March Progress Report

Somehow this month just didn't feel as successful as previous months. I think that is owing to the sheer size of the list. After all, I did still manage to read 15 books this month and that's no mean feat. However, most of the books I read were off of Vincent's recommendations which was at least somewhat incidental since I was in the middle of a series he recommended since January (and I'm still not done with the thing grrrrrr.)

AJ
     1. Perfect Peace by Daniel Black
Amanda
    1. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)

Carra

     1. Book One: Keeping it Real by Justina Robson (B)
     2. Book Two: Selling Out by Justina Robson (B)
     3. Book Three: Going Under by Justina Robson (B)
     4. Book Four: Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson (B)

Howard/Dad

     1. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

     2. The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
     3. The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
     4. Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
     5. The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)

     6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
     7. The Adventures of Ellery Queen
     8. Ellery Queen's And on the Eighth Day
Hugh 
     1. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
     2. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
     3. Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Karen/Mom

     1. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
     2. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

     3. World Without End by Ken Follet

     4. Essays in Idleness and Hojoki by Yoshido Kenko and Kamo No Chomei 

Katja

     1. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

Kevin

    1. The Martian by Andy Weir 
Kim
     1. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran
MG
     1. Paper Towns by John Green
Nathan
     1. The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
     2. The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
     3. The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe
     4. The Citadel of Autarch by Gene Wolfe
     5. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning by Doug Buehl
     6. "You Gotta Be the Book" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
     7. I Read it, But I Don't Get It by Cris Tovani
     8. In the Middle by Nancie Atwell
     9. Mosaic of Thought by Keene and Zimmermann
     10. Reading Diagnosis for Teachers by Barr et. al
     11. Strategies That Work by Harvey and Goudvis
     12. Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12 by Zwiers
     13. A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works by Marzano et al
     14. Once Upon a More Enlightened Time by James Finn Garner
     15. On Caring by Milton Mayeroff
Ryan
     1. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
     2. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
     3. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
     4. Company by Max Berry
     5. Machine Man by Max Berry
     6. Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
     7. Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
     8. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
     9. Cooked by Michael Pollan
     10. Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
     11. Fool on the Hill by Matthew Ruff
     12. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
     13. A Bone to Pick by Mark Bittman
     14. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
Simon
     1. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Vincent
     1. Erak's Ransom by John Flanagan (B)
     2. The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan (B)
     3. Halt's Peril by John Flanagan (B)
     4. The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan (B)
     5. The Lost Stories by John Flanagan (B)
     6.  The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan (B)
     7. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede
     8. Searching for Dragons by Patricia Wrede
     9. Calling on Dragons by Patricia Wrede
     10. Talking to Dragons by Patricia Wrede
     11. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
     12. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott

Lost Stories by John Flanagan

Wahoo! I made it. 50 books in three months. If I keep going at this rate, I'll read 200 books this year. I almost feel like my old self.

Unfortunately, Lost Stories was not, by a long shot, my favorite book in the series. It is, in fact, a series of short stories bound together by a weak frame. In theory, these stories tie up loose ends and fill in gaps. While they do answer some unresolved questions, it's clear that Flanagan is not comfortable in short formats.

A couple of the stories err on the side of maudlin and a couple rely on premises that seem out of character for the main characters. Out of the eight stories, three of them were really good. "The Roamers" is about what happens when Will's dog, Ebony, is nabbed by Roamers, a gypsy analog. "Dinner for Five" is about Gilan and Jenny who are two of the lesser used characters in the series. I really like Flanagan's vision of Jenny. He turned her from something two dimensional into a dynamic and interesting character. "The Bridal Dance" is about Horace and Evenlyn's wedding and Will's development into a full ranger. It was cute.

In a loose kind of way, several of the stories string together in a time line that runs from the end of book 10 to the wedding of Will and Alyss. So, I'm left wondering if Flanagan was caught in the middle of trying to find the next book when it was time to publish.

*shrug* anyway. Book 50, yay!

Racing to 50

So I'm closing into the end of March and I'm sitting at 49 books. I'd really like to make 50. There's something nice about the symmetry. Half way to my goal at a quarter of the way through the year. Unfortunately, the end of the March is hitting at one of the more challenging times of the year. THe week before spring break is always a tough time for discipline issues at school. The 12 week grade report goes home on Friday.  All in all, pretty crazy.

This is the time of year I start to feel really worn down. The kids are tired and impatient; we are too probably. It's hard to remember that it will start to feel better soon.

Which is why I'm really trying to make it to 50. It would be good to have something to celebrate this week.

Parenting Tip #1

If your toddler becomes attached to an item, make sure you have at least two of them. (10 would be better)

It sounds silly. Or at least if you don't have a kid, it sounds pretty silly. However, toddlers can't communicate very effectively yet and this is the age where they develop preferences. It's not a happy combination.

Big deal, I remember myself thinking before I was parent. How hard can it be?

plenty.

