by Rachel Toalson | Books
Here are 5 things worth sharing this month:
1. Reading: “Its heart was heavier with the weight of the young worker’s words. But should a heart not be heavy, in a world full of injustice?” I just finished Sacha Lamb’s brilliant YA book, When the Angels Left the Old Country, and my gosh was it good. It won the Stonewall Book Award, the Sydney Taylor Award and was a Michael L. Printz honor book, and I can definitely see why. It’s about an angel and a demon who leave the “Old Country” to come to America and help address social injustice for Jewish people. This is Lamb’s first book; I can’t wait to see what comes next.
2. Reading: “I wonder what it’s like to be with someone who can love you through your rage.” I guess I’ve been on a YA kick, because I also finished All My Rage, by Sabaa Tahir and loved it as well. This book won the National Book Award and the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. It’s a love story about family and forgiveness. Don’t miss it!
3. Watching: Looking for a funny, quirky, entertaining, bingeable dramedy? Check out The Great, on Hulu. It’s loosely based on Catherine the Great, German queen of Russia. It stars Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult, and Phoebe Fox, along with many others. Warning: It can get a bit raunchy at times. But it’ll make you laugh out loud.
4. Reading: I also just finished The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel A. Van der Kolk. It’s a long and in-depth book about trauma and effective methods of healing. Highly informative and enlightening, it also gave me a little hope for my own persistent trauma. I will acknowledge that in 2018 Van der Kolk was fired from the Trauma Center, where he did his research work, over allegations that he bullied employees. Nothing has been proven, but it’s worth acknowledging. I don’t think it detracts from this book and the research findings presented in it.
5. Watching: My kids and I just finished Season 1 of Netflix’s Down to Earth with Zac Effron. It’s a docuseries that follows Effron and a partner to different places in the world to learn how climate change is affecting other cultures and what innovative techniques people have developed to address climate change as well as social injustice. I absolutely loved this series. My kids and I have already begun on a more eco-friendly plan for our family. We’ve been on this journey for years now, but this show lit another fire under us. This year we’re tackling plastic—no more plastic! Maybe I’ll write about our continued and more fervent journey. 🙂
by Rachel Toalson | Books
Here are 6 things worth sharing this month:
1. Reading/readers: Have you met Afoma of Reading Middle Grade? Her site is a wealth of information about middle grade and YA books and includes author interviews and blogs on various subjects. I’ve used her middle grade lists to find all the best reads, so be sure to check her out if you have young readers in your life or you love reading children’s literature (like me). She’s also on Instagram and has a fantastic Facebook group that gathers together lovers of children’s literature.
2. Reading: I recently finished the YA book We Are All So Good at Smiling, by Amber McBride, and it was fantastic. It’s a lovely novel in verse that explores clinical depression in sort of an ethereal way. I loved the language and the fantasy-like quality about it. McBride is also the author of Me (Moth), which is another novel in verse I highly recommend.
3. Watching: My husband and I just started watching Apple TV’s series Loot, starring Maya Rudolph, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Nat Faxon, and Joel Kim Booster, among others. This is my second time watching through it, but I wanted to share it with my husband, because it’s so good! Maya Rudolph plays a wealthy woman who divorced her husband and now has to figure out what to do with her $87 billion settlement—and the rest of her life. It’s funny and heartwarming, as I’m coming to expect from Apple’s comedies!
4. Reading: If you’re looking for an intriguing adult nonfiction read, be sure to pick up The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear, by Kate Moore. It was a fascinating account of Elizabeth Packard, whose husband had her committed to a mental institution, which spurred her journey into working for women’s and mental health rights. It reads like a fiction book, which is, in my opinion, the best kind of nonfiction to read! Moore is also the author of The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women,which is next on my TBR list!
5. Reading: I’m not sure what made me pick up Dan Santat’s new(ish) graphic memoir, A First Time for Everything. But I’m glad I did. Santat highlights a time in his life when he felt awkward and invisible. A trip to Europe changes his perspective and infuses him with a little confidence. I sped through this one, not just because it’s a graphic novel but because the story was fun and engaging. Santat is probably best known for his picture book, After the Fall (How Humpty Got Back Up Again), which sits on our shelves here at home and is often requested for read-aloud by one of my kids, and The Adventures of Beekle, which is a heartwarming story about an (un)imaginary friend.
6. Watching: Every summer my kids and I watch documentaries together on Tuesday mornings. This week we finished watching through the Disney+ series Becoming, which tells the story of entertainers and how they became who they are today. It’s deeply inspiring and touching (you’ll probably cry, if you’re like me) and is a great series to watch with kids. My kids are still talking about some of the things they learned.
