#11 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Rowling, Tiffany, and Throne

Meh.
That's the word I'd use to describe this book.

Joe and I have been falling asleep to Harry Potter books for over a year and a half now, we LOVE it.
When one of us can't sleep in the middle of the night we turn them on, it knocks us right out.

When I was younger I read the books multiple times and was an avid muggleneter.


This book was very MEH.
Didn't really make me think much.

It was enjoyable, like a sitcom, and I read it in a few hours, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.

I wonder if someone thought they had a really good idea or if they wanted to just make more money off the franchise?

Meh, not too inspired to write anything about it at all.

Page Count: 320
Total: 3167

#10 A Sung Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou

Reading an autobiography is like talking to a new friend. A very chatty friend that doesn't let you comment on her life story.
Reading an autobiography for me is also turning out to be a quite painful and emotive activity. All of a sudden, after reading such strong books perhaps, I am feeling inadequate.

I don't mean to search for compliments. I know what I do daily is important, I know that. But after reading Stevenson's plight, while he worked 20 hours a day to save an innocent man from death row or Angelou's magnificent weaving of words, explaining the pain of losing her good friend Malcom X... it makes me feel so insignificant in this world.

This is a book I recommend. It reads very quickly, it is interesting, it is thought provoking. It was surprising. I don't know much about Maya Angelou. (I guess I do now haha) But I did not know much about her. Frankly all I knew was that she was a black poet and that she wrote Still I Rise, a widely used poem in this year's Superbowl commercial.

With this book, she became, as I already wrote, my good friend. (Though I did not become hers.) Not a faraway poet that is so intellectual it is difficult to imagine, just a woman trying to find her place in the world, trying to control her emotions and trying to raise her child to be a respectable man.
This is even worse.
Now I can identify with a famous poet but still have not published any of my writing.

Perhaps, I like to tell myself, I do not have enough suffering in my life. Perhaps I need a dead loved one to conjure back my emotions and my power to write. That sounds horrible. So I sweep those thoughts away. But the thought that happiness, love, comfort, so-called "good" emotions don't allow me to write, keeps scratching at my heart.
Ramble Ramble.


Just like with Mindy Kaling's book this was not the first in her autobiographical series, so I wonder what I missed in the first one, perhaps I'll find it soon- it was not in the small selection of the West Irving Library unfortunately.

Page Count: 212
Total: 2847

#9 Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

I got to the library feeling amazingly light today.
 It's crazy how heavy and time consuming it feels getting anywhere with Mateo. Gotta carry the kid of course, but also the diaperbag, and my waterbottle because it's 99 Degrees out, and HIS waterbottle because it's 99degrees. Wait no, just leave his, let him drink out of yours. Ok perfect, now grab the keys and the wallet, and your phone because the phone is your lifeline. Wait no, maybe I should leave it in the van so I can just focus on him. But wait what if he does something really cute and I want to send a video to everyone? Ok Fine I'll take my phone but leave it in the diaperbag. Ok OK now we're heading into the library.

But today I felt like a feather. I was of course carrying wallet, keys, waterbottle in hand, but I had arrived in our much smaller Fiesta '13, didn't have a little creature to follow around or carry, and didn't have any worries, since both him and Joe were at home taking a nap. HURRAH Summer Break!

I headed in wanting to find an autobiography. "I want to learn something new." And this is part of me at the moment. I want to DO something. Perhaps is the commodity that has settled into my life. Parenting a small, walking, almost talking, 16month old is just the norm now. I feel like I need a new challenge. and I want it to be a BIG challenge. I want to CHANGE the world.
I was musing with these thoughts today... never in my life have I had a strong urge to do SOMETHING AMAZING. But now it's like when you start craving that cream cheese bagel. You can have a cream cheese sandwich, or even a great quesadilla... but it doesn't take that craving away.

I think part of it is reading. Reading motivates me in an odd way. It makes me want to be a writer that publishes a book, or someone that studies a masters and then does something and then has a reason to write a book.

And so when I was perusing the shelves of books, I was surprised to randomly see Mindy Kaling's book and to be drawn to it.
Maybe it's because I fell asleep watching The Office last night and I was thinking of how Mindy Kaling got to be an actress when she's not really all that great. Maybe it's because it was the first Autobiography I saw after seeing dozens of self help books about being fat... either way I picked it up. I also grabbed another two which I will hopefully read.

2 hours later I was done with this book. Again not a book I'd recommend, and I have to admit I probably skimmed like 20 of its pages... but once again it motivated me!

She talks a lot. It doesn't read like she's writing. It reads like she's talking. And she goes on and on... and actually she's quite funny, 5+ times I laughed out loud seriously. But it's all quite superficial banter... she talks about having to tan, or about having a crush on a guy, or about wanting to fit in... it did bore me in various places.

But something that really scratched me was how well she knows herself. Would I be able to write a book about myself? A WHOLE book, without preservations, or worry? Do I know myself that well?

She also finishes the book talking about how success is definitely earned. You must WORK HARD for it.
I think part of me still wishes something will come along and help me DO SOMETHING. But that last chapter is good stuff.

So just in case you were going to judge my entry on the title, I hope you didn't. Even a celebrity autobiography book has a lot to teach you about yourself if you let it.

Page count: 226
Total: 2635

#8 Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

When I see Jodi Picoult's name I don't think amazing author, I think cliche, a Nicholas Sparks type. I knew she'd written My Sister's Keeper. Which I didn't read but I did watch the movie. Good story...
And so when I saw Picoult's name in the library I grabbed for whatever book my hand was nearest. I decided I need a wishywashy novel between tough reads so that I don't get overwhelmed and stop reading all together like I did last time.
I don't know how true that was, but I went for it anyway.

Was it a great book? Not at all. Would I ever recommend it? Never. UNLESS you need a teenage-y romantic novel with unnecessary bits of crude sentences throughout..
Quick read of course. Took me whole of course, I couldn't put it down. Didn't even watch a single show between checking it out of the library and finishing it.

The plot? Meh. It's about a very famous actor and his wife. Their lives are "Picture Perfect"... or are they??
Then there's a whole side plot with a guy who wants to renounce his Native American past but is a cop in LA now, and he helps the girl... and the story focuses on their 3 different (and all sad) backgrounds and how it affects all their choices...


AAAand there's quite a predictable ending.
See Spoiler: Alex megasupermoviestar  Rivers beat his adorableyetnotgorgeousandrelatablebutawkward wife Cassie. In the end, she leaves him for Idon'treallyknowwhyyou'reinthestory Will (the Sioux descendant).

I was reading somewhere about how so many authors  (GOSH I'm Guilty too) make the main charactress be beautiful "but in a simple and unique way" not drop dead gorgeous, but someone that the boy character cannot get enough of. Wherever I was reading this (why can I not remember?) was arguing that authors do this so that the reader (who is most likely not Drop dead gorgeous either) can relate and really be part of the story, and so that any man that reads it also believes he has a chance of getting the "not out of his league" character.
The article had a bad spin on it, I forget what it was.

Anyway. I really enjoyed reading this bad book. I really love just diving into a book that's purely for fun. I guess like watching sitcoms.
I remember around 8th or 9th grade I was obsessed with a series The Clique. I LOVED those books. (cue: character was that same relatable type) After a while, my mom told me she wished I would read something with more substance.
I didn't like that comment. I still don't. I personally believe it's ok to read whatever you want. I think we need different types of books at different types of our lives, and to feel shame for reading a series that makes you feel like you belong somewhere and life isn't dark is not a nice feeling.
Obviously, my mom didn't know. We weren't close back then. She honestly just wished I would read something that in her mind stimulated my mind.

But for example this book. It's not the best, but it makes me think about how a lot of people view marriage. The main characters got married out of 'love'. And then a few years later she finds out he doesn't want any children. And she's too in love to leave him even when he beats her because ... because they love each other. Nothing more in there but 'love.' And what IS love? What is the right amount of love to secure a marriage together? What part of 'love' will hold two people close when one cannot control their anger?
These are things I like to wonder about.
ALSO Picoult does have an ability to show the good and bad in all three main characters. Their obvious flaws and loving parts.

This whole blog post has been a giant ramble. 90+ degree temperature all day really wears my braincells thin. Good thing I was reading this book and not Crime and Punishment... just yet.

Page count:369
Total : 2409

#7 Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

I struggle sometimes with Joe being a teacher living the exact school network I left. I miss it so much. I love that he's in it because it fulfills him and he makes a big difference, but it's very difficult at times. So when he came back and told me there had been this amazing speaker at an Uplift Event, I was jealous. It was wrong of me of course, and my resentment was ugly, but I didn't want to hear about it. I didn't want to hear about another amazing opportunity he'd had while I was stuck at home changing poopy diapers.

