Children's Books - New Classics

I realized as I was looking over my Summer Reading List (and the summer reading lists of the rest of my household), that I had unintentionally left out my two-year-old son. And while he is not quite at the independent reading stage in his life, he still very much enjoys looking at the pictures in books and being read to. So, in order to rectify this little oversight, I have compiled a list of books that we love to read together.

Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth

Zen Ties by Jon J Muth

Hi, Koo by Jon J Muth

* I swear every book on this list is not by Jon J Muth, but my son is in love with the pandas in his stories, and I love the Zen spin on his stories.

The Gift of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell

Hugtime by Patrick McDonnell

What Do You Do with an Idea by Kobi Yamada

Willoughby and the Lion by Greg Foley

One Love by Cedella Marley

Love Monster by Rachel Bright

So Many Days by Alison McGhee

The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak

Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner

Now I know technically these are children's books, but there is a lot of wisdom to be found in these pages, so feel free to read them no matter what you're chronological age :)

A Family of Summer Reading Lists

So, every summer, I create a reading list for my girls (now ages 7 and 9) right along with my own, so this summer I thought, "Why don't I post their reading list right along with mine?!?" And then the hubby went and put together a reading list, so now behold! I give you a a family's worth of summer reading lists!!

The 7-year old's Reading List

1. Sugar Plum Ballerinas: Toe Shoe Trouble by Whoopi Goldberg
2. Ruby and the Booker Boys by Derrick Barnes
3. Keena Ford and the 2nd Grade Mixup by Melissa Thomson
4. The Clubhouse Mysteries: The Buried Bones Mystery by Sharon Draper

The 9-year old's Reading List

1. The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
2. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanha Lai
3. Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page
4. Rain, Reign by Ann M. Martin

The Hubby's Reading List

1. The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg

2. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

3. The China Study, T. Colin Campbell

4. Tao Te Ching, Lao Szu

5. Navy SEAL, Dick Couch

6. Muscle Logic, Charles Staley

7. Framework, Nicholas A. DiNubile

8. The Vegetarian Flavor Bible, Karen Page

9. The Rise of Superman: Decoding The Science of Ultimate

Human Performance, Steven Kotler

10. Unbeatable Mind, Mark Divine

MY Reading List :)

1. Trigger Warnings by Neil Gaiman
2. The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O'Brien
3. Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
4. Octavia's Brood : Science Fiction Stories from the Social Justice Movement edited by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha

Bonus books will be added to this list as read them and noted with an asterisk (*). I will have my littles and hubby post as guests :) to tell you what they thought of their books. What are you reading this summer?

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky - A Review

I think I knew I would love this book from the very first page. From that very first page I didn't want to put it down. Its characters and plot lines occupied my mind even when I was away from them, and I did something with my reading of this book that I haven't done in a while. I dragged it out on purpose. I could easily have finished this book in a couple of days, possible in mere hours if I had been able to dedicate the uninterrupted time, but I didn't want to. I felt that if I were to take longer reading the book, the story would feel longer, and give me more time with it.

There were moments when I wanted to abandon my resolve to read the book this way, but I'm glad I stuck with it. The chunks I read each day became like a meditation. I had time to think on them, and pull back their layers.

The question "What are you?" that Rachel (the girl who fell from the sky) hears over and over is one that resonated with me, as it was a question I heard often while growing up as well. Rachel has a Danish mother and a Black father, so something about her appearance shouts "other" to people around her. But that question is also one that Rachel must sort through on her own post-fall, both inclusive of and separate from the way she looks. Who she is before the fall and after the fall are related, but distinctly different, and part of this amazing book explores that.

The story of how this little girl fell from the sky, the lives her falling touched, and her own life post fall are incredibly intricate and interwoven. Even with my deliberately drawn out reading of the story, I know that this book is one I will read again and again, finding new complexities each time.

God Help the Child- A Review

While still well ahead of schedule, this review is coming in a bit late, because I actually finished the book weeks ago. I devoured it while on vacation, but in trying to get back into the swing of things post-vacation, I neglected to collect my thoughts on this masterful work by Toni Morrison in words until now.

Toni Morrison inspires me because she lives outside of any one particular genre in a space all her own that she has created, and she does it beautifully. She crafts concise tales that offer deep, rich views into the lives of the characters she creates. Whenever I read something she's written, I feel so sure that what she is writing about surely must have happened, word for word, just as she's written it. God Help the Child is no different.

Each narrator has such a distinct voice, and each of them help us to piece together the patchwork quilt that is Bride's (our main character's) life. It is interesting though, because each narrator is telling their own story, but somehow knowing their story, offers us further insight into who Bride is, so that she becomes this omnipresence throughout the novel.

One of the characters says "What you do to children matters," and it is amazing how that statement is carried throughout the entire book. You are able to trace the mannerisms, thoughts and ways of being of both Bride and Booker, back to specific instances in their childhood. You see how these events evolve into their perceptions and belief systems creating the adults they are in the present. Who we are as adults, stems from who we were as children. The way we process our childhoods determines the people we become, and Morrison illustrates this exceptionally well. 

Finally, I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, but I have not been as intrigued by Morrison's use of magical realism as I was while reading God Help the Child, since I read Beloved. I won't go into any more detail than that, but suffice to say it is incredible.

Summer Reading List

Am I the only nerd that misses the summer reading list you used to get when you were a kid? I couldn't wait to get my list and make my way to the library. I'd get a special notebook and Papermate pen to write down all my thoughts so I wouldn't forget anything, and it was all I could do to make it until school started again, so I would finally have someone I could talk to about all the characters, plot twists and unexpected endings.

Book clubs fill the summer reading list void, but the only problem is, now that I'm a grown up I wanna read, what I want to read… hahaha. I don't want to read what somebody else tells me to read, and in book club, you eventually have to give the other folks in the book club a chance to pick books too. Now sometimes that works out great and you discover and love a book you never would have chosen for yourself. But other times, you end up spending time and energy on a book, when you'd rather be reading, or doing something else, just so you're not the slacker of the month when your book club convenes again.

Sooo, I have decided to make myself a summer reading list, and would like to enlist all of you to be my book club/ class. I will be reading and writing reviews on all of the books below (and possibly some other bonus books if I can find the time). If you have read, or would like to read any of the books on the list, comment on the appropriate book review, or this post and we can get a conversation going!

Join me my fellow Book-a-holics!!!

 Satya's Summer 2014 Reading List

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Silver Shadows (Bloodlines Book 5) by Richelle Mead

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell

Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler