When I started thinking about a 2021 reading goal, I realized that I wanted to go in a different direction this year. I have put a lot of effort into diversifying my kids' bookshelves, but not so much my own. I looked at a lot of reading challenges and eventually compiled my own. I've put together this list to try to push myself out of my comfort zone. I had lots more ideas, but I'm trying to keep it to what I can actually accomplish in a year, still leaving some time for mindless mystery and chick lit reading.
A book by a Black author
A book by an Indigenous author
A non-fiction book
A memoir
A book that's gotten lots of hype
A book on my shelf I haven't read
A book that won an award
A fantasy or sci-fi book
A book with a disabled character
A book about an immigration experience (Peace by Chocolate is already on my shelf)
A book that will make me a better teacher/parent
I would love to hear any of your suggestions. Categories I should add? Book suggestions for any of them
A book by a Black author—The Vanishing Half, Bennett
A book by an Indigenous author—There There, Orange
A non-fiction book—The Splendid and the Vile, Larson
A memoir—Heavy, Laymon
A book that's gotten lots of hype—Interior Chinatown, Yu
A book that won an award—Shuggie Bain, Stuart
A book about an immigration experience—American Dirt, Cummins
The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang is an immigrant story about a dysfunctional family that loses their fortune when the Recession hits. Lots of humor.
Immigration experience: The Beekeeper of Aleppo. I read this book months ago, and I still think about it. I think what made it so memorable and real is that the author worked with immigrants and used their stories (but it is fiction). It will tear your heart out, but it's excellent.
Amazon summary:
Nuri is a beekeeper and Afra, his wife, is an artist. Mornings, Nuri rises early to hear the call to prayer before driving to his hives in the countryside. On weekends, Afra sells her colorful landscape paintings at the open-air market. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the hills of the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo—until the unthinkable happens. When all they love is destroyed by war, Nuri knows they have no choice except to leave their home. But escaping Syria will be no easy task: Afra has lost her sight, leaving Nuri to navigate her grief as well as a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece toward an uncertain future in Britain.
Nuri is sustained only by the knowledge that waiting for them is his cousin Mustafa, who has started an apiary in Yorkshire and is teaching fellow refugees beekeeping. As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss but dangers that would overwhelm even the bravest souls. Above all, they must make the difficult journey back to each other, a path once so familiar yet rendered foreign by the heartache of displacement.
Moving, intimate, and beautifully written, The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a book for our times: a novel that at once reminds us that the most peaceful and ordinary lives can be utterly upended in unimaginable ways and brings a journey in faraway lands close to home, never to be forgotten.
nonfiction:
The Library Book: the specific story of one library and its terrible fire but lots of info about libraries and librarians throughout history
The Power of Habit: this has the potential to be a real life-changing book for anyone needing to cease or create a habit--incredibly fascinating! very rarely do i purchase a book after reading it for free--i paid for this one!
immigration:
Refugee (middle school kids' book--historical fiction--SOOO good)
Memoir-Where the Light Enters Jill Biden
Nonfiction-The Girls from Ames (follows a group of 11 friends from Iowa)
Better teacher-The Book Whisperer (as someone else mentioned)-new way of looking at teaching reading
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01-12-2021, 07:06 AM
