Did you know April means it's not March anymore?

Because intellectually, I knew it was April, but emotionally, I definitely thought we were still in the same month. Nope. April is different from March. It's a NEW month. Which means I am still behind.

I am unhappy to report that Jane Austen at Home is DRY, y'all. Like...toast with no butter dry. Cheerios with no milk. I was trying to slog through it, but I made it like five chapters in, and then I was like WAIT A MINUTE. I know someone who is a Jane Austen scholar! Devoney Looser, friends and foes. Or as I knew her when we briefly played roller derby together, Stone Cold Jane Austen. And she wrote a biography about Jane Austen! And why did I not remember this earlier? So I just ordered her book, The Making of Jane Austen, and I can't wait to start reading it. 

Know what else I can't wait to start reading? Let's see...

💭💭💭

Challenge 3: Read any book from the Woman's Prize shortlist/longlist/winner list!

I'll be reading An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. It has been described as both emotional and sad, which, if you asked my husband about it, is my bread and butter. So I'm sure I'll love it.

Also!

💭💭💭

Challenge 4: Read a book in any genre by a POC that's about joy and not trauma. My pick for this one is Black Boy Joy, an anthology of seventeen short stories edited by Kwame Mbalia. I've wanted to read this for a while, and I just got a copy for my school library, so I am SO excited to check it out!

Shhhh, pretend it's still February

Ok, I'm several days late, but I did it. I finished my February challenges. THREE of them, no less!

First up, I listened to The Hill We Climb several times, and it remains amazing. Listen to it. Over and over. It's glorious. Do I feel like this one was a little bit of a cheat, since it's like five minutes long? I mean...a little, but I didn't know that when I chose it? And it's still incredible, so. Whatever.

I also FINALLY finished The House of Earth and Blood (stayed up way too late last night to do it, but it's spring break so fuck it!), and y'all, shit got tense. TENSE. Do I feel like the first half-ish of the book could have been shorter? Yeah, probably. At least a bit. But the world building is pretty great, the characters were solid, and WHEW the last like quarter of the book had me on the edge of my...mattress, I guess, since I read it in bed. Pillow? Anyway, I probably should not have chosen this as a book that I read right before bed, because I had some wild nightmares, but I have very few regrets. I will be drinking lots of coffee today, though.

Finally, I landed on a third challenge, and that was reading a new literary magazine. Passages North, hellooooooooo! The linked short story was written by the brother of my tattoo artist, which is how I learned about it, and it was quite a ride.

⭐⭐⭐

So, now that we're already almost a week into March, which challenges shall I focus on for the rest of the month? I'm going to be honest, I'm a little bit starting to feel like if I don't go in order I'll end up sticking myself with the longer/harder books at the end of the year. 😬 Should I switch to going in order? Maybe? I don't know. I'm going to for March, at least. Challenges 1 and 2!

Challenge 1: Read a biography of an author you admire: I'll be reading Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley, because Jane Austen rules. Austen forever! I just put a hold on it at my library, so I should have it in my hot little hands early next week.

Challenge 2: Read a book set in a bookstore: Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley is my pick for this one, it sounds full of heartache and longing and romance, which is pretty up my alley. I've got a hold on the audiobook through my digital library, which has an estimated two week wait, so...looking forward to listening to it on my commute when I'm back at work!

This post was not sponsored by my local public library, but consider this a PSA in case you need it: visit your local public library! Libraries are awesome!

Bye January, not sure I'll miss you

Oh my god, January felt like it would never end. I know there are only two days left, but I still kind of feel like February will never come. I guess on the plus side, plenty of time for reading? No, wait, that's a lie, it felt like forever because there was so much going on, which meant NOT PLENTY OF TIME FOR READING. Of course, though, I picked a super long book for challenge #18, so I am not done with that one yet. (Surprised? I didn't think so.)

I DID, however, finish The Red Pyramid, and thus challenge #9, AND I read the shortest book of poetry I've ever seen, which checks off challenge #12, reading a poetry collection. I probably could have written that in a different way so it didn't seem like I purposely chose the shortest book of poetry I've ever seen, but it's already written, I can't go back. 

