![]() In each chapter of this book, lifestyle influencer Rachel Hollis admits a lie she has told herself at some time, and then details how that lie is destructive or limiting in some way and how she realized a truth in order to challenge the lie. The ultimate message of the book is that you are the one who change your daily practices and create larger change for your life. Hollis communicates this message through her intersectional identity as a mother, wife, entrepreneur, woman, religious Christian, white person, trauma survivor, and more facets of her unique voice. My sister requested this book as gift last winter, so I bought it for her and promptly asked to read it when she was done. With a title like Girl, Wash Your Face, I knew I was onboard. Hollis' faith gives her strength in many of her beliefs about life. Regardless of the beliefs of the reader, her words are relatable, endearing, and positive.
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![]() This book might be called a memoir or an autobiography. It is definitely a testimony. Chris Wilson grew up around Washington DC and started with a safe, happy childhood. Then some things changed. He ends up getting sentenced to life in prison at the age of seventeen. Despite his terrible odds of getting out of prison, Wilson works his butt off in the system, wins the court-date lottery, returns to civilian life in his thirties, and now has a few successful businesses. His story is incredible. A colleague recommended this book to our entire department, so I requested it at the library. The Master Plan was a quick read for me in part because the text isn't terribly difficult, but also because Wilson is so impressive, relatable, and compelling that I needed to read to the end. One of his lessons that has stuck with me already is the idea of proving yourself. It's his belief that people imprisoned should work to improve their skills and themselves while behind bars so that when they get out, they will have a positive track record for employment. While I did not explain that lesson as well as Wilson does, I see it as creating a platform of responsibility so that when you ask for things, others know they can trust you. I live this lesson with students often. Many students do not build a platform of responsibility before asking for exceptions, then are upset when they aren't granted special requests. But that is not how this works. Anyway, the book is great and a few students have already zipped through it and loved it. Highly recommend. ![]() Tara Westover grew up in a paranoid, survivalist, Mormon family on a mountain in Idaho. She did not step into a classroom until she was 17 years old, yet has earned at least three degrees of increasing prestige since then. This memoir takes the reader into her, at times, outlandish and dangerous upbringing. This book is a hot read right now, so I requested it at AADL like three months ago. It is much sadder than the books I typically choose to read, but once I began, there was no stopping. The way Westover narrates the events of her life give real voice to the thoughts of a person experiencing abuse and the challenges of changing an entire worldview. While jarring, this makes the memoir powerful and gripping. ![]() Rankine's "American lyric" takes several angles at what it means to be a citizen in this country as a person of color. She writes in prose, staccato anecdotes, poetry, and more. The variety of styles reflect the varied content and Rankine's nuanced purpose in writing this collection. I read this book because it was recently approved by the school district to read as a whole-class text, but there has been a suggestion that teachers would need to be instructed on how to teach it before they lead their class through it. This made me hella curious. What kind of book do I need to be instructed on how to teach? What is in it that is more sensitive than the vulgarity and brutality of the novels I already read with students? Sure, after reading the book I am eager to discuss it with my colleagues, but I do not know that it warrants top-down instruction. Give it a read and decide for yourself. ![]() Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collin, is the third book of the Hunger Games trilogy. The book continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, who agrees to unify the districts of Panem in a rebellion against the Capitol, no matter the cost. Her home has been demolished, Gale has escaped, and importantly Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. We find out that the District 13 actually does exist. There are rebels, there are new leaders, a revolution is happening. The book is filled with emotion and action. I chose this book because I really liked the previous two books of the trilogy. I would give the book a 3.2/5. A lot of people who have read this book were extremely disappointed by it, but I thought it was an okay end to the trilogy. Overall, I thought it was pretty decent even though I felt it could’ve had a lot more. It was a bit fast paced and some things seemed to happen so fast and unclear, but besides that it was ok. -AH, grade 12 ![]() Braving the Wilderness brings up currents events happening in the world and society, and sheds light on some alternative ways to act and respond the the bullshit. In a world where you are either with us or against us. Sometimes that just isn’t the case and there are grey areas and Brene Brown helps you to understand that you don't always have to respond especially if you don’t know much about the topic in conflict. She does this by giving personal experiences that are very