories drew me into all the twists and turns of their lives.

I picked up two books in addition to the Louise Penny when I visited the bookstore. The first was the graphic novel, Wonder Woman Tempest Tossed, by Laurie Halse Anderson, illustrated by Leila Del Duca. It came with a signed book plate which was a surprise. I read it on Saturday evening. I want to read it again, but I think my 10 year old niece will like it too. 

I also bought Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King, which was also unexpectedly signed. I have read many of her works, each of which I have found surprising and mind-sparking. This one will go near the top of my TBR. 

 

Reading:

I am continuing to read The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty because I want to savor this last book in the trilogy. Since it is a library ebook due this week, I started The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai. I will finish it early in the week. 

 

Listening:

I finished The King of Crows by Libba Bray, just in time for the digital audiobook to go back to the library today. The series ended satisfyingly. I am thinking of grabbing the book from my library so I can reread the last few chapters. One of the reasons Bray is one of my favorite YA authors is because she writes a variety of genres. I think my first Bray read was the Gemma Doyle trilogy, which I have read AND listened to and still ranks as my favorite of her work. 

In the car today I started Dreams from My Father, written and read by Barack Obama. 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?

To picture books, with love

Many of us begin our reading lives by being read to. This is one important step in becoming a life-long reader, as is having access to books. Dolly Parton is such a strong advocate for getting books into the hands of children that she founded Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to gift books to children from birth to five years old. According to the site, 143 million books have been gifted as of August 2020. This is not the only program of this kind because being read to and having books is crucial for child development as well as future success. Reading is Fundamental is another organization that seeks to get books into the hands of all children. 

Each night before bed my brother and I were treated to a story. Sometimes two. Those times with my brother are the earliest memories I have, but I know I was being read to before he came along. I also know that having books and hearing books is what started my love of books and reading. 

We both liked the Dr. Seuss books, in particular One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Fox in Socks, both of which my father claims he can still recite. While neither of these is truly a story, they both feature rhyme and word play that I appreciate as an adult reader. In my favorite part of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish a "nook has a hook on which is a book about how to cook" and in Fox in Socks I am partial to the segment about the "tweetle beetle battle." 

There were others I favored because I enjoyed the story. One I loved and still do is Christina Katerina and the Box by Patricia Lee Gauch. It is the story of Christina and her friend Fats Watson and the days following a new refrigerator and its box coming into Christina's home. The two friends turn the box into all manner of fantastic things including a castle and a race car. 

Others I remember are The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and Best Friends for Frances by Russell Hoban. We were fortunate to have many books in our home to choose from and read on our own, once we could. (Being able to choose ones own books is an important element to becoming a lover of books and reading.) I was excited to learn to read and was able to do so quickly. 

When I got to school and had access to the school library I branched out. An early favorite was The Girl who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble, which won the 1978 Caldecott Medal and depicts the story of a girl of the Plains Indians of North America. [Goble's work is generally accepted as a respectful and accurate depiction of the Plains Indians as he was "adopted into the Yakima and Sioux tribes (with the name Wakinyan Chikala, “Little Thunder”) by Chief Edgar Red Cloud" in 1959.] I checked out this beautiful story as many times in a row as I was allowed then checked it out again once other students had had a chance. I own a number of copies today.  

Another book I have fond memories of and still own is The Star Wars Storybook that I woke up early on weekend mornings to read in bed before breakfast. 

As a high school librarian I am rarely asked for picture book recommendations, but as a school librarian it is important for me to be familiar with books for all levels of readers, because not all high school students read at a high school level and I might not always be a high school librarian. I have also over the years shopped for books for friends as they became parents.

My most reliable sources for knowing what is being published are:

• School Library Journal and Booklist reviews
• Awards lists 
• Browsing in bookstores 

I try to buy books that are current and not just fall back on old favorites. I like to explore new authors when possible knowing as this post from Book Riot reasons, many of the favorites of the parents as well as those buying the books are outdated without a broad or diverse viewpoint, and more practically may be purchased many times over for a new reader. 

Some recent books I have purchased either for my library or as gifts:

	The Undefeated	Kwame Alexander & Kadir Nelson
	Hello Lighthouse	Sophie Blackall
	Maybe Something Beautiful	F. Isabel Campoy & Theresa Howell
	Stellaluna	Janell Cannon
	Last Stop on Market Street	Matt de la Peña
	Henry Hikes to Fitchburg	D.B. Johnson
	The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore	William Joyce & Joe Bluhm
	Drawn Together	Minh Lê & Dan Santat
	Julián is a Mermaid	Jessica Love
	The Word Collector	Peter H. Reynolds
	And Tango Makes Three	Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, & Henry Cole
	Parrots Over Puerto Rico	Susan L. Roth & Cindy Trumbore
	The House in the Night	Susan Marie Swanson & Beth Krommes
	The Insomniacs	Karina Wolf & Brothers Hilts
	What Do You Do With an Idea? What Do You Do With a Problem?What Do You Do With a Chance?	Kobi Yamada & Mae Besom

 

What are some of your favorite picture books to read and gift?

 

 

 

 

What I've Read - What I'm Reading - September 7, 2020

Life has been hectic recently. First was my birthday, then I moved. Moving was far more stressful than getting another year better. But amid the chaos I had the idea for a recurring post on Mondays. A "what I have read"and "what I am reading and listening to" post. I read quickly but depending on the books, some weeks I read an amazing amount and others I just make progress. This was a "make progress" kind of week. 

 

 

Read:

I finished Well-Schooled in Murder by Elizabeth George early in the week. As I have written, I love this series of mysteries, but have read the 5 most recent and then went into her earlier novels to catch up with the backstory I was missing. During the week, I was also had the opportunity to participate in a book event with Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton discussing Penny's most recent publication, All the Devils are Here. (The recording of this even does not seem to be available yet, but I will update the post with a link when it is.)

 

Reading:

On the 29th I went ahead and treated myself to a birthday book, The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty. 
I devoured the first two in the series The City of Brass and The Kingdom of Copper. I love when I can read a trilogy or series without waiting for publication since I sometimes forget important details if there is too much time between books. This trilogy has been a reader's delight because the world building and characterization are a fantasy lovers dream. In addition to enjoying these as a reader, I have appreciated them for their artistry as I craft my own novel. 

Since I want to savor The Empire of Gold, I also started Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore. I appreciate how she is able to weave current issues into a historical romance. The story is swoony and political without being heavy-handed. I have Dunmore's next novel, A Rogue of One's Own in the queue on my Kindle from Net Galley to bring into my reading over the next few weeks. 

 

Listening:

I finished Lindy West's The Witches are Coming just in the nick of time before it was due back at the library. My politics align with hers so I spent time while I was packing shouting "hell, yeah" and "YES!" while I was listening.

Just as I finished, The King of Crows by Libba Bray popped into my library so i jumped in as I unpacked. This is the 4th and final book in the Diviners series, which I have enjoyed all the way through. This one is 21 hours of audio so i need to buckle down and listed regularly as I go about my day in order to finish before the audio is due back to the library on the 14th. 

 

What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?