november: 51 & 52

november was incredibly stressful, mostly because i did not see the stress coming and did not mentally prepare for it. ugh!  as a result, i didn't finish a single book until the thanksgiving break.  this month i read:

girl waits with gun, by amy stewart (detective novel with a twist - based on a real life female detective in 1910s new jersey.  well-developed characters, but the plot moved a little slowly for me.  i liked this one but won't be rushing out to recommend it to everyone i know.  this was a school book club read and i got the book for free - woo hoo!)

everything, everything, by nicola yoon (a lovely YA novel about a girl who has an autoimmune disorder and can't leave her house - but falls in love with the boy who moves in next door.  ugh i love a good YA novel.  this was a super quick read for me and i totally fell in love with the characters and the writing style and the little twist that happens near the end.  have definitely added the author's next book to my list!  highly recommend if you like YA.)

october: 48, 49 & 50

50 books!  who am i?

barbara the slut, by lauren holmes (this is my "first book you see in a bookstore" - i went into brazos bookstore, my local independent bookstore, and kept my eyes averted from the books until i found a saleswoman.  i told her to lead me to my "first book i see," and make it a good one.  i told her some books i'd read recently, and she showed me this one.  poof!  i had to buy it.  i would NEVER have picked up this book on my own (the cover has the word "slut" spray painted on it), but i was totally into the short stories contained within.  success!)

the muse, by jessie burton (i read this for my online bookclub - two storylines: one in london in the 1960s and one in spain in the 1930s.  two well-rendered and vivid worlds and an exciting mystery about how exactly they will come together (which of course they do).  i'd recommend it!)

before the fall, by noah hawley (the same bookclub's pick for the previous month, which i didn't do because i had other reading commitments.  a private plane crashes, and only two people survive.  why did it crash?  i'm not rushing out to recommend this to everyone i know, but it was a good vacation read - if you go away for a long weekend, this book would happily keep you company.)

7 categories left to fulfill in 2016!  eek!  gotta get back on track if i hope to finish on time! 

september: 44, 45, 46 & 47

short reviews this month, since i'm only barely getting it in before i'm supposed to do my october books.  OOPS.

the goldfinch, by donna tarts (gorgeous prose, sweeping storyline, moved slowly in places, super long, would totally recommend it.)

underground airlines, by ben h. winters (fascinating premise (it's present day and 4 states still have slavery) + really interesting storyline (main character is a slave hunter) + well-developed dystopian world = i really liked this one.)

the man in the high castle, by philip k. dick (i'm counting this as my "science fiction novel," even though i'm not sure it is one.  it won the hugo award for science fiction/fantasy, so i've decided that's good enough for me.  watch the tv show instead of reading the book.  when's the last time you heard that?  but really - watch the show on amazon.)

the sound of gravel, by ruth wariner (this is my autobiography, even though i'm pretty sure it's a memoir.  i'm cheating a little here in september!  WAY interesting look into a mormon polygamist lifestyle in mexico.  parts are horrifying.  i sped through this - really really interesting.  read it!)

august: 41, 42 & 43

still going strong! this month i read:

the promise, by ann weisgarber (this is historical fiction, set in galveston during the 1900 hurricane, which was the deadliest hurricane in US history, killing an estimated 8,000 people.  living 45 miles from galveston made this a really interesting read for me.  not the best historical fiction i've read, as the story line around the hurricane wasn't totally compelling for me, but i really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the hurricane and the city of galveston at this time.)

elizabeth the queen, by sally bedell smith (i listened to the audiobook of this one - a common theme for the nonfiction i read, as i don't like to read nonfiction before bed! - and was totally fascinated about the life of britain's current queen.  the book was a little bit gossipy; the queen doesn't give interviews, so the book is compiled through public documents and interviews with people close to the queen.  sometimes i had to roll my eyes at the silliness of the monarchy, but for the most part i really really enjoyed this book.  i'd recommend it!)

grit, by angela duckworth (this was the second book my boss asked us to read this summer, and though i had read duckworth's academic papers that detail her findings from her research on grit, i did get some good nuggets out of this book.  definitely a worthwhile read for people who work in education!)