If you want to go deeper into some of these books, be sure to check out my YouTube show, On My Shelf:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtmdj4SXf2Csy5uu6WEyLDtYlvg9t1FqE
by Rachel Toalson | Books
Here are five things worth sharing this week:
1. Reading: I recently finished Freewater, by Amina Luqman-Dawson, a historical middle grade novel about a boy, his sister, and the free community they find after running away from Southerland Plantation, where they work as slaves. It was inspiring, illuminating, and important. The book, which is Amina Luqman-Dawson’s debut, won the Newbery Award for 2023. Highly recommended!
2. Reading: My kids read Ban This Book, by Alan Gratz, first and told me I just had to read it. Boy, was I glad I did. Though published in 2017, the book has real-world applications today. It explores book banning in an easy-to-understand way for readers ages 8-12, and it featured one of my favorite elements: kids owning their power. I’d say it’s a book for everyone. (Gratz, by the way, is best known for his historical middle grade novels, Refugee , Allies , and Projekt 1065 .)
3. Reading: I’m currently in the middle of the middle grade graphic novel Friends series, by Shannon Hale. So far I’ve read Best Friends and Friends Forever , and I have to say: they’re fantastic! They provide a real-life look at friendship dynamics among girls in middle school, and I really enjoyed their honesty. Hale captured the swinging emotions and the constant questions of middle school. I haven’t yet read the first of the trilogy, Real Friends , but if it’s anything like the later two, I’ll love it!
4. Watching: Everybody wants to live longer, right? Well, Chris Hemsworth (you may know him as Thor in all the Marvel movies) has a documentary series on Disney+ about how he’s working to do that: Limitless with Chris Hemsworth . He talks with experts and professionals and provides important information about how we can keep our bodies in working order for longer, examining things like stress, shock, fasting, strength, memory, and acceptance. I’ve watched every episode myself and rewatched every episode except the last one with my kids—so they’re armed with the same information I have. It’s an illuminating series that will leave you feeling inspired and determined.
5. Reading: “No surprise. Idiots make it into every company. They tend to interview well.” If you’re looking for a delightful adult fiction read, look no farther than Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry. Oh my goodness. This book had me laughing so hard. It features Elizabeth Zott, a chemist in the 1960s— when women weren’t chemists or accepted as anything more than housewives. She becomes the unintentional star of America’s most popular cooking show. I could not get enough of Elizabeth Zott—and the good news is, she’ll be on the big screen soon, with a series produced by Apple TV. But make sure you read the book before you watch the series!
If you want to go deeper into some of these books, be sure to check out my YouTube show, On My Shelf.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtmdj4SXf2Csy5uu6WEyLDtYlvg9t1FqE
by Rachel Toalson | Books
Here are five things worth sharing this month:
1. Reading: I recently finished the middle grade historical novel, Brother’s Keeper, by Julie Lee. It’s about two North Korean kids who flee their part of the country for Busan in South Korea to escape the war between the north and south. They have to walk hundreds of miles in the winter. The book is heart-breaking and beautiful and haunting. Don’t miss it!
2. Reading: I absolutely LOVED Natalie Lloyd’s latest book, Hummingbird, about a girl with brittle bone disease who convinces her parents she wants to go to public school so she can find her forever best friend. You will fall in love with the main character, Olive, who is full of positivity and joy kabooms and love for her fellow students. It was sweet and heartbreaking and funny and so lovely; my kids are getting tired of hearing me talk about it. This is the first book of Lloyd’s I’ve read, but now I also have her books, The Key to Extraordinary, A Snicker of Magic, and the Problim Children series on my to-be-read list!
3. Watching: Lately I’ve been watching through My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, with David Letterman. I find the guests (so far I’ve watched Barack Obama, George Clooney, Malala Yousafzai, Jay-Z, Tina Fey, and Howard Stern) to be SO inspirational. There’s always some nugget of truth I can take and apply to my own life. And David Letterman is the perfect host. Check it out if you want to be inspired!
4. Reading: If you’re looking for a delightful young adult read, look no further than Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. It’s funny, it’s fun, it deals with deep topics, and it’s pitched perfectly for young adult readers. It was published several years ago, but Mackler republished it in 2018, along with the release of the sequel, The Universe is Expanding, and So Am I, which I’m reading right now (and it’s just as good as the first one). Mackler has written a collection of other books, all of which are now on my TBR list, because I love her work so much.
