I really enjoy the process of selecting my word of the year. Each year, a word finds me or I find a word that I really need. Some years I need creative energy, some years I need activity and spunk or to be stretched, while other years I need to rest and recharge. I journal through a series of prompts to consider what energy I want to bring into a new year, and what I was to manifest.
For 2026, I want to continue to build on the healthy habits I began this year, including my meditation practice and my refusal to embrace the culture of “always busy”. I want to embrace a slower, calmer, more purposeful life whenever and wherever I can. I want to feel at ease at home, at work, and on all my travels. This year, I am inviting EASE into my life.
Tracking my reading brings me so much joy! Not only does it help me remember what I read, and what to recommend to others, but it teaches me about myself each year. This year I learned that I while I still enjoy mysteries and thrillers, they don’t bring me reading fulfillment in the same way that a well-written literary novel of substance does. The stats are always fun to see as well, so here are some stats that summarize my year of reading.
Number of Books Read:
2025- 123
2024 – 130
2023 – 113
2022 – 127
2021 – 146
2020 – 71
Nation of Author’s Origin & Genres:
Fun Facts:
46% of what I read was digital, 30% was in print, and 24% was audio
My top three genres were: Mystery/Thriller (23%), Literary Fiction (14%) and Memoir (12%)
78% of what I read I rated 4, 4.5 or 5 stars, with an annual average of 4.1
20% of the books I read this year were published in 2025, with 27% published in 2024 and a mix after that, going back to pre-1900!
I read 75% fiction and 25% nonfiction
I read 39,857 pages!
52% of the books I read included people of other races, ethnicities, languages, and/or abilities than me
55% of what I read I checked out from my local public library
Reading Superlatives
Best Mystery that had me guessing until the very end (and the one I’ve recommended the most this year): After the Crash by Michael Bussi
Best Backlist Nostalgic Family Saga: The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Best Epistolary Novel that packs a punch in the most beautiful way: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Best Book about race told in a unique and fascinating way: Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
Best Nonfiction book that hits way too close to home for me: They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms by Mike Hixenbaugh
In 2026, I am looking forward to more enjoyable reading experiences, whether I’m reading at home, in a pool, in a plane, or on my daily commute.
The three weeks between Thanksgiving break and winter break are also so busy for us in education. I didn’t read much personally during that time, but I took advantage of my winter break to catch up and end this year of reading well. This month I read:
Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei – I love a climate fiction story that takes place in the somewhat near future, when humans have basically ruined the environment and life is a big struggle, with good versus evil battling it out for society. In this CliFi, we follow two sisters, Skipper and Carmen, on their boat journey to find their missing sister, Nora. Life is rough in this future and the girls must fight pirates, hunger, weather, and lies to find their sister and the truth. I enjoyed the adventure!
The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier – This was a fun, tense thriller. We meet Samantha, an author writing a book about the serial killer The Butcher, caught by her boyfriend’s father, the famous Chief Edward Shank. Soon, we learn that the man caught as the butcher may not have been the serial killer, then we know more than Samantha does, as she tries to solve the mysteries that present themselves to her. It was fun to be a reader who had the information and wait to see how the characters would figure it out. I enjoyed this story, despite the darkness of the murders.
March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell – Someone told me about this graphic novel, one of many that she read this year, and I was intrigued enough to find it in my library. I love to read a graphic novel in print. This book tells the early history of John Lewis’s life, and what made him the peaceful, nonviolent protester that he is known for being. We learn about his childhood, how he met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins he was a part of. I will continue to read this series, as it is a first-hand account of important events from America’s history.
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy – I first read this book about 30 years ago and remember discussing it with my parents, who were both Conroy fans. Conroy’s writing is exquisite – detailed, rich, figurative, poetic, and impactful. This story, about the Wingo family, is heart-wrenching, sad, personal, and touched with sibling love. The poverty and abuse the three Wingo children suffered was enough to drive Savannah to deep depression, forgetting entire years, and multiple attempts to end her own life, which is when we meet her as an adult. It affected her twin brother Tom very differently, and their older brother Luke, even more so. We root for these siblings to survive their horrible childhood, story after story, while knowing that tragedy will befall many of them right from the beginning. Despite the dark storyline, the beautiful language and messages of love and compassion shine through, making this a worthwhile read at the end of this year.
Palaver by Bryan Washington – I received this book as a Christmas gift (thank you, JJ!) and loved it! I had never heard of the author or the book, but my cousin knows that I like to read diverse stories by diverse authors and this fit the bill. We meet the son and his mother when she shows up to visit him in Tokyo, from her home in Texas. While we never learn their names, we learn so much about their lives, their backgrounds, the challenges of a Black gay man living abroad and an immigrant mother raising children. Their lack of communication was both real and frustrating, but I appreciated the unspoken feelings shared through the pages. This was a literary story that make Tokyo come alive, as we rode trains and walked through city streets. I enjoyed the entire reading experience!
