mjgriffinii74656 's review for:

The Year I Stopped Trying by Katie Heaney

5.0

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I've been savoring this book over the last month. I've convinced people to read it. They finished it before I did, but I still held on to the slow burn, the anticipation. I was immediately hooked by the summary and the idea: a "perfect" student who slowly starts to let go of their perfections, who "stops trying" and starts living. As an educator, I spend a lot of time thinking about the classroom experience and what I teach, and I would say a great deal of that is also thinking about my students and their culture, the culture of our school, what it means to be young and to be a learner today. But this book helped expand my thinking some. And the twist? The oh so sweet awesome twist that happens? Yeah, I didn't see that coming. And for someone like me who talks the game of not really caring about "spoilers" and being spoiler proof. I think just like the narrator I too would have been knocked sideways by such a revelation, and it makes me so happy I couldn't anticipate, couldn't see it coming. Top 5 books I've read in 2022 without a doubt, and surely will be a favorite for years to come.