For the record, that is not at all what I did. We did a virtual program with a local author at my former job before I left, and his latest book was added to the library's collection, so I put a hold on it and THEN discovered that it was the shortest book of poetry I'd ever seen. Worked out well for me, though, since I was behind on finishing two challenges for January and my hold came in just in time to read it before the month ended. Also worked out well for me because it was a good book! 

Anyhoo, February is up! I guess I'll keep chipping away at House of Earth and Blood as one of my challenges...should I choose three challenges just in case, though? Might be a good idea.

Due to kismet in library holds, my second challenge will be #24: Pick a challenge from any of the previous years' challenges to repeat. I chose Read an Audiobook of Poetry from 2020's challenges and am VERY excited to listen to The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman. 💜

I'm torn on what to do for a third challenge, so I guess I'll see how I feel if it's taking a long time to get through my lingering January challenge. In the meantime, what challenge would you pick for #24?

New Year, Same Me

Well, well, well, what have we here...time, while a construct, continues to march on, and we are now in 2022. Given the rousing successes that my 2021 reading challenges ended up being (and by "rousing successes" I mean I barely finished both, but I fuckin did it, didn't I?!), I decided to carry that momentum into what will hopefully be a better year than the last couple. Even if it isn't, I guess at least I'll come out of it having read some good books.

Anyhoo...reading challenges. I'm making the switch from Goodreads to StoryGraph (bold, I know), and instead of choosing a reading goal for the whole year like I have the past few years, I'm going to do the StoryGraph monthly challenges. January's challenge: Read at least one page a day. Already read a chapter this morning, so I'm crushing it so far!

I'll also be doing Book Riot's Read Harder challenge again, and this time instead of choosing a couple books at a time, I spent my new year's eve the way all cool kids spend it...choosing books for each challenge. I'll still be aiming to complete two challenges each month, but I'm going to jump around this year instead of going in order. Ready for January's challenges?

#9: Read the book that's been on your TBR the longest: 

CALLED OUT. For this challenge, I will be reading The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, which has been on my to be read list since July 31st, 2015. Which isn't entirely fair because this is the first book in a series, which means I'll actually be reading the SERIES that has been on my TBR the longest, which is exactly why it was still on my TBR...but here we go. It's on now, Book Riot.

#18: Read a "Best _____ Writing of the year" book for a topic and year of your choice:

Look...I should be more plugged in with book awards, but I'm not. Pretty much the only time I pay attention to awards is when I'm teaching them to students or when I see an award announcement on Twitter and am like "yay, good job!" Could I have googled around and found a cool best whatever list? Totally. Did I? No. I picked one of the reader's choice awards from the Goodreads 2020 awards...coincidentally, one that I got last year for my birthday and still haven't read! What book is this, you ask? House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas.

Which books would you choose for each of these challenges?

Read Harder - Final Update

Y'all...I fuckin did it. How, I'm not entirely sure? But it is done. I've got approximately ten zillion things to do in the next few days to prepare for celebratory happenings, and I need to finish one book a day to finish my total reading goal, but below are some brief thoughts on the last six books I read.

September:

Nelson Mandela's autobiography, while incredibly long, is pretty amazing. There was so much I didn't know about the history of South Africa and the fight to end apartheid, and I just...wow. He was incredible, the people he worked with were incredible, and now I want to read a biography about Winnie, his second wife, because she sounded tough as hell.

Love is a Revolution was an ok read. I didn't love the character development, but it was still enjoyable, and it goes by super quickly, which always makes it easier for me to overlook minor complaints.

October:

Good lord, Fifty Words for Rain was heartbreaking. Every time I thought maybe things were looking up, nope, here the plot comes to punch you in the gut again.

I am not one for poetry, and I don't know that I've ever read a book of poems before, but I enjoyed Earth Keeper. It was pretty short, and I listened to it on audio, which honestly I feel is the best way to enjoy poetry...it's like reading a play versus seeing it acted out. 

November:

Lila and Hadley was very good and made me cry a bunch. 

December:

I can't decide how I feel about The Edge of Every Day. There were parts of it I really loved and parts that I found kind of meandery or couldn't see how it connected to the overall narrative. I don't want to critique what is essentially someone's memoir...it's weird to say about someone telling their own story that the way they did it was wrong or bad...I think I just connected more with the parts about the author's mom and brother (the two family members who had schizophrenia) than I did with the parts where she was focusing more on herself.

