My reading totals are down this week, but packing was up, and since we have a move scheduled in less than three weeks, that’s probably a good thing!
Katherine Bomer’s The Journey Is Everything was a reread for me and welcome prep for thinking about how to incorporate essay more organically and less formulaically in my new classroom. I enjoyed reading Bomer’s analysis and response to the two essays that anchor the thinking in this book, Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Valadoras” and Dagoberto Gilb’s “Pride.” I enjoyed reading about her own writing process. And I took so many notes on her ideas for generating essay. Bomer herself writes like a dream, and she’s such a warm encourager of good teaching and good thinking. This is a book I wish I owned, but hopefully after three reads and copious notetaking, i will have what I need.
I love Victoria Jamieson’s new nonfiction graphic novel, When Stars Are Scattered, which tells the story of her co-author, Omar Mohamed, a Somali refugee who spent his childhood and teenage years with his brother in a refugee camp in Kenya before being selected for resettlement in the U.S. This is one of those feel like you’re there books, where you become so absorbed by the story that you kind of forget time is passing as you’re reading.
Toning the Sweep was Angela Johnson’s first young adult novel, and though it is narrated by fourteen-year-old Emily, but it doesn’t feel exactly like a young adult novel. It’s the story of three generations of women who have come together because Emily’s grandmother, Ola, will be moving to live with her daughter and granddaughter while she undergoes cancer treatment. It’s a super slim book (just 100 pages) and very light on plot (there’s some packing, conversations full of memories, and a goodbye party) but packs in significant reflection and atmosphere.
This week, I’ll be finished the new Murderbot novel by Martha Wells and hopefully making progress in a couple of professional development books. What will you be reading?
the dirigible plum 
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