Stay tuned for my end of year wrap up summary and a few favorite superlatives coming soon!
I read a number of excellent books again this month. I’m so glad my reading choices have improved this fall, since the first half of this year felt very MEH. This month I read:
Nothing Can Erase You by Michel Bussi – Last month I read and loved After the Crash by Bussi, so then I went back to his catalog to request more of his books from my library. I enjoyed this thriller almost as much. We meet Maddie and her son Esteban right before Esteban disappears. Maddie spends the next decade trying to figure out what happened to Esteban and having to convince the people around her that she isn’t crazy, especially when she moves to a town just because a young boy named Tom looks just like Esteban (but would be 10 years younger). This was a wild ride of twists and turns with lots of quirky characters.
Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben – I love Harlan Coben’s books and I’m always happy when I rediscover him and find new ones to read. The first book in this series was written in 2016 and I read it then, but didn’t realize the connection until after I finished this, which could be a standalone story. Our main character Kierce, kicked off the police force, is hired to help solve a very old kidnapping case in which he has a surprising connection from the past. Along the way, we learn about Kierce’s family, his past, and the family of the young girl who was kidnapped. There were a variety of twists in this, as well as some information hidden from us as the reader, but I enjoyed the entire ride!
The Black Wolf by Louise Penny – I love the Three Pines series and everything Louise Penny writes. This book was a continuation of book 19, the Grey Wolf. The message between the books being that there are grey wolves, which are good, and black wolves, which are evil. Armand and his crew stumbled upon a government conspiracy to poison the water in Montreal in book 19, and this book begins with the ramifications of their arrests, injuries, and them doubting whether they truly caught the right black wolf. Penny’s introduction says that she turned in this manuscript in September of 2024 and was shocked to see some of her plot in the news in 2025. What follows is an eery story that feels more like nonfiction than fiction, with connections between Canada and America, with leaders no one can trust, and plot lines reminiscent of Animal Farm and 1984, both of which are quoted a lot. This book SHOOK me. The writing was flawless and the characters were so human it hurt to watch them make mistakes, even as I cheered them on to keep going. This was a PHENOMENAL book, which is incredible when you realize it’s #20 in a long series!
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – This is my book club’s “classic read” for the year. Since I never read it, I was interested to read it, despite my hesitation with classics. Plath’s writing is very informal in tone and rich in details. The beginning of the book we are on a journey to NYC in the 1950’s with a young woman, Esther, who is selected as part of a magazine scholarship group for summer work and fun. Right away, Esther is different from the other young women in the group and much less interested in the fun they are having. The second part of the book is Esther’s fall into madness, with suicidal ideations long before there was a name for this. The book is dark, sad, and a vivid portrayal of deep depression and the failings of the mental health system back then.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy [audiobook] – When this book first came out, I hated the title and refused to read it on that principle alone. Over time, I heard good things about it from many people, including my cousin, who confirmed that the mother in this memoir is nothing like mine and wouldn’t bring up sad memories for me. Well, she was right about that, but it brought up other feelings. This memoir chronicles the life of a young girl whose imbalanced mother forces her to become an actress, to become anorexic, and other awkward and inappropriate situations that were described through the lens of a young child. The majority of the book was gross to me, espcially as it was told from a child’s point of view, with no reality checks or reflections until the very end of the book. This was a hard memoir to read with not a lot of impactful lessons. I didn’t enjoy the reading experience.
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron – I’ve been reading a chapter a week from this book since early September, as part of the Secret Stuff book club with Laura Tremaine. I have also written morning pages and gone on artist dates, two key principles the author outlines in the book. Along the way, she provides concrete actions to take to unblock creativity, leaning into the fun and silliness of childhood and the importance of being disconnected and bored long enough to tap into your own creativity.
A Killer’s Wife by Victor Methos – This was a quick, fun mystery to read, that is first in a series that is new to me. in this book, we meet Yardley, whose husband, and the father of her teenage daugther, is on death row after being prosecuted for multiple murders. Just when she is moving on with her life, Yardley hit some significant bumps along the way. This story takes place in Las Vegas, in and out of courtrooms and jails, with many dark characters. Though I disliked almost all of the characters, especially most of the men, I enjoyed the fast-paced story and I will look into the rest of the series.
