Welcome back! Our first Book Club of the new school took place earlier this month – virtually. Whether remote or in-person, Book Club will happen!
Screenshot
Ms. Melinson started us off by sharing what she read over the summer. She listened to The Poet X audiobook (those who have listened to it agree that it’s incredible. It’s read by the author, Elizabeth Acevedo – check it out on Overdrive) for the high school read. She also started reading Elizabeth Acevedo’s second book, With the Fire On High, and is enjoying the book’s setting of Philadelphia where she grew up. The book takes place just blocks from where her mother grew up. Ms. Melinson finally read Educated: A Memoir. She found it compelling, if possibly unreliable, but is on the fence about whether or not she enjoyed it.
Ms. Melinson also completed Eddie Moore’s 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge, which inspired her to-be-read pile: Olivia read Eating People is Wrong. She liked the first few pages, but overall found it to be outdated and wrong. She also read Confessions of a Mask and liked how well-written and poetic it was. Mrs. Strong read The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel and didn’t like it, mainly because of the art. Samhita read The Starless Sea and couldn’t put it down. She re-read Dread Nation because the sequel was recently released and The Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds, which she described as “really good and really long.” Eliana read Divergent and started the sequel, Insurgent. She also read To Kill a Mockingbird, but found it kind of boring.
Mr. Wells read Station Eleven, and found its premise a little too close to home currently (it’s about a global pandemic). When he was looking for options for the all high school read, he read I’ll Give You the Sun and thought it to be “un-nuanced”. Mr. Wells also read Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, describing it as a thoughtful and humanizing approach to war.
Then Ms. Melinson asked how people are doing with reading during the pandemic. Some said it was easier due to having more free time, while others said they actually had more to do so reading was hard to find time for. One person responded that reading is easier for escapism because of the lack of activities and sports on tv while another person said they use reading as a way to rest from all of the screen time.
For more information on the books we discussed and the books we’ve discussed at previous book clubs, check out our Goodreads page!
Books & Bytes 