In my mind, I try to keep my Monday Musings posts on topics that are not books and reading, but in absence of inspiration and in the presence of book mail, I thought I’d run with my Literary YA box from PageHabit.

This month’s box was curated by Aditi Khorana. I’m more excited about reading her book after reading her letter to readers, in which she invokes Rudine Sims Bishop, whose work I’m using to justify my dissertation topic.

The box includes Khorana’s book, The Library of Fates loosely based on what happened when Alexander the Great invaded India (click here for more info), Orleans, set in futuristic hostile Orleans where the MC is trying to save a baby from Delta Fever, by Sherri L. Smith (click here for more info) and Brown Girl Dreaming, a memoir in verse by Jacqueline Woodson (click here for more info), among other bookish goodies.

So the theme of this box is mirrors and windows – Khorana said she remembers loving books as a child and searching for herself within those books. The three stories are stories about female friendship, about “women who rescue themselves each each other.”

I already own Brown Girl Dreaming; my hardcover copy was a present from my wife on our first Christmas as a couple, so I’m trying to decide what to do with this copy. I could take it to school and put it on the shelf in my classroom, or I could send it to my mother, who I’ve been trying to get to read it forever, or I could do a giveaway.

Update: I’m sending it to my mom, but she’s going to send it back when she’s done. Thoughts on what I should do with it after that?