I had much more time this week to read and listen than last week.
Read:
I finished The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver. Overall I liked the story and was attracted to the magical realism elements of Lydia's experience with grief at the loss of her fiancé to a car accident.
I read two graphic novels:
I Was Their American Dream - by Malaka Gharib. I ordered this title for my library back in the Spring, but with the delivery delays since we were not in school, I did not get my hands on it until just a few weeks ago. I was reminded to look for it after I watched an "In conversation" between Gharib and Robin Ha (author of Almost American Girl) through One More Page Books. Gharib's story explores her early life as a Filipino Egyptian American, while Ha's story is about her move to the US from South Korea as a teen. Reading the novels side by side offers the reader the opportunity to observe the varied experiences of young people who were not born in the US.
AND
Go with the Flow by Karen Schneemann and Lily Williams. A quartet of sophomore friends start a movement in their school to eradicate stigmas associated with periods. Their fight revolves around the lack of pads and tampons in the school bathrooms while there seems to be no lack of funding for new football uniforms. The book makes many excellent points about the shame that is thrust upon women and in this case particularly teen girls for a natural, bodily function.
I finished Eat a Peach by chef David Chang. I gave it 4.5 stars (out of 5) because I appreciated his honesty and insights into the restaurant world from his perspective.
Reading:
I am continuing to read The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty. Now I am getting to be embarrassed not to have finished. And I won't in the next week either since I am traveling and the book is too big to carry when I can just take one paperback and my Kindle.
I am about 1/8 of the way into If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane. This is the paperback I am taking for the plane and the beach.
Listening:
I started The Year of Living Danishly, by Helen Russell. Though she has not mentioned her or the book by name, I think Russell owes a structural and inspirational debt to Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. Russell's husband is offered a position at Lego headquarters in Denmark for a year. They agree to relocate and Russell uses the experience to study life in Denmark, which is allegedly the happiest country in the world. The book is organized by month starting when they arrive in January. In each month Russell, a journalist, explored one aspect of Danish life from gender equality to leisure pursuits to work-life satisfaction. I am most of the way through July, fast approaching August.
What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?
