i picked this book up at my parents' house, so it isn't something that would have caught my eye on my own. that said, i really enjoyed reading it. the premise is horribly sad: a man comes home from work to find that his wife has fallen out of a tree in their backyard and has died. their dog, Lorelei, witnessed it all. the first chapter of this book sucked me in faster than any other book i've read lately. The rest of the book is the journey through the husband's grief and how he just can't accept the explanation for his wife's death. a linguist, he decides that he is going to teach the dog to talk so she can explain what happened that day.
wow. i don't know what happened the last two months that i decided to be horrible at posting. i have been reading . . . not as much as i normally do or would like to be, but i have been reading.
part of the reason i started this blog was so that i would have a way to track what i was reading and avoid falling into the trap of reading the same kinds of books i always read. i'll be honest. i don't think i've done a very good job of breaking out of my literary comfort zones. but yall, i deserve like a million bonus points for eye of the world by robert jordan.
so i discovered megan crane's books last summer. many a day by the pool was spent reading her stories and then i ran out of anymore to read. until this week, when i realized she had published another book. yay! i like crane's books for the same reason i like jane green - she writes for women (some would say "chick lit," but but the feminist in me is debating whether or not she likes that term anymore) without falling into the trap of assuming her audience only wants to read about shoes, crazy friends, financial irresponsibility, sex, etc. i have enjoyed all of her books because they have all been very different from each other and have all stayed away from that cliché that is the "chick lit" novel.
i really wanted to like this book because, well, it's british chick lit and typically, that is right up my alley. not the case with this book. i just didn't get it. the characters annoyed me. the notting hill "name-dropping" references (for which there is a 7 page glossary at the back for stupid americans like me - yes. SEVEN PAGES!), which were endless, were lost on me. i thought the attitude toward marital infidelity was flippant. perhaps i am not rich enough or london savvy enough to have enjoyed this novel. but, you know what? i'm okay with that. normally, after i read a book set anywhere in england or scotland i am ready to pack up everything and move "across the pond" (as they say). um. this book kind of makes me understand my fellow americans who feel like europeans are ridiculous. i never thought i would understand that thought . . .
yikes. do yall realize how hard it is for me to NOT like a book? usually i can find something redeeming. ooooh. i really like the name of the book. catchy. clever. witty.
i FINALLY got to teach this play. last year i had to teach romeo and juliet, which is probably my least favorite of shakespeare's plays . . . not that i don't love it, i just have a few others i would much rather share with my kiddos. AMSND is one of them. i owe my love of will to linda batty - my junior high english teacher. it had been years since i'd actually read this play, but i had great flashbacks to good ol' WRJH during my month with this text. (in particular, i remember us all turning the desks upside down and sitting on the floor to trick batty. the teacher next door was NOT amused.) nowhere in my mind do i think i did it the service that batty did, but maybe someday. i'm hoping one of the outdoor shakespeare companies is performing it this summer. i've never gotten to see it outside and would LOVE to.
i have been waiting for sarah dessen's new book forever. (in case you forgot, she is one of my favorite writers . . . ) it came out on tuesday and it took a lot of self control for me to not go buy it then. i knew once i did, all i would want to do is sit and read it. sooooo, i made myself wait until yesterday. just like all of her other books, this one is now on my list of top whatever. not only did the story suck me in, but i loved catching all of the references to her other books. she doesn't really write sequels, but all of her books are set within the same community, so characters and references to characters pop in and out . . . especially in the last couple of books she's published. (the evil rogerson from dreamland even makes and appearance in this one. bleh.)
i'm trying to find good excerpts to use for a lesson in class next week, so i've been reading a lot of YA lately. i came across this book at the local library and was intrigued. (today, i was happy to see it on the shelves of our school library.) very simply, amal - the main character - is the only muslim student at her ritzy private school, so she already is pretty conspicuous. but then, she decides that she wants to wear the hijab. i learned a lot about islam while reading this book . . . a very different viewpoint than what we are exposed to in the media; a very intellectual understanding of a religion. amal (i had a student with this name one year and i love it! it's so pretty!) has a very authentic teenage voice, although not very stereotypical aussie, which i found interesting since the book is set in australia. i'm wondering if they changed some language for the american audience? or maybe i just have a weak understanding of how people in australia really talk? that's probably closer to the point.
anyway. it was a very quick read, i learned a bit, and i laughed. all in all, a good way to spend a sunday afternoon.
p.s. the new sarah dessen book, lock and key, comes out tomorrow! woohoo!
chick lit. cute. slightly racy, but overall pretty tame. it was a very quick read, so if you are looking for some entertainment by the pool this summer, this might be a good one. there is a certain expletive used quite a bit, though, so probably not a book everyone would like.
