summer – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

Wish you were here…

Right now in my kitchen. I’m making lemon poppyseed muffins and I just made a batch of cold brew. The smell is pretty great! I’m listening to India. Arie and the feeling in my kitchen right now is fairly groovy. I also have a wine glass of sparkling crisp apple cider (Loon Juice from 4 Daughters Winery). It’s been a good day.

All the above recipes are from Cookie + Kate, a vegetarian blog that I keep bumping into and finding amazing recipes there. Find the cold brew tutorial and the lemon poppyseed muffin recipes and then poke around her website to find many more delicious things to make! Her videos and her writing are very professional yet fun. I can feel her personality come through and would love to share a muffin and some cold brew with her on this lovely summer afternoon.

I made myself a very Iowa, summer friendly-brunch this morning and ate it while listening to a tech presentation. That is a (very) fresh egg on sourdough toast with goat cheese and spinach and yes, an ear of corn.

I’m participating in an online tech conference-Teach with Tech Conference 2019 and I love it. I can watch in real time FB videos and comment and ask questions all in my summer pajamas. I can also go back later and re-watch something I’ve missed. I’ve learned more about Google, FlipGrid, Bee-Bots, Teaching with Tolerance standard ideas so relevant for today, and how to use Google Earth and Maps to connect my students to the world they live in. It was not expensive ($30) for three days and I have access to the videos for a year. My favorite so far was Gary Gray, a teacher in Singapore at an international school who spoke on using technology to teach social justice. He was an out-of-the-box presenter and I’m sure his students love him. He has a new YouTube channel-check him out.

Yesterday I drove to Kalona, Iowa en route to Fairfield, IA to meet my husband for an Indian dinner. Kalona is known for it’s creamery and I needed a driving break so I went in and browsed. I ended up with a “calf-sized” ice cream cone of vanilla swirled with expresso and caramel. It was amazing-the creamiest ice cream I’ve had for years. It was worth the trip- so was the Indian restaurant.

On a funny note; this morning while reading in my favorite hammock (taking a break from the tech presentations) I tried to pull my dog Ruby in with me and the tree snapped and Ruby and I (pretty gently) landed on the ground. That is my knee, the tree stump we had it tied to, and the corner of the hammock. Luckily I was not injured in the fall.
I’m still reading Aru Shah, Brene Brown, Eat to Beat Disease, and Sharon Draper’s Blended.

That’s all the news from here.

Happy July!

I’m not a fan of our flag yet I am a happy to have the right to voice my opinions about our country and it’s love of symbols. While I’m spouting off about unpopular concepts I am also not a fan of fireworks-especially the kind sold in every parking lot across America leading up to this holiday. They are loud and intrusive and dangerous.

I didn’t come here just to complain about holidays though; I thought I’d share some of my top books. Litsy, the book site I play with other than Goodreads, has a thing right now to post your top reads from January to June and these are mine. All excellent reads if you are in need of a new summer title.

I’ve had some time to enjoy real summer days after my trip to Colorado and yesterday I spent a couple hours reading on our patio. I also was in my pajamas until about 1pm. It rocked. I even had a friend show up with lunch and a cold coffee brew and I stayed in my pajamas. It’s a joy to unwind and take a break. I am taking one class right now about gender and while it is a lot of work to type out the papers I am enjoying the readings that go with the class.

Take it easy today, remember what our country should stand for and that it has been GREAT for many, many years and spend time with family and friends. Be careful with your fireworks and be kind to the environment~it’s the only one we have.

Ah summer! Cheers to Brunch.

I’ve relaxed into my first full week of summer. I’ve done an equal share of cleaning, reading, and organizing so far. Oh and a little napping tossed in. I’ve had lunch with a few friends, celebrated two birthdays, had a pedicure, and started each day with yoga.

One major accomplishment was hosting a brunch last weekend. We have a group of theatre friends and colleagues that we like to get together with to talk about all things theatre and beyond. I like the idea of people sitting around our large kitchen table having interesting conversations about the world. All I needed to do was pick easy yet delicious recipes that I could put together the night before and in the morning. I didn’t want to be in the kitchen while guests were arriving or at the table. Sometimes I seek out recipes online but this time I went straight to a a cookbook that I love from The Cottage in La Jolla, CA. I’ve shared this cookbook before in a post about the amazing Buttermilk Coffee Cake (recipe included) and another post about Blueberry Muffins (recipe also included). If you love brunch this is the perfect cookbook for you.

