bookends

Bookends: June 2020

Posted on by Charity

With rising rates of COVID-19 combined with the annual question mark of the flu season (and did you know you can get both at the same time? Fun!), the second half of 2020 and beyond looks a little hairy.

At this point it appears inadvisable to rely on the implementation of common-sense measures, particularly widespread testing, comprehensive contact tracing, financial support for employees to take off work while ill and after proven exposure, guaranteed medical coverage for those who are out of work or who don’t have access to health insurance through their employers, and back-to-school plans that include routine testing and basic safeguards that offices are putting in place, so our family is preparing to batten down the hatches for fall and winter. This includes attempting to get my daughter’s braces removed, making a plan to maintain an inventory of non-perishable foods to avoid exposure in stores and to prepare for shortages, arranging for meaningful remote social interaction (virtual scout troops ftw!), making a book-procurement plan, keeping an eye out for outdoor flu vaccine clinics, and trying to find a working relationship with my near-debilitating existentialism.

This is a time when looking forward realistically is the same thing as catastrophizing. Because this virus couldn’t care less about our power of positive thinking. It’s here to use our cells to reproduce and our behaviors to spread to new bodies and the United States is doing its damnedest to pave an easy road for it to do both of these things with deadly efficiency.

Winter is coming. And we are not remotely ready.

Visual Interest: Brand-new butterfly.

Finished in June (12):

Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac (R.A. with my son)

The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

Supernova by Marissa Meyer

Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis (Tailored Book Recommendations selection)

The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons (Tailored Book Recommendations selection)

Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg

Docile by K.M. Szpara (Quit this one 333 pages in. This was the only one of the three titles I got through Tailored Book Recommendations this quarter that was a total bust for me. My family loves it, though; they get a kick out of it when I rant about books they haven’t read.)

Sees Behind Trees by Michael Dorris (R.A. with my son)

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty (I went back and forth between the audiobook and paperback for this. Strange thing: The audiobook has 55 chapters plus an epilogue and the paperback has 59 chapters and an epilogue but they seem to contain the same information. If anyone can help me figure out why this is, I would be grateful.)

Currently Reading:

Bossypants by Tina Fey (audiobook. The only thing my kids find more amusing than me ranting about books is me laughing until I cry.)

A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry (R.A. with my son)

Shelter by Jayne Anne Phillips

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersley-Williams (R.A. with my son)

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Debbie Reese, and Jean Mendoza

What the Eagle Sees by Eldon Yellowhorn (R.A. with my son)

Turtle Island by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger (R.A. with my son)

Trickster ed by Matt Dembicki (R.A. with my son)

Becoming a Citizen Activist by Nick Licata

Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki

American Colonies by Alan Taylor

A Kid’s Guide to Native American History by Yvonne Wakim Dennis (R.A. with my son)

To-Read for July:

Still working hard on the Build Your Library U.S. History curricula we’re doing, and I have my Litsy #bookspin list (below). Numbers 18, 19, and 20 are reserved for my Tailored Book Recommendations, which haven’t arrived yet but should very soon.

As you might also have guessed, I got myself a fountain pen in the guise of helping the economy and stayed up late trying to write fancy.

You can see my Litsy profile for status updates throughout the month.

What’s on your TBR stack for July?

Related Posts:

Bookends: May 2020

Posted on by Charity

Late May involved a convergence of paradigm-challenging elements.

There’s COVID-19 and the ongoing stay-at-home order coupled with the gradual easing of restrictions, which brings both a sense of hope that we’re safe to move about more freely and anxiety that we’re no more ready than we were three months ago and the worst is yet to come.

There are the demonstrations in our city and throughout the country in support of addressing and moving towards ending endemic racism and the violence it perpetuates, which brings both hope that there’s the energy and will to bring lasting change and anxiety that the path there will reveal things about ourselves as individuals and as a society that are difficult to reconcile with the stories we’re used to telling ourselves.

