October 2018 Chapter

Welcome to the Read.Write.Repeat. monthly wrap-up.  Every month, I give a quick overview of what books I read, the progress made on my reading goals, a few book-related links, and general blog news.  

October News 

Hello, world. If the late nature of this one monthly post is any indication, my life continues to be insanely busy. I'm struggling to balance. Reading has been a beautiful break stolen in short, quiet moments. I haven't read nearly as much as I wanted to this year, but I have enjoyed what I've read so much more than the past couple years. It's been so freeing to quit books I'm not enjoying or delete things from my TBR list with no regrets.

August 2018 Chapter

Welcome to the Read.Write.Repeat. monthly wrap-up.  Every month, I give a quick overview of what books I read, the progress made on my reading goals, a few book-related links, and general blog news.  

August News 

Hello, friends! It feels like it's been so long. It's been a whole month since I last posted. I ended July with a resolution to find more balance in my life and part of that necessitated putting the blog on hold for a while. I'm not writing reviews of each book I read any longer, but I am going to continue these monthly posts. I love this community too much to abandon it entirely.

August was a really good month. Very busy, as every month has seemed to be this year, but good. We went to Michigan to see my in-laws, went to my cousin's beautiful wedding, and celebrated my birthday. Plus, I had an incredible weekend in D.C. with my very best friends. With the exception of going to Italy with Kevin earlier this summer, that weekend as the best trip I've had in years. All that plus two works trips and taking on some more responsibilities over at Pantsuit Politics.

Despite that schedule, it's been one of the best reading months I've had this year. I reclaimed the time I've typically spent blogging and put it into reading. I read things I wanted to and thought little of anything I "should" be reading. It was delightful. Taking away the pressure of blogging about what I was reading really let me sink into some of the books I read in a way I haven't in a long time. I read for pure pleasure and didn't analyze everything. It was a nice change. For everything there is a season, I suppose.

Even though I'm not going to write full reviews, I thought I'd leave you with a sentence or two about each book I read so you have my impressions at least. Let me know what you think of this format.

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar

Title: The Bell Jar

Author: Sylvia Plath

Publication Date: 1963

Pages: 244

Genre: Classic / Historical / Fiction

How I Found It: It's a classic.

Date Completed: 4/5/2018

Summary: Esther Greenwood seems to have a wonderful life as a young, single woman in the city. Things are, however, slowly unraveling at the seams.

What I Thought: I remember having the option to read this book at one point in a high school English class. I remember several of my classmates who did. We talked briefly about how Plath's journey is mirrored in some ways through this novel, which was published after her own battle with mental illness and suicide. Since that point, I've been intrigued by the book, but never had a particular impetus to finally read it. Having read it now, I'm rather glad I waited until this point. I definitely would not have understood its depths as well when I was a high school student.

When I was looking through my immense TBR list and trying to decide which specific books to select for Roof Beam Reader's challenge this year, I added this one as a whim. It's been on my list for quite a while and it just seemed time. 

The Thousandth Floor - Katharine McGee

The Thousandth Floor

Title: The Thousandth Floor

Author: Katharine McGee

Publication Date: 8/30/2016

Pages: 448

Genre: Science Fiction / Thriller / Young Adult / Fiction

How I Found It: I can't remember.

Date Completed: 3/17/18

Summary: The New York of the future is centered around a massive tower 1000 stories tall. The wealthier you are, the higher you work and reside. McGee centers her story around teenagers throughout the building. 

What I Thought: I really wanted to like this book. Early on, however, I realize it was not what I thought it was. I thought McGee had written a futuristic exploration of class and the social ramifications thereof. While that does seem to be the framing from which she started, this is really a teenage drama and romance. Not what I was anticipating when I picked it up.

The story is interesting enough that I did read the whole thing - and it's not short. However, I found nearly every character insufferable. Worst of all, the main romance line is between an uber-wealthy girl and her adopted brother. Their attraction is, of course, taboo. Yet, McGee persists with it, trying valiantly to make readers want their forbidden love to work. Look, I understand they are not actually related, but I simply could not push through. It was a bridge too far for me to root for siblings of any kind to have a romantic relationship. 

Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys

Salt to the Sea

Title: Salt to the Sea

Author: Ruta Sepetys

Publication Date: 2/2/2016

Pages: 393

Genre: Historical / Young Adult / Fiction

How I Found It: I've read Sepetys's other novel, Between Shades of Gray

Date Completed: 3/6/18

Summary: As WWII comes to a close and Germany is on the brink of collapse, Sepetys follows several characters on their journey to board the ill-fated Wilhelm Gustloff. 

