What I Read: August

August is usually a slower month for me because the start of the school year is exhausting. I'm tired in the evening which makes it hard to read. I had multiple days during the first couple weeks of school where I'd fall asleep on the couch sitting up while trying to read at night. My commute to work is longer so I'll get through more audiobooks now.

Books:

• The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick- This book was deep, beautiful, and emotional. At times it felt really heavy and at others it was so hopeful. Grief is such an all encompassing and difficult topic and Erlick tackled it with grace. This is the best description I've ever read, "The absence... still feels like air: sometimes you notice it more, like when the wind picks up or the sky feels particularly humid and heavy, but always, you're at least somewhat aware of its presence. You'll never exist without it." The ending was one of the most beautiful things I've ever read, "You know that the world doesn't always work well, that it often feels downright broken, but when the fiery sun melts into the calm waves of water and the clouds turn to peach and berry sorbet, you can't help but feel that this one things went right."

• LETRS Volume 2 by Louisa C. Moats- I didn't learn as much from Volume 2 as I did from Volume 1, but still got great information and practices I can use in my classroom.

• Love Is a War Song by Danica Nava- I really wanted to love her first book after meeting her at a book event, but it was a bit flat for me. She really found her groove with her 2nd book. I LOVED it. There was so much to take from the story beyond just the fun romantic part of it. I also enjoyed that it was set in Broken Arrow, OK. A "canceled" Muscogee pop princess being sent off to live with her grandma and connect with her roots was such a fun place to start. Add in a handsome ranch hand showing her the ropes and I'm all in. "I was surviving before I met you. Now I'm living." After reading the acknowledgements, I discovered there is actually audio for "I Need a Warrior Tonight". You can watch a clip of Nava dancing to it here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBMB55pvd5h/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

• Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson- This was a beautiful story about a jar and how it traveled over time and became a beloved treasure of a family. I loved the jar stories and I loved Ebby's story. I didn't like this book as much as Black Cake, but it was still a good read.

• The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark- I love an unreliable narrator and one with Lewy Body Dementia throws an extra wrench into the storyline. This book sucked me in and I couldn't stop reading. She kept me guessing and wondering until the very end.

eBooks:

• Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan- I absolutely loved this book. It reminded me a little bit of Every Summer After with fewer flashbacks to the past. I got a little frustrated with Sam refusing to let go of her boring life and reach for the color she was longing to return to, but I knew she'd get there and it was worth the journey in the end.

• We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida- I enjoyed this cute book about the healing powers of cats. 

• Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler- After reading Kindred, I was so excited to tackle the rest of Butler's books. I didn't read what this book was about and just jumped in head first. I was expecting science fiction (which was what I was in the mood for) and got dystopian (which I was not in the mood for). Due to that, I struggled through the book a bit. I was also reading it at a time when violent acts against people out exercising were occurring at an alarming rate in my town and that made this book harder for me to read. I will go into the sequel better prepared for the content matter.

• Love and Other Killers by Brynne Weaver- The Ruinous Love Trilogy was so good and this was a nice, little visit back into that world.

Audiobooks:

• River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer- I was very interested in this book. There are many stories about slavery and about the aftermath, but I've never read a book following former slaves immediately following emancipation. There wasn't as much heart to this book as I was expecting. I felt like it moved so quickly from one child to the next. It made it feel easy for her to find her children who had been sold away, but I know there's no way it would have been. I really enjoyed the author's notes.

• Divergent by Veronica Roth- Carter was reading this book and asked me to read it with him. I was able to get it really quickly as an audiobook so I did and we were reading together, but it was so good, I couldn't help myself and got ahead of him. It's always interesting to see what things he picks up on that I don't and thinks I get from a book that he doesn't. 

• Insurgent by Veronica Roth- I didn't like this one as much as the first one. I got a little bored with it in the middle. Tobias and Tris' relationship got annoying to me, but such is YA literature sometimes. The ending was awesome and I'm looking forward to the 3rd book, but will take a break to let Carter catch back up and to make sure I enjoy it more. 

• Can't Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan- This was the third book in the Skyland series. I love Kennedy Ryan. She writes romance books with spice and a happy ending, but also lots of meat. Her characters are real and relatable and going through some stuff. I enjoy her books even when I'm not in the mood for romance because they also have a literary aspect to them, she's such a great writer! The Skyland series are my favorites. I loved hearing Hendrix's story and who wouldn't love Maverick Bell.

• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams- This book was shocking. I knew a lot of Facebook's complicity with horrible events, but had no idea they were active participants in so much evil. There was a lot of the book that was frustrating and I didn't understand why she worked for so long for a company she was continuously thinking about leaving, especially while facing harassment by more than one co-worker. Although I also understand wanting to fight back against having to leave when your harasser gets to stay. I read Lean In with my book club back in the day and thought a lot of it was bull shit. Reading this book revealed what a hunk of garbage it really is.

• This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune- I loved the setting of this book and I loved the characters, the plot just didn't pull me in. I don't know if it was listening to it as an audiobook instead of reading a physical book like I did with Every Summer After, but I just didn't enjoy this one like I did that one.

Twisted Oak Trail Race

Last year I ran the first ever Twisted Oak Trail Run and I had totally forgotten about the race until I stumbled across information about it a few weeks out from the race this year. I really wanted to run it again, but I had a 20 mile long run scheduled for that weekend. I debated whether I should run 20 miles on Saturday and then do the 7 mile race on Sunday or turn the 14 mile race into a 20 mile long run. Neither option sounded appealing. Then I decided I would move my 20 mile long run up to Wednesday morning and run the 7 mile trail race as my speedwork or hard effort for the week on Sunday. My long runs this training cycle have been taking a lot more out of me than they usually do when training for a marathon. I don't know if it's my age or the heat or my bone spurs or a combination of all of those factors, but I have been taking longer to recover from long runs than I'm used to. The day after my 20, my run actually went pretty well. Then on Friday and Saturday my runs were both pretty rough and I was feeling exhausted. I ended up skipping my strength training because I was so worn out. I was a little worried the race was going to suck, but was hopeful I would be recovered and feeling better by Sunday.

Pre-race photo!

I re-read last year's race post to decide my timeline for the morning. I did the same thing, getting up at 6am, doing yoga, and getting ready. I left a little before 6:40 this year and ate an almond butter biscuit in the car and drank coffee on my way. I arrived at 7:05 which was plenty of time before the 7:30 start. I picked up my packet, chatted with friends, used the porta potty, and dropped some stuff off at my car. I ran with a small water bottle in my spandex shorts pocket. The race start was different from last year and cut out a little bit of the uphill which was nice. The race start was very relaxed and I planned to use my first mile as a warm up since I didn't run one, so I went out pretty conservatively. As per usual, people went out sprinting to get in good position before we made it to the single track trail so I had quite a few people ahead of me. I think I was in 8th including all races 3 miles, 7 miles, and 14 miles. I caught up to the woman running 1st in the 7 mile pretty quickly and didn't have a good spot to get around her so I got stuck there for a while. She was running right behind the top guy in the 14 mile race. When I had a good spot to get around them, I went by and felt so much better once I was able to stride out and get down into more of a race pace. That put my first mile pretty slow at 9:39 but there was also a decent amount of uphill in that mile. My goal was to average as close to 9:00 pace as I could.

There were quite a few switchbacks where I could see the people ahead of me. I could see my friend, April, who was in the 3 mile, leading the race which was fun. Once we got further into the heavily wooded area, I couldn't see anyone anymore. I felt great and was coasting along. My 2nd mile was 8:57. From what I'd seen in the switchbacks, I thought there was a group a ways ahead of me running together, then me running alone, and then a scattering of runners a ways behind me. Then all the sudden in the 2nd mile I looked up and saw my friend, Johnny, running right ahead of me. He was in the 3 mile race. I caught him and figured he'd go with me to finish out his race with a strong last mile, but he had fallen and was feeling a bit rough so he walked a bit up the hill. I saw the turn off for the 3 mile and figured April was likely finishing. I went through mile 3 in 8:53 and just kept cruising. The course was beautiful and I was loving the quiet time out in the woods. That's something I love about trail races, you still spend quite a bit of time out there alone, enjoying nature. Mile 4 was 8:51 and I was excited about the progression run I had going so far. I started worrying a bit because we had run quite a few uphills, but I felt like there had been more downhill than uphill and knew we were going to have to make up the difference at some point.

Mile 5 was 8:57 and then we hit the uphill I had been fearing was coming. The entire next mile was mostly uphills broken up with some flats in between. When I was running the flat sections, my pace was still sitting around 8:40, but I never looked at it while running uphill. With the longest uphill portion being later in the race, my legs were feeling even more cooked than usual. I was surprised because all the sudden I could see 2 guys running together ahead of me. It had been quite a while since I had seen anyone. I told myself, pass with authority, because I didn't want to get caught off the trail for long as I passed. It's the worst when you go to pass and the person you are passing speeds up and you get stuck off trail, trying to get around them. It looked like the one guy was tucked behind the other one, coasting off him, so I thought it was likely he would swing around the other guy and go with me. I wasn't against having company, but I had really been enjoying my solo time so I was hoping he wouldn't stick with me for long. I told them I was coming up on their left and the guy behind moved over for me to pass, the guy leading got confused and moved over to the left so I passed him on the right. It was nice that I was able to pass without running off trail and appreciated them moving over for me. Neither of them attempted to go with me and I'm guessing they were both tired because I ended up finishing over 3 minutes before them.

Mile 6 was 9:45 and I was surprised. I knew it had a lot of uphill but I wasn't expecting it to be that much slower than the other miles. During the last mile I was feeling great now that there were fewer uphills and I was able to really start rolling. April and Johnny jogged back out onto the course for a cool down and were standing to cheer for me. I lit up when I saw them and was so excited because I knew I was almost finished. April said, let's see if we can keep up with her and they started running back toward the finish. Then she said, oh, no, we can't. It was funny. I enjoyed hearing them chatting behind me as I ran. I finished my last mile in 8:46. For the finish, we came out on a little ridge and then turned down onto a gravel road with a steep decline. I was sprinting at that point and when I stepped out onto the gravel, I twisted my ankle. I decided to tone it down a bit until I made it down the hill. After I finished, I refilled my water and then hung around to cheer for the guys I had passed. I heard the one talking about how he and the other guy were battling back and forth for the win and then I came flying by them. I was like, wait you guys were in first? He said yes, until you passed us. April told me I was the top finisher, male or female, which I thought was pretty cool! I finished in 1:04:00 which was an average of 9:06 pace. It was a little slower than last year, but the course was run the opposite way so it's impossible to know quite how it would compare. It was the same amount of elevation gain but obviously it was distributed differently throughout the race. I had a really fast mile with a lot of downhill last year and didn't have that this year as that mile was all uphill this year. This is a race I would like to run every year. There aren't many races in August and it's right before school starts so a nice time for me. The trails are beautiful and technical without being overly difficult. I loved it! It was also the little boost to my mental game that I needed after a bit of a rough patch of running.

Runners World Crew!

What I Read: July

When we went to visit my parents for the 4th of July, we left the kids when we returned home so they could hang out for a week while I worked on setting up my classroom. I got so much work done and spent close to 8 hours a day in my classroom while they were gone. I listened to audiobooks almost the whole time while I was working and I listened to them on the drive so I made it through quite a few audiobooks while they were gone.

Books:

• Saving Winslow by Sharon Creech- I read this with the kids. It started off really good for the first half, but then got a bit boring and slow. It took us a long time to read it because we lost interest in it. We all agreed it was pretty meh.

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones- At the beginning of the book, I really struggled with the section in the pastor's voice and didn't understand why he was in the story. I just wanted to stay with Good Stab and hear his story. In true Stephen Graham Jones fashion, how central he was to the story was revealed slowly and precisely. His imagining of vampires was so interesting. His take on all kinds of monsters fascinates me. I can't think of words to describe the ending that do it justice, I'll just have to say I loved it. I mostly read the book, but also listened to sections on audiobook and highly recommend doing it as an audiobook. The narrators did an amazing job!

• Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan- I really enjoyed this story. Monaghan writes such sweet stories while also making you giggle at times. I finished this book and felt like I'd been wrapped in a warm hug. In this story the mom finds herself struggling with being a good role model for her daughter because she has quietly accepted other people treating her poorly. I really related to that because a driving force in finding a new job was that I wanted to be a strong role model for Elise and show her it is important to value your worth. I didn't want her to see me accepting treatment that I wouldn't want her to accept herself. Seeing that reflected in story was validating. I'm so excited to catch up on all Monaghan books I haven't read. Is there anything better than finding an author you love and then realizing they have a slew of other books for you to work your way through?

• Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning by Peter Liljedahl- This was an amazing and informative book. I have always struggled with our math curriculums and how prescriptive they are. I'm always tweaking and adjusting them to get my students to think more and just mindlessly copy procedures less. This book was everything I've been yearning for and had so many details that just make sense. I can't wait to implement this in my classroom. And, of course, I loved how much he referenced data!

• These Walls: The Battle for Rikers Island and the Future of America's Jails by Eva Fedderly- When this book was described as being about the architecture of jails, I wasn't very interested, but it turned out to be so much more. Something I loved about this book was that she didn't just point out problems with the justice system, she shared possible solutions. One line that really struck me was, "You can't build jails and then think that these kids won't fill them... If you build it, they will come."

eBooks:

• The Bookshop Sisterhood by Michelle Lindo-Rice- I was expecting a sweet book about best friends opening a bookshop together and that was not what this was. There was so much drama and so many surprising twists. With 4 main characters and each facing huge obstacles, there was never a dull moment. I ended up enjoying the book more than I expected to when I started it.

• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar- I was so excited for this book. When it came in at the library, I was shocked to see how short it was. I was expecting a book and it was a novella. That's my only complaint, I wish it was longer! It was a beautiful fairy tale about the love of sisters and I wanted more!

• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney- This book was a super slow starter. The first chapter was really good and then it lost its momentum. She was building to a big finish, but I struggled through the first half of the book. Then once I hit halfway, I couldn't stop reading. I enjoyed going back at the end of the book and figuring out the clue, that was such a fun touch.

• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang- Reading this book was like watching a slow motion disaster that you just can't look away from. Junie's story was sickening and hard to read, but I was immediately reeled in and couldn't stop.

Audiobooks:

• The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea- The ending of the book, my goodness! The whole book was one unexpected turn after the other. I loved that Donlea kept me guessing and the female heroines weren't just incredible, but also very believable.

• Pines by Blake Crouch- This book started out boring and frustrating, but ended with such a shock, I'm excited to read the next book in the trilogy.

• The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan- I got this audiobook on sale from Libro.fm. I was bummed when I started it and realized there were drawings to go with each section. That was on me, but I wished I'd read it as an ebook so I could have enjoyed them. 

• The Hummingbirds' Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery- This was a sweet story of rescued baby hummingbirds. It was originally a chapter in a book, so a short quick read.

• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo- I love Acevedo. My only complaint with this story was that it wasn't long enough. She did such a great job of letting us see both perspectives of the sisters who didn't know their dad had two families.

• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller- I loved this retelling of Achilles' story. It was an interesting point of view.

• The Survivor Wants to Die at the End by Adam Silvera- I liked that Silvera tackled such a complex issue with suicide and suicidal ideation. He really gave it the time you needed to see how it can be a cycle that the person continues to struggle with even after surviving, but it just kept going and going and Paz's character, in particular, was a bit difficult to like at times. I was getting tired of the book and then he threw in a huge curveball at the end!

• Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder by Bellamy Rose- This book was very cute. I enjoyed following Pom as she evolved as a person while working to solve the mystery of who murdered her grandma. The mystery was somewhat overshadowed by her romantic interest and the changes she underwent throughout the book. I would classify it as more of a rom com than a mystery, but the mystery part of the story was also engaging and interesting.

• The Robin on the Oak Throne by K.A. Linde- I loved the fantasy element of this book and what she's done with "monsters". It felt to me like since romantasy has gotten so popular, she threw in some unnecessary sex scenes that had no purpose other than to detract from the story.

• Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour- This book started off so good and I loved the narrative style of it. I don't know if it was reading it so closely behind Yellowface that made the downward spiral of the second half so difficult for me to listen to or if it would have been tough regardless. Following a main character as they completely lose themselves and their morals is really hard for me and made me enjoy this book much less overall.

Wordless Wednesday

Checking for eggs at a friend's house while they were out of town.

Everybody ready for bed in Elise's room.

Milo on top of Tesla's kennel.

Feeding the fish in the gardens at Philbrook.

Tesla found a cat in the storm drain.

Ran into a past student at the free summer movies.

We went for a mountain bike ride at Turkey Mountain.