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 and 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.

Last Week on the blogs: 

A review of an adult poetry collection - Monsters, Zombies + Addicts: Poems 

by Gwendolyn Zepeda

Hmong Children's Literature

Tree of Wonder by Kate Messner

Illustrated by Simona Mulazzani 

for NFPB Challenge

 

Review of Revenge of the Angels

by Jennifer Ziegler

Celebrating The CCBC, Oktoberfest, family and fall

The Past Week:

This was a great week for reading. I was able to visit bookstores and libraries and enjoy piles of picture books. Standouts for me were Tuesday Tucks Me In, Mama's Nightingale, When the Slave Esperança Garcia Wrote a Letter, Leo: A Ghost Story and Water is Water though many were wonderful. The novels I read were all page turners. I listened to both Irises and This Song Will Save Your Life and enjoyed both of them. I pretty much read both Stella by Starlight and Lies We Tell Ourselves straight through. They were both amazing historical fiction. I was disconcerted by the number of times I had to read the N word in Lies, but it certainly fit the time period and situation. I don't think I have ever encountered it so many times anywhere before, but as the main character was also counting how many times she had to hear it each day, the repetition gives readers a taste of that experience.

The Coming Week: I am still planning to read Out of Darkness. I'm listening to Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different. I stopped reading Harriet the Spy last week because I was having trouble with reading her very negative views of people, but I may give it one more chance. I also have Jackaby and I've heard really good things about it from Pernille Ripp and some others on Twitter. We'll see what else falls into my hands. Have a great week of reading!

Reading Challenge Updates:
Diversity on the Shelf/Diverse Books - 172/100
Goodreads - 428/520
#MustRead2015 - 43/53
Diversity Reading Challenge - 12/12
Pura Belpré Challenge -86/86 (some were read prior to this year)

Around the World with Books