I read a lot of 5 star books in October! This was a fun reading time full of different styles and genres. This month I read:

• Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall – My aunt Ellen told me about this book after her book club enjoyed their discussion of it and I’m so grateful because I needed a FIVE STAR read! In this story we flash between three timelines and narrators. In 2017 Angela finds a letter about an adoption and is determined to reunite the birth mother and her child. In the 1960’s we meet very young women, including Evelyn, who are forced to wait out their pregancy in a wayward home for “fallen” girls, then forced to give their baby up for adoption. In the 1970’s and 1980’s we meet the heroes of the Jane network, a secret group of women determined to help other women get safe abortions, despite the laws being against them in Canada. This was based on real facts from Canada and America’s history, and even more horrifying given where we are in America today, in 2024. This was a beautiful, bittersweet book that made me laugh, cry, and want to rally in the streets!
• Erasure by Percival Everett – My work friend gave me this book, after she saw the adaptation of it and loved it. This is a satire in which a Black author who writes highly elevated literary fiction decided to write a joke of a book using slang and a pseudonym. The book ends up becoming so popular the author has to decide whether to admit he is the author or remain in hiding, while also dealing with significant family situations in his personal life. This gives the reader pause on the publishing industry, the book award process, how authors of different identities are treated, and how books can help or hurt prejudices and biases. This was a beautifully-crated novel.
• Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker – I can never go wrong with a thriller from Book of the Month club. This story, which jumps from present day Portland to past Hawaii, follows Clove in her present day with a loving husband and beautiful children, and through her traumatic, abusive childhood. As we get to know Clove, we meet a new friend, Jane, and see Clove unravelling from her own secrets. The lies build, the tension mounts, and the twists are surprising!
• Vegas Concierge: Sex Trafficking, Hip Hop and Corruption in America by Brian Joseph – One of my closest friends is a psychologist in Las Vegas. For years she worked to support underage girls who were leaving prositution. Through her work, I learned a lot about sex trafficking. Her husband, Don, was a Vice cop in Vegas who worked to help the same girls, around the same time, though they weren’t married at the time. Don worked with an investigative jouranlist to tell the story of just one of the horrifying pimps who was trafficking young women all over the country, along with one of the victims/ survivors, Angela. The author invested many years getting to know Don and Angela’s stories, along with pimp culture, Las Vegas police, and more. This is an important topic that needs a lot more light shone on it to help educate more people, in the hopes of stopping these horrific crimes.
• The Speed of Light by Elissa Grossell Dickey – I don’t know where I heard of this book, which is sad because I want to thank whoever recommended it! I loved this touching story, told using one of my favorite styles: two different timelines. In one timeline we are getting to know Simone as she gets to know her new diagnosis of MS while also starting a new relationship with the amazing Connor. In another timeline, we are with Simone during an active shooter situation at her place of work, which is a university. Despite all of the heaviness of a chronic illness and a possible shooting, this book is full of hope, love, family and friendship during good times and bad. I’ve already marked the author’s second book as “want to read” for my future self!
• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt [audiobook] – Multiple people told me this was a good book from their parent perspective. Despite not having kids of my own, I wanted to read this as an educator responsible for the devices we put in students’ hands. I’m so glad I read this, and so horrified by the decline of children mental health statistics since 2010 and the rise of social media. I learned so much from all of the international research shared, and I was reminded of the value of taking social media breaks for myself as well. The entire chapter dedicated the mental anguish and body shaming that young girls go through because of social media was heartbreaking. The chapter about boys and the gateway from video games into porn was tough to read, yet none of this is surprising. What was sad was the fact that we have added more controls than ever on the lives of children when they go outside of the homes (rarely are kids allowed to be alone, unsupervised, in the era of helicopter parenting) and yet we have given them personal devices where they can access the Internet, with virtual no controls or guardrails. The book walks parents through more appripriate ages to begin to give kids independence and later years when devices can be introduced with parameters. He also recommends no phones at schools ever, all day, and more unstructured recess time during the day. There is a lot to unpack in this book and it would make a great book club read for parent or educator groups.
• The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden – I love the Book of the Month thriller choices every single time! This is the second Fredia McFadden book I’ve read and I love her books too! In this one we meet Sydney, who keeps going on bad dates through the NYC dating app, while her friends find love all around her. In another timeline, we meet Tom and his high school sweetheart Daisy, where a lot of local girls have gone missing. As we learn more about Tom and Daisy there are lots of twists and turns. This story was propulsive and had me suspecting everyone and guessing wrong up until the last twist!
• I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid – When Meredith described this book on the Currently Reading podcast, she said as little as possible and recommended that we jump right into reading it without learning any more. All I knew when I read this book was that a man and his girlfriend were going on a road trip and that this was considered a psychological horry story. Man. This was a short, wild ride! I read it in one day and really wanted to talk to someone when I finished it. WOW.
• A Safe House, Stone Barrington #61 by Stuart Woods – I’m nearing the end of the books Woods wrote before he died. I love the characters of Stone and Dino, and even Lance from the CIA. What annoys me is the way he writes women – they are always helpless, stupid, and in need of Stone to rescue them. In this one, the woman stepped up by the end and did better than most!
• 1,000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami Attenberg – This is a collection of essays put together as inspiration for a 1,000 words a day writing challenge. The primary author, Jami, asked her writer friends to write inspirational letters she could send to the people participating in the challenge throughout a summer. I enjoyed the individual essays/letters and the advice.
• House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erica Bauermeister [audiobook] – I love everything that this author writers, whether fiction or nonfiction! I found a free copy of this audiobook through Audible and enjoyed listening to the story of buying, cleaning out, and renovating a beautiful old house in Port Townsend, WA. This book was a love letter to the Pacific North West and to architecture and renovation, as well as to family. The author shared glimpses into her family, the time it took to clean out a horded house and renovate it, the time away from it before they finally moved into the house to live there, and her work as a writer as well. This solidified that I never want to be responsible for a renovation, but I admire those who do!
• The Writing Revolution 2.0: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler – I was happy to read this book while looking for professional resources related to the teaching of writing. I am still thinking about Natalie Wexler’s book The Knowledge Gap and the podcast that followed. Her work helped reframe the foundational skills work we are doing in my district, and still has me thinking about content area instruction. I appreciated all of the relevant and useable resources and tips shared in this book, starting from the sentence level. While I love writing and enjoyed teaching writing, I know many students and adults who struggle with it, and many more who need help forming better written passages. I think these tips, coupled with learning to read like a writer, can help anyone learn to write well.

Favorite Books

Fiction: Looking for Jane, The Speed of Light

Nonfiction: Vegas Concierge: Sex Trafficking, Hip Hop and Corruption in America and The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness