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.)