so i figure we get monday and then test for the next three days – all days that you’ll be too stressed to produce journals – so i guess we’re left with one journal this week – should be easy…

“always follow the elephants” – ny times health writer talked about whether or not myths, folklore, in relation to science are the truth – like whether ginger helps your ears when you fly (true), whether animals can sense whether changes (true – follow the elephants when they run away – a tsunami may be coming), whether drinking warm milk will put you to sleep (false)

“i am a super evil genius and i want to be your class president” by josh lieb – i may have the title wrong – cute book though – basically, a super evil kid plots to be president of his class – the character, the kid, seems unbelievable at times – i couldn’t figure out if he wasn’t imagining the whole thing – but, unlike going bovine, it wasn’t all one big dream – so that was good – i guess – it would’ve worked either way

“the reason for God” by timothy keller – by far, the best book i’ve read in a while – pastor at a ny church lays out some reasons for why belief in God is important – and why Christianity can make the claims it makes – really encouraging reading and good food for thought – for example, if you say that it doesn’t matter what you belief, then you’ve basically made your own truth claim – your own belief system – that you’ve decided to enforce upon everyone else

reading basketball things and getting ready for opening day in baseball thursday – however, all that will be shelved this week b/c i found out i’m a reader for the high school BOB team – so i’d like to actually read the books i’ll be questioning – we’ll see…

sincerely,
maf

oh, the books i’ve read since my last post… i’ll try to be brief – do hope you had a wonderful break

“riven” by jerry jenkins – nook book – interesting – took way odd turns for christian fiction – ended with a convict being crucified – on live TV (oops, spoiler alert:) again, strange – well written though

“gray matter” – nook book – a san diego doctor who asks to pray with his patients – it was a good book – quick – learned a bit about neurology

“unbroken” by hillebrand – the seabiscuit author – great, inspiring story of a world war ii vet – he was a former olympian and went through terrors no one should have to go through during the war – he learned to forgive his captors later and that was amazing

“hope for the world” by former b’ham mayor richard arrington – sort of a pompous title b/c he was basically saying that he was the hope for the world – b/c he was the first african-american mayor in b’ham – the sad thing was that in the 20 years he was in office, he didn’t do a whole lot for the city – he basically survived fed investigation after fed investigation – again, sad (much like downtown now…)

“blue moth” by hancock – the guy is director of the BCS now (college football) – after his son died, the guy went on a bike ride across america one summer – very good book – as someone who admires physical feats – and who survived many a family trip in a pop-up camper, i could definitely pull lessons from the book – hoping to see the guy at football media days for the sec in july this year and tell him all that

“leaving gee’s bend” by latham – you write in the middle people, she was the author we saw – she’s a good writer, i’ll say that – i didn’t think the book was very historically accurate – blacks and whites got along way too well for 1932 – but ms. latham seemed to do – well, did do – research for the book so maybe some of that was more accurate than i thought – i definitely think it should be a BOB next year

“walk two moons” by creech – newberry winner in 1995 – good – the book was about acceptance – and about life stages – moving on – remembering – one of the better YA’s i’ve read in a while – not earth-shatteringly great though

“breakthrough” by someone:) nook book – one writer’s take of the 10 scientific breakthroughs of all time – lots of names, dates, and science that got confusing – or ran together – at times – but a decent read – honestly, when you’ve read so much previously, you’re not looking for too much – so i wasn’t that upset

nanowrimo word count is up to 29,000 now – which means i got in about 2,000 words over spring break – proud of that

hope your week is wonderful – this should be our only set of journals until mid april (post testing)

maf

so you don’t have to blog this week, happy studying for those all-important and all-too-tough finals, but i thought i’d go ahead and mention the books i read last week…

“nothing” by jan teller – i think the author name is right – she’s danish – the book was translated last year into english – powerful story about a search for meaning – by a group of kids that give up everything they hold dear – it is a YA book, but the book isn’t very young adult – the issues are definitely serious enough for anyone (basically, what is worth living for?) – i read the book in less than a day b/c it was so gripping – powerful

i also read two books from the late george sheenan – he was a running guru of sorts – i read the books in inverse order – the first one i got was his book about dying – he had prostrate cancer and it finally killed him after 11 years – the first book, the one i got later in the week on loan – was from 1978 – on running and being – both books were similar to the teller book in that they addressed what it means to live a good life – for sheenan, it was to be true to yourself – sort of the thoroeau and walden and emerson deal where you listen to yourself – decent message, i guess, if you don’t have faith in anything outside of yourself – and lots of people don’t for one reason or the other

went back to the nook after a month absence after those books – got a few freebies that look promising – but not as promising as the week off that’s coming in a week – can’t wait…

(okay, i can wait – it’s not like i have big plans:)

maf