Rabbit Hole #43: June Reading Update

Six months in, and I'm 50/85 in my reading challenges. Overall, I've been pretty happy with the books I've chosen, and looking forward to finishing the challenges in the next few months.

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge (Current Completion: 28/41)

A book that's becoming a movie this year: The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey (4.5  stars)

An autobiography: An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie (3 stars)

A book set in Europe: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (4 stars)

A book written by a comedian: Self-Inflicted Wounds by Aisha Tyler (3 stars)


Bustle Women/POC Reading Challenge (Current Completion: 8/20)

A book by a modernist woman writer: Passing by Nella Larsen (4 stars)


Read Harder Challenge 2016 (Current Completion: 14/24)

A horror novel: The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez (4 stars)

A book published in 2016: Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older (4 stars)

A book by or about someone who identifies as transgender: For Today I Am a Boy by Kim Fu (4 stars)


Non-challenge books finished: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (3 stars)

Rabbit Hole #42: Favorite Quotations

Two weeks ago, the wonderful Jo at Retired Book Nerd posted a video challenging people to list their two favorite book quotes of all time and why those spoke to the readers. As Jo mentions, one of the reasons we love books is because we love language and the way it can challenge us to view the world in new ways. (I'll link her original video here: A Word About Words.) One of the biggest challenges, however, is narrowing it down to only two!

So here are two (plus one) of my favorite quotations:

“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.”--The Color Purple by Alice Walker

         Wonder. Ask. Read. Listen. Love. The world would be a better place if we were all truly open to the world around us and willing to find out about things we don't know. It's hard to hate and discriminate when you know a person and can empathize with them. 

        

“... Why, it would really be being unselfish to go away and be happy for a little, because we would come back so much nicer.” --Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnin


Travel as much as you can: by yourself, with friends, with loved ones. See the world. Wonder, as Celie says. It can make all the difference.

       

Bonus: "Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open." --Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Some times children's books hold the most profound truths. If only we could remember them as we age.