I’m cheating a little for this month and choosing one graphic novel, one adult nonfiction, and one fiction title for my outstanding book(s) because I had some fabulous reading material (including the secret kind that I can’t tell you about). So here goes for the month:
What were your favorites of the month?
I knew I wasn’t going to create my book of the month post yesterday to post for today because I was in the middle of the book I was going to bestow that title to. I would carve out time today after an early morning walk with my librarian friend, Stacey, a little food shopping, and some other reading, to finish this book. And I was not wrong. And I was not disappointed. Behold, my June selection!
Published this past August, I have been on the wait list at the public library for quite some time. Once it came in, I brought it home and immediately felt the apprehensiveness of cracking the spine because I could feel the magnetic pulse of a book that would move me.
Nezhukumatathil is a poet, so it’s without question that she has a command of words. And as an avid lover of nature as evidenced by these vignettes, she has a command for sharing it with others. She’s like a literary Sy Montgomery and I say that as kindness for both. Montgomery is a scrapper, woman’s woman scientist who gets her hands dirty, her armpits sweaty in the forest, and rolls up her sleeves for the work. Who then parlays that into fascinating books for kids (and adults) about her adventures and learning from tarantulas to octopus. Nezhukumatathil is an explorer and an observer who won’t shy away from the experience, but isn’t in it for the scientific study but rather the enlightenment it will provide. And that is equally beautiful.
The vignettes of birds, plants, and animals are only several pages in length but leave a life lesson within each that pulls the reader closer to nature and asks the existential questions along with it. The writing was magical. The descriptions were breathtaking. And the muted illustration was a cherry on top to this tiny but powerful book.
More novella than novel, Sy Montgomery wins my heart over again with her magical storytelling about the most nonmagical magic– the natural world. Clocking in at 96 pages or just about two hours on audiobook, her newest: The Hummingbird’s Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and the Renewal on Wings is a special gift for readers and why it’s my favorite for the month.
Her deep connections to the animal world allowed her to weave her scientific escapades with her art of writing that allows the couch scientist to experience animals hidden deep inside jungles or the ones that we rarely think about right outside our windows. This story is a rescue mission; the rehabilitation of several hummingbirds by a friend of hers while she was able to help caretake alongside. The interwoven history of hummingbirds and their significance to groups worldwide is evidenced by their names in other cultures is given equal status in the book with the health of the bird’s of the story.
My recommendation would be to listen to Montgomery tell you the story via the audiobook version as I did because nothing can replace the emotional and logical approach to keeping the hummingbird’s alive. It’s an action-adventure in real life– will they or won’t they survive? What is the ethics of saving them? How do they experience the world? It’s all packed in this slim volume that feels as luxurious as a bite of dark chocolate.
Is it that time again? Looking at my calendar, it is! My outstanding pick was a recommendation from a kindred book friend who said I must listen to the audiobook. Now I’m recommending it to anyone who will listen that you must listen to the audiobook.
I was crushing on Barrie Kreinik and Peter Ganim who narrate Nancy Wake and Henri Fiocca. Kreinik brought the French accent by way of New Zealand perfectly along with the zest and spunk of the real-life Nancy Wake that Ariel Lawhon presents to readers in Code Name Helene. Wake was a woman on a mission of resistance living many lives at once at the onset of World War II. And Fiocca was the man she fell in love with and married. Ganim brings the sex appeal to their romance through the ears from the pages.
It’s not often that I feel a certain way about narrators as my friend Stacey Rattner does, but when they’re good, I can see how it can happen. Yet their presentation can only be built from the impassioned foundation of Lawhon herself to approach this subject matter. I was lost in the details, the adventure, the romance, the espionage. It was dangerous and it sometimes had to be funny. It needed to be bawdy but also indulgent. And the treachery!
If I’ve said nothing that has stuck, remember this: listen to Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon.
Why does this not get easier? Too many amazing books, that’s why!
Without further delay, here is my pick for the outstanding book of the month read in February 2021. Unlike my Top 10 lists at the end of the year that focus ONLY on books published within that year, my outstanding book of the month picks are anything that I’ve read in the month that may be a little older or yet-to-be-published.
Lives of the Stoics: From Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
This book is a game-changer. I would add this to my list of books that changed me (a post for another day) because I didn’t really know Stoicism. I knew of the oft-quoted men (and none of the women) in the book. I had read quotes shared on social media that they had written or spoken, but I didn’t know it was a life philosophy. This is my life philosophy and I didn’t know it, until I read this book. Now I’ve got others coming from the library both from the Stoics themselves and by the authors to do a deep dive. And isn’t that the way the best kind of learning happens?
Like my colleague always said, it’s like pulling the thread of the sweater. I pulled the thread… and I’m excited to see what I discover next.
And just like that, January is over! Therefore I must review the books I’ve read this month and pick one (just one) outstanding book of the month, which with the volume and tenacity I read, is always too difficult. Alas, it must be done and I’ve chosen one from way back in 2009 because it led me to a second book from way back in 1900 that was also read this month. The original? The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and the retelling Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz graphic novel retold and illustrated by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young, respectively.
