New Paltz High School

2018-2019

2017-2018

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (thanks Lydia & Riley for lending it to me!)

I read Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur in the middle of reading Outliers. Thanks Emma for letting me borrow this! This is a collection of connected poems. I love Kaur's style and also love her drawings alongside her poetry. I'm looking forward to reading her new book of poetry, The Sun and her Flowers next.

 Previously read:

Before Outliers, my SSR book was I Am Scout by Charles J. Shields, a biography of Harper Lee (author of To Kill A Mockingbird, one of my favorite novels.) I especially loved learning more about the relationship between Harper Lee and Truman Capote.

This past summer, I mostly read what I would be teaching this year. Some of these were a re-read as I had read them myself in high school or in college, but some were new. I re-read The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon (I was actually the assistant stage manager for NPHS's production of Lost in Yonkers back in 2005!). I read another play by Neil Simon, Brighton Beach Memoirs, for the first time.  I read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for the first time as well, and can't wait to teach it to my Literature and Composition classes.

"Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions" and "We Should All Be Feminists" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie were two extended essays that I read this past spring and summer for pleasure. I love to read nonfiction in the forms of essays, speeches, and letters. I love Adichie's voice and her perspective on feminism and human rights from her experiences as a Nigerian woman who has spent a lot of time in America.