I hope this blog post finds you and your families doing well: safe, healthy, sane, and in good spirits.  It’s been an incredibly trying six months, and in that time I have found solace within the books I have been reading.  I needed to get out of my own head and into the lives of others, both real and fictional.  Below are 10 books that helped me do just that – escape my life and read about the lives of others.  I’m also listing some books I want to read over the summer break and I hope you find some time to read what you want as well if you are on holiday.  And if you are November examination school, we want to reassure you that all of our resources for the “old” 2020 course will remain online and available to you.

Finally, thank you for your continuous support of the site.  David and I do not take it for granted and we appreciate your feedback as we update materials and resources.  It’s also deeply empowering to work with a community of committed educators that care so deeply about their students.

Best,

Tim

Best Books: January – June 2020

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow is a fantastic read.  It's even better because even amongst the dire situation of the protagonist - Count Rostov - there is so much humor, humanity and just sheer pleasure.  It's been a while since I've read a book that is uplifting and delightful.  Count Rostov, even though he is confined to live the majority of his life in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, makes the most of his circumstances.  Set from the 1920s-1950s, it's a big book, but the joy comes from seeing him thwart the government over and over again.  And while I read this before the pandemic, I kept coming back to Count Rostov’s mantra during lockdown and remote learning: being a master of one’s situation.

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

I’ve been meaning to read Touching the Void for over a decade – since I hiked around the Cordillera Huayhuash when I lived in Peru.  Before our school went remote, I was able to grab a ton of books from my classroom library and this made the cut.  I was so happy it did.  Simpson’s true story of summiting Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash, and then breaking his leg was unforgettable.  Even more memorable was the scene – now famous – where his climbing partner Simon must cut Joe from the rope that binds them together.  Joe falls to his presumed death.  But somehow, rather than die, Joe survives, even if it is with a broken leg and stuck in a crevasse.  He crawls out of the mountains and back to base camp days later. It a haunting look at a near death experience and is such an engrossing and technical read.  I loved it.   

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Not surprising, my top three books in the past six months are all about some type of confinement.  In Bel Canto, written in 2001, Patchett sets the plot around a group of businessmen, diplomats, and politicians who are taken hostage in an unnamed South American country at a birthday party for a Japanese tycoon.  He’s only there because the unnamed country has brought in his favorite opera singer and he can’t resist the invitation.  Of course, the birthday party all goes downhill as a group of terrorists storm the gathering and take everyone hostage.  But the novel is about so much more than terrorism: art and love take center stage and there’s a whole bunch too about patience, language, and perception.  It’s just a gorgeously written novel that is worth your time.  I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read Patchett.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

A colleague lent me her copy of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo.  It co-won the Booker this year and for good reason!  It's a fantastic read.  It follows the stories of 12 different characters (mainly women of color) in England in the 20th and 21st centuries.  The stories sometimes intersect and weave together while other times they stand more alone.  It's also a really fast read, but biting in the social commentary she provides.  And sometimes, it's just really funny.  

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

I read Machines Like Me over several sittings, and while not my favorite McEwan novel, it was a lot of fun (and a bit creepy) to think about how artificial intelligence will evolve in our lifetime.  The novel follows the main character, Charlie, after he buys an “Adam,” one of a few dozen robots that look, act, and just all around seem like real people.  Let’s just say his relationship with Adam is a complicated one.       

On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is a mind bending novel.  Lyrical and heart-breaking, it follows the story of a young Vietnamese American man writing a letter to his illiterate mother.  At times, the plot is all over the place and it's hard to follow (that's the point), but it's just so touching and raw.  It's a tough novel, but absolutely worth the beautiful sentences.

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Abid Khorram

Darius the Great is not Okay by Abid Khorram is YA fiction doing what YA fiction does best: makes you laugh while also exploring a tough topic (depression in this case).  The narrative voice is quite funny, the situations the main character - Darius - runs into makes you laugh (even if you know you shouldn't), but more than that, it's a careful look at how depression affects young people.  There's a whole lot more to this novel too: the father-son dynamic is explosive, cultural identity issues reign throughout (he's Iranian American and is travelling back to Iran to see his grandparents for the first time), the grandfather is struggling to live with a brain tumor and more.  It's great.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Her Body & Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado is a wild ride of a read.  Shortlisted for the National Book Award in 2018, and often compared to Angela Carter, this book of 8 short stories have an intensity about them.  They vary from dystopian worlds where women have ribbons and men keep trying to untie them to a mash-up of Law and Order: SVU episodes.  A word of caution: the language can be very sexual and almost erotic.  Do note that her memoir - In the Dream House - came out not that long ago.  It deals with her abuse in a same-sex relationship and has been getting huge reviews.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Warariya

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya is her memoir of surviving the Rwandan genocide and then living as a refugee and sometimes outcast in various African countries.  She recounts not only those stories, but also stories about moving to the US and trying to make sense of her life there.  It's incredible.  The prose alternates between that life in the US (it's not all rosy), her life in Rwanda before the war (it's an ideal childhood), to trying to escape and survive (it's harrowing what she has to go through).  I've had to put it down a few times as it's so emotionally turbulent, especially the part where she deconstructs to word genocide for about 3 pages. 

Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8 by Naoki Higashida

Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8 by Naoki Higashida is the follow-up to his wildly successful first book of nonfiction The Reason I Jump.  In both, he chronicles what it's like to live with autism in very short chapters explaining different things to those that are neurotypical.  It's simply eye-opening about his thoughts and feelings as well as what he encounters on a near daily basis as a young man (now 22) living with autism. 

Some summer reading books

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is a book of nonfiction about the mass incarceration of African-American, particularly males, in the US.  The book is over a decade old, and I’ve been meaning to read it for years.  It’s now time.

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi is a book of nonfiction we are thinking about reading in professional learning groups for the next school year.  I’m pre-reading it over the summer to preview whether it should be one of the titles on offer for discussion.  My initial guess: a resounding yes!

The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova is a book of nonfiction about playing poker that has been getting major press.  I’m ready to learn how to keep a straight face, bluff my way out of anything, and win at poker!