What I loved was that the Marvel published graphic novel was so vivid and humorous that it led me straight to the original. I wonder if that should always be the point of any adaptation or retelling? That it will ultimately inspire the reader to the original which is what inspired the writer to create a retelling to start.
Having read them so close together, the adaptation captures the essence of the original and it is bolstered by the artwork which has a whimsy and color so beautiful to see with everything from the yellow brick road to the silver shoes to the emerald of the Emerald City. It was entertaining and adventurous. Emotional and warm as is the original which was surprisingly short.
If you haven’t read the original, do so and then read the graphic novel because both were favorites from the month for sure and continues my dive into reading classics I never read on my own terms.
The end of 2020 brings a lot of things including the last few days in which I’ve shared my top 10’s. But that doesn’t mean I’d skip an outstanding book of the month– because it’s just my favorite book of the month that doesn’t necessarily have to be published in that month (or year) for that matter.
Linda Sue Park wanted to tell a different kind of story on the prairie than the one that’s been around for quite some time. And tell the story she does. Hanna’s journey from California after the death of her mother with her father to settle in a small Midwest town would be enough for most young girls, but Hanna is half Asian and settlers don’t look kindly on her heritage.
All she wants to do is get her diploma and then make dresses but townspeople are making it hard for her. Everywhere she turns is another micro or macroaggression. In Park’s capable hands a riveting story emerges that has a comfortable pace and a deep message about the experiences of all Americans past or present.
Hanna is a strong female lead who shares with readers the difficult experiences growing up in California and then the Plains.
So many had shared their love for the book, so I was happy to read it digitally during the month of December. I’ve got my last book of the year prepped in addition to my first of 2021. What about you?
Is it already the end of November? Didn’t that seem to go by fast? Yet I’m just as excited to share my outstanding book of the month!
That Way Madness Lies: 15 of Shakespeare’s Most Notable Works Reimagined edited by Dahlia Adler which will hit shelves in 2021. Why am I choosing a book that’s not even out yet for the outstanding book? Well obviously because it needs to be pre-ordered so that you can get it in your hot little hands unless you’re the kind that uses sites like Edelweiss and Netgalley to get a jump on great literature.
I’ll share that the book was on my TBR list on Goodreads well in advance of the publication and even before it had an actual cover. I exclaimed with glee seeing it hit Edelweiss and read it pretty quickly thereafter devouring each short story contribution.
YA short story collections have been my jam and with the uptick in anthologies published, I’m always in the market to read more. But it’s a dangerous proposition since each must carry the weight of the theme of the anthology so that even a dud here and there don’t dissuade the appreciation for the whole collection. Then you find the rare anthology where each short story shines individually and collectively. This was that kind of anthology. Each includes a few lines from the Shakespeare work (including one that’s a sonnet!) and the reimagined story with a few author’s notes depending on the story. It’s a thing of beauty. It can inspire reading Shakespeare’s original work or not because the story itself is cleverly plotted.
Get thee to the local, independent bookstore nearest you to preorder!
It’s the end of September so that means I’m ready to announce the outstanding book of the month for September based on what I’ve read this month– it doesn’t mean that they were published this month or even this year– but it does mean that out of the dozens of books I’ve read (at least one a day) that it had an impact on me as a reader and a librarian.
Without waiting, here is September’s book!
Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation by Candy J. Cooper with Marc Aronson
And boy, what a book! A nonfiction accounting of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan is both well-written and cringe-worthy. The multiple failures that maintained the secrecy and then the continued ignorance of the problem is explained in great detail by highlighting the citizen activists who took charge of holding people accountable. Poisoned Water gets the prize for encompassing all aspects of the story for a teen audience which includes STEM and citizenship, advocacy and politics. And Cooper also includes well-placed pictures to show how the water affected the skin simply from using the water to bathe but also showing what the brown liquid looked like in a bottle that would be unsuitable for drinking.
This will find a home in our library but I know it won’t sit on the shelf for long because I have plans to share this book widely be it in booktalks but certainly during our social justice unit working with the English department. It’s a deeply affecting book and one that everyone should read.
Ah yes, the waning days of summer. For educators especially I think the quote is something like “August is the Sunday of summer” or for me it can be adequately summed up (as everything can) with a frame from Calvin and Hobbes.
August was another full month of at least a book a day so there are many books to choose from. I’ve settled on My Life in France by Julia Child for several reasons. First, I was waiting for the right time to read it. I’m very much a mood reader: I keep multiple books stacked and ready and choose the next book based on what I’m feeling, not to check a box or meet a deadline. This book had been sitting on my shelf since about April.
When I began it, I was going slow, like savoring one of the most delectable meals which is how I know a book is good. But then, I found out that as I was getting closer to the end that that specific day, August 15th, was the anniversary of her birthday and I knew I needed to finish it. And finish it I did, with the gusto of a great flip of the pan to create an omelet.
Every sense is awakened when reading about Julia’s life in France where she discovered the verve for cooking and fell into the sweetest routine of life with her husband, Paul. Whether it was a mundane task or cooking for a party, it was a full sensory experience for her and she and her great nephew, Alex Prud’homme make it one for the reader in the book.
I’ll close the post with the 10 thing I know after I finished the book (as I shared on Instagram):
Nothing beats a book that makes you make lists of its amazingness.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Readers Be Advised 