Must Read In 2015 Summer Update

That dash of OCD in my personality means that I'm not so humiliated as I might otherwise be on the progress of my Must Read in2015 List. Whew! Otherwise, as generally hyperactive and easily distracted as I am by a flashy new hardcover, my headway would be abysmal. As it is, all I'm saying is, "It could be much worse." 

58 is the number of books on my Must Read List.

28 is the number of books I've completed. 

  

171 is the number of books I've read so far this year.

77 is the number of novels read.

The rest are an assortment of chapter books, picture books, graphic novels and nonfiction. 

I'm not so OCD that I need to count them all. 

Besides, the math might not add up. 

Choosing a top three, or five, or even ten is difficult because there are so many to keep track of. Honestly, if not for Goodreads, it would be impossible to remember them all.

After checking there, I see that I gave five stars to twelve of the books on the list. This isn't a big deal because in order to whittle my list to a mere fifty eight titles, I limited it to books with an average of at least four stars to start with. 

Of those twelve, one, The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern, has crazy glued itself in my consciousness. If you click on the above link you will see that it resonated at a deep and profoundly personal level to me. I've been praising it to everyone who lives in, or lived in, a family with someone who has a chronic illness, and anyone who knows someone in that situation.

Other than Maggie, a few others rise above the rest of them. 

Because it's Canada Day, here is the one five star book from a Canadian author who is on the list. 

Dance of the Banished by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is a powerful read that tells the story of two sweethearts caught up in the Armenian genocide. Everything we have in our library by Skrypuch is very popular. 

I adored The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg, but it's also my most recent recent read, so I'll have to see if it still glitters come the next update. 

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, is a powerful middle grade satire on colonization. 

Greenglass House by Kate Milford has a cast of fascinating characters and a riveting convoluted plot. I'm hoping to get to The Boneshaker this summer. 

I enjoyed This Journal Belong to Ratchett by Nancy J. Cavanaugh. I talked one of our classroom teachers into reading it and she's been getting some stunning writing from her students using it as mentor text.

  

Bird by Crystal Chan is a beautiful heart wrenching book that continues to haunt and inspire me.

I've brought home a stack of books to read over the summer. Many of these are from 'The List.' I expect to be way ahead by our next check in!