two by marsh

Ngaio Marsh, and Agatha Christie, and John Dickinson Carr, occupy a special place in my childhood history of reading. Sometime in between The Hobbit and Foundation, I went on what can only be described as a British mystery reading spree and attempted to read everything these people had ever written. Along with,of course, everything Arthur Conan Doyle had ever written. Ngaio Marsh, though she had the smallest number of books (and, well, is technically a New Zealander), outshines everyone on pure quality of her writing.
Two of my favourites are Vintage Murder and Death of a Peer, and, as I wend my way through my library, I picked them up to read during our recent snow storm.
Vintage Murder is an early, and fun, book in the Roderick Alleyn series. This one takes place as he is travelling through New Zealand and recovering from some unspecified operation. It is early in the canon as he is not yet married or dreaming of his future wife. There is a rugby-hooligan type incident on a train that ends with a bruised backside on one of the characters and a theft before the main murder even occurs. This book has a number of characters, and following every movement of each person can get baffling at times; however, Marsh never makes the reader feel as if Alleyn knows something special or has super-powers, merely that his powers of deduction are sharp and that all of the information is there that is necessary to solve the mystery along with him.
It is interesting to note that the translations of the book all mention the murder weapon, but lose the pun inherent in the original title.
Death of a Peer, though, contains at its heart one of Marsh's best creations, the Lamprey family. Dotty, eccentric, lovable, they form the center of a locked room mystery--and distract the reader from the horror of the crime itself. They nearly distract the detectives as well, but as Marsh's Inspector Alleyn can always be relied upon to re-center himself, the distraction does not prove fatal and all of the clues are neatly laid out in the narrative itself. One of the characters even appears in a later book (Night at the Vulcan) and the quiet romance is dealt with deftly. Very well-plotted, very "British", very enjoyable.

If you enjoy Christie, or even more recent incarnations such as Anne Perry, Ngaio Marsh would be well worth giving a try. continue on...

what's the difference between scary and creepy?

While trying to explain how very cool it is that Neil Gaiman won the Newbery (which mostly consisted of me naming other books and sighing: The Hero and The Crown! The Tale of Desperaux! The Witch of Blackbird Pond! A Wrinkle in Time!) I also starting blathering on about Coraline, another book of Gaiman's that was very, very popular in my classroom. To begin with, it had the three magic elements that attract middle school ambivalent readers: it looked short; it looked scary; it looked simple. Of course, all of those things were merely ways into the book. Although it was short, the story it told was complete and felt world-shaping. Although it looked scary, it was really *creepy* (more on that later). And, although it looked simple, the story, and the conversations it prompted in my classroom, proved it was anything but.

My favourite conversation of all was between two of my most-anti-reading girls. After nearly two years with me (and improving their reading levels a LOT), they were now willing to read, but still very picky and demanding about the amount of effort they had to put into the process. These were girls who would rather read a "meh" book that demanded less of them than an excellent book they would have to work at. (Of course, they were also Twilight obsessed, but that's a different story). Coraline, though, Coraline got passed around the group like some sort of trifecta pick: the teacher liked it, the students liked it, the parents liked it.

Why was that? Well, everyone comes to a book from a different place, but I think these girls liked Coraline because it felt like an adventure. Also, though, because (as I overheard one day... what? teachers are consummate eavesdroppers!)

Dude, Coraline isn't SCARY. Scary is, like, Nightmare on Elm Street. Scary's not REAL. Coraline is CREEPY. I kept thinking that if I opened the wrong door at my own house, I'd end up somewhere really not good.

(13 year old girl)

So that was the magic then. These girls never really connected with Harry Potter, Frodo, or Merlin. Their lives were, quite frankly, too fraught with REAL danger to tolerate fantasy danger. But, they did connect with Coraline--the danger she faced, evil adults and world that made no sense, was something they felt was more real. It was creepy not scary. And they loved it.

Now, why they loved the completely unreal and unbelievably perfect Edward and Jacob is fodder for another post. continue on...

waitin' for a breakthrough...

