Actually, I have no idea what you’ve read this summer. That would be crazy. Okay, it would be weird. And creepy.
So I’m not clairvoyant, but I AM looking forward to hearing from all of you about the treasures you found this summer as you perhaps discovered a new author, a new genre or maybe revisited an old favorite.
For me personally, this was a great summer with reconnecting with reading for pleasure. “But Mrs. Kelley, you’re an English teacher! Of course YOU love reading!” you protest. Yes, it’s true that I do love reading. However, there is a big difference between compulsory reading and simply reading the texts and genres that are entertaining and have no other purpose except to relax. Or in my case, to intrigue.
I have to admit. I’m a true crime junkie. It has been a long time since I have indulged in a good, juicy true-crime account, complete with all the psycho-drama and jaw-dropping information. But this summer, I started off with just that. Two, in fact. Well, before I get into that, let me back up.
I actually started the summer with “Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It” by Kelly Gallagher. With that, I reflected on my own reading habits as a student and then as an adult. I realized that in my previous career, I spent all of my time reading client books, newspapers, research materials, etc. Yes, many of them were enjoyable, but none of them were because I picked them up for pure enjoyment. Being entertained was a by-product. It was all compulsory. I was glad that I had the ability to read, discern and evaluate because it made me successful at my job. But I finished “Readicide” realizing that I was not doing the very thing I wanted for my students: read for the sake of reading.
So what better place to reignite that passion than to head to Half-Price Books and peruse the True Crime Shelves. My first book was “Small Sacrifices” by Ann Rule. Aside from it delivering all the “crazy” I was expecting, I also increased my vocabulary considerably. It’s true – I literally sat with my dictionary app open on my phone because I was having to look up words that I had never seen in my life. (Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE learning new words. Quirky. I get it.)
One book was great, so let’s try another! Somewhere in my reading, I saw that the author of the book/movie “I Know What You Did Last Summer” actually suffered a horrible tragedy in her personal life. Her own daughter was murdered. So yes, I got on Amazon and ordered “Who Killed My Daughter” by Lois Duncan. I chewed through that in no time. No really, I plowed through it. We drove to California on a family vacation, and I read it in the car and was finished by the time I went to bed on the 2nd night.
My mother-in-law, a voracious reader herself, saw the stack of books I had brought to entertain myself and commented on “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. It was not what I had next in my reading queue, but she raved about it, so I thought I’d try it out. Oh man. If I chewed the previous book, then I most certainly devoured this one. I could not put it down. My husband thought I’d gone stark-raving mad because I was laughing at one point and then yelling at the characters in disbelief the next. It’s not a true crime, but it is definitely a nail biter.
After “Gone Girl” I took a little break from reading. Number one, we were still on vacation, and I kinda needed to interact with my family. And number two, GG was just so good that I didn’t want to pick up another book and then be disappointed. It felt like reading on the rebound. I’d just broken up with one of the best books ever, and I knew the relationship I had with the next book would simply be a continuous comparison to GG. So I mourned an appropriate amount of time.
On the long drive home, my husband and I decided to enjoy an audiobook, so we listened to “Lone Wolf” by Jodi Picoult. Honestly, we started it somewhere in Arizona, and it finished – I kid you not – as we crossed the intersection at Old Denton & Frankford. It was okay, but it was probably just what I needed to get over GG and be ready to move on with my reading choices for summer.
Once we returned home, though, I met a friend for breakfast, and she told me about an expository piece she was reading titled “The Sociopath Next Door” by Martha Stout. Sounded intriguing. Picked it up at Half Price Books for under $4 and read it that night. I don’t even know where to begin with how frightening this selection was. It explains how 1 in 25 people in America is a sociopath and how they operate by a different set of rules – actually, no rules – than the rest of us. Don’t let anyone tell you that the truth can’t be exciting. (Still not sleeping well.)
I looked back at the list of books to read which I had pulled from “Readicide” so that I could pick back up with something a little less frightening. I looked at available titles at the library, and so many on my list were already checked out with a long wait-list. But, I ran across a few. I picked up “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult. Not less frightening. Not a light read. However, it is VERY well-written and quite thought-provoking.
And this brings me to this week. I have read our staff development selection “Never Work Harder Than Your Students” by Robyn Jackson and am going to try and squeeze in 2-3 more pleasure reads before school officially starts. I’ve started “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” by Edward Kelsey Moore which came by recommendation from a friend, and it looks like it is going to be quite a hoot. And also queued up I have “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, a true story written like a novel. There are stacks and stacks of other books around, and I like knowing that I don’t have to go searching for a read. When I finish one, I can grab another.
Forgive me. I’ve rambled. But that’s my summer reading in a nutshell. I reconnected with my love for pleasure reading. I remembered how much I love discovering a word that I am completely unfamiliar with and the thrill of looking up the meaning in the dictionary and wondering when on earth I will ever have an opportunity to use it meaningfully in conversation. I love being so scared that I screech and amused so that I laugh out loud. I love looking up at the clock and realizing that I’ve read into the wee hours of the night.
I hope that my students can find a genre, or author, or subject matter that they simply can’t get enough of. I look forward to going on that journey with them. I’d love to meet up with them again at the beginning of the next school year and be able to say with confidence, “I know what you read this summer.
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