I made the coffee cake, Carmel Brunch, an egg dish, and their roasted potatoes and I pre-prepped the egg dish the night before so I had one less thing to mix up in the morning. I put my husband in charge of one dish for the gathering (he is the theatre person in our house after all + he loves jicama!) and I found that recipe, Jicama, Avocado, and Mango Salad in Friendsgiving by Alexandra Shytsman.

Everything turned out well and people ate heartily around the table. One friend brought warm french bread with Wild Blueberry Jam and warm blueberry muffins as well. One friend tried his first Bloody Mary ever and that was a hit. I do love brunch and this was a perfect way to bring friends together. If you need me to share any of the recipes I used please let me know. Enjoy! Salud!

Highlights of summer

I finished all the assignments for one of my grad classes and am on the homestretch for the last class, Creative Schools. My major goal is to finish before my birthday which is just around the corner! I’ve done some deep learning and am excited to implement changes in my library this next year based on the two books I read.

(Source)

My stepsister, Robin, and her family came to town for a weekend. I made these delicious dairy-free rhubarb-pecan muffins for breakfast one morning. I liked that the recipe had orange juice and orange zest as ingredients and I substituted lemon zest because that’s what I had. They were really easy to pull together and came out nice and soft. Diana, my niece was my assistant baker and took care of all the mixing and measuring. I found lots of great rhubarb recipes and these muffins at Thyme and Love look really good to try too.

I’m on the last legs of a major summer cold, luckily it’s lasted just about a week. We’ve gone through a major amount of kleenex between G.G., husband and myself. Which by the way he finished RAGBRAI on Saturday in good spirits. I’m happy to drop him off for his start and I’m happy to pick him back up again, safe and sound. Ragbrai is his happy place.

Yesterday I hosted my 2nd annual Croquet & Cocktails game and it was perfect weather for it. We had snacks and margaritas and hit the balls around with heavy mallets in thick grass. It was a perfect summer break with teacher friends especially because that morning I’d finished the 3rd module of this last class. Today I started on module 4 and should be able to finish in the next few days. I’m school obsessed right now.

What have I been reading other than Creative Schools and Formative Five you ask? I finished Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. Thanks to Verda and Sela for the push to read it. Now I have to find time with Groovy Girl to watch the movie. She was dubious about the story; she liked it, read it just a few days, but was like, that wouldn’t really happen. Maybe she is more of a nonfiction, biography reader? I loved the story and yes, it is somewhat unbelievable but that’s what fiction is!
If you haven’t read it please pick it up from your local library.

Quick review: Madeline is sick and she cannot handle outside germs so she has been inside her (fancy) house for years. One day a new family moves in next door and she meets a boy, Olly, through the window. Her house nurse, Carla, conspires with her so the two can meet inside her airtight, vacuum sealed house. Young love-it can’t be beat. What would you do for love and how do you protect those you love?

I’m now reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Until I finish the very last homework assignment I only have a few minutes to read at night. This one is very good though and I’ll read more by both Ng and Yoon.

What are you reading? What have you filled your summer up with so far?

Summer classes

I have two grad classes this summer and they are not easy; lots of homework, and projects. The good thing is I am learning quite a bit and the two books assigned are both very good.

The Formative five: fostering grit, empathy, and other success skills every student needs by Thomas R. Hoerr

This book explains how schools need to get back to the “basics” of teaching a deeper thought process so our students will be better achievers in the job market. Grit, embracing diversity, integrity, empathy, and self-control encompass the skills they need to be successful. The book breaks down each skill and shares methods to integrate into every day. This was an easy read and I will use the new ideas with students. I’ve already compiled lists of picture books to use with students that highlight each essential word.

Creative Schools by Ken Robinson, Ph. D.

I’ve watched Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk “Do schools kill creativity?” and the book extends that thinking. The book shares many examples of schools and programs that are reaching beyond the normal school day. Like Thomas Hoerr, Ken Robinson is looking for a different type of education for all of our students. His ideas are radical and very interesting to me. The book makes me want to set my classes up differently and not sweat the small or big stuff; students need to enjoy school more to keep their creativity and the joy of learning alive!

Outside of my summer studies, I read The tea girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See for book club. See does an amazing amount of research for her books and this one is no exception. This one has great characters, lots of information about the Ahka hill tribe in China, and the tea industry. If you are looking for a good, thrilling read-give this one a try.

Hello June

There are some people in our lovely little house making a movie, creating art. About 7 people and my husband, shooting, holding a boom mike, and going over lines. Groovy Girl and I have sequestered ourselves on the second floor, in our rooms, doing homework and reading. Not what I expected to do with my day, ALL day, but such is this life.

