I wasn't going to continue reading this series, but when it popped up as a skip-the-line read in Libby while all my other holds were 4 weeks out, I figured why not. I appreciated that this book leans more into the fantasy than the romance with the quest to find Andarna's kin and a way to defeat the venin. I also didn't think the cliffhanger ending was as much of a twist as some of my friends ➡️

My reading is getting quite interesting at this point of the year- novels for school, memoir for book club, and sci-fi & fantasy for relaxation! Enjoyed the tagged new release as a fan of the Normal Gossip podcast for my commute to work.

I'm really loving how Kowal's alternate history is playing out in contrast to the For All Mankind series on AppleTV - both are highlighting how we are just exporting our human conflicts into space, but Kowal focuses on race and gender while FAM is concentrating on socioeconomic class tensions between the millionaire tech bro innovators and the laborers. The implications of having babies in space also come up in both!

Not a ton of reading for a month that included spring break, but I got to marathon read the tagged book, which almost never happens anymore.

When you're on spring break at the beach and the local bookstore has the new release.

#bookhaul

I thought Emily's conviction that Faerie is structured not just on rules and traditions but on stories to be a fascinating idea. It's also interesting to see her have to defer to Wendell for once, as this is his realm and his family they are dealing with.

Looking forward to seeing more of these characters, and curious as to where Fawcett will go now that she's covered encyclopedias, maps, and story compilations!

"If there is one subject upon which Wendell and I shall never agree, it is the wisdom of attempting to drag a cat into Faerie."

Or anywhere, as someone who owns a cat can attest!

#FirstLineFridays #CatsOfLitsy
@ShyBookOwl

This book is an onion of intriguing layers, from the love story in letters unfolding between E and Henery to the friendship formed between their siblings Sophie and Vyerin as they seek to understand E & H's disappearance, not to mention the fantastical nature of this watery world and its academic social structure (and hints at extraterrestrial origins?)

Also love that this is an #OwnVoices novel in mental health and in love story via pen pal!

February is the month where I kept falling asleep while reading, so it took me forever to get through books, lol. Almost done with the tagged book, too, which has been fascinating but also taking a long time to read.

I seem to be in an epistolary novel spurt - teaching So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ to my World Lit class next week!

Read for our faculty book club - fun when the astrophysicist joins in!

If you're looking for a strong plot, this is not the book for you. My brain decided it was a prose poem, a meditation on humanity, interconnectedness, and the truths space can reveal.

I think this one was my list! My favorites to teach (at the college level) are:
1) The White Tiger
2) A Raisin in the Sun
3) Trifles

#ThreeListThursday @dabbe

A day late - professional development day interfered with getting it done yesterday! Lots more familiar books on this list, though I'm finding it funny the ones I can't remember if I've actually read it or just read scholarship about them (usually in connection with a book by the same author I did read).

Faves:
1) Night - read in HS, and I've never been so impacted by a book
2) Oryx and Crake
3) Parable of the Sower

#ThreeListThursday @dabbe

Lots of rereading in January for comfort, but at least I made #SeriesLove progress in the Discworld Witches books.

Looking forward to the new books (Christmas & NY gifts) I'm reading this month!

This was a frustrating list! Between my HS teaching and curriculum review project work, I feel like I should have read more of these. Instead, I found that I had read many of these authors, but not these specific books listed.

#ThreeListThursday @dabbe

Another list where teaching children's literature pays off (though I have to catch up with the newer ones!)

My favorite 3:
- Holes
- A Wrinkle in Time (though I actually preferred Many Waters growing up)
- From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

#ThreeListThursday @dabbe

Loved the disability representation and the interrogation of views about disability, as well as the world-building, but it was over way too soon! I hope Nadya ends up at the school for wayward children in the next book rather than back with her adoptive parents.

I haven't seen anyone share this yet, so I wanted to highlight this cool interactive video of the most popular books in US libraries in 2024 compiled by ProQuest - the video goes day by day, and it's fascinating to see the movement:
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/21058712/

You can tell the release dates when books suddenly spring to the top of the chart! I loved seeing older books like Wicked pop up along b/c movie release.

#data

#ThreeListThursday @dabbe

This was a fun one, as someone who now also teaches children's literature.

