December Progress

December fell off the map. I read some of the list, but I also pick up things from various places, so instead of revisiting the overall list. Here's what I actually read:

1. Fever 1793 by by Laurie Halse Anderson 
2. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (L)
3. Cress by Marissa Meyer (L)
4. Winter by Marissa Meyer (L)
5. Monster by Walter Dean Myers (L)
6. Moving Pictures Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B) 
7. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) 
8. Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
9. Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Certainly, not my worst month. Overall, it's been a productive year. While I got behind on the blog from time to time, I've restored my habitual reading. 

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers has been writing YA Literature since the mid 80's and so he's part of my childhood. I was definitely familiar with his name. However, what he writes tends to be oriented to a more male audience. Monster is the first of his books I've read. I became aware of the title through a NCTE reading list on culturally diverse literature.

Monster is amazing. It won a ridiculous number of awards including the Michael L. Printz Award and the National Book Award Honor for Young People's Literature. Awards aren't everything, but I'm really beginning to trust the Printz award. Everything I've read that won that award is just amazing.

So. Monster is about Steven Harmon, 16 years old, and his experience on trial for felony murder. The writing alternates between journal entries and a hypothetical screenplay of Steven's experience written by Steven. It's an incredibly powerful strategy the effectively conveys this kid's terror of his experience of prison (the journal entries) in contrast with his weird dissociation of his experience at trial (the screenplay.)

Here's a kid who, despite being very different from me, I could see myself in. I remember being that age and wanting desperately to seem tough, or worldly, or something indefinably adult. I think it must be a pretty universal experience, however, many of us stay clear of actual legal repercussions. So, it's easy to sympathize with this kid who clearly just got sucked into something way over his head.

By the way, felony murder is a death that happens as a result, direct or indirect, of the commission of another felony. So, if a guy drops dead of a heart attack during a bank heist, everyone involved in the heist in any way is suddenly on the hook for murder. This is something we actually teach our kids once per year because LD/ADHD kids are higher than normal risk for impulsive decisions that lead to this kind of thing.

Steven's trial, for most of the book, leaves it pretty unclear just how involved he actually was. However, his ruminations on responsibility and human nature are very mature without being overly cerebral.

Excellent, quick read.

Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Gene Luen Yang is famous for writing the graphic novel American Born Chinese which was the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award. Yang is currently serving as the 5th ever ambassador for young people's literature (a Library of Congress designation).

Boxers is about the the Boxer Rebellion in China (1898) which happened when swarms of foreign missionaries and soldiers basically took over China and bullied chinese peasants. Little Bao watches the missionaries and chinese converts basically destroy his family and harass his village.

Bao joins, and eventually leads, a group of kung fu trained peasants who march on Peking. In terms of the story, the peasants are actually possessed by various chinese deities. While strange, it does a good job of emphasizing the conflict between two very different cultures. Yang does a good job of showing the desperation and outrage of the chinese citizenry as well as the unbelieveable rumors going around the demonized the white missionaries.

It's a bit of a downer and the fantastical elements are sometimes very jarring. However, it's also quite good.

The plot line of Saints overlaps with the story of Boxers. Vibiana, born as Four-Girl, was the unwanted girl child in a large family. She didn't even have a proper name and, while not actually abusive, she wasn't nurtured or feel loved. In fact, she is often called a demon and even comes to believe and embrace her "demon" nature

At least not until she encounters Christianity. What starts out as a way to escape her family and snag free cookies soon becomes a full conversion of faith. However, Vibiana soon discovers the flaws in her adopted faith/culture.

In many ways, Yang depicts the missionaries as sympathetic but flawed people. It's never as simple as good vs. evil and Yang conveys that.

Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings

Just before my grandfather died, his eyes finally gave out and he could no longer read. I remember thinking at the time, how awful that would be. My grandfather and I shared a passion for reading. We didn't read the same books, by any means, but we both really loved the written word. I can't imagine losing that capacity.

(Audio books are, by the way, not the same. They'd be better than nothing, but I just can't get lost in the story by listening the way I do reading.  Maybe I'd have to figure out braille. Oh god, maybe I should go ahead and learn braille just in case. Although, braille editions are massive. hmmmm)

Blindsided is about a girl, Natalie, who was born without irises. It's a pretty rare condition and can incidentally lead to blindness because the irises act like a light filter. Natalie has been losing her sight for years. She's a sophomore at the beginning of the book. They've done surgeries. They've tried everything. She's going to lose the rest of her sight, and soon. So, her parents send her to a blind school in Baltimore to learn the skills she'll need to function.

Natalie is not pleased. She's angry and prefers to live in denial. So this book is really about grief and adjustment. It's really a sweet little story.

Rules by Cynthia Lord

So, in my efforts to fill the gap in my reading ladder, I've discovered enough books with autistic main characters to make an entirely separate ladder.

Catherine has an autistic brother, David. In families, when there is a disabled or chronically ill child, all the focus tends to go to that child. It's a natural thing and the siblings, in my experience, understand. However, it's got to be tough for the non-disabled child to be held to different standards and feel like their needs for attention are over looked. I'm an only child, so I have not personally experienced this, but I have had several close friends who grew up in this situation and I've taught several students with this family situation. Listening to them is interesting. It seems like few families manage the balance well and often that non-disabled kid ends up acting out because it's the only way they get attention. The other side of the coin, are the kids who end up holding themselves to impossibly perfect standards. One of my roommates in college was like that. They never get to be kids and make mistakes like other kids. Imagine the pressure of making a mistake when your parents are already so stressed out on behalf of your sibling. It's rough.

Mind you, I am absolutely not criticising these families. I cannot imagine dealing with what they have to on a day in/day out basis. I just feel for the "normal" sibling. That's what Rules is about. Catherine knows that David has more needs and she really tries to do her share, but shes still a teenage girl and craves those normal teenage experiences. When she meets a CP kid named Jason and helps him with his communication board she really has to struggle with who she is. Jason has no normal teenager words, and Catherine helps him with that. She helps him feel more normal, but how does she get to feel more normal. Who can help her with that?

The blurbs all say that this book is about acceptance and that angle is there. However, I think the most important aspect is that sibling perspective.

December List o' Learning

So, the last month of the year begins. I have quite handily met my reading goal and exceeded it for the year. Which leads me to my reading goal for next year. Clearly I need to be reading a lot of YA literature in order to keep up with my students' reading. However, I need to be reading more than just YA. Anyway it's something to think on.

1. El Deafo by Cece Bell (L)
2. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments)
4. Walk Two Moons by Sarah Creech (L)
5. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (L)
6. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (L)
7. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
8. Masquerade by Nikki Grimes (L)
9. Year's Best SF12 ed David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
10. Demon Glass by Rachel Hawkins
11. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)
12. Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson (L)
13. Sold by Patricia McCormick (L)
14. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (L)
15. Cress by Marissa Meyer (L)
16. Winter by Marissa Meyer (L)
17. Monster by Walter Dean Myers (L)
18. Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers (L)
19. Yummy, The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri (L)
20. The Writer's Workbook by Jenny Newman et al (NF)
21. Family by Micol Ostow (L)
22. Star 1 ed. Frederik Pohl
23. The Case Against Tomorrow by Frederik Pohl
24. Moving Pictures Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
25. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
26. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
27. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) * (RR)
28. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
29. Stiff by Mary Roach
30. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (L)
31. Down to the Bone by Justina Robson 
32. Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson (L)
33. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling 
34. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
35. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (RR)
36. Where the Sidewalk Ends  by Shel Silverstein (RR)
37. Our Children's Children by Clifford D. Simak 
38. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (NF)
39. The Short Reign of Pippin IV by Steinbeck (B)
40. The Amulet of Samarkand by Johnathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy)
41. So B. It by Sarah Weeks (L)
42. Window Boy by  Andrea White (L)
43. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran (B)
44. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin (L)
45. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (L)

November Progress Report

November was a good month. I got a lot of great reading done. While I've been better about regular posting to this blog, I still can improve. Overall, a good go of it in a rough month. 