Luckily I pushed past my ugly side and asked him to talk about it. He said it had been easily the best talk he'd ever heard. It was Bryan Stevenson.

Fast forward a few months. Joe had gotten this book from Heights but of course never gotten to read it. I hadn't wanted to open it for the same difficulty of wanting to be a teacher at Heights but not being one... but now that I'm back on my reading motivation, I picked it up. For two days I couldn't put it down, and now I'm done with it.

Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer that fights for people on Death Row, especially the mentally ill, the youth, the wrongfully accused... anyone that can't defend themselves in this broken system.
It's not an easy read. It's difficult to sit on my comfy bed with my fluffy blanket and learn about someone who spent 50 years on death row, went blind, and then was finally exonerated thanks to Stevenson's organization. What am I doing? I'm doing nothing.

As I was finishing this book I came across a beautiful question, "Why do we want to kill all the broken people? What is wrong with us, that we think a thing like that can be right?" (288). He's talking about how we jail the poor, the mentally ill, the mothers with no support, the children with no parents, instead of coming up with a helpful system. This relates to so much. Abortion, immigration, death penalty... it makes me yearn to go back to schools and teach about love, about learning, about selflessness and to try to instill a desire to just HELP each other.

For a long time, I've wanted to volunteer in Jails. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to do when you're not 100% committed and end up just sitting on your couch with a jar of Nutella watching some Netflix special... :(

I'm glad people like Stevenson exist. Not just to make change but also to inspire it.

It's making me so angry to realize how inspired and alive I am whenever I finish a book, compared to the isolation I'm left with after scrolling through Instagram or watching some show on our Roku TV.

I would 100% recommend this book to everyone. Especially anyone who is pro Capital Punishment, or who thinks racism doesn't exist, or who thinks black people have it the same as white people.

Pages: 318
Total: 2040

#6 The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

So upsetting to realize it's been 3 months since I finished my last book.

I did start a few others that I got from the library, but none of them captured me like the first 5.
Also, I started watching TV again and that is always a horrible deterrent for reading.

Additionally, Mateo dropped his early morning nap. So instead of two breaks I only get one a day. I prefer it, naps no longer RULE my life. But at the same time, one break is not always enough for how tired I get and I end up watching TV eating chocolate most of the time.
---

I picked this book up at an Estate Sale, around January or February. I remembered Lorelai Gilmore saying something like, "I'm not a lady at the Joy Luck Club," or "This isn't the Joy Luck Club," and so I wanted to read it. Isn't it cool how little things can motivate our life choices?

I ended up really enjoying it- even though it took me a month to read it. It became my pre-bed ritual to read 10-15 pages of it as I waited for Joe to finish packing up his lunch or take his shower or do his pushups/squats/crunches combination.

For very superficial reasons, it reminded me of reading Ties that Bind Ties, Ties that Break back in middle school. (Was it 7th or 8th? How sad. I remember distinctly thinking how sad it was when my mom would say, "I did so and so in 5th or 6th grade," and I would promise myself I would not mix my years together. But now, when did I read that book?)
The superficial reasons: it talks about China, about arranged marriage, about girls and women treated as objects.
But for those same reasons, it intrigued me so I'll keep the superficial reasons and keep on trecking. It always shocks me how different and similar life in China was and is... I definitely want to read more on women in China.

Anyway, I'll get to the book itself:

It's about a girl whose mom has died. She goes to her mom's "Joy Luck Club,"  a club of old Chinese friends who play MahJong together. She wants to know more about her mom's life, and so we learn about it. We also learn about all the ladies' lives, and their daughters' lives.
It's really neat. Every chapter is a different woman's life. You first see the daughters talk about their (pretty sad) American lives and they complain about their relationship with their (very Chinese in their eyes) mothers.
And you also get a glimpse into their mothers' pasts...
VERY confusing, especially if you happen to miss the explanation in the page after the cover page but before the first chapter -_-.

It makes me think a lot about blaming people for their choices, for their mistakes, for their personalities. I was talking about this to a degree with my sisters but we didn't get too deep into it. How much should we understand, and forgive, a persons's mistakes? To what extent should we do the same after we know their story? How much can we blame our (lack of) knowledge on our inability to forgive or to understand?

I hope I can read more this month, especially since Joe's getting out for summer break in a week and I'm getting a good rhythm. AND all the series will go on break.

Pages: 288
Total Count: 1722