i saw this book a few weeks ago at the bookstore, but fought off the urge to buy it. so, i was really glad to come across it at the library the other day. gary schmidt wrote lizzie bright and the buckminster boy, which is one of my favorite juvenile literature books from the last few years. the wednesday wars is set in long island during the school year of 1967-1968. camillo junior high, where it is set, is a school almost 50% jewish and 50% catholic, except for holling - the narrator. holling is the lone presbyterian in his 7th grade english class and so he gets left alone with mrs. baker - the teacher who 'hates his guts' - every wednesday when the jewish kids leave for hebrew school at 1:45 and the catholic kids leave for catechism classes at 1:55. their wednesdays together start out as days filled with extra chores for holling, but eventually become shakespeare class. and of course, mrs. baker never really hates holling . . .
i'm sitting here typing this and really wishing that i taught younger kids - something that rarely happens. i won't bore you with the lesson ideas that are swarming, but trust me, they are there. i love finding juvenile literature books that aren't 'dumbed down' to their audience and both of schmidt's books that i've read avoid that simplicity. now i want to read his other two books - aaron's way and straw into gold.
after the last book i read, i decided to go back to some serious fluff. and oh boy, was this fluff. there is a whole collection of these incredibly cheesy romances geared toward teenage girls. i read them occasionally because i have actually found a few that are good and have put them on my bookshelf. they tend to be really easy to read and you know what? some of my students need that. i picked this one up because it takes place in austin. and that's about it. i have feeling the author probably googled "cool hangouts in austin" to write this book because there were a few references to waterloo records, sixth street, red river street, and the backyard - but i never really felt like the book was actually in austin . . . oh well.
if you haven't read any current YA lit, don't let this be the one you do read. there's tons more 'stuff' out there that is way less formulaic and incredibly more complex. also, if you haven't been to austin before, um, you totally should.
usually when someone gives me a book and tells me how much it impacted them, i can't wait to read it. nineteen minutes was different, though, because it's about a school shooting. a subject i quite honestly don't like to think about. at all.
someone gave me this book last year for my birthday, and i just finally got the courage to open it. i'd never read a jodi picoult book until now. i know so many people who love her books, but i just always seem to have other stuff piled up to read. after reading nineteen minutes i can see why people are fans of hers. there are so many story lines going on in this book and i am amazed at how she managed to keep them all straight, relevant, and intriguing. but, as i said, nineteen minutes is about a topic that, as a teacher, is really hard for me to think about, much less read a book about and find any sort of - and i use this word lightly - 'entertainment.' to be honest, books like this just make me feel helpless as a teacher. so while i found the story thought provoking, i don't really like how unsettled i feel now that i'm done.
do i think that was her point in writing it? yes.
here's another author i could read and read and read. i think i only have one more of his books to dig into, though, so hopefully he writes some more . . .
i'm at a loss in how to describe why i love haruf's books so much. his writing is completely different than anything else i read. i think part of my attraction to his stories is the connection i feel to where they are set. holt, colorado is so similar to the kansas town that my family is from. (there's even a duckwall's!) so it's easy for me to picture everything in my head. i'm not going to lie eventide is a pretty heavy book. haruf packs a lot of drama into books that don't look like they have much to them. but in the midst of all of that drama, you really get to see genuine compassion haruf has for his characters'.
that's weak, yall. i'm sorry. maybe i'll come back and write more on this one at another time because i really really really really loved this book.
it took me forever to read this book. who knows what the fines are that i have wracked up at my local library . . . i'm not so good at remembering to renew things. anyway. this was a different kind of book than what i was expecting. i like novels that are told from several perspectives, so i liked it on that level. dogs play a huge role in the story and you know what pets as main characters can lead to, right? yeah. so let's just say there were some tears and quite a few cuddles with my own pup.
it's been a good long while since i read a book by mary higgins clark. one summer back in college, i think that is all i read. i grabbed this book the other day while i was waiting on my flight back from kc. i love the kc airport's easy-to-get-around airport, but i must admit the literary selection is quite lacking. so i ended up with i heard that song before. overall, it was a pretty good little mystery. i get really irritated with books that are mostly broken up into 3-page chapters, like this one did. so, it did seem to go on forever. but . . . i'm done now, so i can finally finish up some other books that are waiting for me.
p.s. i tried to read alice sebold's latest book, the almost moon. rarely do i start a book and put it down because i am bothered by it . . . usually i keep reading. i couldn't do that with the almost moon. i made it through chapter one on saturday and then closed. i doubt i will go back to it. i'm sure it's a fabulous story - the lovely bones is a story i still remember - but the first chapter disturbed me so much that i just can't finish the rest.
it took me too long to discover sarah dessen's books. in fact, i purposefully ignored them because i thought they would be too cheesy and girly. where i got this idea, i have no idea. it took my cousin, joy, telling me that i absolutely HAD to read just listen when it first came out. those of you who know joy, know that she is always right. her leading me in SD's direction was just another example of the always being right thing.