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
2. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (L) (11/7)
3. Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John (L) (11/22)
4. The House with the Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs (11/16)
5. The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs (11/21)
6. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
7. The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B) (11/10)
8. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments)
9. Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings (L) (11/24)
10. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (L)
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (L)
12. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
13. Year's Best SF12 ed David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
14. Demon Glass by Rachel Hawkins
15. Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser (L) (11/12)
16. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)
17. Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson (L)
18. Rules by Cynthia Lord (L) (11/24)
19. Cinder by Marissa Meyer (L) (11/23)
20. The Writer's Workbook by Jenny Newman et al (NF)
21. Family by Micol Ostow (L)
22. Wonder by R.J. Palacio (L) (11/6)
23. Star 1 ed. Frederik Pohl
24. The Case Against Tomorrow by Frederik Pohl
25. Eric by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (L) (11/5)
26. Moving Pictures Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
27. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
28. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
29. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) * (RR)
30. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
31. The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan (L) (11/15)
32. Stiff by Mary Roach
33. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (L)
34. Down to the Bone by Justina Robson 
35. Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson (L)
36. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling 
37. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
38. Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit (B) (11/1)
39. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (RR)
40. Where the Sidewalk Ends  by Shel Silverstein (RR)
41. Our Children's Children by Clifford D. Simak 
42. Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan (L) (10/31)
43. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (NF)
44. The Short Reign of Pippin IV by Steinbeck (B)
45. The Amulet of Samarkand by Johnathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy)
46. The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen (L) (11/25)
47. Window Boy by  Andrea White (L)
48. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran (B)
49. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (L)

Thanksgiving - a Small Meditation

Little known fact - Thanksgiving isn't a strictly American holiday.

Way back in the day, it was common for a day of thanksgiving to be announced for any number of reasons and at any level of community. Days of Thanksgiving were announced for the births in the royal family. They were announced for good harvests, or near misses (think fires and floods). They were announced for things like peace treaties and successes in battles. There were quite a variety of them announced in early american history, and various libraries have the sermons preached in the little community churches. It was common and could happen at any time of year.  In fact, the Thanksgiving that we celebrate these days didn't become an official holiday until 1863. Over 200 years after the theoretical first thanksgiving of the pilgrims (1621).

Somewhere along the way the idea of Thanksgiving got generally tied up with our national holiday and with the Pilgrims. The history with the Pilgrims is really a little dodgy if you think about it. I mean it's great to be grateful to the Native Americans getting the Pilgrims through their first winter, but wouldn't it have been better to show that gratitude a little better? There's two sides to anything.

Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving. I love being with my family and celebrating each other. It just really never had anything to do with the Pilgrims. Their Thanksgiving has nothing to do with our Thanksgivings. In Abraham Lincoln's proclamation declaring the formation of the national holiday, there is no mention of the Pilgrims at all. Because it's not about that and it shouldn't be about that. It's about having and showing gratitude. Meaningful and real gratitude for things immediate to our lives and not some fictionalized candy floss dream of a time no one can personally remember and that we should perhaps look at more critically than we do.

So, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for my family and for my son. I'm grateful for my husband who is perhaps the most patient and generous man I know. I'm grateful that I found teaching. I'm grateful for my students. I'm grateful that I have my vision and I can read. I'm grateful that I had 35 years with my grandfather and that his passing in the end was gentle.

It's about gratitude people. Look around. No matter how unhappy we are or what bad things happen, there is something we should be grateful for.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder has a cover reminiscent of the Twilight Series. Which for me is not a selling point. I didn't much like Twilight personally. Of course, I'm all for anything that gets the kids reading and Twilight most assuredly did that.

Cinder is nothing like Twilight though.  I really liked it and managed to gulp it down in a single sleepless night of reading. The premise is that in the far far future, the world has had more wars and a lunar colony exists. Cinder is a cyborg and in virtual slave to her step mother and two step sisters. (Yes, indeed this is a fractured fairy tale.)

Two things knock Cinder out of the status quo. First, Cinder is apparently the best mechanic in the city and this leads to meeting Prince Kai who desperately needs his android fixed. Of course, Prince Kai is enchanted by Cinder and doesn't know she's a cyborg. (Cyborgs aren't considered people in the same sense as those with all their fleshy bits intact) Second, Peony, Cinder's youngest stepsister, gets the incurable plague that overlays the whole plot.

Soon, Cinder finds out just how monstrous her step mother can be.

Cinder is full of intrigue and simmering mysteries that drive the plot. While many of the plot twists were somewhat predictable the writing style is compelling and keeps interest high.  A solid read and I plan to follow up with the rest of the series.

The Five Flavors of Dumb by Anthony John

Yet another discovery in my quest to fill in the gaps on my LD Reading Ladder. And an another great book that doesn't quite fit. Maybe I need to rethink my theme.

The premise of The Five Flavors of Dumb is that Piper, who happens to be deaf, somehow ends up managing a rock band her High School. This is challenging for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with her deafness. I have to admit, I thought this was a ridiculous premise and, as a consequence, didn't expect much.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Of all the disabilities I work with in my job, deafness confounds me the most. It affects a surprising number of people. There is a strong genetic component and as a result there are whole multi-generational deaf families. Many of these people don't view it as a disability and a whole "deaf culture" has sprung up. I have to admit that I have a hard time viewing the lack of an ability that most other people possess as anything but a disability. It's hard to wrap my head about. On the other hand, I don't necessarily view dwarves as disabled just because they "lack height." Disability is a mind-set after-all and who am I to judge?

The reason for this reflection, however, is that functioning in society and the nature of deaf culture is one of the underpinning themes of the novel. On the surface it's about these five musicians, one of which is a complete rancid jerk, being dysfunctional while a deaf girl tries to hold them together. And that's a good story, but the more subtle lines about disability and family are way more compelling.

This book features a strong female protagonist struggling less with her disability, and more with getting to know her own feelings about how she fits into her family and the rest of the world. The plot line is strictly linear and chapters are relatively short. The author is british, which means much of the humor tends towards the dry and subtle. All and all a solid read.

The Wonder World - Palacio

Every once and a while I finish a stand alone novel and wish there were more. It's not an uncommon thing for writers to write additional short stories and vignettes in a beloved world. However, they often go unpublished or languish in some collection somewhere that only printed 200 copies. Palacio made it easy, she published them...or at least three of them. None of them stand well on their own, but they are great supplements to Wonder once you've read that.

Julian - is a lost chapter from the perspective of the bully. Julian is the kid who just can't adjust to the way Auggie looks and lashes. Most of the real action of the chapter happens after Wonder concludes when Julian is in France with his grandmother. I liked this chapter because, while it didn't excuse Julian's actions, it went a good ways into offering an explanation for why bullies do what they do.

Pluto - is about Auggie's oldest friend Chris. Oddly enough, while Auggie is definitely a part of Chris's story, this chapter is really entirely about Chris. What does it mean to be a friend of someone living with disfigurement? How do you protect them? Should you? These are tough questions for adults. Being a middle schooler and having to figure them out is probably tougher

Shingaling - is about Charlotte. Charlotte, like Julian and Jack Will, was made a welcome buddy to Auggie at the beginning of the school year. I think that Charlotte tends to represent how most people respond to these sorts of issues. She is not cruel to Auggie the way Julian is, but she also doesn't really befriend him either the way Jack Will and Summer do. She sort of hovers in a vaguely genial neutrality which is what I think most people end up doing. She's not a bad person at all, she just gets uncomfortable and doesn't know what to do. So, she does nothing really. I think most of us find ourself there. It takes courage to invite attention and comment by befriending the uncomfortable. That's what makes Shingaling such an important addition to the Wonder collection.

All three chapters have since been collected into a single volume called Auggie & Me. They are all a worthwhile read.

NCTE Conference

So, this is my first experience at a large scale professional conference. I've been to our local Independent School conference loads but that's tiny compared to this. I really had no idea what to expect.

Tip #1 dress comfortably and no one cares if you wear jeans

It's overwhelming. It's like being at Dragon Con but calmer. There's tons going on and somehow I have to select 5 sessions maximum a day out of 250 offerings...crazy.

