Monthly Archives: May 2021

Anna and the Circle of Sisterhood

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins has been on my tbr list for a loooooong time. However, I just never found myself getting it to read. Until I happened upon the pretty 10th Anniversary Edition in my local Barnes and Noble. 

It felt like fate was telling me to put this book on my summer reading list. So I did. There was a lot about this book I really loved–despite not being the intended audience.

Posted in Chick Lit, Coming of Age | Tagged as: , , , , ,

I Am not Your Perfect Coming-of-Age Book

I started reading I Am not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez three times. The first time, I think I read about page 45. The second time I stopped at page 173. This time I finished the book.

I don’t know why I stopped and started so many times. However, I know that if I put a book down, I usually will try to pick it back up because sometimes I’m just not in the right place for a book. I recently restarted Force of Nature by Jane Harper after stopping at page 25. I just wasn’t in the right place the first time I picked it up. It happens. The second time I picked it up, I plowed right through, loving every minute of it.




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The Person Left Behind

I can’t tell you exactly why I put The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand on my nook. It was probably on Book Bub, and it probably sounded good. It also probably compared it to Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. But for whatever reason it ended up on my nook, it ended up being the next book up to be read. And it’s the same as Thirteen Reasons Why in that both protagonists are struggling to understand why another character committed suicide. 


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What Am I Reading Monday

Since I’m not reading as much YA and I want to be more consistent with my blogging, I’m going to be sharing a weekly post about what I’m currently reading–YA or otherwise. 

Monday finds me halfway through Fredik Backman’s book Anxious People. This is the story about a bank robbery turned hostage situation. However, it’s definitely more than that. As the novel unfolds, it’s really about the interconnectedness of all of us. I was looking forward to being able to sink into a story, but I find the style and narration of this novel makes it a bit harder for me to sink into the story. It reads as smaller vignettes interrupted by the narrator speaking directly to the reader–almost an adult Choose Your Own Adventure. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about the style.




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A Seat at the Table

In addition to teaching 8th grade ELA, I also teach Research Methods and Capstone Writing in the Urban Teaching Residency (UTR) program in the Graduate School of Education (GSE) at UPenn. (That knowledge and $1.25–if you have EZ Pass–will get you across the Delaware on Rt 295 in Mercer Co.) As it’s May, I’m just finishing up reading my students’ theses for completion of their Master’s Degree. One of my students designed her study to be a case study of two formerly incarcerated men. She wanted to find out how their former incarceration affected their children’s education. One of the men received a pardon, and the other is going through the pardon process. What she found and wrote about was heartbreaking.


Posted in Coming of Age | Tagged as: , , , , ,
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