Everything is incalculably harder with a crying/whining/screaming toddler. You can't even walk away for minute! They've learned to walk. They follow now. *frowny face*

So, imagine your twisty red-faced screaming bundle of love refusing to cooperate unless he or she has item X. Trust me, in that situation, with a surprisingly strong and viciously flailing toddler, you look for item X. You look under couches, in cars, beneath furniture, and under beds despite being dressed for work in a skirt and knowing your ass is up in the air as you check under the bed one more time. Trust me on this, you look for it.

Bad news: item X could be anywhere including the trash, day care, or stolen by closet gnomes.

Good news: most things toddlers like are cheap. They really like brightly colored plastic. So if they have something that they really love and pitch tantrums over, do yourself a favor and get more than one.

The Emperor of Nihon-Jan by John Flanagan

I've mentioned Matt before. He's one of my freshmen and he is unbelievably stoked that I'm reading his favorite series. As I get closer and closer to the end of the extant series, he and I have had a series of discussions about what I think of it all. Surprisingly, these are pretty mature and critical discussions for a 14 year old.

Last friday was a kind of reward day for the kids and Matt took the opportunity to corner me at lunch to discuss what I thought of the series so far. Here's the highlights.

• I think this book, book 10, was originally envisioned as the end of the series (true apparently according to Matt)
• This book and book 7 (Erik's Ransom) both are really, I mean really, slow starting. They pick up and are otherwise two of the strongest books in the series, but that first 50 pages are a doozy. Matt suggested that it could be because those two books introduce new lands and cultures. I agree.
• Flanagan does a good job with character development.
• The next two books aren't as good apparently. (thanks Matt :-P )
• I should totally read the associated Brotherband series.

For a hopeless fanboy, he did a pretty good job. Clearly he's waiting, rather impatiently, for me to finish off the last two books so that we can have "the long conversation" about them.

If I sound like I'm complaining, I'm really not. This is why I became a teacher. It's really encouraging to see a kid enthusiastic about literature.

As a series ender, I can't really ask for an author to do a better job than this book. All the plot and character threads tie up pretty neatly and in a satisfying way. Horace finally gets his father figure and so, since the series starts off with five orphans, that means that they've all found parental figures. As young adults they are both happy and competent. Flanagan really did a good job. I'm not sure I want to acknowledge the existence of the next two books.

*frowny face*

But if I don't read them, Matt will pester me. *sigh*

Green and Yellow Curry

I've been making a lot of curries lately, but somehow ran into a recipe rut with them. I was following the same pattern a little too consistently. Bittman has, in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, a recipe of brussels sprouts braised in coconut milk. In this recipe, I took that basic idea and modified it into a full main dish by adding protein and more vegetables. The results were lighter tasting than my usual curries and worthy of overindulgence

1 Tbs peanut oil
1 onion, chopped
1 pound turkey or chicken breast, chopped into small bite sized pieces
2 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed and sliced in half through the stem
2 zucchini, scrubbed and diced
2 Tbs curry powder
1 15 oz can chickpeas
1 15 oz can coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

saute the onion in the oil over medium heat. When the onion begins to soften, add the turkey/chicken stirring occasionally until the meat is browned all over.

Add the Brussels sprouts. Stir Occasionally. It's ok if the brussels sprouts get brown in a few spots. The idea is that they need a head start cooking. Let them sizzle for 10 minutes. Add curry powder, zucchini, and chickpeas. Stir until the curry powder is fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Add coconut milk and enough water to almost cover. Add salt.

Turn down the heat until the contents bubble gently. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes. Adjust seasoning and serve over rice.

20 minutes a day

At the risk of sounding like a motivational speaker, it's amazing what can be accomplished in twenty minutes a day.

Starting up the positive habits has been only limitedly successful. Most of the  limits, though, are caused by external forces. (School got crazy. . . always does sooner or later.) One thing I've really gotten into place is the 20 minutes, or so, of time in the yard. I really enjoy working in the yard. Tending to growing things is very satisfying.

I have a little herb garden plot in front of my bay window. (It used to be the bird garden, but I had too many squirrels and rats jumping from the roof onto the feeders. So, now it's an herb garden.) Too late in the last season I planted two types of rosemary, oregano, and a curry plant. I didn't really expect more than one of them to make it through the winter. We had really mild winter though and they all made it!

I already had some ornamental alliums, crocuses, and chrysanthemums  in the same plot which I will probably eventually move. I spent about a half an hour this afternoon pulling out weeds. Mostly dandelions, violets, and cat briar. And even though it's not a lot of time, I nearly cleared the whole plot. I also discovered some wild ferns that I plan on encouraging.

Earlier in the week I started weeding the boxes. All they'll need is a couple bags of compost and some fertilizer. I plan to finish them up this weekend and plant in some early spinach and calendula. I'll also plant out the last of the radish and lettuce seeds from last year and see what comes up.

Can I just say, at this juncture, that as pretty as violets are right now with their purple blooms, they are satan spawn. The things just won't die, and they get everywhere.

Halt's Peril by John Flanagan

This is the 9th book in the series and the second in another two book cycle. It always happens with these big series. The end is in sight so I start reading them faster. It's not precisely a rush. I just want to see how it ends.

Will continues to grow and develop. Halt continues to age. As mentioned, this book really is the conclusion to the plot line introduced in the 8th, The Kings of Clonmel. Halt's character continues to really develop which allows for his relationship with Will to develop as well. In previous books, Halt is a little more two dimensional. He's a sort of gruff mentor archetype. Now, however, he has weaknesses and failings. He betrays emotion and the relationship between he and Will feels deeper and more paternal.

One of Flanagan's more creepy villains, Tennyson, comes back as the Outsider cult continues to be a problem.

All in all, a solid satisfying read with a touching ending.

And On the Eighth Day by Ellery Queen

When my dad visits, sometimes he leaves books behind. He's been in an Ellery Queen kick. (Also a Nero Wolf kick, something about oddball detectives I guess) Most of my experience with Ellery Queen is a T.V. adaptation made in the eighties. There are a lot of turtle necks. Most notably, there are these PSA moments when Ellery turns to the camera and explains the solution to the audience.

I had no idea it was set in WWII era and just after.

However, that's not really what I want to talk about.

This is a seriously strange novel. It's about 26 books into the series and I think I started reading them in a seriously strange place. Ellery, after a bad stint writing film scripts for the war effort, takes a wrong turn in the desert and finds an odd little reclusive religious community living out a pre-biblical existence. This is a perfect crimeless religious community here. Of course, there is a murder. Otherwise what is the point of having Ellery Queen there.

So yeah. Not so much turtlenecks. Very much not what I expected walking in. Of course, on further consideration, based on the time period, those weird little religious communities were actually a bit more common than they are today. We tend to think in terms of creepy cults with homicidal suicide pacts these days but America was founded by religious nuts and there used to be a lot of these little religious communities dotted about trying to regains some sort of lost eden. Many were actually successful in the short term and if they weren't exactly harmless, they were at least relatively benign. So, perhaps the subject matter is a little more understandable.

Still seriously weird though.

The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan

Having finally gotten back into the groove with the series, I went ahead and picked up the next book which I slammed through in about a day. The Kings of Clonmel picks up after the events of the sixth book with Will being a full Ranger. As I noted in the last review of the series, the rangers have been spending a lot of time outside of the kingdom. The head of the rangers decides that they, therefore, need a special task group who specializes in that sort of thing. So Will gives up his fief (which is a big deal) and they almost immediately are packed off to Clonmel.

As it turns out, Halt has relatives in Clonmel. Ominous, yes? I think I'll leave that hanging there.

Horace of course goes with them. They defeat a strangely powerful religious cult. Everyone performs admirably, yay the day is saved. Satisfying quick read.

In other news, I have got to stop falling asleep before blogging. It's 3 AM.

Patterns

Generally, I've fallen into this pattern of writing my post before falling asleep. Once and a while, I get a couple of posts ahead and take a night off. However, most nights I'm here writing the blog post. It's started being ingrained as habit, which is a good thing. For example, our sleep cycle has become a little off. To make a long story short, I fell asleep early last night and didn't blog. This habitual writing has become so strong that I started awake at 2:30 AM with the realization that I didn't blog. So here I am at 3 AM. . . blogging.

That's the great side of habits, once set up, all I have to do is give in to the impulse. Of course that's also why bad habits are hard to break. Riding the power of habits, I'm trying to get several more in place:

1. 20 minutes to an hour working outside every afternoon. I've realized that I like outdoor chores but I let them pile up because of how busy we are. Solution? Do a little every day, bring Thomas with me. He toddles around while I pick at some small task, there are plenty of them after all. I tried it last week and it worked well for a few days. Now I just need to extend that. Rainy afternoons I figure I can do work in the basement.
2. Writing session in the mornings. 20 or 30 minutes to start, I think Now that I've established a good evening routine, it's time to add fiction writing into the mix. The blog has been great for establishing a daily writing routine, but ultimately there is other writing I want to do, and it's time to work on it.
3. A bedtime routine for Thomas, and therefore, for the rest of us too. Since Thomas was born, and before that really if I'm being honest, we've fallen into a rather indolent evening routine of eating and collapsing into the couch when we get home from teaching. We spend the whole evening zoned out on the tv/internet. Well, that really should change. It's largely accountable for why our weekends get so slammed which just compounds the tired/busy-ness problem. The problem is, I'm not quite sure what this one should look like. I'm thinking

• Food at the table
•  30 minutes to an hour of family reading time (Ryan and I can alternate who reads to Thomas and who gets personal reading)
• Play time
• Brush the Thomas teeth
• Thomas's bath
• Clutter pick up
• Then evening Thomas movie
• Then when he falls asleep we move him to the bedroom. The goal is to get him to bed down there, but he hasn't associated the room with sleep yet.

There's more I'd like to change, of course, but I feel like this is enough to take on for now. The challenge is that to establish a habit it takes several weeks to months of being rigid about the pattern until the habit establishes. As mentioned before, habits are hard to change. If we are creating new habits that invariably means breaking old ones. It'll take time and we'll probably have some false starts, but I think we can do this.

