Sunday Salon: June 11, 2017

My life in books:
Reading over the past couple of weeks ...

• The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck--a wonderful character study
• Cracker: the Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia K--an emotional novel of loyalty and friendship
• Tasting the Sky by Ibtisam Barakat--A memoir of growing up in Palestine

Currently reading: The Right Side by Spencer Quinn

Challenge updates:

• Read Your Own Damn Books--My goal is to read 25 books from my TBR shelves this year. So far I've read 27, adding 3 in the past two weeks!
• Travel the World in Books--The idea is to read books set in as many countries as possible. This week I added Palestine, Jordan, and Vietnam, and Germany which brings my total to 23 countries.
• Literary Escapes--Similar to the previous challenge, this one tracks the US states. In the past two weeks I added Maine, bringing my total to 16 states.
• Read all of the ALA YA Award Winners--I only have one book left for this challenge.

My life outside books:

Working:
School officially ended on Thursday, but I am now on a 200 day contract so I have an additional 13 days to work this summer. This coming week I am running some Google workshops with a wonderful colleague so that should be fun.

Family:

My daughter is back for the summer and the poor thing is spending the first week taking the ACT and getting her wisdom teeth out. Not so much fun. But, in a week we are leaving for the UK so we're both really excited about that!

I have been trying to walk every day in preparation for the real training that begins later this month. I bought new walking shoes, which makes me realize how worn out my old ones are! I've raised all the money that I am required to raise ($1,800) so that feels really good. Now I can focus on the walking.

Watching:

• The Amazing Race finished and I think it was a good season. I hope they do another round of it.
• I am now watching World of Dance because some of my daughter's friends from her time in the LA dance industry are on the show. There is some really great dancing, but I do find myself fast-forwarding through a bunch of it.
• I tried House of Cards and just couldn't continue after 6 episodes. I've now watched the first season of Madam Secretary and am really enjoying it. I totally loved the episode where Madeline Albright had a part!