Writing in the Middle

April was a detective murder mystery series month!📕The Annalisa Vega series by Joanna Schaffhausen had me hooked.

📗The Inmate was intriguing but I found the main character to be somewhat naive/annoying.

📙Beach Read was definitely my second favorite behind the detective series—a perfect fun palate cleanser and distraction.

📓Being Mortal was my book club read and prompted great discussion, but only 3ish stars from me.

Even though I have slightly different ratings for these books, I would say they’re all in the generally good category. As I look at the ratings I keep debating if I should change them. 🤪
📘📕
Mystery/Thriller
•The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn
•Never Lie by Freida McFadden
📗📓
Mystery/Thriller with some fantasy thrown in
•Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
•Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
📘
Romance?
•It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover
📕
Memoir
•See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur

A 5⭐️ and 4⭐️ read this month! But I’m kind of an easy grader 🙃

📗All Thirteen by Christina Soontornvat
This story was incredible, and a testament to the power of community. This tells the true story of the boys’ soccer team who got stuck in a cave in Thailand and how they escaped. It was wild.

📘What Happened to You: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Dr. Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey
Really informative. Some practical application at the end but not much. Wondering what training in action teachers could receive. I would say this is like a less dense version of The Body Keeps the Score. Main theme: instead of asking “what’s wrong with you?” Ask, “what happened to you?”

This month had a lot of great reads, but my two 5-star reads were The Winners by Fredrik Backman and Evil Eye by Etaf Rum. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📗The Winners characters stole my heart. It was so much in one book. At times it felt long but I truly loved each character and seeing where their life headed. I cried. I think any of Fredrick Backman’s books would make for a good book club book, but the Beartown series especially. What is justice? What is right? Who are our enemies?

📘In Evil Eye, Etaf Rum carefully articulates the inner voice, thoughts, and complex feelings of Yara, a young Palestinian American mother and wife. I was so immersed in Yara’s character that I felt like I was being gaslit right alongside her. Etaf Rum has done it so well yet again.

Other books & authors this month:
📙Nothing is Missing by Nicole Walters (memoir)
📕Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty (mystery)
📗A Boy Called Bat by Eliana K Arnold (middle grade)
📓A Promised Land by Barack Obama (memoir/nonfiction)

I spent way too much time putting all the books I read in 2023 in rainbow order so I hope you appreciate how pretty it looks! lol I’ll highlight my 5-star reads from the year below along with my goodreads reviews from when I read them.

📗I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys - historical fiction
Wow wow. This book was gorgeously written and made me want to learn more about Romania. I actually started and stopped this book months ago. I think I just wasn’t in the mood. But I’m so glad I came back. An important and inspiring read, and a relatively short one.

📓Caste by Isabel Wilkerson - nonfiction sociology?
An important read that compares and contrasts the caste systems of N**i Germany, India, and the United States. Very well done and great for taking a critical look at the role of race in society.

📕Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga - YA fiction
A girl immigrates from Syria to the US. I got to the end and didn’t even realize it—I wanted the story to keep going! I thought of my students so often throughout this whole book and it made me love Jude even more.

📕It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover - fiction
Ok, I did not expect to appreciate this book as much as I do. Not before I read it and not while I was in the middle of it. I didn’t fly through it because I didn’t see where it was going. But it went way deeper than I expected and I think it definitely deserves its hype. I think I was expecting a twist or thriller plot line, but even with little to no “action” toward the end I was quickly turning every page dying to see what choices Lily would make. This is an important book and I really appreciated the author’s note at the end. Hoover’s vulnerability shone through.

📗The City of Brass series by Shannon Chakraborty - fantasy
I read all 3 books in this series and they wrecked me. 😭 Many of its themes and events are sadly similar to the state of our world today—cycles of vengeance and oppression and racism. (Cont. in comments…)

December was a well-rounded month of genres. I can’t say I loved any of these books, but I liked and enjoyed them. All would prompt a good discussion. There were some fiery responses to One Day in December in book club and great discussions throughout the month on Hunt Gather Parent and Counting the Cost. Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? Tell me! 👇🏻I know many people loved Midnight Library and I think it was just ok for me.

📚2023 year in books post coming probably tomorrow!

📚November Reads📚

I wasn’t in love with my favorite book of this month, but it was an interesting one that even piqued the interest of my husband who generally doesn’t read the same books as me. 🙃

📕Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer is packed full of Mormon history and analysis of extreme religion and what it leads people and leaders to do. The tv show was way more engaging and emotionally moving, but the book was much more fact-driven and had some extremely devastating moments as well.

My other 2 this month were meh.

📚 ?