My favorites:
- Matilda by Roald Dahl
- The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
- The Arrival by Shaun Tan (though I wouldn't consider this a children's book!)

Ones I think should have been included:
- When You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
- Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
- Holes by Louis Sachar

Didn't quite reach my goal of 100 books in 2024, but I'm all right with that under the circumstances. A bit amused that my first/last and longest/shortest books have similar color palettes! Top authors reflect the amount of nostalgia/comfort reading I did.

Not pictured - completed the Death arc of the Discworld series for #SeriesLove!

This took forever for me to get through, even taking end-of-semester craziness into account. This felt too much like a mashup of Silo/Wool and The Hunger Games, without having a protagonist I wanted to root for. I probably won't continue the series.

The members of our college literary magazine collected gently used children's, young adult, and adult books and wrapped them "blind date with a book" style to give away at our open house tonight. They got a great haul!

1) I try to be, but I'm getting much better at adjusting on the fly when things don't go to plan!

2) tagged book - When you don't clearly hear or remember your mission when time traveling, a comedy of error ensues.

#TwoForTuesday
@TheSpineView

Love this feminist twist on the traditional princess story. My class at our women's college used this story as the basis of our May Day play!

#MiddleGradeMonday
@Karisimo

Saw this today while scrolling social media and had to save and share it!

#Inclusion #DEI

This memoir is a brutally honest reflection about the overwhelming emotions of growing up in poverty. Sixth-grader Rex feels incredible shame at the stigma of being in the free lunch program and inability to afford school supplies, on top of trying to shield his little brother from the DV between his stepfather and mother. Ultimately the book ends in a positive note as the family finds help.

Winner of the 2020 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction award

Not a bad month for reading, though clearly lots of fantasy escapism. Even though I missed the faculty book club outing to hear Shelby Van Pelt talk, I enjoyed discussing Remarkably Bright Creatures with my sister, who read it with her book club last year.

Parentified Giddy is desperate to solve her stress-related stomach issues, so she tries the "opposition therapy" she read about on social media- stop getting her young siblings on the school bus, eat foods like chicken feet, and sit at a different table for lunch.
I get the sense the author wants even teen readers to ask "what was she thinking?!?" And at the same time, I was still hoping she could find a better balance in putting her needs first.

A transmedia middle grade horror story! Ryan and Sarah are trying to understand the creepy things happening in their hometown, but after an accident leaves Ryan confined to bed, he records all his ideas in his journal while Sarah logs a video diary gathering evidence.

Love that Sarah uses Poe themes for her website URLs and passwords!

#MiddleGradeMonday @Karisimo

Given how many fantasies come in trilogies, it was nice to see Thomas wrap up this story in one sequel instead of stretching it out to two. This book is more character focused, especially in the relationship between Teo and Aurelio, but there was still a twist I wasn't expecting that hit me in the feels.

Good example of diverse representation and queer characters without the queerness being the conflict.

1) Strawberries are probably my favorite (especially with cream!), but I also love apples - especially the ones you pick yourself (and the ones you put in pie 😉)

2) The Galaxy and the Ground Within - strangers of different species end up delayed at the Five Hop One Stop refueling station, and find common ground by breaking bread together. Lovely and hopeful story - part of a series but can be read as a standalone!

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

The tagged #MiddleGradeMonday pick is one that stuck with me from when I was a kid!

The Pinballs focuses on three children in foster placements with the Masons - distrustful Charlie, sent there because her stepfather hit her so hard she got a concussion; naive Thomas J, whose aunts got too old and infirm to care for him; and Harvey, who arrives with two broken legs and a story about how it happened that keeps changing.

@Karisimo

Wow, the number of books I read really plummets when the semester starts!

Fav book tagged

#SeriesLove

Seems like teaching high school, and then children's and YA lit classes has really inflated my score! I have my children's literature students write an Essay in Defense of a Banned Book - sadly, some may need these skills as future teachers!

Favorites:
1) The Witches by Roald Dahl
2) Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (and I especially love her response to people who want to ban it)
3) Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

#TLT @dabbe

I never thought I would find a children's book that used the magical realism style, but Medina pulls it off in this book! Probably best for stronger readers with good imaginations - the imagery of her language is enchanting.

#MiddleGradeMonday @Karisimo

"Of course the first thing I looked for was the fire watch stone. And of course it wasn't there yet."

