Just read this wonderful post from Joyce @ Getting kids reading, which I found via Jen Robinson’s Booklights PBS site. I love the idea of a reading bubble and know I have one that I carry with me. This post reminded me of a conversation my husband and I had about “what’s it like being married to a bookish person, now bookish, blogging person?”
I posed this question to my husband on our recent road trip to St. Paul before I started reading The Luxe to him.
I have always been a reader and live by the motto that you should take a book with you wherever you go… because you never know when traffic might come to a stop, a line might stop moving etc. I read in the car every chance I get and thank my lucky stars that I’m not one of those unfortunate souls(sorry Kaylee) that get car sick while reading. In other words I love my reading bubble and do not like it to be poked.
Of course, when you are married you have to be nice to that other person. You have to listen to their stories and conversation (yes, you love that person and their stories but still!); it bursts your reading bubble frequently. Years ago when my father found out I was getting married he told Greg one of “his jobs would be to drive me places!” My Dad failed to mention that I would be reading every time we got in the car! My husband loves to converse and over time I’ve learned when I hear this audible sigh…it’s time to put the book mark in and have a two-sided conversation. I don’t think I got a straight answer to my posed question but it did open a great conversation and I did read to him, which then caused more great conversation about the book. My answer would be intellectually stimulating, of course!!
Tag: adventures
Catching Fire
I read it in just a few short days and I loved it. It truly amazes me when authors are so prolific w/ new ideas. I thought Suzanne Collins’ series, Gregor was fascinating. This whole created world underneath our world, accessed through a vent in a laundry room was cool and now, to have created this look into the future through The Hunger Games; well, I’m just bowled over with her creativity!
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1543302482
Enjoy the video and click here for Scholastic website where I found tons of cool videos featuring Suzanne Collins discussing life, books and the similarities between Gregor and Hunger Games series. What impresses me most is how real her characters become and how involved I feel. I worry when Katniss doesn’t eat enough. I feel involved with Peeta, Prim, and Gale and this time getting a closer look at past games and how they affected their parents generation was interesting. A peaceful person by nature, I struggle through the actual Hunger Game event, which causes me to cheer when Katniss truly listens to Haymitch’s message; who is the real enemy?? I’m excited for the next in the series but I’ve got a lot of other books to read in the meantime!
Our DC photos-July, 2009
Another road-trip
Off we go for another summer trip, this time to Ely, MN where my extended immediate family will be gathering to celebrate my mother’s 29th:) birthday!! My three brothers, two sisters-in-law and their five children (all under the age of seven) except for my 17-year-old step-daughter will be convening at a cabin there for the next five days. See there is Ely way up there, next to Canada. While I’m that close I could go check out there health care system (kidding, M. Moore already did that). I am looking forward to spending time with my family, reading, cooking, and playing with children. Hopefully, it will be warm enough to swim every day in the lake. Everyone in my family loves to read, cook and talk politics. Luckily, we are mostly of the same party so that leaves out one thing to argue about! My three brothers all had children later in life…about the same time I had J. so all the kids will be playing together happily! Of course, the only other girl cousin is only 7 mos. old bu J. will deal. She can run with the boys, then play dress-up with the real baby!
I am taking books to read but do not know if I will have time to blog or if I can borrow someone else’s laptop as mine is still not functioning. Right now I have so much packing and house-cleaning to finish I can’t even think of the books packed away in my duffel, waiting for me to read. Does anybody else clean their house before they leave for a trip? My fourteen-year-old thought I was crazy when I said I would be vacuuming soon! By the way, he won’t be joining us in Ely as he is heading off for two weeks in Alaska with another set of grandparents!
Safe travels for everyone!
p.s. notice the new peaceful reader look!! I learned a little about
rewriting HTML code this morning!!
Peace!
Author Joseph Bruchac
I like Joseph Bruchac…well, I like the three books of his I’ve read; Skeleton Man, Heart of a chief and his newest book, March toward the thunder (2008), a historical fiction novel set during the summer of 1864. The main character is Louis Nolette, an Abenaki Indian from Canada. He is 15-years-old and is recruited to join the Fighting 69th, Irish Brigade. He joins because he knows it is wrong to own another human, he likes the idea of a paycheck and perhaps also he is looking for a bit of adventure. What follows is a fictional account of the battles taking place from April to August.
What I loved about this book were the descriptions of what soldiers experienced in the Civil War. I’d always heard stories of brothers fighting brothers in battle but this book brings to life what it must have felt like to feel so close to the enemy. There is a two-page description (p. 34-35) of what it was like to load their issued rifle…one ball at a time, so each time they fired they had to reload. The description of the doctor’s tent is vividly real. I’ve read other fictional accounts of this time period; this one really helped me grasp exactly how those battles would feel. Louis tells us all about how each battle was won or lost in a remembering back sequence, which makes it easy to understand and feel how awful the battle really was. This is a great book to show what is truly lost during war.
