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. 🙂
