What I’m reading – Page 7

Highland Library

It is all coming together. These photos were taken on Friday morning and I had several volunteers come and help get even more books out of boxes and onto the shelves! I think by the end of the week I will be ready to start putting my office together. An efficient guy came and put my desk together Friday afternoon and another guy assembled all the shelves for the back storage area. By quitting time on Friday I was exhausted (and feeling a little old) but headed off to a friends’ birthday celebration. I believe now after spending a fairly relaxing weekend that my muscles have finally recovered from moving boxes around and hefting books up and down. Thankfully one of the volunteers on Friday enjoyed helping me move boxes around-with a dolly!!

Highlights of my weekend:

1. Watching my children perform in a church production! Peaceful girl played a lamb! Teenage boy was Joseph
2. Finished The evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (review tommorow-loved it).
3. Getting parts of my house cleaned on Saturday morning.
4. Holding my sweetheart’s hand at h.s. performance of Romeo and Juliet.
5. Began third Luxe; Envy by Anna Godbersen and am mesmerized!! Should be reading right now!
6. Watched husband put lights up on outside tree because I said please...

Hope your weekend was just as wonderful!

Half way

I’m halfway through Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts and I am very anxious to finish it. If you haven’t read any Picoult you should because she puts in so much research and each of her books are about such far-reaching topics!! This one involves a father who kidnaps his child to keep the her away from an alcoholic mother. Lots of twists and turns in the plot and great characters including a love triangle and a unique Native woman who dispenses interesting advise.

I’m on the fifth chapter of The evolution of Calpurnia Tate and love it also! It makes me feel smarter and very scientific!
We are off for our own three days in the woods…

Everyone safe travels…

be peaceful-

michelle

3 Choices

I am caught between 3 exciting book choices.

1. The evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
2. Envy, the third Luxe by Anna Godbersen
3. Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

Tough choices, I know!! I have two long distance friends getting ready to read Calpurnia Tate with me-then we hold an online book conference. We have yet to really make the book conference work, it a right tool problem but we are still working on it. We’ve read 13 reasons why and Liar together thus far.

Janssen at Everyday Reading got me hooked, absolutely hooked on the Luxe series and the third one has been waiting on my actual tbr pile since Halloween weekend. This one has been taunting me but I’ve had other had-to-reads until now.

The Jodi Picoult choice while not as thrilling perhaps-only because it is older- has been languishing on my hurry and read pile because it belongs to someone else. A few years ago my friend Jess and I had a thing about reading all the JP books and this is one of a few I missed. I did start it the other night and just like other Picoult stories it has me intrigued.
I think these three will easily carry me through Thanksgiving. I’ll be required to do my share of the cooking but the down time will be relading time at the log cabin in the woods.

Read what SLJ has to say about Calpurnia Tate.
I found an excellent interview w/ author Jacqueline Kelly at HipWriterMama

Thursday Thoughts

Okay, maybe nobody else is counting but I promised to blog every day through November and I’m trying so hard to stick to it. I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society the other night; two days after my church book club met to discuss it…I loved the book and our meeting! I did have trouble with the letter-style of the book at first but then the characters grabbed me. I would like to live in Guernsey-seemed so comforting in its pastoral environment.

I’m exhausted with lots on my plate and here is why:

my mini-list:

1. Tonight I made 50 chocolate-covered pretzel sticks; festooned with Christmas theme sprinkles for our church bazaar, which takes place on Saturday. Mine do not look like the photo but they do look pretty great-photo to follow soon.

2. I am organizing a team of volunteers to move our library from old to our new building right after Thanksgiving. Lots of volunteers and not enough boxes so far.

3. Tuesday night we had our school literacy night-it was great and Maribeth Boelts was lovely!
4. Tomorrow my principal “observes” me for teaching licensure renewal.
5. My mother is calling me more than twice a day to make arrangements for upcoming holiday break, from which I need a break from already!! Love you Mom!

6. And last but really most important my teenager is sick with an unknown non-H1N1 virus-we think he has water poisoning from drinking stale water out of a bottle left too long in his basement gaming room. Uhh, and this has caused him to miss two days of school and probably tomorrow. This occurred one day after he had top shelf braces applied. Really, how fun can this be for him??

7. I love this kind of post from others because it gives me a glimpse into someone else’s life yet when I do it I feel like I’m whining.

And you out there-how is your week??

Be Peaceful-

Michelle

Weekend Update

Early this morning I had a sorority meeting at my local B & N/Starbucks-for those of you paying any attention~I’m really not the sorority type! This is Alpha Upsilon Alpha, part of the International Reading Association, so it all makes perfect sense. One of my teaching mentors at my local alma mater recommended me for induction into the “society”-luckily I did not have to gulp goldfish or wear an odd robe and we mostly talk about reading, teaching and books.