And in the midst of all of this, our family has begun a new homeschool history and literature curriculum that brings a more balanced view of the founding and evolution of the United States than I received in school. So for us these real-world events are happening against the backdrop of increased awareness of our country’s history of settler colonialism, enslavement, and genocide alongside our stated ideals of democratic rule, civil liberties, and equal application of justice. On the one hand, it’s comforting to see our current situation in the context of an ongoing development of democratic ideals. On the other, I am more acutely aware of the precariousness of our institutions and the vulnerabilities of our species and I’m adjusting to a new foundation of understanding, which is welcome in the long-term but unsettling in the short-term. Hope and anxiety once again.

It’s unclear to me how my children are seeing the situation given that the narratives that underpin my worldview haven’t had as many years to cement into their consciousness. I’m hopeful that this unique education will free them to envision and realize futures that previous generations have been unable bring about. I hope that this exercise of doubt and reflection will help me better myself, but I also hope that I’m providing my children with the tools and background that will help them navigate the world they’ve inherited with passion, perseverance, and resilience.

As I read back over this, I realize it sounds a little like a prayer. So be it.

Visual Interest: Interdependent web

Finished in May (13):

Although I didn’t read all 20 books on my #bookspinbonanza list, the challenge went much better than I expected. I finished 10 books from the list with two more in the works, and I finished a couple off-list as well.

The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami

Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean (R.A. with my son)

Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby

Gaia Girls: Enter the Earth by Lee Welles

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Nightfall by Jake Halpern

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

A Whale in Paris by Claire Polders and Daniel Presley

The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s by Andy Greene

Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo

Currently Reading:

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersley-Williams (R.A. with my son)

The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Debbie Reese, and Jean Mendoza

What the Eagle Sees by Eldon Yellowhorn

Becoming a Citizen Activist by Nick Licata

Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki

American Colonies by Alan Taylor

A Kid’s Guide to Native American History by Yvonne Wakim Dennis

To-Read for June:

A lot of my reading time will be devoted to books from the history/literature curriculum we’re doing, but I hope to get some titles from my Litsy #bookspin list finished, too.

At the very least, I want to read Docile, The Regrets, and Cantoras, which are the three titles I got for this round of Tailored Book Recommendations.

You can see my Litsy profile for status updates throughout the month.

What’s on your TBR stack for June?

Bookends: April 2020

Posted on by Charity

Over the course of this first full month of California’s stay-at-home order, I’ve grown accustomed to rolling with whatever emotions come up for me each day. Not that I’m adept at it, but at least I expect it. Some days it’s just the constant low-level anxiety about food supply chains and asymptomatic transmission and armed protesters, but most days there’s some Big Emotion that pops up, like “persistent-panic-attack” or “crying-because-the-coffee’s-so-good” or “dear-god-have-you-always-chewed-so-loudly?” Knowing this is coming helps, even if I’m not sure what it’s going to be.

Having a routine also helps, which is nearly a cliche, but it’s totally true at our house. Every weekday at 7am, my kids and I take turns cajoling each other into our makeshift exercise room to do a Fitness Blender video together. It’s rare that we’re all excited about working out, but so far there’s always been at least one of us enthusiastic enough to pull the other two in.

Then there’s the morning block: feed the sourdough starter, wipe the front of the fridge, coffee on the patio, breakfast, fight about homeschool. Lunch is at noon, then more homeschool and/or music lessons, maybe a jog around the neighborhood, and dinner prep. Dinner’s around 5:30 or 6, followed by Mad Libs, kitten videos, or an episode of “The Office.” Bedtime routine starts around 7:30 with read-aloud during toothbrushing, then we gather for “grateful, sorry, and intend.” Lights out at 8:30 for the kids and around 9:30 or 10:00 for the grownups, although I’m contrary and fudge my bedtime a bit to get more alone time.

Weekends are for housecleaning and watching movies and social visits via videoconference and scrapping the routine for two days so we’re grateful for it come Monday morning.

My spouse and I asked the children at dinner last night how they felt about not doing all of the things outside the house that we used to. Both said they don’t really miss their outside activities. They still have their music lessons (virtual now) and online classes and virtual get-togethers with friends and family, only now they have more time to play or write or put together scavenger hunts or make LEGO stop-motion videos. They miss going to play basketball at the park and seeing their friends at P.E. class, but overall they seem happy. They’re creatures of habit, though, and I’m a little concerned about how we’ll all adjust in June when online classes and orchestra wrap up and we still (probably) can’t or don’t feel comfortable traveling.

