It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2/22

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.

I didn't post last week so I will be writing about the books I finished in the last two weeks. I had a lot of books going at once, so the list seems impressive, but I really have been reading some of these books for a long time. I do have to say that I am really enjoying the variety of books that I have been reading. 

Books I Finished:

Part of my new morning routine is to read some self-help books to think about what I can do to improve my life. I appreciated Ruth Soukup's advice in Living Well, Spending Less about some things I can do to gain some more control over my finances and my life. I am definitely more interested in her blog now and have been using some of the advice already. 

The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman is full of great financial advice. I was surprised at first with how much she links our financial picture to our emotional reactions to money. It was interesting for me to think about that connection. I appreciated the practical advice in this book, but had to skim through some parts that got way more technical than I was ready for. Overall, I am glad I read the book and I have confronted some of my financial challenges honestly. 

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli was a book club pick. I really enjoyed the story and was glad for the book club because I most likely would not have selected this title on my own. It was fascinating and heartbreaking to read about a woman reporter who was living in Vietnam and going into the field to take pictures during the war.  So much was so awful for the people who were there. I appreciated learning more about it through this fictional lens. 

I listened to the audiobook of Bone Gap and found myself inventing excuses to put the book on. I loved this story and all of the characters. I thought the narrator did a fabulous job of reading this book as well. I don't really even have words to describe this one except: you should read it. 

Revolution by Deborah Wiles was another amazing read. I loved the primary sources mixed in between chapters. I loved the way there were multiple narrators. I loved that this book helped me to learn more about a controversial time in our history. I loved this book. I highly recommend it. I am definitely going to look for the other books in the sixties trilogy now. 

I finished reading The Tiger Rising aloud to my class this week. I wrote about our emotional moments while sharing the final chapters in my Celebrate This Week post. This is the third or fourth time I have read this book, but the first time I did it as a read aloud. I will definitely continue to use this book as a teaching text. I am so glad the TCRWP chose it to be the anchor text in the first unit for fourth grade. If you haven't already read this one, you need to find a copy and get to it!

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am still reading 1Q84. I am still enjoying it and will still be reading it for quite some time. I am also reading The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer.

What's Next?

My book club is reading Cutting for Stone so I will probably pick that up to start it, although I am quite hesitant to do so since it is another long one. I have a stack of middle grade titles from my last Scholastic order that I will probably grab from so that I can get through a few books faster in the next week or so.

What are you reading this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!