April Progress Report

I always knew that I'd have to slow down at some point. April's been a very off month. I only managed to read 11 books...and I'm still actually finishing up that eleventh book (should get through it tonight so it still counts.) I've also had a hard time keeping up with posts.

Well, it's over....looking forward to May.

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
2. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
3. In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez
4. City of Glass by Paul Auster
5. Ghosts by Paul Auster
6. The Locked Room by Paul Auster
7. Company by Max Berry
8. Machine Man by Max Berry
9. A Bone to Pick by Mark Bittman
10. 3 Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger (L)
11. Perfect Peace by Daniel Black
12. The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
13. Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
14. The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
15. Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card (L)
16. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (L)
17. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (L)
18. Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card (L)
19. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
20. Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
21. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
22. The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell
23. Gym Candy by Carl Deuker (L)
24. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
25.  The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan (B)
26. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
27. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
28. Paper Towns by John Green (L)
29. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
30. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (RR)
31. The Devil's Picnic by Taras Grescoe
32. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
33. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
34. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)
35. Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
36. Essays in Idleness and Hojoki by Yoshido Kenko and Kamo No Chomei 
37. Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
38. Choice Cuts by Mark Kurlansky
39. Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
40. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
41. The Color of Water by James McBride
42. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
43. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (RR)
44. Witch World by Andre Norton
45. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
46. Dogsong by Gary Paulsen (L)
47. The Rifle by Gary Paulsen (L)
48. Cooked by Michael Pollan
49. The Adventures of Ellery Queen
50. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (B)
51. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
52. Book One: Keeping it Real by Justina Robson (B)
53. Book Two: Selling Out by Justina Robson (B)
54. Book Three: Going Under by Justina Robson (B)
55. Book Four: Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson (B)
56. Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
57. Software by Rudy Rucker
58. Wetware by Rudy Rucker
59. Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff
60. Perdita by Hilary Scharper
61. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
62. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
63. Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp (L)
64. Black and White by Volponi (L)
65. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
66. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
67. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (L)
68. Specials by Scott Westerfeld (L)
69. Extras by Scott Westerfeld (L)
70. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran
71. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (L)
CanonGate Myth Series:
     72. Binu and the Great Wall: The Myth of Meng by Su Tong
     73. Lion's Honey: the Myth of Samson by David Grossman
     74. The Hurricane Party by Klas Ostergren
     75. Where Three Roads Meet by Salley Vickers
     76. The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber

Professional

     77. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning by Doug Buehl
     78. "You Gotta Be the Book" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
     79. I Read it, But I Don't Get It by Cris Tovani
     80. In the Middle by Nancie Atwell
     81. Mosaic of Thought by Keene and Zimmermann
     82. Reading Diagnosis for Teachers by Barr et. al
     83. Strategies That Work by Harvey and Goudvis
     84. Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12 by Zwiers
     85. A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works by Marzano et al
     86. On Caring by Milton Mayeroff
     87. In the Middle by Nancy Atwell

Inside Out

When I heard premise for Pixar's new film, I thought it was the most ridiculous idea ever. I can't imagine trying to pitch the idea.

ok so all the characters are inside the head of the girl. And each one represents an emotion. It'll be awesome. 

Nope. I don't think so.

It's surprisingly good though. Ryan and I cried like little babies at the end.

That is all.

Taking a Break

In the first four months of the year, I've already read 60 books and I find myself having a hard time getting into the next book. So, I think I'm going to take a little well deserved break on my breakneck pace of reading. Knowing me, having said that, I will now probably read three books in the next three days. That's just how it goes sometimes.

Still, I have a hard time expressing what getting back to my reading habit has meant to me. I feel more centered in the world and more outside my own head. I forgot how much I tended to get wrapped up in my own psyche I can get which makes it hard to connect to my students.

Looking forward to the next few months I'm toying with the following themes:

• May: All books written no earlier than 2014
• June: Non-Fiction & Literary Non-Fiction 
• July: Anything I want because it's my birthday
• August: Mysteries (Maybe)
• September: Historical Fiction (Maybe)

Any Suggestions in these themes are welcome!

Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman

Everyone says that the first year teaching is the hardest. "Everyone" doesn't exaggerate. It's true. My first year, I cried at the end of nearly every day. My homeroom was a mess, four of them got expelled throughout the year. Teaching literature dismayed me. Half the time I felt like I was pouring love into a endless void. The powers that be assigned my the lit mag even though I had no background in publishing whatsoever and then filled it with kids who had no interest in writing or reading. I was miserable.

I think the only thing that kept me from quitting at the end of the year was that stubborn streak of mine that crops up from time to time. (I have a strongly held belief that any job deserves two years of trial, among other things it keeps one's resume from looking a fright)

Ryan, my much suffering (he convinced me to try teaching) at-the-time fiance suggested that I try reading Up the Down Staircase. He's a pretty smart guy. He knows that I often process complicated emotions and ideas through reading. Up the Down Staircase is about a first year English teacher in a New York City public school. There's clear crossover there. So, I picked up the book for the first time, 9 years ago while on a plane to Maine to visit my family over the Winter Holidays.

By the end of the flight, I was hyperventilating while having one hell of a panic attack.

It wasn't that the book was bad; it was that it was way, way too real. The first 50 pages are about the first week or so of classes and they felt like my whole first semester. It was like seeing my anxiety fictionalized and made tangible. And part of that was the devastating thought: if it has always been this way, then it will never get better.

Needless to say, I had to put the book down unfinished. Years went by, teaching got better. (There are, if fact, many rewards. "Everyone" is right about that too) Ryan and I married and had Thomas. Ryan, from time to time, suggested that I try reading Up the Down Staircase again. I avoided it though. My first try left a deep impression. However, I couldn't ignore that my husband, who doesn't read much as a rule, would pick up Up the Down Staircase every couple of years and reread it.  That says a lot to me about a book.

So, 9 years later, I picked it up to try again.

This time the opening disastrous homeroom scene is hilarious - because it's true. The interdepartmental memos remind me of emails I've seen, and the student work is reminiscent to the things my kids write. It used to be horrifying; now it makes me chuckle. So, Ryan was right, but boy was his timing off.

It's a pretty brilliant book and deserved its fame. Very few people can pull off epistolary novels these days. I can only think of two (three if you count a sequel) worth reading. I worry though, that Kaufman's work is in danger of losing context. The message stays relevant but by the time I read it, it was already 50 years old. Many of the details surrounding the action have changed. We don't pass memos around anymore; we email, chat, or text. I barely remember mimeos from my years in primary school; copy machines are essentially the same idea though. The computer has replaced a lot of the clerical work in the sense that we do much less handwriting. The forms all still exist though in digital format or have been replaced by different bureaucracy. It seems like a small thing to worry about, but those small details can be a barrier.

I hope someone publishes an annotated edition. I think that anyone thinking about teaching should read this. . . long before setting foot in the classroom. Yes, the beginning can be horrifying, but the end explains why sane, rational people still choose to teach even with all the awful soul killing minutia and heartbreaking students. It would have been good to get a glimpse of the pay-off ahead of time.

Sinner Redeemed

Well it happened. I fell off the writing habit. The struggle started two weeks ago. I missed a day here and there but caught up mostly before anyone noticed. This weekend I finally skipped a day and then another. I don't know why exactly or what changed. I just faced the evening one day and didn't pick up laptop. No words. No ideas. I actually thought it would bother me more than it did.

Then one day, as always, my fingers began to itch.

Writing reminds me of a good song. Not catchy per se, but impactful. A good song burrows into the subconscious. I can think that I forget entirely about the song. I might not think about it for years until one I find myself humming it, then I have to listen to it, then I listen again and again. Eventually, my mind moves on to the next song, next project, next passion.

Writing is the same way. I always come back to it. I'm not even sure why. But eventually I always wake up one morning with my fingers itching. So today I write. Hopefully I write tomorrow and the next day.

I am after all, for all my virtues and vices, just human.

As a brief aside: I have "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone running through my head as I write this. Over and over. I love that song.

Animation and the Oscars

In 2014 (the last time I went to an actual movie theater by the way) I saw "The Wind Rises" in the theater because it's the last Miyazaki film and because I like animation and anime. I did not see "Frozen" because it failed my hype test.

