What does Vlad the Impaler, a peasant boy, an African-American family in the Deep South, and spiritual enlightenment have in common? ME. They all appear in the books I’ve selected to read throughout the month of July. Each month I want to read at least three books from the categories I include on my Reading List 2013: adult fiction, adult nonfiction, and children’s literature. Not all of the books I will be reading each month will come directly off my reading list.
The adult fiction selection is a 642 page debut novel about one woman’s search to uncover the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula; and through that discovery a secret is revealed from her own past.
The Historian by ElizabethKostova
There are two choices this month for the children’s literature selection. Both books are required summer reading for 7th/8th graders at the school I’ll be teaching Junior High English this upcoming school year. They are both historical fiction. The first one takes place in fourteenth-century medieval England. Crispin is a thirteen-year-old peasant boy falsely accused of committing a crime, thus causing him to embark on an incredible journey of self-discovery.
Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
The second one takes place during the Depression in the Mississippi Delta. The Logans are an African-American family coping with the struggles associated with that time and place in history. Excellent story! I fell in love with the Logan family many years ago when I taught the novel to a 6th grade Language Arts class.
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
The adult nonfiction selection is all about practicing how to be PRESENT until it transforms your life. I am a fan of Tolle’s teachings ever since reading A New Earth. Even though I’ve grown by leaps and bounds in this area of my life, I still struggle with being PRESENT and overcoming EGO. This book is a practical guide to living in the NOW, not the past or the future.
Practicing The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
These are my reading selections for the month of July. Let me know what you’re reading. Happiness!
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” ~ Charles William Eliot
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