It's Monday! What are you reading? 4/8/13

Join the weekly reading report meme hosted over at www.teachmentortexts.com!

Catching up today for the last couple of missed Mondays. 

Before I start my reading report, I wan to talk for a minute about reading slumps.  It's spring.  (Teachers and school librarians silently nodding their heads in agreement).  Anything and everything in the curriculum that hasn't been reached is now being funneled into studetns' brains, including research.  Students are resisting at all costs said information that is now streaming at a furious rate into their minds, which are most definitely more focused on prom, summer, and each other. 

That being said, I seem to experience a slump this time of year in my reading life.  There is more (pressing)work to do at school than hours and manpower available to do it, and family life is super-charged with nice weather for outings and holidays.  Donalyn Miller bared her reading soul this weekend over at Nerdy Book Club.   She shares, "I know that I will fall back in love with reading again. We are just taking a break. I have wandered into the reading doldrums before and I always find my way through them." 

Donalyn shares some wonderful advice in her post on working your way out of the "reading doldrums."  And, I'm going to take some of her advice this week.

Books I Read:

Looking back over these titles, I'm realizing that although there are only a few, they were all great in their own right.  I devoured Drama one morning sitting at the circulation desk.  My poor students patiently waited in line while I sped through the last half, dying to see how the young budding romances played out.  This book is pre-cious!  Love and Other Perishable Items continued my love affair with Australian YA authors.  The narrators were so honest and achingly real.  Kudos to Laura Buzo on this one!  And finally, When You Were Here.  I think I have a reading hangover with this work.  Check out last week's review. You know when you read a book that you love so much that you are afraid to read something else because you know you'll be disappointed that you don't love it as much as the last one?  That's me right now. 

So, I'm going to take Donalyn's advice to 1) re-read some favorites and 2) try something I normally wouldn't pick up.

Books to Read:

Some old favorites...

Hmm....I'm sensing a theme here.  It's been a long time since I've relived Gemma Doyle's adventures, and I could use a little Kartik time.  How GREAT!  I've felt a little sorrowful that the English III teams are diving into Gatsby, and I'm left out. Plus, I'm planning a HUGE Gatsby event leading up to the movie release, so I must find my inspiration. . 

Something I wouldn't ordinarily pick up....
I need some help here.  What should I read that might surprise me?  Nonfiction is notoriously my gap.  Also, boy books.  I struggle to keep up with my boy readers outside of realistic fiction.