September Literary Love: What I’m Reading

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I LOVE to read. It is my favorite thing to do when I have time to myself. It is my restorative me-time. It is my treasured self-care.

I have a “What I’m Reading” page on the blog, but I thought it would be nice to update you once a month about the books I’m reading, loving, and think you would love, too!

This last month, I have enjoyed a great mix of fiction and non-fiction, including:

books

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan {not pictured above because I have already loaned it to a friend!}

This book is fascinating. Cahalan was a successful reporter for the New York Post, when suddenly, in 2005, she began exhibiting erratic behavior, suffering seizures, and just wasn’t feeling herself. She ended up spending a month in the hospital, with doctors not knowing if she was having a mental breakdown, or suffering from a neurological disorder, or something else entirely. She was nearly committed to a psych ward. This book reads like an episode of House, with differential diagnoses of Cahalan’s strange symptoms. Since she remembers very little of that month, this book is also a fascinating meditation on memory, identity, and the mental clarity we often take for granted.

*****

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough

I read this book this summer for my teacher book group. I have post-its and highlights and handwritten notes all over it! Tough looks at the research about what makes children succeed {primarily defined by staying in school}, and shows the importance of non-cognitive skills in determining success: curiosity, grit, self-control, optimism, gratitude, and character. This book is definitely influencing the way I teach and parent. I’m using it already in my classroom!

*****

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Wow. I was totally engrossed by this memoir of Walls’ difficult childhood, with her eccentric mother and erratic, alcoholic father. I cannot imagine living through the poverty and the difficulty that Walls and her siblings endured. Walls describes her childhood in such honest, unsentimental detail. This book is a powerful story of family, resilience, and, yes, grit.

*****

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I am not quite done with this one yet, but I cannot put it down! Many have compared it to The Hunger Games, and it is similar – a young adult novel, a futuristic/dystopian setting, and a strong female lead. The premise is a society divided into five factions, each one devoted to cultivating an attribute that they believe will improve humanity: Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Candor, and Amity. I am fascinated by this concept and the depiction of sixteen-year-old Tris’ initiation into the Dauntless, as she begins to learn more about the secrets of each faction… I know I will move on to the sequel after this one!

*****

What are you reading and loving right now?

Want more reading suggestions? Check out my What I’m Reading page, and also check out the Brilliant Book Club!

Sarah Rudell Beach
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