My hype test follows a simple rule: if crossover merchandise appears before movie release by more than a week than I will probably temporarily write it off as merchandising fodder. It's not that I will never see those flicks, I just figure there's no rush. "Frozen" most definitely failed the hype test; Elsa bed sheets showed up a month before the movie released.

"The Wind Rises" is an amazing work. It's a bio pic about a japanese engineer who designed planes during WWII. It's a sad, thoughtful movie and not one that I feel then need to rewatch anytime soon, but it is also powerful. It makes an impression. It's a good movie, although not one really intended for kids.

When the Oscars rolled around, I assumed, like many, that "The Wind Rises" would win over "Frozen" hands down. I was surprised and even scandalized when "Frozen" won. If you do an internet search for "The Wind Rises" and "Frozen" during the 2014 Oscars, you'll find a lot of invective about the unfairness of it all and how it's evidence that the critics have become crass and unsophisticated morons.

This is probably true.

I'm not the type to get overly worked up about the Oscars but I also felt pretty irritated about the Oscar results and figured that the reason "Frozen" won was because the critics couldn't accept animation aimed at adults. I felt no real desire to watch "Frozen" as a result. (Which is childish, I acknowledge.) Two things changed my mind. 1) all my students insisted that "Frozen" was good. 2) my niece is stupid in love with the thing.

So, I finally got around to watching it.

I still think "The Wind Rises" should have won the Oscars in 2014. It's just better art. Sorry. It just is. But, that being said, I get why "Frozen" won and any other year I'd have probably been rooting for it. "Frozen" won because it broke with the standard Disney princess needs a big strong vapid prince to save her nonsense. I like that about it. It promotes familial love and I think we need more of that in society. We need more emphasis of the role of family and family support. We need more strong self-reliant leading ladies and we need to acknowledge the vulnerability inherent in romantic love. So yes, I'm behind "Frozen's" message. However, it also has weak story development and an over reliance on a couple good songs. It's not well crafted art.

"The Wind Rises" was robbed.

"Frozen" is still a good movie.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

It's possible to read a book and see that it's a really good book. It's well crafted, has a good logical story, and an excellent voice. However, after the read, I look back and realize that I didn't really like the book.

The White Tiger won the Man Booker Prize in 2008. It's a well written book. (Badly written books don't win the Man Booker) This is the story of Munna who struggle from a nothing child in a squalid little town to being a self employed businessman.

Wait, that makes it a sunny and cheerful, let me try again.

It's the story of Munna an innocent bright little boy who because of the disadvantages of a corrupt system was cheated out of a proper education and yet still used his initiative and ingenuity to escape his squalid life as a servant.

Ok, closer, but still not right...one more try.

This is a story of corruption. It traces the evolution in the psyche of a murderer. Munna begins his life as a normal bright child, but as the realities of living to a impoverished family in the "darkness" of India force him away from opportunities like education, Munna claws and struggles to find his way out of a system built to keep the levels of society separate and immutable. In his journey he learns to revile the trappings of privilege (like education) while simultaneously  yearning to possess them. He is both humble and arrogant - innocent and corrupt.

There that's better, but they are all true.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is the structure, the whole novel is written as an extended letter to the Premier of China. This gives the whole thing the air of confession with the assurance of impunity.

The whole thing is just unsettling.

Craziest of the Months

I'm not sure if it is all teachers at all schools or just me at my school, but there are two months of the year where every effort at routine and consistency is simply going to fly right out the window. August is one, the beginning of school and all that entails of course, and either April or May is the other. This year, it's April. Which is why, I think, that I've missed so many posts. Next year I'll have a plan going in.

However, I can't really whine, it's been a good year/month. I think the crazy is going to last through mid May and graduation. It started early because of the shower remodel and assorted family issues. Eventually, it'll slow down. Hopefully tonight and next week we'll have a lull before Ryan heads out with the seniors on the cruise.

Book Lists

I went through a phase where I picked all my books off of lists. I found my lists in a variety of places but mostly authors and awards. Many authors mention or suggest lists of books if they write memoirs such as in Stephen King's On Writing. Others write books that are essentially collections of suggestions. Nancy Pearl is my favorite of these, I have four of her books in fact. However there are a lot of these books that simply exist to lead people to other books.