Tip #2 if you are feeling stressed out, find someone to help. Helping others is an excellent anxiety drain.

The exhibitor hall alone is worth the price of admission. The place is absolutely lousey with publishers, authors, and literary agents. It's like being in a giant whirlpool of geeky-cool. I actually trod on Sharon Draper's foot....she was very nice about it.  And I got to shake the hand of Jason Reynolds....Squee!

Tip #3 always keep a hand free for shaking

The Sessions themselves were generally pretty top-tier. I went to one on differentiation of Shakespeare instruction. Brilliant!! I will do it all! I went to one that was run completely by higher education professionals explaining to us high school schmoes what they are seeing from our students when they get to college. Actually they were very nice and frank about admitting where the colleges could be doing better too. From this though I have an idea for block scheduling a couple days with science for close reading practice on textbooks.

Tip #4 don't get so excited you don't eat

But maybe better than all that. I was surrounded by 3000 people who get as geeky about books as I do. I've never -repeat never- had that before. I jumped in and out of conversations about the merits of adaptations of shakespeare into YA lit, socially active material, dealing with parent concerns on subject matter. I actually got to butt heads with someone on the merits of handing of Tolkien vs. Rowling as an entry point to fantasy literature. I always felt like such a freak when it came to books as a passion. I guess if I am, I'm not the only one.

Tip #5 remember to smile

An Extemporaneous Poem

I am the sand after the sea
     streaked with salt
     detritus littered
The leavings of the Tide.

The House With the Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs

This is a book Ryan bought for me to read in aid of my general goal of getting a handle on a broader base of YA lit. Published in 1973, this book is a great deal older than many of the things I've been reading and so describes a world that many of my students would find odd, even above the ideas of magic clocks and wizarding uncles.

Lewis's parents have died and as a result he must now live with his notorious Uncle Jonathan. Jonathan lives in huge house in Zeebedee, Michigan. Jonathan is also a wizard. Lewis is overweight and awkward. He doesn't play sports and he doesn't make friends easily. So when he does make a friend, Tarby, he'll do anything to keep a hold of him. This includes sharing the secret of his uncle's power and trying a few tricks of his own.

Of course, things go wrong. Ancient evils unleashed. All that fun stuff.

Good solid read with a well imagined world. In many ways the relationships between the characters make it seem like a precursor to Harry Potter.

The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan

It has been a while since the last time I followed a series as it was actually being written. My usual modus operandi is to wait until and author's finished and then read the thing in one big gulp. Reading that way, those little tricks an author uses to remind the reader what happened in the previous book were annoying because I'd just read the previous book.  However, I read book 1, Sword of Summer, in January. It's been close to a year because I had to wait for Riordan to write the next book. It was an interesting experience. I found myself floundering around a little trying to remember how things left off. Definitely a different way of reading.

So, Magnus Chase has had six glorious crisis-free months off, but alas all things end. A mysterious goat killing assassin interrupts a coffee appointment with Samirah the Valkyrie and he's off again battling with giants and assorted elves, gods, and dwarves to find the Hammer of Thor and stop Loki.

Alex, the new character, is another child of Loki like Samirah is a somewhat enigmatic figure in the beginning. Violent and angry, she/he walks around with a virtual keep away sign on her forehead.  However she/he is an interesting exposure to the idea of gender fluidity.

All in all it's a good read. It seems like Riordan is trying to use his books to promote tolerance on some real world issues which is a good thing. Downsides, this was a hefty book and the narrative wasn't as tight as in previous books. It came in at around 450 pages and could have, should have probably, been 350. This is why good editors are important kiddos.

A Series of Unfortunate Events (revisited)

Dear Everyone,

Do you remember when I wrote a post about the random nature of the Universe about a month ago? Well it continues to be "random." By which I mean, I seem to be jumping from catastrophe to catastrophe. I think it is wearing me down because I've been sick much more than usual.

I don't really want to get into a tirade of negativity so I'm not going to get into specifics. However, I do have a bad tendency to navel gaze. Otherwise known as introspection when done in a healthy way, navel gazing is a form of self-absorption and I try to avoid it. I feel myself sliding into it and damnit, I'm not going there.

There are a lot of good things going on amidst the bad. So, I'm going to start lining up projects to keep myself busy. Here's what I got so far:

• mulching the front "lawn" until the spring
• planning out next spring's expanded garden
• Sourcing materials for said garden
• Build composer
• Finish hanging the last 4 curtain rods
• Clearing brush from back yard for primary path
• yanking kudzu and English ivy off the trees
• Organizing and cleaning basement post flooding catastrophe
• waterproof painting basement wall
• Finish retaining wall
• Repaint back bathroom with mold retardant paint
• Get better fan for bathroom

That's enough to keep me busy....right?

Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser

Tara Sullivan can't explain why she does the things she does. She can't explain why she has to count cracks or line up grains of rice before eating them. She doesn't know why she has to confess every sin or pray every time someone swears. She knows it's weird and that no one else has to do it. Maybe she's crazy. Her parents certainly seem to think so and she can't really argue.

Things get worse and worse until a family friend finally steps in.

Published in 1998, the public was much less aware of OCD so reading this was a little weird. It's not really a novel that focuses on story. It reads more like a fictionalized diary or personal testimony. I suspect the author wrote it as an educational tool, in fact. Window into the Obsessive-Compulsive mind, or some such.

It's only about 150 pages in hardcover so it's a quick read. It's an interesting voice and it definitely conveys the helplessness of dealing with these compulsions. However, it's jarring the way the book assumes that most people are completely unaware of what OCD is.

In a post-Monk world, I think everyone has a passing familiarity with what OCD is. It leaked into our language, and we self apply it when we are being super detail oriented about something. It's lazy language and most people don't fully understand the horror of it, but at least they are aware of it as a thing that happens.

Eh. It's a decent book, but I can't think of who I would recommend it to.

The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

bwahahahaha I did it, I finally did it. I finished the book! The Chessmen of Mars is the last book in the big John Carter Omnibus that my dad bought for himself last Christmas and immediately handed to me to read. It is now almost Thanksgiving. It took me a year. Me! . . . A Year!

Honestly, they are fun books but they are so formulaic that I just couldn't read them back to back. Hence the long slog. Any way, on to the review!

The Chessmen of Mars is about John Carter's daughter, Tara of Helium. Tara is a brat. She's a real spoiled pain in the butt. So I admit when she got her self blown into a far off land as the result of a temper tantrum, I uttered a small but malicious giggle. In a weird way, The Chessmen of Mars is a twisted little coming of age novel. Tara matures from that spoiled little brat into admirable strong woman.

The main love interest for this one is a Jed from a far off land named Gehan. I liked him way more than Tara for most of the book. This novel also introduces a weird new insectoid species calling themselves the Kaldanes of Bartoom that have an odd symbiotic relationship with a headless humanoid animal they call rykors.

So, all in all good escapist stuff.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak is a hard book to read. It's not tough because of vocabulary level or sentence structure. It's tough because of content. It originally turned up on my reading list as part of my exploration for my LD reading ladder. This book has absolutely nothing to do with learning disorders. It is a good book though.

Melinda Sordino has a secret and it's tearing her apart. The reason she's an outcast, the reason her grades are terrible, and the reason she skips class to hang out in an abandoned janitor's closet all come back to this secret. She doesn't even want to admit it to herself and she bites through her lips to stay silent.

Her friends can't help her because she's never told them what happened. She can't speak.

This is an excellent book for young women to read. The statistics say that 1 out of every 4 teenage girls experiences sexual abuse in some way (1 out of every 6 boys, by the way, too). Clearly it's a woefully common issue for teenage girls and it happens at a time when many girls feel alienated from adult support.

I'm not saying a good book is a substitute for adult intervention and support. But I do think that books help us process difficult ideas and events.  This is not a book I would idly recommend to just any student. Certainly it is aimed more firmly at females and the subject matter is a little alarming. However, it has a solid treatment of the issue and the kind of feelings that can result. While the end is perhaps a little more "sunny" than I think the story necessarily warrants, it also emphasizes the need for communication and action.