It is a fairly gorgeous day out and I did take the dog for a long walk. It seems like it would be a perfect hammock day but I cannot for the life of me find where I stashed them over winter. I always keep them in one particular place for safekeeping and they are not there. I think the husband must have taken them down and stored them and he needs to find them. We are missing precious hammock lazy moments.

So with lots of time on my hands, I finished Anne Tyler’s A spool of blue thread, a good solid story that tells the tale of the Whitshank family of Baltimore. It doesn’t have a major plot upheaval and yet generally that is how family stories often are in life. Just a straight line with many zigs and zags up and down. This was my first Anne Tyler and I would read another. With that one done I’ve started Tangerine; a novel by Christine Mangan plus reading more of Cleo Wade’s Heart Talk, a very inspirational book of wisdom.

I love it when a friend orders a book based on my recommendation. It happened this morning; I raved about a book, News of the world, to my friend Tim at our church picnic and sent him a photo of it when I returned home. He responded back a few minutes later with “Just ordered it from Amazon!”

We have just 2 1/2 days left of school! The year has flown by and in a few short days, it will truly be summer. Groovy Girl and I are taking to the road, headed to Denver, CO to stay with family for about a week. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve made this road trip myself and while G.G. will keep me awake, she isn’t able to drive just yet so it will be all me. Generally, my husband does most of the driving (while I read) but I used to make this trek at least once a year when I lived there before there was a husband so it’s a challenge for myself. Bring on the Red Vines and blue chips, the loud music and the laughs.

Lazy summer days with yoga…

I’m in the middle of the only free days I’ll have for summer. I’ve done a little nannying, helped at a friend’s bakery, and in August we go on a little vacation.

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So on these free days I’m simultaneously trying to deep clean my house as I can’t ever seem to get ahead of the clutter; while I also do some deep relaxing. I have a stack of books for school to read, I’m spending time with Groovy Teen, and I’m working on my yoga. I love yoga but I fall behind during the school year. My husband created a wonderful workout space in our basement and this summer I’ve used it almost ever day.

Anyone can do yoga from home because there is a huge amount of free sequences on youtube. I have a Pinterest board dedicated to yoga and the other day before I did my regular go-to video I clicked on an article I’d saved awhile back. Pinterest is, of course, only as good as it should be if you actually use it. I think of mine as a large filing cabinet most of the time but then there are folders I reach into constantly. 8 free yoga channels caught my eye this time and by clicking on the article I found some very good new teachers to try. If you do yoga at home try each of these unique channels for something new. My goal is to try several by each teacher to see which one fits. I’ve gone through three and loved how it changed up my regular routine. I tried a sequence with Boho Beautiful and I was (good) sore for days.

Be inspired – try something new this summer. Looking out into my backyard as I type this; it may be an outdoor yoga kind of day…

Namaste~

June book reviews for YOU (happy reading)

I’ve only read three books this month. They were really good books though. Technically I finished four but the Bill Browder book, The Red Notice, was a crossover from May. I’ll still tell you about it though.

1. The Red Notice; a true story of high finance, murder and one man’s fight for justice by Bill Browder (2015): Born into a communist-leaning family Browder grows up seeing what it is like to rebel against the norm but to rebel even further Browder chose a career path profession just to annoy his dad; he picks commerce. The first half of the book Browder tells his family story and how he rose to be the first major investor of Western money into Russia and the second half of the book deals with the downfall of this great plan and the imprisonment and eventual death of his friend and lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. I enjoyed this memoir, even though I thought Browder wasn’t the greatest story teller. Reading this book gave me a clear mindset on why Putin felt the need to tangle himself into U.S. elections and will continue to torment and push buttons just because he’s found a way.

2. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (2003): Tristan read this years ago and devoured the series. I’ve always wanted to read it but who knows why? I didn’t pick it up until this summer after 2 teachers raved about it to me after a teacher meeting. They were shocked that I hadn’t read it; That was the push I needed so I brought it home that very last week of school. I loved it. I dig fantasy and this book was no exception. Eragon, Brom, Saphira, Murtagh and Arya were all interesting characters and I look forward to reading the next two in the series. Even though Paolini was young when he wrote this I think it stands the test of time.

