David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

I have always meant to read all of Dickens' books, but it takes a lot of activation energy to get started on one of them for me. I'd had a goal to read David Copperfield before we went to England, but didn't really think it was going to happen once I realized it was almost 900 pages long. But the library, again, saved me! There was an audiobook copy of it, which was 36 hours long, but which gave me the jump start on it that I needed. I was surprised how much I enjoyed listening to it--I remember trying to listen to some Dickens on audio back when I was driving to NC State, and giving up because I thought it was too boring to listen to. This time around, I loved it, and I think it helped me to be more present in the book and to not accidentally skim through sections that were long. I was expecting the story to take a much more depressing turn than it did. David's childhood was definitely depressing and heartbreaking to imagine a young kid being treated that way with his mother and his stepfather, but after he got taken in by his aunt, he actually had a pretty pleasant life and was pretty lucky afterwards, and didn't seem all that psychologically scarred by it all that much either. I thought all the different storylines--about Steerforth and little Emily and Mr. Peggoty, and Agnes and Uriah Heep, and about the Doctor and Mrs. Strong, and about Traddles, and the Micawbers--all were so well done and with so many fantastic characters that I loved and hated. Every character in here was so distinctive and it's easy to see why so many of them are caricatures of themselves in popular culture afterwards (like Uriah Heep as a fawning, humble person--it was so satisfying to see him get his deserved comeuppance). There are so many aspects of this book that were so well done--especially getting to see David's thoughts and how he developed throughout the book. I feel like the first person perspective in this book worked really well to show his coming of age and his growth and change over the course of the book. I am so glad to have finally read this and to have gotten so much out of it.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

I know I have read these books countless times before. But I couldn't travel to England without reading them one more time. (And, of course, this won't be the last. Now I can't read these without thinking about when would be a good age for me to start reading these with the boys. I think we need to wait another year or two for Graham. I want them to be REALLY ready for them.) I really love this first Harry Potter book, though. It's so simple and sweet, once you know the whole story--the magic of Harry discovering he's a wizard and learning about the whole wizarding world and seeing Diagon Alley and Hogwarts and playing Quidditch for the first time never gets old. I will forever remember how much this story gripped me the first time I read it. I remember my heart beating so fast as I read the climactic chapter, and being terrified when Quirrel unwraps his turban and we find out what's underneath. Now it's almost impossible to remember that fear that I felt, but it was real, and that is the magic of these books.

This book truly deserves the adjective of "classic."

So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo

A few months ago, I was at our neighborhood park with my kids and a dad came with his little daughter, who was the same size as Lucy. So naturally we struck up a conversation (as the only two adults at the park, with our girls playing with each other) and chatted about library story time and what it's like having three kids, etc. He was saying he wanted more opportunities for his daughter to socialize with other kids, since she didn't have any siblings, but they didn't want to pay for daycare yet. I was telling him about the Fun Club at the gym, and he said they lived right next to the gym. I asked if he lived in the apartment complex next to it, and he said, no, in a house in the neighborhood across the street.

And I felt awkward, and worried that he assumed that I thought he lived in an apartment because I assumed he was poor--because he was black. I was thinking about those apartments because they were where we had lived when we first moved here, and I was wanting to make a further connection with him by saying, "Oh, yeah, we lived there too!" But as soon as it came out of my mouth, I wasn't sure if it came across as a racially assumptive comment. This happened a few months ago, and obviously I am still thinking about it--this otherwise friendly and neighborly conversation with a very sweet dad about his daughter--and this book gave me some things to think about in terms of that conversation. One thing Oluo said is that if a person of color thinks something is about race, then it is--so if this dad that I was talking to thought that I was assuming he lived in an apartment because of his race, then it was about race, because of his prior experiences and treatment that may have conditioned him to notice those assumptions. I didn't mean anything by it myself, but that doesn't mean the conversation didn't feel like that for him.

Oluo does a great job of writing about racism in America and what the real problem is--the systemic oppression of people of color in our country. It's not about every time someone is mean to someone of a different race--it's the fact that people of color are systematically challenged in every way and are being oppressed in every fact of life throughout our country. And every one of us is participating in that system if we are not actively fighting against it. We white people are naturally racist, because that is how we have been raised to be. It doesn't mean that we hate people of color; it means that we have been trained to expect preferential treatment and privilege over other people of different races, even if we are uncomfortable with it when we notice it.