But like we do with the emotions that shift day to day, we’ll take that as it comes.

Visual Interest: The cat’s getting photographed a lot more these days.

Finished in April (9):

April brought a little more concentration and a little more reading, thankfully. Things don’t feel right at all if I can’t read.

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

Napoleon’s Buttons by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson (R.A. with my son)

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich (audio)

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (R.A. with both children)

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (audio)

Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO by David Halperin

The Dollmaker of Krakow by R.M. Romero

Currently Reading:

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersley-Williams (R.A. with my son)

Caesar’s Last Breath by Sam Kean (R.A. with my son)

To-Read for May:

For May, I’m doing something that’s probably silly. On Litsy, there’s a #bookspinbonanza challenge, which involves making a list of twenty books on your TBR and then attempting to read them all, in the order drawn by the host of the challenge, before June 1. Given the weird time-compression thing that seems to be happening for me during stay-at-home, I know already that this has a very small likelihood of happening for me, but I really like the idea of trying.

You can see my Litsy profile for the whole list.

What’s on your TBR stack for May?

Bookends: December 2019 – February 2020

Posted on by Charity

Mid-December through mid-January were weeks spent coming down with, fighting, or recovering from various colds and flus (or maybe just one month-long ebbing-and-flowing virus). I did a lot more reading in bed than I usually do, and because I’ve built up some impressive whining skills in my 43 years, my family gave me more space than they usually do. Not all bad, but I’d prefer to be well.

These past few months saw a lot of books, both fiction and nonfiction, about violence (war, murder, sexual assault), suicide, mental illness, and adoption. I tend to gravitate towards darker books, so part of this is my doing, but several came to me from the list of National Book Award finalists, which was a pretty bleak collection, subject-wise, this year. Made for some interesting reviews for my Christmas reading challenges.

But now spring is almost upon us and there’s nothing but puppies and picnics in the park and sunshine and rainbows on the horizon (provided I don’t look at the news).

Visual interest:

 

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Finished in December (8):

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss (audio)

Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa

The Barefoot Woman by Scholastique Mukasonga

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich (audio)

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (audio)

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

The Existentialist’s Survival Guide by Gordon Marino

Finished in January (8):

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell (audio)

Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood by Lisa Damour

Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry

Differentiating Instruction with Menus: Literature (Grades 6-8) by Laurie E. Westphal (ARC)

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Cavalcade of Classics)

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Finished in February (7):

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (audio, re-read)

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (twice, once on my own and once aloud to my kids)

Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (audio)

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (audio)

DNFs (4):

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn

A Short History of a Small Place by T. R. Pearson

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Currently Reading:

Crossing by Pajtim Statovci

Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson (audio)

Napoleon’s Buttons by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson (R.A. with my son)

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersley-Williams (R.A. with my son)

To-Read for March:

In addition to the books I’m currently reading, I also have out from the library:

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby

Ten Years in the Tub by Nick Hornby

And two titles from my physical TBR to read for #bookspin and #doublespin on Litsy:

The Overstory by Richard Powers

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

What’s on your nightstand this month?

Are you on Litsy? So am I! Come visit! @ImperfectCJ

Bookends: November 2019

Posted on by Charity

Our November was filled with mad science, unexpected reunions with family, and more rain than we usually see around these parts. With all of that going on, December snuck up on me, but there’s still time for a November Bookends post!

Visual interest: Stop chasing the birds!

IMG_20191114_150833.jpg

 

Finished in November (11):

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle (audiobook)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson (audiobook)

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (audiobook)

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (DNF)

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay (audiobook)

The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson (DNF)

Recursion by Blake Crouch

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson (audiobook)

Currently Reading:

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe (I was reading this aloud with my son but he finished it on his own one afternoon. Now I need to finish it and give him some language arts assignments about it.)

