Reading always takes me back to summer. Summer makes me think of reading on a blanket on my front lawn or buried in a book on family camping trips. Permanently glued to my camp chair in front of the campfire. Living in the Pacific Northwest under the recent smoke and devastation caused by this year’s wildfires, back in July we might have soaked up the blue sky and breathed more deeply the smoke free air. July seems like an idyllic place to be compared to where we are now. But we must remain in the present, never falling too far back or anxiously awaiting anything in the distance.
July was an amazing month for reading. I picked up books that brought me joy. I also found myself reading in beautiful places. I sat sunning myself from my parents newly cemented patio in Boise. My fiancé and I drove to Stanley, Idaho to camp, hike, and more importantly read from lake views of the Sawtooth mountains.
FICTION
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Prior to reading, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the format, as this book is written in free verse poetry. Being aware of the format I chose to read a physical copy rather than listen to the audiobook. I absolutely loved this book, devouring it in one day. Also note, this book is young adult fiction.
Acevedo writes about real-world plane crash of American Airlines Flight 587 of November 12, 2001. Two months and a day after the 9/11 attacks, Flight 587 was revealed to not be terrorist related and to the media it was not newsworthy. The plane was flying from New York City to the Dominican Republic and all passengers on board were Dominican or of Dominican descent. The crash was devastating to the New York City Dominican and Santo Domingo community.
The story follows two girls, Yahaira living in NYC and the Camino living in Santo Domingo. The girls are half-sisters unaware of each other’s existence. Their father was on the plane that went down. He would spend summers in the Dominican Republic and the rest of the year in New York. Grieving the death of their father, they become aware of one another and eventually meet addressing family secrets, each of their Dominican identities, grief, and class.
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I stumbled upon this book from the library’s available audiobooks. The cover looked interesting. Recently, I have found historical fiction novels to be quite entertaining. Their ability to take me to a faraway place and escape my own four walls has been a much-needed break from reality. Ruta Sepetys’ novel follows a group of refugees during World War II who are fleeing East Prussia, Poland, and Lithuania. Their trek to freedom and safety takes them to a ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff.
The narration rotated between each of the main characters: Joana (a Lithuanian nurse), Florian (a Prussian art restoration apprentice), Emilia (a young Polish girl with child), and Alfred (an eager, somewhat delusional German). I love how the author creates a sense of family amongst Joana, Florian, Emilia, as well as some other refugees, each fighting for their own survival weary of who should be trusted.
The Wilhelm Gustloff, a real-world ship, was struck by three torpedos in January 1945. 9,000 lives were lost, 5,000 of them children, making it the greatest maritime disaster in history, and yet most people have never heard of it. A Soviet submarine took down the ship in the Baltic Sea. The Gustloff was overcapacity by almost 8,000 carrying over 10,000 passengers. As each character’s story unfolds, everyone moving closer towards the end and the untimely disaster. There is something about how a book or film builds in suspense when the reader or audience is aware of the outcome, yet none of the characters can anticipate the tragedy that is to come.
I enjoyed how the author wove in historical references. Beyond details about the Wilhelm Gustloff, Sepetys adds in details about the disappearance of the Amber Room, raided by the Nazis and rumored to have been loaded onto the Wilhelm Gustloff. The Amber Room was a chamber in the Catherine Palace in Prussia decorated with amber panels, gold leaf, and mirrors. It is said to be the “Eighth Wonder of the World” but to this day no one knows of the whereabouts of the room’s panels.
NON-FICTION
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Stevenson writes about the industry of incarceration in Florida. The Santa Rosa Correctional Facility set in the town of Milton, was built in the 1990s. It was built to house 1,600 people. Between 1990 and 2005 the U.S. opened a new prison opened every ten days. Prison construction and prison growth in America “made imprisonment so profitable that missions of dollars were spent lobbying state legislators to keep expanding the use of incarceration to respond to just about any problem” writes Stevenson.
“My years of struggling against inequality, abusive power, poverty, oppression, and injustice had finally revealed something to me about myself. Being close to suffering, death, executions, and cruel punishments didn’t just illuminate the brokenness. You can’t effectively fight abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness, oppression, or injustice and not be broken by it.”
“We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity.”
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A happiness book in my happy place. I began reading The Happiness Project in January reading one chapter a month. Not in a rush. Slowly winding through it. Rubin embarks on her own year of happiness, each month with its own theme and challenges to inspire and evoke happiness. The book follows her on this journey, with twelve chapters recounting her month. In January, her goal was to Boost Energy (Vitality) and her challenges were to go to sleep earlier, exercise better, toss, restore, organize, tackle a nagging task, and act more energetic (she adds that studies show that acting energetic gives you energy).
I enjoy reading multiple books at a time, like having different voices I can converse with. Some books I read, others I listen too. I balance fiction and non-fiction so as not to be lost in too many different alternate realities at one time. I found myself craving to pick this up because Rubin’s monthly challenges are seemingly simple changes that can be made in our everyday lives that will have a tremendous impact on our lives. While participating in her own year of happiness, Rubin blogged about her year, encouraging readers to share their own happiness challenges, sharing them within each chapter.
