It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2/16

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? --From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

Books I Finished This Week:

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is a really engaging book. I read it almost in one sitting and had a hard time putting it down. A post-apocalyptic world that sounded scary realistic to me. What would happen if there were a deadly flu that acted so quickly? What I loved about this book was an inherent message that performance and music and art matter and can be very important for people. I love that the author shows us a bleak world but gives us hope at the same time. I highly recommend this book.

Nnewts is the first book in a new middle grade graphic novel series by Doug TenNapel. I thought the story was intriguing (and somewhat weird) and I am sure my students will like it. The use of color in this graphic novel is especially striking.  I would recommend this one for grades 4 and up.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman is a very interesting book. I found it to be sort of a mix between Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia, but definitely for adults with the situations and language for mature audiences. I found myself really disliking the main character by the end of this book.  I was a little surprised at how dark everything got toward the end as well. I know that this is the first in a trilogy and I am interested in reading the rest of the series. I only hope I will be able to start liking this character again.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am still reading Dreams of Gods and Monsters and Shadow Scale. I started listening to Cruel Beauty and so far it is intriguing. I also dipped into Mortal Heart.

What's Next?

I have some professional reading to do this week so I am not sure I will get to much more than what I already started. We shall see what the week holds.