I thought a lot about JJ while reading this book and reading about Oluo's experiences as a person of color growing up in a highly white area. JJ was the token black kid in my grade at my high school--there were maybe two or three others, but JJ was the popular one, and the one who I knew in several of my classes. I distinctly remember someone saying, "Yeah, but JJ isn't really black. He acts like he's from the hood but he lives in a super nice house and is totally rich." Like it was his job to be really black for all the rest of us white kids in Irvine. I am pretty sure I bought into that thought process about JJ at 16, though, and I wonder if it was ever hard or weird for JJ at our high school. Or, I guess I should say, I wonder when it was ever hard or weird for him. I hope it was never me that made it hard.

I want to say that I'm pretty aware of avoiding racist comments and micro-agressions. Oluo lists out a bunch of examples of micro-agressions in one of her chapters, and I feel pretty confident that I would never say any of those things to someone of a different race. I also feel pretty conscious about trying to treat people of different races the same as I would someone of my own race. But I feel conscious about it, meaning that I think about it and am deliberately doing it, which means that I am maybe fighting against my natural tendencies in some ways.

And I definitely am realizing how complicit I am in the whole racist system in our country after listening to this book. I felt sick listening to Oluo's description of how black boys are treated in our schools (the school-to-prison pipeline chapter just is heart-wrenching) and imagining the cute kids at Dane's school being treated that way. I imagined black teenagers messing around the same way as white teenagers and realized with force how true it is that there are times when I or my siblings would probably have been arrested if we had been black. I never did anything against the law, but I remember thinking it was hilarious changing the wording on signs in front of motels when I was 17, and I had never thought about how differently a black kid would be treated if caught doing the same thing. I never expected to get into trouble for doing something like that. And that's not even to mention the horror of black kids and men being shot by police--which IS something I have been aware of and sick about before reading this book, but it is something that I can let slide to the back of my mind because it's not my kids that I have to worry about. That is not okay. I want to do more and do better. I want to make sure that the cute kindergarteners at Dane's school stay safe--I think they are; I think Dane's school does a decent job about treating children of color the same, but I guess I only think that because I've assumed they are. I want to help our community become more inclusive. And that's one reason why I've been so grateful that Dane is going to the school that he is--it's a very diverse school, with lots of different races and groups of kids represented, and I want to have him think it's normal to be friends with kids of all colors. I know our country is not the magical melting pot that we learned it was in elementary school (like Oluo describes), but I want to think it can be better for our kids. But that starts with us.

I don't even know how to write about this book without making it all about me. (Obviously I have, since all of the paragraphs so far have been about me.) Oluo is very clear that discussions about race are not about me (the white person). But this book was meant to be introspective and get the reader thinking about where they can and should improve in their discussions and relations with people of other races, so I guess this is a good thing. It was so thought-provoking and definitely was good for me.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

I have never read The Wind in the Willows before, and I'm happy to have finally added this classic to my list. But I'm even more happy that I read this with the boys. Dane really loved it, but I think it was too high of a level for Graham, which just made it hard for him to follow along, but I think it was still worth a read to see how Dane enjoyed it. I loved how this book's language and level of diction was higher than most children's books of today, and some of the beautiful writing was just inspiring for me to read, not to mention for them to hear. Like this passage describing the river from the first chapter, about Mole:

"He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated."

I loved each of the stories of the four friends--Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad--and how they stood by each other and helped each other and cared for each other. I think the tender-hearted Mole was my favorite--I loved the chapter where he went past his old home and couldn't help but want to go back, and how Rat was so kind and thoughtful to him. I feel like there was a lot of deep thought and kindness behind the stories in this book, and I am so glad to have read it. 

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

I honestly didn't know much about this book, but I'm on a quest to read or re-read some of the most quintessentially British books before we go to England in August, and this one fit the bill. I'd heard about it for years, but didn't really know what it was about, and honestly, knowing that it was the memoirs of a rural English veterinarian wouldn't probably have made me more likely to want to read it. But I'm so glad I did. It is really impressive how beautifully Herriot writes and how much he makes the reader feel like they are there in every one of his experiences with the animals he's taking care of. I loved reading about the deliveries of calves and lambs, and his admiration of the people of Yorkshire. I was impressed by how well he could describe the people he would visit. He made it seem like his job was one of the most rewarding and interesting ones ever, even though it was definitely unglamorous and crazy (like he starts off at the very beginning with the line, "They didn't say anything about this in the books"). It was really worth a read and absolutely made me want to go visit Yorkshire someday... and to go back to the 1930s when things were actually like this and so different than they are today.

