early iron bowl news… bama leads auburn 15-12 in college volleyball

(this blog update brought to you by the good folks at channel 23 and the lone person in the world who is not excited about NFL even a little bit on sundays – which is why he’d rather watch volleyball:)

i’m going to try this week to spend as little possible time reading serious books – my attention must be given to the bama-lsu game – b/c what i do matters for this game, of course (hope coach saban doesn’t read that or else he’d yell that of course it matters, that my voice makes a difference – anyway…)

“the pathfinder” – a high school BOB – 662 pages of time traveling frustration – just didn’t work well at all for me – way too long – way too simplistic in plot – the antagonist was the mom – which was just wrong – and the people could go back and reverse whatever they did wrong or messed up – even see themselves in the future – which violated totally the whole marty mcfly space-time continuum lessons doc brown gave in “back to the future” – c’mon people, did we not learn from that movie how space works??? grr…

“divergent” – sorry to all my middle school kids that have read this book and LOVED it, but i read it for high school BOB and thought it was twilight – basically, a sappy romance that will lead to future books in a series (and a film) – on the positive note, i did like that it was set in chicago…

i’m working currently on “the plague year” by edward bloor – historical fiction from 2001 – post-sept. 11 – i’m a third of the way through and love it – no surprise there b/c i do love me some edward bloor

guess that’s it beyond the magazines and Bible – hope your week is great

maf

i read a book last week – yes, just one – took the week – “william cooper’s town” – read it in ’97 – my sophomore year at bama – you too can read my copy at the public library – anyway, cooper sort of modeled the 1790-1810 time period fairly well – and one of his sons became one of the first famous american authors – so it was a good read – good background for rip van winkle and sleepy hollow preparation – and good b/c cooper’s town eventually came to house the baseball hall of fame (even though the author pointed out that the town outlawed ballplaying in the 1830s)

of course, i read the Bible – new testament – luke – and my magazines – sports illustrated (two good soccer articles about why the US may have to wait a while to get better) – the economist (learned about problems in the ukraine) – harper’s weekly (in contrast to the economist, the article i read this week things that britain’s capitalism is destroying the nation) – and running times – some good info about recovery runs

hope your week is great – maybe last week of journals for some of you nanowrimos

sincerely,
mafeld

busy last week…

“all over but the shoutin'” – rick bragg – alabama native – ny times writer (for a while – maybe a full-time novelist now – forget) – it’s a high school BOB – good choice for the kids – good reread for myself – read it probably 11-ish years back – story of how to find balance in family and career – how to deal with where you came from as you work where you are now – i was impatient b/c i was re-reading the book – although, i did remember the basic outline of things – so i read it within a day

“all in” – chizik – good book – encouraging to find someone at auburn has faith:) anyway, i probably liked best the part about how chizik tries to be a good father – how he tries to teach young men – b/c i think that teaching part is what educators do too

“my life in theatre and other tragedies” – by zadoff – a high school BOB – finished on thursday – okay – basic story of two mismatches who fall in love (the star of the show and the geek-but-kind-hearted stage hand – oh, and how the stage hand overcomes grief to live again) – not great – but i’m sure some theater person picked it and loved it (i was a bit role theater person for a while so i at least feel qualified in not being thrilled over it:)

“darth paper” – cute book – very good – better than the original – if it’s possible – and it is – b/c i say so – good book about why the highly gifted struggle in middle school – they have to learn, sadly, to crush their quirkiness and be who others want them to be – sad but true – unless they plan on being lonely

“long distance” by bill mckibben – writer takes a year off at 37 to train as an alpine skier – story about endurance – about health, youth, aging, and death – really, really enjoyed the book – great insights – good writing

i think that’s about it – early in the week runs together a bit – anyway, have a race saturday – first one in several months – and since the marathon i was going to run was cancelled – and devastated me – this sort of provides a small does of remedy – then, on to watch the vols – or the tide – i forget…

enjoy the week,
maf

so it’s a great monday when you open your e-mail and see old students have posted to “ye olde blog”…

i took sunday off to recover from the bama game, from getting back at 1:30, from having grandmother duty, from running 90-plus miles that week, from laundry and the ironing that piles up, and from finishing…

“The New Testament in Antiquity” – two Wheaton College professors penned this book – sort of a guide through the books of the NT – giving you the history of the area during the time – and how scholars have approached the books – i was surprised that for a book that’s targeted to divinity students, it read well (lots of photos) and i wasn’t too lost – the factoid geek in me loved learning that the book of mark might have been written as a drama, that the word gospel wasn’t used for genre at that time, that the letters of paul were likely often penned with help – that was a popular thing at the time (not in a deceptive way that some people would interpret that today) – anyway, good read – but exhausting for a week:)

i finished the vanderbilt book last monday – i guess most intriguing was that vanderbilt made the last 15 years of his life really his lasting legacy – with the railroads – and that after a lifetime working with boats – impressive

i finished the old testament last week and read 100 pages in an AP English book – sort of a “how to make a 5 even if you’re a dumb middle school english teacher” edition – it’s good – the list of literary features and rhetoric things were useful tools i thought i might spring in the classroom some time

must go – english teacher meeting – three blogs this week for ya’ll – enjoy the day off

mafeld

okay, so we’re clear – this is one of those weeks that you’re not supposed to blog (i’m sure i’ll have sixth graders trying to – so don’t even try it sixth grade – i mean it:) i’ll block every single one of those blogs about your “baby” books – don’t push me…

“the last tycoon” by tj stiles – book about cornelius vanderbilt – guess what??? he was the last tycoon:) okay, so i’ve learned a bit more than that so far – i’m 400 pages into the 600 bio – it’s good – vanderbilt wasn’t studied a lot – he’s sort of lumped into the 1880s robber barons – but he was actually well before those guys – very imaginative – and creative – built an empire out of nothing – sort of represented the best of what america can produce – a guy that takes risks and pushes himself and succeeds – lots i didn’t know though and most of the names aren’t familiar so it’s slow reading

that was really the only book for the week – i’m down to like four books left in the old testament – zepheniah is next – read espn the mag – boston was the cover story – of course, the irony was boston collapsed this week – grr… at least bama is happier reading

enjoy finals week

mafeld