September Retrospective

 I finished my yearly goal! It was a relatively light reading month at only 10 books, but still it feels momentous to be done with my yearly goal this early. As predicted, it feels like I barely made a dent in the books lying around here, but I still got around to reading something things I've been putting off for years like the Fables series. I also prioritized reading gifts this year, and it seems like that might have resulted in a larger number of book gifts than usual this year. (Something I don't mind at all, by the way) Actually, I think I'm just going to make that a more general policy. It feels good to be able to go back to the person who gave me a book and tell them how much I enjoyed it.

I realized this month that I might not like memoir all that much. I tried reading Diablo Cody's Candy Girl which I was actually interested in. Diablo Cody wrote the screen play for Juno. However, just as with the David Sedaris stuff, once I started the book, I got bogged down and almost listless about reading. I'm not sure yet if it's just a general issue with memoir or bad luck, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Since I completed my goal, I'm lifting the old book restriction. In reality there's not that many newly purchased books sitting around waiting for me. I knew I couldn't read them right away, so I just didn't buy many books, but lifting this restriction on myself also means I can go back to library reading which is exciting too. 

Sadie by Courtney Summers

 I've been working on expanding my classroom library. I have a great collection of YA fantasy and sci fi. My collection of high school drama and mainstream is respectable, but I'm severely lacking in several areas. One of the areas that I'm working on is mystery. I like mystery but I'm a classics reader when it comes to whodunits. I read a lot of Agatha Christie, P.D. James, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but many of my students have a hard time approaching classic mystery. I did what I usually do when casting about and checked the awards lists which is how I found Sadie.

Sadie is a story told in two extremely different points of view. The first is the transcript of a podcast series about the disappearance of a girl, Sadie Hunter. West McCray interviews the people who knew Sadie and traces her cross country trek. It soon becomes clear that this isn't a simple case of a runaway. Sadie is driven by something, something to do with her murdered younger sister.

The second point of view is Sadie herself. Her perspective overlaps with the sections from the podcast and what she has to say is chilling. She's running head long towards a goal that she has no plan to survive. Her whole world has narrowed to the pursuit of her sister's killer.

The mystery here isn't ultimately a whodunit. It's a why is this happening and what happened to Sadie. 

This is a great mystery, although not of a traditional sort. I do struggle somewhat with the idea that it's YA however. There is a lot of really tough content here. Both Sadie and her sister Mattie were victims of abuse and neglect which is always tough to read about. Summers unflinching description Sadie's poverty and struggle to survive manages to avoid feeling exploitive, but is grim nevertheless. This is a very adult book and while I have no problem with my 16 year old students and up reading this, I'd be very careful about handing it to my younger students.

August Retrospective and September List

 I only read 9 books in August. Now granted that's more than some people read in a whole year, but I've been racking up numbers like 15 and 16 (I think my most productive month was 18). 9 seems almost piddly but I expected that to happen once I started classes back up. 

As a result the list didn't really change all that much. I do imagine that I will re-equalize and get some more reading in soon.

The List:

1. The Beekeeper's Bible by Anonymous (Birthday Gift)
2. Providence by Max Barry (Finished 9/6/2021)
3. Animal, Vegetable, Junk by Mark Bittman (Valentines Gift from Ryan)
4. Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card (Ryan's Pick)
5. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (Finished 9/4/2021)
6. Candy Girl by Diablo Cody (Dropped -Turns out I just might not be too into memoirs)
7. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (Christmas Gift)
8. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (Birthday Gift)
9. Finding Freedom by Erin French (Birthday Gift)
10. American Demon by Kim Harrison (Finished 9/11/2021)
11. Origin by Jessica Khoury (Finished 9/27/2021)
12. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James (Finished 9/18/2021)
13. Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
14. Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (Ryan's Pick)
15. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu (Birthday Gift)
16. Invisible Planets translated by Ken Liu (Birthday Gift)
17. Swan Song by Robert McCammon (Ryan's Pick)
18. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
19. Japanese Soul Cooking by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat
20. Gateway by Frederik Pohl (Finished 9/1/2021)
21. Bridgerton: The Duke & I by Julia Quinn (Finished 9/16/2021)
22. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (Ryan's Pick)
23. Sadie by Courtney Summers (Finished 9/13/2021)
24. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (Finished 9/16/2021)
25. Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers (Birthday Gift)
26. Trejo's Tacos by Danny Trejo  (Finished 9/6/2021)
27. The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson (Ryan's Pick)
28. Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear (Borrowed from Daria)
29. Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf (Professional Development)
30. The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard (Ryan's Pick)