stories – Peaceful Reader

More Best Book 2024 edition

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano: I loved the complex sister relationships as they came together and support each other as well as fell apart. This brought up a lot of emotions as the sisters deal with William as he struggles with his mental health, wonderfully displaying the effects of trauma.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield: This book was pure joy and focuses on the a SNL-type late night comedy show. Sally’s given up on love, happy in her career as a writer on the show until a handsome musician guests on the show. Sparks fly but it takes awhile for it all to come together. I laughed so much.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang: This is a thriller set in the publishing world with an emphasis on diverse writers and stolen stories. It reminded me a little of The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz and was a very unique story.

Small Mercies by Denise Lehane: I loved the 1970s Boston setting, strong characters, and the twists and turns of the mystery during a volatile time in history. Denise Lehane is masterful in his writing.

Huda F Are You; A Graphic Novel by Huda Fahmy: This graphic novel was hilarious and poignant. This should be required reading to raise awareness much like the New Kid series by Jerry Craft.

A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat: This memoir graphic novel shares Santat’s middle school years and a trip to Europe with classmates as he navigates first love and coming into his own as a young person. Hilarious and took me back to my own middle school years.

Honorable Mention and new Canadian author:

Carley Fortune! I read all three of these on my Kindle phone app often in the middle of the night with my illusive sleep patterns. This Summer Will Be Different was my favorite but all three are light, funny, and sexy with positive relationships and great yet not perfect men. I notice on her website she has a new book out as well. My sleep has been better which means I’ll be forced to read this new one during the day.

Write now I’m reading The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

I’m going to ignore all news stations tomorrow and pray that the next few days are low key. I’m concerned about deportations as the first order of business. There is much that makes me nervous and I hope my checklist does not become reality. Peace be with us all as we navigate this next term.

What the future holds

It’s taken me all month to mentally deal with the outcome of this election. I’m simply heartbroken. Our country is in a tough place. Like the serenity prayer I can’t focus on what I cannot change. Watching each and every instagram post about politics is not going to make my life healthier. It’s there and it’s bad but I have other ways I want to finish off November. Deep breath, more yoga, more reading.

I’ve read a lot of great books the last few months and I’ve made a few good recipes. So let’s talk about that…move over politics and welcome to the art of wintering or hygge. We’ve got to nestle in and take care of ourselves so we will be ready for the next term. https://www.carleyfortune.com/I’ve discovered a new author, Carley Fortune, when I read a review about her latest book This Summer will be Different (2024); a love story set in Prince Edward Island. It’s a fun read with interesting characters a a whole lot of twists. I’ve now read Every Summer After and I’m reading Meet Me at the Lake right now. I love the Libby app which has helped me read so many books this year. Suffering from insomnia (thank you menopause) I often read at night using my Kindle app on dark screen. I don’t sleep with my phone but if I wake up or even worse, cant fall asleep then I turn to reading. Fortune’s books have a fun premise, beautiful Canadian setting, romance and sex with an interesting set of characters. The plots make sense and there isn’t any abuse or negative dynamics.

I read Horse by Geraldine Brooks (2022)for book club and loved the back and forth timeline between the present and the past. I loved learning more about horse racing, Black history, and learning about the real people involved in this story. This was my first Brooks book; are there others I should read?

I read All The Colors of the Dark (2024) by Chris Whitaker. I’ve never read anything else by him as well and this was a very interesting crime drama that circled the 1990’s to present. I fell in love with the characters and they way Whitaker told the story although it was long it was worth it.

I read two amazing fantasy books, The Last Dragon on Mars (2024) by Scott Reintgen and The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) by TJ Klune. The Last Dragon is now circulating heavily at school by my students that love high fantasy dragon books like Eragon. Cerulean Sea is a beautiful love story that highlights the prejudices we see in the world and the hope to leave those behind (Yes, I see the connection between this and the election with my politics on high brain)

It’s so easy to disappear inside a book, a good story, a let it take you away from what is happening in real time.

As far as recipes go I made this fabulous tofurky by hand yesterday morning and it tasted delicious! Thanksgiving is a non holiday to us but we did have dinner with our son which was a nice way to spend the day. Food, cards, and conversation. Oh, there may have been some football on the screen and some reminiscing about our ancestors. I use a lot of NYT recipes because I get a discounted teacher subscription to the Times (not in love with them rn but I do love the cooking app) I made a deliciously easy carrot recipe for Thursday’s meal and an amazingly flavorful tomato lentil soup yesterday. You’ll have to google those.

