Reading, Listening, Watching, Buying

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Reading:

I'm almost half way through There There by Tommy Orange and knew from the prologue that this was going to probably be amazing, or close to it. I just finished the Tsar of Love and Techno and it totally blew me away, so I’m basically in fiction heaven right now. I’m also slowly getting through The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, which for some reason I thought was super self-helpy but has been more neurological than anything.

I’m also getting through a stack of timed writes my students wrote the other day on The Catcher in the Rye, and they’re not terribly painful. It’s early, but I’m optimistic about these kids.

Sawyer and I are still enjoying a few pages of Charlotte’s Web here and there, but he’s also pretty obsessed with his Gerald and Piggie books, and now Pete the Cat. As long as he loves books I don’t care how ridiculous they are (the elephant and pig are cool, but the cat gets annoying).

Listening:

I am finding the memoir Happiness by Heather Harpham, her reminiscence of the time her family dealt with her daughter’s rare blood disease, both fascinating and horrifying. I spent a few Audible credits lately and have Fast Girl by Suzy Favor Hamilton (memoir of an Olympic runner turned escort) and Tragedy + Time by Adam Clayton-Holland (family mental illness memoir) waiting for me. I also preordered Liane Moriarty’s new book that comes out in November, since I know I’ll forget. I have never actually read one of her books, but I’ve listened to a few and I love the lady that does the narrating, plus the stories are entertaining.

Watching:

This weekend I’ve watched two book-related movies. Yesterday Scott and I got a babysitter and we went to see Crazy Rich Asians at the theater and I absolutely loved it. I thought it was tons of fun and (mostly) captured the tone of the book by Kevin Kwan. Today I watched the RBG documentary, which in part focused on the book that came out a few years ago, Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik.

Buying:

I just received Clarice Lispector’s book The House of the Star on a total whim, as well as the other two books in the Crazy Rich Asians series, after seeing the movie. I also snagged a copy of Joan Didion’s The White Album in the same order, just to balance things out a bit. I  preordered Kim Hooper’s Cherry Blossoms (she worked with my husband a million years ago and I think it’s awesome that she has written a few novels while being a working mom, so I want to support her efforts), the paperback version of We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coats, and Christina Tosi’s newest cookbook, All About Cake. I also submitted our Scholastic book order, which I limit myself to $20-$25 on, or else I’d go crazy (this is because Scholastic Book Club flyers are basically my favorite thing in the world- I look forward to them every month, just like I did when I was a kid and elementary teacher). I need to pick up Educated by Tara Westover for book club, but I'll probably wait a few weeks.