It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote a Monday post.

During that time, I completed my Live Like Julia project to celebrate the book Julia Child Rules by Karen Karbo. Last week, I wrote a list of those posts in order, in a piece that was also about a wonderful library that I didn’t know about: The American Library in Paris. I had so much fun with that project, I started a Pinterest board of all the posts that other bloggers have written for it: Live Like Julia.

I answered some questions for a writer about book blogging. Book bloggers might be interested in the questions she asked. Others might be interested in my answers: Profile Interview Questions for WNFIN.

The Back to School Reading Challenge and Wednesday Book Club is continuing through the month of September. Every week, we’re pulling together two or three reviews of books that bloggers have read to learn something new. Here’s last week’s meeting: Back to School Reading Challenge and Wednesday Book Club — September 4. Watch for another meeting post this Wednesday!

Read

The Read-Along book for The Back to School Reading Challenge is How Children Succeed by Paul Tough. I finished it last week and highly recommend it to anyone who cares about the future, because he examines the science behind what really helps children and it turns out to be very different from what we do now and, maybe, not that difficult except for the required paradigm shift. We’ll be discussing this book each Wednesday through the rest of the month, so there’s still time to join us. It’s well-written and a pleasure to read. Here’s last week’s discussion post: How Children Succeed by Paul Tough — A Back to School Read Along, September 4.

I started a project to review Cooked by Michael Pollan in four posts, to match the four sections of the book. Here are the first two of those posts:

Book Review: Cooked by Michael Pollan (Part 1)
Book Review: Cooked by Michael Pollan (Part 2)

I posted another in my occasional series of reviews of writing books. This book is nominally about screenwriting, but I find it useful for any writing that requires a strong plot to make it accessible to readers: Book Review: Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder.

I also finished two novels in the last couple of weeks. Amy Falls Down by Jincy Willett follows the main character of The Writing Class, the most literary mystery I’ve ever read, on another adventure — this one is about her 15 minutes of fame, all a result of an accidental fall. I liked both of these books mostly for their glimpses into the life of a full-time writer and writing teacher.

Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong is the final book in The Otherworld Series that began with Bitten. I hadn’t liked the previous two books that featured witch Savannah Levine as much as earlier books in the series, but by this book she’s had to mature and I liked her, and the book, much better. A good ending to a terrific series.

Reading

I’ve started my next Back to School Reading Challenge, Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy by David Sheff. Here’s a quote that relates it to How Children Succeed (I love how much my reading has been fitting together lately):

There’s much handwringing about America’s future competitiveness in light of the educational disparities between the United States and other nations, but we’ve ignored the fact that American teenagers use drugs at a higher rate than teens in any other country in the world. In this competition, the contest isn’t even close. p. xvii

For my fun book, I’m reading Sometimes a Rogue by Mary Jo Putney — an English historical setting with a romp through Ireland.

Will Read

I still have one book that I designated for the Back to School Challenge that I haven’t started, so it will be next: Gluttony by Francine Prose.

What are you reading?

It’s Monday! What Are Your Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila of Book Journey. Be sure to check out her post today to see her selections and the list of links to all the other participating bloggers.