Then there are the awards. The nice thing about following awards and their shortlist finalists is that 1) the selections are usually reviewed by a small group of, theoretically, experts and 2) by following the awards currently they can expose me to new authors. So I followed or do follow:

• The Hugo
• The Nebula
• The Booker Prize (Now the Man Booker)
• The Pulitzer in Fiction
• The Nobel Prize for Literature
• Goodreads Choice Awards

As sizeable as that collection is, there are tons of the things. I could spend my life just reading award winners if I chose.

However, at some point, this method of finding books soured on me. I'm still not exactly sure why; most of the books I've found through these lists were excellent books. I think that finding them this way means that I have no outside connection to them and so no impetus to read them.

Looking back at my reading so far this year, most of those books (80%) were found one of two ways. 1) someone in my life suggested the book to me or 2) I found the book through reading another book either by continuing in a series or by looking into other books an author has penned.

This more organic method gives me a more external prod to read the books. When I read a book suggested by someone in my life, I get to follow up with them about the book which often yields more suggestions from that person. It's a nice way to find things to read.

I still read award winners, but they account for a much smaller percentage of my stack.

Mini Book Break

I've been reading a lot this year, but I seem to have hit a small burn out. It happens from time to time. I can take a lot in all at once but eventually I need to let the information assimilate. Usually, this only takes a couple of days.

The time is always a little weird though. It disrupts my sleep patterns, I get edgy, and I have very vivid dreams. Sometimes I even have nightmares. I guess that it's part of my brain processing the information and the ideas. It's kind of like compost. I suspect that if I can get my writing going, these times where I'm processing will probably yield more creative work.

Hopefully I'll break out of it soon. I hate feeling this disconnected.

A Late Night Musing on Bones

Recently, I've been going back through television shows that I watched and enjoyed. At the moment I've been plowing through Bones. Procedurals follow predictable trends and have a longevity that is uncommon to other types of shows.

I remember when I first started watching Bones and thinking that there was no way the show could last. The main character, Brennen, was just way too prickly to be likable and the other main character, Booth, was stuck in my head as the broody vampire, Angel. I expected a season, maybe two. It's still going, as far as I know. I think part of what keeps procedurals going is the side characters. Support cast, when they are good, can provide a bridge. So, even though the viewer can periodically lose interest in main characters, the support cast fills in the gaps temporarily.

Bones has always had an excellent support cast. The interns particularly are engaging. When the character Zack Addy left the show, I nearly quit watching. When Vincent Nigel-Murray died, I did quite watching for a little while.

Realizing that made me expand my thinking to NCIS. I immediately realized that I'm very tied into Abby and Dr. Mallard more so than Agent Gibbs. Now, I like Agent Gibbs just like I enjoy Booth and Brennan on Bones, but I only get character crushes on side characters.

So, it's just a theory, but I think successful procedurals rely more on having a engaging support cast.

Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card

I originally read Ender's Game in my late teens. I really liked it. I didn't go gaga over it the way a lot of my friends did, but I've always been a fan of sci fi that explores philosophical ideas. So when the movie came out, I decided to reread the series. Only as it turns out, I never read past the first book.

This was my first reading of Speaker For the Dead. If anything, I think this is a better book than Ender's Game which has a lot of political over tones caught up with the philosophy. There is a political aspect to Speaker For the Dead, but mostly it's about how we would view aliens if we encountered them. It explores what it means to be other. Does it mean another species or simply another tribe. Is there a difference between human and people?

And once we accept the other as people, how do we judge their actions? Do we judge them through the filter of our expectations or theirs? Anthropology gets all snarled up in it.

Ender, of course, features prominently in the plot and Card redeemed some of the awful things he put Ender through in Ender's Game. I don't know why yet, but I just really felt good about this book when I finished it. It wasn't a happy book by any means, but it made me think, and I appreciate that.

Exhaustion Overrules Good Sense

Sometimes when I know I'm going to have a busy day, I take my personal laptop into school. It's faster than my school laptop and I work on it efficiently and with less distraction. However, the last few days have yielded oddly disjointed sleep. There's no one reason that I'm having problems getting enough sleep, but the result is that I've gone brain dead.