This is a solid novel and worthy of its awards.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

This is another student recommendation although it was already on my list as a consideration for a reading ladder. I gulped it down in about one evening, so it is a good involving read.

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with an unfortunate combination of genetic disorders that made his craniofacial structure severely deformed but left his intellect intact. He's a pretty normal kid coping with a pretty abnormal situation.

After many many surgeries, Auggie is finally ready to go to an actual school. He's still pretty disfigured though. So there is a lot of anxiety about how his classmates will react. Predictably, it's a mixed bag. Some kids really step up. Some descend into bullying the "weird kid." After years of working in a high school, it's kind of what I would expect to happen.

Palacio bounces around from point of view to point of view. While Auggie's voice is really interesting and engaging, I almost enjoyed the sections from Summer, Via, and Jack's point of view more. It's easy to forget how disabilities affect more than just the disabled person. These glimpses into the minds of the other teens are interesting because it's a reminder that even a nice kid screws up. Strong people have weak moments.

This is a good pick for Middle School and High School. The ideas, though complex, are expressed simply and without melodrama. Because of the multiple points of view, the story isn't completely linear which could cause confusion in a struggling reader.

FIts and starts

I'm having difficulty with Nanowrimo. Really it's pretty stupid and I get frustrated with my students when they do this, but . . .

So, I was hot to trot and good to go on Nov 1st, wrote 900 words in my morning session. When I went back to it in the afternoon, it was gone. Some sort of saving glitch. It's just 900 words, I know that, but now I'm just having the worst difficulty getting back in the swing. Maybe I need to switch ideas...I don't know.

It's getting the best of me. I know that, but I'm just so darned discouraged.

The Wilfrid Boxes

I have a coworker who is downsizing his house and needed to offload some books. He generously gave many of them to me. Some of them will be headed into the classroom library, many of them I'm going to read first. Below is the list of books. There are some incomplete series and a few that I've read before, but mostly I don't know these books or authors even if I'm familiar with their names. It's not my current reading list but there are so many here that I'm not sure where to start. If y'all have any input or recommendations of a good set to start will, let me know!

1. The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
2. Sharra's Exile by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
3. The Shattered Chain by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
4. Thendara House by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
5. City of Sorcery by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
6. The Shadow Matrix by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
7. Traitor's Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
8. Stormqueen! by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
9. Hawkmistress! by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover)
10. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
11. Dhalgren by Samuel Delany
12. Deathstalker Honor by Simon R. Green
13. Silver Moons, Black Steel by Tara K. Harper
14. Rhapsody by Elizabeth Hayden
15. Prophecy by Elizabeth Hayden
16. St. Patrick's Gargoyle by Katherine Kurtz
17. In the Hall of the Dragon King by Stephen R. Lawhead (Dragon King 1)
18. The Warlords of Nin by Stephen R. Lawhead (Dragon King 2)
19. The Sword and the Flame by Stephen R. Lawhead (Dragon King 3)
20. Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish by Morgan Llywelyn
21. Druids by Morgan Llywelyn
22. Silverhand by Morgan Llywelyn and Michael Scott (Arcana 1)
23. The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum
24. Nimisha's Ship by Ann McCaffrey
25. Pegasus in Space by Anne McCaffrey
26. Acorna: the Unicorn Girl by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball
27. The Chrome Borne by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon
28. Power Lines by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
29. Power Play by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
30. Sky Dragons by Todd McCaffrey
31. The Thief's Gamble by Juliet E. McKenna
32. Once a Hero by Elizabeth Moon
33. Rules of Engagement by Elizabeth Moon
34. Against the Odds by Elizabeth Moon
35. The King of Swords by Michael Moorcock (Third Book of Corum)
36. The Bull and Spear by Michael Moorcock (fourth Book of Corum
37. The War Amongst the Angels by Michael Moorcock
38. The Integral Trees by Larry Niven
39. The Ringworld Throne by Larry Niven
40. Saturn's Race by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
41. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
42. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
43. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
44. Dragonspell by Donita K. Paul
45. Dragonquest by Donita K. Paul
46. Stronghold by Melanie Rawn (Dragon Star 1)
47. The Dragon Token by Melanie Rawn (Dragon Star 2)
48. Skybowl by Melanie Rawn (Dragon Star 3)
49. The Mageborn Traitor by Melanie Rawn (Exiles 2)
50. Exiles by Melanie Rawn (Ruins of Ambrai 1)
51. A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo
52. The Ganymede Club by Charles Sheffield
53. My Brother's Keeper by Charles Sheffield
54. The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons
55. Field of Dishonor by David Weber (Honor Harrington)
56. Flag in Exile by David Weber (Honor Harrington)
57. War of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington)
58. Mission of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington)
59. On Basilisk Station by David Weber (Honor Harrington)
60. Honor Among Enemies by David Weber (Honor Harrington)
61. The Short Victorious War by David Weber (Honor Harrington)
62. The Honor of the Queen by David Weber (Honor Harrington)
63. Changer of Worlds  by David Weber (Worlds of Honor 3)
64. Path of the Fury by David Weber
65. The Apocalypse Troll by David Weber
66. In Enemy Hands by David Weber
67. Ashes of Victory by David Weber
68. At All Costs by David Weber
69. March Upcountry by David Weber and John Ringo
70. March to the Sea by David Weber and John Ringo
71. Flash Gordon on the Lost Continent of Mongo by Al Williamson

Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

It would seem that with the end of The Warlord of Mars, John Carter's stint as a main character is over. Thuvia, Maid of Mars's protagonist is John Carter's son Carthoris. It seems a little odd to me that as devoted to John Carter as Thuvia was that Burroughs is now setting her up with the son, but that is clearly what is happening.

The book opens with a love triangle. Thuvia is promised to Kulan Tith but she is very careful to never say that she loves him. It's painfully obvious that she has feelings for Carthoris so the whole scene is awkward and stilted. If that's not enough, Thuvia has also captured the heart of a very ill-mannered Prince Astok. When he tries to force his attentions on Thuvia, Carthoris rescues her...aggressively.

Rebuffed and humiliated, Astok kidnaps Thuvia and frames Carthoris for it. By doing so, he throws three kingdoms at each other's throats.

Then follows the usual chases, captures, and escapes.

Actually, there's more in this one in the way of intrigue and plot...there is still plenty of action, but it's not a pure action-fest. In some ways, I found this the most enjoyable of the series so far.

Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit

Ok, so this is another book that Ansley handed to me... and then got pretty feisty with me until I read it.  (And I thought I was a demanding promoter of lit, sheesh) I have to admit the girl has good taste in literature.

A few years back I got a little done with what I've been calling Holocaust Lit. It's not that I think it's overrated, or bad, or even boring. I just don't enjoy reading it. I can handle sad tragic lit. I love a good cry when I'm not crying over me. The Holocaust though, is on a completely different level from run of the mill tragedy. The reality is that most human tragedy is caused by the people/victims involved. Their choices, while ultimately flawed, make sense to us which is the source of the pathos.

The Holocaust was not tragic in that sense. Nothing those people/victims did warranted or invited what happened to them. It was a senseless reminder of how close to mindless beasts we still are. People talk about it like it couldn't happen any more, but I look at our current political situation here and I feel that we are all too close.

I'm getting off point.

Anna and the Swallow Man is set in Poland right after the Nazis rolled in and carted off all the intellectuals. Anna's father is an intellectual. A linguist to be precise. Anna, as his daughter, already speaks five or six languages by the time she is seven and her father simply disappears. Now a seven year old alone in Nazi Occupied Poland shouldn't stand a chance of survival, but a chance encounter with a strange spindly man with chameleon like powers of adaptation leads to an informal adoption. The pair tramp around the Polish wilderness living off the land and gently swindling people into giving them what they otherwise need. A moving target is hard to find, after all.

