ranking of books in the order in which they transformed & enhanced my being

This feels huge for me because I hated reading for most of my life and never considered myself “a reader.” I didn’t get swept away by the Harry Potter books as a young kid, I never read the books in high school, and I skimmed most the readings in college. Reading was boring and confusing and I never understood how people enjoyed it.

It wasn’t until I became a teacher that I fell in love with reading. As I grew more passionate about it, I became so delighted to see my students share that same excitement. They began to beg me to keep reading, wanting to know how our plots developed and our loveable characters evolved. Our classes would dim the lights, light candles, cozy up on the couch, and read out loud to one another. It was the cutest, nerdiest, most supportive reading culture you could ever imagine.

Were some students asleep on their desks? Sure.
Did others have headphones in? Totally.
Did others have 5 different highlighters out, circle vocab words for their neighbor, and yell out to their tables about how juicy this was getting? You bet.

It didn’t matter that some students were at a college reading level and others were at a middle school level; that time became a sacred learning community where we supported one another and reveled in the gifts of storytelling.

Many of my students remember the 20 book challenge. The 20 book count didn’t actually matter; I just wanted students reading more than they thought they could. And that’s why this year feels so exciting to me -- I’ve read more than I ever thought I could. And it just so happens that for the first time I accomplished that 20 book challenge.

So cheers to books & the amazing authors who give us these gifts.

Note — Here’s a list of books I finished not pictured because I’ve gifted them to others to enjoy:

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? By Kathleen Collins
Not Your Masi’s Generation by Asha Sudra
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper

books i learned from this year