Booking It

We leave for points west in less than two weeks, and I just froze the books I have on my reading queue—ten total—until the day before we return. Right now I have 13 books out (two of which I have finished and need to return), another one waiting to be picked up, and two more that are en route to Delaware as I type.

That's a whole lot of reading to get done before we leave!

Waiting to be read

What have I read since last time? Well, since you asked:
137. The Ensemble by Aja Gabel (for all those who love music, and the making of music, read this novel; it follows a string quartet from young adulthood to middle age, both on stage and off)
138. Not That Bad: Dispatches From the Rape Culture, edited by Roxane Gay (a staggering book; Gay asked for submissions from people (men, women, people of color, people in the LGQBT community, wealthy, poor) about being sexually assaulted and this is the result. Not a light read, but an absolutely necessary one)
139. Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter (Painter, a Professor Emeritus at Princeton, went back to college for a bachelor and master's degree in visual arts at age 64 and writes about finding herself—old, female, African-American, academician—and, finally—artist; I am not a visual artist but reading this book gave me a far deeper appreciation of the process of making art)
140. Essays After Eighty by Donald Hall (I have loved Hall's prose since reading String Too Short To Be Saved many, many years ago—this is next to last book Hall wrote [he recently died at the age of 89]. This is why I love his writing: when he received the National Medal of Arts in 2010, President Obama said something to Hall in his deaf ear; on being asked what the president said to him, Hall replied that Obama said "either 'Your work is immeasurably great' or 'All your stuff is disgusting crap,' but I couldn't make out which." How can you not love that?)
141. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (this is a reread of a juvenile novel that both my boys and many other young readers read in grade school; think My Side of the Mountain written in a minor (musical, not literary) key)
142. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (after reading Hatchet, how could I not follow up with this one? I have read this book more times than I know [although not as many times as Little Women, Katrina!] and have a worn out paperback cover framed in my study; this was the first of two Newbery Award books George crafted. On seeing me reading it, Warren commented how deeply that book impacted him when he read it as a boy)
143. Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years  by David Litt (the author volunteered in college on the first Obama campaign and ended up in the White House as a speechwriter; there are parts of this book that made me laugh out loud and other parts, especially Litt's account of Obama's eulogy at State Senator Pinckney's funeral after the Charleston massacre, moved me to tears)
144. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar  by Cheryl Strayed (Strayed, who also wrote the stunning Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, started her writing life as an advice columnist on The Rumpus; this is a  collection of some of her favorite columns; now she and Steve Almond write a weekly column for The New York Times: "The Sweet Spot")
145. Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold (when I finished it, I noted "oh, oh, oh." This is a heartrending book about fracking destroying one family in rural Pennsylvania, as well as the impact of fracking on the community and the nation. Spoiler alert: there is not a happy ending)
146. Savage Inequalities: Children in America's School by Jonathan Kozol (this book came out in 1991, detailing institutionalized racism and inequities in this country's public education system in the 1980s; as I reread it in 2018, I am angry that we have not moved that line to the positive at all)
147. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy (following on the heels of the fracking book, this one also tore my heart and soul out; this is written a decade plus later than Dreamland (#93) and matters have gotten far worse since that earlier work; if you think opioid addiction would "never" happen to you or your loved ones, think again)

Back on June 4, I blogged about how my library receipt tells me how much money I have saved to date. I'm past $2300 and closing in on $2400 fast. Yes, I love that!