The Swallow Man is a vaguely sinister figure. While it is clear that he truly cares of Anna, I never find myself feeling comfortable with their relationship. Perhaps that's the point. Under those circumstances, what does trust really  look like.

I haven't really absorbed the ending yet. I'm not sure what Savit was getting at with it, but the book as a whole is a worthwhile read. Even with my issues reading Holocaust Lit, I found myself drawn in enough to finish it in a an evening.

Counting By 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan

The first reading ladder I'm putting together is thematically organized around protagonist types. My first ladder all has protagonists with some form of learning disability. When I finish it, I'll blog it out for y'all. However, I have some gaps so I'm doing a lot of research and reading to find books that can fill it in. 

Counting by 7's was my first attempt. Willow Chance is 12, freakishly smart, and almost completely unconcerned with what teen-age culture says "fitting in" looks like. She is highly knowledgeable in botany, almost encyclopedic on medical knowledge, and learned vietnamese for fun. Willow is smart. She's probably meant to be autistic. She is also adopted, and, when her adoptive parents die in a horrific car crash, her world is turned upside down.

Willow has to navigate the world of California's Child Services. All she has going for her is her incredible intelligence, her friend Mai (who lends her her family), and a semi-competent school counselor named Del. Del, incidentally, is a woeful case of the blind leading the blind. 

Every character is flawed but well meaning and if it all falls together a little too easily, it is also a good quick read with some beautiful moments. There's some good contemplation on the meaning and nature of grief and on what 'family' really means. 

This is a good solid read for a precocious middle schooler. The reading level is solidly in the middle range but the ideas are pretty sophisticated. Thematically, I don't think it's a good fit for my LD ladder, but it's definitely worthy of inclusion on a ladder...maybe about coping with loss or cross cultural friendship.

November's Novels Between Novelling

Alright guys. It's here. Nanowrimo. Experience has taught me that if I'm going to write, I must also read. I'm not sure why that should be so, but it most definitely is. However, at the breakneck pace of Nanowrimo it's easy to put reading aside. I know I can't do that and keep going. However, my reading pace will most definitely slow down. When my pace slows, it becomes much more likely that I will lose interest and drop a book. So, with all that in mind, here is my list for November. It is heavily weighted towards quick reads and YA fiction. Many of the titles were also on October's list, but there are many new ones out from the library as well.

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
2. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (L)
3. Five Flavors of Dumb by John Antony (L)
4. The House with the Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
5. The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
6. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
7. The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
8. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments)
9. Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings (L)
10. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (L)
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (L)
12. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
13. Year's Best SF12 ed David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
14. Demon Glass by Rachel Hawkins
15. Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser
16. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)
17. Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson (L)
18. Rules by Cynthia Lord (L)
19. Cinder by Marissa Meyer (L)
20. The Writer's Workbook by Jenny Newman et al (NF)
21. Family by Micol Ostow (L)
22. Wonder by R.J. Palacio (L)
23. Star 1 ed. Frederik Pohl
24. The Case Against Tomorrow by Frederik Pohl
25. Eric by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
26. Moving Pictures Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
27. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
28. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
29. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) * (RR)
30. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
31. The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan (L)
32. Stiff by Mary Roach
33. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (L)
34. Down to the Bone by Justina Robson 
35. Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson (L)
36. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling 
37. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
38. Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit (B)
39. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (RR)
40. Where the Sidewalk Ends  by Shel Silverstein (RR)
41. Our Children's Children by Clifford D. Simak 
42. Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan (L)
43. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (NF)
44. The Short Reign of Pippin IV by Steinbeck (B)
45. The Amulet of Samarkand by Johnathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy)
46. The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen (L)
47. Window Boy by  Andrea White (L)
48. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran (B)
49. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (L)

October progress Report

These huge lists really suck because no matter how much I read, it just doesn't look like much in comparison to the list as a whole. The first half of the month was quite productive. Later on I got distracted by a series called Vampire Nights which is a manga. I blasted through 10 volumes in two days much to Ryan's annoyance (sorry Ryan) I'm at a loss for how to deal with Manga on my reading list. The way goodreads handles them, each volume is a book, but it feels like cheating to me. I'd be inclined to call 10 volume run equal to one book...maybe.

This is all just incredible navel gazing though, as I've long since finished my reading challenge.

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
2. Ambassador by William Alexander
3. Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie (RR)
4. War Dances by Sherman Alexie (RR)
5. In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez
6. City of Glass by Paul Auster
7. Ghosts by Paul Auster
8. The Locked Room by Paul Auster
9. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (RR)
10. The House with the Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
11. The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
12. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
13. The Deceivers by Alfred Bester
14. 3 Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger (L)
15. Perfect Peace by Daniel Black
16. Silent Tears by Kay Bratt
17. The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B) (10/17)
18. Thuvia, Maid of Mars  by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B) (10/19)
19. The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
20. Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler (B)
21. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (L)
22. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (L)
23. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (L)
24. Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card (L)
25. Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey
26. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
27. Thrilling Tales ed Michael Chabon
28. The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton (B)
29. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments)
30. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
31. The Archers Tale by Bernard Cornwell
32. Crackback by John Coy (L) (10/6)
33. Gym Candy by Carl Deuker (L)
34. Out of My Mind by Sharon M Draper (B) (10/3)
35. King's Dragon by Kate Elliot (B)
36. American Indian Myths and Legends ed. Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz (NF)
37. The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber
38. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
39. Celestine Sibley: A Granddaughter's Reminiscence by Celestine Sibley Fleming (B)
40. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
41. Ironhand's Daughter by David Gemmell
42. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (NF)
43. Paper Towns by John Green
44. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
45. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
46. The Devil's Picnic by Taras Grescoe
47. Lion's Honey by David Grossman
48. Doctor Dogbody's Leg by James Norman Hall (B)
49. Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (NF)
50. Looking Out, Looking In by Margaret Ferris Harney (?)
51. Year's Best SF12 ed David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
52. Demon Glass by Rachel Hawkins
53. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)
54. Dead Simple by Peter James
55. Looking Good Dead by Peter James
56. The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
57. Beast by Paul Kingsnorth (B)
58. Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
59. Choice Cuts by Mark Kurlansky (NF)
60. Exile by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole) (L) (10/3)
61. The War of the Ember by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole) (L) (10/13)
62. The Rise of a Legend by Kathryn Lasky (Guardians of Ga'Hoole) (L) (10/16)
63. Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
64. Reading Ladders by Teri S. Lesesne
65. The Art of Fiction by David Lodge
66. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
67. The Falcons of Fire and Ice by Karen Maitland
68. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (B)
69. On Caring by Milton Mayeroff
70. The Color of Water by James McBride (NF)
71. Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min
72. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (RR)
73. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
74. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
75. The Writer's Workbook by Jenny Newman et al (NF)
76. Ringworld by Larry Nivan
77. Witchworld by Andre Norton
78. The Hurricane Party by Klas Ostergren
79. The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
80. The Athenian by Mildred Parns (B)
81. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
82. Star 1 ed. Frederik Pohl
83. Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl
84. The Case Against Tomorrow by Frederik Pohl
85. Cooked by Michael Pollan (NF)
86. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B) (10/22)
87. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B) (10/26)
88. Eric by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
89. Moving Pictures Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
90. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
91. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
92. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) * (RR)
93. Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
94. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
95. Soul Music by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
96. Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
97. Maskerade by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
98. Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
99. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
100. Jingo by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
101. The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
102. Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
103. The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
104. The Truth by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
105. Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
106. The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
107. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
108. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
109. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
110. Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
111. A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
112. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
113. Thud! by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
114. Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
115. Making Money by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) (B)
116. Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
117. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
118. Snuff by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
119. Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
120. The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett (Discworld) *
121. The Adventures of Ellery Queen by Ellery Queen
122. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
123. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
124. Stiff by Mary Roach
125. Red Mars by Kim Staley Robinson
126. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
127. Keeping It Real by Justina Robson (B) (10/8)
128. Selling Out by Justina Robson (B) (10/10)
129. Going Under by Justina Robson (B) (10/12)
130. Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson (B) (10/15)
131. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling 
132. Software by Rudy Rucker (RR)
133. Wetware by Rudy Rucker
134. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
135. Perdita by Hilary Scharper
136. Who-ology: Doctor Who Official Miscellany by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
137. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (NF)
138. With Fate Conspire by Mike Shupp
139. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (RR)
140. Where the Sidewalk Ends  by Shel Silverstein (RR)
141. Our Children's Children by Clifford D. Simak 
142. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (NF)
143. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls) (L) (10/2)
144. Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls) (L) (10/5)
145. The Short Reign of Pippin IV by Steinbeck (B)
146. The Amulet of Samarkand by Johnathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy)
147. Binu and the Great Wall by Su Tong
148. Where Three Roads Meet by Salley Vickers
149. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
150. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
151. The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White
152. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran (B)
153. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (L)

Lending Limits

I love my local library. I miss being a librarian. Being around books day in and day out is amazing. All that knowledge and creativity in palpable form. Awesome.