Yesterday I left my laptop at school. I just walked off with it still on my desk which is why there was no post at midnight. I can be a bit scattered, but I don't tend to forget things like that. I've since posted for the missing post and am back on track. However, I think I'm going to prioritize sleep over a lengthy post for tonight. Sorry guys, but clearly I'm in need of the z's. Catch you all tomorrow.

Sweet dreams.

Extras by Scott Westerfelt

So, he wrote another one. I want to be annoyed about it. The original trilogy ended in a good place. The story was complete.

Now there's a new story with a new city set three years after the events in the previous books. It's one of the more bizarre social set ups. After populace got their minds and awareness back they, of course, needed an economy. According to Westerfeld's world building, each city came up with it's own economy. Extras is set in Japan (the first three were in North America, probably California-ish) and the economy is based off of fame or reputation. So the more recognized you are the more wealthy you are. Like I said, weird.

The main character, Aya, is engaging if a little whiny and obvious. I really like Frizz, her boyfriend. Tally et al. eventually show up.

So, I guess I'm not as annoyed about it as I want to be. However, I'm a little leery of series that just expand and expand and expand past any sort of cohesive plot. The only authors that I've ever read that truly did it well are Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey. Both of the them developed a world level plot line for continuity and character level plot lines for story and then switched between sets of characters for sense of completeness. Westerfeld could be headed in that direction. Time will tell.

Interpersonal interaction

The older I get the more I realize how toxic good intentions can be.  I generally believe that most people spend most of their day laboring under good intentions. (There are exceptions) However, because we are so wrapped up in our own issues, our attempts help others often backfire one way or the other. Most of the time, it's because we don't really understand what the issue is.

The reason for that, of course, is that most people are really crappy listeners. To illustrate, there are exactly two people, not counting my husband, in my day to day life that ask me on a regular basis how things are going when they have both the time and demeanor of wanting a real answer. There are another four or five who ask intermittently. (For reference when I say regular I mean 1 or 2 times a week. By intermittently I mean 1 or 2 times a month.) To put it into context, I interact with at least 20 people a day who are either family, friends, or coworkers. I interact with at least another 30 who are students per day. So on average, I get about one person interested in how my life is actually going for every 100 or so interactions (again, not counting my husband.) It's really pretty pitiful.

And I don't think this is unusual.

I just think that people don't know how to listen. I can't count how many times I've had people launch into stories about what is going on with their own lives before even properly saying hello or even as a direct follow up to their own question to me, "how are you?" I spend a lot of time listening. Partly it's my job. Partly, I'm just a lot happier focusing on others and their needs instead of wallowing in my own problems.

People aren't completely oblivious though. So they can see that I'm stressed. This leads to all kinds of issues. Because they haven't asked, and therefore I haven't told them, they guess what the issue is. So I get a lot of well meaning advice which doesn't apply to anything going on in my life and a lot of help that doesn't end up being where I need the most help. And I'm grateful for this problem. It's nice that people care. I just wish they didn't try to guess.

It's possible that it's gone too far and I've become closed off. However, I don't mean to be. I'm willing to tell people about my problems, I just wait for them to ask. I wonder how many other people do the same. I can't be the only one to experience this.

So assuming you read this blog, whoever you are. Here's my challenge to you. Find someone you care about in your life today. It doesn't have to be someone you are actually really close to but go for someone you like. Walk up to them when you have time to actually talk. Still all the things whirling around in your head about everything you have to do and everything going on in your life and ask, "So, how's it going with you." Then shut up and listen. Let them talk and give them all your attention. Sometimes just that opportunity to connect can mean the world to people.

Tomorrow, go find someone else to ask.

Repeat.

The Rifle by Gary Paulsen

Books usually follow a main human-like character. This short novel follows the story of an old flint lock rifle. There are humans in the story, of course, but it's really about how this object was created and then what happened to it after. I read it over the course of just a couple of hours but I have a hard time thinking about it as literature.

What struck me was how sad it all was. The rifle was built as a piece of art. It was created with love and care. Then, because of what it was, tragedy followed it. It was just so incredibly sad. And pointless, so many of the deaths seemed pointless yet somehow inevitable. I wouldn't have pegged Paulsen as anti-gun in any way based on his other novels but it really felt like he spent some effort illustrating the tragedy.