Animal Farm by George Orwell – I decided to read this very old classic because Louise Penny mentioned it and 1984, also by Orwell, so much in the last Gamache book. I have read 1984, but not Animal Farm, and she used both to illustrate governmental lessons of significance. This is a dystopian tale of a farm where the animals take over, chase off the humans, and create their own society. Everything is peaceful at first, but as the pigs become more powerful (they are the only literate animals on the farm), the rules keep changing, the blame keeps shifting, and the enemies are always responsible. This was written as a dystopian story mocking governmentla overreach, and it is scary how many similarities you can find to today’s political climate. Now we use terms like propoganda and gaslighting, but in Animal Farm, it was the literate pigs changing the commandments of the group. I’m glad I read this.
Drive Here and Devastate Me by Megan Falley – I bought this poetry book last summer, when Megan’s partner Andrea Gibson passed away after a long battle with cancer. Both Megan and Andrea are gifted poets, and known for their spoken word performances. I just watched the documentary about their love of life, each other and poetry, called Come See Me in the Good Light on Apple TV (must watch!). It was stunningly beautiful and simple and profound. Both of these people are gifted with words and their poetry is gorgeous.
Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanaugh – I love this Eddie Flynn series! Eddie is a former con man turned lawyer, who will only defend innocent people.. In this story, he is defening Sofia against the charge of murdering her own father. Her sister Alexandra, is also on trial for the same charge at the same time. We know that one of the sisteres committed the crime, but it seems like we will never figure out the truth. This was a fast-paced court drama that came to an explosive conclusion!
Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida – While visiting a 6th grade class with a group of principals, we saw students just beginning to read this middle grade novel. Once one of my principal colleagues told me what it was about, I knew I needed to read it. This beautiful little book tells the story of one Japanese-American family in California and what happened to them, here in the U.S., right after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The father was immediately arrested and interned in Montana, while his family was forced to remain at home with no contact with anyone. Then they were relocated not once, but twice, until they, and all other Japanese families, were taken out of California. It’s a devastating part of American history that is a blib, if even mentioned in some history books. Told from a young girl’s eyes, it’s sweet and innocent and still hard to believe. This is an important story for more Americans to know and understand.
Sold on a Monday by Kristin McMorris – For some unknown reason, I have owned this e-book on my Kindle for years. I finally got around to reading it and it was a delightful historical fiction story. Set in the Depression era, a young journalist takes a photo of two children with a “children for sale” sign in front of them and stumbles into quite an adventure. The reporter, Ellis, is fighting for his own bylines, while a work friend, Lily, is doing the same but as a woman in a male-dominated field. Both Ellis and Lily have their own secrets that drive them towards success, but they come together to help children in need in this story. It was sad, sweet, fun, and depressing, and I enjoyed it all.
The Last Beekeeper by Pablo Cartaya [audiobook] – I found this middle grades story through my library, and was so happy to read yet another Climate Fiction story that takes place in the near future. In this traumatic story, humans have killed most living creatures and are trying to make technology the only thing of value for communication and survival. One young girl, Yolanda, is a gifted coder who uncovers family secrets related to the last known bee colony. Soon Yolanda and her friends are on a quest to save humanity from the evil taking over their world.
The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards – This book takes place in a very tense dinner party, with flashbacks to a summer in 1999 when all of the dinner party guests lived and worked together on a dating app start-up. We are in the beautiful home of rich Georgina and Theo, and Will, Sophie, and the others are not sure what this reunion is all about. Quickly we learn that everyone has some secrets, some held since that summer in 1999. As bad things happen, we learn that each of these characters is less likeable than we thought. Without giving anything away, I enjoyed the fast-paced action, the twists, and the ending!
I finally read two 5 star books in a row and maybe my best read of 2025! Then I had some more 4+ star reads so this was probably my best reading month of the year. This month I read:
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher – After hearing Meredith rave about this old family saga from the 1980’s, which I can picture my mom reading in my childhood, I knew I wanted to read this. This is a beautiful novel, a sweeping family saga that tells the tales of multiple generations living in England in WWII and through the 1980’s. We follow Penelope from her childhood to old age, out of order, but through love and loss and war and dealing with her adult children. I loved her, and her friendships and love of her garden and artwork. I did NOT love her children (Noel and Nancy were awful and Olivia was good, but not great!) and I didn’t enjoy that the author painted Penelope as a very old woman, when she was in her early 60’s! The closer I get to that, the less old it feels. But I did love Penelope’s adventures and how she shared her love with those deserving it. I loved this book!
After the Crash by Michael Bussi – This is the second 5 start book I read this month, and maybe the best all year! I loved this fast-paced, thrilling story. After a tragic plane crash in the mountains of France, one 3 month old baby is found alive as the sole survivor. The only problem is that there were two families on board the flight with 3 month old babies. The relatives of the deceased parents fight for custody and since this begins in the 1980’s, there are no DNA tests readily available to determine the baby’s identiy. We follow the baby’s life and the dectetive who spends 18 years trying to track down the truth. This was such a great book!