For a while there, it seemed like I was trying to recreate the library environment at home. Part of the issue was the massive sales surrounding the closing of Borders. I miss Borders. It's not that Barnes & Noble isn't a decent store. However, Borders had a much more liberal outlook. Their clerks could wear jeans. Crazy, right? Don't even get me started on their periodicals selections.

Anyway, like any good consumer, when they went out of business, I descended like a rabid vulture and bought books on discount...a lot of books. Actually, I have a weakness for buying books. In most areas of my life, I'm pretty frugal. However, should I walk into a bookstore (used or otherwise) I have a hard time leaving without a purchase.

I can't resist books. Books and craft beer. So there you have it. It's my kryptonite.

Now that I have a child, I have shifted my literary impulses on to the library. It's easier on the budget. Dekalb has a good library system. I particularly like the request function. If Dekalb has it in any of their branches, I can get it shipped to my local library. It's a nice function. I use it a lot.

As a lit teacher, I'm often on the hunt for the perfect book for Jane, Dick, or Sally. I spend a lot of time trying to find books for reluctant readers. I'm pretty good at it too, I'm told. Recently, I've started creating resources for teachers in my school who are trying to mimic my success. I've become really enchanted with the idea of reading ladders.

The idea behind reading ladders is that if you can find a book a student genuinely likes, you can probably find one similar to it that they will like as well. It's a sound theory, but it requires a solid foundation in YA literature. A foundation that I'm acquiring. However, it's not feasible for an entire english department to read the way I do. So, I'm trying to find a way to spread the love.

I'm creating these thematically scaled lists in an effort to help my cohorts. However, I am finding I need to do research to fill gaps. There are plenty of resources, but to know if the books I find fit, I have to take a look.

So, I request books.

Turns out there is a limit. The limit is 14. Now pragmatically, I know most people can't get through 14 books in a couple of weeks, but I can. It's not an unreasonable limit, but darn it, I'm on a mission.

*fume*

I need more books!

Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Karen Laskey Books 9-11

At the end of book 8, The Outcast, I was sure the series was over. Coryn was at the great tree with the ember and, more critically, Ezylryb was dead...heroically of course. It was a good place to end it I felt, yet I had a stack of eight more books in the series cluttering up the coffee table. Where could Lasky possible go from here.

The answer, back in time...sort of. As it turns out Ezylryb had three histories squirrelled away in his hollow along with solemn instructions that Coryn and Soren should read them.

The First Collier begins with the story of Grank who becomes the first collier and H'rath and Siv who are owl royalty and will become the parents of Hoole. I'm particularly fond of Siv, she's got some real grit. Collectively, the three books outline a time constantly under threat of the dark magic of hagsfiends.

Hoole is born at a bleak time and is a kind of owl version of King Arthur. He goes on to found the great tree and drive out the hagsfiends.

These are good reads, not as gripping as the original story line, but interesting all the same. It felt very much like a primary purpose of these is to lay the groundwork for the continuation of the series.

9. The First Collier
10. The Coming of Hoole
11. To Be a King

Planning

Alright, I have a novel idea for Nanowrimo. It even has the beginning of a main conflict, although I need to make sure I have that in clear focus before November 1st. I can see what starts the conflict rolling but I can't see where it ends. I do have, however, the last scene of the book which is unusual for me. Everything feels very off kilter. I don't even have the main character in focus yet. This is a really strange way to go about things, but I'm resolved to try this. It's not like "my way" ever worked.

Looking towards the shape of November... November is always busy with Thanksgiving in it. This year however, I have two conferences to go to and 12 week grades to post. I'm going to be super busy.

Daily schedule is going to be key. During the week 6:30 AM to 4 PM is solidly booked. I get up at 4 (ish) and have about an hour before I need to put lunches together. After school, we get home around 5:30. Normally, I spend about an hour and a half on cooking and eating, or, if I've pre-cooked over the weekend, playing with Thomas and eating. Around 7 PM or so Thomas get's his "movie time" and we try to get him in bed by 8:30 PM. We are usually in bed by 9. So, I have, as it stands now, an hour in the morning and from 7 PM to 9 in the evening. I'm going to keep going with the blog through this and I need to keep reading as well as writing. If I just accept that I need to sacrifice some sleep this month and keep going until 10PM I can manage four hours each week day. Weekends are different of course.

So, I think my writing schedule needs to look like this:

4AM-5AM: Writing blast
5AM-6AM: Pack lunches & get ready for work
6AM -7AM: Commute & school prep
7AM - 4 PM: Educate and Mold young minds
4 PM - 5:30 PM: Commute (Reading or Outlining)
5:30 PM - 7 PM: Family Time and Dinner
7 PM - 8:30 PM: Movie Time (Write Blog Post & Read)
8:30 PM - 10 PM: Write, Write, Write

Realistically, that's a pretty grueling pace and unless I do that last writing session standing, I will probably fall asleep some of the time, but it's a start

Mind the Gap

It was a very productive weekend. I got a lot done, particularly in the kitchen. I finally sorted the massive stack of mail that threatened to spread across my counters and reclaimed a lot of my counter space. I picked up all of Thomas's toys. I cooked up a storm.

I only get this productive when I'm avoiding. Right now I'm avoiding writing since Nanowrimo is gearing up and it's splashing over onto the blog. Sorry about that. Working on it. I'm going to need to figure out a schedule and follow it, I think. 

Also, I need to re-give-up video gaming.

Sleep of the dead

I have slept 12 hours and have woken with no ability to think....more later.

Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

For some reason I enjoyed Warlord of Mars more than the first two Barsoom books. It really was a lot more of the same with kidnapped princesses and pursuing princes. It occurs to me that this series feels like the origin of the Super Mario & Princess Peach story.

I always wondered how she managed to get herself kidnapped so much and why she couldn't ever effect an escape of her own.

In any case, the narrative starts off with John Carter waiting in a paroxysm of anxiety for the diabolical prison to open again so that he can find out if the scream he heard when the door closed was his beloved being stabbed by a jealous princess.

Of course, she's not dead but gets captured again by the Matai Sheng and Thorid and whisked off again as John Carter chases after. The man really should be cross country star the way he chases after that woman. On the way, Carter discovers yet another race on the surface of the planet, the yellow men of mars, whose evil jeddak must be overthrown before the rescue is complete. The man is constant source of political instability.

Reading Spree

Out of my 153 books on the October list, I've already blasted through 12. 12 books in 18 days feels pretty good, but I sure am tired. All of the books I've read have come either from the library or were borrowed from friends, so as I'm reading them, I'm also getting them out of the house. So it's sort of feels like a cleaning project.

Last night I fell asleep at 7 PM. I think today is going to be a slow day.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Karen Lasky Books 7 & 8

Series fiction is a weird thing. Readers don't often stop to consider how series writers keep writing in a world and keep it interesting. It's a thing. There are 16 full length Ga'Hoole books. They are all middle readers and it's impossible to keep the protagonists stuck in the pre-teen years forever.

