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Category Archives: Adult

Fueled by audiobooks

Last year I was training for a 15K in the summer which would lead to running my first half marathon in the fall. Eight years ago I would have laughed at you if you told me I was going to be a runner. And seven years ago, I would have laughed (as I did my friends and colleagues) if you told me you listened to audiobooks while running. Because I was decidedly *not* a runner, I could only imagine getting pumped up to run with music.

Fast forward to last year’s training and I couldn’t imagine running WITHOUT an audiobook. I’m sure there were mornings where I ran farther because I didn’t want to stop reading. And even now, now that we’re also dog owners again, the daily walks also include audiobooks if I’m not walking with another family member in addition to any running I do. Here are a few of the memorable audiobook runs and walks.

This was my first ever audiobook run. You can never go wrong with Steve Sheinkin’s nonfiction.

My first Colleen Hoover book was this audiobook while running. Spicy!

Nugent’s Little Cruelties was so complicated, deliciously messy, and screwed up (in all the best ways) that I remember my eyes bugging out a little while I was running. What was I listening to?!?!

Beautiful storytelling and a vivid setting combined to immerse me in a mystery that absolutely took me to another time and place. I definitely ran longer than I had planned to keep reading.

This poetry collection includes nature sounds while the the multiple narrators share the poetry and while you’re actually walking in nature, it was captivating.

When books are memoirs, you need to have an audiobook narrated by the author. This one was not only perfectly executed as an audiobook, but it also spoke to me on a deeper level that I ended up buying the book to own in addition to listening to it a second time.

 

Romance, romantasy, & cuteness

In a recent professional development, the portmanteau romantasy was dropped and in the last 48 hours I’ve used it and seen it used in publisher emails. With the publication of certain new titles that are making book nerds swoon, it has officially entered the lexicon heavily. Then there are the romance titles which have been heavily requested for the last several years. And happy love stories that lay on the cuteness. Here’s a short list of some favorites in the three categories:

  • A First Time for Everything by Santat– cuteness
  • You Bet Your Heart by Parker– romance
  • Always Never by Lafebre– romance
  • Julieta and the Romeos by Andreu– romance
  • Horimiya by Hero– romance
  • The Princess and the Grilled Cheese by Muniz– cuteness
  • Ryan and Avery by Levithan– romance
  • Fangs by Andersen– romantasy
  • Check & Mate by Hazelwood– romance
  • Crumbs by Stirling– romantasy
 

Manga they’re thankful for

Yesterday during Japanese Culture Club, after the opening “what’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish?” and general announcements, we wanted to share out our favorite manga- manga we’re most thankful for. These were just a few–

 
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Posted by on November 15, 2023 in Adult, Manga

 

Six from Sunday

Sunday is for housework, so there’s always an audiobook playing whether a new one, middle of one, or finishing one up. So first was finishing up the audiobook If You Still Recognize Me by Cynthia So, a YA featuring GLTBQ characters, friendship estrangement, and Cantonese culture.

The second was finishing a short story collection I recently borrowed from the public library called Night of the Living Queers edited by Shelly Page and Alex Brown, a few weeks past spooky season, however it was still a smart read featuring GLBTQ characters and all sorts of creepiness.

Third was finishing a nonfiction title recommended by a colleague in a recent professional development session called Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley and David Kelley. Inspiring and thought-provoking.

Fourth was Deb Caletti’s newest Plan A which I wanted to get through ahead of professional development session I’m going to be running in the next few days as it’s a timely read on abortion for a teen audience.

In between halves for my son’s indoor soccer team, I threw in a short read, my fifth– a WhoHQ title that was just delivered– What Do We Know About the Winchester House? by Emma Carlson Berne to which I could safely answer before I read it… nothing! But now I know something.

And I started a sixth before bed: Kate Pearsall’s Bittersweet in the Hollow with the gorgeous cover and intimidating quote “beware the forest”.

 

Veterans Day

A visual booklist of nonfiction books to read on a day like Veterans Day.

 
 

Sucker for summer reading

Summer has always been a nice balance of work and pleasure, which luckily for me go together like peanut butter and jelly as my pleasure activity is reading which includes the requisite organizing of TBR book piles, interlibrary loaning books, and scouring websites, webinars, and booklists for my next read. Yes I do have other hobbies, but we’re not talking about those here.

Every year I say I won’t join the public libraries adult summer reading program and every year I fall headlong into the discussion, posts, and reading anyway because I’m a sucker for summer reading!

My city’s public library is small so it revolves around documenting my reading and committing to a certain number of reading each day (no issues there!) this year. Last year, we were challenged using a BINGO board.

Then, the city library for the school district I work in is large with multiple branches and a committed group who run an online summer reading program for adults that features weekly themes and recommendations while encouraging participants to chat with one another online. So, read a certain number of books, get a tshirt. Well reader, I am in possession of that tshirt!

Either way, in the summer I’m reading… A LOT, so I might as well see what everyone else is reading and share it as a participating member of my local library and adopted library. Being curious about what other people read is what makes reading a community activity. And as the saying by Edmund Wilson goes “no two persons ever read the same book.” So asking questions and hearing about what they valued in a book helps deepen our connection with one another and provide opportunities for agreement and civilized disagreement.