107 Days by Kamala Harris [audiobook] – Listening to Kamala Harris tell the story of the 107 days of her campaign for the presidency was beautiful and so depressing. Knowing the election results, it was so hard to hear her hope and all of the hard work her entire team put in, knowing they inherited an uphill battle. It was interesting to hear the way she tried to maintain respect for President Biden, even while hinting that his team shelved her for his entire presidency and didn’t do anything to support her. Kamala repeats a lot of her professional successes in both books; she is proud of her work and it is clear how few people knew all that she has accomplished. This is the second book I’ve read by Kamala and she is intelligent, detail-oriented, wise, mature, and fun. She would have been an incredible president.
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More than they Expect by Will Guidara – This nonfiction book primarily about a restaurant’s growth was a Secret Stuff book club pick, and nothing that I would have picked up on my own. However, I did waitress in my MUCH younger years, and I have family who work in the restaurant industry, and I found the entire story to be entertaining, educational, and inspiring, with lessons that go beyond restaurant management. The author, Will, outlines how he came to be the GM of Eleven Madison Park, in NYC, and how he and the new head chef decided to be full partners in the running of the restaurant. It is rare for the front and back of house to work that closely together, but these men forged a parntership intentionally to do something different. They worked incredibly hard to provide what they coined “unreasonable” hospitality, as they worked to gain better reviews, more stars, and to make it on the 50 Best Restaurants in the World list. They were creative, innovative, a bit crazy and wild, and fun! I appreciated when they began to work to make sure that each diner’s experience was unique and personalized, something that we want to do in schools as well, but which takes significant effort, research, time, and human capital. They invested in people and it paid off most of the time. I found this to be a fascinating read.
The Safari by Jaclyn Goldis – I found this book by chance at my library – I love random serendiptiy! In this story, we meet the Babel family in South Africa, at the luxury safari camp they own. Odelia, the rich mother, is about to marry her much younger, new boyfriend, and her three children are less than pleased about the wedding. Sam and Bailey, twin siblings, who both seem to be less than what their parents hoped they would be as young adults, while their older brother Joshua, is married with a beautiful wife and young baby, and works for the family company. Odelia’s best friend Gwen joins the group for the tense pre-wedding planning. When one of the guests is found murdered, the entire family is busy trying to hide their own secrets while figuring out what everyone else was lying about. This is a fast-paced thriller with so many suspects you have to read the very end to learn all the hidden stories.
Tilt by Emma Pattee – I heard this book recommended on the Currently Reading podcast and knew I would like it because it’s Climate Fiction, one of my favorite subgenres. We meet Annie, who is 9 months pregnant, while she is buying a crib in IKEA. When THE BIG ONE, as in a Northwest earthquake, strikes, we are with Annie has she travels, on foot, to find her husband. This is a slow, harrowing tale of her journey through disaster, but also her journey to acceptance of motherhood, and her own past grief issues. This was beautifully written and hauntingly readable.
I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman’s Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris by Glynnis MacNicol – I read MacNicol’s first memoir about grief and her mother’s death and really appreciated hearing life stories from a middle-aged woman who never married and never had kids. That part of my life is rarely represented in books so I appreciated it, even though her life is still very different than mine. This memoir is a prime example of that. In August, during COVID, she is able to leave NYC for a month to go life in Paris mainly because she misses human contact and knows the rules of France quarantine are different. She has other single female friends in Paris, she knows the city well, and she jumps into a French dating app and meets a range of men, many much younger than her 46 years of age. Because she is a free-lance writer, she was able to create this alternate life for herself. Because is more confident at her age, she makes no apologies for the joy of sex with strangers and the freedom of no attachements. She also muses a lot on life without a spouse and kids, and so many of those thoughts were wild to see in print, as I’ve had similar thoughts. I enjoyed this glimpse into her life.
The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze by Derrick Barnes [audiobook] – One of my reader work friends asked me if I read this book because she wanted to talk about it, so of course I had to read it. It was a hard book to read. Henson Blayze is a Black boy in Mississippi, an 8th grader whose entire town, made of mostly white people, is counting on him to help the high school football team finally win a season. The book begins with a graphic scene of two police men beating a young boy, but we don’t know who any of those characters are. Knowing that, I had a pit in my stomach through the entire book, waiting to learn what happened in that scene. The main story begins with Henson’s first day of school, where the entire town greets and cheers him on, ready to see him in action on the football field. Right from the beginning, it was clear to me that the townspeople only cared about his athletic abilities, and not him as a person. The racism is overt at first, and then explicit with significant exaggeration throughout the story. So many scenes were hard to read, as Henson was treated like an adult, but not quite human, by these greedy vicious people. Henson’s father and new friend Frida are the only bright lights in this rough story. I know this book was long-listed for the National Book Award. It is well-written and has a lot of lessons, but I wouldn’t hand it to a middle grades child. The saddest part to me is that my friend was looking for a good book for her middle grades son to read that had a Black boy protagonist and it is very hard to find a good book with a Black main character that does’t involve a lot of trauma and negativity.