Bruchac does a wonderful job of telling the story through Louis’ eyes in this first person narrative. Louis, a quiet soldier, easily makes friends and through his relationships we see what kind of person he is and how it is that through it all he survives. He experiences racism in the midst of putting his life on the line for a country that doesn’t even see him as a full citizen. I learned a great deal reading this book and now want to read Codetalker, Bruchac’s book about Native Americans in WWII. Anybody interested in the Civil War, Native life or great characters will enjoy this story.
Check out Joseph Bruchac’s website here.
American Indians in Children’s Lit. website reviews it here.
and a great review by Brian Griggs here.
What is your favorite historical fiction book?
Recap of last 17 days-Whew!!
Wow. I expected to write many posts while on vacation. Obviously, that didn’t happen!
Our drive across country was beautiful with one long stop in Ohio to visit Oberlin College for my 17-year-0ld stepdaughter, Kaylee. Beautiful campus-loved the school and spent money at the book store, of course. At this point in the trip I was reading Airhead by Meg Cabot. Interesting premise for a teen read; a smart, kinda nerdy girl swan dives into a model’s body and tries to balance her old life with the new life of an over-the-top-famous star! Today’s version of Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers. I received Airhead in the mail two days before we left for DC, after winning it from Lizzie @ Shelf Elf; read, write, rave. Thank you, Lizzie!!
We arrived in Sperryville, VA to visit my wonderful in-laws at their mountain retreat and by this time I was reading Jodi Picoult’s, Second Glance. Tucked so peacefully away, our destination, while breath-taking, did not have cell or internet service so out of luck again to post! Second Glance has been on my to-read pile for about a year so glad I can check it off. It’s a cool ghost mystery with, the usual Picoult twists. I love how she can combine so many characters and have them all tied together by the end!! I’ve enjoyed most of her books and while this one is not at the top of the list it is def. worth the read.
At this pt. in our trip I had to take a break from reading and spend some family time. My mother-in-law is the greatest though and we spent the rest of the time drinking wine, trading recipes, cooking together and playing board games with everybody else. J. and I took a trip through Little Washington to see the farm where they pick up their CSA vegetables. (CSA=Community Supported Agriculture) Buy Local is always our motto. The veggies were beautiful and delicious. J. discovered she loves beets on this trip!! Beets always make me think of my all-time favorite book, Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins!
For the last half of our trip we headed to Silver Spring, MD and spent time in DC where Greg grew up. We took all the kids to the Capital for the 4th of July celebration-the Sesame St. part was our favorite. We weren’t really close enough to see how cute Jimmy Smits is in person but we had a great time listening to him, Barry Manilow and Aretha! We kept hoping to run into the Obama family but alas, it never happened. We did have lunch with our favorite White House intern though and that was great!!
On the way home I read Peter and the Starcatchers, which will be a 5th grade book club choice this year and I think it will be easier to read some of the selections over the summer instead of trying to keep up with the four clubs. I loved this book and can’t wait to read the rest in the series!
What about you? Which Jodi Picoult novel is your favorite?
South Dakota
We’ve already taken our one big summer road trip vacation and it was great. We traveled across the state of South Dakota, site-seeing along the way. We saw the Corn Palace in Mitchell, a great Sioux museum in Chamberlain and of course, Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse carving, which was fascinating even though it wasn’t finished. Even as a work in progress it has an extensive museum attached and was very informative and the kids loved it and well, isn’t that what we are aiming for when we set off on these long voyages in the station wagon!! It certainly isn’t the fancy motels or the screaming in the back seat. At the Crazy Horse museum I purchased a book called Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog. Combining work with play I read it throughout the rest of the trip. Very good read about how our ancestors continued to be cruel to our original Native population through the 60’s and 70’s. Of course, most of us really smart people already knew that but this book helped me see just how senselessly cruel we were and are still probably. I of course grew up wanting to be a Native American…I wanted to belong to a tribe…I loved our family trip to Pipestone. And now I know that at the same time I was wanting to be an Indian, Indians were being subjected to awful abuses on their own small reservations. I recommend the book for anyone who wants to learn more about the Sioux Nation history including Leonard Peltier.
With all my ramblings I didn’t even get to all the fun we had in Denver, CO for the second leg of our journey!!
Traveling
We had an amazing trip to Madison, WI for Memorial weekend. We explored the large Madison farmer’s market Saturday morning, which was amazing-so much local food in one place!! I was in some kind of shopper heaven yet I couldn’t really make any grand purchases because i didn’t have a portable ice box with me. We had a great brunch at an Irish pub with Sean. We shopped on State St. and found a lot of hippie stores. We met up with Sean and Jared for dinner also and had a fantastic Indian meal. And that was all in one day!! We did spend some quiet time in our cozy super 8 motel, which had a heated and open outdoor pool. We spent Sunday in the famous and very campy “WI Dells” and were blown away by the size of the hotels and water parks!! We did play a fun game of miniature golf.
Tristan and I both really loved Madison and will be excited to go back.
Peaceful Reader 