So, I've just spent two fun days pretending that I owned an e-reader. I converted some books I owned to a file that my little XO (the OLPC laptop) could handle and cheerfully sat on the couch reading away. I can tell you that the four hours I spent reading two books far exceeded my tries at the Kindle and at the Sony E-Reader in both length and pleasure. It's not that I have anything, at all, against the idea of e-books, although I would always be leery of dragging anything electronic to the beach, but there are a few...advances...that I need to see before I embrace to e-book as something that will serve as a real replacement for my physical library.
First, I need the e-book catalogues to have more depth to them. Some of the books I own, I own because I cannot depend on finding another copy. They are not necessarily rare (as in expensive), but they are difficult to find. If I'm going to adopt an e-book reader, I want to be able to find all of those wonderful books as well.
Second? Well, I've played with the Kindle and the Sony E-Reader. I was impressed with the e-ink technology. But, as someone who reads quickly, I really struggled with how often I had to refresh/change the page and how long it took for a new page to load. The e-reader also had a strange response to being set in portrait mode--it skipped back a section so that the last sentence you *had* been reading was suddenly in the middle of the new page. Needless to say, that drove me nuts. And, it didn't solve my problem of having to load new pages every thirty seconds.
And last? for now? I'm not sure how I feel about DRM. I am all for artists, writers, creators, and those who bring their works to the public, getting paid. I would, however, be very, very, very annoyed if a book I had bought suddenly stopped *working* because of an argument between a publisher and a distributor. Or, simply because my e-reader died for some reason.

I did love reading my books on my XO. It was great to trot from room to room in the house with both the books and somewhere to type notes on them. The XO is light and has a great battery life, and, because it loaded the entire book at once, I didn't need to wait for it load--I just scrolled down.

I'm all for e-books. I would love for entire libraries to be so portable that they are available for everyone, everywhere. It just hasn't happened yet.
continue on...

As an aside...

The Penguin Book Blog is doing a fun "around the world in 80 books" journey through literature. It started with Great Expectations, and I must admit that it caused me to pause and wonder whether my dislike of that book was born of a not-so-great teacher and if I shouldn't read it again. The post is definitely worth checking out. I posted one suggestion, and I then spent the next half-hour mumbling things like "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court to Bloodsucking Fiends to Hard-Boiled Wonderland" in my attempts to circle the world reading fun books.
Oh, and, also?
There's a review I wrote of P.C. Hodgell's Godstalker Chronicles to be found here. Thanks bookgeeks! continue on...

a book a day...

The title above links to a fun, short, blog post on how to read, basically, a book a day. Well, it's not "how-to"--more of a "how she". And, really, a "how-I".
When students, and friends, ask me how I read so much (it usually comes up when they see me packing for vacation--I have been known to bring only one pair of shoes in order to have more room for books), I usually just answer "I've been doing it awhile; I've had a lot of practice." But, when a particularly suspicious friend (he didn't believe that I was "really" reading) observed me for a time, he drew the same conclusion that Sarah Weinman did about her own reading, I seemed to scan the page in chunks instead of line by line. I hear the dialogue, and see the settings, very vividly--I just see them very quickly. They are not rushed in my head, and I rarely feel that I am missing something. In fact, I usually only feel as if I am skimming when I am forcing myself to finish a book and don't want to be paying complete attention anyway.
This talent, or freakish ability, came in handy at university. Since most of my coursework involved reading, and I could read quickly, I never felt as stressed out by it as some of my friends. And, because I can generally remember a book quite well, it also helped to speed through paper-writing when I would be able to find a quote/example quickly.
Other than that though? And using it as a party trick to get my students to read? I've never felt that it was that impressive a skill. Trust me, if you had asked my seventh grade self whether I wanted to be able to read that fast or make sense of social relationships I would have chose...the reading one, but there would have been a pause while I considered what it would be like to be able to make sense of interactions outside of books.
Occasionally though, when I'm re-reading a book, I love the fact that reading this fast gives me enough time to read new books I'm interested in and old books I love. Right now, I'm on my seventh book of the new year (although six of them are re-reads of Agatha Christie and P.C. Hodgell), so I'm right on track to keep on reading. continue on...

