It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
For readers of all ages
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop we host which focuses on sharing what we’re reading. This Kid Lit version of IMWAYR focuses primarily on books marketed for kids and teens, but books for readers of all ages are shared. We love this community and how it offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.
The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. The Kid Lit IMWAYR was co-created by Kellee & Jen at Teach Mentor Texts.
We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.
Happy reading!
Wednesday: Kellee’s 2025 Reading Recap & Stats and 2025 5 ⭐ Reads
Sunday: Author’s Guest Post: “Teaching Dual Perspectives Through Adventure Stories”
by Sarah Branson, Author of For the Love of Glitter & A Pirates’ Pact
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Kellee
I am off this week! You can always learn more about any of the books I’ve been reading by checking out my read bookshelf on Goodreads.
Ricki
All right, y’all. I have a lot of books to share since the break! Full disclosure: Every time I am sad from the news, I read a romance, so there’s a lot of romance lately. I have some pretty awesome books to share!
Middle Grade
I’d never read Front Desk by Kelly Yang, so I grabbed a copy! I love the life lessons in this book. It teaches about immigration, and there are a lot of connections between the economy and activism. I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it!
Young Adult
First, three wonderful Lynn Painter YA romances, Better than the Movies, Nothing Like the Movies, and Fake Skating. I recommend all three. I read all of them in a row because I enjoyed her writing so much.
I had read about Deb J. J. Lee’s graphic memoir in many places, and I decided to find it in my stacks. This is another book I recommend highly. I can see why it gets so much praise. I also appreciated the ways it incorporated understandings of the eye fold.
Sacha Lamb’s The Forbidden Book won a regional award, so I downloaded it. I really appreciate this Jewish fantasy. I also appreciate that publishers are printing books that extend beyond Holocaust novels for Jewish characters. I am not sure why this one has such a low rating on GoodReads because I thought it was very well done.
Hayley Chewins’ I Am the Swarm has many starred reviews, so I snagged a copy. I liked reading this one in print over listening to it–in case you are thinking about giving it a try. There is powerful symbolism of bugs in this book.
Candace Fleming’s Death in the Jungle is a nonfiction account of Jonestown—the cult, murders, and mass suicide. Candace Fleming is a fantastic writer, and this book hooked me from beginning to end.
I added Frederick Joseph’s This Thing of Ours to my syllabus next semester because I really liked the incorporation of basketball, creative writing, and activism in this book. It is very well-written, as with all of Joseph’s books.
I adored Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Legendary Frybread Drive-In. It’s a fantastic collection of short stories. Each story was interesting and thoughtful, and I am so glad this collection exists!
Whew–This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux takes readers through quite a rollercoaster. This graphic novel is almost like a murder mystery and a thriller. I really appreciated its tackling of difficult topics.
Adult
I had never read Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, and given its praise (and the fact it is going to be a movie), I decided to give it a go. I really appreciated this well-written story and am glad I went back to read it!
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson is a fantastic nonfiction text. A few friends read it at the same time as me, and we all really appreciated Dr. Gibson’s knowledge.
My son read Michale Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat’s nonfiction book: The Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz. This is a tough, tough read about a child’s experience in Auschwitz. I felt absolutely gutted as I read it, but I am very glad that I did.
Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men is a translation. It’s a dystopian story about 30 women locked in a cage underground. I really, really enjoyed reading this book and immediately wanted to talk about it with other people. Highly recommend. It’s not new, but it went viral recently, so a bunch of folks are reading it.
I really enjoyed Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. It’s incredibly well-written—a story about a woman who washes ashore a very remote island. She is searching for her husband, and instead, she finds a family on the island.
Fredrik Backman’s My Friends is truly one of the best books I’ve ever read about friendship. This one is also very well-written. My book club read it, and everyone loved it. It’s hard to get all of us to agree because we have different book tastes, but this one was a winner.
I’ve attended two book clubs that read Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This historical fiction is a must-read. I learned a lot about women in NASA (a topic I didn’t think I could find to be so fascinating!)
Catherine Newman’s Wreck is another book club book. I liked it okay—it’s send on Cape Cod, so I enjoyed reading it while I was visiting family there. But it was a bit slower in pace (which some people like!).
I will never forget Jennette McCurdy’s Half His Age. It’s about a teacher-student relationship, and I found it incredibly disturbing. It’s vulgar and raw, and it holds no punches.
Adult Romance
I am going to share a very brief comment about each romance!
Alison Cochrun’s The Charm Offensive is a queer romance set on a television reality show set that is very similar to the Bachelor series.
Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After and One Golden Summer are a celebration of summer in romance form.
I love every book in Sarah Adam’s When In Rome and In Your Dreams are a part of a series set in Rome, Kentucky, and I enjoyed every book in this series.
I will also read anything Ali Hazelwood writes, and Two Can Play is about two video game designers.
I loved Lynn Painter’s YA texts, so I snagged Maid for Each Other. I laughed out loud a lot while reading this one. The female narrator is very funny. This is like a rendition of Pretty Woman, but don’t we all love that movie?
Jodi McAlister’s An Academic Affair is about two grad students who become professors and have to compete for the same job.
Lily King’s Heart the Lover is very literary and not quite a romance in its prime focus (but it is a romance). I couldn’t decide whether to put this in my adult or adult romance section. I recommend reading this one with your eyes rather than listening. I don’t think its literary strength is as appreciated on audio (I read it both ways).
Zakiya N. Jamal’s Sparks Fly is a really fun romance that offers some great commentary about AI. I really enjoyed this one.
Julie Olivia’s If It Makes You Happy is about a woman who is post divorce and whose mom just died. She is taking care of an inn that her mom started.
Ricki
Love is a War Song by Danica Nava
Wednesday: The Case of the Scarlet Snakebite by Christyne Morrell
Thursday: Sofia’s YA Book Nook: Nothing More to Tell by Karen M. McManus
Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!
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