july: 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 & 40

i promise i do have a life, people, but somehow this july i've surpassed (with 40 books total so far this year) my totals for all 12 months of even my best year.  a couple of these books were really excellent, and i knocked out another 5 categories in my book challenge.  this month i read:

half of a yellow sun, by chimamanda ngozi adichie (this is my "book with a protagonist who has your occupation," as one main character is a professor and another becomes a teacher partway through the novel.  i really really liked the book, despite not really knowing where it was going for the first half of the book.  i also didn't know anything about biafra, whose flag had half of a yellow sun on it (hence the title), so it was really interesting to read this book about nigeria post-independence.  adichie is a beautiful writer, and this is worth a read.)

lila, by marilynne robinson (this, plus gilead, is going to fulfill my "book and its prequel." loved this book, even more so after going to my nerdy seminar in santa fe to spend the week talking about gilead and lila with other smart and interesting people.  marilynne robinson is a brilliant writer whose books are so rich.  highly recommend!)

the worst hard time, by timothy egan (this is my "book that takes place during summer." i listened to the audiobook of this one, about the dust bowl, told through the stories of a few people who lived through it.  i learned a ton about what caused the dust bowl and how truly horrible it was in parts of the west.  tons of rich details.  history nerds: add this to your list.)

attachments, by rainbow rowell (this is my "book that's guaranteed to bring you joy," because i love rainbow rowell and this was the only one of her books i hadn't read.  i'll repeat myself: if you haven't read any rainbow rowell, you must, and you're welcome to start with this one.)

the handmaid's tale, by margaret atwood (this is my "classic from the 20th century" because i get to define "classic" however i want.  i remember reading this in college, probably, but it had been so long that i didn't remember much of the plot.  from the queen of dystopian literature, this is a must read if you missed it along the way.  parts were totally creepy.)

excellent sheep, by william deresiewicz (this was one i had to read for work; the author's premise is that the quest for the ivy leagues leads kids to become sheep - fitting into a cookie cutter model of a college applicant - and the ones who make it to the ivy leagues are just the most excellent of the sheep.  he has a lot of suggestions of how to change the college admissions game and how that might affect what students are able to do in college.  if you have a kid in middle school or high school, you might find this a useful read.)

the serpent king, by jeff zentner (oh, i love a YA novel.  this author is the new john green - great characters, compelling storyline, and i got a little teary in the middle.  i really liked this book, set in rural tennessee and now i have 9 months or so to wait until his second novel is scheduled to come out.)

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
—Theodore Roosevelt

june: 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 & 33

i read 8 books this month (absurd!  this is what quasi-vacation and lots of travel and then real vacation will do for you! oh, and audiobooks.  audiobooks help), but only three books fulfilled categories in the reading challenge.  must recommit myself to reading books outside my normal comfort zone!

the unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry, by rachel joyce (this is my "book about a road trip" and it was recommended by a friend who is also doing the reading challenge.  this was okay, but not transformative.  an easy read.  if i was from england i think i would have enjoyed the details of all the small towns he travels through on his "pilgrimage," but as i'm not those were a little lost on me.)

missoula: rape and the justice system in a college town, by jon krakauer (this is such. an. important. book. and everyone should read it.  particularly as i think about my role in helping young men and women get ready for college, the importance of this topic is huge and the book is quite well done.  i have so much to say on this topic - how in the past 50 years we have evolved from "she may say no, but she doesn't mean it" to "no means no," which is what i was taught and was revolutionary at the time, to affirmative consent, a phrase that i hadn't even heard two years ago and now we talk about with our students.  what i liked about this book was that some of the examples that krakauer gives are so black and white that right and wrong is clear to everyone, i would think.  there is a lot of gray in sexual assaults - and he does dwell in that gray for parts of the books - but he also talks about the horrible black and white cases.  this is a must read.)

gathering blue, by lois lowry (i've moved some things around on my list to maximize the number of categories i can fill, and this is now my "book about a culture you're unfamiliar with." this is a dystopian young adult novel that i listened to - i don't normally listen to fiction, but young adult fiction is pretty easy to follow - and very much enjoyed.  if you liked the giver, you should read this.)

fallen land, by taylor brown (this is my "book set in your home state" - though it takes place in virginia and georgia, too - and is a civil war tragedy that totally captivated me.  if you like historical fiction, this is worth picking up.)