Today we met for “Books and Brunch” and it was a blast! There was lots of quick and exciting conversations on a variety of topics. I was able to share a variety of books (Luxe was the first on my stack to share) and we did discuss (one of my other favorite topics) blogging!! There were only 7 of us there and truly, the meeting took way longer than I expected (10-1) but it was really enjoyable. This is my first year in the organization and we are trying to grow in ideas and membership. I will admit I was sad we spent so much time talking leaving me no browsing time-at all!!

One of the seven at the meeting was published author and a writing instructor at Wartburg, Barbara Harken and it was great to share ideas with her. I bought a copy of her book, had it signed and will make time soon to read it. Click here for her website.

Okay, the rest of the day I watched football and socialized with adult libations but the morning did start off very intellectually-stimulating!!
I should have been reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato….for Monday’s book club!!! Yikes!

And how was your Saturday spent??

Thursday Thoughts

I recently challenged myself to post every day and so far I’ve done it!! Yeah to me. Except today I can’t think of anything to write about so….I’m just going to write about my day!
I’m in the middle of watching The Dark Knight (Heath’s last movie, audible sigh from me). We had to stop it last night because it was getting too late for me. My teenage son feels I need to see the movie (his rite of passage for me) even though I didn’t want to see Heath in such a bizarre and scary role. I don’t like violence-surprise! and this movie has a ton of it yet I am going to grin and bare it for him an finish it tonight.

I am in the process of reading something very interesting, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel and Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I have to finish by Monday evening for my book club meeting. I dislike going and feeling unprepared. When I started the book I kinda thought I wasn’t going to like it because it’s written in letter writing format between several characters. Now that I’m more than a few pages into I’ve developed a relationship with the characters, especially Juliet. She’s written with such a great sense of humor!

I made a delicious potato soup for dinner specifically for the teenager; he had spacers added to his teeth preparing for braces on Monday, the 16th. His mouth is sore and his menu consists of yogurt w/ honey, chocolate pudding, chocolate ice cream and ramen noodles. I thought the soup would change it up a bit but only my husband and I liked it. I guess “delicious” depends on who you talk to…

We just came back from the high school play at my son’s school and it was a very funny rendition of Arsenic and Old Lace. I have to rent the movie and see Cary Grant as Mortimer! I don’t remember it being that funny but I was pretty young when I saw it!!

Oh, and my big news of the day was that I accomplished my observation today. My principal came and watched my lesson with a small group of Special Needs students. I read Big Red Barn and Goodnight Moon both by Margaret Wise Brown-we were looking for rhyming words. MWB was so amazing for her time. the students loved both books and are ready to explore some of her other books next week. We put together rhyming cards and played a rhyming game on Scholastic’s website. It was a fun-filled 30 minutes of rhyming words and the observation went very well!! One done, One still to go!

Okay, so a great, great day and I’m really looking forward to Saturday because I have a Saturday morning meeting at B & N, for coffee and book talks! I hope your day went just as well!

Green Books

Booking Mama’s post from today turned me on to a new concept and I have to share it with everyone! It kind of amazes me how things can almost pass you by. I’d never heard of Eco-Libros before but now I’m ready to plant trees for every book I read. I wish I would have known about their challenge previously but I will find a way to particpate anyway.

I spent time at my public library today and found several books with the help of Tina, who happened to be there with her youngest. I “found” Jodi Piccoult’s new-ish Handle with care, which I have not read yet. Now I have to read it in 7 days!! I really have to start The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Anne Schaffer because my book club meets in two weeks and I haven’t started. I also have to finish Year of the dog (tonight) for tomorrow’s 5th grade book club. Crazy-Yes!!
Other books I found at library:
The shadow speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (for teen and me to read)
Looking for alaska by John Green (I want my teenager to read it when he finishes Liar)
The bite of the mango by Mariatu Kamara (for teen, husband and myself to read-high hopes)
Satchel; The life and times of an american legend by Larry Tye (for husband-he loves baseball history)
The year we disappeared; a father~daughter memoir by Cylin Busby and John Busby(for teen and me to read)
My goal was to finish reading Journey of Dreams by Marge Pellegrino but so much got in the way this weekend. (Like my mom showing up last night by surprise:)
I need to finish lesson plans for this week, my observation MAJOR lesson plan to be handed in to my principal tomorrow and make an Asian dessert for 5th grade book club tomorrow!
What the heck was I even doing picking out books at the library or hanging around on the computer!! I know most of you can relate to this whirlwind schedule! Tell me what your crazy drama looks like??

Be peaceful-
Michelle

A little late-blooming romance!

I just finished Julie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray (2000) and it was charming! I picked it randomly off our public library shelf, I was looking for something light to read and this was perfect! Julie is in her sixties and alone, attending a small business seminar when she runs into her family’s arch-enemy, Romeo Cacciamani and after striking up a small conversation-they go for coffee. She doesn’t know why she chooses to do this after years of hearing the horrors of his family but she does. An interesting chain of events occurs as Julie and Romeo fall in love, yep, all from a cup of coffee, that’s just how it happens!! I love Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and this is a sweet adaptation~I really enjoyed the characters and the story line was very believable. I loved the couple’s dates at CVS and later, Julie’s ex-husband, Mort throwing a pot at Romeo in the flower shop!! I will read more from this author and I found out from my friend, Tina that Ray’s daughter is Ann Patchett, of Bel Canto fame! Find more information and a list of Jeanne Ray’s books here.

Where the wild things are…[movie spoilers included but still a must read]

It has taken me several days to process watching Spike Jonze’s version of Where the wild things are. I read Maurice Sendak’s version to k-2nd grade students all last week, which was good for them and me. It’s always good to rediscuss the theme of imagination with students. Many of my students haven’t grown up with the book as I did and my own children have. I also showed them the quick Scholastic movie which follows the book exactly.

Our family merrily went off to see the movie on Friday with great anticipation!! We loved the late 70’s clothes -it took me back to my childhood. The boy playing Max is adorable, lovable and wild. The opening scenes of him playing in the snow, having a snowball fight with his sister’s friends all give a feel of Max’s character-obviously more than the book; even as deep as the book is. We witness Max get wild and his wolf suit is perfectly impish! He fit the Max of my imagination, well, until he runs away! He runs away…which goes against everything kids learn from Sendak’s book. It’s about the imagination! Max takes of down the street to an empty lot with his mom chasing after him. She never catches up to him and Max makes his way to where the wild things are. The wild things are interesting characters, lovable yes, but argumentative, bossy, scared and sad. Max offers himself up as a king who can make everything right in their world. The movie is good maybe even great but it is so not what I expected. It is much darker than the book, which is fine depending on its intended audience. My 6-year-old peaceful girl turned half way through and said “I like the book better, mommy.” On the other side of me was peaceful teenage boy and he was riveted, really, really enthralled! He is 14 and he got all these varied levels of community and expectations of life [i overheard him talking] as he talked later with a family friend who also saw the movie the same opening night. My husband and I were disturbed about Max’s run down the street-literally running away in instead of running to his room. This sends a different message to kids-let your mom chase you down the street, come back much, much later and you will get chocolate cake and your mom will not be mad at all, only relieved.

I was very sad when I came out of The Tale of Desperaux movie because it was so far removed from the book and I love Kate DiCamillo. This one didn’t make me feel that way; I liked it and would watch it again but I was unhappy the writing team strayed so far from original imagination theme. Max could have run to his room and hid out in his bunk bed fort and still had the same encounter with the wild things. And why did they need to change the names of the wild things? Why Carol instead of Barnard???

Have you seen the movie??? What did you think???

Ghost stories

I’ve never been a fan of scary stories because I get scared easily, really! The cover of The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein (2008) intrigued me as well as the title-everyone’s been at a crossroads before in their life. The inside flap says this:

Meet Zack Jennings. Average kid. He has a hard-working father.
A new stepmother. A new house. Even a new dog, Zipper.

Things are looking up for Zach.
Except there is this ghost. This really nasty ghost.

A ghost who kills
people.

And Zach is on his list.

Wow! Just reading that creeps me out. I had to give it a try though-I had ordered it for my school library based on the reviews but I had to see if it was good scary or just too much!! I was not disappointed and I pleasantly have not had any nightmares involving Zach or his ghosts.

Zach and his dad live in NYC and they are getting ready to move out of the city away from their memories of Zach’s chain-smoking mom, who seemed fairly evil in Zach’s flashback memories of her. Now Zach’s dad is remarrying a lively, young children’s author and moving to Connecticut. Zach is already freaked out cuz’ he thinks his mom is haunting him so when weird stuff starts happening in CT it just seems like normal now. The back plot of the story is this 50-year-old tragedy involving a bus load of folks, a creep in a Thunderbird and a bitter old woman, who thinks she owns the town. This tale is intricatilly-woven and a joy to read-even the haunting parts just because you want Zach to make it through all this. He has a happy life waiting for him. As I poked around Chris Grabenstein’s home page I noticed a sequel is out, The Hanging Hill. I’m going to put it on my Christmas list!! Click here for more Chris Grabenstein information.

P.S. Another great thing about this book is there is a friendly librarian character (Mrs. Emerson) who helps solve the mystery! Grabenstein adds many happy references to how helpful librarians, libraries are to everyone like this one:

“What do you know about the greyhound bus accident of June 21, 1958?” (asks Judy)
“I know how to find out more. After all, dear, I am a librarian.” (says Mrs. Emerson) p. 164

Ever so helpful, those librarians!!

Be Peaceful-Michelle