It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs   comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

You may have noticed silence after my post last Monday. That was because I was off to #nErDcampMI and then to Canada for vacation. I ran out of time to prepare more posts ahead of time. I am back home as of about midnight last night. I didn't get a lot of reading accomplished this week because I was out having too much fun. :)

The Past Week:

Amazingly, these are the only two books I completed (or remember finishing) this week. I listened to The Riverman through WI, IL, IN, OH, and MI. It is very difficult to classify. In my mind, depending on the truth in the end, it could be mystery, realistic fiction (if someone has mental issues), magical realism, fantasy or even sic-fi. I believe it is fantasy, but no matter how it is classified, The Riverman is quite unique. I didn't realize that it isn't a stand alone while I was listening, but it doesn't have a tidy ending at all so I felt a bit gob-smacked. In talking to others and hearing it highly recommended and book talked at #nErDcampMI, I found out that there will be more and that helped to counter some of my negative thoughts about the book. It is still not a favorite, but I do understand why others (review by Elizabeth Bird) love it so much.

A Taste of Colored Water is a look at the civil rights era and is not what you might expect given the cover art and title. It is about two children who are looking for the "colored" water fountain and find something other than what they expect. It would be a great entry to discussion about that time period and would be great paired with Ruth and the Green Book. The book is also found in this civil rights unit. The author, Matt Faulkner, was at #nErDcampMI to share this book and his graphic novel Gaijin: An American Prisoner of War, which I want to read too. It's about the Japanese Internment.

The Coming Week:

I am still working on the professional book I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla. I started the novel in verse Etched in Clay while we were in Toronto and am enjoying it. China Dolls was my companion on my drive back from Ohio, but I am only a little over half way through. It is an adult historical fiction book about three Asian-American friends. Two of the friends are of Chinese descent and one of the women is actually Japanese, but she passes as Chinese. It takes place as WWII is beginning and anti-Japanese sentiment is running high. The storyline is quite interesting though in the beginning I had to keep jumping back on the CDs because my attention would wander. Later in the story that didn't happen.

I am not sure what else I will be reading though I know I will be reviewing a picture book The Poet Upstairs. This will be another very busy and exciting week since my daughter returns from Japan today along with her exchange sister that she has been living with for the past month. We will likely be running around doing touristy types of things and sharing pictures and stories from our trips. It should be a fantastic week, but I don't know how much reading time I will have. What will you be reading?