beautiful ruins, by jess walter (i read this while traveling, and it is the perfect summer read (a quick read that has some substance)! amazon describes it as "the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962...and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later," which is a lot better than whatever the back cover gave as the description - which almost made me not want to read it. it has vivid characters and was a totally enjoyable read.)

the lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven, by sherman alexie (i like sherman alexie, but i do not like short stories - no time to get to know the characters before you have to move on to new ones - so this book was fine and all, but i wasn't hurrying to pick it up and read more.  read the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian instead.)

whiteout, by ken follett (read this is in the winter - it was an odd book to read in the summer.  it's christmas eve!  a virus has escaped a lab!  then a huge snowstorm hits!  characters converge on a remote estate!  it's that kind of book and i enjoy that kind of book.  different from the other ken follett books i'd read, but i'd recommend it if you like an action-packed plot that is ready-made for the big screen.)

the versions of us, by laura barnett (this was our book club's pick for this month, and it's a sliding doors-type book with three versions in the life of a woman and her husband (in one version)/the guy who got away (in a second version)/a man she meets occasionally but has no relationship with (in a third version).  it was a little confusing, keeping the versions separate as i read, and while short chapters kept the plot moving along, i wasn't rushing to finish this one.)

(25 of 40 categories in the challenge filled thus far!)

"but aren't all great quests folly?  el dorado and the fountain of youth and the search for intelligent life in the cosmos - we know what's out there.  it's what isn't that truly compels us.  technology may have shrunk the epic journey to a couple of short car rides and regional jet lags - four states and twelve hundred miles traversed in an afternoon - but true quests aren't measure in time or distance anyway, so much as in hope.  there are only two good outcomes for a quest like this, the hope of the serendipitous savant - sail for asia and stumble on america - and the hope of scarecrows and tin men: that you find out you had the thing you sought all along."
--from pg. 284 of  beautiful ruins, by jess walter

“I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”
—Diane Ackerman

thoughts on visiting prison for the third time

the third time around, they've made some improvements.  there is now a permanent shelter in the parking lot, to protect people who are waiting from the rain or the heat.  there is a metal box in the shelter that contains the form you have to fill out, so you can do that before you get inside the security building.  i wonder if someone had to pass out in the waiting line before they installed this shelter.  maybe not.

the line was short yesterday.  as i arrived they were letting the first 10 people in, and i found myself in a line with only 7 people (and 1 baby) in line in front of me, so i would be in the next group.  we waited 30 minutes, during which time i made friends with sadie the baby and tried to befriend the freckle-faced third grader in front of me (he had no interest).  it doesn't rain on us.  small victories.

inside, i got to see my friend before count, which i hadn't gotten inside early enough to do the previous two times. at 10am, the guards do a count of all the prisoners, which can apparently take half an hour or even 45 minutes.  during that time, no one can change locations within the prison, which means that no visitors can enter during count and if you're already in the visiting room but your prisoner hasn't come in yet, you have to wait out that time before they are allowed to come in.  so after arriving and getting in the line at 8:40, my friend entered the visiting room at 9:45.  this is lightening quick in prison terms.

over the next four hours i filled him up as best i could, with my $22 in quarters: two sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits.  one kit kat bar.  one bacon cheeseburger.  two juices, a root beer, and a coke.  we laughed and talked and people-watched.  sadie is the great niece of his former cellmate, so we marveled at the small-world aspect of me meeting them in line and then getting to see his friend meet the new baby in the visiting room.  on this day i marveled at the fact that there were probably 40 prisoners who got a visitor, out of a prison population at this facility of 1300.  1260 men did not get visited, and my friend on any given weekend is more likely to be one of those people than to be the one getting the visitor.  he has 23 months to go.

i wonder about who he will be when he leaves, about what our relationship will be like.

when i leave he says "i love you," and i say "i love you, too."  this is how we end every phone call (five or six of them a year), every email, and every visit.  we didn't say it before, but it seems imperative to say it now.