To-Read for December:

All of my library holds came in at the same time, so here’s what I’ve got to read this month, not counting the ebook and audiobook holds but including a grapefruit:

image.jpg

And I have some middle-grade novels I’d like to work on. And my spouse is getting me a stack of library books for birthday/Christmas. I appear to have my work cut out for me this month.

What’s on your nightstand this month?

Are you on Litsy? So am I! Come visit! @ImperfectCJ

Bookends: October 2019

Posted on by Charity

Ah, October! Santa Ana winds, a three-day jaunt to the desert (the “real” desert, not the coastal Southern California desert), taking my kids to the thrift store to buy costume components…and reading a few books, including a decent stab at the October Dewey’s Readathon. I posted on Litsy during the Readathon. That’s where you can find most of my updates between Bookends posts these days, if you’d like more of that kind of thing.

A little visual interest before the book lists. This is The World Famous Crochet Museum in a converted drive-thru photo developing place in Joshua Tree, California:

IMG_20191030_095204

Finished in October (12):

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Chime by Franny Billingsley

24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Weekby Tiffany Shlain

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

Ohio by Stephen Markley (audio)

The Changeling by Victor LaValle (audio)

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

The Odyssey by Homer (Emily Wilson translation, read-aloud with my children)

Less by Andrew Sean Greer (audio)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (audio)

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (audio)

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

 

Currently Reading:

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

The Existentialist’s Survival Guide by Gordon Marino

Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe (read-aloud with my son, who will still snuggle with me on the couch if I read to him)

To-Read for November:

Subject to change, as always, but here are some I particularly want to hit:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

And I have some middle-grade novels I’d like to work on.

What’s on your nightstand this month?

Bookends: September 2019

Posted on by Charity

This month’s book totals are a little inflated due to the picture books and early readers I read for the Birth and Beyond Reading Challenge (#BBRC) on Litsy.

Still, even counting only the “grown-up” books, this month was pretty solid. I credit staying up past midnight, adding caffeine back into my diet, and ignoring the housework.

Kids’ Books (12):

Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins

Chase’s Space Case by Nickelodeon Publishing

The Case of the Scaredy Cats by Crosby Bonsall

Jump by David McPhail

Golden Retriever by Charlie George

Saturday Belongs to Sara by Cathy Warren

Fast Food by Saxton Freymann

The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo

You Silly Goose by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Victor Vito and Freddie Vasco by Laurie Berkner

Up and Down (The Boy, #4) by Oliver Jeffers

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

Grown-up Books (10):

Inland by Téa Obreht

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide by Kay Redfield Jamison

The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer by Gretchen Reynolds

Moody Bitches: The Truth About the Drugs You’re Taking, The Sleep You’re Missing, The Sex You’re Not Having, and What’s Really Making You Crazy by Julie Holland

Oksana, Behave! by Maria Kuznetsova (audio)

The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani (audio)

The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

Currently Reading:

Chime by Franny Billingsley

24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week by Tiffany Schlain

And I’m still working on Emily Wilson’s Translation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

To-Read for October:

October is a bit up in the air. I have a couple of books out from the library that I’ll probably start on:

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

Ohio by Stephen Markley (on audio)

I’m due for another Libro.fm credit, so I plan to get another audiobook after 2pm on October 5.

I hope to be seasonal and pick up some scary reads. I prefer literary, psychological, bizarre/unsettling and/or gothic horror/suspense to blood-and-guts, straight-up genre stuff. Authors like Daphne duMaurier (The Birds), Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House), Lauren Beukes (Broken Monsters), Kelly Link (Get in Trouble), Gin Phillips (Fierce Kingdom), Sarah Waters (The Little Stranger).

Any suggestions?

What’s on your nightstand this month?

Bookends: October 2018

Posted on by Charity

October brought cooler weather and a much-needed readathon, which helped me make a good dent in my Cavalcade of Classics list. My goal was to read at least one title from my list each month, and this month I read four. Starting strong and hopefully not burning myself out too quickly.

