Kellee and Ricki’s #MustReadIn2015 Summer Update!

Background of #mustreadin2015 for those of you who missed introductory post:

#mustreadin2015 is a challenged hosted by Carrie Gelson at There Is A Book For That

“For anyone out there with a To Be Read list that seems like it will never end, this challenge is for you! This is all about making your own personal list of books (5? 10? 20? 30? more?) that you commit to reading in 2015. Books can be published in any year, be from any genre, and be from any category (adult, YA, MG, Graphics, NF, etc.).  As your TBR list grows, you promise you will get to the books on this list.”

These are our hopeful lists. Many are books we’ve been wanting to read for a long time, while others are books we just really want to read as of right now (January 2015), and lastly, some are books we really need to read because we’ve promised someone (or each other). Primarily, we included young adult and middle grade books because they are what we are going to try to read more of this year. As Carrie said, we will absolutely be reading many books not on this list! And don’t worry, we will still be reading the latest and greatest picture books to our boys.

Our full #mustreadin2015 book lists are available here

Ricki’s #mustreadin2015 Summer Update

 Completed as of July 1:  9 out of 25

I started off a little bit behind, and I am slowly picking up my pace. At this rate, I am still behind, but I am going to try to do better next quarter!

   

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin is a beautiful story of a young girl with Asperger’s and her relationships with her family members, schoolmates, and dog. She has such a good heart, and this book teaches a lesson to children. I was impressed that this is the same author as The Babysitter’s Club series. While I loved that series as a pre-teen and teen, this book has a bit more meat to it. I’d recommend this book particularly to middle schoolers and upper elementary schoolers, but people of all ages will love it.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck is a classic that many people reference in their work. I have read most of Steinbeck’s work, and this text seemed to evade me. This year, I buckled down and vowed to read it. There are several stories (across generations) in this epic, and I enjoyed reading it very much. I’d heard that it was a modern-day Cain/Abel story, so I thought I knew the ending. Everything did not align as I thought it would. So if you have been putting this book off because you think you know how it ends, I recommend you read it. As with all of Steinbeck’s books, the characters are wonderfully written and are quite unforgettable.

X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon. I just blogged about this book yesterday and listed it as my favorite YA text I’ve read this year. Mainly, I love it because it really made me think. Malcolm Little is a troubled boy, and he doesn’t always make the best decisions. This made me shake my fist at the book several times. I would love to read this book in a classroom and hear the enriching conversations that would come from a study of this text.

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan is a book about a young girl with a lot of heart. In fact, I think she would get along very well with the girl in Rain Reign. Willow is a 12-year-old genius, and when tragedy strikes, her world is knocked from under her feet. While this book was about a tragedy, I found myself laughing frequently. I wish Willow was real because I felt as if she became my friend. All of the characters in this book are wonderfully drawn, and I am so glad I put this hyped-up book on my #mustreadin2015 list because it was simply fantastic.

Kellee’s #mustreadin2015 Summer Update

Completed as of July 1: 12 out of 25

Although I didn’t read as many of my must read books this quarter (only 3 vs. 9 from January to April), I am still feeling good about finishing up by the end of the year. I have continued enjoying every single one of the titles that I have read from my list.

X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon is a book that needed to be written, and I am thankful that it exists. Learning about the childhood of Malcolm X was so interesting, but what makes this book so special is the tough topics that it addresses. Such racist yet changing times are a backdrop to Malcolm’s story which makes this book so timely with so much prejudice still existing today.

Paper Cowboy by Kristin Levine was a much tougher book than I expected. While Levine’s Lions of Little Rock overall had a positive tone, even in light of some of the very hard themes within, Paper Cowboy is enveloped in sadness and hardship from right at the beginning. Going through the journey with Tommy as he realizes his bullying ways, deals with his mother’s postpartum depression and his sister’s accident, and learns the consequences of some terrible mistakes is quite exhausting; however, you become so invested that as things get better, you feel a weight lifted off of you.

The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson is so funny and smart! I love Hilary because she is exactly who no one wants her to be except herself, and she rocks it! (Girl power!) She doesn’t let anyone tell her she can’t be a pirate which leads to her becoming one and being quite good at it which leads to quite an adventure! The Gargoyle is also one of my favorite funny characters ever. Additionally, I think the addition of letters and forms throughout the book give it a special aspect other books don’t have. And I highly recommend the audio book!

Do you have a #mustreadin2015 list?
What are your #mustreadin2015 books?
Share your update below!

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