may: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 & 25

may is a super crazy month for me - i am the AP coordinator at my school, so two weeks are spent pulling those exams off, often with nights where i am at work until 6pm.  then it's all the senior events culminating in graduation.  then it's getting the underclassmen finished up.  i can't believe it, but on top of all of that i read 5 books and listened to 2 audiobooks.  when i gave up cable 18 months ago, i started reading more, and it's not uncommon for me to read for an hour at night these days.  it's much more fulfilling than tv most of the time (quality tv like game of thrones and bloodline isn't on all the time), and i fall asleep pretty quickly in front of tv, frankly.  oops.

this month i read:

behind the beautiful forevers, by katherine boo (this is my "new york times bestseller," and i listened to the audiobook.  this is nonfiction that reads (listens) like fiction and it frequently made me thankful for things like clean drinking water, free education through 12th grade, and a less corrupt government and legal system.  i can't begin to fathom the time and effort that went into the research to make this book, and you should absolutely read this book, which is set in a slum in mumbai.)

between the world and me, by ta-nehisi coates (i shifted some things around so i could make this my "national book award winner." he uses language beautifully to talk about things that are hard to talk about.  i think of myself as a progressive person who tries to understand and support the cause of people of color, and this opened up my eyes in a few important ways.  coates said things in a way that finally clicked for me.  mandatory reading for other white allies as we try to become better at that job.)

on such a full sea, by chang-rae lee (this is my "dystopian novel" and you can skip it; there are many better dystopian novels out there.)

ship breaker, by paolo bacigalupi (i listened to this one, too.  it was recommended to me by a student and it is young adult and dystopian and fits no categories in my challenge - we've reached that point where the "easy" categories are all filled up!  this is set on the gulf coast in a post-apocalyptic world and you don't need to run out and get this one, but i definitely enjoyed it.)

home, by marilynn robinson (the second in her series that began with gilead, and if anything i enjoyed this book more than the first one.  it takes place over the same time frame, telling the same story from gilead, but from a different character's perspective.  it was like the curtain was being drawn back and the world of the first book was made twice as vivid.  robinson is a masterful writer, and she's written a third book, again telling the story from now a third character's perspective.  it will be part of my june reading!  again, this book doesn't fill any of the book challenge categories.)

in a dark, dark wood, by ruth ware (this is my "murder mystery" and it got a little creepy in the middle and i had to stop reading so i wouldn't be too afraid to fall asleep.  and then i checked the locks on my doors.  but i am a weenie so you shouldn't be afraid of this book.  it reminded me a bit of the girl on the train so if you enjoyed that one, check this one out!)

a man called ove, by fredrik backman (this is my "book translated to english" (it was written in swedish) and OMG I WAS SO CHARMED BY THIS BOOK.  curmudgeonly old guy becomes less curmudgeonly.  i cried at the end.  there is a cat involved, though that didn't bring on the tears.  read this book!)

reading challenge count = 23 of 41 books complete!

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”
—Helen Keller

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I might have. ”
—Abraham Lincoln

april: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18

i read so much in april!  woo hoo!  i'm almost halfway through my book challenge...though at this point all the easy-to-check-off categories are gone.  a satirical book?  a self-improvement book?  these are not at the top of my list to read.  we'll see how this challenge progresses...

crazy salad, by nora ephron (this is my "political memoir" and this is one that you can probably skip.  sorry, nora.  it's a serious of essays that nora ephron wrote in the 1970s about women, and while they are interesting, they are also pretty dated (lots of talk of consciousness-raising groups and such...several stories about richard nixon's daughter, who probably was more interesting to people of the 70s than she is to me today).  i have decided that i get to call this a political memoir because this book reminded me that to "be political" one just needs to have strong feelings about political issues (such as the women's movement, in this case) and act upon them.  one doesn't have to be a politician.  whew.  successfully avoided reading a book written by a politician, which i was not looking forward to.)

miss peregrine's home for peculiar children, by ransom riggs (this is my "book that's becoming a movie this year" and this is another one that was fine and all, but nothing fantastic.  i watched the preview for the movie and they appear to have dramatically altered the plot, which is probably going to work out just fine because the plot of the book didn't really captivate me.  fantastic premise, very cool historical photos interspersed with the text, but the plot doesn't really go anywhere and you can probably skip it and watch the movie instead.)