so now, i pretty much worship sarah dessen. not in like a creepy way. just in like a i think we would be fast friends if we ever met way. (she spells her name with an 'H' and loves friday night lights and the office and sephora. AND AND AND she LOVES college basketball! um. hello? me too! and noooooo, i don't know these things because of the whole creepy thing. she blogs pretty consistently.)
back to my point. just listen was my first and probably still my favorite of her books. the music discussions all the way through this book make me think of so many moments from my own life. it came out in paperback this last week, so of course i had to get it to read, which pretty much made for a perfect day at the park on saturday afternoon with my pup and 80 degree weather and the start of browner legs and a touch of pink on my cheeks still today. now, i'm really in a dessen mood, so i'll probably end up rereading her other books over the next month. but, that'll have to wait because i put my 'collection' out in my classroom today and all but ONE of the books disappeared for DEAR time and ALL of the girls who picked them up wanted to keep reading them on their own.
just one more reason sarah dessen rocks.
originally, all i was going to say about this book was "eh." but, i really got into it the last 100 pages or so. annnnnnnnnnd, i must say for a chick lit book, it has one of the best endings i've read in a while. if you read it, be prepared for a lot of british wordiness at the beginning. overall, pretty good story, though. i might read some of jane sigaloff's books this summer. seems like they might make good poolside/tanning fare.
so. meg cabot. i was really really really into her books a few years ago. but my reading lists got overwhelmed with so many other books, i just had to take a break from her. teen idol was the first of her books that i'd read in a while. the pink, purple, and silver cover art probably gives away that it is whole-heartedly a F-U-N book. right now, though, people i'm in the midst of teaching about the Holocaust to one set of students, then i will turn around and teach it to my other set (all in all, probably about 3 months on such a heavy subject). PLUS, the albatross that is the joy of ELA 8th grade teachers in tejas is right around the corner. yup. taks. so seriously, with just those two things combined, i need a little a little fluff - although i really could go on and on about the strong girl characters that cabot ALWAYS creates and the positive messages her books send toward teenage girls, which means her books are never truly and really FLUFF. instead, i'll tell you that if you like to read writers' blogs, you should check hers out.
so, i am an official resident of where i live now . . . i finally got my drivers license, am registered to vote, AND have a library card. it only took 19 months . . .
bloom has the distinction of being the first book i used my card for. exciting. i know. anyway. it was a very fast read and is, of course, a YA book. hey, i spent most of january reading outside of my comfort zone. give a girl a break. i'd never read any of elizabeth scott's books before. she is very much like sarah dessen and deb caletti. i liked bloom. it did kind of drag a little for me, but it was a sweet story. she has a couple of other books out, so i'll be looking into them i am sure. there is no doubt in my mind that mis estudiantes would like bloom, which, you know, is really the most important part of it. i'm starting book talks in march and will make sure to include it.
okay. so. i need some suggestions on books to read. i have garden spells on hold (look at me actually using the library services!) because i've only heard great things about it. any others? i kind of feel like a biography, so if you know of some good and interesting ones, let me know!
have any of you read any of the books written by obama, mccain, h. clinton? worth reading? just curious!
this is the sequel to a YA book that i really like called the gospel according to larry. it was a fast little read and very current because, obviously, it is about an election. not just ANY election, but the first election where an 18-year-old runs for president. ( in the book the states ratified an amendment to change the law from 35 to 18.) to be honest, i didn't anticipate that there would be a sequel to tgatl the first time i read it, so, at times, v4l seemed a little bit too contrived. BUT, it totally brings up some really important issues and statistics that teens need to be aware of and somehow none of that 'stuff' turns boring or preachy.
have you ever been walking through the neighborhood 'market' derivative of that big box store we all know and love with your random assortment of peanut butter pup treats, strawberry yogurt, butterfinger chocolate hearts, and apples only to be suddenly hypnotized by the bright fluorescent lights that are seemingly glowing only on that one danielle steel novel on the end cap at the self checkout lane?
anyone?
hmm.
two of my all-time favorite books are d.s. classics: zoya and message from nam. i'm sure they'll get listed here eventually as 'read' because they are staples in my pool bag every summer. sisters didn't quite live up to either and there were at least two scenes in the book that were absolutely HORRIFIC, but it still was fun to read some fluff.
i finally got my drivers license transferred, so i can go to the library and start finding more books that i'm too cheap to buy!!!
i know right now that any review i post of this book is not going to do it justice. for some reason i forget how much i love to read essays and memoirs. then, i seem to find myself shocked when i read a book that falls into that category and i fall hopelessly in love with it. trust me. it's happened before . . . like the summer i discovered sarah vowell and decided that she and i could be besties. yeah. so that's what i'm feelin' with susan jane gilman here. i'll be honest, i've been trying to decide whether or not to buy this book for the last year or so, but felt bad because my initial reason for wanting to read it was based solely on its cover. but, you can see why, right? so here is my simple review . . . i love how sarcastic, ironic, and crass gilman is and how she surrounds all of that with candid and sincere observations about life. my most favorite people in life seem to have a crazy knack for that. and even though she is jewish and was raised by her extreme leftist parents on the upper west side in nyc before it was gentrified, which is totally different from my suburban-okie-methodist upbringing, i really feel like she was writing for me. things i need to read right now. plus. she's a Feminist. so rock on.