Erak's Ransom by John Flanagan

I topped out on this series last month and had a hard time getting into this one. There was nothing wrong with the series or the book, but after reading 6 books in the series, I got a little burned out. This happens to my kids too. They get very all or nothing about it and assume that difficulty getting hooked means that they no longer like the series. In my experience, enjoying a book often has as much to do with one's mood as it does with the content of the book itself. Waiting a day or a week often does wonders. So I gave the series a rest for a couple of weeks and voila, I reacquired interest.

In my previous post about this series, I complained that book 6 skips right over the end of Will's apprenticeship. Erak's Ransom, book 7, goes back to that time and fills in the gap. A lot of things change in book 7. Halt, the confirmed bachelor, gets married for one thing. Erak goes back to raiding. Cassandra/Evelyn starts to assert her independence more as the solitary heir to the throne. I was a little concerned about what would happen with Cassandra actually. After the events in books 2 to 4, I couldn't imagine her simply retreating back into the castle.

Flanagan introduces a new culture with the Arridi who are loosely based off of an Arab or Persian culture. Erak get's caught while raiding and the Arridi hold him for ransom. So when Svengal, Erak's friend and second mate, crashes Halt's wedding, Will, Horace, and Halt quickly find themselves on a rescue mission. It occurs to me that for rangers, who are sworn to protect and watch over the people of their country, they spend an awful lot of time outside their country. In any case, things don't go according to plan (they never do really) and things get complicated fast.

As a book that is in that transitional place for the main character Will going from student to adult, Flanagan does a really good job. Much better than other series in fact. (Book 5 of Harry Potter, for example) While there are a couple of angsty moments, Flanagan doesn't dwell on them and the plot keeps moving. It's hard to write a good transitional book and those transitions are critical for a long series. When bungled, it's easy to put the series down and never pick it back up. However, without these transitions, the characters get stale and trapped in roles that never change. When the series in question features a kid as the main character, the kid literally never grows up without those key transitions. I'm glad Flanagan, and Will, jumped the hurdle well.

A Spring Potage

I've always been a fan of the transitional months. I really like Spring and Fall. Summer is too hot and Winter gets boring. However, let's face it, I really like the food in the spring and fall. Sometimes I get impatient. This soup is born of this impatience. For environmental reasons, I should probably be leery of asparagus from Peru, but living in the south I'm just not sure if I can grow my own. In any case, here's the recipe.

1 Tbs olive oil
2 onions chopped
3-4 white potatoes diced
4 cups green peas, frozen is fine
2 bunches asparagus, tips separated and woody ends trimmed. Dispose/compost woody ends
salt and pepper to taste

saute onion in oil. Add potatoes and peas. When potatoes soften and peas thaw add water to cover and non-tip/non-woody asparagus bits. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes

Puree with a stick blender....this does not need to be perfect. Dump in asparagus tips. Heat through. If you have an electric stove, you can turn off the burner and rely on residual heat. If you have gas, you'll need to monitor it on low.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Once Upon a More Enlightened Time by James Finn Garner

Sometimes I read something, then I immediately get embarrassed that I read it. I feel weird about including it on my book tally. In this case, it's because it's just so darn short. 84 pages, to be exact. Content-wise, it's not exactly brain bending either.

However, it's fun. Fairy tales tend to have an old and almost antique world view. Political correctness is  a ridiculous language movement catering to a group of people who spend too much time sanitizing their idea delivery systems. Mix the two things together and you get this short little volume.

It's cute.

Lydia and the terrible very bad no good literature-less day

I'm 23 books ahead on my pacing for 100 book goal for 2016. So, I took a day off. I have a backlog of grading and some other things to focus on. Reading takes a lot of time, let's work on the back log, it'll be a good productive day.  Here's how it went:

3:30 AM woke up ahead of alarm, reached for book on side table. There was no book. Oh yeah, I'm taking a break. Let's go back to sleep.

3:50 AM ahhhhhhhh! can't sleep. There is a bug on the window. Reach for book to distract....there is no book. *sad face*

4:00 AM Alarm goes off. Hit snooze. Turn on T.V. In the absence of lit I'm going to watch anime, no judging!

4:20 AM eat breakfast, start setting up family lunches.

6:00 AM load up car. Stare forlornly at stack of books left behind on coffee table.

6:05 AM after dropping off Thomas, we are back in the car to head into work. I reach for the book light, but then I remember, oh yeah. . . no book.

6:25 AM I buy a very large cup of starbucks coffee to fill the book shaped void in my soul

7:00 AM the coffee didn't work, void unfilled. I distract myself with student concerns i.e. my 5 inch stack of grading

7:50 AM surely there must be something to read, I'm an English teacher for gods sake

8:00 AM stay strong Lydia, essays! I must grade essays!

8:45 AM ohmygodwhycan'tanyonewriteanoutline where's my book, I need a book! God give me anything, I'll even read Milton.

