“It’s Monday! What are you reading?” is a weekly meme hosted by Book Date. The folks at Teacher Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers have given #IMWAYR a new lens by focusing on books for kids & teens. Check out their blogs to see what they’re reading!

I use #IMWAYR mostly to organize my reading list for the week and set out my book goals.

WHAT I READ LAST WEEK:

 

I had a really busy week last week and ended up only finishing one of the books that I started, which was Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft, edited by Tess Sharpe & Jessica Spotswood. I started several other books, but didn’t have time to finish them.

Toil & TroubleI was amazing, and probably one of my favorite anthologies I’ve read recently. I really enjoyed it and am excited to read more from all the authors in the future.

On the plus side, I was able to get a lot of audiobook listening done while I was running around getting things done last week. I’m currently listening to Not the Girls You’re Looking For as well as Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince. I’m hoping to finish Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince in the next few days, so I can finally listen to the last one (and then I’ll have finally finished the series for the first time!).

 

WHAT I’M EXCITED TO READ THIS WEEK:

 

A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti

The start of Fall always puts me in the mood for emotional, heavy reads, and this one sounds like it’ll be a really poignant one. I love stories about people finding ways to deal with trauma, and A Heart in a Body in the World looks like it’ll be tackling some big issues.

Goodreads summary: “When everything has been taken from you, what else is there to do but run?

So that’s what Annabelle does—she runs from Seattle to Washington, DC, through mountain passes and suburban landscapes, from long lonely roads to college towns. She’s not ready to think about the why yet, just the how—muscles burning, heart pumping, feet pounding the earth. But no matter how hard she tries, she can’t outrun the tragedy from the past year, or the person—The Taker—that haunts her.

Followed by Grandpa Ed in his RV and backed by her brother and two friends (her self-appointed publicity team), Annabelle becomes a reluctant activist as people connect her journey to the trauma from her past. Her cross-country run gains media attention and she is cheered on as she crosses state borders, and is even thrown a block party and given gifts. The support would be nice, if Annabelle could escape the guilt and the shame from what happened back home. They say it isn’t her fault, but she can’t feel the truth of that.

Through welcome and unwelcome distractions, she just keeps running, to the destination that awaits her. There, she’ll finally face what lies behind her—the miles and love and loss…and what is to come.”

 

Misfit City, Vol. 1 by Kirsten Smith, Kurt Lustgarten, & Naomi Franquiz

Confession: I only saw The Goonies for the first time last year. Despite that, I’m so down for a graphic novel girl version of it. I’m always looking for more graphic novels to add to my TBR, so please leave your suggestions below!

Goodreads summary: “Nothing’s happened in Wilder’s hometown since they filmed that cult kids’ adventure movie there in the 80s…Until one day, she and her friends come upon a centuries-old pirate map!

Smothered by her backwater hometown and frustrated by its 1980s cult-movie fame (The Gloomies…have you seen it? It’s a real classic, y’know.), Wilder is pretty sure she’s seen everything Cannon Cove has to offer. She’s desperate to get away from home as soon as she can, and move on to bigger, better, and less annoying things…even if that might mean leaving her best friends behind.

But when Wilder discovers a centuries-old pirate map, she may find out that REAL adventure was in their tiny town all along…and they need each other to get to the bottom of it! It’s a rip-roaring adventure written by award-winning screenwriter Kiwi Smith (10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde) and Kurt Lustgarten, and illustrated by Naomi Franquiz.”

What are you reading this week?