Sunday Salon: June 9, 2019

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz has taken over running The Sunday Salon.

My life in books over the past two weeks: 

• Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda
• Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
• The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns

• Law and Addiction by Mike Papantonio
• With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
• The Poison Garden by A.J. Banner

Challenge progress:

• A to Z Reading--I have read books with titles for 21 letters so far: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, and W.
• Diversity Reading Challenge--I have read 36 books.
• Literary Escapes--I have read books set in 28 states so far, adding Maryland in the past two weeks. I have read in 39 countries so far, adding XX in the past two weeks.
• Motif Reading Challenge--The June motif is "Diversity your reading" (read a book by an author or about a character that is a different ethnicity or religion from me) and I am counting With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo for it.
• Non-fiction--I have read 15 books so far.
• YA Award Winners--I have read 10 of the 11 winners

Completed challenges:

• My Own Books--I read 21 books off my shelves from March 15 to May 15, 2019.

My life outside books:

Work:

School is officially over for the year, but I work until the 14th since this coming week I am running professional development sessions for teachers. Monday is for social studies teachers, Tuesday is a Google Bootcamp, and Wednesday is a variety of tech integration sessions. I really look forward to this week and working with my colleagues.

On Thursday I begin teaching an online American Government course, which goes until July 3. Then my vacation really begins!

Personal:

I just had a super fun weekend get-away with my high school friends. Last year we went to Phoenix, Arizona and this year it was San Diego. There are 5 of us. I have been friends with one of the women since we were 2 years old and the others since 8th grade so we've been through a lot together!

Friday we wandered the harbor and the gas lamp district with dinner in Little Italy.

Saturday we spent all day at the San Diego Zoo--number one in the world according to many polls with serious breeding and work with endangered species--with some competitive card playing in the evening. We learned a great new game called Spite and Malice. Take note of the innovative use of the ironing boards for our table!

Sunday morning we did a beach walk on Coronado Island then I headed home on the 6-hour train ride up the coast.

My daughter and I watched When They See Us, the Netflix miniseries about the Central Park 5. It is so powerful and I highly recommend it! I finished season 4 of Schitt$ Creek (after months of watching it on Netflix while I was on the treadmill) and thought it was finished, but when looking for an image, I discovered that season 5 is streaming somewhere. I'll have to see if I can find it. We're also making our way through Jane the Virgin, and I am thoroughly enjoying this spoof on a telenovella.