8:50 AM clean room, turns out throwing a tantrum is ill advised as an adult. *sad face*

9:05-12:25 AM teach student to write outlines. . . damnit.

12:30-1:05 lunch. . . without a book. meh.

1:10 Guitar class. You know there aren't too many books that feature guitars in the grand scheme of things. Maybe there should be more. I bet there's a market there.

3:00 end of class. Tutor students. . . on outlining. Surely there must be a book here somewhere.

4:00 PM evening commute. . . without a book. What a lame English teacher I am.

6:00 PM dinner. Organize books for tomorrow.

6:20 PM reorganize books. I wonder how many I can read in a day. I have sub days left.

6:30 PM write blog post about missing books.

I have a serious problem.

Lesson learned. . . always have a book. . . or three.

Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

okay.

so.

It's not really sci-fi.

It's really not. It's an adventure story set on Mars. It's a really fun, really readable adventure story, but it's still just an adventure story. This series strongly reminds me of King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard which really has as much to do with Africa as Burroughs's book has to do with Mars. I guess it doesn't really matter. It's just a backdrop, but don't go in expecting sci-fi.

Read as a classic adventure story, Gods of Mars is a fun book. In this second novel in the Barsoom Series, John Carter finds himself back on Mars but in the fabled land of the dead, the valley of Dor, leagues away from his beloved princess and son. He quickly learns that the cherished beliefs of the various races of Mars are a load of hokum and that their superstitions cover a more sinister truth.

Hilarity ensues. Hilarity and fighting. Actually a lot of fighting. Quite a lot.

It's a formula, of course. Now that I've read two of the books, the pattern seems pretty consistent. The formula goes like this:

• Carter finds himself somewhere lost
• He gets in a fight
• He makes a friend
• He and his friend are captured
• He escapes 
• He and his friend run and are separated
• He is captured. Friend possibly dead.
• He escapes.
• Seeks revenge for friend.
• He is captured
• He escapes
• Joyus day, friend is alive, but captured
• He rescues friend
• They run
• they are captured.

Blenderize and repeat as needed until book length, then find a way to end on a cliff hanger.

It's still fun, but I can't read more than one in a row.

God *slam* Damn *bang* Staff *bash* Meeting *headslamdesk*

I know how it happens. We live in an increasingly high-tech and distancing world. We are alienated from each other and stressed out. Managers are tasked with increasing employee moral. The staff, for their part, are so busy that they barely have time to talk to each other let alone managment.

Staff meetings sound like a good idea.

It's a time when members of your staff sit in convivial receptivity. In this atmosphere of good-will and productive interest in the greater good, one can air frustration and seek positive resolution. In the end, problems are solved. Problems like world peace, an end to world hunger, and an efficient solution to the crisis in the middle east. In the end, the employees leave with a glow in their hearts for their management teams. A chorus of angels sing out at the righteousness of the world. The lambs lay down with the lions and all is right in the world. Right?

Right?

Of course not. The reason why not? People like to bitch. People working in stressful jobs need to relieve pressure and it's the rare person who does that positively. In my experience a group can't do it at all. So people vent, often past the point where the venting is constructive, and often end up just bitching for an hour.

It's not that staff meetings are useless. Occasionally, they are very productive, but I think there is an inverse correlation between the amount of staff stress and the productivity of a staff meeting. I find the vent-meetings frustrating. I'm not saying that I always deal with my stress positively because I don't, but sitting around wasting an hour listening to people go on long winded tirades just wears down my reserves. And on those days when I actually let myself get sucked into the endless windging myself, I just end up feeling angry and anxious.

Today was a double length joint staff meeting. Double Trouble.

The staff is very stressed out.

Feh.

The Martian by Andy Weir

I've been reading so much YA lit, that it feels strange to be blasting through more adult material. I was fairly sure that my high reading rate had to do to with the level of the books I was reading. Let's face it, it almost certainly does have to do with that. However, I blasted through this 370 page book in less than a day. I almost literally couldn't put it down, and, considering it was sci-fi, it was not an easy read.

Good, real sci-fi explores an idea. It could be, and often is, hard science. But it can also be psychological or sociological. It can even be something like moral philosophy. Real sci-fi takes that idea constructs a world around it and runs a few characters through the consequences of "the idea." Pulp, on the other hand, only needs zap guns or aliens to be termed sci-fi. I like both types, but I really feel the latter has more in common with the fantasy genre. (Change out the zap guns for magic wands and give the aliens pointy ears and call them elves. Voila, same story no sci-fi.)

The Martian is real sci-fi. The central idea is what would happen to a mars astronaut stranded on Mars. How would he survive? What would happen back home on Earth? How would he even get stranded in the first place? Weir does a good job extrapolating out the situation for his unfortunate main character, Mark Watney.

Mark's survival is, of course, unlikely, but Weir did a good job keeping him plausible. The strong implication is that he was simply lucky enough to be the mission's mechanical engineer which gives him most of the background knowledge and skills to survive. I can't imagine the crew's computer specialist being quite so believable.