Keep your chins up and find your joy right now. We need to be ready to stand together as the awful things begin to happen and hope we can help our neighbors, friends, and those we don’t know yet. Peace be with us.

Fabulous Summer Reading List

When I was growing up I loved reading. My favorite characters were Pippi Longstocking, Ramona, Claudia (Mixed Up Files), Judy Blume books and The Borrowers. I was constantly reading and spent a lot of time at our local library. I was in a library book club and I remember we read Watership Down and The Hobbit. I read Johnny Tremain as a kid and loved it. These books built empathy for me, made me laugh, and gave me the feeling of comfort and well-being.

Today’s world of kids lit is like an explosion of variety! So many many choices! While we did have Cleary, L’Engle, Blume, and Konigsburg we didn’t yet have the brilliance of Kate DiCamillo, Allan Gratz, Katherine Applegate, Stuart Gibbs, Dan Geminhart, Jacqueline Woodson, or Jason Reynolds. That’s just a handful that come to mind and my library is filled with many other great authors. And furthermore we didn’t have graphic novels! Sure we had comics but that style was not my jam. I love graphic novels!

The last few summers I’ve donated a lot of my reading time to reading elementary fiction books that are on our state award list. I love being on the committee to choose the next round of books because I have a good amount of young readers who love to read and challenge themselves to read the books on the list. I get to read a whole batch of really excellent stories. I’m not going to tell you about each one of these stories but know they are excellent.

I start off the list with Tom Lake by Ann Patchett which is adult fiction that I decided to listen to using the Libby app because I read that Meryl Streep narrated the story and she was amazing! This story focuses on summer stock theatre and the play Our Town. The rest of the list is all elementary fiction with a few graphic novels thrown in. Just Keep Walking was an adventure to read as the mother/daughter team hike The North Shore of Lake Superior. First State of Being is interesting science fiction tale about friendship. Half Moon Summer deals with a young boy watching his dad deal with an illness.

Even amidst all this reading I am having a great summer. I’ve done a far amount of traveling starting back in the spring with a weekend trip to Cleveland to watch my nephew, Jasper, graduate from Case Western. And we just arrived home from a family trip to Asheville, NC. Road trips are the best; I like to drive as much as I like to sit in the passenger seat and read page after page. I’m headed to Minneapolis in a week to hear some live music with my brother and sister-in-law. And in August I am taking a very exciting trip with my friend Barb. Summer is the BEST!

Whether you read the new stories or the classic stories be sure to keep reading…

Beautiful Books

I’ve struggled with getting back into writing over the last few months. I’m tired after school, I don’t feel like I have much to say, or I can’t think of what I wanted to say…

There is such a thing as surgery brain and I feel like I still have it. I’ve been reading some very good books and cooking a lot especially for tomorrow’s family day. We are having a full vegan spread with Tristan and Japhy. I’m in the middle of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz which is so interesting.

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2022) : This was an intense story of competition and family connections. Carrie is a not some cute little tennis player that you adore. She’s fierce and not interested in making friends on the tennis circuit or in life for that matter. I read this book awhile ago but Carrie has stayed with me. I loved Daisy Jones and the Six which had a different style but just as interesting. Reid goes all in for her characters.

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell (2016): I just finished this for book club and enjoyed the story. O’Farrell wrote Hamnet which I loved and so we picked another one of her offerings. This story has a crazy amount of characters but the story of Daniel is well-told and traverses continents.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (1993): I’ve wanted to read this for quite awhile but I’d read a few reviews of how real this one was so I waited until I was in the right space. Election time seemed to be the perfect time! It freaked me out and I was fascinated with the main character Lauren and how right Butler was about the direction our American society has gone. I want to read the rest of the series when I have time.

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley (2022): This was beautifully written but so glaringly real and heartbreaking. It’s a tough story about Kiara and her brother Marcus who are trying to live their lives in East Oakland after their father’s death and their mother’s arrest after a terrible grief-driven crime. This story was hard to read but well-worth it as it shined a light on how deep the lack of privilege is for young women.

If you are in need of a good story any of these will do very well. This week I also found a beautiful Native story Keepunumuk; Weeachumn’s Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, and Alexis Bunten. This is such a great story for understanding the real story of tomorrow’s holiday celebration. I’ve decided we are going to forever more refer to it as our Harvest Festival. Enjoy…

May Celebrations

The weather is chilly here, I am still wearing a warmer coat to walk the dogs, and haven’t planted anything yet because it gets too cold at night. Every once in a while the sun is strong in the afternoon and feels nice and warm. I’m ready for the intense heat of summertime. I’m also ready for my school students to run wildly out the door, to be free for the summer, to put this year behind. I don’t know what next year will look like but these kids need a summer break.