What I Thought: When I read Sepetys's other novel, Between Shades of Grey, I was captivated by her ability to bring to life a part of history about which I knew so little. She has done it again here. Sepetys has a special skill for finding an obscured moment in time and making her readers wonder why such a captivating story ever fell off the pages of our commonly known history. 

In this instance, Sepetys tells the story of four people: three refugees of varying backgrounds and one Nazi soldier. They each are complex and interesting on their own, but their intersection is well written also. I found it particularly unique that Sepetys chose to give one of her main voices to a dedicated Nazi soldier. It is so rare in literature to see a character like that without remorse and yet still written in a vaguely sympathetic way. I didn't like that character, but his devotion to his cause, however evil, added an interesting element to the story that I don't think we could have gotten with a singular focus on those trying to escape the German and Russian armies. 

Out of the Silent Planet - C. S. Lewis

Out of the Silent Planet

Title: Out of the Silent Planet

Author: C. S. Lewis

Publication Date: 1938

Pages: 241

Genre: Science Fiction / Fiction

How I Found It: A dear high school friend recommended this series back when I started the blog.

Date Completed: 2/28/18

Summary: An English professor finds himself kidnapped and taken to Mars to serve as a sacrifice for the native inhabitants. Instead, he finds himself learning a lot about both Mars and Earth in the process. 

What I Thought: Sometime shortly after I created the Read.Write.Repeat. Facebook page, a dear friend from high school commented and recommended this series to me. That was literally years ago. I can't believe it has taken me this long to take him up on the recommendation. Let this serve as proof of just how desperately I needed this 2018 TBR Challenge. It's making me finally go back and either cull or read long-ago suggested books. 

Of course, after reading this first one, now I know I want to read the other two as well. Sigh. Is this project helping or hurting me? I'm getting to read great books, so we're going to stick with helping! After all, the whole point of this is reading, not checking off things on a to-do list, right? 

February 2018 Chapter

Welcome to the Read.Write.Repeat. monthly wrap-up.  Every month, I give a quick overview of what books I read, the progress made on my reading goals, a few book-related links, and general blog news.  

February News 

I have always loved February. Kevin cites it as his least favorite month, but I have a special affinity for the briefest of months. When I was young, I think it was because of Valentine's Day and my half birthday (yeah, that was a thing I tried to get people to celebrate for longer than I'd like to admit). Neither of those events registers much on my radar now. In fact, for a few years there, when Kevin and I were first together and living in Ohio, he nearly pulled me over to his disdain of February. But now we live in the South. And spring comes in February. February marks the end of winter. Sure, we may get one random cold streak yet - even a brief snow is possible, but not probable. Now, February brings pink buds on trees and sleeping with the windows open and putting our coats away after their whole six weeks of work. Spring in the South is beautiful and February ushers it in.


So, did this February live up to expectations?

Well, I finally got my feet underneath me after a rough first month of the semester. I felt so underwater there for a while; it is nice to feel more stable again. We're still intensely busy; we always are. February at our house has mostly been an interesting dichotomy. On one hand, we're once again engaged in some active measures to sort out Kevin's health issues. It's been five years since he was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease and we have yet to find a solution. It's a thing we live with daily, but we go through periods where the search for answers is more active. This is one of those periods. It's exhausting and hopeful and disheartening all at once. In contrast to that emotional soup, though, is the sheer thrill of having finally booked our tickets to Italy! We have been planning this trip for about two years. It got pushed back several times because of things both within and outside of our control. I had honestly gotten to place where I no longer believed it would happen, but it is happening! We're spending 9 days there at the start of the summer. Rome, Cinque Terre, Florence, and Tuscany...here we come!!

With work and doctor's visits and hours spent on Airbnb finding Italian lodging, I haven't done a ton of reading. Two months in and I can already tell 2018 is going to be my least prolific reading year in quite a while. However, I'm actually very pleased so far about the intentionality in my reading. I know I don't have as much time or energy for it and so I'm only picking things I really want to read. The TBR Challenge (see below) is helping me feel less guilty about culling my to-read list. I'm trying to be more realistic about what I really will read or enjoy. After doing the 100 Best Novels challenge, I don't feel much obligation to read things just because they are supposed to be good or classics. That mentality applies to older books and newer ones. I just don't want to spend time reading things other people loved and I won't. In this phase of my life, I need enjoyment. Depth, but depth with pleasure. No more slogging through things I'm not appreciating. At least not this year.