Happy Times in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren

I read this book with Dane when he was three or four, and I just finished reading it separately with Graham. We've been reading another book together with both boys and it is taking us for-e-ver, but this one we got through pretty quickly (although we don't read super regularly just me and Graham). I absolutely love these two Noisy Village books, and would love to read them with each of my kids (and hope that they will re-read them on their own too). I love that Graham's favorite chapters--the ones that he reacted to the most and which he clearly loved--were the ones about baby Kirsten and her cute little antics. I love the chapter about the cherry company where they try to sell their cherries--it seems like such a perfect childhood thing to do.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

Look at me, I'm sooooo cultured, just sitting here on a Sunday reading a Shakespeare play like it's no big deal. Ha! I have meant to re-read some Shakespeare plays for years and years, and now I finally have a good reason to: we are going to England in August and we will be seeing a Shakespeare play at the Globe Theater. THIS Shakespeare play, to be exact. We bought tickets for The Comedy of Errors one of the last nights we will be in London. I have to say that I have spent my whole life imagining London, and hearing about the Globe Theater, so this is the culmination of a whole life of being a book-lover and an English major, and I am so excited. I also was pleasantly surprised that this was a reasonably easy play to read and to follow. I think I had my idea of Shakespeare plays coming from my high school experiences, struggling to read these really complex plays that were too high of a level for me to read, and where I needed to use the explanatory notes for every single line to understand what was being said. But now, as a far more mature reader (ahem), I was able to basically sail through without much problem understanding what the players were saying. I think this will be a funny play to watch, with plenty of hilarious scenes and hopefully it will be easy to understand (although I'm sure there will be plenty of errors as a viewer, as the title suggests). I think a little bit of background helps to ground this play in the necessary suspension of disbelief, to know that it comes from a Greek form and from the Greek playwright Plautus, which helps to explain why neither twin starts to suspect what's going on or why nobody notices any differences in clothing or accent or anything. I actually really enjoyed reading this, and can't wait to see it. (I had a goal to read five Shakespeare plays this year, and this was the first one. I'm going to try and read a few more before we go to England as well.)

The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I absolutely loved this book as a kid. Loved it. And I loved the movie too--I want to re-watch it again after reading it. (I literally cannot watch the movie without crying at the ending--"Papa! Papa!") I love the message and the meaning behind it, and I love the story of how good little Sara is in the face of horrible circumstances. I know it's not the most realistic of stories--nobody, especially not a child, is that good. Nobody is going to give up five of their six rolls when they are starving to death, even if encountering someone more starving. (Maybe one, but not five.) Nobody is that controlled over their emotions to be able to think about acting like a princess when their most important basic needs are not being met--not enough food, no warmth, no human love. But that doesn't detract from the story for me at all. It's a part of the magic of the story, that Sara is above all of those things, and that she's able to stay her good self even in the face of adversity. This is a classic that didn't lose its beauty even after decades since I'd read it the first time. I can't wait to read this with my kids... the problem is just that I have so many books I want to read with them. How will I ever get through them all?

Sorry! The English and their Manners by Henry Hitchings

Another getting-ready-for-England book. This is a study of the history of manners, particularly those of the English (duh, as the title makes clear), and how those manners have originated and morphed over the centuries. Hitchings also makes some broad claims about the English culture and persona as a whole, which I felt was interesting for me to read as an American, and comparing the difference between how we view things. It was really interesting reading about how people wrote about and viewed manners in the previous centuries, and how those manners changed over time, and who were the big contributors to those changes.

I feel like what this book needed was a good editor. This could have been a lot more interesting and well organized. It definitely rambled a bit and I was itching to reorganize things for him, add headers to sections, and shorten it down--because there was a lot of interesting information just thrown together without having much structure. Maybe I've been spoiled by recent non-fiction books, but most of them that I've read lately have had a clear structure, with an obvious progression through the book, different topics for each chapter, and headers dividing up topics within each chapter. This one basically had none of those things. He kind of went through historically, but then had random chapters that were out of the chronological order on specific topics, and went off on tangents within chapters that were never connected in very well. Overall, I skimmed the last half of this book and got what I think was worth it out of it. I feel like I could have summarized this better if it had been written better, because it's hard to even remember what was written in all of it.