oh, to look back at a different time, where i read books in restaurants and drove around enough to listen to audiobooks in large chunks...
in february i read:
this book is anti-racist, by tiffany jewell (this is the book i read in a restaurant, as i took myself out to a fancy dinner before going back to work for an evening event. the director of equity and inclusion at my school gave it to me to preview because she's considering asking the whole faculty to read it this summer. it's aimed at a high school audience, but is a great primer for talking about diversity work; i ultimately highly encouraged her to go forward with her plan. two phrases i particularly liked: instead of "minority" or "people of color," she prefers "people of the global majority." i was into that. and instead of "allies," she calls people like me "co-conspirators," which i also loved. if you work in education, this would be a valuable book to investigate!)
leaders eat last, by simon sinek (this took me a long time to read, as many professional development books do, but i finally finished it in february. a lot of valuable ideas in this and it's definitely worth familiarizing yourself with sinek's work if you do leadership work in your organization.)
there there, by tommy orange (i re-read this because tommy orange came to pittsburgh and i had tickets to see him! guys, in february we gathered together in large numbers. it was a thing we did. i loved his lecture, which was thoughtful and intimate. and this book is really incredible, so i continue to recommend it to you!)
the dutch house, by ann patchett (i listened to the first half of this on audiobook (tom hanks narrates - it's amazing) and then when it got auto-returned to the library because my time was up i read a hard copy of the remaining 2/3 of the book. i would highly recommend this book - the story of a family and a house that is just as much a character as the family is. it goes back and forth in time and thus unfolds in a really interesting way. read this book! it's just as good as all the hype says it is.)