On tactic is to switch protagonists. It's a risky thing, but if done right, it can inject the series with new life. The trick of it is to get the readers to let go of a beloved narrator/character and learn to embrace a new voice. Books 1 through 6 are all, more or less, from the point of view of Soren. However, as Soren aged he became less of a good age appropriate focus for middle readers. Lasky solves this dilemma by switching focus on to Nyroc (soon to become Coryn), Soren's nephew. Now if you've been keeping up with the series, Eglantine is too young for chicks, so Nyroc's parents have to be the dastardly Kludd and Nyra.

It's a bold choice for a shift of viewpoint, and it's a bit jarring. However, it's what needs to happen. Ultimately, Nyroc is an interesting new voice. Soren is a bit...unimpeachable. He's kind of perfect. Soren has very few flaws. Nyroc, on the other hand, has some very interesting damage going which gives him  solid character arch.

Ultimately, I suggest fighting through the first half of The Hatchling because the character, and the series, is worth it. Any weirdness in the shift is worth it to keep the story going.


7. The Hatchling
8. The Outcast

Chipotle-Orange Sauce

This is part of a recipe for a tofu and cauliflower dish. The sauce was good on its intended dish, but it occurs to me that it would be excellent on other things as well and a good way to use up chipotles once I've cracked open a can. The ketchup combined with the orange juice made it a pretty sweet sauce. I wonder if using tomato paste and water would be as sweet.

1 c. ketchup
juice of  1 orange
2-5 cloves garlic minced
2 chipotle peppers minced, with some of their sauce
salt to taste

Simmer until flavors blend

Keeping it Real by Justina Robson

Romance lit hit a weird little revival in the late 90's and early 2000's with the creation of, what I call, supernatural smut. Laurel K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris are two writers in this genre. It's not that these sorts of books didn't exist before this, but something happened and people who don't usually read smut were suddenly gobbling the Anita Blake series and Southern Vampire series as fast as they come out. A big piece of it is that these writers are pretty darn good at writing genre fiction. The first Laurel K. Hamilton book I ever read was a Star Trek Next Gen tie in. Charlaine Harris writes really solid mystery novels. *shrug*

So, I think what happened is that writers of good genre fiction that got good reviews but had a small fan base started trying to catch the wave. I suspect their editors suggested it them. I think Justina Robson is one of those authors. I was handed the first four books in a five book series by Carra. She's got a pretty good handle on my genre fic taste. I'd never heard of the series or the author but after a little research Ryan discovered that Robson was much more well known for her straight up sci fi. I will investigate further.

Keeping it Real is a cross between cyber punk and modern fantasy lit. The world plays with the idea of layered realities that are permeable to some extent. So there's a fractured earth (Otopia), layered with several other realities such as the world of the dead, the world of the elves, Fairy, and the world of demons. I like the way Robson played with traditional elements of fairy tales while fitting it all in a more contemporary world.

Lila, the protagonist, is a cyborg and a damaged young woman. (Seems to be a hallmark of the genre that the female protagonists must ever be tough and incredibly emotionally damaged) As is always the way, she meets Zal, who she hates, but ends up falling in love with.

So here's the thing.

It didn't need any sex. There are two sex scenes. The first is completely unnecessary and the second was fine, but it didn't really need to be there and didn't really fit the feel of the rest of it.

The Gemma Doyle Series by Libba Bray

I originally had this pegged as a YA series and I'm not sure why. I think I read an article that mentioned the second book in passing and the title stuck in my brain as such do. I picked up the second book, Rebel Angels, first because of this and had to backtrack the beginning of the series.

The first two books, A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels, were very quick reads. Gemma Doyle finds out at age 16 that her mother has hidden secret magical powers from her and that Gemma has inherited some of them. Gemma is packed up by her family and moved from India back to Victorian England where her family sends her off to boarding school.

At boarding school, Gemma learns how catty and awful girls can be while discovering the use of her powers to enter "The Realms." There are a lot of sinister overtones and I found a lot of the girl drama tedious, if accurate.

The third book was nearly 800 pages long and it dragged on quite a bit. It took me about three weeks of on and off reading to slog through it. The only reason I didn't put it down was that it was the end of the series. Ultimately, I got through it, and it wasn't terrible, just in need of an editor. The wrap up was a solid completion of the story lines but I found several aspects of it irritating. The romantic subplot in particular was particularly unsatisfying.

The first two are well worth the read and it's an interesting world.

1. A Great and Terrible Beauty
2. Rebel Angels
3. The Sweet Far Thing

The Mayflower Project by Katherine Applegate

Book 1 in a series called the Remnants.

This was one of the three books included in that 3-in-1 that I bought over the summer that got me hooked on the Deltora books and the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. At first, I rather dismissed it as being a little ridiculous. I checked to see if I could get the rest of the books at the library, which I can't, and sort of shifted it out of my thinking.

It keeps coming back.

I don't know if that means that it's a good book after all or if there's something that is just calling to me. Maybe my completionist soul is pestering me for leaving the series uncompleted. I don't know but I can't stop thinking about it.

The premise of the story is that the top scientists discover an asteroid heading towards earth that will most certainly destroy the planet. No avoiding it, it's going to happen and soon too. So, in a rather desperate act, they cobble together a space craft with a lot of untested technology, fill it up with a bunch of influential people and their families, and aim it at a star that probably has habitable planets orbiting around it. That's book one. I'm over simplifying it of course. The protagonists are a group of teens and pre-teens.

Actually, I think it's the characters that are drawing me in. I've never really liked planet killing asteroid stories. I always find them deeply disturbing. They make me feel helpless and small.

Of course, we are all helpless and small when viewed on that scale.

Gearing up for Failure

So, in all the years I've attempted NaNoWriMo, I've never managed to finish it. It's a tough thing to try and produce a full novel length manuscript in a month even at the best of times. Each year I go in with varying levels of preparation, and each year I peter out at around 20,000 words. Early on it was an issue of discipline, but now it's that I'm just a very busy person and not a perfect writing machine.

Facing the challenge this year, I really wanted to create a new login. The legacy of failure, even if I don't place too much emotional investment in it, is daunting. Part of me wants to start fresh. However, the site is pretty rigidly tied into email addresses and I'd have to fiddle with it to get it to let go. The difficulty made me pause and really think about it though.

Reasons I don't finish Nanowrimo:

1. I'm good at world building and starting a narrative. But until recently, I didn't realize that I need to think of stories in terms of conflict and resolution. You can't get far without conflict in a novel...about 20,000 words in fact.

2. I am plagued by self-doubt and there are so many other productive and necessary things I should be doing if I'm not going to be any good at this writing schtick. So, I go do that stuff instead so that I can not worry about it while I'm writing.

3. If I never finish, I can't be rejected. (Lame, I know but it's there.) Once a book is finished, there's editing, but eventually someone will read it...and that is scary.

4. I get bored. (Which is insane really, but it happens. It's not bored with the story, it's bored with sitting in the same place staring at a wall.) I think I need to take my laptop out and write in other places.

5. Thomas is so darn cute and I miss talking to my husband. Ah, the central struggle of writing... loneliness

6. Overwhelmed with possibility and mired in indecision. I think I need to outline better/more.

So all of that is very human, but look at all the stuff I've figured out about me. So perhaps I should view it less as a history of failure and more as a history of self exploration and discovery. Sounds very healthy and self-help book, doesn't it?

Baby Habits

The problem with creating and fostering new habits is that in the beginning they are so easy to derail. I suppose that is also why they are so difficult to shake later on. Instead of writing a post yesterday, I read. Reading is good. I'm supposed to do that, but I'm also supposed to write a post. It's all about balance and I have to find it again.

Oh, also, someone pointed out to me that it's October and Nanowrimo season is coming up. I am, as ever, going to give it a shot again. So now I need to doubly write.

I'll figure it out eventually.

Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

When I start a series, I generally end up hoovering up all the available material and spin offs. So I grabbed up Sinner. If you look on Amazon, Sinner is listed as the fourth book in the series. I contest this. The first three books are all about Sam and Grace and make up a neat little trilogy, Sinner is about two side characters: Cole and Isabel. So unless there a whole bunch more of these books coming, it's a spin off.