Regular TBR reads (including those that weren’t on my TBR until I picked them up):

New Boy by Tracey Chevalier (audio)

The Traveling Bag by Susan Hill

The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín (audio)

Maggie’s Door by Patricia Reilly Giff (read-aloud)

Ghostland by Colin Dickey

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

From my Cavalcade of Classics:

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (audio)

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (audio)

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (on audio)

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Currently Reading:

Gilgamesh Among Us by Theodore Ziolkowski

The Ramayana by Vālmīki ( I’m working on the shortened modern prose version by R. K. Narayan. I can’t tell if it seems weird because it’s just weird or because it’s from a mythology that’s unfamiliar to me or if it’s just the version I’m reading. I might try another version to find out.)

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff (audio)

To-Read in November:

November is going to be a challenge. I decided at about 2:00 pm on October 31, to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo. I reached the 50,000-word goal in 2010, attempted but didn’t reach it in 2011, and haven’t tried since. A friend is participating this year, and I figured this would be a chance to show her some support and to try to get something down from a novel idea I’ve been poking around at for a few years.

I figure it could go one of three ways:

  1. I write a lot and meet my daily word count goals and don’t have time to read, or
  2. I read a lot to distract myself from the fact that I’m not meeting my daily word count goals because I’m reading, or
  3. I really nail time management, make the most of the extra hour the end of Daylight Saving gives me, and meet both my reading and my writing goals.

Anything’s possible, but there’s precedent for only two of those possibilities.

Reading goals for November, in addition to completing the books I’m currently reading:

The Odyssey by Homer (Emily Wilson translation)

Circe by Madeline Miller

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

What books have your read recently that speak to you? What books are you excited to read in November?

Bookends: March to September 2018

Posted on by Charity

One of the things lost in the whirlwind of my cross-country move early this year is my monthly Bookends post. This post, a recap of March through September (in reverse order), is a way to reset the Bookends clock before time for my Year in Books at the end of December.

During these past few months, I read a lot of books aloud to my children and then, starting in July with the advent of my Epic Walks, I began listening to lots of audiobooks. I’ve noted which are which in the list below. Links are to reviews on Goodreads, which I should cross-post here but don’t.

September:

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier (audio)

Memory’s Last Breath by Gerda Saunders (audio)

The Vegetarian by Han Kang (audio)

The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt by Kara Cooney (audio)

The Small Hand by Susan Hill

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh

The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (audio)

August:

The Circle by Dave Eggers (audio)

The Long-Lost Home (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, #6) by Maryrose Wood (read-aloud)

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas

Nory Ryan’s Song by Patricia Reilly Giff

July:

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine (stopped reading)

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (audio)

The Diabolic (The Diabolic, #1) by S. J. Kincaid

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True by Richard Dawkins (stopped reading)

The High Crusade by Poul Anderson

June:

Rodzina by Karen Cushman (stopped reading)

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (re-read, read-aloud)

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom by Katherine Paterson (read-aloud)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (re-read, read-aloud)

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

May:

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle (stopped reading)

The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw (read-aloud)

April:

Voices (Annals of the Western Shore, #2) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Gifts (Annals of the Western Shore #1) by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (read-aloud)

The Last Star (The 5th Wave, #3) by Rick Yancey

The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave, #2) by Rick Yancey

Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg (read-aloud)

The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave, #1) by Rick Yancey

The Capture (Guardians of Ga’Hoole, #1) by Kathryn Lasky

Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories by Philip Roth (stopped reading)

Stargirl (Stargirl, #1) by Jerry Spinelli

The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr (stopped reading)

Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics by Stanley F. Schmidt

The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (read-aloud)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (re-read, read-aloud)

Catalyst (Insignia, #3) by S.J. Kincaid

March:

Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson (read-aloud)

Currently Reading:

Maggie’s Door by Patricia Reilly Giff (read-aloud)

Ghostland by Colin Dickey

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

To-Read in October:

October and thereafter, I will attempt to read at least one title per month from the second round of my Cavalcade of Classics. Goals for this October, in addition to completing the books I’m currently reading:

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh Among Us by Theodore Ziolkowski

The Odyssey by Homer (Emily Wilson translation)

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (on audio)

What books have your read recently that speak to you? What books are you excited to read in October?