My Summer TBR Pile and a reading challenge

These do not include library books, only the books I own.

The one I'm looking most forward to reading is Bamboo People since I just finished a Mitali Perkins book and LOVED it! Her writing is so vivid and full of sensory details. I have a feeling I'll be reading many more of her books before the summer's over.

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I've decided "set sail" and take on my library's summer reading challenge this year, so for all of you out there who are following along, but haven't commented yet, I need your help with suggestions.

These are the "checkpoints"

Theme: water
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Movie

Theme: Michigan (either setting or author)
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Movie

Theme: Travel
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Movie

So give me some good suggestions - I especially need help with the Michigan one. I'm considering Mitch Albom for the fiction or non-fiction (or both) but I'm drawing blanks on movies that take place in Michigan.

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins

Mitali Perkins is an unsung author in the YA lit world. Monsoon Summer was my first experience reading her work, and after reading this book, I am convinced that her books need to be marketed more. Her goal is to make multicultural literature available, enjoyable, and accessible to young readers, and I'd say she succeeds on all accounts with this beautiful work of multicultural, modern-day fiction.

When Jasmine "Jazz" Gardener learns that she'll be spending the entire summer in India with her family, she is less than thrilled at the idea. Her mother, the exuberant do-gooder, wants to return to the orphanage where she was adopted to help set up a clinic for the poverty-stricken women and children in the area. Jazz, who still can't shake her own charitable failures, decides to stay as far away from the orphanage as possible. This plan backfires when she meets Danita, the young girl the Gardeners have hired to cook for the family during their stay. Danita has a dilemma that only Jazz can help her resolve, and she slowly begins to let herself be open to the beautiful people who are a part of the Asha Bari orphanage.

Despite the fact that the plot is predictable, there is so much more to love about the book than knowing what will happen next. The writing is full of so much sensory language that you can feel the rain falling on you, can taste the tantalizing flavors of the Indian cuisine, and you can feel the warmth of the people. It's a book that makes you realize, if you hadn't before, that despite the abject poverty, so much of India's beauty is its people.

The last few chapters of the book had me smiling, laughing, and crying all at the same time. This is the perfect summer read.

Visit Mitali Perkins' author website

Basking in the sun's warm rays...

...are pugs too pooped to come out and play

Whimsical Berlin

Berlin is my absolute favorite city in the world. I would visit it every year if I could afford to. Here is just one more reason why it is the awesomest city on earth: A "Fast Lane" on the way down to the Alexanderplatz U-Bahn station. Despite its bleak history, it's good to see that Berlin doesn't take itself too seriously.




Originally seen on the National Geographic's Intelligent Travel Blog

Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr

From Goodreads:

As a pastor's kid, it's hard not to buy into the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reasons to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI, and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. When a young girl in her small town goes missing, the local tragedy overlaps with Sam's personal one, and the already worn thread of faith holding her together begins to unravel.

Once Was Lost is my first experience reading Sara Zarr and it certainly won't be my last. This book had the potential to be a complete disaster. A depressing premise and brooding first person narrator could definitely turn the reader off. But Zarr writes with such lyrical simplicity that it works without making you feel completely bummed out. Once was Lost is not just a coming of age story; it's also a faith-seeking journey. When the girl in the story goes missing, Sam, the first person narrator, also realizes that her faith in God has also gone missing. Having to deal with an alcoholic mother in rehab and a pastor father who makes more time for his parishoners than his own daughter, Sam has to make sense of all the trauma and difficulty on her own. As the novel progresses, the reader slowly realizes that there's more to Sam than just being a mopey, solitary teenager; she has managed to deal with all her family baggage with grace and dignity.

Something else I really appreciated about this story was how Zarr threw away many of the possible predictable elements of the plot and took the reader on a truly authentic journey. There were so many moments that I thought that Zarr was foredhadowing foreboding, but I was pleasantly surprised that what I predicted didn't happen. Bravo Sara Zarr for going against a formula!

Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World by Diane MacEachern

With all that is going on in the Gulf right now with this BP disaster, many of us feel angry and powerless as to what we can do to make a positive impact on the environment.

This book is the ultimate reference guide to teach us how to use our wallets to drive consumer demand for greener products. MacEachern's thesis espouses that when we start demanding better products, and we use our money to purchase them, we're telling businesses what we value and they will start providing what consumers want.

The chapters are divided into the following ideas/products:
1) Why your big green purse matters
2) Principles
3) Beauty products
4) Cars and transportation
5) Hot stuff: coffee, tea, cocoa
6) Food
7) Cleaning products
8) Clothing and accessories
9) Lawn and garden
10) Kids
11) Lights, appliances, and electronics
12) Furniture, paint, flooring, fabrics

I checked this book out at the library, but I will definitely be purchasing my own copy as a reference to use whenever I need to make a purchase from one of the categories above.

For those people who think that environmentalism hurts business, they need to crawl out from under the rock they've been living in. Once upon a time, it was thought that if you were for the environment, you were against business. But now being Green is a business, and if you don't jump on the bandwagon, you're going to find yourself losing money. People are starting to understand the need to make more sustainable choices, and therefore, our purchases are beginning to be motivated by that understanding. I think fairly soon, we're going to see a paradigm shift (actually, the shift is happening right now as we speak). What was once thought as hurtful to business will become the status quo. Bravo to MacEachern for helping to make this shift all the more easy for consumers.

Lessons You Will Never Find in a Textbook

I made myself vulnerable in front of my students this week. I shared with them a piece of writing that was in desperate need of revision, and I asked them to give me their critiques. It was a humbling experience. It helped me to remember the anxiety and heart-racing nerves I experienced whenever I used to get a paper back from a teacher or professor in school. But it also helped the kids to see that ALL writers, even their "all-knowing" teacher, are not perfect. I showed them my flaws, right there on the page for them to fix.

It was so tempting to edit out some of the more abominable sections of the piece, but I decided it was more important for them to make their own discoveries that all writers need to revise. It's not enough for me to just preach the virtues of revision. I needed to make it real to them. Given their willingness to tell me exactly what I needed to fix, I think they got it. With the school year ending next week, it's good to know they've been paying attention to me this whole time.