October progress Report

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

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

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

Lending Limits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, I request books.

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

*fume*

I need more books!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Planning

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mind the Gap

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

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

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

Sleep of the dead

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

Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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

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

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

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

Reading Spree

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


7. The Hatchling
8. The Outcast

Chipotle-Orange Sauce

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

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

Simmer until flavors blend

Keeping it Real by Justina Robson

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

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

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

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

So here's the thing.

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

The Gemma Doyle Series by Libba Bray

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Mayflower Project by Katherine Applegate

Book 1 in a series called the Remnants.

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

It keeps coming back.

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

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

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

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

Gearing up for Failure

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

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

Reasons I don't finish Nanowrimo:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baby Habits

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

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

I'll figure it out eventually.

Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

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

It's a good spin off.

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

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

My Child is a Cary Grant Fan

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

That is all for today.

Crackback by John Coy

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, and he meets a girl.

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

Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls by Maggie Stiefvater

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I enjoyed the series.

1. Shiver
2. Linger
3. Forever

Ah the Joys of Teaching

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Very focused.

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

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

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

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

The whole room erupts in gales of laughter.

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

I love teenagers.

Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Karen Lasky Books 1 - 6

This children's series is really quite huge. On these YA and Middle Reader series I've been trying to do series reviews since it gets tedious writing reviews on such short reads. However, there are 16 books in this series which is a lot to cover in a single post, so I've split off the first six to cover.

I picked up the first book after watching the movie adaptation: The Guardians of Ga'Hoole. It's a pretty good movie for kids but really screws with the story of the books. In the movie, the protagonist Soren and his brother Kludd fall out of their tree before they are full fledged. (They are owls, by the way) They are kidnapped by the nefarious owls of St. Aggies led by Metalbeak and Nyra. Kludd joins with the bad owls and Soren makes a friend Gylfie. Eventually Soren and Gylfie escape, find their way to the Ga'Hoole tree with Twilight and Digger. Then they get involved in a battle between the owls of St. Aggies and the Ga'Hoole Tree.

Ok so that's the movie. It's a nice tidy little story that plays whirl'o'plot with the material from the book. In The Capture book 1, Soren is pushed out of the tree by his brother Kludd. He does end up at St. Aggies, but the St. Aggies owls are a completely different malign group from the Pure Ones led by Nyra and Metal Beak. The main thrust of The Journey book 2, is the four companions getting to the tree. The Rescue book three, introduces The Pure ones as a real antagonistic force. And so on.

As a group, the first six books deal with Soren's youth and follow him as the main protagonist. By the sixth book, The Burning, Soren is a young adult and, along with his friends, a fully accepted and valued member of the Guardians.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole is a good series for younger readers. The characters are highly relatable and the themes deal with some pretty real issues in good way for younger readers but in a way still interesting for a more mature audience.

1. The Capture
2. The Journey
3. The Rescue
4. The Siege
5. The Shattering
6. The Burning

The Random Nature of Being

It always seems that tragedy clusters. The last two weeks were rough and the hits just seem to keep coming. It's not about me, none of it is except for my hand sprouting some obscure and bizarre condition, but it all affects me. Too much death and too much sadness.

At times like these, it's easy to fall back on superstition. It's easy to believe that a cluster like this proves some sort of divine meddling in the organization of the universe, but it doesn't. All it does is demonstrate that events in life follow a random distribution pattern. I always end up thinking of a scene from "Numbers." "Numbers" was a pretty seriously flawed procedural show wherein one of the main characters is a math prodigy. In any case, he at one point has to explain to a room full of detectives how real random events work. He starts by pulling out a piece of paper and asking each of them to put a dot on the paper in a random place. Each detective does this and they end up with a sheet of paper  with a bunch of relatively evenly spaced dots. Our prodigy explains, that's not random. It's not random because each of the detectives looked at the paper before placing his or her dot and subconsciously placed their dot away from the others. People assume on some level that random means even distribution.  A truly random set would include isolated dots, yes, but also clusters of dots because that is what random implies: without pattern.

Life is like that too. I can count out between 6 and 10 events ranging from moderately distressing to actively upsetting that happened in the last 14 days. That's a lot by any measure, but it's just a cluster. I expect that I experience just as many "good event" clusters as bad ones, but I don't think most humans are programmed to really register a series of fortunate coincidences in the same introspective way that we do misfortune.

Some people notice the good equally as much as, or more than, the bad. I'm not one of those people, but I would like to be.

October Line Up (Fall Cleaning)

When I restarted my big reading projects in January, I set aside a coffee table to use as storage and organizational space for the books. It started out with a couple of stacks decently well organized into groups. Then the summer happened, little toddler hands and scurrying cats happened. Now it looks like this:

So this month is all about reorganizing and clearing the backlog.  The only things on the list are things already in the stack. One of the things about being a known reader is that people lend me books...a lot of books in fact. It's pretty cool, but I'm pretty far behind. I'm going to work on things I've either got from a library (L) or borrowed from a friend (B) first.

It's going to be a very long list and there is no way I'm getting through it all in just one month:

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

* (books in the middle of a series that I don't have but need to continue reading the series)