the red house, by mark haddon (this is my "book that takes place on an island" (island = great britain) and sorry to be a broken record: but this is skip-able.  i LOVED haddon's two previous books and was eagerly looking forward to reading this one...and then was disappointed.  there are eight narrators in this book - yes, eight - and each only gets a few paragraphs before we move on to the next one.  so it's a bit disjointed.  gets better over time, but i won't be re-reading this one.)

the longest night, by andria williams (this is my "book that is published in 2016" and, wait for it...i really liked it!  this was recommended to me by the skimm, an email newsletter i subscribe to, and they described it as a mix of serial and army wives.  loved serial; stuck with army wives as my guilty pleasure tv show for a couple seasons, so i definitely wanted to pick this up.  it's based on the true story of the only nuclear fatality in the united states, but told from the perspective of a fictional husband (military, works on the nuclear plant) and wife (1960s housewife).  in addition to the nuclear reactor storyline there's love and jealousy and intrigue.  i'd definitely recommend this!)

fangirl, by rainbow rowell (i switched some things around, so this is going to be my "YA bestseller" and oh, people.  you need to read this book.  i love rainbow rowell's writing (though the plot of carry on didn't really do it for me) and this might be her best book yet.  it's the story of twins who go off to the same college and drift apart...one parties, one writes fan fiction about a harry-potter-like series.  it has romance (duh, it's YA), poignant moments, believable and well developed characters.  thumbs up!  the only rowell book i haven't read now is attachments, and you better believe it's on my list.)

euphoria, by lily king (this is my "book about a culture you're unfamiliar with"; becky recommended it to me and i bought it in an airport bookstore before a flight - with a connection - back to houston.  an excellent purchase!  it's the story of a margaret mead-like character in papua new guinea with her husband in the 1930s doing anthropological observations of native people there...plus the story of another anthropologist doing similar work nearby.  it's not so much the story of their work as the story of the people themselves - the passion of the characters for the work they do plus the story of their complicated inner lives.  thumbs up!)

“Our soul desires to be understanding, our ego is only concerned with being understood. When you are being understanding you are connected to your soul.”
—Michaiel Bovenes

march: 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12

it looks like i read a lot in march, but one of these is an audiobook, one is super short, and one is a graphic novel.  aaaaand one is 1100 pages long, so maybe it all evens itself out!

this month i read:

voyager, by diana gabaldon (this is my "book that's more than 600 pages," the third book in the outlander series.  i continue to love the characters claire and jaime and the quality of the writing and the ease of reading these books.  ridiculous plot twists aside, this one was just as good as the previous two and i'm sure after a bit of a break i'll pick up the 4th book in the series!)

carry on, by rainbow rowell (this is my "YA bestseller," but could also be set in europe or set on an island (great britain), so we may have to see which categories most need filling as the book challenge continues.  this was my book club's pick this month, and i spent the first half of the book being like "this is such a harry potter knock off i don't even know what to think about it" and the second half being like "oh, this is an interesting plot twist.  i am entertained."  and then i finished and in the postscript i found out that this book is a spin off of a different rainbow rowell book - fangirl - which i have not read.  so now i'm mad at the universe (or the publishers, i guess) for not making it apparent that i might appreciate this book a bit more if i read fangirl first.  so now i'm going to read fangirl.  this book was enjoyable and easy to read, but not my favorite book of the year.)

gratitude, by oliver sacks (this is my "book you can finish in a day," borrowed from kate and finished on the morning of the last day of spring break.  it's a set of essays that sacks wrote in the last years of his life.  beautifully written and thoughtful - i really enjoyed this!)

just kids, by patti smith (this is my "national book award winner" and one that i listened to in audiobook form (you know me and nonfiction).  i...don't know what to say about this book.  it was a glimpse into a very different world - i did not know patti smith's music, nor did i know robert maplethorpe's photography.  nor did i really GET the starving artist community or why someone would patronize the arts the way that maplethorpe gets patronized.  this book at least pulled back the curtain a bit on this world and led me to listen to a little patti smith and look at some maplethorpe photographs (pro tip: don't google his photography on your work computer).  and while i still don't totally get it, i can absolutely appreciate it, and for that reason i'm really glad i listened to this book.)

american born chinese, by gene luen yang (this is my "graphic novel," a contender for our summer reading book at school.  i really liked this book - three intertwining chinese-american stories, beautifully drawn and thought-provoking.  i'm not sure my principal will be convinced to pick a graphic novel for our all-school read, but there's a lot to talk about here and i'd love to engage in discussions on the content and on graphic novels in general with our community!)

