Summer Reading List 2017

Jason Reynolds (SWOON)

Today, Labor Day, marks the end of summer....

This summer, I traveled to seven different places, and only one of the trips was for pleasure. However, from the time that school ended which was June 23rd until today, labor day, I read almost fourteen books. (One of the books I could not finish.)

Reading is a habit that I have developed, and you know how hard it is to break habits. I do read for pleasure, but I also read with the idea of what books can I introduce to my students and fellow educators. Being a high school teacher and a literature consultant, I need to make sure that I read all of the time so that I can rattle books off the top of my head when it’s needed. So, I make the time.

Now, the time is not always in big chunks. Mostly, I fit it in when I can: waiting for an appointment, on a plane, while waiting on my food in a restaurant etc. You feeling me? You don’t need a lot of time to read; you can fit it in whenever you can.

I love to read, because it causes me to focus and think. Yes, it helps me to focus. Whenever my thoughts are out of control, I sit down with a book, and my thoughts settle down. When I read a book like Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi, with lots of characters and a complex plot, I can only focus on that book, and oh, how I love, at times, to be transported to another time and place.

I also love reading because it gives me insight into people, and I just love folks' stories. My empathy meter is to the roof, and that’s mainly because of books.

For my summer reading, I decided to attempt to read all five books that were on Bill Gates’s recommendations for summer reading. I finished two of the books, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance and A Full Life by Jimmy Carter, before school got out. However, the other three were part of my summer reading. The other books that I read this summer mostly came from people’s recommendations.

Here is my summer reading list:

1. Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. (Bill Gates’ list) I can’t even began to explain how this book spoke to my heart, and gave me a lot to think about such as systematic racism and how it seems to exist everywhere. You know, I thought about the idea that some folks just need a helping hand. I will definitely be sharing this one with my students. This would be great to use in a Coming of Age Unit or Identity Unit.

2. The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal. (Bill Gate’s list) This books is a fictional look at what could happen to families when they are faced with the decision of organ donation. One family’s tragedy can end up being another family’s joy. This is a story that will be with me for awhile.

3. Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. (Bill Gate’s list) I tried... I tried... I really tried, but I just could not finish this book. Wordy and DEEP. However, I did get a few things from this books such as we keep trying to change the students by giving them medications, but why don’t we change the schools.

4. My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me by Jennifer Teege. I am so happy that Jennifer wrote this book. Such a great look at a woman grappling with her issues by looking into her past. I know that I am still coming of age, and it’s good to know that I am not the only grown woman who is coming of age.

5. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. At an Advance Placement Institute, a participate mentioned this book to me, and you should have seen the joy on her face when she talked about it. When I returned home from the Institute, she sent me an email to remind me to read the book, and I am happy that I did. This book tells a very complex story of what could have happened during the holocaust, and she brings the story to the present day. I can see doing a unit on Genocide and including this book and My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me along with some other books.

6. Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson. I picked up this book at the International Literacy Conference this summer, AND it was ALL OVER twitter. So, I read it, and it is incredible. This book is about a girl who is faced with the challenge of being courageous. I absolutely love the message of facing our issues instead of turning away from them.

7. Some Possible Solutions by Helen Philips. So, I was in St. Louis, and I finished the book that I was reading on the plane ride to St. Louis, and my digital reader was dead, and I forgot the charger. Y’all, I must have something to read at all times. So, I found a quaint bookstore in a very swanky neighborhood. I told the bookseller that I would like to read his favorite book, and he picked up this book. Great, collection of short stories that I thoroughly enjoyed.

8. Reading In the Wild by Donalyn Miller. My fellow, literature teachers, READ THIS BOOK! One of my many teaching bibles for sure.

9. Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Several people told me to read this book, and it is wonderful. Such a great book to teach empathy and strength. I have copies in my classroom, and I am going to use it to remind my students and myself to always, always, go with radical kindness.

10. Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds. Y’all know that I love Jason Reynolds and his writings. This book does not disappoint. I did not know that there was a Black/Hispanic spider man.... There are going to be some super excited children of color excited about this one.  LOVE, LOVE this book!

11. Solo by Kwame Alexander. Kwame did it again. This is an incredible book that is written in verse like many of Kwame's books. The protagonist is RICH and Black and lovable. I was deeply moved by this charming story.

12. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons. This book was Well-Read Black Girl book club selection for August. This book deals with grief in the most beautiful way. I love the writing style and the storyline.... completely, beautiful story.

13. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Y’all this book is everything that you could possible ask for in a good story: suspense, love, endurance, love, suffering, love, LOVE! I love this book soooooo much. Cleverly written and every character is delightful!

14. Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven. At the end the school year, one of my students gave me this book with the most moving letter. I purposefully read this book right before school started so that I could talk to her about it. It is a beautiful story that reminded me that teenagers need a whole lot of Grace and Mercy.

What a wonderful summer full of wonderful books.....

Soon and very soon, I will be starting the 10 to 40 book challenge with my students. I am encouraging them, myself, and you to read between 10 to 40 books between September and June.

Join us if you dare!

10to40Book Challenge: Guest Blogger Kathleen O’Connor!

Kathleen and the writer Ibo Zoboi

#10to40BookChallenge

           

When Jackie invited me to join the 10to40 Book Challenge, it seemed like an ambitious goal, and while I eagerly agreed to participate, I doubted if it was possible for either of us to actually accomplish it; we are busy women!  

Competitive by nature, I figured I could pull out a fast lead by choosing a few of Jacqueline Woodson’s shorter books from my middle school library that I had been meaning to read. I started with After Tupac and D Foster and The House You Pass Along the Way, then moved on to Another Brooklyn. I love these books for reminding me that girlhood, young womanhood, is for all of us so very much the same, even as it is in other ways tremendously different. 

Books are mirrors in which we can see ourselves, windows through which we can see others, and sometimes we can do both simultaneously. So, I made a conscious decision to include a cultural variety of writers in my challenge. 

Jackie often says, “I like books with characters who look like ME!” So do I! I read Brooklyn by Colm Toibin and wept at the experiences of the Irish immigrants in that story and felt the warm glow of familiarity in traditions, expressions, and unique turns of phrase that you only find in Irish/Irish-American families. I could feel the homesickness that often resonates through generations of Irish American families, even for the members who are born here.

Likewise, I read We Are Not Ourselves by Mathew Thomas, an epic novel. A good part of it also takes place in Brooklyn, and it’s about an Irish-American family grappling with their patriarch’s downward spiral into Alzheimer’s disease. I found the “mirror” quality in this novel almost frightening. It was as if Mathew Thomas had been a fly on the wall as my own family fought the very same battle. And I wrote Mathew Thomas to tell him so and to express my gratitude for his book that somehow validated my entire experience with losing my own Dad to Alzheimer’s. I wept bitterly through much of the book and often felt like Thomas had sucker-punched me right in the gut. But, I was thankful and I told him so. And guess what?  He wrote back.

Me, Kathleen, and the author Brendan Kiely

In an interesting twist, an overwhelming number of the books I read in the first months of the challenge take place in Brooklyn. The African-American characters in Woodson’s and Jason Reynold’s novels lived in the very same neighborhoods and walked the very same blocks as the Irish characters in Toibin and Thomas; however, it was two generations later. I’ve given a lot of thought to this important link, because it has many conflicting messages. So many, in fact, that it should be a topic for a blog entry all on its own. My wheels are turning!

My most recent favorite is Ibo Zoboi’s American Street, a wonderful novel that was nothing but a window for me!  In it, Fabiola, a young immigrant from Haiti, moves in with her cousins in Detroit. I have to admit that the existence of a Haitian community in the United States was not on my radar at all, and I have never been to Detroit in my life, but Fabiola’s story of trying to maintain her old ways while acclimating to her new surroundings touched me, and I could not turn the pages fast enough. And, now I feel like I have an entire perspective that I never even had a glimpse of before reading this book.

Me, Kathleen, and the writer, Ibo Zoboi

I’m more than halfway through the 10to40 Book Challenge, and it is no longer about the numbers. When I think of all that I have learned in a short time, connections that I have made, experiences that I have had in speaking and reading with others, I am committed to continue reading at this pace forever: a minimum of thirty minutes a day, every day. I don’t want to miss a thing, don’t want to leave a single stone unturned. What began as a friendly competition has turned into a life-altering discipline. We set aside time to prepare our food, exercise our bodies, connect with our family….why do we so often reserve reading for a few paltry minutes at the end of our busy days? 

Jackie’s 10to40 Book Challenge has encouraged me to give reading the time that it deserves in my life.