Sunday Salon: October 22, 2017

My life in books:
I thought my reading slump had gone away, but it just had a random spike of two books. It feels so strange not to be reading on a daily basis. Since my last Sunday Salon (on August 6!), here's what I've read. They were both really good YA books!

• The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
• Wild Bird by Wendelin Van Draanen

Challenge updates:

• Read Your Own Damn Books--My goal was to read 25 books from my TBR shelves this year. So far I've read 31, adding none in the past two weeks since I've been reading YA books.
• Travel the World in Books--The idea is to read books set in as many countries as possible and so far I've read books set in 30 countries outside the US. I have added no new countries recently.
• Literary Escapes--Similar to the previous challenge, this one tracks the US states. I have added one new states recently (Utah) for a total of 21.
• Read all of the ALA YA Award Winners--complete

My life outside books:

Working:
I had a pretty intense 5 days this week. I attended a residential conference called the Institute for Equity in Education at a peaceful retreat center in Santa Barbara. It is run by a group called Just Communities who do really good work on social justice. There were about 30 educators from our school district. We talked about respect, equality vs equity (I hadn't really thought about the difference before), all the "isms" and we focused on racism in our lives and schools and how we as educators can work to ease the tensions in our schools and help to close the achievement gap between our white students and our students of color (mostly Latino). There is a lot of work to be done, but I feel good about our discussions and ideas.

Family:
My brother and two of his daughters arrived late Friday night from the UK and it is so great to see them! They are here until Thursday so I am taking a couple half days off work to be with them. We're going to do the Pumpkin Patch, shopping, walks, and just hanging out and catching up.

Yesterday I went to Los Angeles and saw Hamilton with my longest-time friend. What an amazing show! I worried that it couldn't live up to the hype, but it did. I really wish I had listened to the soundtrack before seeing the show, but like my reading, it just didn't happen. The music, the costumes, the sets, the atmosphere were all electric!

Watching:

My watching is playing a big role in my not reading. That's a bad thing, but I can't quite stop myself. I am watching the new/current seasons of:

• Madam Secretary (always interesting)
• Project Runway (we're down to the final 6)
• Will and Grace (it's as if it never went off the air and it's super political this season!)

I am also still working my way through Criminal Minds. Who are we kidding, this is the one that is taking precedence over reading. I am at the end of season 10 so I have 3 more seasons to go.