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman – My friend and I were reminiscing about when we team-taught, and we used excerpts from this book with our middle school students. I hadn’t read the book in over 20 years, so I checked it out of my library for a reread. This is a collection of stories from the point of view of Einstein while contemplating time. In each chapter, something different happens with time: it goes backwards, it hops, it loops, it slows down when you are moving, it slows down the higher your altitude. In the stories, people are often chasing time, trying to capture their own memories, to hold on to their own best moments. It’s fun and whimsical and a great lesson on being present and savoring the here and now.
Radical Candor: How to get what you want by saying what you mean by Kim Scott [audiobook] – While looking for resources on how to give effective feedback, I stumbled upon a video clip of Kim Scott explaining her radical candor continuum. I loved it so much and I asked my boss if she had read the book. She had read it, and she loaned me her copy to read, which I did in tandem with the audiobook version. I appreciate how Kim shares a variety of stories from her time owning her own business, working at Google, at Apple, and in a variety of environments. I loved the quadrants of the design: ruinous empathy, manipulative insincerity, obnoxious aggression and radical candor. The examples made each quadrant clear from the perspective of giving feedback. Her first lesson for a “boss” is that a boss needs to first ask for feedback on their management before they can begin to build the relationship where they can give effective feedback. But that all bosses need to be giving regular feedback often, which is so important for growth. There were many great lessons to learn about managing people from this book.
I am a creature of habit. I am one of those people who sits in the same place in our conference room for our management meeting every month. My friend and I have a regular lunch place where they know us and our usual orders (well, they used to until the last time we went and we realized that all of our usual people had left their jobs!). When I find a routine that works for me, whether it is my morning routine or my cleaning schedule, I stick with it for a long time.
Throughout my lifetime I have adjusted my routines based on new habits, research, interests, or time needs. Over the last 15 months I have committed to daily meditation using the Calm App. I’m currently on a 189 day streak, and I’ve only missed 3 days in the last 460 days. It took a long time for this to become a daily habit and I am proud of the work I put in to create the habit. I do feel that I am able to use my breath for focus, attention, and calming when I need it, and my mind appreciates the work to slow down.
Another habit I have been working on for the last 2 months is daily writing. My book club has been doing a 3-month study of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. The goal of the book is to unlock creativity in whatever mode that might be for each person. I’m working on my writing as well as my photography. However, no matter what mode your artistic or creative side takes, everyone who follows the plan is expected to write 3 pages, handwritten, in a journal every day. These are called Morning Pages and are meant to help unblock stuck artists. The requirement is to fill the pages, even if you are just writing, “I have nothing to say” over and over again.
When I first began this, my hand would cramp up, because it wasn’t used to writing so much by hand. I purposely picked a journal that didn’t have big pages, so that my 3 pages a day would feel possible, and yet my hand needed a lot of coaching to continue in the beginning. Then my brain needed to learn to work with me. I have added Morning Pages into my morning routine, but you would be surprised how long it sometimes takes to fill up 3 whole pages. Some days I set a timer and just force myself to keep my hand moving no matter what. Other days I take time to reflect on what happened the previous day, and to write what my plans are for the day ahead. Once in awhile I have a great breakthrough, reflecting on a problem in a relationship or something I’ve been stuck on for awhile. Sometimes my handwriting is so sloppy I couldn’t read it if I tried! Only once so far has the book asked us to go back through our writing and reread, looking for common themes.
I find it valuable to reflect on my habits, because it’s good to give myself credit for the work I put in to create these habits and fun to look back and realize how far I’ve come. Building worthwhile habits takes times and is not always easy. I have other habits I’m trying to build, with less success so far, and habits that I have quit over time because the effort wasn’t worth my time. Knowing the reward you are getting from a habit is important for consistency and motivation. When looking for some tips or reminders, here are a few habit-building thoughts I stumbled upon:
3 -3 -3: It takes 3 days to get through the initial difficulty, 3 weeks to make a habit a routine, and 3 months to make it a deep part of our lifestyle
21-90: It takes 21 consecutive days to make a habit and 90 consecutive days to make it a lifestyle change
4 laws: 1 Make it obvious 2 Make it attractive 3 Make it easy 4 Make it satisfying
2 minute rule: Atomic Habits recommend starting with something that only takes 2 minutes
The Coach ADVenture: Building Powerful Instructional Leadership Skills that Impact Learning was published 6 years ago today – wow! It’s hard to believe that 7 years ago I was busy writing this book, combing through my blog posts and memories of instructional coaching, to tell the stories of two fictionalized educators learning to be stronger instructional leaders. No matter what position I have held over the last 27 years I’ve been an educator, being a coach feels like my purpose and my role. I love helping someone else be there best self, find the best way through a challenge, or help others in order to help more students LOVE learning.
I still believe in the power of instructional coaching, the importance of providing meaningful and authentic feedback, and the value of site and district leaders spending purposeful time in classrooms, where the incredibly hard and meaningful work of teaching and learning takes place. I still set a goal to visit every classroom in our district every school year. I still write personal messages to every teacher after I visit their classroom. Now, more than ever, teachers deserve so much love, respect, admiration, and support.
The Coach ADVenture: Building Powerful Instructional Leadership Skills that Impact Learning is available for purchase on Amazon (and cheaper than ever!).
This post was inspired by Meg Tietz’s 48 things post. I turned 50 in September and spent a month truly leaning into this milestone. I believe that birthdays should be celebrated for however long you want and this year I wanted a full month of celebrating! Here is a list of 50 things I have loved in my first 50 years:
My mom, who gifted me my love of laughter, writing, music, and deep friendships
My dad, from whom I get my organized, early, Type A, reader personality
My brother, who is my opposite in many ways, my weekly cook, and, luckily, my friend too
New Kids on the Block
Learning the lyrics to every song I love, starting from taping songs like Pour Some Sugar on Me and We Didn’t Start the Fire off the radio and writing the lyrics on paper plates
Skiing with my family all over, and then getting college PE credit on the lamest mountain ever
Spain (all 5 times I’ve visited or lived there!)
Africa safaris (don’t make me pick a favorite animal!)
Galapagos adventures
Card games – from Oh Hell to Spades to Canasta to Blitz to 99 and more
Board games – don’t bring up how I used to cheat on Monopoly to my brother (he is still mad!)
Roller skating
Snorkeling
Sunsets
Sunflowers
Cats
My work
Writing – from letters to blog posts to journals and more, writing is a tool for reflection, for sharing, and staying in touch
Sea glass – I still remember the snowy day my dad and I collected over 100 pieces!
Reading
The Jersey Shore – Yelling “over” or “under” before each wave came with my Mom
Any beach any time
FaceTimes with my nephews
1:1 dates with my nephews
Having all 4 of my grandparents alive and well for my entire childhood (and well beyond!)
Getting closer to my brother as we get older
Sleeping in
Early morning workouts
Peloton bike rides
Walks at the bay
Pool reading
Mojitos and Iced Tea and Gin & Tonic and crushed ice
Live concerts
Vacations and traveling
Coconut – the small, the taste, the tropic islands where they grow
My hardwood floors
The day I paid off my mortgage
Making M.A.S.H. notes in middle school
The Babysitter’s Club books and Ann M. Martin
My 80’s jean jacket
When Harry Met Sally
Meeting up with our CA cousins every other year at our grandparents’ house in Florida
The trip to Virginia Beach my other grandparents took me on when I was about 11.
Strawberry Shortcake dolls and Cabbage Patch Kids
Watching 90210 and Melrose Place in our college suite and waiting for the next week’s coming attractions with baited breath, to the point of ignoring fire alarms!
Riding bikes around Coronado, CA with out-of-town visitors
Playing Fusion Frenzy with friends until our sides ache from all of the laughter
Reading The Polar Express on Christmas Eve with my father and brother
The amazing friendships I have made with work colleagues at each of my jobs, and personal friends who are like family now
Sea turtles (and my tatoos!)
Thank you for indulging my joy as I walked down memory lane for my 50th birthday!
A busy month getting back into school mode, and a book club study of The Artist Way, which requires a lot of non-reading time, meant that I didn’t read as much as usual. This month I read:
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez – My friend Barb reminded me that this author does great romances that can double as fun beach reads, so I picked up this one specifically for my recent vacation. I loved the story! Justin and Emma meet online because they share the same curse – everyone that they each date ends up find their soulmate immediately after breaking up with Justin or Emma. They decide to meet and see if they can break their curses together. What starts as a fun joke quickly becomes so much more, as the two have instant chemistry and they each have a truckload of family baggage they are hiding/ carrying/ avoiding. I really liked these characters, along with Emma’s best friend Maddy, and Justin’s siblings. They were lovable and I was rooting for them to figure out their issues and find their way to each other for real.
