March 2026 Reading

Posted on April 1, 2026 by Amy's Reflections

Spring break fell during this month, so I got some good reading in despite a busy couple of work weeks to start. My word of the year, EASE, is showing up in my book choices and that feels like exactly what I need right now. This month I read:

  • March: Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell – I’m glad someone told me about this trilogy of graphic novels. I learned so much about John Lewis, his activism, and more human details of the Civil Rights movement from the perspective of some of the young Black leaders who fought for rights with peaceful nonviolence. While graphic novels aren’t my favorite way to read stories, I appreciate this method to tell this particular story. The final book in the series covered the Bloody Sunday in Selma and the march from Selma to Montgomery. What saddened me a lot was how so many lines from the book, about the 1960’s fights, rang true today, in 2026.
  • Stuck in the Middle with You by Frances M. Thompson – I found this author on Instagram and I’m glad, because she has a large collection of queer romance books. This was a fun story of Giles and Marcello, who are acquaintances turned gym buddies turned “sex tutor-student” to so much more. However, there was a lot a lot of details about ADHD and OCD, with affirming and supportive conversations. I enjoyed the family, the found family, and the honoring of each person’s individual quirks done so beautifully.
  • Margin of Error by Rachel Lacey – I read my first book by this author last month and knew I wanted to read more. In this sweet story we meet Charlotte and Marin when they meet by chance on a NYC bus. After a quick but fun conversation where they never even learn each other’s name, Marin gets off the bus and immediately gets into an accident on the street. Charlotte jumps off the bus to wait for the ambulance with this new stranger, and believes she may have died by the time the ambulance pulls away. Based on that information, Charlotte changes her whole life, eventually moving back to Vermont to start a new life as a realtor in her hometown. One of her first clients is Marin, the mystery woman from the bus, who didn’t die! Marin also changed her whole life after her accident, and the two quickly become friends. However, Marin is finally coming out as a lesbian, later in life, and is ready to date. This friendship is both fun and torture for both women, for different reasons that shift throughout the story. I loved how their friendship and their feelings evolved. And I really loved the representation of this specific story.
  • One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad – I heard about this nonfiction book from Laura Tremaine, but I clearly didn’t listen well because I had NO IDEA what it was actually about. The author, Omar, was born in Egypt, raised in Quatar, then emigrated to Canada, and now lives in Oregon. After reading about him, I’m interested in reading his novel as well.This book is an overview of the bombing of the Gaza strip and the genocide of Palestinians, along with historical and political context. The author points to the many ways in which most Americans/Canadians have looked the other way, depsite horrific atrocities, that our brains are somehow able to ignore. This genocide is horrific for many reasons, including politics, money, and power. It was interesting and hard to hear. A few lines that stood out to me were: ‘Vote for the librar though he harms you because the conservative will harm you more’ starts to sound a lot like, ‘Vote for the liberal though he harms you because the conversative might harm me, too.’ “Whose nonexistence is necessary to the self-conception of this place, and how uncontrollable is the rage whenver the nonexistence is violated?”
  • Truly, Madly, Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur [audiobook] – I have read other books by this romance author and enjoyed them. This one is about Truly, a romance author, and Colin, a divorce attorney, who meet on a podcast. Their initial argument turns into sparks, which they avoid, deny, and then address throughout this cute story. I found Truly a bit immature, but this was still a very spicy romance!
  • Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez [audiobook] – I enjoy Abby’s romance stories – they are like a well-written Hallmark movie. In this story, we meet Dr. Alexis Montomery, of the very rich and famous Montgomery family in the big city, when she has an accident in a small town and meets Daniel Grant, of the well-known small-town famous Grants. Despite their very different backgrounds, Alexis and Daniel have a connection they cannot deny. As they fight their feelings, and avoid facing the truth of their family legacies. This is a sweet romance with some hard truths about family expectations and domestic abuse woven in. I loved it!
  • You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir by Christina Applegate [audiobook] – This was a sad story, but I’m glad Christina was able to tell her own story her way before she loses the ability to communicate, due to her MS. I enjoyed hearing about her acting experiences. It was hard to read about childhood trauma and of course, her fight with breast cancer and now MS. I was most sad for her young daugther.
  • Culpability by Bruce Holsinger- I like this author was intrigued by the plot of this story. We meet a family just as they suffer an awful car crash. But this is not an ordinary crash. In this accident, the 18 year old son was “driving” but it was a self-driving car and he was texting just when something happened. His father was on his laptop in the front seat, not paying attention, and didn’t see what happened. The family is hurt and people in the other car are killed. The rest of the book is a look into the receovery, both physical and mental, of each family member, and the questions over guilt and responsibility, especially in an AI age. This was a thought-provoking story.
  • Kin by Tajari Jones – This was my book club book for March and it was incredible! I have loved Jones’s other books and this was did not disappoint. We meet Vernice and Annie in the 1960’s, as the are about to graduate high school and go off to new lives, after growing up motherless and as best friends. Vernice goes to a HBCU and Annie runs away on a quest to find the mother who abandoned her. As they lives diverge, they keep up via intermittment letters, sharing some of their stories but not all the details. They come back together for important moments, with a lot of emotion, found family, and life choices driving them forward. The writing was so beautiful and the story was bittersweet.
  • Finders Keepers by Stephen King – I read the first in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy last fall and knew I wanted to read more. Retired detective Bill Hodges caught the city center killer (who drove a stolen Mercedes) at the end of the first book, and we meet up with him halfway through this book, when he is called by a pre-teen daughter of a friend to help her brother. The brother, Peter, is one of our main characters, as he was lucky enought to find buried treasure and use it to his advantage until it caught up with him. This was a fun, fast ride, especially the last 10%!
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February 2026 Reading