Rubin identifies her own “Eight Splendid Truths of Happiness,” inspired by the numbered lists that pop up throughout Buddhist teachings. The truths are obvious and straight-forward, but she claims took a tremendous amount of thought. The below two were the ones that resonated most with me. Both focus on the power that lies within ourselves to arrive at happiness, rather than trying to find it through anything external.
The book directs the reader to Rubin’s website and blog for additional resources and guides to completing your own year of happiness challenge. I aim to look into these resources as I pursue construct my own happiness.
The Second Splendid Truth:
One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy;
One of the best ways to make other people happy is to make yourself happy.
The Fourth Splendid Truth:
You aren’t happy unless you think you’re happy.
Permission to Screw Up: How I Learned to Lead by Doing (Almost) Everything Wrong by Kristen Hadeed: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I absolutely LOVED this book. Kristen Hadeed is an unlikely entrepreneur. She started a cleaning business almost by accident. In college, she wanted an expensive pair of jeans. Knowing her parents would not give her the money for such a frivolous purchase, she answered an ad for a house cleaner. The job would give her exactly the amount for the jeans. She had zero experience cleaning houses, arrived with no cleaning products of her own, and told her new “client” it would only take three hours to deep clean their entire house, a huge underestimation. At the time she thought it would be a one-time event.
Fast forward a couple of years and Hadeed started her own company, Student Maid, a cleaning service that specifically hires college students. This book is Hadeed’s honest account of her entrepreneurial experience. In the book she reveals that she at first tried to write a book about millennials. Millennials are often criticized for being hard to manage, and she, as a millennial has successfully managed peer millennials and learned how to lead and motivate the group. That still wasn’t the right topic. She then set out to write a book on success, but that wasn’t it either. In reflecting on what made her a successful leader, Hadeed learned that it was all of the mistakes she made along the way. In a world filled with the pressure to be perfect or to only share your highlight reel, she recognized that the important message to share with others is to not be afraid to screw up. Make mistakes; those experiences are where we learn the most.
I studied entrepreneurship in my undergrad, love to read books on how businesses are built, and have attended my fair share of networking events. Stories like the ones Hadeed shares are not the norm. No one else is writing this book and sharing all of the ways they have screwed up as inspiration to others that success is often on the other side of failure. For me, listening to this book made me realize that I had to get past my own fear of failure. A fear I didn’t even realize existed. It is also about uncoupling failure from the fear that it will define you in the eyes of others. Let’s say you try something, it doesn’t go according to plan, then what? It is an opportunity to learn, grow, and think on your feet.
Girl Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing & Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was another amazing book for the month. I read Rachel Hollis’ Girl Wash Your Face back in December. I love Rachel’s no bull-$h#! Her writing style is very honest and conversational. She reads her audiobook. I would listen on walks with Moxie and sometimes it felt like walking with a girlfriend dolling out much needed advice. My favorite thing in her book was the 10-10-1 plan for your dreams.
10 Years, 10 Dreams, 1 Goal. Hollis challenges you to think about your life in 10 years. Sit down and really think about it. Write down the details. What does it look like? Feel like? What are you wearing? Where do you live? Nothing is silly, because these are your dreams. Then write down the 10 dreams that would need to come true in order to become that person. She encourages you to write them in present tense. Rather than “I want,” write “I have,” or “I am” statements. This puts you in the mindset that you are already the person that you are working toward becoming. Finally, write down 1 goal that would bring you closest to your 10-years from now self. This helps you to focus in on and understand your why.
Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero by Christopher McDougall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Did you have any idea that there is a running race with burros? That is, donkeys?!? I didn’t. Christopher McDougall is most famous for another book Born to Run. In Born to Run, McDougall learns about the barefoot indigenous runners, the Tarahumara. It is an amazing book and one that will leave you thinking that you too can run 100-mile ultramarathons. Born to Run helped to kickstart the barefoot and minimalist running craze.
McDougall lives in Pennsylvania in the middle of Amish country. He rescues a donkey from an animal hoarding neighbor to which he named Sherman. The donkey was in such bad shape mentally and physically, the best thing McDougall could do was give him a job to complete. He took on rehabilitating Sherman through running. He heard of burro racing, a unique race where a runner and donkey race through the mountains together carrying packs that must include a pick, a gold pan, and shovel. McDougall wanted to see if they could train Sherman for the World Championship in Colorado.
Burro racing began in Colorado. In prospecting days, miners took donkeys with then to carry their packs. There are two rumors as to how burro racing started. One rumored that two miners found gold in the same location and raced back to town to stake their claim. The other rumor involves a couple of drunk miners in a bar in Leadville, Colorado.
Throughout McDougall’s story, he encounters assistance from all areas of his community. Farmers, Amish runners, badass lady long haul truck drivers, and others come together to help Sherman on his way to the Championship. It was an unexpectedly heartwarming story about the importance of our relationship with animals. They are lucky to have us, but we are even luckier to have them.