So, anyway, I haven't seen the film adaptation yet but I'm looking forward to tracking it down. This is definitely a book that I would recommend.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Coincidently, I decided to try reading A Walk In the Woods one more time less than a week before the school trip to Amicalola Falls which happens to be the Southern end of the Appalachian Trail. I love Bill Bryson books, but, for some reason, I had to try three times (at least) before I could get past the first 50 pages. I guess life just kept happening. Or maybe I wasn't quite old enough to identify yet with Bryson's take on the Appalachian Trail. I have a young coworker who went nearly apoplectic expressing her outrage that Bryson had the temerity to write on the AT when he didn't even successfully finish it. *The nerve!* 

Who knows or can say why it took so many attempts. I finished this time. I did like it very much, although I didn't come to the same conclusions he did about the trail. However, I like reading Bryson for the voice primarily. He was hilariously self-deprecating about his lack of preparedness. I remain convinced that he and his friend Katz were very lucky to survive the fragments that they did hike through.

My mom hiked the trail about 5 years ago. My mother, in general, is a pretty interesting and impressive person. She really didn't need to hike 2,200 miles of wilderness to prove that, yet that's what she did.  I dropped her off at the lodge at Amicalola in March and off she went. I remember thinking at the time wow, that sounds pretty cool. And it does sound cool; there's no way I'd be able to do it. I'm a pretty tough cookie, but all practical issues about making money and family concerns aside, I simply worry too much. By the time I got to Katahdin in Maine, I'd be a complete wreck. I know I would.

Interestingly, A Walk In the  Woods underscored that for me. Bryson makes it pretty clear what an immense undertaking through hiking the AT really is. The scope of it is so massive that it's really hard to keep a hold of mentally. Interspersed with his memoir-ish bits of trail narration are short bits of history and natural science all written for the layperson and full of snarky wit. In the end, I think I found the bits of history and science more enticing than the trail narration. All in all, a good read.

Beer Chile

Everyone talks about cooking with wine, but there's no reason that the same principles don't apply to beer. Pretty much any dish that you add wine to, you could substitute a beer. Of course, the flavor will be very different, but it will work just fine. As a general rule of thumb, use lagers and pilsners for anywhere you'd normally use a white wine, a stout or red ale work well instead of a red wine. Stay away from the high gravs and specialty beers; some of them work just fine but a lot of the high gravs have so much bittering hop that it can be unpleasant cooked down in food.

1 Tbs oil
1 onion chopped
1 pound ground beef
3 Tbs. chile powder
1 Tbs. cumin
28 oz can diced tomatoes
15 oz can white beans, drained
15 oz can kidney beans, drained
15 oz can black beans, drained
1 bottle dark beer
Salt to taste

Saute the onion and ground beef in the oil. Cook until the meat is browned. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a simmer, simmer 20-30 minutes.

Better the next day.

Spring Slump

It happens every spring eventually. The weather gets warmer, graduation gets closer, and the kids get squirrelly. We are most definitely in the spring slump. It wouldn't be so bad except that as a teacher, part of our role is to assert or ensure (depending on how you think about it) discipline. It's exhausting. I'm exhausted. {-P

So in light of my exhaustion, this is my lame post for the evening. Tomorrow I hike Amicalola Falls with 30 some odd students, should be awesome.

Series Completed - The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede

Sometimes, when I finish a book or a series, I don't feel happy or accomplished. I don't feel good. I feel. . . aggravated. It's like I have ants under my skin and I have to go do something (usually clean something). It's uncomfortable, to say the least, and it doesn't happen often. I don't know if I could stand reading as much as I do if finishing a book made me feel like this more often.

On the upside, it is also usually a sign that I really enjoyed something. I think it is a response to being wrenched out of a world. Good books do that. The world between the covers becomes more real for a little while than physical surroundings. I call it "the flow." It's that sense of the physical words fading back behind the image conveyed by their meaning to the point where I can almost lose track of the actual process of reading. It's what I try to help my students find.

Needless to say, I really got into the flow with this series. It's a four book series:

1. Dealing with Dragons
2. Searching for Dragons
3. Calling on Dragons
4. Talking to Dragons

I blogged the first in the series last Sunday. As I mentioned in that post, I like the strong snarky female characters, but as the series developed I grew to really like some of the male characters too who are not just backdrops for strong women. (One can go overboard on strong females too) I particularly like the rather biting satire aimed at the fainting violet varieties of females (princesses) that show up and the misogynistic male villains. It's fun.

I will be sure to keep a set of these on hand in my classroom library. They are the kind of books that appeal to intelligent and thoughtful kids, it's a comfortable high school reading level, and, while featuring female characters, should appeal to both genders.

Turn Signals

So the more I drive, the more driver behavior confounds me. For example, what is people's aversion to using their turn signal. The whole point of the turn signal is to communicate with other drivers. Sure there are some jerks out there that will deliberately make life difficult, probably because they are overly concerned with other's perception of the dimensions of various bits of their anatomy. I actually think those people are, if not rare, at least a minority. Most people are more oblivious if not actually helpful.