breathe in, breathe out, move on

I've worked, well, forever, it feels like. Certainly since the moment I was old enough to have a work-permit from school. I was a waitress, a cafeteria manager, a horseback riding trainer, a teacher, and an editor. So, now, to be without a job--it feels odd. I've noticed, though, that getting a job in my new country may not be the easiest task. Especially in the current economic climate, the general feeling is one of "this is going to take awhile", and, even if my possibly-future employers didn't have to call the U.S. to contact my references, I think it would be a difficult bet. I'm starting to worry that I won't find a job anywhere because, as varied as my resume is, it doesn't actually apply that well to the current UK job market.
Obviously, this is partially an excuse to swan around reading books and playing Oblivion, but I've also never not had a job while searching for my next job. Somehow, it's easier to update your resume if you are doing it covertly on the computers of the business you are trying to flee. Misery, obviously, makes me work harder. And I'm not miserable. I love being married. I love swanning around reading and playing video games. I know, though, that I also need to work and have something to do, so I am slowly getting my resume together and trying to figure out what to do next. So far? I have a list that consists of: not teach (teaching, at least at a public school in the US, made me angry--not at the students but at the situation that teachers and students alike were forced to view as status quo), work with animals, work with adult learners, work at cool company, edit books, read, horseback ride. Obviously, the idea of reading for a living and horseback riding are hold-outs from my pre-teen years, but when you have to freedom to look around and move slowly? Who knows what will happen. continue on...

excess, c.s. lewis, and coincidence

At college, I once had a (rather drunk) acquaintance of mine explain, very carefully and in great detail, why there were no coincidences in life. It was a lengthy monologue, but the basic gist was that the human mind creates connections in order to comfort itself in the vast, random, emptiness that is life. (He was more cheerful when not at a party). If he had asked, I would have told him that I did not see coincidences as some magical sign from above, but I did know that I was impressed by the human mind's ability to find connections between actions, events, and objects that seemed both disparate and completely distinct. My own mind, especially, seems to enjoy seeking out the smallest connection and coincidences and musing on them (as my beleaguered high school writing teacher realized when I turned in an essay comparing Macbeth to Michael Milkin and the S&L scandal). Recently, while reading C.S. Lewis' "Space Trilogy" (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength), my mind became busy making connections with a speaker I had recently heard, the psychotherapist and author Adam Phillips.

Not only did the talk I attended speak to the idea, and place, of science and its relationship with the world and literature (a major theme/concern in the series), but a series of short essays that Phillips presented on BBC 3 last week discussed the human inclination to excess (a topic lengthily discussed in Perelandra). It fascinates me to be able to, in effect, listen to a conversation between two very intelligent men who are separated by decades. Their goals are quite different. Lewis, unabashedly, seeks to convert his readers to his beliefs (in God, in the importance of good in the world, in humankind's ability to work for the betterment of all) while Phillips desires, I think, to understand what is going on, to get to the why of humanities' actions.

They ask similar questions, though. Why does man feel this need to eat/sleep/work/exercise to excess? Lewis seems to suggest that man is trying to hold on to pleasure--that the eating over and over again of food is an attempt to re-create the pleasure of the first encounter with the food. That mankind always wants too much of a good thing because of a desire to have the same experience of pleasure over and over again. An attempt to re-create the very first source of pleasure, Eden, in fact. This goal is of course doomed, as Adam was doomed. Lewis' answer to excess is the realization that the only true place perfection (and re-creation) can be found is with God and the church. That mankind can never find solace and salvation through striving for more and must look to God instead.