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

This, the last book in the trilogy, I read in less than 10 hours. Both Uglies and Pretties had problems with slow starting. Specials doesn't have this problem. It starts right in the middle of action and just catapults on through.

Specials provides a satisfying ending to Tally's story and somehow manages to avoid most of the boy drama in a way that doesn't seem artificial. There is plenty of room for the world to expand for more stories and I hope that Westerfeld writes more in this setting.

As far as YA lit goes, I can't decide home much I like it. On the one hand the idea of beauty and visual appeal is something important for teens to think about, on the other I'm not sure whether the series really has much to say about it in the end. So maybe they are just books. 

Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

It took me a bit to get through this one. Pretties is the sequel to Uglies. Surprising, I know.

Tally is back in the city and she's had the operation. She and Shay are back to being friends and now she has a new love interest Zane. So, what we have here is that really annoying set up where the girl bounces indecisively between to guys. Mind you, there hasn't been too much bouncing yet, but the seeds have been sown and it's become a trend in YA fic.

I think what slowed me down was how bizarrely cerebral it got. Not bad, or even slow, just very thought heavy. It's strange to me that how distinct this series is managing to be. It's not perfect. The relationship between Tally and Shay, for example, doesn't really work for me. Some of the "plot twists" are incredibly obvious to me.

However, the world is interesting. It does seem like a logical response to the mistakes society seems determined to make today. I can't imagine the set up lasting so homogeneously for so long though. After all, purposely brain damaging the majority of the population is bound to make people get a little feisty.

Of course, the dang thing ended on a cliff hanger.

I'm going to go ahead and dive into the next book, to see how it goes.

Lawn Mowers

 It occurs to me that Ryan and I just don't value the same things as most typical Americans. This observation is really brought home when we do things like check "Consumer Reports" for recommendations on large purchases.

Our two-year old mower went kaput last year. (I've soap boxed before about crappiness of appliances that seem designed to break) So, after trying what we could to fix it, and establishing that it would cost more than what we paid for it new to even get it looked at by a repairman, we decided to replace it. Hence the check on "Consumer Reports."

We have a small mowable lawn that we hope will diminish as I replace it with landscaping and vegetable plots, so what we need is pretty basic. However "Consumer Reports" does really rate basic much. The ratings on products seem based heavily on features. On somethings features can really make a difference. For example, I'd love to replace my slowcookers with ones that have good timers. However, in a mower, I just want solid construction that mows grass. I don't need to ride on it, and I don't need it to propel itself. I really don't need it to make me an iced latte while I work or some such.

Being mainly on our own, we made a decision on other factors. I suspect that part of the reason our old mower crapped out so early was that it sat outside covered (sort of) by a tarp. However, we don't have a shed and I don't feel comfortable storing a gas mower in our basement. Taking that into consideration, we looked pretty hard at the electric mowers. The idea of trailing a huge extension cord doesn't excite me, so I needed it to be cordless. We ended up with the Ryobi 40 Volt cordless mower. It's narrower than most mowers at 16 inches so it fits in through the basement door easily. As an added bonus, it's light enough for me to pick up with one hand which means I can manhandle it just fine to mow the lawn myself.

So, exciting stuff. I now have a fashionably lime green lawn mower.

Garden Boxes

So, after about six hours, I finally got the garden boxes cleared. Mostly, I was dealing with a violet infestation which is most assuredly still lurking beneath the surface. I also pulled crab grass, random seed sprouts, and even a sprig of privet. I then waited two days and pulled whatever popped up daring my wrath. Quite a lot dared my wrath, incidentally.

I topped off each box with a 20 pound bag of compost and mixed in chicken poop fertilizer (which stinks way more than just keeping chickens in a coup btw.) So, now they are ready to go but our night time temps are still getting down to high 30's. I still probably have a month before I can plant out the summer crops.

I've had some sort of weird block about ordering seeds this year. I'm really not sure why. So since the boxes are ready, and I'm impatient, I picked up a packet of spinach seeds at the hardware store. I planted out one box with spinach entirely. If it all comes up I'll have 128 spinach plants. Which is a silly amount of spinach but I don't think they will all come up and even if they do, I have plenty of people to share with.