January 2018 Chapter

Welcome to the Read.Write.Repeat. monthly wrap-up.  Every month, I give a quick overview of what books I read, the progress made on my reading goals, a few book-related links, and general blog news.  

January News 

This has been a weird month. I headed back to work, but the routine was quickly derailed by snow days and an unpleasant bout with the flu. My sleep schedule is so out of whack and I feel like I'm exhausted all the time. Plus, the start of the semester always feels a bit chaotic as I adjust to new students and ensure lesson plans and syllabi are set. Everything combined just feels strange this year. It's hard to quantify, but things just feel a little off. Not necessarily in a bad way, just like I can't quite get my feet underneath me.

Part of that is probably that our normal routine is really off because of experimenting with Kevin's diet. As I mentioned last month, he's doing a Paleo/SCD diet to try and help with his auto-immune struggles. It's meant we really haven't gone out to eat or do date nights, which is hard for us. We bond over food and eating out is our favorite treat. It's also meant way more food prep all the time. It's just been a big shift all around and it doesn't seem to be working, which is a big disappointment. We're reintroducing soy and rice this week, but keeping him off dairy, gluten, corn, and most sugars. Even though I haven't been doing the diet, eating has felt like a very isolated and lonely activity this month, which takes so much of our typical joy out of it.

I did read some great books this month. I'm excited to be getting, slowly, back into my reading groove. I haven't had tons of time for it, but I've really enjoyed what I have had time for. I already think this TBR challenge is great because I'm feeling so free to just cut things from the list. I started reading Alias Grace and just wasn't feeling it, so I stopped about 50 pages in. If you know me, you know I almost never fail to finish a book. However, I'm trying to make the most of my reading this year. There are so many books in the world and I don't have to like them all. I'm giving myself permission to say no, even partway through, and that feels delightful.

Nine Parts of Desire - Geraldine Brooks

Nine Parts of Desire

Title: Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

Author: Geraldine Brooks

Publication Date: 1994

Pages: 255

Genre:  Faith / Historical / Memoir / Political / Nonfiction

How I Found It: I really like Brooks's fiction work.

Date Completed: 1/15/18

Summary: Years of on-the-ground research and relationship building paved the way for Brooks to write this fascinating look into the lives and dreams of Muslim women across the Middle East.

What I Thought: I picked this up because I am such a fan of Brooks's fiction work. I was unaware she had a previous life as a journalist and nonfiction author and I wanted to explore that side of her writing. It comes as no surprise that Brooks brings the same fabulous attention to character and beautiful prose to her nonfiction writing. 

I've made an intentional effort in the past few years to read more about people and cultures outside of my own experience. This book fits perfectly into that pursuit. To my own regret, I don't have a lot of relational experience with Muslims. I have known some, certainly, but I've never been close enough to consider someone of that faith a friend. It's something I would like to change in my life. For now, though, I'm learning about the faith and culture through books like this one. 

Though Brooks wrote this book nearly twenty-five years ago, it still holds so much insight into the daily lives of Muslim women and their history. Brooks includes lots of history of the faith and the women who influenced the prophet Mohammad in his day. I found that aspect particularly interesting as I know so little about the history of the faith. For instance, Muhammad only began receiving revelations on the status of women and marrying multiple wives after the death of his first wife, to whom he was married for twenty-four years. That kind of fascinating information is scattered throughout the book. As Brooks points out, knowing the circumstances in which Mohammad received many of his revelations about women can be a very different experience for someone of the faith versus a skeptic. To an unbeliever, some of the revelations just look too convenient. However, I know people who are not Christians say the same about Christian beliefs, so I tried to take that into consideration as I read. 

This book is part of my 2018 TBR Challenge!

Brooks also spends a lot of time on the politics of Muslim women. She celebrates their victories. Pakistan, Turkey, and Bangladesh have all had a woman serve in their highest political office, something the United States has yet to achieve. However, as most of us are aware, many Muslim women in the Middle East face intense political restrictions everywhere from the ballot box to the driver's seat of a car. She explores the lives of ordinary women and famous women such as Queen Noor of Jordan. Brooks clearly gained the trust of countless people which gave her incredible access and information that, especially at the time, would have been impossible for most journalists to obtain.