So, while I was dusting, I came across my favorite Jane Green book. I know I just read Straight Talking, but this one is soooooo much better. Maybe I love this book so much because Cath - the main character - opens a bookstore and cafe, which is of course my dream in life.
Yes, I teach this, but I figure if I have to read it five times a day, I get to count it on my list. Not that I'm complaining or anything, I actually love Animal Farm. This is one of those books that I'm amazed I got through school without ever having to read. In fact, the first time I read it was last year. Apparently, I have soft spot in my heart for allegorical novels about Russian history.
Rating: **** of 6
Still working on reading some real literature like Steinbeck and Emerson, but in the mean time I really needed to be lazy this morning and read a good standby. So, I settled on Straight Talking by Jane Green. I am a big fan of hers because she writes "chick lit" without succumbing any real formula. For example, all of her heroins are pretty strong women prior to the inevitable romancing at place in "chick lit." Their "Prince Charmings" aren't there to save them, which is refreshing to read. Also, every single one of her books is incredibly different from her others.
That said, ST isn't my favorite of hers, but I hadn't read it in a while, so I gave it a go. It's a little more, um, shall we say, racy than any of her other books. But it was a quick, fast read. Now that I've gotten some entertainment reading out of the way, maybe I can get down to the heavy stuff.
Rating: *** of 6
Those of you who are teachers know what SSR is. Self-sustained silent reading. Ah. It is a magical thing, when used correctly, in a classroom. I rarely have difficulties making time to read and when I do make time, I NEVER have difficulty focusing. Until this week.
I am trying to read. And, I really do like the book that I pick up for about 5 minutes a day. A few months ago, I decided to start reading travel memoirs. There is a long drawn out story as to why I decided this, but I'll forgo it for now. Anyway, I came across an author who drew his inspiration from John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley and I thought, "Hey. I've never really read Steinbeck. I should read that!" (How I went through both high school and college in Oklahoma without having to read Steinbeck, I'll never quite understand.) So, I bought it. I'm 32 pages in. I seriously read about a page a day. If that. It's quite entertaining, though, so I hope I get motivated to read it with my full attention.
I don't read books by pages. I consume them - Harry Potter Number 7=9.5 hours! - so this whole page by page thing is driving me crazy.
Unfortunately, my nourishment this week was drawn from Nyquil (a gift from God, I'm convinced), diet 7Up, apples, and fat free saltines (7 for a WW point!). And here's a shocker - said 'nourishment' does not really give me the energy to sit and read. Instead, all I have really wanted to do is sleep. Hopefully, this will pass, because I'm rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy bored without books.
i turn 30 this year. gah. that might be the first time i have written those terrifying words, which makes them a little more of a reality. i've got a good five months and several other friends who will or already have hit the big 3-0 before me to help me adjust to the idea of entering another decade in my life. as we switch over to 2008, though, i do find myself doing a lot of thinking about certain accomplishments i hope to have in this, my thirtieth year. some of those - running at least one 5k race a month, spending at least 30 minutes outside every day, finally taking up yoga, keeping a plant alive, going back to school (again!), writing, paying all of my bills on time, keeping my car cleaned out, keeping my house clean and organized, getting my dog to lose 7 pounds before the summer heat rolls around, avoiding the candy bowl at work - are probably things i should automatically be doing anyway by nature of being an 'adult', so i don't know if they really qualify as resolutions. they might be more like obvious responsibilities.
every year, though, i do say i am going to read more. for those of you who know me, you might find that somewhat odd, as i tend to read quite a bit as it is. but in the last few years i have started to notice that i tend to read the same kinds of books over and over. so my resolution to 'read more' really should include the word 'variety.' so. that is the purpose of this new blog. i'm going to keep track of what i'm reading over this year. this is sort of an experiment for me. i, either arrogantly or selfishly, want to see exactly how many books i read in a year's time. also, i kind of feel like if i keep a log - just like if you keep a food log - i will pay more attention to WHAT i'm reading, which will hopefully inspire me to peruse more than my typical two rows at barnes and noble.
so, if you care to see what i'm reading, or if you are trying to figure out what to read, check here, maybe? i might do a little reviewing, but i don't really know what this blog will evolve into. i do know, though, that i will definitely need suggestions for what TO read. feel free to make those.
oh! happy new year, yall!
