#20Booksofsummer Challenge

I made a resolution this year to read more books. Get back to my true love. Stop looking at the phone screen so much and instead use that time to enrich my mind once again. So I set a tentative Reading Goal on Goodreads.com for a whole 20 books read in 2019. So far this year, I’ve read 6. A goal of 20 for the year and having read only 6 in the last 5 months seems a bit weak. But we’re just gaining momentum!

So, yes, I am going to join the 20 Books of Summer Challenge hosted by Cathy at 746books.com.

BUT, I’m going to make my goal more like 10 of the 20. Because I should be able to read 10 books. Because I am also reviewing books I read here to help my memory, I think trying to read AND review 20 in 3 months (June 3-September 3) would put me over the edge. But 10 should be a difficult challenge that I can still strive to meet.

So, here’s the books I want to read for the #20booksofsummer.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Don’t ask me how I’ve not read this yet. I don’t know. There are so many plays and so
little time. I have read and studied and taught tons of Shakespeare, but this one has slipped by unread. Until now. I have to read this one first as we plan to teach Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood, which is a reimagining of The Tempest. So, I need the original story first.

Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood
We have chosen to include this one for the “Intertextuality” core section for Lang and Lit A. Atwood is on the PRL but we want to showcase her work beyond Handmaid’s Tale, which is the only Atwood I’ve previously read.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
This will be our drama text type as well as our selection from the 19th century. Again, don’t ask how I’ve never read Wilde. I think we often expect a bit much from English teachers and their reading backgrounds. Keep in mind everyone, my English degree is in creative writing and I have A LOT of hobbies.

Sula by Toni Morrison
This is one my colleague has taught many times for Lang and Lit A. We’re not likely to use it for next years grade 11, but we might change our minds. And it’s a shorty. I’ve read and loved Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, and Beloved. I’m sure this one will also knock my socks off. It is on my currently reading shelf, but I’ve not yet started it, so it counts!

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
We will begin in the fall with this one. I remember loving it as a high school student but it’s been since then that I read it, so we’re due for a careful re-read before I attempt to teach it.

No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
Because he did, in fact, write other things and I would like to be well-informed of his style.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
It’s on my currently reading shelf but I’ve only read the first chapter and then paused so it’s fair game for inclusion here. I use this as a book club book for 8th grade English but sadly have not yet read it myself.

The Happy Runner by David and Megan Roche
Again, on my currently reading shelf but I’ve barely read even the introduction so it counts! I love the coaches Roche and their philosophy on running and life so I’ve been excited to read this particular Christmas present.

The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller
This is a book my best friend gave me this past Christmas as I began to make peace with some things in my past that have been affecting my physical health and negatively impacting my way of being for the last 23 years. It too is on my current reads shelf but I’ve only just read the very beginning, so for the challenge I will restart at the beginning and read it straight through.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells
This has been on my want-to-read shelf for a decade. And then I participated in an international book exchange this past winter and a Dutch man living in Turkey sent me a paper copy of this. So this is the year!

So that’s my ABSOLUTE 10. My musts.

The next 10 on my shelf or in my Kindle that I’d like to have happen ASAP:

1.  Caramello by Sandra Cisneros
2. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
3. Portrait in Sepia by Isabelle Allende
4. Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams
5. Calypso by David Sedaris
6. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
7. Shakespeare: the world as stage by Bill Bryson
8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
9. Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
10. Drunk Tank Pink by Adam Alter

But I will not be beholden to the second 10. If I start something else, okay. If I get to our house this summer and find something sitting there I’ve been meaning to read, then great. The point, simply, is to read.

It all kicks off Monday, June 3rd! (I have 2 days to complete Sedaris’ diaries!!!)