As Brooks points out, "the nature of the Arabic language [means] that a precise translation of the Koran [is] unobtainable." This ambiguity has created so much of the turmoil we see in the Muslim world. Brooks explores those dichotomies with grace and nuance. I would love to see an updated version of this book, particularly since I know things have changed significantly in many of these countries since the Iraq War. Still, even with the significant passage of time, this book is an amazing look into a world so foreign to so many of us. There is a lot to learn here, especially for those of us in American for whom these cultures can feel so distant. 

Quotes I Loved:

• "Muslims see the West's sexual revolution as an inevitable reaction to churches that tried to suppress and make shameful the God-given sexual urge." 
• "Women bear the brunt of fending off social disorder in the Catholic tradition because they aren't considered sexually active, and in the Muslim tradition because they are."

I read this book in participation with
Roof Beam Reader's 2018 TBR Pile Challenge.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Will I Re-Read: Yes, very likely

If You Liked This, Try: The Underground Girls of Kabul / Half the Sky / I Am Malala

Other Books By Geraldine Brooks: Year of Wonders / People of the Book / March / The Secret Chord

A Reduced Review: A powerful look at the lives of Muslim women throughout the history of the religion; this book is both educational and an enjoyable read thanks to Brooks's extensive research and skill with words.

2018 TBR Challenge

I started this blog because I wanted to read 52 books in one year. That challenge seems small now; I've read over 100 the past several years. It was that challenge, though, that pulled me back into reading for pleasure. I had not done nearly as much of it throughout my high school and college years. Through that goal, I rediscovered the passion I felt for books as a child.

Then, I took on the 100 Best Novels challenge. It took four years, but it felt amazing to accomplish. I feel much more versed in classic literature and have cultivated some strong opinions about what it means to be a classic anyway. It also opened my eyes to the importance of celebrating diverse authorship. 

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what will come next. I am a goal-oriented person; I like having something concrete toward which I am working. When I finished the 100 Best Novels challenge this summer, I mused about my next challenge. I floated several different ideas and the pros and cons of each. Now, at the start of the year, I'm ready to announce my decision. 

I'm going to tackle my TBR (to-be-read) list. Like, really tackle it. I started actively keeping the list in Goodreads in January 2013, although I've had an "On Reserve" page of books I want to read since I started my blog in January 2012. As of now, I have just under 350 books on my Goodreads list. I did a purge of it a few months back, so that number feels relatively solid. That is a whole lot of books.

I'll add this image to every post that falls under the challenge.

Now, the list is also always growing and morphing. New books come out or come to my attention. My interests shift and change. It's not a static list by any means. So, how is this going to work logistically?

I thought about laying out a bunch of rules for myself, but I still want to feel the freedom to add books as will. I know I won't get through 350 books in a year. That's a pipe dream. However, between reading and more intense purging as I go, I think I can get the list down to 200 by the end of 2018. That's a big goal, but a hopefully realistic one. I'd love to get closer to 100, but I have to have a life, too. 

I'll be marking my progress in each month's chapter update. Realistically, this means removing 12.5 books from the list each month. 12 books is a big reading month for me. Plus, figure in the fact that I usually add 5 or so books a month. Let's round up and say I'm dealing with 20 books per month. Wow, that's a lot.

Obviously, some of those will come off because I delete them from the list. I want to get serious about removing books from the list I just don't care to read any more. I want to be an intentional reader. This may mean quitting part way through some books, a practice with which I have a very hard time. 

As a part of this, I'm taking the natural step to join up again with the Roof Beam Reader 2018 TBR Pile Challenge. I did this challenge in 2015, which is the last time Adam hosted the challenge. I loved it then and was disappointed to see it go while he wrote his doctoral dissertation. His challenge, specifically, is to pick 12 books off the list that have been there for over a year. While I'm hoping to do way more than that this year, here are my official picks for that challenge:

My 2018 TBR Pile Challenge List

1. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
2. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
3. Beloved - Toni Morrison
4. Out of the Silent Planet - C. S. Lewis
5. The Monsters of Templeton - Lauren Groff
6. We Two - Gillian Gill
7. In Defense of the Fatherless - Sara Brinton
8. Salt to the Sea - Ruth Sepetys
9. Evolving in Monkey Town - Rachel Held Evans
10. The Thousandth Floor - Katharine McGee

Alternates:

1. Nine Parts of Desire - Geraldine Brooks
2. A Darker Shade of Magic - V. E. Schwab

So, there it is. My next reading challenge. We'll see how this goes. I'm cautiously optimistic. I hope at the end of this year, I feel good about the intentional reading I have done and also am more discerning about what I put onto the list in the first place!