Now, Go. See. Do.

Tag: Literature

Still Quarantine Reading

Month two of quarantine and I’m still reading. In between reading, I’m doing puzzles and listening to podcasts (oh, and homeschooling my kids). The outside world may be scary and unsure, but in my house is a library of adventure. I choose adventure.

Read All Day: April

1. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo ??????

Genre: Historical Fiction

We were a chocolate-box family, I thought. Brightly wrapped on the outside and oozing sticky darkness within.

2. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs: Big Questions by Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty ????????

Genre: Nonfiction

We can’t make death fun, but we can make learning about it fun. Death is science and history, art and literature. It bridges every culture and unites the whole of humanity!

3. Normal People by Sally Rooney ????????

Genre: Fiction

I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I cared what people thought of me.

4. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys ????????

Genre: Historical Fiction

Your shoes are carrying your most valuable possession—your life. Do not delay. Everything else can be replaced.

5. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger ????????

Genre: Fiction

Insatiable, impatient, impossible.

6. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia ????????

Genre: Young Adult

There is a small monster in my brain that controls my doubt.

7. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky ??????????

Genre: Young Adult

Try to be a filter, not a sponge.

8. A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum ????????

Genre: Fiction

Where I come from, voicelessness is the condition of my gender, as normal as the bosoms on a woman’s chest, as necessary as the next generation growing inside her belly.

9. The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by Jessica Lahey ??????

Genre: Parenting

In order to help children make the most of their education, parents must begin to relinquish control and focus on three goals: embracing opportunities to fail, finding ways to learn from that failure, and creating positive home-school relationships.

10. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides ??????

Genre: Mystery

Choosing a lover is a lot like choosing a therapist. We need to ask ourselves, is this someone who will be honest with me, listen to criticism, admit making mistakes, and not promise the impossible?

11. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis ????????

Genre: Historial Fiction

I learned about getting saved. I learned how someone could come to you when you were feeling real, real bad and could take all of your problems away and make you feel better. I learned that the person who saved you, your personal saver, was sent by God to protect you and to help you out.

12. I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella ??????

Genre: Fiction

My phone’s my life. I can’t exist without it. It’s a vital organ.

13. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes ????????

Genre: Fiction

Your head is the house you live in, so you have to do the maintenance.

14. Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong ????????

Genre: Autobiography

The answers to making it, to me, are a lot more universal than anyone’s race or gender, and center on having a tolerance for delayed gratification, a passion for the craft, and a willingness to fail.

15. Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright ??????

Genre: Nonfiction Science

Diseases don’t ruin lives just because they rot off noses. They destroy people if the rest of society isolates them and treats them as undeserving of help and respect.

16. The Second Sister by Claire Kendal ??????

Genre: Mystery

Why are so many fairytales about sisters saving their brothers? All the ones you told me last week were.

He is right. Hansel and Gretel. The Seven Ravens. The Twelve Brothers. Our mother seemed to know hundreds of them.

We should write a different story. I want one with a sister who saves her sister.

17. When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger ??????

Genre: Fiction

I feel like we just stepped into an episode of Housewives.

Now, Go. See. Do.

~meemish

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Need a Good Read?

Is anyone else as ready for summer as I am? Aprils sporadic weather had me feeling, well…blah. At least I had some good books to get me through.

Read All Day: April

1. Watching You by Lisa Jewel

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Because that’s the thing with getting what you want: all that yearning and dreaming and fantasizing leaves a great big hole that can only be filled with more yearning and dreaming and fantasizing.

2. The Magician by Michael Scott

the_magician
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

If you tell people everything you take away their opportunity to learn.

3. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

i_capture_the_castle
Genre: Fiction, Classics

Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me.

4. Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

winter_garden
Genre: Historical Fiction

We women make choices for others, not for ourselves, and when we are mothers, we . . . bear what we must for our children.

5. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

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Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.

6. Hey Ladies!: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails by Michelle Markowitz, Caroline Moss and Illustrated by Carolyn Bahar

hey_ladies
Genre: Fiction, Humor

Mason jars. Chalk menus. Social media tie-ins. I’m probably speaking another language to you, right!?

7. The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

the_rosie_effect
Genre: Fiction

Dishonesty was part of the price of being a social animal, and of marriage in particular.

8. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

cinder
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Mirrors have an uncanny way of telling the truth.

9. The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd

the_indigo_girls
Genre: Historical Fiction

It seemed a ridiculously careless accident that made me a female rather than a male. The rest of the time I wondered why it should make a difference at all. But it did.

10. Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

highly_illogical_behavior
Genre: Young Adult

What he feared the most was that all this hiding had made it impossible for him to ever be found again.

Now, Go. See. Do.

~meemish

= Favorite Read

= Read with Kids

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Looking for a Good Book?

A quick road trip mid-month led to a few extra books on the list this month. Do you like to listen to audiobooks while you drive? What are your favorites?

Read all Day: March

1. Got Ideas? by Justin Jones & Scott Waddell

got_ideas

Building products can seem like a daunting task if you think about everything that has to happen. But if you take it one step at a time, and surround yourself with the right likeminded people, it’s not as massive of an undertaking as you might think. Not to say that you won’t crash and burn. You might? But you have to be willing to fail, over and over again. This very thing is what separates the builders, creators, and doers from the mere dreamers and talkers.

Genre: Nonfiction, Entrepreneur

2. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

the_hot_zone

To mess around with Ebola is an easy way to die. Better to work with something safer, such as anthrax.

Genre: Nonfiction, Science, History

3. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

the_penderwicks

Skye’s always saying exactly the wrong thing to people-it wasn’t just special for you.

Genre: Fiction, Childrens

4. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

where_the_crawdads_sing

Most of what she knew, she’d learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.

Genre: Fiction

5. Final Girls by Riley Sager

final_girls

Because here’s the thing about details—they can also be a distraction. Add too many and it obscures the brutal truth about a situation.

Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery

6. The Winter Sister by Megan Collins

the_winter_sister

We O’Leary women—we keep our promises to our sisters.

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

7. Tweak by Nic Sheff

tweak

Trying is terrifying because I know I will just fail. But I do want things to be different. I do…I am so afraid. I’m afraid to hope again.

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Mental Health

8. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

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I had never classified myself with other girls. I was not of their species; I was different. I had never thought my future would be like theirs.

Genre: Historical Fiction

9. Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

goodbye_vitamin

A long time ago I stopped wondering why there are so many crazy people. What surprises me now is that there are so many sane ones.

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary

10. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

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You can’t keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult

11. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

tales_of_a_fourth_grade_nothing

Some people might think that my mother is my biggest problem… but my mother isn’t my biggest problem. Neither is my father… My biggest problem is my brother, Farley Drexel Hatcher.

Genre: Fiction, Childrens

12. Yes Please by Amy Poehler

yes_please

You have to be where you are to get where you need to go.

Genre: Nonfiction, Autobiography

13. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

along_for_the_ride

Just because something’s damaged doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be treated with respect.

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult

14. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

between_shades_of_gray

A wrongdoing doesn’t give you the right to do wrong.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Now, Go. See. Do.

~meemish

= Favorite Read

= Read with Kids

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