5. Reading: While on vacation with my family, I sped through Ethan Kross’s The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It. What an eye-opening book. We all live our lives with a voice in our heads (sometimes multiple voices, and for some of us those voices are VERY loud and not all that nice). Kross provides scientific and situational evidence about this voice and how we can use it to our advantage. I found it enlightening and encouraging.
by Rachel Toalson | Books
Here are six things worth sharing this week:
1. Reading: Have you read Rob Harrell’s book, Wink? It’s SO GOOD! Harrell is the author of the Life of Zarf series, which I have not read. But I picked up his book, Wink, because someone mentioned it to me as a great humorous read. It was so much more than that! It’s a novel based on Harrell’s experience with a rare eye cancer, and it will have you laughing and crying at all the right places. Highly recommended!
2. Reading: I recently finished We Deserve Monuments, by Jas Hammonds, a young adult novel about racial violence and the generational results of it. I loved this book so much. And so did many people, apparently, since the book was a 2023 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent Winner as well as a Kirkus Best Books, a School and Library Journal Best Book, A B&N Best Book, and a Parents Magazine Best Book of 2022. If you haven’t read it, put it on your list!
3. Watching: Husband and I are watching the third season of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, a series about an American coach who moves to England to coach soccer (or what they call football). I’ve loved every season of this show. Ted Lasso is wise and witty and optimistic. It’s so funny and heartfelt and cheesy in some places and really funny that you’ll find yourself looking forward to your Friday night dates with the smart TV. I mean…hypothetically speaking. WATCH IT!
4. Reading: I adore some good nonfiction, and I just finished a book that definitely qualifies: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Gathering Moss: a Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. It sounds like a heavy read, but Kimmerer is a fantastic writer. She writes her nonfiction so it reads like memoir or fiction, even. I first discovered Kimmerer when I read her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants (which I also highly recommend), and I was hooked. Gathering Moss is a science book that will have you riveted, ready to learn more, and looking for the mosses in your environment, hoping they’ll tell you a story, too.
5. Reading: On some early-morning (very dark) runs, I read the audiobook of Lora Senf’s The Clackity, a middle grade horror novel. (I don’t know why I do this to myself; I was jumping at every little sound during the reading.) It’s so good. Frightening but full of heart. This is Senf’s first book, but she has another coming October 17: The Nighthouse Keeper. It’s definitely on my list (although I don’t think I’ll be reading it during dark runs!)!
6. Reading: I’ve loved Traci Chee since I read her young adult book, We Are Not Free, which published in 2020 and was a Printz Honor book. Well, I recently finished her latest YA book, A Thousand Steps Into the Night, which is completely different from the historical We Are Not Free but is no less engaging, entertaining, and enchanting. This one’s a fantasy that reads like a fairy tale. I read it while running around Hourglass Lake at Disney World with my kids—which could have increased the magic of the words. But no. Chee is a master. Highly recommend this book—which was long-listed for the National Book Award!
by Rachel Toalson | Books
1. Reading: I recently finished Karah Sutton’s magical middle grade debut, A Wolf for a Spell, and it was delightfully enchanting! Full of magic and wolves and Baba Yaga and love and the power of community. I couldn’t wait to share it with my eight-year-old (who’s reading it now). Sutton has a new book coming out in October, called The Song of the Swan, a retelling of Swan Lake. It’s definitely on my to-be-read list!
2. Reading: You absolutely must not miss Jewell Parker Rhodes’s newest middle grade book, Black Brother, Black Brother. I flew through this one! It was poetic and profound and hard-hitting and heartfelt…everything a middle grade novel should be! Rhodes is also the author of Towers Falling and Ghost Boys. This one takes its place as my favorite, though. I even added it to the slides I use when visiting schools, as one of the books that shape me today. Read it and re-read it. I will be!
3. Watching: I don’t know what it is about Apple, but they have a team of writers who know how to write shows! My husband and I just started watching a new Apple series called Shrinking, starring Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, and Jessica Williams. It is SO GOOD! Sorry for shouting. But it really is. You will laugh, cry, and laugh some more. Apple has a corner on heartfelt comedies!
4. Reading: On the young adult end, you must pick up Emily X. R. Pan’s An Arrow to the Moon, which is pitched as Romeo and Juliet meets Chinese mythology. It was phenomenal. Pan has a poetic way with words and knows how to craft characters that live on in your imagination. Pan also wrote The Astonishing Color of After, which is still my favorite book of hers.
5. Reading: If you love mysteries, you must do yourself a favor and pick up Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series. I recently finished the third book, The Hand on the Wall, after flying through the first two. Her main character, Stevie Bell, is hilarious (dry humor is my favorite) and awkward and just wonderful. I know this series will end, as all series must, but I don’t want to leave Stevie behind! Anyway, check out the Truly Devious series. You’ll be wonderfully enthralled for weeks!