Phillips seems to look for a concrete and "modern" why and suggests that mankind does to excess to fill some sort of lack. That eating to excess demonstrates an anxiety that food will not always be available. The idea that excess is a fun-house mirror reflection of a lack is satisfying because it implies that once that lack is filled, the excess will disappear. Oddly, this theory leaves me , at least, less satisfied than Lewis' lost Eden. As far as I am from Lewis' point of view, his certainty that Eden once existed (and that it can be found again only through God and not the efforts of man) is like a clear shining light in his writing. The very certainty that God will create a second Eden makes poetry of his arguments. Phillips, although intellectually satisfying, feels modern, Freudian, and ambiguous. The idea of the source of the excess, the void, somehow being resolved seems obvious, but it does not seem possible. What is the lack to be filled with in this day and age? And is it this struggle that has driven mankind to success in medicine and technology as well as its failures in wars and the poisoning of the environment? To recognize the void is not enough and indeed, without Lewis' certainty that mankind will somehow be saved, seems frightening. continue on...

holiday traditions

My family (much to my mother's annoyance) somehow avoided creating any real/lasting family traditions associated with the holidays. The one thing we stood firm on, as a family, was the Thanksgiving Dinner menu, and the one thing I've done each year since I was eight was read (or, now, re-read) the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Luckily, with all of the traveling I've done over various holidays, it's a fairly light-weight tradition and comes in handy on long plane flights or waits for trains.
I realize that this may not be a traditional holiday-type tradition, mainly because it is both solitary and anti-social (at least until you start talking about the books with others), but something about re-reading books (and these books in particular) has always helped me de-stress and renew my outlook on life.
I am not going to argue that they are great literature--although they are wonderful and important stories. But the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are prime examples of novels that take you somewhere else. I enjoy reading all sorts of books, but when I want and need a rest, fiction that takes me somewhere recognizably not my home helps me the most. Chick-lit agitates me (I usually get all grumbly and aggravated with the characters/or spend all of my time guessing which Jane Austen they are imitating now) and non-fiction (however interesting I find it when I am in the mood to read it) often, by its very subject, depresses me: Tolkien, and others like him, create worlds real enough to fall into but dissimilar from the world that currently contains all of the stresses of life.
When I leave the world of middle-earth, I feel better able to deal with the real world surrounding me. I haven't (necessarily) learned any great lessons or thought deep philosophical thoughts, but I have relaxed and thought of something else: sometimes exactly the break my mind and body needs. continue on...

free chickens?

While perusing one of the random book oriented websites I sometimes read, I came across this article on the availability of some free books on an iPhone e-reader. Immediately, (after my heart-rate had gone down at the thought of free books), I checked out the Stanza application on the iPhone and downloaded this book. I have two things to say.
One: the Stanza application (from Lexcycle) is one of the better ebook readers I've sampled. I actually like it better than the Kindle, partially because the "tapping" element now feels innate to me after iPhone use; partially because the pages load quite quickly once you are into the book, and I didn't feel that there was as much dead time as with other ebook readers. The screen was clear and the typeface easy to read (although the ability to flip to a place within a book wasn't as easy as with a physical book to deal with). The available books (I only checked out the free ones) are decent--although obviously a lot are missing (even of those books out of copyright). Every time I come across one of these readers, I start hoping that all of my favourite out of print books will be available. I found one or two here. So thumbs up from this picky (format-wise although not subject-wise) reader.
Two: I was right. Anything with the title "Free Range Chickens" had to at least be a little funny, and this was a lot funny. My favourite part so far? Some of the missing commandments. Including:

If it takes a man a long time to lead his people out of the desert and into the Promised Land, everyone should just be patient with him and learn to chill out a little.

Snort. For those who keep an eye on such things, a quote from the book appeared on reddit earlier this year (the one about the dissections from a frog point of view). Funny stuff.
Also, of course:

Everyone has to give Moses five dollars.

continue on...

So, hypothetically, it's raining and you have some free time... what do you do?

