so, let’s see… i think i read some books…

a series of unfortunate events, books 1-5 – re-reads for me – it’s been five years though – and i’ve matured so much in those years that i was able to… oh, who am i kidding??? i haven’t matured any – i have enjoyed re-reading the books – handler (the author’s real name – sorry, it’s not snickett) – is awesome – love his writing style – mix of fun word play throughout – and lots i’d forgotten about the series (and it, like potter, gets better the more you get through the series)

newton’s laws – no, i didn’t go burttram on ya’ll and start reading science – it was about uk basketball – and football – but also about bama basketball and vandy hoops – coach cm newton’s memories of being at those schools – was a great read – newton was a great coach – great man too

ella enchanted – disappointed in the book – sorry all the girls reading this blog – all maybe none of you… anyway, i was expecting great things – part of my problem though is that i’m just not a good chic book person – someone needs to explain to me, please, why that book was held as a great pro-female book – b/c she still married the prince in the end – and didn’t finish school (about the same problem as the one in twilight – through your life away for a boy…)

stolen season – finished the guy’s travel through all the ballparks – enjoyed re-reading a book i read 20 years ago – the things about his trip to rickwood were at least hopeful b/c that park is in better condition today than it was then – about the only park that’s in better condition today

read ny times, b’ham news, harper’s weekly, the economist – and outside of the baseball stuff, not sure there’s much to report – b/c i refuse for this blog to digress into health plans:)

guess that’s it for this week – remember, no blogs this week – rest your hands for testing – and happy easter

mafeld

howdy,
you still don’t have to write – but i do or else i’ll forget all the books i’ve been reading…

a beautiful mind by nasar – i think it was nasar – anyway, wonderful book – much more detail than the movie – not that i remember much of he movie – in my defense, i doubt you remember much from 2001/02 either… 🙂 very sad book but lots of hope – the fact that nash came out of his problems late in life – sort of a reawakening – and that he remarried his wife – who is a remarkable woman to have to love a person with a mental illeness

american prometheus – a book about robert oppenheimer – the coordinator of the US efforts to develop and deploy the atomic bomb – again, another genius who has to deal with disappointment – for opp, the country decided nuke weapons were wonderful – about the same time he decided otherwise – and suddenly, he wasn’t the most popular person – his family was wrecked as a result too

when you reach me by stead – adolescent fiction – great read – very quickly finished – but good – story set in the 1980s – protagonist a sixth grade girl who has to solve a mystery – entertaining – won some award this year

vicksburg 1863 by groom (the guy who wrote forrest gump – which was a good book to read by the way) – story of the battle for this civil war town – i knew the basics – lots of good details i didn’t know – like the south eating rats late in the siege…

heartbreak hill – a murder mystery where the murderer is a frustrated neo-nazi set on terrorizing the boston marathon – read it quickly and learned a few things about the marathon course – but, alas, wasn’t impressed at all

christ plays in ten thousand places by peterson – wonderful book – first in a set of five dealing with Christ and theology (so Christology)  – learned a bunch but also learned that it matters little if you don’t apply things you learned about JC

i suppose the list above is way more than enough to hopefully convince you that i did read a bit over the break – do hope i didn’t wear your eyes down for testing…

happy march week!

dr roy

happy early spring break (or happy early Christmas – i guess – since it’s all early:)

let’s see… i was going to snuggle up with my cubs blanket last week and read on the oppenhemier book – and i did end up reading on it – without the blanket though – this weekend – got about 300 pages read over the weekend – got the narrative past the dropping of the two atomic bombs – the tragedy of his life is beginning

but in the midst of the week, i had two other books – best efforst by kenny moore – which was written in 1982 – a collection of moore’s essays about runners from sports illustrated – awesome writing – descriptive – as for the second book, heroes and sparrows, by roger robinson – comparable strangely enough to the moore book because it was also a collection of non-fiction essays – and similar as far as covering races and runners – both very enjoyable – robinson was living in new zealand at the time so there’s some difference there too (like culturally)

in magazine reading, the best essay i read was on the 1950 world cup star for the US – who actually wasn’t a US citizen – and who actually died in Haiti, his home country – later under a dictator – i knew some of the story but not all of it

i also read two good essays from the ny times magazine – scott brown, the new senator from mass. – and one about a newly-elected cullman state rep – the twist being that he’s an african-american and that area is like over 90 percent white

so i’m done – hope your week is a good one

maf

dear students,
hope this week is wonderful in your reading careers:) last week for me was good – read “going bovine” – all 481 pages worth – okay story – wasn’t impressed – language and certain situations in the book definitely not for adolescent reading – can’t figure out what the newberry crew saw in it – maybe they’re all “don quixote” fans…

book i enjoyed more was a biography on johnny kelley – a guy who ran the boston marathon 61 times – despite becoming a seeming encyclopedia about boston, i didn’t know that kelley had been stationed in alabama during world war ii – so that was a neat thing to find out about

with other readings – i kept up with the olympics, of course, i read the economist and learned that the yankees are looking for starting pitching in china – and sports illustrated told me that the new jersey nets are awful – all wonderful things to now know:)

for this week, i have “best efforts” by kenny moore – a book about post-munich runners – great read so far (i’ve read “bowerman” by him and loved that one too) – i also have a book on robert oppenheimer – the overseer of the manhattan project – the book won the pulitzer a few years ago – i got it saturday at a book sale in mountain brook – so i’m looking forward to getting more into it (i’m 70 pages in but the book is 700 pages long – so i suspect it’ll take me a week or two to finish)

hope your reading is great,
maf