The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol, Agenete Friis [audiobook] – I heard the Currently Reading podcast recommend this book, so I was ready for a good crime story, and some Nordic Noir. This was VERY DARK. I wish I had read it in print, instead of on audio, because there were names from Denmark and from Lithuania that were unfamiliar to me, and which were confusing while listening. The story starts with our main character, Nina, finding a boy in a suitcase (hence the title). We follow Nina as she takes care of the boy and tries to figure out who he is and what happened. Through other timelines, we learn about many other characters that are connected to this boy, but we don’t understand until it all comes together in a fast-paced, tense ending. This was interesting and I’m curious about the rest of the series.
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett – This entire story is told through emails and interview transcripts, as we follow Amanda’s quest to figure out the true story of the Alperton Angels. The angels were a cult that all died by group suicide while trying to kill the antichrist. The baby and the two youngest members escaped and were hidden away for decades by the time Amanda is trying to write a new book about the mystery. We follow Amanda’s interviews and emails as she pieces the story together, racing to beat the clock as many witnesses die as she gets closer. I loved this book!
Magnolia Wu Unfolds it All by Chanel Miller – I found this book in my library catalog after asking ChatGPT to help me find new middle grade books published in the last 1-2 years. Our teachers are always looking for new books to read with kids, or to add to their libraries, and we want well-written, quality novels with stories that have good lessons for children. This is a sweet story about Magnolia and her family, who own a laundromat. At first, Magnolia is embarrassed by her family business, though she loves the left-behind sock wall she has created. When Magnolia meets Iris, new to NYC, they go off on a mystery adventure to find the owners of all the left-behind socks. Throughout their journey, Magnolia learns about herself, her parents, and how to be grateful. This is a sweet story!
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler [audiobook] – I also found this book in my library catalog when looking for audiobooks for my commute. I have known the author name Anne Tyler for decades, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually read any of her books. This was interesting because the main characters were a divorced couple in their 60’s, and you don’t read a lot of modern novels that have main characters beyond the 30’s or 40’s. Gail is a socially awkward mother of the bride, and we follow her through the weekend of her only daughter’s wedding. Gail’s ex-husband Max shows up with a cat and has to stay with her, which is an unexpected start to the weekend. We get to know Gail and Max, and the history of their marriage and how it ended years ago, as we watch their daughter’s wedding festivities through their eyes. This was a sweet story about this pair of exs in mid-life, navigating another change in their lives.
August is the beginning of the new school year, which automatically means less reading time for me. However, I squeezed in a late summer/ early birthday trip that involved some plane, pool, and beach reading right at the end. This month I read:
Copper Sun by Sharon Draper – In searching Sharon Draper’s backlist titles, I found this historical fiction gem that I had never heard of. This is a very important and hard book to read. We meet Amari as a young African woman in what is now Ghana, loving her life, her family, and her village. When pale-skinned strangers visit, her village throws a welcome feast in celebration. By the end of the celebration, there is mass devastation and Amari has been captured. Without knowing English, we experience the horrific acts of stealing humans, abusing, punishing, and packing them like cattle on a ship, and everything that it took to get her to America to be sold into slavery. The entire first part was so hard to read, but so important to know because it was based on a sick reality of our history. The rest of the story follows Amari and the friends she makes along the way, with Polly and Tidbit becoming as beloved to the reader as Amari is. This is a beautiful, heart-wrenching, bittersweet story of pain and hope.
That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones – I saw this book while purusing shelves in my library. While I had never heard of Amanda Jones specifically, her story is very familiar. Amanda is a middle school librarian who chose to speak at her Louisiana town’s public library board meeting on her own time about the importance of staying away from censorship. For some reason, out of the many speakers that night, she was chosen as the person to attack by two men. These men, who she has never met nor interacted with in person or online, who don’t live in her town, began a harassment campaign against her, calling her a groomer, saying she was pushing the teaching of anal sex to elementary children. Amanda’s memoir details the horrors of the attack, her anxiety that resulted, and the decision to file a defamation lawsuit and to fight back. She outlines the playbook of groups like M-M$ for Lib&rty and alt-Right Christian Fundamentalists who are trying to take over libraries, schools, government, and everything else. It was hard to read some of her story, because of how similar is it to experiences closer to home. It was also hard to read because she was repetitive and angsty throughout the retelling. I don’t thinks she was far enough out of her trauma to fully process it yet, though she tries hard. Reading this was also hard because she finished it before the Department of Education was attacked and even more educational attacked continued. It’s all hard right now. But libraries should represent all people and reading books makes us better.