Well, if you haven't just received Fable II and Oblivion as birthday gifts, and you are me, you read. If you have received the above mentioned Xbox 360 games, you read and play the games. Sometimes simultaneously.
But for now, the books. I've been on a British mystery kick. Possibly inspired by my current location--and at least partially inspired by the fact that I now have access to my books again after six months of separation, and we are getting to know each other again. I thought I might put some of my reviews up here, as I realize that not everyone automatically gravitates towards these books, and they really do have something to offer.

The first book I read was Vintage Murder. An early, and fun, book in the Roderick Alleyn series. This one takes place as he is travelling through New Zealand and recovering from some unspecified operation. It is early in the canon as he is not yet married or dreaming of his future wife. There is a rugby-hooligan type incident on a train that ends with a bruised backside on one of the characters and a theft before the main murder even occurs. This book has a number of characters, and following every movement of each person can get baffling at times; however, Marsh never makes the reader feel as if Alleyn knows something special or has super-powers, merely that his powers of deduction are sharp and that all of the information is there that is necessary to solve the mystery along with him.
It is interesting to note that the translations of the book all mention the murder weapon, but lose the pun inherent in the original title.
I'll get to the rest of the books (and the Xbox games) in later posts, but I highly recommend Marsh. Even if you find Agatha Christie too "stuffy", Marsh is a lively and entertaining writer. Of course, this is coming from someone who loves most of Christie's work, so your mileage may vary. continue on...

someone once asked me...

Do you know everyone?

Probably because I have a habit of connecting two people who need similar things (in this instance, I think it was a friend who needed somewhere to stay and another friend who needed someone to rent)--and I do know quite a few people--one of the results of having moved a lot--jobs, houses, countries--you end up with a number of acquaintances.
I am however several orders of magnitude away from Katharine Graham in the "do you know everyone" question.

I picked up her autobiography on a whim--more because "All the President's Men" is one of my favorite books than because I felt any sort of driving need to learn her life story. Her life story (so far, I am only up to when she and her husband have just taken over the Washington Post) is turning into a fascinating read though.
So far, she has met Einstein (rowing a boat), several presidents (Roosevelt, Wilson), a scattering of important artists (Rodin, Brancusi), and a number of names I had to write down to look up later. She has done all of this while being increasingly charming--for all of her privileged upbringing, she portrays herself as someone who was both ignorant of the extent of her privilege and uncomfortable with what she did realize she had. That, coupled with the upbringing that insisted that all of her family make active contributions to the public good, make this book a fantastic read so far. It's a fascinating way to watch history unfold--I can't wait to get to Watergate. continue on...

Hey, Hey, You, You

P.C. Hodgell's first two books are available again! Here! And here! And, well, everywhere around and about, I would assume. I know that I have been continuously mentioning these books for the last few days (I just re-read all of them for...well...at least the tenth time?), but they really are unique.
Hodgell has created a universe that must be described as epic...and humorous. It has everything--magic (of a sort, and connected to a seemingly all-powerful god), fighting, political intrigue, excellent secondary (and tertiary, and every level) characters and plots and manages to be dark and funny at once.
This may be because Jame, the main character, is at once heroic and human. She may be heir to the powers of her god (and it is in no way clear what that means yet), but she falls down stairs with alarming regularity and is shown making snap (sometimes disastrous) decisions just like anyone else. Sure, she is somehow ten or so years younger than her twin brother because of time spent on a literal "dark side" of the planet, but, at the same time, she also never manages to do something heroic without making herself look foolish.
P.C. Hodgell's books were out of print for awhile, and then back in, and then back out--it was torture, knowing that you couldn't find them anywhere--but now you can! Go buy them! And then buy a few for your BattleStar Galactica/Tolkien/Fan of great characters friends, and then buy a few for everyone else. They are that good. continue on...

