Sunday Salon: March 3, 2019

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz is taking over The Sunday Salon and I hope she is going to make it a blog again rather than only a Facebook group. I am not doing FB these days but I would be love to participate.

My life in books over the past two weeks: 

• Once a Liar by A.F. Brady
• Not Light, But Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom by Michael R. Kay (for work)
• Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

• American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott
• Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart (for work)
• The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees by Don Brown

Challenges progress:

• A to Z Reading--I have read books with titles for 18 letters so far: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, L, M, N, O, P, Q, T, U, V, and W.
• Diversity Reading Challenge--I have read 11 books.
• Literary Escapes--I have read books set in 15 states so far, adding Washington, Missouri, New Mexico, and Nebraska in the past two weeks. I have read in 26 countries so far adding Turkey, Jordan, and Greece in the past two weeks.
• Motif Reading Challenge--The March motif is "Royalty, Kingdoms, Empires, Governments" (characters who are involved in government), but I haven't figured out which book to read for this yet.
• Non-fiction--I have read 10 books so far.
• YA Award Winners--I have read 6 of the winners
• My Own Books--This challenge runs from March 15 to May 15, 2019 and I will try to read 10 books off my TBR shelves.

My life outside books:

Work:

I hoped that I would have an update on my job interview, but it turns out they are waiting until mid-week to let us all know the outcome for various positions. So, I wait (some what) patiently.

Personal:

My knee is definitely better, but certainly not 100% yet. Boy is it a long process for a bruised knee cap!

We've had tons of rain here in Southern California and that has been awesome. The past few years have been so dry and hot that I am loving wearing sweaters, jackets, and my raincoat. 

I am vice president of my high school's alumni association (we're one of the oldest in the state at 144 years) and am in charge of our scholarship program. Each year we give out about 50 scholarships to graduating seniors to help defray the costs of college and to about 15 alums who are in college or graduate school. I love interviewing the students and hearing their plans for the future, how they contributed to my alma mater, and being involved. It's such a positive experience.