“I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.”
—Rumi

“My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”
—Oliver Sacks, Gratitude

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

february: 6 & 7

my reading slowed down a bit in february - this month i read:

furiously happy, by jenny lawson (for the book challenge, this is going to count as my "book written by a comedian."  a colleague gave me this book because she had disliked it so much she didn't finish it.  not a rousing recommendation, but then my book club picked it for this month's read.  i had read jenny lawson's blog off and on for a little while, and i recognized her voice in this book.  it was fine but nothing special.  it was hard to laugh throughout it because she brings in some stories about her clinical depression, and one can only find that so funny.  don't rush out to buy this.)

the snow child, by eowyn ivey (this is my "book based on a fairy tale."  i bought this book a year or two ago, drawn to it because it was the runner up for the pulitzer prize, but it sat on my bookshelf until now.  i picked it up because - based on a fairy tale!  this is a category in the challenge!  plus, you can't read a book that takes place in alaska in the winter in any season other than winter...and while houston winters can include 80 degree days and tons of sunshine, i figured i ought to read this in the correct calendar season.  ooh this book was eerie.  subtle, captivating characters, vivid setting - there's a lot done really well in this book.  i kept wondering how it would turn out and realizing it was going to be bad no matter what.  if you're in the market for a slow-moving but beautifully done book, this one was great!)

amazing what technology can do - put you back in pompeii!  watch the destruction of pompeii as they believe it happened.  i was captivated!

an amazing a cappella rendition of "loch loman," which makes me yearn HARD for my live music on saturday nights at favorite irish pub in atlanta.

it also makes me yearn hard for more travel.  mexico for a week this summer is potentially in the works, but i need to get back to europe soon.

january: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

a productive month, spurred by the book challenge!  probably my best january so far.  this month i read:

gilead, by marilynne robinson (this was a re-read, done because i decided i wanted to read the two follow up books.  gilead is told as a letter written from an aging father to his young son.  i remembered loving this book, and at times when i was re-reading it i wasn't sure why.  at other times i could remember - the writing is so beautifully done, the characters and the setting so vividly described, the narrator so thoughtful.  i'm really looking forward to home, which tells the story of the ames family and the broughton family from another character's perspective.  in my book challenge, i'm counting gilead as "a book recommended by a family member" [thanks, uncle mark!].)

everything i never told you, by celeste ng (i bought this book this fall at our school's book fair, and i enjoyed reading it - the story of a multicultural family in the 1970s dealing with the loss of a child and what significance different characters take from the death.  i found this book really interesting - and more than anything, really sad.  it was a book i was eager to read when i got in bed at night, but not one where i stayed up past my bedtime reading justonemorechapter.  thank to willis for this recommendation! - in my book challenge, i'm counting everything i never told you as "a book with a blue cover.")

citizen: an american lyric, by claudia rankine (i'm counting this as "a book of poetry" even though it's not.  the back cover, at the top, where it tells you where to shelf it?  "poetry/essays."  it is 90% essays and 10% poetry but who cares, i'm counting it as poetry.  this is a book that one of our senior english teachers assigned to her students this fall, and no fewer than three of the kids i work with wrote about it or mentioned it in a college essay.  had to read it!  it's a perspective on race in america that was at times really thought-provoking, at times challenging.  this was not an uplifting perspective, but it's an important one and i'm glad i read it!)

ready player one, by ernest cline (i'm counting this as my "romance set in the future" which tells you a little bit but not too much about this book.  this was our faculty book club pick this month, and i loved it!  i don't think i ever would have picked this book up on my own - futuristic homage to the 80s set inside a computer game? not normally my speed.  but it does what my favorite stories do, which is tell you the structure of the book at the beginning and then guide you through it.  in this case, the quest to find the "egg" hidden in the world.  thumbs up to this book!)

old school, by tobias wolff (i'm counting this as my "book from the library," and it's one i was compelled to read because we are considering it for our summer reading for the upper school kids this year.  i found it a little slow and the setting a bit foreign for our audience - an all-boys new england boarding school in the 1960s - though there are some great things to discuss that come out of it - what honesty is, among other things.  i won't be suggesting we read this, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't, if this kind of book is your thing!  faint praise, i fear.)