The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen – I read the first book in The Martini Club series a few years ago and was happy to discover the second book was published earlier this year. In a small town in Maine, a group of retired CIA agents are living a quiet life, under the radar, until a crime happens in their town. Then they are racing along side the police chief to solve the crime and help to find the missing girl, Zoe, a summer guest. This story combined the privilege of wealth with secrets and lies for a propolsive mystery where there are many likely suspects and a few red herrings. I enjoyed it and hope the series continues!
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani [audiobook] – This is a very sad, sweet middle grade story told from the point of view of a young girl in 1947, when India gained independence from British rule and also drew a partition to create Pakistan. Nisha and her twin brother are Half Muslim and Half-Hindu, thanks to their parents, but unclear of what is happening in their home country of India. When they have to leave their home quickly, we travel with them through dangers and fears, all told through Nisha’s diary letters to her deceased mother. Nisha’s young eyes don’t understand every thing they see, but they see more than they should at their age. The author’s note helped me understand the author wrote this story to help herself understand what her father and his family went through as refugees forced to leave the only home they had ever known.
No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNichol – I found this book during my search for books about adults who lost their parents and was even more intrigued because the author is also a single woman, never married, without kids, which is hard to find represented well in books. Glynnis’s memoir takes us through her mother’s sad decline with Alzheimer’s in Canada, while this freelance writer is finding joy in NYC on her 40th birthday. We are with her and she happily chooses the single life, when friends are all busy with marriages and babies and strangers constantly ask her why she isn’t married. Her writing is slow-paced as we meander through her thoughts, but I loved her honest reflections. I highlighted so many lines that felt like my own thoughts. Her life as a writer is very different, allowing her to spend a month on a Dude Ranch and traveling in unique ways. I enjoyed her story.
Accidentally on Purpose by Kristen Kish with Stef Ferrari [audiobook] – I first discovered Kristen Kish on the reality show Fast Foodies, which I watched with some friends. I loved her personality on that silly, fun show where celebrity chefs cooked recreations of famous fast food dishes. Her energy, her smile, her vibe were so great. Not being a big Top Chef fan, I had no idea she was first “discovered” by winning that, and now she is one of the hosts. This memoir takes us through her childhood, which was wonderful, where she was adopted by a lovely midwestern family and never felt the need to explore her Korean roots. Then we watch her stumble and fall before finding a home and found family in Boston. We travel with Kristen through reality tv, restaurants, successes and failures, until we catch up with her beautiful life today. I enjoyed her honesty and her story.
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King – After my Stephen King Summer book club reads, I decided to go back into his catalog and read this book, which I had heard rave reviews of. This is more like is modern crime thrillers, where we are following Retired Detective Bill Hodges as he decides to try to figure out one of his infamous unsolved cases, while also seeing into that killer’s mind and life. This was a wild ride, but I won’t share any spoilers here! I enjoyed the interest cast of characters and look forward to reading more in this mystery trilogy.
A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter by Nikki Giovanni – Something I read this summer sparked a memory of a book that used Nikki Giovanni’s poetry. I sought out some of her poetry books from my local library, and then realized that this heralded poety just passed away last December. I enjoyed reading about her life, and reading this book of poetry, which gave tribute to Maya Angelou, spoke about her abusive father, connected her life to so many other famous Black writers and creators, and told stories with joy and dignity.
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory – This romance was a perfect vacation read – fun, funny, silly, romantic, with the usual romcom ups and downs, and great characters to root for! Early in the story we meet Avery, recently single and ready to explore her bisexual side by dating women, though she has no experience there yet. Our other main character, Taylor, has just made a bet with her BFF that she won’t sleep with anyone this summer. When Avery meets Taylor, a serial flirt and notorious lesbian dater around Napa, they form an unlikely plan. Taylor will teach Avery how to flirt with women, and unknowlngly, Avery will help Taylor win her bet. Imagine the hijinks that ensue, especially as these two, of course, have chemistery together. This was such a fun read!
Summer Island by Kristin Hannah – I was given a paperback copy of this from one of my reading friends at work, after she enjoyed the book on a recent vacation. I saved it for my beach vacation and it was perfect! The setting of the San Juan islands in Washington was beautiful. I loved some of the characters and their rich backstory and I was equally annoyed by some of the characters and their stubborn unwillingness to be honest or get to the root of their issues. Ruby, the wanna-be comedian, returns home to take care of her estranged mother, famed writer and advice giver, Nora, after an accident. Ruby hasn’t spoken to her mother in years, because Nora “abandoned” her family when Ruby was a teenager. As we get to know what happened in Nora’s marriage, and what hurt Ruby and caused her to hurt her first love, who also happens to be home this summer, we hope they can repair their relationships and find love again before it’s too late. This was dark, cringy, happy, sappy, sweet, and sad at times. It’s not my favorite by Kristin Hannah, but I do love her writing style!
Reflections on Leadership and Learning 