2018 Reading Goals

Update: January

I set out at the beginning of the year,  to read twelve types of books in 2018. This month I decided to start by reading a book that has won a prize for excellence.

 A while back Amazon was offering a great deal on a YA book that had won acclaim, and I downloaded it onto my Kindle.  It has sat in my Kindle library for quite a while.  In scanning my library, I noticed One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia, had won five literary awards: A Newbery Honor Book, Scott O'Delll Award for Historical Fiction, Coretta Scott King Award, ALA Best Fiction For Young Adults and a National Book Award Finalist - a perfect pick for award-winning book.

image from Amazon

One Crazy Summer is actually the first in a series of three books about the Gaither sisters: Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern.  Delphine, the eldest sister, is the narrator and a very responsible one at that.  In true big sister fashion, she takes charge of her siblings as they travel from Brooklyn to Oakland, California to visit their mother who left them soon after Fern, the youngest Gaither sister, was born. Neither Vonetta nor Fern have any memory of their mother, and they have hopes of a tender reunion and visits to glamorous places like Disneyland. Upon arrival they are quickly awoken to reality.  Their mother did not ask to have them visit and is anything but welcoming.  She shoves them daily out the door to fend for themselves at a Black Panther Day Camp for kids.  The year is 1968.

Image from Google

FLASHBACK!  I soon found myself thinking back to my high school and college days- the age of protests and sit-ins. Back then the Black Panther Party was a scary thing to me.  I'm ashamed to admit, I do not know a great deal about it, other than it was not the peaceful Civil Rights movement of Martin Luther King.  But One Crazy Summer led me to learn a little more about it's co-founder Huey Newton and some of the workings of the movement. The historical perspective of this book alone is worth the reading, but the endearing Gaither sisters, especially Delphine, make the reading delightful.

Time To Step It Up

Stepping Forward

I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions.  In fact, I gave up on that practice a long time ago. I never kept my resolutions, and who wants to feel like a failure all the time?

But, I do like setting goals and trying to achieve them, because then, even if you don't reach your goals, there is progress forward in trying to achieve them. Giving yourself a goal line to shoot for gives your life direction and purpose.

So, in that spirit, I am setting a goal for myself. Just one. To walk 10,000 steps a day. Years ago, my doctor started a side business on this very principal.  Apparently, science discovered that you don't really need an expensive gym membership to get fit. All you really need is what God gave you...your two feet! 

I was inspired initially when my doctor mentioned this simple fact, but my enthusiasm soon waned when I discovered I didn't walk anything  close to 10,000 steps a day. I was still working (at a sedentary job) and was too tired to do much else. Using that lame excuse, my step-counting days soon fell by the wayside.

Now as I SIT here in retirement, watching my body implode (aging really SUCKS) I feel like it's time (Biggest Understatement Ever) to take charge. Set a goal. Do something.  That something will be to walk, and walk, and walk.  (Please dear knees don't let me down yet). 

I've dug out my Fitbit, charged it up, and strapped it on.  I've written this post, to hold myself accountable.  Wish me luck.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.