100 Book Meme

I got this meme from Mildly Melancholy
"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."
1) Bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE (I'll use asterisks)
4) Reprint this list in your own blog.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen-**
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien***
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte***
4 **Harry Potter series - JK Rowling **--.
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee--only read it once for school.
6 The Bible--read as historical text.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell--read several times***
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ***
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens--didn't really like it, but read it.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott--read once a year. ***
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy--read it, got the strawberry scene, sigh.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller--started, not finished.
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare--love Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream best.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier--not read
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien--love, love
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger--
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot. I really, really like this book. I have no excuse. ****
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell--read once.
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald--ruined by a high school teacher, saved by a college professor
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens. Love, love.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy--yes, see "Bleak House" and "Middlemarch"
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams--***
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck-I hated, hated, hated this book when I had to read it for high school. Same teacher that ruined "Gatsby" though, so maybe I should try again.
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll--good.
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy--one of my favorite books. Yes, I am odd.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis--wonderful.
34 Emma - Jane Austen--love, love love.
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen--the letter is this makes my heart race.
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini--Did not love it.
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres--okay.
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden-
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne. **
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell***
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown. Meh the first time, really boring the second.
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez--excellent.
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving For some reason, I have avoided this book.
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins--really enjoyed this book.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery--I love the last book in this series--and the ones about Anne's children.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood--love this book.
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding--Read it in high school--had to read in 8th, 9th, and 10th. (switched schools)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel--Couldn't get past the first forty pages.
52 Dune - Frank Herbert--Very good, rest of series? very bad.
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon--maybe?
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens--
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley--I infinitely prefer 1984.
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez***.
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck--same teacher as "Grapes" same reaction.
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov: read for senior thesis. liked it.
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt--
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold--Creepy.
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy--I actually liked that book.
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding--cackled uncontrollably the entire plane ride while reading this.
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie--really like his stuff
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville--very much enjoyed this book
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker--liked it.
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett--Childhood classic.
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson--
75 Ulysses - James Joyce--
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath--Very tragic.
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola--yes, but my favorite is "The Ladies Paradise"
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray--liked
80 Possession - AS Byatt--liked
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens--fun for class stuff too!
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker--
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert--***also, try "Flaubert's Parrot" by Barnes.
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White--best quote about writers ever.
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom--Ick.
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle--really like them!.
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad--I picked up and put down this book for years before finishing it. I actually liked it.
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery--also in French!.
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas :)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl--I will read anything this man wrote. It is all good.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo--like it, love the musical. :) .

How many of these books have you read? continue on...

A list. Again.

I've been asked a few times what 'magic' I use to match my kids with books. It's not really a trick, I just have a large store of books in my head, and I basically shuffle through them in a effort to match maturity level, interest, and possibilities to spur further reading.
It's not much use just sitting there in my head though, so I turned to Web 2.0

And created a wiki at pb wiki for just this purpose. It can be found here, and I would love more input than just mine. Even if you don't teach language arts, or middle school, I would love to hear recommendations and suggestions for books for our students to read, from the littlest to the biggest.
Check it out! continue on...

I pack; they ship

All of my books are gone. All 1,187 (or so) of them. And I miss them. They are all wending their way to Manchester on a pallet, wrapped in shrinkwrap, in a container, stuffed into some giant boat. I know I'll get them back, but it's really difficult to have all of them out of my reach.

I'm glad I found a (relatively) cheap way to ship my books. I do need them with me, not merely because I'll need some of them for the PhD program that I want to enter, but because, more than anything else, my books carry little bits of my past around in their pages. I figure that the fact I only own ten boxes worth of "anything but books" makes up for the fact that I will be carting twenty-plus boxes of books around for the rest of my life.
Of course, because I felt lonely, I went out and picked up a few (three!) used paperbacks. I needed the company! continue on...

It's official!

I own a lot of books. And to answer the most common questions--yes I have read most of them; yes I re-read them all the time; yes, I know I could (possibly) get (most) of the from the library; yes, I need them.

Don't worry, I spend the rest of my life with few possessions. And thank you librarything for helping me organize the library into shape to get across the Atlantic! continue on...