However, this "defensive" driving technique of deliberately making it difficulty for other drivers to read one's intentions leads to some pretty hair raising  driving. I'm not perfect, but if I notice that someone has their signal on, (and they didn't pull some sort of jerk-move like whipping around a line of cars on the shoulder to jump the queue) I let them in if it is at all convenient to do so.

I had one woman today going absolutely ballistic behind her wheel at me because she wanted to make a left turn from a side road onto a busy road across my lane and she thought I cut her off. Given the level of back up I probably would have let her out in front of me if I had any clue that was what she was up to. But no signal. So she had a clear right turn (two lanes you see)  and was at her little intersection a long time.  I had left a small gap in front expecting she might signal left but when  the traffic in front of me moved, I moved. Crazy logic there. This lady really blew up, I don't if it possible to sarcastically put on a left turn signal, but if it's possible, she did it while staring me down. (Good luck lady, your brand of crazy isn't very impressive)

Just crazy.

I had someone this morning dive across three lanes of traffic on the highway - no signal.
Someone else drove half a block down the street on the wrong side to make a left turn...again no signal

ye gods people, not everything is a competition. Not everything has to be right now. Take a chill pill and learn what all those little levers do on your steering column.

Top 5 Thomas Approved Movies as of right now

For the longest time, Thomas didn't watch T.V. It's not that it wasn't on, it was simply that he wasn't interested in it. The shift happened a couple of months ago. He's still not interested in most things, which is good since we have to cut down on T.V. consumption.

1. Home

I've mentioned this movie before. One of my students convinced me to give it a try even though it looked completely inane. It's actually quite fun and has a lot of peppy dance music which Thomas likes bopping around to.

2. Tale of Despereaux

A cute fairy tale about a brave mouse and a rat and a princess. It's a pretty improbable story that somehow all works together. It's a little slow in areas but the animation style is engaging and it has an unbelievable voice cast.

3. Big Hero 6

A futuristic animation about a boy-genius, Hiro, who is goaded into applying for a robotics program by his brother Tadashi. Tadashi is also into robotics and has built a large soft inflated medical robot named Baymax. I like this one for the way it handles depression and grieving.

4. How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2

I just like anything with dragons. However, these two movies are inventive and fun. There's a great romantic scene in the second one between an older couple that makes Ryan mist up every time.


5. The Emperor's New Groove

This is not a good movie, it's more a guilty pleasure. What I like about it, is that it doesn't take itself seriously and plays with a lot of the Disney archetypes. And it has llamas. I like llamas

Shhhhhh

This is a secret post. It was not here before, but it is now

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 If you've seen this, gold star for paying attention

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede

It's an odd feeling to be reading a book and about 50 pages in, realize that I've read it before. I remember a time in my life when the idea that I could read so many books that I would lose track was unfathomable. Just couldn't happen. These days it seems to happen all the time.

Dealing with Dragons is delightful. When I was a kid, most of the fantasy novels played off of traditional archetypes based on fairytales. Girls got kidnapped, lost in the woods, etc. and needed rescuing. It gets old. Wrede's books poke fun at all that. I love Cimorene who's a princess so desperate to get out of the fairy tale expectations that she volunteers to be a Dragon's princess. She then runs off every prince who comes to rescue her.

Like I said, fun. I can't believe I forgot the book. I'm glad there are three more to read in the series.

Braised Potatoes and Kielbasa

When people talk about german/polish cuisine there tend to be a lot of jokes about lederhosen and yodeling (I've never actually heard a German yodel...I've heard a lot of bad American impressions of German yodeling.) However, their food is good solid easy to make stuff and when you are sick and everyone in the house is sick, easy and solid is what I go for.

2 Tbs Oil
1 onion, chopped
4-5 yukon potatoes diced
1/2 - 1 whole head of cabbage, chopped
1 package kielbasa, sliced
2 Tbs Dijon/Brown mustard
1 bottle lager style beer

Saute the onion in the hot oil, add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer gently for 40 minutes. Salt to taste.

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

I run a crochet elective at my school and after the first few weeks, the kids get the stitches down and start really focusing on their projects. It's the most eerie thing sitting in a room packed with kids that are being absolutely silent. So, we watch cartoons.

One of my students in crochet convinced me to put on "Home" last semester. It's about the Boov invasion of Earth and a a young girl named Tip. It's a cute movie. Thomas loves this movie. It is in fact the only movie he'll actually watch all the way through. I've seen the thing at least 50 times and it holds up surprisingly well.

As it turns out, "Home" is based on a book which Ryan promptly tracked down and bought for me. I finally read it a couple days ago. When I started it, I expected a quick read that followed the same general outline of the movie. I was wrong.

The book is almost nothing like the movie. The book is firmly locked into Tip's point of view and is written as a series of essays or memoirs. The movie is almost more told from the Boov's point of view. The Gorg (main adversary) are scarier in the book and there is a very deliberate nod to Orwell in the conclusion.

