The Floor is Lava Reading
The floor is lava, scholars.
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I am behind in posting due to Jeremy Bearimy reasons!
Vocabulary School will return later this week with a new word and a March Madness pick(s)! Check out a favorite newsletter from last summer discussing my favorite topic: my book club.
I have foreshortened the February’s Bookshelf and Pizza Report into this: I read two books and made no pizza. It looks like I read nothing, but what I actually did was read everything. This made it impossible to finish anything. The first week of March is littered with the stuff I would have finished in February had I exercised normal habits. Better luck next time!
The Books I Managed to Read in February
The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid: I have now read all extant Rachel Reid books—a banner unfurls from the deck of an aircraft carrier that reads “Read them again!” Ok! I’m convinced. This one elicited more tears than the others (Long Game not included) so I was impressed by Reid’s toolbox. The story centers on Riley and Adam, two former more-than-teammates after a very long and painful silence. When Riley’s father passes away, Adam goes to Riley’s hometown to see if anything from their past can be salvaged. Riley doesn’t want to be hurt again so he attempts to shut Adam out completely but Adam, in spite of all reason, keeps coming back. Come for the hockey romance and stay for the seafood chowder with a saltine cracker base. I must reiterate that Rachel Reid has devised a better world within her pages and we should all be fighting to make this better world possible.
American Fever by Dur e Aziz Aman: Set in the 2010s, Hira is a Pakistani high school junior selected for a year abroad in what can be generously described as the ass-end of Oregon. Her time abroad is marked by racism, the limits of liberalism, and a tuberculosis diagnosis. The language is sharp and incisive and the observations about America and growing up there when it is not your home. This had an interesting perspective which offered uncomfortable truths for the reader to confront. I found this book while looking through an Instagram carousel of newly announced faculty for a writing program that I fantasized about applying to this summer. The writing style of this book was like water and I gulped it as fast as I could although I did drag it out as much as I could and exceeded my first library loan with fewer than 40 pages remaining.
I am trying to know less, so I leaned into Read Across America Week and read whenever I could, however I could. This resulted in, perhaps, the zaniest reading behavior that I believe the youths would call “feral.” This feral reading had me cycling through three books at a time, almost like a reading version of The Floor Is Lava. Don’t touch the ground and don’t let the outside world pierce your reading time. My reading cycle is activity dependent and starts as soon as I get up from my desk with an audiobook while shoveling and kitchen prep time, then a physical book during kitchen downtime, and concludes with a reheated romance while half-watching tv after dinner/before bed. Rinse and repeat until the contents of my brain are analogous to The Dip from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and nothing gets in and nothing gets out.
The Floor is Lava Reading
Week 1
Audiobook: The Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl by Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone
Physical Book: Circe by Madeline Miller
Reheated Reread: Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
Week 2
Audiobook: You With the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate
Physical Book: Supersaurio by Meryem El Mehdati
Reheated Reread: Tough Guy by Rachel Reid
I know there’s no one waiting for the book I’m currently reading that has been in my possession for the last 6-9 weeks.
What insane habits do you engage in to squeeze reading into your day?
Love,
Andrea
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