The other box, I planted out with last year's lettuce and radish seeds. Lettuce seeds are notorious for not keeping well. I'm not necessarily expecting more than one or two plants. That being the case I experimenting with surface sowing half of them. The radish seeds will probably do better, maybe. However, I hate throwing away seeds and if nothing comes up I won't have to pull up anything to put in the summer veggies.

Now it's time to prepare a couple more beds, not raised this time.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Dystopian YA lit has been in vogue. Although, I believe that we are moving out of that fad and shifting to the next "thing." A lot of my kids like the dystopian thing and I've been gradually catching up.

Uglies, however, is one of those books that people saw me reading and expressed surprise. Apparently, it just doesn't look like a book I would read. Thus I am provided with an excellent segue into marking, cover art, and the book industry. Unfortunately, Stephen King already wrote that article some years back for Entertainment Weekly (which I can't find unfortunately). {Ryan found it!} But the point is, publishers can do a lot of damage with cover art. Human beings are visual creatures and cover art is the usual source of a reader's first impression of a book. Which is, of course, grossly unfair to authors.

This brings me to my point. The cover to Uglies makes it look like a psuedo lit for the fashion mag set. Part of it is the dimensions of the book itself which are off industry standard for fiction. It's the same size/dimensions as those books that are really just a collection of vapid observations and an excuse for too many artistic navel gazing glossy photos. The cover art reenforces that impression. It's an extreme close up of a very pretty model.

In all fairness to the publisher, the book is actually all about a world that uses superficial attractiveness to control the population. So the cover art, fits. Uglies is about a world where everyone receives compulsory plastic surgery at the age of 16 to become a Pretty by having all their physical features pulled towards a set of norms. As is always the case, there are people who don't want to be perfected and this of course threatens the powers that be. Also, unsurprisingly, there is something more sinister going on.

This book is exactly up ally, it just doesn't look it. It's strange how easily we are affected by subtle visual cues. If I had to come up with a criticism, it's that it's a bit of a slow start for a YA novel and doesn't really get going until about 100 pages in. That's only if I had to find a fault though.

Parenting Tip #2

On the subject of bedtimes:

Alright come with me on on this. Imagine Captain Barbosa from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Think about his catch phrase concerning his philosophy on the pirate's code. Ok, got that in your head? Great. Now. Concerning bedtimes for toddlers? It's more a guideline.

I'm a big fan of consistency movement. I do believe that kids need structure and routine. However, being too rigid is just as bad as being too lax. So, on the subject of bedtimes, we aim for 8. We also aim to get him into his bed. We tend to be more successful on the former rather than the latter.

I'll be the first to admit that we need to get him into the bed. There are a host of reasons why he's not...at least over time. We've actually been on the receiving end of a lot of well meaning criticism concerning this point. Truly, he does need to move.

However.

I've been paying a lot of attention to the number of majorly disrupted nights for Thomas's cousin. They seem to be up with her 4-5 nights out of 7 on average. When one of them gets up, they are up with her a minimum of an hour and often more than 2. It's been like that for the last couple of years. They have good streaks and bad ones, but this seems generally true. We get an update every morning.

Having Thomas on the couch, we've had 0 disrupted nights out of 7 unless he's demonstrably ill. Once he's asleep, we can head off most wake ups before he really wakes up. It's not that he's a better kid, he's just right next to use. So instead of being up an hour getting him resettled, we are up less than 10 minutes changing a diaper or getting him water. So we net more sleep.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying he doesn't need to move. He absolutely does and we are working him in that direction. However, if it comes down to losing sleep the way my in laws do night after night or taking the time to do this shift slowly and gently to preserve what sleep we get during the school year. I'm going to preserve as much sleep as I can.

So in regards to betimes: it's all just guidelines and we are working on it. We'll get him there eventually.

Spring Break - Woohoo

The first day of spring break, my husband and I do nothing. Really, nothing. No grading, no laundry, I only cook if I feel like it and generally we waste a day playing video games. It feels indulgent but at the same time, by the time spring break comes, we get pretty worn out. So, a day of complete rest is a good thing.

Today I finally finished Fables 2. I feel oddly disenchanted with it. Not that the ending wasn't good. It was as good as a video game generally is, it was just a let down and there was a lot of little fiddly stuff to do afterwards which was less fun and more annoying.

Now of course I should restart Fables 3. Now that I have a completed save file in Fables 2, I'm curious to see what changed. I think I'm going to put it off though. There's only so much of that nonsense I can take at a time.

In other news, I'm having a hard time getting into Swansong.  Ryan plowed through a reread of it in preparation for me reading it and I just can't seem to get it going. I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

Royal Ranger by John Flanagan - Series Complete: Ranger's Apprentice

I did it. I finally finished this series. Matt will be so happy.

I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled that there were more books after the 10th. It really felt like a great series wrap up. I found myself feeling that any new stories would shatter that satisfaction that comes at the end of a well completed series.

It wasn't that bad.

In fact, had it been a stand alone, I would even count it pretty good. The Royal Ranger picks up decades after the events of the 10th book. While it doesn't ruin the series completion, it does reopen the series to continuation.

Perversely, I think Flanagan skipped a book. I want to hear more about Alyss. I get why Flanagan made the choices he did, but it all felt rushed and like her story didn't really get told.

April Avalanche of Words - Clearing the Decks

The books on this list come only from my shelves. In fact, every book on this list is cluttering up my living room at the moment. They either belong to me or have been lent to me for a while. In some cases, I have had them out from the library way too long.

This is by far my largest so far. Obviously I'm not getting through 90 books in a month. On the other hand, many of these books are drops, or books that I started and didn't finish for some reason or another. I suspect that if I try pick the book back up I'll be able to skim some of the initial material. So they might go faster than I expect.

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
2. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
3. In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez
4. City of Glass by Paul Auster
5. Ghosts by Paul Auster
6. The Locked Room by Paul Auster
7. Company by Max Berry
8. Machine Man by Max Berry
9. A Bone to Pick by Mark Bittman
10. 3 Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger (L)
11. Perfect Peace by Daniel Black
12. The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
13. Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
14. The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (B)
15. Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card (L)
16. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (L)
17. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (L)
18. Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card (L)
19. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
20. Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
21. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
22. The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell
23. Gym Candy by Carl Deuker (L)
24. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
25.  The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan (B)
26. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
27. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
28. Paper Towns by John Green (L)
29. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
30. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (RR)
31. The Devil's Picnic by Taras Grescoe
32. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
33. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
34. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (B)
35. Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
36. Essays in Idleness and Hojoki by Yoshido Kenko and Kamo No Chomei 
37. Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
38. Choice Cuts by Mark Kurlansky
39. Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
40. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
41. The Color of Water by James McBride
42. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
43. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (RR)
44. Witch World by Andre Norton
45. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
46. Dogsong by Gary Paulsen (L)
47. The Rifle by Gary Paulsen (L)
48. Cooked by Michael Pollan
49. The Adventures of Ellery Queen
50. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (B)
51. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
52. Book One: Keeping it Real by Justina Robson (B)
53. Book Two: Selling Out by Justina Robson (B)
54. Book Three: Going Under by Justina Robson (B)
55. Book Four: Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson (B)
56. Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
57. Software by Rudy Rucker
58. Wetware by Rudy Rucker
59. Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff
60. Perdita by Hilary Scharper
61. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
62. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
63. Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp (L)
64. Black and White by Volponi (L)
65. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
66. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
67. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (L)
68. Specials by Scott Westerfeld (L)
69. Extras by Scott Westerfeld (L)
70. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran
71. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (L)
CanonGate Myth Series:
     72. Binu and the Great Wall: The Myth of Meng by Su Tong
     73. Lion's Honey: the Myth of Samson by David Grossman
     74. The Hurricane Party by Klas Ostergren
     75. Where Three Roads Meet by Salley Vickers
     76. The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber

Professional

     77. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning by Doug Buehl
     78. "You Gotta Be the Book" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
     79. I Read it, But I Don't Get It by Cris Tovani
     80. In the Middle by Nancie Atwell
     81. Mosaic of Thought by Keene and Zimmermann
     82. Reading Diagnosis for Teachers by Barr et. al
     83. Strategies That Work by Harvey and Goudvis
     84. Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12 by Zwiers
     85. A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works by Marzano et al
     86. On Caring by Milton Mayeroff
     87. In the Middle by Nancy Atwell