Beyond all that, the book is brilliant. It's smart, there's a little bit of satire going on, and the characters all make sense.

If I'd read the book first, I very well might hate the movie. Luckily, having seen it first, the movie is just different.

Appliances

I know there is a tendency to look back on one's childhood with a sense of nostalgia. Things were good back then. Colors were brighters.  Appliances didn't break.

No really. As a kid, of the major family appliances of two households (divorced parents) I can only come up with one toasted microwave. There were two ancient refrigerators, a built in coffee maker that would not die, two diehard oven/stoves, and a seriously robust dishwasher. I'm not saying they were 50 years old, but they made it through most of my childhood.

So why is it, my brand-ish new-ish (2 years) fridge blew a sensor, my similarly aged microwave has both a dinged up fan blade and the handle came off, and a flatscreen LED t.v. blew a pixel line within a month of buying it. What is wrong with us as consumers that we put up with these shenanigans. I'm not saying a single fridge should last me with out trouble for my entire life time, but I have a vague idea that a major appliance should go trouble free for at least 5 years, 10 really seems more reasonable.

This is engineered to spur commerce.  Fire up the conspiracy net!

The problem is, people keep buying stuff. So they get away with it. We are such idiots.

Reading vs. Writing

Since the beginning of the year I've read 36 books. I feel this is impressive in it's way. I know that it's difficult for many people to maintain sustained interest in books. I don't have that problem. My problem is more one of distractibility. I get distracted by t.v. or video games or even just life. 

However, when I read, it becomes all consuming and I've very lucky to have a family that understands. Books, good books at least, are vital. They become more than just words on a page. They are ideas, and ideas are hard to kill.

One phenomenon I've noticed is that when I read voluminously, I also get the impulse to write. It's almost like the influx of ideas and stimuli turn into ideas in the subconscious. Actually, that's probably exactly what is happening. The problem is that, as a teacher who is probably already spending too much time reading, it's hard to find time to write as well. I have time, easily, for one or the other, but both is a problem. However, it's time to figure it out. The influx of ideas and the pressure to produce is becoming distracting.

March Heap o Lit: Recommendations, Suggestions, and Gifts

March is a kind of catch up month in the sense that it often takes me a long time to get around to reading things that people suggest to me. So the theme for March is: Recommendations, Suggestions, and Gifts. It's really more or less what it sounds like. Any time someone has recommended something to me or any book they've given me is up this month. That being said, I tend to write things down on random bits of paper and I keep finding more and more of them floating around. So, if I've overlooked something please email me, comment this, or nudge me in some way, I really do want to read it. I just get really behind sometimes.

In light of my absent mindedness, while I usually cap my lists at the beginning of the month, this month I will add things in as people recommend them. If nothing else, it will be a record of the recommendations for the future.

AJ
     1. Perfect Peace by Daniel Black
Amanda
    1. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)

Carra

     1. Book One: Keeping it Real by Justina Robson (B)
     2. Book Two: Selling Out by Justina Robson (B)
     3. Book Three: Going Under by Justina Robson (B)
     4. Book Four: Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson (B)

Howard/Dad

     1. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

     2. The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
     3. The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
     4. Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
     5. The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)

     6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
     7. The Adventures of Ellery Queen
     8. Ellery Queen's And on the Eighth Day
Hugh 
     1. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
     2. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
     3. Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Karen/Mom

     1. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

     2. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

     3. World Without End by Ken Follet

     4. Essays in Idleness and Hojoki by Yoshido Kenko and Kamo No Chomei 

Katja

     1. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

Kevin

    1. The Martian by Andy Weir (Kevin)
Kim
     1. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran
MG
     1. Paper Towns by John Green
Nathan
     1. The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
     2. The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
     3. The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe
     4. The Citadel of Autarch by Gene Wolfe
     5. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning by Doug Buehl
     6. "You Gotta Be the Book" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
     7. I Read it, But I Don't Get It by Cris Tovani
     8. In the Middle by Nancie Atwell
     9. Mosaic of Thought by Keene and Zimmermann
     10. Reading Diagnosis for Teachers by Barr et. al
     11. Strategies That Work by Harvey and Goudvis
     12. Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12 by Zwiers
     13. A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works by Marzano et al
Ryan
     1. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
     2. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
     3. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
     4. Company by Max Berry
     5. Machine Man by Max Berry
     6. Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
     7. Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
     8. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
     9. Cooked by Michael Pollan
     10. Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
     11. Fool on the Hill by Matthew Ruff
     12. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
     13. A Bone to Pick by Mark Bittman
     14. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
Simon
     1. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Vincent
     1. Erak's Ransom by John Flanagan (B)
     2. The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan (B)
     3. Halt's Peril by John Flanagan (B)
     4. The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan (B)
     5. The Lost Stories by John Flanagan (B)
     6.  The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan (B)
     7. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede
     8. Searching for Dragons by Patricia Wrede
     9. Calling on Dragons by Patricia Wrede
     10. Talking to Dragons by Patricia Wrede
     11. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
     12. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott