Fall reading (and a book club!)

Looking back at summer reading

The summer before 8th grade, I volunteered at my town library to help with their summer reading program.

Back then, I was as much a nerd as I am now, and spending my free time surrounded by books, talking about stories with the people around me, cheering on little six-year-olds as they finished their first independently-read book, and being taken seriously by librarians was the dream. Some dreams never die, I suppose.

Before that, I’d spent every year absolutely crushing the summer reading challenge, earning pizza slices, ice cream cones, and best of all, gift certificates to the local bookstore.

Summer reading programs for children have never really fluctuated, but as an adult, I love seeing the activities that pop up every June or July for adults. Libraries have them, bookstores do, too, and since I follow so many bookish accounts online, I’ve seen many virtual logging systems, meant to incentivize and motivate reading all summer long.

Nowadays, I can buy myself a slice of pizza whenever I want—not just when I finish a book during the summertime. Which is a good thing, because looking back at my summer reading this year, it wasn’t exactly prolific. I started and stopped several books. Some didn’t capture me, and I set them aside; others, I began with eagerness, but then got distracted when a friend’s book released or a new title I’d been waiting for came out. Those books are still sitting with sadly hopeful bookmarks somewhere a third of the way in.

I bought a lot of books, and now I’m sifting through them, wondering which ones I’m actually ever going to read. This is an issue of mine, but at least I’m supporting authors and the local economy with this problem. The Little Free Libraries also get a lot of love from me, when I’m ready to do another book purge (that’s on my to-do list this week).

As I’m donating books I will not read, and looking at the stack of books I have not read, I’m thinking about how I want to be a reader this coming fall.

Fall reading goals

As a kidlit agent, hardly a week goes by without my giving a specific piece of advice to writers and illustrators: go to a bookstore/library and read as many books in your desired age range/format as you can. Check out at least 50 library books, and study them all. Dive deep into the narrative, the characters, the art, the page turns—all while asking questions about what these creators are doing, how compelled you are by their books (and why!), and whether there’s anything for you to model.

Mostly, though, I give this advice to newer writes and illustrators. Since I’ve already told this to the creators I work with, I don’t remind them too frequently. I don’t send out a monthly email asking what kind of kidlit they read the past four weeks, and how did it inspire them? Change their perspective? Move them forward in their own craft?

I was in a bookstore the other day (though this time I was buying very important books that I will definitely read!), and there was a mom and her small child in the kid’s section. The child had a stack of picture books next to her, and though her mom wasn’t in a hurry, it seemed like she was hoping it would be time to go. When the child asked her mom for one more story, she plucked one off the New Release face out display, which I was also browsing.

One of my favorite New Release sections, at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn

The mom began reading aloud, and my attention wandered from the covers in front of me to the story unfolding in the reading nook. First of all, the mom was Irish, and I blame the accent for pulling me under an immediate spell. But second, the book was good. It was cute, it was a little spooky, it used kid-friendly wordplay that I smiled at while the child laughed, and the ending was both clever and tight.

This moment made me realize that, while I spent the summer in bookstores and libraries, and even while I could visualize the covers of the bestselling kidlit on display, I had not been following my own advice.

My first reading goal of the fall is to check out 50 books across kidlit for me to read and pore over. These will be new and newish releases, and ones that I know are doing well enough, in the market, in reviews, and via word of mouth. These will be across age ranges and genres, including young graphic novels, early chapter books, middle grade graphic novels, board books, and of course, picture books.

Book club—who’s in?

A second reading goal of the fall is to talk about a spooky adult book with folks.

I’m already a member of two book clubs, and so adding a third might be verging on overachieving. But each book club (not just mine, but anyone’s) is so different. They offer their own unqiue things—some are for social time, others get into deep conversation about literary conventions, and most every book club has a theme. Classics, new releases, science fiction, romance, etc.

I’d like this book club to be low pressure, and to include anyone who wants to join, regardless of location. That’s how most everything works now anyway, and I like the inclusive aspect of that. That might mean video meetings, or running text analysis, or a group chat specifically about the book.

I have a list of horror-adjacent, not-too-scary books that I think have broad appeal and (likely) won’t give people nightmares.

Do I need anything more? Probably! But I’ll start here. Let me know if this is something of interest to you!

What are you reading?

We are fully in back-to-school season. Summer is over, and we can no longer quote Taylor Swift’s “August” during every waking moment about the most mundane of moments. After the initial light melancholy of that transition passes, I find there’s always a swell of newfound energy, looking ahead at what’s to come this month, and this season.

I’d love to know: what are you reading right now? What’s on your TBR pile? Do you have any goals for the next few months, when it comes to your reading?

Glimmers to share

✨My Agency showcased some of our great back-to-school books!

✨I love a good horror-themed bookstore, like The Twisted Spine in Brooklyn and Alice’s Haunted Little Bookshop in Mystic, CT, so it was an absolute delight to see a book that I worked on at Alice’s over the weekend. Hooray for Billy and the Hole by Jessica Goecke!

✨My entire house is now decorated with pumpkins. No, it’s not too early.