relatable. This book was given to me by my mom because Brene Brown is her favorite author. She is always a topic in the household when speaking truth to bullshit is required. I would give this book five stars, for the style in which it was written and the message provided. In my opinion everyone should read this book, it would probably make society a kinder place. -ES, grade 10 Activism Coming of age Feminist ![]() The Power has to do with an actual electrical power possessed by women. Most are able to yield electricity, and can harm and kill others with it. This new power has moved up women in society, making them something men fear and want to control even more than they already do. The story counts down from 10 years until a big event at the end, and rotates between four people’s perspectives. They are each from different parts of the world, such as America, England and Nigeria. Two of the people are teenage girls, Roxy and Allie, who live in England and America respectively and have very different, but both equally complicated lives, such as Roxy and her extremely successful family that is head of a giant crime syndicate. Another is middle aged mom and American politician Margot, who has to hide her own power so she can safely move up the political ladder and try to make things better in America for other females with the power. And finally, twenty-something rich Nigerian photojournalist Tunde, the only male narrator. His job is capturing the stories of the power sweeping the globe, and the aftermath and chaos it is causing from all perspectives. Women are rising up, men are going crazy trying to push them back down, and the entire world is torn on what to do about the female power that only grows with time. I would give this book a solid 9/10. I love the female power, extreme diversity of the characters, and the ever twisting plot that keeps you wondering. Sometimes it felt like I was really with the characters, running through female riots with Tunde, or trying not to release my power on the annoying, know-it-all higher up, Daniel, who Margot has to defeat on her run for state Governor. My biggest pet peeve about this book though is the grammar and language; it is like a bad editing job. Some parts have confusing sentences, and others use strange slang like “cos” randomly, not just in dialogue, that you wouldn’t think would be in a published book. Also, I’m not a religious person, so I didn’t like the religious stuff involved in Allie’s part; she becomes “Mother Eve,” the religious head of the entire woman’s power movement, which is pretty cool. I personally didn’t like how tied to religion her role in the book (and movement) was though. -CC, grade 12 ![]() Pen Oliveira likes being a girl, just not the way her mother wants her to be. Pen's traditional Portugese parents don't accept that she wears "punk druggy" clothes or that she buzzed her hair or that she dates girls. But all of that is who Pen is. This conflict comes to a head at the same moment Pen decides her friends are not the best friends and she has to decide her own path. This book was part of the pile the English teachers got from a recent district purchase. I picked it up because I needed something to read during SSR in Mr. Sansbury's room. Then I grabbed my own copy and finished the job. I appreciate Pen's perspective in the book but the whole thing was a bit long winded and very high school. It's worth the read, but do it quickly. ![]() It’s Not Like It’s a Secret is a young adult novel by Misa Sugiura. The book is about Sana, a Japanese American sixteen year old girl with a lot of secrets that she hides in a small lacquer box. Even though some of her secrets are really obvious she has a lot of trouble acknowledging and facing them. Everything changes when suddenly her dad moves her family across the country from Wisconsin to California, sort of confirming the secret that hangs over her family. In California, she finds it difficult to continue keeping all of her secrets to herself when her dad begins to not come home most nights and when she catches feelings for one of the best runners on the girl’s track team at her new school. I read It’s Not Like It’s a Secret because I saw it on a shelf at Barnes & Nobles and I thought that it sounded like a really interesting when I read the description. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop because Sana’s character is really relatable and well written. It has a good storyline and it was never boring. One of my favorite things about this book was how the author used poetry to help tell the story. It really helped to show how the different characters felt about what was going on in the story. Overall, this is a really good book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes realistic fiction books that have happy endings. -EPM, grade 10 ![]() This novel has two connected storylines, one set in 1949 and one in 2018. Charlotte and Olivia are both career women involved to varying degrees in advertising. Both women also navigate their trying personal lives, impressing upon the reader that while so much has changed for women over the years, even more has stayed the same. My sister handed me a copy of this book and offered that I could read it, so I did. The story lines and narration from Orman Schnall felt like I was reading the book-version of a Jennifer Lopez movie in all the best ways. The book was enjoyable and, due to consistent cliff-hangers at the end of chapters, I found myself racing to read it all. |
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June 2020
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