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Monday, December 30, 2019

It's Monday! What are you reading?


It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

If you go to my Goodreads account, you can see what I have read recently & click on the books to learn more.

On the Blogs:

Last week in books:

This was the pile I had at the beginning of winter break. I haven't read all of them in the past week, but I have made added a few and ultimately have made a big dent in the pile. Several of them I shared last Monday and here are the others I finished over this week:


Feel Free was on of my #MustReadin2019 books. It is a great collection of Zadie Smiths' essays

Dear Sweet Pea is a nice middle grade book about a girl who is dealing with the aftermath of a divorce while navigating changing friendships. 

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is a sequel to Children of Blood and Bone that I was eagerly awaiting. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was certainly full of excitement and adventure.

Gender Queer was shelved in the adult graphic novel section at our library, but could very well be in the YA. It is a memoir that shares the author's search for gender identity. I found it to be very helpful. I know someone who had shared many of these same experiences so it was interesting to see that on the page.

White Fragility was as I expected. I've seen videos and have read some of the essays written by the author. It's a good book to really get white people thinking. It provides some vocabulary for things I have experienced. I appreciate this call to action. She points to us to do the work within and we might not be able to talk others into it, but by seeing the change in us, others may follow.

Trust Exercise - this is a very unique novel that one the National Book Award. I wrote a review of it on Goodreads, but summed up, if you like to admire technique and construction of fiction, you may want to read it. Otherwise, it may annoy or even bore you as I've noticed in other reviews. I appreciated some aspects of it and that was mostly in the craft.

One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter - this is a humorous collection of essays that shape a memoir. 

The Coming Week:
Up next I have Indian Horse, The Nickel Boys and a few other novels sitting around. I will see how much more I can fit into the last three days of vacation. Happy reading!

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2019 - 915/550
Diversity on the Shelf 2019 - 345/275
#MustReadin2019 - 27/30

5 comments:

  1. Children of Virtue and Vengeance is certainly on my list, as is White Fragility. I am glad I read Nickel Boys, though it is very sad to read that people can be so cruel. I'll put some of the others on my 'already-growing' list! Thanks, Crystal!

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  2. It's nice to see book piles dwindle happily. Happy New Year!

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  3. This looks like a great stack! I hope your best book you read this year is your worst next year :)

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  4. While I really enjoyed Children of Blood and Bone, I'm not sure I'll get around to reading Children of Virtue and Vengeance.
    Thanks for the introduction to Dear Sweet Pea. My library has it as an audiobook so I put a hold on it.

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  5. Oooh, White Fragility! I'm going to go see if we have this locally. Sounds like an important read. Hope you're recovering well from the holidays, Crystal! I've yet to put anything away, but I know that job awaits me. lol "See" you again in a couple days...

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