When @CSeydel mentioned To Say Nothing of the Dog a few days ago, it inspired me to look back at the Oxford time travel series, and I found this book of short stories as part of the series I hadn't read yet.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Favorite museum is hard!
-Most impactful: the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Berlin. The pitch black room except for a sliver of light in the ceiling far above taught me how architecture can be both art and argument.
-Most nostalgic: the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, more of a science center than a museum.
-Most Unexpectedly Fascinating: the National Archives in DC - saw the actual records of the Glory troops!

#TwoForTuesday @TheSpineView

Belated August reading report! A delightfully eclectic mix of Indigenous children's books (from my children's lit class), fantasy bedtime reading, and a classic from faculty book club.

Tagged my favorite - fun world building!

Not too bad! Being a big fan of musicals definitely helped, though I missed out on a bunch of the classic ones.

Faves:
1) "All That Jazz" - Chicago
2) "America" - West Side Story
3) "Aquarius / Let the Sun Shine In" - Hair

I'd add the following from contemporary musicals:
1) the whole Hamilton soundtrack, basically
2) "Wait for Me" - Hadestown
3) "Prayer" - Come From Away

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

When all your July reads don't fit in the space to post to Litsy 😂

Fav book: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which spurred such a great conversation at book club. If I ever put together a Narrative in Games class, I'm tempted to include it.

Also a #SeriesLove success completing the Death books from the Discworld series! Not sure if I'll start another branch for the rest of the year or wait until next year as a new goal.

And soon to be 15, as we are reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow for our faculty book club this month!

🌼 Leverage (and the sequel Leverage: Redemption) are my go-to rewatches; I love a good heist!

🪻I really enjoyed Sorry, and my husband and I acquired it for ourselves when moving into our own house!

🌹Loved the cross between a library and Wonka's factory as the setting for an escape room game in the tagged book.

#WondrousWednesday @Eggs

I'm not always good at tagging books in Litsy as current reads, but I like this new feature from StoryGraph to help me go back and add them all monthly!

Lots of good reading done during my travels to and from the AP exam scoring and during my beach vacation.

"Why would anyone want to feel superior to others? Surely the only occasion to justify looking down on someone is while you are helping them up."

My favorite quote from Starry Messenger, our faculty book club pick for June.

75%, no doubt boosted by the fact that my brother was little in the 2000s, helping me cover the kids movies while watching the adult ones on my own with friends.

Favorites:
- The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (best score and fantastic character acting)
- the Ocean's trilogy
- the Matrix series, because they really spearheaded the trend towards transmedia storytelling that I focused on in my dissertation

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

I'm teaching this one in my summer Children's Lit class! Zoe intercepts a letter from her absent father on her 12th birthday and learns that he is claiming to be innocent of the murder he's been convicted of. This starts her quest to get him released, learning how systemic racism impacts the judicial system. Zoe and her father start a sweet correspondence to get to know each other, bonding over food and music.

#MiddleGradeMonday @Karisimo

🙌🏻

(When this is the epigraph, you know the book is going to be good.)

I love that someone has set up a Little Free Library here at the AP Literature scoring venue!

I also love all the geeky book tshirts and seeing people tucked in corners all over reading during breaks and meals.

#TeachersOfLitsy

Set in WWII England, this middle grade novel details Ada‘s escape from her abusive mother to join her brother Jamie as he is evacuated to the Kent countryside. She grapples with (forced) gratitude toward her new caretaker Susan, low self-esteem, and the knowledge that her mother does not love her, for she could have given Ada surgery to fix her clubfoot as a child and did not.

#MiddleGradeMonday
@Karisimo

I think this installment captures a really authentic piece not just of adolescence, but of being in a relationship - trying to figure out your own identity, goals, and dreams (independently of your family or romantic partner). I liked that all the characters supported and expressed the importance of having friends you can open up to!

1) My grandfather was a high school math teacher, and my parents looked through the absentee list from his school for name inspiration. So I am technically named after someone who didn't bother showing up for school! 😂

2) I adored the tagged book growing up - a protagonist with my name and the ability to move things with her mind, just like Roald Dahl's Matilda (my other favorite book)? Sign me up!

#TwoForTuesday
@TheSpineView