Posted on March 1, 2026 by Amy's Reflections

What a wild ride of reading in February! My book choices were all over the place, some that I read quickly and some that I have been reading slowly since January. There is a lot of spice this month, with more to come since I’m leaning into the romance genre more this year! This month I read:

  • Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think about Abortion by Gabrielle Blair – This book, with the shocking title, was mentioned by a librarian in a professional meeting and there was much giggling amongst some people I know. However, we wanted to know more about it. I’m so glad I checked it out of my public library. In this short collection of essays, Gabrielle Blair, known as @DesignMom on social media, makes 28 points about fertility, safe sex, men, women, social expectations, and more, all backed by facts and statistics. Here are just a few of the key points: Men are 50 times more fertile than women. Ovulation is involuntary, ejaculation is not. We expect women to do the work of pregnancy prevention. Men cause all unwanted pregnancies. There are zero consequences for men who ejaculate irresponsibly. Her points hit hard against norms we have grown up being taught, subtly, through media, a lack of clear sex education, and inbalanced access to affordable birth control. Every parent raising a young man who wants to sleep with women should read this and prepare to read and discuss it with their child. Everyone who participates in hetero-cis sex should read this. WOW.
  • Game Changer by Rachel Reid – Game Changers is the first book in the series that was turned into the show Heated Rivalry. This book was the basis for episode #3, but I’m so glad I read this because SO MUCH was left out of that brief story on tv. In the book, we get to know Scott Hunter and Kip in much more detail, feeling Scott’s fear of being a closeted hockey player, and Kip’s frustration over not being able to share his love in public. I love Scott, Kip, and all of Kip’s friends and family! The ending of this book was incredible, and so much more joyful and rewarding than I expected.
  • Margot’s Got Money Troubles by Ruffi Thorpe – This was such an interesting reading! Margot is a 19 year old who finds herself pregnant after a brief affair with her college professor. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to have the baby, and we follow her journey to learn how to be a mother, make money, and create a life. Meanwhile, she discovers how much she can earn on OnlyFans, using TikTok to find fans. We also learn a lot of professional wrestling, since Margot’s father is a famous retired wrestler. This was a fascinating look into the creator life and what people do to create and maintain a fan base on these sites.
  • The Girl Who Reads on the Metro by Christine Féret-Fleury – I heard this book described on a podcast, so I found it through my library. It’s a short novel about a young woman in France, who stumbles into a life-changing situation because she always reads on the Metro. With a bit of magical realism, a quirky book collector and his daughter bring Juliette into their unique world. This is a book about the joys of reading, of good books, and of enjoying the journeys.
  • Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann – I’m so glad this is the Secret Stuff book club choice for February, because without that I would have never picked up this book, written in 1967! While the book takes place in the 1940’s – 1960’s, it felt like it could have been about today – from the diet culture, judgement of women’s bodies, cheating men, and pill popping (those are the dolls!) to get through each day and night, this felt so modern that it was clearly ahead of it’s time. I loved the book, and the three heroines, Anne, Neely and Jennifer, with the strengths, their flaws, their career ambitions, their narcissism and their loves. This is a lot of hope and a lot of sadness throughout, but Anne was especially strong. It’s so hard to believe how the author dared to write such things in such a different time, and that they even published it!
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune [audiobook] – I first read this magical, beautiful, wonderful story back in 2021 and LOVED it. The second book in the series came out recently and I knew I needed to revisit the first book to remember all the great details before I jump into thew new book. I listened to this as an audiobook and it was just as sweet as I remember. Linus, who works for the government, is assigned a secret mission. He must visit an island orphanage full of magical creatures under the care of mysterious Arthur. Linus, a rule follower and a simple man, can barely handle all he learns from the creatures and about love and found family, and oh how he changes throughout the book. I love them all!
  • Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune [audiobook] – I LOVE TJ Klune! He is a beautiful queer author with a gift for storytelling that is both unique and yet universal. In this follow up to the Cerulean Sea story, we meet up with Arthur and Linus and their children while the government is trying to take away the kids, especially Lucy (the antichrist). We see a family find love, happiness, and safety in spite of significant bias and fear. They fight an uphill battle, but they do it together. Klune’s epilogue supporting Trans People was also beautiful and so well said.
  • Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy – This was a devastatingly beautiful Climate Fiction story about a near future when all wild animals are just about extinct. We follow wanderer Franny as she tries to find the last Arctic Terns on their final migration, while also learning about her past through flashbacks across time. We meet her family, learng of her childhood trauma, her marriage, her need to wander because of her fear of abandonmnet, and we fall in love with nature and the crew she adopts. This was sad and bittersweet and yet hopeful.
  • Fire Base Illingworth: An Epic True Story of Remarkable Courage Against Staggering Odds by Phillip Keith – Because I am travelling to Vietnam this summer, my friend and I have been on the look out for books that take place in Vietnam. When my friend sent me this title, I knew I had to read it since it is MY last name, though a historical retelling of one specific battle in the Vietnam war is not exactly my kind of book. This one little battle in one little area of Vietnam on April 1, was named after a young solider named John “Jack” Illingworth from Connecticut who died early in his first tour. The craziest part of all is that my father’s name was John “Jack” Illingworth and he was from Connecticut. The difference is that my father was unable to fight in Vietnam due to diabetes at the time. As I read about the Illingworth in this story, I felt like I was in a sliding doors moment – if my father had gone, I probably wouldn’t be here. Instead, a different Illingworth family (no relation to mine as far as I can tell) lost their Jack and mine didn’t. I wish my father was alive to read or at least hear about this wild story. After that personal touch, this was literally a minute by minute retelling of an awful nighttime attack where many soliders from both the US and Vietnam were killed or injured. It was horrifying and awful to read the details of the battle and horrors our soliders witnessed; it’s no wonder PTSD exploded after this war. This was hard to read but a detailed account of a moment in our history and I honor the lives lost and the heroes within the story.
  • Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey – Deep into my romance era, I found this new-to-me author will a full catalog of sapphic romance books to enjoy. I loved this story of younger Audrey being hired by her alma mater as a new professor of art, excited to work with her college mentor as a colleague, only to discover that her mentor, Michelle, is jaded and angry at the world. As Audrey makes it her mission to befriend this woman, we learn more about female artists left out of books and history, and see the sparks start to fly between the women in this slow burn story. I loved it!
  • Tough Guy by Rachel Reid [audiobook] – I love this Game Changers series! It’s so fun to read about big, huge, hockey players who are also sweet men who love men. The romance between Ryan Price and Fabian was very different than that of Shane and Ilya or Scott and Kip, but was equally enjoyable. Poor Ryan has a lot of anxiety, but when he reunites with an old friend from his teen years, their sparks are evident to everyone but Ryan at first. Fabian is a cool musician with a ton of patience as he gets to know Ryan. They are very sweet together and this was a fun story!
  • Common Goal by Rachel Reid [audiobook] – Big surprise – I’m still reading the Game Changers series and I love it! In this story, we meet Eric, who is a hockey teammate of Scott Hunter. Eric, recently divorced, realizes that he is ready to act on his bisexuality for the first time in his life. At the same time, Scott and his fiancee Kip decide that Eric would make a good friend to their friend Kyle, a bartender at the Kingfisher bar. We travel with Eric and Kyle as they become friends (and more) and try to avoid their true feelings. This story was not enemy to lovers but more like friends to lovers slowly… it was sweet!
  • Role Model by Rachel Reid [audiobook] – This series makes me so happy! One of the best surprises is the role that Ilya Rosanov plays in all of the books in the series. He shows up as a hockey teammate, a quiet ally, or a fierce defender of LGBTQ rights in serious and important and silly and sarcastic ways, and he can read people so well. I love how he supports his new teammate, Troy, who is traded to Ottawa because he chose to stand up for abused women, against a former teammate accused of sexual assault. At the same time, we learn that Troy is a closeted gay man who might be ready to go public. Harris, the Ottawa team’s social media manager, is the perfect gay “friend” for Troy as he gets to know his new home and team. This story was beautiful and sweet and sadly too realistic to our world todaoy.
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January 2026 Reading

