Sunday Salon: February 4, 2018

My life in books:
I am finally back to reading non-CYBILS books.

• Patina by Jason Reynolds--Really good YA (middle grade)
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui--adult memoir graphic novel that I loved

Currently reading: Disappeared by Francisco X. Stork

Challenges progress:

• Non-fiction--My goal is 20 books and I've read 15. Thank you CYBILS!
• Literary Voyage around the world--The idea was to read books set in as many countries as possible. I have read in 8 countries so far, adding Vietnam and the Netherlands in the past week.
• Literary Escapes--Similar to the previous challenge, this one tracks the US states. I have read books set in 7 states so far and in the past week added none.
• Read all of the ALA YA Award Winners--these haven't been announced yet.

My life outside books:

Working:
This past week at work was a fantastic one. The best part was that on Monday and Tuesday I taught most of the day (I haven't done that in a while). I taught the English students at our continuation high school how to create their blogs, how to post, how to comment, and how to change the look of their blog. They begin blogging about the Hunger Games this week so I am excited to see how it all goes!

Family:

This week was a special one for me as I spent a day with my daughter at her school. Each senior is given the opportunity to give a "chapel talk" to the whole school and this week was her turn. The talk is given in the chapel on campus, but isn't a religious talk (she spoke about her life as a dancer and how she decided to leave the Industry, focus on academics, and how much happier she is now.

It's a really special experience with her friends singing a song as we all entered, one of her favorite teachers introducing her, friends saying quotes about her, and her greeting everyone on the way out at the end. I was so proud of her!

And, out of tragedy comes happiness. A friend's ex-partner died in the debris flow/mudslide that ravaged my town last month. Peter's memorial was this weekend, which meant that I got to see Jeff who came to town. Jeff and I did our credentials together 25 years ago, but haven't been good at keeping in touch. We had so much fun this weekend! It feels like spring in Santa Barbara and we went for a long walk along the beach, which was wonderful.

Here is this month's happiness calendar in case you are interested...