It's a good spin off.

Sam and Grace were a bit saccharine. Nothing too awfully tooth rotting, but still sweet. Cole and Isabel are much more edgy. Here are two very angry and very broken people tied together into some sort of bizarre love story in L.A. I liked it.

The feel of the book was more adult and covered some very different issues than the first three. Isabel is struggling with depressive apathy and Cole recovering from attempted self-annihilation
. Both these expressions of depression are handled thoughtfully and realistically. But it's a bit heavy for the average teenager.

My Child is a Cary Grant Fan

So, I'm not for using the television to deal with toddler tantrums, but it seems that Thomas is a Cary Grant fan. Completely shorted out a tantrum.... who knew.

That is all for today.

Crackback by John Coy

I hate football. I really do. Wait, no I don't. I hate the fans. I've always hated how mindlessly aggressive people get about things that just don't matter really. I hate sitting through mind numbing conversations with people rehashing things that didn't happen to them and that would change nothing fundamental in the world if they went differently. I hate the posturing and the posing. I hate it all. (This is related to my celebrities are just people thing)

Before people get feisty with me, I understand the economics surrounding professional sports. I still wish we were a better and more rational species that venerated things that had lasting value over transient and false glory.

I actually really like sports. I like playing them. I enjoy being competitive, perhaps a bit too much at times. There is a point to playing sports...slavishly spectating sports teams and getting into combative arguments with other fans...not so much.

All of that is a roundabout way of saying that I didn't expect to like Crackback. I read it out of a sense of duty. I teach a lot of teenage boys who only feel successful in physically competitive arenas. It goes with the LD population. In my overarching goal to get more kids reading, I quickly realized I needed a broader base of entry points to start kids on.  Hence me reading a book about high school football.

It's a good book. I admit it. It might even be a great book.

Miles Manning, the protagonist, is a junior in high school and a starter on the defensive line. He's good at what he does and he's smart. He really thinks about the game and is a natural tactician. Unfortunately, things quickly start to go wrong. Manning has a difficult home life and buts heads with the assisstant coach. When the assistant coach becomes head coach, Manning loses his position as a starter. Refusing to use steroids loses him his best friend. With no one to talk to and under pressure at home, Manning does a lot of thinking and a lot of growing.

Oh, and he meets a girl.

This is a good book for both middle and high school readers. Excellent readability and relatable main characters, but most definitely aimed at the boys.

Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls by Maggie Stiefvater

People a really quite generous. Schools, even private ones, don't have expansive budgets. So, when they are getting rid of things, they often think of us. That includes books. The problem is, people don't always think through what a school can actually use. When it comes to the random stuff, it's just a bit of a chore. Someone sorts through the items, evaluates them, and either finds them a home at the school or donates them on to a place that can use them.

Books are different. To start with, when people donate books it's not usually just one or two. Usually, it's at least a full box and often more than one. Additionally, there are so many books out there and most of them are good, in their way. Its not just an issue of quality, it's an issue of interest, content, lexile range, topic appropriateness, teen interest, and etc.  So the librarian, Susan, and I usually end up sitting at a table going through them. Usually we sort into three piles: 1. donate on because inappropriate or out of date in some way, 2. books destined for the media center or a classroom library because we know them and they are good, and 3. Lydia's pile. Lydia's pile is the books we've never heard of or we are unsure of in some way so someone has to read them. No one else on the campus reads the way I do, so I'm the someone.

I find a lot of new books this way. The first book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, Shiver, came to me that way.

I read Shiver in a little under a day. It's a YA novel aimed at a high school or early 20s female reader. At it's core, the series is a supernatural romance with a sort of Beauty and the Beast feel to it. Parents might object to to a couple of the choices of the protagonists, but I think it's worth it for the way it really addresses those same issues in a head on manner.

Sam is a werewolf. Grace is not, but she should be. Sam has loved Grace from afar for years, ever since a wolf dragged her as a little girl off a tire swing. He was a wolf at the time and saved her from the pack, then he wait for her to change into a wolf too but she never did. And so, he never approached her because who needs a werewolf in their life?

Grace loves the wolves and particularly the one that watches her from the line of trees behind her Minnesota house. However, when Jack, a teenager at Grace's highschool gets mauled by a wolf, the wolves are suddenly in danger. Circumstances through Sam and Grace together for the first time.

Stiefvater takes a variation on the whole werewolf thing. Her wolves change because it's cold. So when they shift, it is for the whole winter, and they become human for the summer. However, the werewolf bug is like a disease and they stay wolves longer and longer each year until one year they just never become human again. It's a fun twist.

I enjoyed the series.

1. Shiver
2. Linger
3. Forever

Ah the Joys of Teaching

I love teaching really. There are many many things I thrive on. I'm never bored for one. Also being responsible for others usually snaps me out of whatever funk I'm in. Sometimes I just really enjoy teenagers. (Crazy, I know.)

Our electives often focus on either sports or creative activities. My Tuesday/Thursday elective is Jewelry Making and Metal Working. Today, in my elective, there was a lot of chatter. It's been a tense couple of weeks and the side chatter was a little out of hand. Most of it was benign, but part of my job is safeguarding the privacy of the students and keeping gossip in check on school grounds. After several general warnings to limit side conversations that were collectively impeding my co teacher, I said to one of the primary instigators of random conversation:

"Jeez, you really can't not talk today, can you?"

He turned to me and with a big grin said triumphantly, "Is that a challenge?"

I looked at him for a long moment, blinked once, and said, "yes."

I love teenagers, especially smart ones. I could see the message from some part of his brain teletyping one vitally important update to another part of his brain. The message read, "oops!" The look on his face was virtually indescribable.

So there he sits, in a jewelry class, silent. The low buzz of conversation continues around him. However, one of his peers had the only pair of high strength cutters in the room that he really needed to complete his project; she was also very focused on riveting two pieces of metal together. 

Very focused.

There he sits, silent. He waves at her. He taps his foot. He tried banging the desk and ripping up pieces of paper. Somewhere around the time he starts desperately looking for a pen, I start giggling. I couldn't help it. Here's a kid, who I really appreciate and enjoy, but I know he'd really like to "win" a round against me.

Unfortunately, my giggles draw the attention of the rest of the class. So soon there are six pairs of extra eyes watching this kid trying to to get the attention of a very focused other kid. There is a whole side conversation going on between two girls about my "evil laughs" and when it's time to run. 

Two and a half minutes later, in a voice way too loud: "Can I have the cutters please?"

The other student, "yeah sure, here." She didn't even look up.

The whole room erupts in gales of laughter.

My student looks at me. I'm sure I'm grinning like a fool. "Yeah, yeah. You win," he says, but he's smiling.

I love teenagers.

Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper

One of my primary sources of book recommendations for YA fiction is the students I teach. I try to pay attention to what they are reading and when they tell me something is good, I try to read it. Sometimes it goes a step further and a student brings me in a book to read; those I really hustle to get through.

Out of my Mind was brought to me by a very enthusiastic student, Ansley. When she handed it to me in class a couple weeks ago a handful of other students spotted it and chimed in on how awesome it is. So I read it yesterday. It took me about four hours to get through so it's a very quick read, but also I got through it so quickly simply because it sucked me in.

Melody, the main character and point of view, was born with cerebral palsy. She can't communicate much and she can't do anything for herself that involves more than the use of her thumbs. Yet she is extremely intelligent and has an eidetic memory. She's trapped in a self-contained classroom with other cases of extreme disability with teachers who mostly don't even try to really reach her.

Things change in her fifth grade year with a new teacher who "gets it," new inclusion classes with regular kids, and a new para-pro who comes to assist her communication. Once the gate opens, Melody communicates better and better. However, not everything changes, she still has CP after all.

This book made me cry and it made me angry. On of the teachers pissed me right off. I don't know, as a teacher, how I would have handled the situation. I probably would not have handled it perfectly either but I know I wouldn't have been so senselessly cruel.

Ack, anyway it's a great book. I'm going to have to track down a couple copies for the school.