“For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
—T.S. Eliot

well, i cried my way through this one: my wife and i are (both) pregnant.  beautiful!

powerful feeling: when yoga class is hard, but you are doing 98% of it.  the girl next to you is struggling and finally picks up her mat and leaves.  it's not very yoga-like of you, but it makes you feel powerful and you work doubly hard for the rest of class.  yes!  strength!

"you like to think memory goes far back though remembering was never recommended.  forget all that, the world says.  the world's had a lot of practice.  no one should adhere to the facts that contribute to narrative, the facts that create lives.  to your mind, feelings are what create a person, something unwilling, something wild vandalizing whatever the skull holds.  those sensations form a someone.  the headaches begin then.  don't wear sunglasses in the house, the world says, though they soothe, soothe sight, soothe you."
--citizen: an american lyric, by claudia rankine, pg. 61

this visual of wearing sunglasses when you remember what has happened in the past, as though the past were too bright - hurt too much - to look at with your bare eyes - i love this image.  and i'm really liking this book, though it makes me uncomfortable, angry, frustrated.

what i'm listening to right now

"beautiful drug," by zac brown band:

day 4

i have conned two people at work into doing the bon appetit cleanse with me - yesssss.

i can't believe i'm saying this, but i like my oatmeal for breakfast.

the barley is not the end of the world.

i am eating reasonably sized portions.

i brought a hard boiled egg to work for my afternoon snack and it sat in the work fridge all ridiculous as only a single egg just sitting in a fridge can be and it was delish.

who am i.

it will all go (slightly) to hell on wednesday when i go to trivia and eat a veggie burger with french fries, but that's okay.  my biggest pet peeve of people on diets/eating plans/whatever is when they can't go out to eat with me because their plan doesn't allow it.  or if we have to go to some weird restaurant.  i don't plan on going crazy, but dinners at restaurants are allowed.  because i say so.

it's time for resolutions and shit

i'm doing the bon appetit food lover's cleanse which i am oddly very excited about.  i mean, i've CHOSEN to do it, so i guess i should be excited.  no dairy other than yogurt (apparently dairy is hard for your digestive system to digest, so we are "giving our stomachs a break" or something), lots of whole grains, only four alcoholic drinks a week.  i am subbing in vegetarian meals when the "cleanse" tries to make me eat meat (tofu stir fries and lentil soups, among other things).  i am personally going to focus on portion size - i eat pretty healthily in general, but i also probably eat twice as much as i should for dinner on a regular basis.  so there's that.

after purchasing only alcohol at the grocery store on 12/31, i purchased only good shit on 1/1.  i bought things i've never eaten by choice before.  chia seeds!  barley!  steel cut oats!

i feel so superior to other humans.  is this what healthy people feel like on a daily basis?

i made a batch of oatmeal yesterday, and portioned it into four tupperwares for breakfast.  today i added honey and almond milk and raspberries and it was actually delicious.

i made a batch of barley yesterday, too, and i had to eat some of that at lunch and it was fine and all but not, you know, delicious in any sense of the world.

to be continued.

my year in books

a recap:
2010: i read 15 books.
2011: i started my book challenge with the goal of reading 25 books; i read 38.
2012: year two of the challenge; i read 34 books.
2013: year three; i read 34 books again.
2014: year four; i read 32 books.
2015: year five; i read 35 books.

2015 broken down:
21 books written by women
14 by men

24 fiction books
11 nonfiction

7 diverse books (as in, the main character or the author is not white)

my favorite books of 2015?  deep down dark (nonfiction) - dear mr. you came in a close second - and the book thief (fiction). read these books!

on to 2016!  i'm going to do this reading challenge to guide my reading a little.  let's be frank: i have a ton of books on my "to read" list, so i don't really need a challenge like this, but i mean, look how fun it looks!  i love the idea of thinking about what books might fit what categories.  so i'm in.  i have started a little facebook group with other people who seem interested in playing along, so let me know if i should add you!