Yesterday I drove back home after visiting my brother and sister-in-law in the Minneapolis area. It was cold there also. Friday night we had an excellent dinner with this chickpea soup prepared by both my brother and his wife and old family friends helped as well. I feel like I’ve known them my whole life and there is something so reassuring about having people in your life that knew you as a young person. Marv was one of my dad’s best friends and Marcia still remains one of my mother’s besties. It was wonderful to watch the two of them talk at the table together, heads leaning in. My mother broke her hip in a recent fall and uses a walker right now and Marcia has her own. Marv recently recovered from a very serious heart surgery as well. We are all getting older. Yep. The night was magical though and it was lovely to visit with both Marv and Marcia, sharing and listening to their life stories. My nephew Beckett interviewed Marv about his Cold War experiences guarding the Berlin Wall. I loved hearing Marcia’s stories about childbirth in the 1970s where she had to argue to have her husband in the delivery room. We’ve come a long way baby.

The next day we had a lazy morning (I slept until 9:30!) and then went to Excelsior, browsed and had lunch at Coalition. We celebrated Mother’s Day all weekend and my brother’s 49th birthday. We had four different delicious desserts over the course of two days. And then I made fresh cinnamon rolls for Sunday brunch before we left town. I should think about giving up sugar for a few weeks. My brother is an amazing chef and really enjoys planning a menu and sharing food with friends and neighbors.

And then we had to come home, back to reality, back to lesson planning and waking up early. I did come home to a lovely daughter, and another calling me to leave a happy message from Brooklyn, and a son who took time to call and chat about everything. I felt loved all weekend long and even more so pulling into my own driveway, reaching my home destination because my family was happy to see me and my dogs were so excited to see me. I could tell because of the full body tail shake!

I finished The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, an excellent read, Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, the author of Homecoming, another excellent read. Now I am reading The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers, both wonderful stories. I’m trying to squeeze in lots of adult fiction before summer hits because I’m taking two classes and I have lots of award contenders to read before August. Librarian Life. Enjoy…

The Choice: Embrace the Possible

Dr. Edith Eva Eger’s memoir is a deep look into what it was like to live through extreme trauma and survive. At 16 Edith was sent to Auschwitz and was herded into one line with her sister and watched as her mother was pushed into another line, one of death. Edith and her sister Magda fight one minute, one hour, one day to make it through their ordeal together. In four parts, Prison, Escape, Freedom, and Healing, Dr. Eger’s shares with us what her own experience was like as well as patients she has worked with who have been imprisoned in other ways. She lets her journey be the guiding force to helping others. I enjoyed her family story very much, as well as her work with patients. Several of the patient accounts made me cry. It is always difficult to read first hand accounts of the Holocaust; the details overwhelming, and painful. I highly recommend her story and want everyone to read it. It’s an critical reminder of how important our freedom is and that we should never take it for granted.

I’ve discovered that I’m baking more these days and I think it is a stress-reliever. Baked goods for mental health! I made this delicious Czech breakfast cake one morning and shared it with friends and another day I woke up really early and made this French apple cake (Once upon a chef) for a trip to Iowa City to see Groovy Girl (Groovy College Student?). I will make both again. I’ve discovered a new little recipe spot on Bon Appetit called It’s Just that Simple! It’s like family recipes that they just talk you through as if they are telling you a recipe over coffee. I made the Desi Omelette one night for a quick dinner and a Korma recipe another night. It’s my kind of easy recipe site-like I’m getting them from friends.

(French Apple Cake)

Reading three books: Untamed by Glennon Doyle, my friend Angelle’s book, Wrong guy, right room, a fun romance book-find it here on Amazon, and The Guest List by Lucy Foley.

Be safe out there. Wear your mask. Stay positive. Do everything you can to get out the vote. Last night’s debate was even more proof that our current leader is completely unstable.

We are a diverse nation…

In simple terms white people came here with guns and took the land away from the already existing Native tribes. We rounded them up and shifted them to crap government lands. We broke treaties, we killed as if they were animals. Native people were not blameless but what would you do if people tried to take over your land? Fight back.