3. The Girl who drank from the moon by Kelly Barnhill (2016): I loved this fairy tale {and that gorgeous cover art} in which Xan and Luna save themselves and change the world together. Centuries ago a world was created by evil people and the unwitting townsfolk believed the stories that were told to them about an evil witch who needs a sacrificial baby each year so as not to destroy the town. Xan is this witch but she rescues the babies and takes them to new families because she thinks they’ve been abandoned. And so it goes for many years until one family fights back and one mother doesn’t give up hope. A good reminder, from a fairy tale world, to not believe all that you are told! Read more great things about this book at NYT, EW, and the Washington Post.

4. American War by Omar El Akkad (2017): I read a NYT article about great new dystopian books and this one was at the top of the list. Like fantasy, I’m a big fan of the altered worlds created in good dystopian novels. This one lacks the gruesome gore of The Hunger Games but certainly lays out how a fight over energy and ravaged ecosystems could separate the North from the South in a way that causes longterm war within our own border. Read other great reviews here on NPR, SF Chronicle, and the Washington Post. I’m not quite finished with this one yet and plan to finish today.

In Madison I did purchase several books and I have stack of books to read for school. What are you reading this summer?

Summer Reading Recap

{image: the Red Fairy Project}

I am filled with gratitude that I have summers to catch up on some extra reading. As a librarian I spend my school day surrounded by books, ordering books, previewing, books, talking about books and yet I don’t always have a lot of spare time to read.

This summer’s reading log has far more adult choices thanks to the new app Litsy on my phone. Do you Litsy? Mostly adult books are discussed and shared and many sound unbelievable good. Thankful I’ve learned to cross check with my public library to request and check out. So now I’m addicted to Litsy and love getting recommendations for more reading. Find me @Peaceful_Reader.

I do still love Goodreads because it’s a great place to keep track of all my reading + my reading journal (I must have a paper copy in case the Internet goes down).

Here are stats so far for this summer and for the year to date.

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Number
of books: summer = 22 / y-t-d = 41

Pages read: summer =
8,000 (nice round number) / y-t-d = 12,850

I read 8 adult
fiction titles, 4 YA books, and 9 elementary
fiction books + 1 graphic novel

All of the elementary
books I read including the graphic novel were for our Iowa Children’s Choice Awards. I have about 7 more books to read this
week/weekend before I score them all and send in my ratings.

My absolute favorite book this summer is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I’m happy that I read it and I share the love for it with every adult reader that I know. If you haven’t please do. It is pain + joy wrapped together which is just what life is. Jude will forever stay with you.

Other favorites were: Mac Barnett’s The Terrible Two (funny), Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk (great storytelling), Ruta Septys’ Salt to the Sea (amazing historical fiction), The Guest Room by Bohjalian (fiction yet brings the horrible truth of modern day slavery to us), Speed of Light by J.M. Kelly (unique twists) and always Alice Hoffman-her books are magical.

In order I read:

The Doctor’s Wife by Elizabeth Brundage
H2O by Virginia Bergin
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
Speed of Light by J.M. Kelly
The Marvels by Brian Selznick
Capture the Flag by Kate Messner
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics by Chris G.
The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
A little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper
New Kid by Tim Green
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
Audacity Jones by Kirby Larson
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
Jungle of Bones by Ben Mikaelsen
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamiesen

I have two more books I am set to finish this week; Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam and Odd, Weird and Little by Patrick Jennings. What did you read this summer?

Back-to-Back adult novels

The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (2016):

Four Plumb siblings: Leo, Jack, Beatrice, and Melody fight over “The Nest”, a small fortune left to them by their late father. Repercussions abound as the fortune never recovers after Leo makes a huge error in judgement and borrows money without sibling knowledge or consent. Each Plumb family member deals with this is a variety of ways and the fallout after is monumental.

I can relate to this story without the large inheritance. It seems my three brothers and I can’t get along for 10 minutes anymore so this story hit close to home. This story is better writing than ours with a very unique cast of characters. Read this one if you like someone else’s family drama.

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian (2016):

This tale revolves around a bachelor party gone extremely wrong from the get-go yet there is so much more to this story. Good guy big brother Richard Chapman agrees to host his brother Philip’s bachelor party without understanding that Philip’s friend Spencer has hired a service providing the entertainment. Richard’s wife and daughter are off spending the night in Manhattan with his mother-in-law. Philip’s friends have Richard’s beautiful house to themselves and are immersed in full enjoyment when the party comes to a crashing halt.

Bohjalian built a truly interesting tale around a timely topic and shows us the harsh reality of the sex slave trade. I enjoyed the alternating point-of-view as Alexandra’s character will move you.

Happy reading!