
First of all, I wanted to share this video playlist. Last year, I wanted to share more of my writings. I need to get out of the mindset that everything I write has to be published or perfect. I think this will actually free up some space inside my head to welcome in more ideas, to get the creative juices flowing, to make writing fun again. These poems were a result of that.
This week I’m sharing My Must Read in 2021 list. (The formatting is horrible with WordPress’s most recent upgrade!)
[Penguin Classics Filipino Novels]
-America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan
-The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic by Nick Joaquin
-Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal
-El Filibusterismo by Jose Rizal
-Doveglion: Collected Poems by Jose Garcia Villa
[Christopher Pike Adult Novels]
-Sati
-The Season of Passage
-The Listeners
-The Cold One
-The Blind Mirror
-Falling
[Holiday Reads]
-The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
-The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
-Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffmann and Alexandre Dumas
-The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol
-Moomintroll by Tove Jansson
-The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
-The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
-Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
-Wild Things! Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature by Betsy Bird and Julie Danielson
-Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult by Bruce Handy
-And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
-Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
-Native Son by Richard Wright
-The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
-The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
-Hilo: Gina: The Girl who Broke the World (02/02/21)
-I am Frida Kahlo (Ordinary People Change the World) (03/09/21)
-Science Comics: The Digestive System (03/23/21)
-Tea Dragon Tapestry (06/01/21)- 82 pages read
-Pocket Change Collective: Continuum (06/01/21)
-Pocket Change Collective: Skate for Your Life (06/01/21)
-Science Comics: Spiders: Worldwide Webs (06/22/21)
-Clash (Click) by Kayla Miller (07/06/21)
-Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
-Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
-How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
-Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
-A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
-Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Now for some book reviews…
<a href=”https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51475575-becoming-muhammad-ali” style=”float: left; padding-right: 20px”><img border=”0″ alt=”Becoming Muhammad Ali” src=”https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585630811l/51475575._SX98_.jpg” /></a><a href=”https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51475575-becoming-muhammad-ali”>Becoming Muhammad Ali</a> by <a href=”https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3780.James_Patterson”>James Patterson</a><br/>
My rating: <a href=”https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3773411891″>4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I’m always surprised when I end up enjoying a sports book but I guess good writing will shine through in any genre. And this was a captivating read about Cassius Clay’s childhood before he would be better known as the boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Told in both prose (from the point of view of one of his friends) and poetry (through his eyes) with a smattering of illustrations, readers will be delighted in learning about his life.</a>
Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult by Bruce Handy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This has been on my TBR for awhile now and I read this back to back with Wild Things! Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature by Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson, Peter Sieruta. Both books take on the world of kidlit and their creators but this one focuses more on his experiences reading or rereading the books he loved to his kids or the books he’s been meaning to read. What’s almost unforgivable is that he didn’t read Anne of Green Gables- and chose not to read it although he did start it- so that has completely soured whatever positive associations I had with this book.
Review Notes
***= Liked It
****= Recommended
*****= Favorite
You can view all the books I’ve read at my Goodreads page.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Happy Reading!