Tuesday, September 1, 2015

August 2015 Chapter

Welcome to the Read.Write.Repeat. monthly wrap-up.  Every month, I give a quick overview of what books I read, the progress made on the 100 Best Novels goal, a few book-related links, and general blog news.  


August News 

Hello, all! It's felt a bit weird not actively writing and posting the past few weeks. I'm hoping to return from hiatus next week. Things are slowly starting to return to a normal pace around here. Granted, for us, normal is still pretty crazy, but we make it work.

We are officially moved into the new house and things are slowly coming together. We spent an awful lot of August with paint on our hands (and legs and arms and face, in Kevin's case) and our stuff in boxes. Little by little, though, this wonderful place is starting to feel like home. We just about have the whole first floor put together how we want it. In the next six months, we still anticipate doing a lot of painting and changes, but, for now, we are at least able to walk through most of our house and not feel sheer chaos. It's a start.

My classes are going well. I was so nervous getting started, but I think I'm getting the hang of lesson planning and classroom control and all that jazz. It's definitely a transition from teaching online, but I'm enjoying it. I just am still blown out of the water by the amount of prep work in-class teaching requires. Props to all you elementary school teachers out there; I cannot imagine having to have lesson plans for hours every day. 80 minutes twice a week is wearing me out.

As much as I have hated not posting or reading consistently, the hiatus has been good for me. I am fully aware that I cannot do everything, or at least not do it all well. I think I prioritized well. As you can see below, I have not read a ton this month, at least not compared to other months this year. I just have not had the time nor the motivation. Hopefully, as we head into the fall months, that will change!

Books Reviewed

  1. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
  2. Paris - Edward Rutherfurd
  3. Without You, There Is No Us - Suki Kim
  4. The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey
  5. Kate - Claudia Joseph
  6. An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser 
  7. The Little Paris Bookshop - Nina George

Books Read

  1. The Little Paris Bookshop - Nina George
  2. Fortune Smiles - Adam Johnson
  3. Blue Plate Special  - Kate Christensen
  4. Keep Moving - Dick Van Dyke
  5. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad
  6. The Organized Kitchen - Brette Sember
  7. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Pages Read: 2,405

Favorite Book Read: I'll be honest. I didn't love any of these. Maybe that's part of the reason for the slump. No favorite this month.

100 Best Novels Progress

  • Just one - Lord Jim
  • 43% complete

2015 TBR Pile Challenge Progress

No progress here. Good thing I'm ahead of schedule!


Articles

The end of July brought Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling's shared birthday. Time gathered birthday messages for Rowling from the cast of the Potter movies.

Were you wondering what President Obama was reading this summer? People magazine has you covered. Looks like the Commander in Chief and I had some reading overlap this summer.

A beautiful essay on how you just can't read everything.

HuffPo has a list of books that stay with you forever. So many good ones on this list.
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Thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to being back to regularly scheduled posts (hopefully) next week. Until then....

1 comment:

  1. Are you going to talk about the MaddAddam series?! I read it earlier this year and was like, "Dystopian future for adults?! Yes!"

    ReplyDelete