Posted on January 31, 2026 by Amy's Reflections

It’s a new year, but I’m the same reader! This is what I read in the first month of 2026.

  • March: Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell – I am enjoying this graphic novel series, teaching me more of the history of the Civil Rights movement, and specifically John Lewis’s role.
  • Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery – I heard this book described and knew I would enjoy it. Author Sy and her illustrator, Matt, spent many months during the COVID pandemic volunteering for the Turtle Rescue League in the North East, where owners Natasha and Alexxia save as many turtles as possible each year. We are talking about hundreds of rescues, emergency patchwork, nest protection, and more, all to help many endangered and old creatures who are loved wholly in this beautiful tale. Each person who interacts with turtles can see that their eyes tell a story, their wisdom, their patience, and how slowly time moves for turtles. This was a wonderful story about conservation and found family and nature.
  • Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry [audiobook] – I have loved Michael J. Fox ever since I “met” him as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. We even named our childhood cat Alex after him! I also loved Back to the Future, so it was fun to listen to Michael share the story of how he filmed this movie at the same time as filming a season of Family Ties, working on the sitcom by day and the movie by night. He goes into the details of how this couldn’t even happen today, how little sleep he got during the time, how fun it was, and how interesting the characters, the filming, and the actors were. I enjoyed the behind the scenes look, but wished it was a little longer with more details.
  • What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown – This is the second book my cousin gave me for Christmas that I LOVED (thanks JJ!)! We meet Jane living off the grid in Montana with her father in the 1990’s, but soon Jane realizes that what she thought she knew about her life was not all true. We follow along with Jane as she discovers lies and tries to figure out the mysteries that led to her current circumstances. This book travels across time and states, exploring the role of technology in our present and future in interesting ways.
  • We are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter [audiobook] – I believe I heard this recommended on a podcast, but I can’t remember for sure. I wish I had paid closer attention, because I got it as an audiobook and I wish I had had it in print. This was a great, fast-paced thriller, with a 12 year time jump and a lot of characters to keep up with. Officer Emmy Clifton worked hard to solve the cases of the two missing teenage girls, alongside her father, the sheriff. Twelve years after that case, another local girl goes missing and Emmy has to face her own past, family secrets, and race to find the bad guy. I’m glad to know this will be a series and I look forward to reading more.
  • Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce – I heard this book described and it sounded cute and innocent and silly. It was those things, along with a slow start. We meet Margery in mid-life, unhappy with her teaching job and her life, when she suddenly decided to fullfill a lifelong goal: to travel to New Caledonia to discover the Golden Beetle. Her father had read books to her about this mythical creature in childhood and then a man at the National Museum taught her all about insect collections. Margery hires an assistant to travel across the world with her on this wild exhibition, completely out of her comfort zone. The journey, and the assistant, are nothing like Margery expected, with lots of bumps and challenges along the way. I like the quirky characters enough to read through the slow pace because I cared about that beetle and wanted to know how this adventure would end. This was a sweet story about friendship and goals and dreams.
  • Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) by Rachel Reid [audiobook] – The TV adaptation of this book became all the rage in December and January, so of course I had to see what the hype was about. I loved the TV show for the beautiful world created – Canadian television has less rules than America, and just like the show Schitt’s Creek, it is possible to create a world without explicit homophobia. After loving the show, I wanted to read the book, which is just one of a longer series, based on the hockey players Shane and Ilya. When the Canadian and Russian superstars meet as rookies, there is an instant rivalry but also a secret connection. Despite the implied homophobia in the NHL, this connection follows them across more than a decade before the conclusion of the book, which was a slow-burn queer love story with heart. I’m sad that the epilogue wasn’t part of the TV show, but I know they are coming back for another season and I can’t wait to see what happens there, and in other books in this series.
  • The Long Game (Game Changers #6) by Rachel Reid [audiobook] – Having a back injury was a great excuse to stay still and listen to another book in this series! This book, while #6 in the series, picks up right after Heated Rivalry (which is #2), where we left Shane and Ilya. It is also probably what Season 2 of the show will be based off of. I LOVED spending time in this love story, where Shane and Ilya now face building their secret relationship, deciding who they can trust, and how to create a life together carefully. There are new depths of anxiety and mental health addressed beautifully, as well as the spicy scences this series is known for.
  • Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben – I was excited when I learned that one of my favorite actresses (who picks good books!) was writing this mystery/thriller with one of my favorite authors. I was not disappointed by their partnership! We meet Maggie after her husband Marc has died. They were both surgeons who worked in traumatic areas, trying to help underserved populations. Maggie’s grief caused destruction across her life, which is when the action begins, crossing countries and problems as she tries to figure out what truly happened to her husband.
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My Word of 2026

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Amy's Reflections

I really enjoy the process of selecting my word of the year. Each year, a word finds me or I find a word that I really need. Some years I need creative energy, some years I need activity and spunk or to be stretched, while other years I need to rest and recharge. I journal through a series of prompts to consider what energy I want to bring into a new year, and what I was to manifest.

For 2026, I want to continue to build on the healthy habits I began this year, including my meditation practice and my refusal to embrace the culture of “always busy”. I want to embrace a slower, calmer, more purposeful life whenever and wherever I can. I want to feel at ease at home, at work, and on all my travels. This year, I am inviting EASE into my life.

What is your word of 2026?

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My 2025 Reading Year

Posted on December 31, 2025 by Amy's Reflections

Tracking my reading brings me so much joy! Not only does it help me remember what I read, and what to recommend to others, but it teaches me about myself each year. This year I learned that I while I still enjoy mysteries and thrillers, they don’t bring me reading fulfillment in the same way that a well-written literary novel of substance does. The stats are always fun to see as well, so here are some stats that summarize my year of reading.

Number of Books Read:

  • 2025- 123
  • 2024 – 130
  • 2023 – 113
  • 2022 – 127
  • 2021 – 146
  • 2020 – 71

Nation of Author’s Origin & Genres:

Fun Facts:

  • 46% of what I read was digital, 30% was in print, and 24% was audio
  • My top three genres were: Mystery/Thriller (23%), Literary Fiction (14%) and Memoir (12%)
  • 78% of what I read I rated 4, 4.5 or 5 stars, with an annual average of 4.1
  • 20% of the books I read this year were published in 2025, with 27% published in 2024 and a mix after that, going back to pre-1900!
  • I read 75% fiction and 25% nonfiction
  • I read 39,857 pages!
  • 52% of the books I read included people of other races, ethnicities, languages, and/or abilities than me
  • 55% of what I read I checked out from my local public library

Reading Superlatives

  • Best Mystery that had me guessing until the very end (and the one I’ve recommended the most this year): After the Crash by Michael Bussi
  • Best Backlist Nostalgic Family Saga: The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
  • Best Epistolary Novel that packs a punch in the most beautiful way: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
  • Best Book about race told in a unique and fascinating way: Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
  • Best Nonfiction book that hits way too close to home for me: They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms by Mike Hixenbaugh

In 2026, I am looking forward to more enjoyable reading experiences, whether I’m reading at home, in a pool, in a plane, or on my daily commute.

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December 2025 Reading Update

Posted on December 31, 2025 by Amy's Reflections

The three weeks between Thanksgiving break and winter break are also so busy for us in education. I didn’t read much personally during that time, but I took advantage of my winter break to catch up and end this year of reading well. This month I read:

  • Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei – I love a climate fiction story that takes place in the somewhat near future, when humans have basically ruined the environment and life is a big struggle, with good versus evil battling it out for society. In this CliFi, we follow two sisters, Skipper and Carmen, on their boat journey to find their missing sister, Nora. Life is rough in this future and the girls must fight pirates, hunger, weather, and lies to find their sister and the truth. I enjoyed the adventure!
  • The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier – This was a fun, tense thriller. We meet Samantha, an author writing a book about the serial killer The Butcher, caught by her boyfriend’s father, the famous Chief Edward Shank. Soon, we learn that the man caught as the butcher may not have been the serial killer, then we know more than Samantha does, as she tries to solve the mysteries that present themselves to her. It was fun to be a reader who had the information and wait to see how the characters would figure it out. I enjoyed this story, despite the darkness of the murders.
  • March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell – Someone told me about this graphic novel, one of many that she read this year, and I was intrigued enough to find it in my library. I love to read a graphic novel in print. This book tells the early history of John Lewis’s life, and what made him the peaceful, nonviolent protester that he is known for being. We learn about his childhood, how he met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins he was a part of. I will continue to read this series, as it is a first-hand account of important events from America’s history.
  • The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy – I first read this book about 30 years ago and remember discussing it with my parents, who were both Conroy fans. Conroy’s writing is exquisite – detailed, rich, figurative, poetic, and impactful. This story, about the Wingo family, is heart-wrenching, sad, personal, and touched with sibling love. The poverty and abuse the three Wingo children suffered was enough to drive Savannah to deep depression, forgetting entire years, and multiple attempts to end her own life, which is when we meet her as an adult. It affected her twin brother Tom very differently, and their older brother Luke, even more so. We root for these siblings to survive their horrible childhood, story after story, while knowing that tragedy will befall many of them right from the beginning. Despite the dark storyline, the beautiful language and messages of love and compassion shine through, making this a worthwhile read at the end of this year.
  • Palaver by Bryan Washington – I received this book as a Christmas gift (thank you, JJ!) and loved it! I had never heard of the author or the book, but my cousin knows that I like to read diverse stories by diverse authors and this fit the bill. We meet the son and his mother when she shows up to visit him in Tokyo, from her home in Texas. While we never learn their names, we learn so much about their lives, their backgrounds, the challenges of a Black gay man living abroad and an immigrant mother raising children. Their lack of communication was both real and frustrating, but I appreciated the unspoken feelings shared through the pages. This was a literary story that make Tokyo come alive, as we rode trains and walked through city streets. I enjoyed the entire reading experience!

Stay tuned for my end of year wrap up summary and a few favorite superlatives coming soon!

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November 2025 Reading Update

Posted on December 1, 2025 by Amy's Reflections

I read a number of excellent books again this month. I’m so glad my reading choices have improved this fall, since the first half of this year felt very MEH. This month I read:

  • Nothing Can Erase You by Michel Bussi – Last month I read and loved After the Crash by Bussi, so then I went back to his catalog to request more of his books from my library. I enjoyed this thriller almost as much. We meet Maddie and her son Esteban right before Esteban disappears. Maddie spends the next decade trying to figure out what happened to Esteban and having to convince the people around her that she isn’t crazy, especially when she moves to a town just because a young boy named Tom looks just like Esteban (but would be 10 years younger). This was a wild ride of twists and turns with lots of quirky characters.
  • Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben – I love Harlan Coben’s books and I’m always happy when I rediscover him and find new ones to read. The first book in this series was written in 2016 and I read it then, but didn’t realize the connection until after I finished this, which could be a standalone story. Our main character Kierce, kicked off the police force, is hired to help solve a very old kidnapping case in which he has a surprising connection from the past. Along the way, we learn about Kierce’s family, his past, and the family of the young girl who was kidnapped. There were a variety of twists in this, as well as some information hidden from us as the reader, but I enjoyed the entire ride!
  • The Black Wolf by Louise Penny – I love the Three Pines series and everything Louise Penny writes. This book was a continuation of book 19, the Grey Wolf. The message between the books being that there are grey wolves, which are good, and black wolves, which are evil. Armand and his crew stumbled upon a government conspiracy to poison the water in Montreal in book 19, and this book begins with the ramifications of their arrests, injuries, and them doubting whether they truly caught the right black wolf. Penny’s introduction says that she turned in this manuscript in September of 2024 and was shocked to see some of her plot in the news in 2025. What follows is an eery story that feels more like nonfiction than fiction, with connections between Canada and America, with leaders no one can trust, and plot lines reminiscent of Animal Farm and 1984, both of which are quoted a lot. This book SHOOK me. The writing was flawless and the characters were so human it hurt to watch them make mistakes, even as I cheered them on to keep going. This was a PHENOMENAL book, which is incredible when you realize it’s #20 in a long series!
  • The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – This is my book club’s “classic read” for the year. Since I never read it, I was interested to read it, despite my hesitation with classics. Plath’s writing is very informal in tone and rich in details. The beginning of the book we are on a journey to NYC in the 1950’s with a young woman, Esther, who is selected as part of a magazine scholarship group for summer work and fun. Right away, Esther is different from the other young women in the group and much less interested in the fun they are having. The second part of the book is Esther’s fall into madness, with suicidal ideations long before there was a name for this. The book is dark, sad, and a vivid portrayal of deep depression and the failings of the mental health system back then.
  • I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy [audiobook] – When this book first came out, I hated the title and refused to read it on that principle alone. Over time, I heard good things about it from many people, including my cousin, who confirmed that the mother in this memoir is nothing like mine and wouldn’t bring up sad memories for me. Well, she was right about that, but it brought up other feelings. This memoir chronicles the life of a young girl whose imbalanced mother forces her to become an actress, to become anorexic, and other awkward and inappropriate situations that were described through the lens of a young child. The majority of the book was gross to me, espcially as it was told from a child’s point of view, with no reality checks or reflections until the very end of the book. This was a hard memoir to read with not a lot of impactful lessons. I didn’t enjoy the reading experience.
  • The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron – I’ve been reading a chapter a week from this book since early September, as part of the Secret Stuff book club with Laura Tremaine. I have also written morning pages and gone on artist dates, two key principles the author outlines in the book. Along the way, she provides concrete actions to take to unblock creativity, leaning into the fun and silliness of childhood and the importance of being disconnected and bored long enough to tap into your own creativity.
  • A Killer’s Wife by Victor Methos – This was a quick, fun mystery to read, that is first in a series that is new to me. in this book, we meet Yardley, whose husband, and the father of her teenage daugther, is on death row after being prosecuted for multiple murders. Just when she is moving on with her life, Yardley hit some significant bumps along the way. This story takes place in Las Vegas, in and out of courtrooms and jails, with many dark characters. Though I disliked almost all of the characters, especially most of the men, I enjoyed the fast-paced story and I will look into the rest of the series.
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell – I decided to read this very old classic because Louise Penny mentioned it and 1984, also by Orwell, so much in the last Gamache book. I have read 1984, but not Animal Farm, and she used both to illustrate governmental lessons of significance. This is a dystopian tale of a farm where the animals take over, chase off the humans, and create their own society. Everything is peaceful at first, but as the pigs become more powerful (they are the only literate animals on the farm), the rules keep changing, the blame keeps shifting, and the enemies are always responsible. This was written as a dystopian story mocking governmentla overreach, and it is scary how many similarities you can find to today’s political climate. Now we use terms like propoganda and gaslighting, but in Animal Farm, it was the literate pigs changing the commandments of the group. I’m glad I read this.
  • Drive Here and Devastate Me by Megan Falley – I bought this poetry book last summer, when Megan’s partner Andrea Gibson passed away after a long battle with cancer. Both Megan and Andrea are gifted poets, and known for their spoken word performances. I just watched the documentary about their love of life, each other and poetry, called Come See Me in the Good Light on Apple TV (must watch!). It was stunningly beautiful and simple and profound. Both of these people are gifted with words and their poetry is gorgeous.
  • Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanaugh – I love this Eddie Flynn series! Eddie is a former con man turned lawyer, who will only defend innocent people.. In this story, he is defening Sofia against the charge of murdering her own father. Her sister Alexandra, is also on trial for the same charge at the same time. We know that one of the sisteres committed the crime, but it seems like we will never figure out the truth. This was a fast-paced court drama that came to an explosive conclusion!
  • Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida – While visiting a 6th grade class with a group of principals, we saw students just beginning to read this middle grade novel. Once one of my principal colleagues told me what it was about, I knew I needed to read it. This beautiful little book tells the story of one Japanese-American family in California and what happened to them, here in the U.S., right after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The father was immediately arrested and interned in Montana, while his family was forced to remain at home with no contact with anyone. Then they were relocated not once, but twice, until they, and all other Japanese families, were taken out of California. It’s a devastating part of American history that is a blib, if even mentioned in some history books. Told from a young girl’s eyes, it’s sweet and innocent and still hard to believe. This is an important story for more Americans to know and understand.
  • Sold on a Monday by Kristin McMorris – For some unknown reason, I have owned this e-book on my Kindle for years. I finally got around to reading it and it was a delightful historical fiction story. Set in the Depression era, a young journalist takes a photo of two children with a “children for sale” sign in front of them and stumbles into quite an adventure. The reporter, Ellis, is fighting for his own bylines, while a work friend, Lily, is doing the same but as a woman in a male-dominated field. Both Ellis and Lily have their own secrets that drive them towards success, but they come together to help children in need in this story. It was sad, sweet, fun, and depressing, and I enjoyed it all.
  • The Last Beekeeper by Pablo Cartaya [audiobook] – I found this middle grades story through my library, and was so happy to read yet another Climate Fiction story that takes place in the near future. In this traumatic story, humans have killed most living creatures and are trying to make technology the only thing of value for communication and survival. One young girl, Yolanda, is a gifted coder who uncovers family secrets related to the last known bee colony. Soon Yolanda and her friends are on a quest to save humanity from the evil taking over their world.
  • The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards – This book takes place in a very tense dinner party, with flashbacks to a summer in 1999 when all of the dinner party guests lived and worked together on a dating app start-up. We are in the beautiful home of rich Georgina and Theo, and Will, Sophie, and the others are not sure what this reunion is all about. Quickly we learn that everyone has some secrets, some held since that summer in 1999. As bad things happen, we learn that each of these characters is less likeable than we thought. Without giving anything away, I enjoyed the fast-paced action, the twists, and the ending!
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October 2025 Reading Update

Posted on November 2, 2025 by Amy's Reflections

I finally read two 5 star books in a row and maybe my best read of 2025! Then I had some more 4+ star reads so this was probably my best reading month of the year. This month I read:

  • The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher – After hearing Meredith rave about this old family saga from the 1980’s, which I can picture my mom reading in my childhood, I knew I wanted to read this. This is a beautiful novel, a sweeping family saga that tells the tales of multiple generations living in England in WWII and through the 1980’s. We follow Penelope from her childhood to old age, out of order, but through love and loss and war and dealing with her adult children. I loved her, and her friendships and love of her garden and artwork. I did NOT love her children (Noel and Nancy were awful and Olivia was good, but not great!) and I didn’t enjoy that the author painted Penelope as a very old woman, when she was in her early 60’s! The closer I get to that, the less old it feels. But I did love Penelope’s adventures and how she shared her love with those deserving it. I loved this book!
  • After the Crash by Michael Bussi – This is the second 5 start book I read this month, and maybe the best all year! I loved this fast-paced, thrilling story. After a tragic plane crash in the mountains of France, one 3 month old baby is found alive as the sole survivor. The only problem is that there were two families on board the flight with 3 month old babies. The relatives of the deceased parents fight for custody and since this begins in the 1980’s, there are no DNA tests readily available to determine the baby’s identiy. We follow the baby’s life and the dectetive who spends 18 years trying to track down the truth. This was such a great book!
  • 107 Days by Kamala Harris [audiobook] – Listening to Kamala Harris tell the story of the 107 days of her campaign for the presidency was beautiful and so depressing. Knowing the election results, it was so hard to hear her hope and all of the hard work her entire team put in, knowing they inherited an uphill battle. It was interesting to hear the way she tried to maintain respect for President Biden, even while hinting that his team shelved her for his entire presidency and didn’t do anything to support her. Kamala repeats a lot of her professional successes in both books; she is proud of her work and it is clear how few people knew all that she has accomplished. This is the second book I’ve read by Kamala and she is intelligent, detail-oriented, wise, mature, and fun. She would have been an incredible president.
  • Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More than they Expect by Will Guidara – This nonfiction book primarily about a restaurant’s growth was a Secret Stuff book club pick, and nothing that I would have picked up on my own. However, I did waitress in my MUCH younger years, and I have family who work in the restaurant industry, and I found the entire story to be entertaining, educational, and inspiring, with lessons that go beyond restaurant management. The author, Will, outlines how he came to be the GM of Eleven Madison Park, in NYC, and how he and the new head chef decided to be full partners in the running of the restaurant. It is rare for the front and back of house to work that closely together, but these men forged a parntership intentionally to do something different. They worked incredibly hard to provide what they coined “unreasonable” hospitality, as they worked to gain better reviews, more stars, and to make it on the 50 Best Restaurants in the World list. They were creative, innovative, a bit crazy and wild, and fun! I appreciated when they began to work to make sure that each diner’s experience was unique and personalized, something that we want to do in schools as well, but which takes significant effort, research, time, and human capital. They invested in people and it paid off most of the time. I found this to be a fascinating read.
  • The Safari by Jaclyn Goldis – I found this book by chance at my library – I love random serendiptiy! In this story, we meet the Babel family in South Africa, at the luxury safari camp they own. Odelia, the rich mother, is about to marry her much younger, new boyfriend, and her three children are less than pleased about the wedding. Sam and Bailey, twin siblings, who both seem to be less than what their parents hoped they would be as young adults, while their older brother Joshua, is married with a beautiful wife and young baby, and works for the family company. Odelia’s best friend Gwen joins the group for the tense pre-wedding planning. When one of the guests is found murdered, the entire family is busy trying to hide their own secrets while figuring out what everyone else was lying about. This is a fast-paced thriller with so many suspects you have to read the very end to learn all the hidden stories.
  • Tilt by Emma Pattee – I heard this book recommended on the Currently Reading podcast and knew I would like it because it’s Climate Fiction, one of my favorite subgenres. We meet Annie, who is 9 months pregnant, while she is buying a crib in IKEA. When THE BIG ONE, as in a Northwest earthquake, strikes, we are with Annie has she travels, on foot, to find her husband. This is a slow, harrowing tale of her journey through disaster, but also her journey to acceptance of motherhood, and her own past grief issues. This was beautifully written and hauntingly readable.
  • I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman’s Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris by Glynnis MacNicol – I read MacNicol’s first memoir about grief and her mother’s death and really appreciated hearing life stories from a middle-aged woman who never married and never had kids. That part of my life is rarely represented in books so I appreciated it, even though her life is still very different than mine. This memoir is a prime example of that. In August, during COVID, she is able to leave NYC for a month to go life in Paris mainly because she misses human contact and knows the rules of France quarantine are different. She has other single female friends in Paris, she knows the city well, and she jumps into a French dating app and meets a range of men, many much younger than her 46 years of age. Because she is a free-lance writer, she was able to create this alternate life for herself. Because is more confident at her age, she makes no apologies for the joy of sex with strangers and the freedom of no attachements. She also muses a lot on life without a spouse and kids, and so many of those thoughts were wild to see in print, as I’ve had similar thoughts. I enjoyed this glimpse into her life.
  • The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze by Derrick Barnes [audiobook] – One of my reader work friends asked me if I read this book because she wanted to talk about it, so of course I had to read it. It was a hard book to read. Henson Blayze is a Black boy in Mississippi, an 8th grader whose entire town, made of mostly white people, is counting on him to help the high school football team finally win a season. The book begins with a graphic scene of two police men beating a young boy, but we don’t know who any of those characters are. Knowing that, I had a pit in my stomach through the entire book, waiting to learn what happened in that scene. The main story begins with Henson’s first day of school, where the entire town greets and cheers him on, ready to see him in action on the football field. Right from the beginning, it was clear to me that the townspeople only cared about his athletic abilities, and not him as a person. The racism is overt at first, and then explicit with significant exaggeration throughout the story. So many scenes were hard to read, as Henson was treated like an adult, but not quite human, by these greedy vicious people. Henson’s father and new friend Frida are the only bright lights in this rough story. I know this book was long-listed for the National Book Award. It is well-written and has a lot of lessons, but I wouldn’t hand it to a middle grades child. The saddest part to me is that my friend was looking for a good book for her middle grades son to read that had a Black boy protagonist and it is very hard to find a good book with a Black main character that does’t involve a lot of trauma and negativity.
  • Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman – My friend and I were reminiscing about when we team-taught, and we used excerpts from this book with our middle school students. I hadn’t read the book in over 20 years, so I checked it out of my library for a reread. This is a collection of stories from the point of view of Einstein while contemplating time. In each chapter, something different happens with time: it goes backwards, it hops, it loops, it slows down when you are moving, it slows down the higher your altitude. In the stories, people are often chasing time, trying to capture their own memories, to hold on to their own best moments. It’s fun and whimsical and a great lesson on being present and savoring the here and now.
  • Radical Candor: How to get what you want by saying what you mean by Kim Scott [audiobook] – While looking for resources on how to give effective feedback, I stumbled upon a video clip of Kim Scott explaining her radical candor continuum. I loved it so much and I asked my boss if she had read the book. She had read it, and she loaned me her copy to read, which I did in tandem with the audiobook version. I appreciate how Kim shares a variety of stories from her time owning her own business, working at Google, at Apple, and in a variety of environments. I loved the quadrants of the design: ruinous empathy, manipulative insincerity, obnoxious aggression and radical candor. The examples made each quadrant clear from the perspective of giving feedback. Her first lesson for a “boss” is that a boss needs to first ask for feedback on their management before they can begin to build the relationship where they can give effective feedback. But that all bosses need to be giving regular feedback often, which is so important for growth. There were many great lessons to learn about managing people from this book.
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Daily Habits

Posted on November 1, 2025 by Amy's Reflections

I am a creature of habit. I am one of those people who sits in the same place in our conference room for our management meeting every month. My friend and I have a regular lunch place where they know us and our usual orders (well, they used to until the last time we went and we realized that all of our usual people had left their jobs!). When I find a routine that works for me, whether it is my morning routine or my cleaning schedule, I stick with it for a long time.

Throughout my lifetime I have adjusted my routines based on new habits, research, interests, or time needs. Over the last 15 months I have committed to daily meditation using the Calm App. I’m currently on a 189 day streak, and I’ve only missed 3 days in the last 460 days. It took a long time for this to become a daily habit and I am proud of the work I put in to create the habit. I do feel that I am able to use my breath for focus, attention, and calming when I need it, and my mind appreciates the work to slow down.

Another habit I have been working on for the last 2 months is daily writing. My book club has been doing a 3-month study of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. The goal of the book is to unlock creativity in whatever mode that might be for each person. I’m working on my writing as well as my photography. However, no matter what mode your artistic or creative side takes, everyone who follows the plan is expected to write 3 pages, handwritten, in a journal every day. These are called Morning Pages and are meant to help unblock stuck artists. The requirement is to fill the pages, even if you are just writing, “I have nothing to say” over and over again.

When I first began this, my hand would cramp up, because it wasn’t used to writing so much by hand. I purposely picked a journal that didn’t have big pages, so that my 3 pages a day would feel possible, and yet my hand needed a lot of coaching to continue in the beginning. Then my brain needed to learn to work with me. I have added Morning Pages into my morning routine, but you would be surprised how long it sometimes takes to fill up 3 whole pages. Some days I set a timer and just force myself to keep my hand moving no matter what. Other days I take time to reflect on what happened the previous day, and to write what my plans are for the day ahead. Once in awhile I have a great breakthrough, reflecting on a problem in a relationship or something I’ve been stuck on for awhile. Sometimes my handwriting is so sloppy I couldn’t read it if I tried! Only once so far has the book asked us to go back through our writing and reread, looking for common themes.

I find it valuable to reflect on my habits, because it’s good to give myself credit for the work I put in to create these habits and fun to look back and realize how far I’ve come. Building worthwhile habits takes times and is not always easy. I have other habits I’m trying to build, with less success so far, and habits that I have quit over time because the effort wasn’t worth my time. Knowing the reward you are getting from a habit is important for consistency and motivation. When looking for some tips or reminders, here are a few habit-building thoughts I stumbled upon:

  • 3 -3 -3: It takes 3 days to get through the initial difficulty, 3 weeks to make a habit a routine, and 3 months to make it a deep part of our lifestyle
  • 21-90: It takes 21 consecutive days to make a habit and 90 consecutive days to make it a lifestyle change
  • 4 laws: 1 Make it obvious 2 Make it attractive 3 Make it easy 4 Make it satisfying
  • 2 minute rule: Atomic Habits recommend starting with something that only takes 2 minutes
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Happy Birthday to The Coach ADVenture!

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Amy's Reflections

The Coach ADVenture: Building Powerful Instructional Leadership Skills that Impact Learning was published 6 years ago today – wow! It’s hard to believe that 7 years ago I was busy writing this book, combing through my blog posts and memories of instructional coaching, to tell the stories of two fictionalized educators learning to be stronger instructional leaders. No matter what position I have held over the last 27 years I’ve been an educator, being a coach feels like my purpose and my role. I love helping someone else be there best self, find the best way through a challenge, or help others in order to help more students LOVE learning.

I still believe in the power of instructional coaching, the importance of providing meaningful and authentic feedback, and the value of site and district leaders spending purposeful time in classrooms, where the incredibly hard and meaningful work of teaching and learning takes place. I still set a goal to visit every classroom in our district every school year. I still write personal messages to every teacher after I visit their classroom. Now, more than ever, teachers deserve so much love, respect, admiration, and support.

The Coach ADVenture: Building Powerful Instructional Leadership Skills that Impact Learning is available for purchase on Amazon (and cheaper than ever!).

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