Month: March 2013

This weekly meme is hosted by the lovely ladies at Teach Mentor Texts.  Head over there for more great ideas of kid literature and young adult books to add to your TBR.

I had a great reading week this week. It helped a lot that I had the day off on Monday for mid-winter break and then ended up with a snow day on Wednesday.  This reader was a happy camper this week!

Books I Finished This Week:

I absolutely LOVED Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers.  I thought that the author did a fantastic job of blending mystery, fantasy, and adventure in this story.  The premise of the book is so creative and I found myself quickly swept up in the narrative and enchanted by the story.  I cannot wait for the second book in this series.

I finally finished listening to The Selection by Kiera Cass this week.  I really enjoyed this story and I like the narrator on the audiobook as well.  It was a great book to listen to.  I will be interested to see how this story plays out in the next books.  I am not a huge fan of the love triangle that seems to show up in many of these YA books, but I definitely am intrigued by this one.  It seems impossible for things to work out for everyone and that tension is what will keep me coming back for more.

The book Shooter by Walter Dean Myers is another great book by this outstanding author.  It is written as a series of transcripts from interviews after a school shooting has taken place.  Through the interviews, the reader meets the friends of the shooter and begins to put together what happened.  I was intrigued by the format of the book.  The case file tells the story and gives the reader a way to gain a little distance from the horror of the event, but also gives the reader a glimpse of many different points of view and reactions to the shooting.  Like his other books, this one is easy to read but compelling and will be of interest to my 8th grade readers.

I was thrilled when I got approved on NetGalley for Hide and Seek by Kate Messner.  I will be writing a more thorough review of this one closer to the release date.  This is a great mystery that will appeal to a lot of kids.  It was really fun reading about all the wildlife that the kids encountered in the rain forest and learning a little more about the Silver Jaguar Society.  I will be buying this for my classroom when it comes out for sure.

Invincible Microbe by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank is a fascinating read.  I did not know very much about Tuberculosis other than the fact that it used to be called consumption and it shows up quite often in 19th century novels.  I also knew that people who have TB usually end up coughing up blood.  I have to admit, I never exactly knew what Sanatoriums were.  I knew they were like clinics, but found out by reading this book that there was much more to it.  This book really grabbed my attention and kept me reading.  I would highly recommend this book to teens and adults.  It is an excellent example of compelling nonfiction and will definitely be an asset to my classroom library.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I started Prodigy this week and will be finished with it very soon because it is so compelling.  I also am in the middle of Finnikin of the Rock which I am enjoying very much.  I started listening to The Night Circus and am enjoying both the story and the incredible narrator on the audiobook.  I actually got this audiobook because I wanted to read this book and then read Jen Vincent’s post about her favorite narrators.  She is so right about Jim Dale as a narrator.

Books I will read this week:

Aside from finishing the two books I have already started, I am not sure how much reading I will get done this week.  I have report cards due on Friday and mountains of papers to get through before then.  I also am participating in the Slice of Life blog challenge so some of my reading time will be dedicated to writing and reading other blog posts.  If I do have time, I would like to get to Sunrise Over Fallujah this week.  For nonfiction I will read The Great Fire this week.  I also think I would like to get to a Printz book or two to work on my nerdprintz challenge so I might pick up Hard Love or Airborn.

This post is a part of the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

If you have ever lost someone close to you, you know that the grief can hit in odd places and come out of nowhere from a reaction to something in your world.  No matter how many years have passed, there are things that happen which slap you in the face with memories of a loved one who has passed and cause the waterworks to start.  There are also those moments that make you pause and smile, thinking about a good memory.

In the past few days, I have found myself thinking a lot about my grandmother.  It was triggered by my choice in books to read this week.  I picked up Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for the Cure and was fascinated by the information I read.  This book made me think about my grandmother because her mother contracted TB and was taken to a sanatorium when she was a young girl.  I found myself really imagining what that must have been like for a young girl to lose her mother in this way.  Her mother did not die for a few years after leaving home, but also never came home.  What struck me most and really made me pause while reading was the idea that the medicine for a disease often comes too late for many people.  I have often lamented the fact that the advances in the treatment of heart disease came too late for my father to be saved.  Did my grandmother feel the same way as they found cures for TB during her lifetime?  Did she feel it was unfair that her mother was taken from her?  I wish I had talked more to her about this.

My grandmother was always the person I went to when I had something I needed to talk about.  She was able to listen in a way that made me feel special and loved.  When my father had his first heart attack, I was 9 and he was only 37.  He had a massive heart attack and had to have a pacemaker from then on.  I remember being able to talk to my grandmother about all the things I couldn’t tell my parents.  I felt so angry.  It was so unfair that this had to happen to my dad and that I had to change everything because of it.  I talked through it with Grandma.  Now, as an adult, I realize that this must have been a difficult conversational theme for her.  She must have been able to empathize in a real way with my feelings because she might have had some of them herself.  I miss my grandmother every day.

Of course, after spending some time remembering my grandmother, I was feeling a bit nostalgic.  And then, I watched an old episode of How I Met Your Mother last night.  At the end, Marshall is told that his father had a heart attack and died.  And just like that, I was immersed in my own grief over my father’s death.  Watching a sitcom is supposed to be uplifting, right?  My father passed away over twenty years ago, but there are still many moments that slap me in the face and surprise me.  Luckily, since it has been so many years, that feeling doesn’t stay with me for too long.

Today I find myself feeling nostalgic and remembering two amazing people.  Here’s to the marathon Monopoly games with my grandma that lasted all weekend.  Here’s to long car rides with the sunroof open, windows down, and Peter, Paul, and Mary blasting on the radio with my dad.  Here’s to living my life to make each of them proud and loving their memories with joy not sadness.  

This post is a part of the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

Today I am joining the Slice of Life challenge which is hosted on the Two Writing Teachers blog.  The month of March the challenge is to write a blog post a day.

Yesterday, our new dryer arrived.  The old one had begun screeching and grunting and making very odd noises.  Since the dryer was one that had been here when we bought the house, and it was probably about twenty years old, we decided to go buy a new one rather than trying to repair it.

When my husband and I went to Home Depot, we were determined to just buy a regular dryer without bells and whistles.  That determination quickly diminished with the options in front of us.  We did pick out a dryer that was more economical than others, but our eyes were drawn to this one and we got some bells and whistles.

It is amazing how exciting new appliances can be (yes I am even nerdy about this).  I rushed home yesterday to see the new dryer.  My husband had already started doing laundry and I saw that the load was finished drying so I opened up the dryer to take out the clothes, and it started singing.  Yes, my new dryer plays music when it is opened after the cycle has finished.  How cool is that?  It certainly made me smile.  And it made me think about how even the smallest surprise can lighten your mood.

Although I won’t be singing to anyone today, perhaps I can spread the cheer with a few small surprises for those people around me that I care about.  All it takes is an unexpected good turn to put a spring in your step and a smile on your face.  Thank you to my new dryer for this reminder.