📚This book was everything I needed to escape in this busy month (this is the only book I finished!). And yet many of its themes and events are sadly similar to the state of our world today—cycles of vengeance and oppression and racism.
📚But Chakraborty made me fall in love with Daevabad and all its characters—their reckless optimism or steadfast hold on their inner self and believing they were worthy; their regrets when they blindly followed leaders and the tough choices they made to reclaim freedom. I cried at least once. This series was long but so worth it. So so worth it. I enjoyed every minute.

📚The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh was the clear winner this month! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

A moving historical fiction middle grade novel that follows 3 narratives in 2 time periods—the beginning of C0VID in 2020 and the Ukraine famine in the 1930s. Also a great audiobook.🎧 Highly recommend!

📕Endless Night by Agatha Christie was a classic that I felt indifferent about until the end. I gave it 4⭐️.

📘Don’t read Bad Mormon. Almost DNFed.

The Happy Runner was my favorite because I’m currently obsessed with the SWAP podcast by the authors. 🏃‍♀️

The Last Flight was a fun suspenseful read and The Art of Racing in the Rain pulled at the heartstrings. 💔

Kindred made for a great discussion. Great writing and story construction. Is this required reading for some in high school?? 🤔

It’s in His Kiss…I keep reading Bridgerton but I’m not sure why. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Grad school reads that proved less than helpful. 👎🏻

It was a good reading month!

📙Out of Thin Air by Michael Crawley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Definitely one of my faves this month. British anthropologist runner runs with the Ethiopians to learn their ways.
📗The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The first book of this series is my first love but this one was equally good! Maybe a little slow at the beginning. Think Middle Eastern/Arabian fantasy novel with no clear good/bad leaving you in constant emotional turmoil ha.
📕The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed this book, it had so many great insights and I found myself pondering their conclusions a lot. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone but it just is what it is I guess? Also had to read it for grad school.

📘Leading in a Culture of Change by Michael Fullan ⭐️ Least favorite. So many typos. Grad school read. Michael how are you going to transform education without talking about race?

📚 It’s hard to say which of these was my favorite. They were all good for different reasons and varied widely across genre—memoir, romcom/whodunnit, regency romance, and fantasy/humor/love story. I suppose Viola Davis’s memoir was best by rating! Such a powerful woman.

Take what you need and leave any recs you think I’d like after these! Except maybe Bridgerton lol.

📗Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧 Comedy S*x God by Pete Holmes ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧Finding Me by Viola Davis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn ⭐️⭐️
📕Arsenic and Adobo by Mia Manansala ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

May had some mediocre reads, but they were various and interesting. I would definitely recommend Forager! Very thought-provoking life story, especially if cults and nature intrigue you. I guess this month kind of had a culty theme because I also read Jinger Duggar’s book and will definitely be watching the new Duggar documentary some time this weekend. 👀

Other Words for Home was my favorite! But I’m interested to see what book club says about 56 Days. Intriguing murder mystery!

Less books this month, but some really solid ones.

📓Caste by Isabel Wilkerson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think this is a must-read for everyone! A comparison of the caste systems present in the U.S., India, and N**i Germany.
📘The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abu Daré ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A powerful and eye-opening story of one girl’s life in 2014 Nigeria.
📓Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a super intriguing mystery fantasy set on the campus of Yale amidst its magical secret societies and the ninth house meant to regulate them, especially when murder is afoot.

Have you read any of these? Any pique your interest? Let me know! Caste brought great discussions in my book club.

I read 48 books this year, (swipe ➡️ for all) which was quite a bit more than the 30 I aimed for! Grad school got nothin on me. 🥳 📚

Some faves were:
📕The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (complex murder mystery)
📗The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (YA fantasy, heartwarming)
📘Beartown by Fredrik Backman (small hockey town divides over tragic event—believe women!)
📙Dune by Frank Herbert (sci fi, desert planet, made into a movie)

Least faves: Patriot Games, Cultish, Reading Specialists & Literacy Coaches 🤪

📚

My favorite or maybe most important read from December was a book I started in September. 🤪 Yay for small progress toward big goals. It’s actually a quick read though!

📚Cultivating Genius by Gholdy Muhammad ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Summary: Dr. Goodly Muhammad examines the ways that African Americans created their own educational societies and pedagogies in the past and uses that to inform the way we teach our students today. She identifies 4 pursuits—identity, intellect, criticality, and skills—that should shape our teaching and lesson planning.

Review: I love the historical context Dr. Muhammad brings to her pedagogy and the way she values the whole child—their identity, joy, abilities, intellect, and critical perspective. All teachers should read and learn from her!

Other books this month:
📕 Patriot Games by Tom Clancy ⭐️⭐️
📗Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📙A Rhythm of Prayer edited by Sarah Bessey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📘The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📗When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️