Thursday Thirteen #19--summer reading edition

Thirteen books I'm planning on reading this summer! 1. Adolescent Literacy: Kylene Beers (et. al) I am such a teacher-nerd. I can't wait to read this book! 2. One Hundred Years of Solitude: Gabriel Garcia Marquez just because it's been awhile. 3. Sunshine: Robin McKinley I re-read this book every few months, so it's pretty much a guarantee. 4. Breaking Dawn: Stephanie Meyer My former-students and I have an online-book-date to discuss this book. I cannot wait. 5. 84, Charing Cross Road: Helene Hanff This is one of my go-to-when-stressed books. I am moving across the continent (plus the Atlantic) and getting married. I anticipate stress. And good times. 6. Pale Fire: Vladimir Nabakov I love this book. I know; it's an illness. 7. The Ladies' Paradise: Emile Zola Love it. See above comment on illness and love of books. 8. Team of Rivals: Doris Goodwin This book kept getting bumped to the end of the TBR pile. I have placed it back on top. 9. The Schools Our Children Deserve: Alfie Kohn I love this guy. He is unequivocal, well read, and diligently researched. 10. The Foundation Trilogy: Isaac Asimov See stress, the relieving of. 11. North and South: Elizabeth Gaskell Yes, I love 19th century novels. Oh well, there are worse vices. 12. When You Are Engulfed In Flames: David Sedaris I'm looking forward to reading this book; I've heard good things. 13. Matilda: Roald Dahl Not just for kids!

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and sometimes...it's all worth it.

Total exhaustion is setting in this week. I'm not sure why. But, just as I think that I can only stumble through the day, I get this entry in one of my students' reading journals.

Dear Miss S---
Hey! Guess what! I finished that book! [Perfect by Natasha Friend] And I'm starting to get this reading thing! Now, when I get home I actually want to read! And I do! My mom thinks I'm crazy! Anyways, I only had like three pages left after SSR today and I finished! And then I picked up another book! It's, like, nuts!

The exclamation points are her own. The small dance of joy? That was mine. continue on...

How do you hold a rainbow...

My entire district is *focusing* this year on reading comprehension. We are supposed to cross content, cultural, and literary lines in our quest to make sure our kids comprehend what they're reading.

But what does this mean?

Does it mean, as it often does, that we are really looking for a better product instead of looking at the process?

Does is mean that I can, finally, just teach my kids to enjoy reading and call it a day?

Or does it mean that I'll be sent to another few days of training to learn about how to teach vocabulary? Because, and I'll let anyone within hearing distance know this, vocabulary and reading comprehension are not the same. They are linked, sure, but I think it's much easier to get kids to read and have them learn vocabulary that way then to teach vocabulary and have them magically begin to read.

Sheesh.
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well, at least I *love* the reading skills

We have been commanded by our district to begin a new program to help out struggling readers. I've spoken of this before, and it's great to focus on reading and reading comprehension, and I *love* that it's not a "canned" program. But...
there's always a catch in education.

The catch here is that, almost because the program isn't canned and scripted, it is, instead, disjointed and impossible. I'm the last person to recommend any sort of scripted program, especially for reading, but the program cobbled together here is too unwieldy and confusing for the teachers, let alone the students.

So what have I done? What every teacher does--I've taken what I can use and applied it and have started going through what is impossible right now to reword it and make it at least palatable. My favorite bit of what I'm doing right now is meeting with each group of students in small groups once a week. I'm using this time to teach them a specific skill--whether it's a new way to summarize, a great way to write a topic sentence, or some tips for decoding--and then having them apply that skill to their reading that week. Then, we practice it the next week.

And it's working! This particular set up is good for me for two reasons--I have small manageable goals (always good in education and especially good with lower-level kids), and I'm staying organized. I know, it's some kind of miracle, but the "weekly" plan and the next week practice have really helped solidfy my teaching.

And I still haven't given up on the rest of the program, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. continue on...