Books Read in May

Okay, so really? I got halfway through May without finishing a single book. Yikes. I was teaching a lot, and writing a bit, and reading not much. But then? Last week? I got a little under-the-weather-ish. Because the weather was Awesome. And by Awesome, I mean that on Memorial Day the snow line was dangerously near to my house. Meters away. Yuck. So I stayed in bed for a day and a half, sniffling (because of the germs, not the snow line) and got to finish much of what I’d started, bookwise.

* COSMIC by Frank Cottrell Boyce: Again. Read it out to the kids.  With Accent. Oh, guys. Read this praise to Dadliness. It is so, so good. Also, Kid 1 said, “Why do I love Liam so much, when real life boys who play World of Warcraft are so… creepy?” Ah, the joys of fictional boys.

* TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom: this was a substituting bonus. I read it with senior English classes while their teacher was conferencing for a week. I forgot how much I liked this book. It was a sweet connection of age and youth, death, peace, fulfillment, and humor. Good, good.

* CROSS MY HEART by Julie Wright: Cute, spunky, sassy LDS chick lit. Cover = Love. Add in the love triangles/squares/rhombi? Bonus.

* MATCHED by Ally Condie: Reread. Remember that I loved this? We had a little interview here. Because remember that I also really love Ally? And I knew that BEA was coming, and that Maybe, Possibly, Perchance my friend Ally could get her hands on an ARC of CROSSED, which is coming out in November. So I had to get back into Cassia and Xander and Ky’s world to prepare for CROSSED. I’ll let you know if I score a copy of that piece of magic.

* LEST INNOCENT BLOOD BE SHED by Philip P. Hallie: Wow. I don’t read a lot of nonfiction (because, remember? Shallow) but this one was a recommendation from Pat, who has remarkable taste. It’s the story of a French village during the 1940s Nazi occupation. The village, led by a non-violent Protestant pastor, ran an underground railroad-type resistance that led Jews and other endangered people through France and into Switzerland. Hallie is an ethics professor, and the book is less story than ethics discussion – life and death type ethics, where a person risks his own life to spare the lives of others. Estimates say five thousand children were saved through the work of Pastor Trocme and the village of Le Chambon. It was a cerebral read, but it turns out that when I gave myself a month to handle it, I could.

* NIGHT by Elie Wiesel: Reread, and Subbing bonus. Both. The story of a young man’s survival in Aushwitz and Buna concentration camps. Stunning, spare and heartbreaking. If you haven’t read this, I think you should (and remember how I don’t use that SHOULD word all that much?) because your kids did, or will, or also should. Also, it’s short. Two hours reading. Maybe two and a half. The 2006 translation has a few extras – parts of the story that Wiesel wrote in the original Yiddish, but felt might be too personal for general consumption. Let us not forget.

What have you been reading?