Sunday, May 15, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/16/16


I love joining Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers each week to share my reading life. 

Let's begin with my confusion over the date when I went to type it above. How on earth can we be halfway through May already? That phrase the years are long but the days are short has really proven true for me of late.


My reading quantity is nothing to write home about. I've read four books - two novels, two picture books - in the past two weeks. I've also written 40 pages for two finals and gotten my class grades back for the two classes - 99% and 100% respectively. We can talk about the ridiculousness of needing to take those classes later... Finally, I have begun the work of packing my classroom before the end of the school year. 

So my reading life, not great. Then a friend texted me that she had just finished the final book in the Raven Cycle and needed to discuss it. She had an extra and would be mailing me that one. That led me to think, had I read book 2 and 3? I rushed up to the "to read" shelves in my bedroom. Searching, I found both books. I flipped to the back and read. Nope, hadn't read either. Young Adult books often get pushed to the back burner for me. To keep up with middle grade books for my students is an undertaking. Trying to find time to read YA, if it isn't a book my book club picks, is tough. But reading the back of those books transported me back to book 1, which I loved. Stiefvater is flipping BRILLIANT. So, I began book 2. I had to reflect a bit, remembering back to book 1 that I read at the end of 2012, beginning of 2013. It didn't take long and I was completely immersed again in that world. I flew through book 2 and 3, devouring the words, wishing the books were longer so I wouldn't finish so quickly. 

If you haven't read this series, remedy immediately. I love the world Stiefvater has created. I cannot wait to get book 4 and find out what she has planned for these characters. I'm nervous because she pulls no punches, and I am very attached to the four main characters - Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Blue. I'm terrified they won't all make it, but I have to find out. 

Up next? Finishing off another series I should have already by reading Riordan's Blood of Olympus.