White people also brought shiploads of Africans here to work plantations and we kept them enslaved for over 200 years on land that we stole from others and when that system ended we came up with sharecropping as a means to keep black people poor and in their place. The list is long through our history of how we kept pushing. Some white people still feel like racism doesn’t exist and they still believe that a black person is beneath them. The officer Derek Chauvin feels that way; you can see it in his body language as he keeps his knee bent into George Floyd’s neck. I have trouble watching the video as most people do. If you think first of other police officers or that All Lives Matter you are missing the big picture. Of course every life does matter but it is the inequality caused by skin color that we mean when we say Black Lives Matter.

I am sure there are many exceptional police officers in this country and inherently in their goodness they should not be sticking up for Derek Chauvin or the other three. I don’t want officers to be killed and I also want all police departments to clean house. They should not be sheltering racist, Nazi sympathizers, white nationalists, power-hungry, violent abusive husbands or men with major anger issues. To fit our diverse world that many of us love and respect we need a police force of empathetic public servants ready to help out in our communities. Many already are successful at this but we still have far too many who would kneel on a man’s neck as a way to restrain and never bother to check on that person or to crash into a woman’s apartment in the middle of the night and shoot. We need to really think about what is important here. If you do not like our diverse population than might I suggest you find another place to live, far far away where you are welcome. I want to live in an America where POC do not fear for their lives and we can truly work toward racial equality.

While looking up the Minneapolis Police Chief I stumbled across their motto:

“To protect with courage, to serve with compassion.” I did not see courage or compassion as they shot pepper bullets and tear gas into crowds of people. I do understand about unions yet they are not meant as a shelter for bad people who break laws against humanity. And it just occurred to me it should be used as a teaching moment. If certain officers are interested in keeping their jobs they should be paired with members of the black or brown community to learn and grow. People can change if given the chance but it should not be at the expense of another human’s life.

I started this post to discuss these two great books yet I couldn’t begin without speaking about these recent events that are overwhelming my being.

One great thing to help students learn empathy is to put diverse books in their hands. I recently read two excellent books that feature Native characters.

I can make this promise by Christina Day (2019) : Edie has always know her mother is adopted but it isn’t until she discovers a box in their attic with pictures of a woman with her name that Edie wants more answers from her family. Day did a great job of integrating Edie’s history and the mystery behind the other Edith with day-to-day friendship problems. An excellent modern day Native American story.

Quote: “The table falls silent, silent, as the sound-the singing-strengthens and rises. Waves lap against the shore, swelling with an incoming tide. And out there, in the middle of the sea, is a line of-canoes. Paddles plunging into the water in brisk, even swipes. Voices harmonizing and bellowing in a language I’ve never heard before.” (p239)

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (2017): Dystopian world showcasing the loss of white culture through their ability to dream (or lack of their ability) and their subsequent search for Native people to steal marrow from which tortures the indigenous people. Schools (assimilation boarding schools) were reinstated to keep groups together for medical experimentation. I hope this book is the first in a series because I would love to know more.

Quote: “We go to the schools and they leach the dreams from where our ancestors hid them, in the honeycombs of slushy marrow buried in our bones. And us? Well, we join our ancestors, hoping we left enough dreams behind for the next generation to stumble across.”

Back to school

The end of school vacation is here. {try not to sob}

Summer remains-I prefer a long summer. This summer was the busiest I’ve had in a long time. Two grad classes to spark my imagination and recreate my classroom and two lovely vacations to relax my brain and prepare for the year ahead. I’m ready to celebrate more JOY at school and at home. I’ve finally fallen head first back into my yoga practice and feel ready to keep that going every day with intention. Today as I practiced my mind took me back to Loon Lake in Northern Minnesota. A perfectly calm place to be.

Groovy Girl is back at the dance thing and we’ll spend 4 nights at the studio each week. We’ve picked up a small batch of school supplies here and there. Today she managed to choose a new backpack (difficult b/c of ALL the choices) but she prefers to wait until her classes begin to see what she really needs. I’m freaked out about the need for a $180.00 graphing calculator…? I’m also shocked that my baby is a junior in high school and my firstborn is about to graduate from college! My – how time flies. It seems like yesterday that I was rocking my way through library grad school with a 6-year-old and a baby. And now I’m in my 16th year of teaching.

This past week I’ve made new binders for myself, got a little organized, mentally prepared my brain, and made a new batch of my homemade salsa. My mom has huge batches of tomatoes and I wanted to remind myself of all the steps so I did it alone one night this week; chopping onions, banana peppers, jalapenos, and skinning 20 cups of hot tomatoes while listening to music. It was magic in motion and a whirlwind of hot, spicy, and a few tears shed to get to the final-6 jars of salsa!

I made a simple dinner tonight with farmers market fare and I’ve had a lovely glass of pinot noir. I ate an amazing dark chocolate bar with blackberry sage and I shared with G, J, and K. In a few minutes, I’m going off to do a little bedtime yoga. This year is going to fly by and I want it to begin (and end) with flare. Are you ready for school?

Hello June

There are some people in our lovely little house making a movie, creating art. About 7 people and my husband, shooting, holding a boom mike, and going over lines. Groovy Girl and I have sequestered ourselves on the second floor, in our rooms, doing homework and reading. Not what I expected to do with my day, ALL day, but such is this life.

It is a fairly gorgeous day out and I did take the dog for a long walk. It seems like it would be a perfect hammock day but I cannot for the life of me find where I stashed them over winter. I always keep them in one particular place for safekeeping and they are not there. I think the husband must have taken them down and stored them and he needs to find them. We are missing precious hammock lazy moments.

So with lots of time on my hands, I finished Anne Tyler’s A spool of blue thread, a good solid story that tells the tale of the Whitshank family of Baltimore. It doesn’t have a major plot upheaval and yet generally that is how family stories often are in life. Just a straight line with many zigs and zags up and down. This was my first Anne Tyler and I would read another. With that one done I’ve started Tangerine; a novel by Christine Mangan plus reading more of Cleo Wade’s Heart Talk, a very inspirational book of wisdom.

I love it when a friend orders a book based on my recommendation. It happened this morning; I raved about a book, News of the world, to my friend Tim at our church picnic and sent him a photo of it when I returned home. He responded back a few minutes later with “Just ordered it from Amazon!”

We have just 2 1/2 days left of school! The year has flown by and in a few short days, it will truly be summer. Groovy Girl and I are taking to the road, headed to Denver, CO to stay with family for about a week. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve made this road trip myself and while G.G. will keep me awake, she isn’t able to drive just yet so it will be all me. Generally, my husband does most of the driving (while I read) but I used to make this trek at least once a year when I lived there before there was a husband so it’s a challenge for myself. Bring on the Red Vines and blue chips, the loud music and the laughs.

Let's compare; my 2017 books

It’s a fantastic feeling to look at my books from the past year and find so many great titles. I hope your year in reading was just as exciting. I read a good mix of books from my TBR piles and plan to sign up for Roofbeam Readers’ TBR Challenge this year to keep me on track. I also added in stacks of new books about diverse characters, which made me fall in love with some new authors like Jason Reynolds and Angie Thomas.

Longest book: Eragon-I’m glad I finally read this fantasy tale
Favorite Detective-Cormoran Strike (Robert Galbraith)

Top Twelve

1. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (real train, great writing)
2. The Mothers by Brit Bennett (Nadia and Luke, love story but more)
3. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (brilliant story of police violence + more, very well written)
4. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (dystopian look at our world if Pence takes over)
5. A man called Ove by Fredrik Backman (sweet story of Ove learning about life)
6. American War by Omar El Akkad (dystopian look at future American w/out oil)
7. Our souls at night by Kent Haruf (sweet tale of neighbors making a connection)
8. To the bright edge of the world by Eowyn Ivey (amazing writing, journal-style about Alaskan exploration, LOVED her 1st book The Snow Child)
9. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (amazing, 300 years of life in Ghana and descendents)
10. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (The Count is imprisoned in beautiful hotel and finds a way to continue living a great life)
11. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (novel in verse, aftermath of Will’s brother’s death, strong voice)
12. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (1937 New York City, great cast of characters)

Top Elementary Fiction:

1. Shooting Kabul by N.H Senzai (escape from Afghanistan, life in America)
2. Some kind of courage by Dan Gemeinhart (great character western)
3. The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill (well-told fantasy)
4. Save me a seat by Sarah Weeks/Gita Varadarajan (diverse friends have all the fun, after the drama)
5. Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes (9/11; well done)
6. The girl who drank from the moon by Kelly Barnhill (well-told fantasy)
7. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (dragon quest)
8. Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes (excellent voice, plantation aftermath)
9. Pax by Sara Pennypacker (pet fox struggles in the wild while boy tries to get back to fox)
10. A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L’Engle (wild, intergalactic ride, introduced it to 5 unsuspecting 6th graders)

Enjoy! What stories made an impression on you in 2017?