It's Monday! What are you reading?

To be honest, I am just now wrapping up my reading from last week...but here is what I'll be diving into over the next couple of days:

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly is going to be another two-fer for me--a historical fiction novel to count towards my summer reading minutes and an activity for the library's America 250 challenge.  It's based on a true story of three women--one from the United States, two from Europe--whose lives become entwined during the events of World War II.  The chapters are titled with their names, so I am anticipating a plot that zigzags between the three perspectives.  There is factual backmatter included at the end of the book that I'll look forward to referencing.

I'll skim through this nonfiction book at my son's recommendation--Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport.

My summer guilty pleasure has been playing solitaire and mahjongg on my phone for far too many hours...but I am also guilty of the mindless scrolling through cute videos of rescued farm animals, educator memes, and workout routines that I save for that elusive someday.  Maybe there will be a useful tidbit in Newport's book to make me avert my eyes from the screen for larger portions of my day.

The kidlit book I'm picking up this week is from one of my last Scholastic Book Fair purchases.

The back cover blurb of Outside by Jennifer L. Holm gave me some Lowry Giver vibes, so I'm curious to see how the two compare.  What freedoms are we willing to give up in the name of safety?  What does it take for us to push beyond boundaries imposed on us...and what will we find out about ourselves in the process?

It's Monday, and I've set some pretty lofty reading goals for myself this week!  What's in your pile?  Do you ever choose books because they remind you of something else you've read?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Summertime, and the reading is easy...it has been fun these last few days pursuing reading for pleasure and personal learning.

Speaking of learning--I attended a presentation at our local library entitled "100 Years of Native American Literature."  After learning about prominent indigenous authors and the historical periods reflected in their writing, I remembered that I had a book waiting on my TBR pile at home by a favorite Native American author, Angeline Boulley.

My fiction pick of the week:  Sisters in the Wind.

Set in Michigan, Boulley's latest novel follows Lucy Smith's journey of discovering her roots as a Native American.  Raised by a single white father who told her she was Dutch and Italian, her birth mother a mystery rarely discussed, Lucy is confronted with the truth when her real tribal family finds her and fills in the missing pieces of her history.

My nonfiction reading for the week is a continuation of Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want by Courtney Carver.  My ebook expired, and I ended up buying a hardback copy just so I could underline the helpful bits.

I arrived early to a meeting with my library student at the public library, so I wandered over to the children's section to find a new-to-me kidlit choice for this week.  They had a few Jane Yolen books on display, presumably in memoriam of her recent passing.  I picked up a book of her poetry, In and Out the Window, published in 2024.

The poems are brief, and cover the musings of childhood--the smell of breakfast in the morning, school uniforms and backpacks, curiosity about animals and insects.  I find myself reading each poem at least twice, scenes forming in my mind's eye with wistful feelings.  Maybe a future reading goal will be to work my way through Yolen's 450 published works...

It's Monday!  What are you reading?  Do you stick with one genre, or read more widely?