Anyway...it is done! I kind of can't believe it. Now, who's ready for Read Harder 2022?

December, Goal Updates, etc.

Well, my my...having a new job is tiring! Even though I've been a librarian for a while and basically know what I'm doing, aside from some organization-specific things, it's still a lot of energy getting to know new people (especially when those new people include 400+ students between the ages of five and twelve), learning the ropes, and getting used to working again. I really thought I would have more energy for blogging again before now, but clearly that was not to be. If I can get ahead on lesson planning during winter break, my goal is to start up again January...we shall see.

In the meantime, I figured now that it's December (HOW is it December?) I probably owed everyone (all the one people who read this) a Read Harder update. You ready for this?

I am very behind. (Shocking, I know. I also still need to read 24 books for the year to hit my goal of 150 books total. Yeesh, how did I let this happen?)

I DID manage to finish all my books through August, so that's...something? Maybe? I'm working on Long Walk to Freedom right now, from September - spoiler alert, it is LONG - and will probably read Love is a Revolution this week while my husband is working nights. I tend to get more reading done when I'm supposed to be asleep while he isn't here but can't actually sleep. I also read one of my November picks and one of my December picks, woo! Hopefully I can get through the last six books I have to finish in the next three weeks...tall order...anyway, my remaining choices for the year are below.

October:

Historical Fiction with a POC or LGBTQ protagonist: My choice was Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie, which is set in post-WW2 Japan and has a beautiful cover. I can't wait to get into it!

A book of nature poems: I've actually started reading one, but it's a nature poem for every day, so I only read one poem a day...that's gonna take a while. My other pick for this category is Earth Keeper, which I have on hold at the library right now.

November:

A children's book that centers a disabled character but not their disability: Ok, so, I technically have already read a book for this category, but it was a picture book, so I picked two. The book I already read is Mommy Sayang by by Rosana Sullivan, which is just a lovely, lovely book. The one I still need to read is Lila and Hadley by Kody Keplinger. I actually did a book talk of this book for some of my classes before I found it as an option for this category, and a couple students read it and really liked it, so I'm looking forward to reading it and being able to talk to them about it.

A book set in the midwest: Done! For this one, I chose You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson, which I have wanted to read for.ev.er. While I could not wrap my brain around earning a huge scholarship for winning prom queen, I still adored this book. Lea Johnson does a great job of depicting the multiple facets to every story and showing character growth. Excellent read.

December:

A book that demystifies a common mental illness: My choice for this is The Edge of Every Day by Marin Sardy. It's about schizophrenia, which I think is a pretty misunderstood and heavily judged mental illness. I picked it up from the library a little bit ago, so I'm ready to go as soon as I have time.

A book with a beloved pet where the pet doesn't die: Also done! I chose The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O'Neill for this, and it is ADORABLE. It's a graphic novel with beautiful illustrations, and I finished the series and dearly love all three books. So gorgeous.

What would you have chosen for each of these challenges?

You'll Be the Death of Me - Karen M. McManus

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰✰
Character development: ✰✰✰✰✰
Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰✰✰
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out--he's been working two jobs since his family's business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up . . . again.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.

So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They'll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they've barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say . . .

. . . until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school--and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it's about to get worse.

It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common. They all have a connection to the dead kid. And they're all hiding something.

Now they're all wondering--could it be that their chance reconnection wasn't by chance after all?

Look...in the interest of full disclosure, I'm not sure Karen M. McManus could write something that I wouldn't like. She's just...so good. Even if this wasn't her book, though, the premise really appealed to me. Friends who began to grow apart as they moved from elementary to middle school until ultimately they started traveling in different circles? Who hasn't lived that? I can certainly think of some friends from my earlier school days who, if presented with a chance in high school to spend a nostalgic day with, I would have leapt at the chance. And how could Ivy, Mateo, and Cal have predicted that this chance to recreate their "best day ever" would turn out to be a nightmare instead? 

The twists and turns as the trio moved through their day kept me on the edge of my seat, and there were some delightful surprise moments from some of the side characters that delighted me as well. This was not a book I wanted to put down, and I'm already looking forward to reading it again when it comes out!