Why do you participate in summer reading programs (or why don’t you)?

 
 

The value of reading widely

Just because I work primarily with teens doesn’t mean I read only young adult titles. Actually, my work is stronger because I read widely.

My own kids are now going to be freshmen in high school, so we’re well out of reading picture books at bedtime, but I still read children’s books to learn from and stare at beautiful illustrations.

I don’t work in a middle school, but I know that some high school students are reading below grade level and there’s quite a bit of hopefulness in middle grade novels to be valuable to read when I need to be uplifted.

Yes, I work with teens, so I’m always going to read YA. Plus, the value of YA provides an opportunity to bring me reflect back to my teen days, allow me to remember what it’s like (the further I get away from it) in continuing to work with teens, and also to recognize the creativity of YA authors in their storytelling for this audience.

I’m an adult and I haven’t always read novels for adults, but in addition to being on a committee currently that is about reading a bevy of adult novels, it’s good to remember I am one. And then I get to talk about it with other adults.

Within the last week, here has been my reading widely rainbow (minus the adult book because I can’t share!)

 

Women authors to love

Continuing with the theme of Women’s History Month, I want to give a shout out to influential women authors through the lens of my reading experience.

  1. Probably forever, Ruta Sepetys will always be at the top of the list. Having had the pleasure of her company in person does add an additional layer of appreciation for her, but her books themselves mine hidden histories which are captured with elegance and an emotional capableness to reach through the pages of the book to reach the reader on another level. She’s simply the best.
  2. Mary Roach is the queen of curiosity for me. All of her books from the science of the military to cadavers have endlessly fascinated me. Years ago I wrote that she would be an author I’d love to have lunch with just to pick her brain. She’s got a fascinating array of subject areas, but I’ll follow her wherever that curiosity leads.
  3. There is no one more Instagram-poet famous that Rupi Kaur. I follow her as do many of my high school students to see what new and old poems she drops there. Then I scrambled when she publishes a collection to get my hands on a copy and then make sure I have a handful in our library too. I confess to also following her social media to see what dress she’s wearing and to celebrate that this poetess sells out arenas to read her poetry. She’s an experience.
  4. Sarah Andersen of Sarah’s Scribbles fame makes me laugh– every.damn.time. Her humorous take on the extraordinary and the mundane in her comics (but I’d be remiss not to gush about Fangs too) gave me a boost in the mornings when I would read a few pages from her comics with my cup of tea. She’s more than just a writer, she’s a creator.
  5. And when I think about books whose settings and writing envelope me, I think about the atmospheric writing of Cat Winters. She pulled me in with In The Shadow Of Blackbirds and kept me there with all of the other books (and short stories) that she’s written. She’s the ultimate spooky YA writer.
 

The ABCs of romance

  1. An Arrow to the Moon
  2. Book Love
  3. Code Name Helene
  4. Darius the Great Deserves Better
  5. Eternally Yours
  6. Fangs
  7. (The) Girl from the Sea
  8. (The) House on the Cerulean Sea
  9. If These Wings Could Fly
  10. Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
  11. Keturah and Lord Death
  12. Love in the Library
  13. Mudbound
  14. Not So Pure and Simple
  15. Out of Darkness
  16. Pumpkinheads
  17. Rent a Boyfriend
  18. Saga
  19. Tokyo Ever After
  20. (The) Unlikelies
  21. (E)Verything Everything
  22. Walk Through Walls
  23. XOXO
  24. Your Own, Sylvia
  25. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

Dark and light romances. For adults or teens. An alphabetical list of some that I’ve read and loved.

 

One for the money

One for the money, two for the show, three to make ready and four to go.

I was thinking about this children’s rhyme when I was contemplating what type of reading goals I could set for myself for 2023. As a practice, I don’t make goals because there’s usually a committee, reviews, and general work around reading (even though it’s never really work) that I’ll always be reading anyway. And I read widely already. So I thought I would highlight each month a children’s book, a middle grade, a YA, and an adult that I read. Here’s January’s books via rhyme–

One for the money: An Immense World by Ed Yong

It made so many best lists for 2022 which is why I added it to my TBR for January and it did not disappoint. Yong, take all my money because as a lover of science titles, this one was lyrical, moving, and insightful for a general adult audience.

Two for the show: How You Grow Wings by Rimma Onoseta

Sisters who grow up disparately loved by their mother, the choices that are made ultimately separate then reunite them in a moving story that brings them full circle. Clever, clever book for young adults.

Three to make ready: Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Short story collections are one of my favorite categories to explore and each of these short stories featuring Indigenous characters can be mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. All of the stories drew from a wealth of experience, storytelling, and heart.

Four to go: The Sun is Late and So Is the Farmer by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin Stead

This children’s book includes a cast of animal main characters, including the four pictured on the cover wondering where the sun is and thus where the farmer is. The vibe of the cover art and title exactly matches the book itself.