Currently...

Reading: I am about 50 pages into Barbara Kingsolver’s newest novel, Unsheltered, and while maybe a tiny bit slow, I am still enjoying it. I can’t say that I am ohmygod so riveted and am tempted to stay up all hours of the night reading, but I am definitely interested. I have also read the introduction for Can We All Be Feminists, edited by June Eric-Udorie, and while I am passionate on the subject, it’s a book that has to be read in silence, with a highlighter in hand, and preferably in long chunks.

Grading: I am almost caught up (say whaaaaat?) until the onslaught of assignments hit me starting Friday, but do have less than a class set of timed writes to get through. My students read an excerpt from Michael Gibney’s Sous Chef and had to write an explication (literary analysis), examining how things like syntax, diction, and tone enhance the content. I just finished a huge stack of process pieces on The Catcher in the Rye, which, truth be told, became a little painful. These explications are much faster and more telling of their current analytical abilities.

Listening: I just finished the Audiobook I was listening to and am in need of a new one! Until I take the time to figure that out, I’ve been listening to The Armchair Expert Podcasts, including the one with Amy Schumer. I really want to get to the third season of Serial and Dr. Death, too, as both come highly recommended by a friend who know my taste!

Purchasing: My motto: when the going gets tough, the tough buy books (even if they should not). Some were preordered, some were, say, spotted on, say, the Subway Book Review’s Instagram feed and purchased immediately. I recently ordered Are You My Mother by Allison Bechdel, The Best We Could by Thi Bui, and Tell Me How It Ends, edited by Valeria Luiselli. I have preordered Christina Tosi’s All About Cake (arriving today!), Kim Hooper’s Cherry Blossoms, and the paperback of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s We Were Eight Years in Power.