All posts by jmayfield

happy testing week

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… šŸ™‚ 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) Ā – 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

no, you don’t have to write, but…

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 booksĀ – 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 USĀ – 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

march comes in on a cloud – and then there’s snow???

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

three weeks ’til break, but who’s counting???

oh, oh, oh, i have the bestest of best news!!!

so like no one will remember this but me, but we talked late in the fall about our favorite books that we read in the fall – and i mentioned “marathon woman” by katherine switzer – and then i check my e-mail this morning and instead of the typical sixth grade parent e-mail questioning my grading sanity:) lo and behold, there’s an reply to my e-mail from the fall from a Katherine Switzer – seems i wrote to the New Zealand account she checks when she’s in New Zealand – which is every six months:)

so, awesome way to begin the week – and, of course, i love her book even more now – as for reading, i got two books on loan this week – one, “once in a lifetime” came from florida – it was about a new york soccer team in the 1970s – they had a glorious three, four years – and then imploded b/c of a myriad of reasons – as a soccer nut (really, running is just a coping thing for the fact that i can’t play soccer anymore:) i loved the book – oh, and as a child of the 1970s, any references to atari are awesome

second book, “boston” came from auburn in montgomery – book about the boston marathon – i just started it – loads of photos – one i thing i learned so far is that the original course, which the course today runs close to, was built to mimic the 1896 olympic marathon in athens – neat trivia

inĀ the world of magazines, i read how the right wing is trying to manipulate the texas education board and its new history book (or that’s at least what the writer in the ny times thought:) i read how europe is trying, again, to save greece’s economy, i read a ton about the olympics (few hockey stories which got me ready for the big win sunday night), read some baseball features (the yankees and the yankees in the japanese league – who are called the giants ironically enough – are both working together) and i finished running times (inspiring story about a 78-year-old who runs daily in a cemetery – creepy)

hope your week is great,
mafeld

post v-day lulls – or counting down the days ’til the warm-up…

yo,
so i finished the half-marathon – two months to boston – five weeks of hard training left – probably all in the freezing rain apparently…

read three-ish books last week – “columbine” – sad book – admired how the kids and the staff fought to regain a sense of control after that tragic event

“last pick” – story of the boston marathon’s race director – dave mccgillvry – very good, can-do spirit of a book – enjoyed his tale of running across america in 1978 (80 days – 3,000-plus miles – very amazing dedication – all for charity too)

“playing for keeps” – story of michael jordan – jordan was incredible when i was growing – even when i was 20-whatever and he was in the last year with the wizards – incredibly driven athlete – and i thought he was a good baseball player too his one year out

read magazines – christianity today said sports are evil, sport illustrated said that athletes are evil (or in the case of peyton manning, not evil enough) – ny times said the olympic committee and canada are evil for making a dangerous luge course – the economist said americans are evil for being so individualistic – it’s all so confusing:)

for the week, i hope to finish the jordan book – beyond that,Ā i hope to finish season four of “how i met your mother” on dvd:)

sincerely,
mafeld

mercedes marathon week

sure,
i could begin by discussing anything and everything else in the world, but i have a one-track mind, and it’s unfortunately tracked towards a date with a half-marathon this weekend in downtown – so thus the title

as for reading, i read “into thin air” by jon krakauer last week – wonderful read – tragic story – group of hikers on everest – 11 died in one day – all were left with scars from the experience – lesson? you can’t tame a mountain, and even the “safest” ways to go can pose problems

got a 1980 book on running over the weekend – it’s been interesting to compare it to current running thinking – one thing is true… there’s only so many ways to write about the experience – and then it’s recycled material unless you can write inĀ a better way (i guess like life – there’s only so many things out there to write about – so good writing does that in a better way)

magazines – read about the us olympic winter games team – read things about the ipad – finished all the way through deuteronomy in the old testament (lots of laws and “be strong and courageous”)

hope your reading week is a good one – i have a couple of books at the library i’m hoping will come in

sincerely,
mafeld

february comes in like freezing cold, and probably ends that way too…

Dear readers,
Howdy!!! I’m sitting around doing not much in eighth periodĀ – b/c it’s no fun to teach those kids:) thought I’d jot a line or two about my reading adventures from last week…

“Shooting Stars” – awesome book by LeBron James (he’s a basketball player) and Buzz something – who wrote Friday Night Lights – about LeBron’s high school basketball career – interesting so far as the things that went on and LeBron’s take – like for example, he was suspended at one point for receiving clothing – and got out of it b/c the gift was supposedly b/c he was a good student – hey, i was a good student and didn’t get $800 worth of clothing in high school… anyway, the book was enjoyable – highly recommendable if you can read books with cursing in it…

“Running in Literature” – a book about, surprise, running and stories/poems written on the subject – as always with anthologies, some of the pieces were better than others – enjoyed most the fact that three of the pieces mentioned in detail the boston marathon

“goal” – book i keep in the classroom – soccer player who overcomes adversity to do great things –Ā i have the dvd that the book is adapted to – so now i rewatch the movie since i’ve reread the book – which i had to do before i would allow myself to watch the dvd – the book read quickly – surprised at how much came back to me about it

read my magazines – the economist, newsweek, sports illustrated – not much stands out in my memory – with the Bible, i got through Job and Exodus – i found a verse about running Job – which was cool

suppose that’s the news for now – happy reading

maf

greetings from chelsea

yes, i survived meeting day in alabaster – such fun…

as for last week’s reading, i read several things – at least five things all the way through (if we’re counting news articles that are a paragraph long:)

hungry – by crystal renn – awesome book – read it all in a day – friday was that day – story of a model who became anorexic to become a model – and then gained weight to become a supermodel – if it were in my world, all little girls should read the book – or at least parts of it – b/c there’s a good message in there about being happy with who you are – and figuring out just who that is

gave one book up after 100 pages from the library – won’t name it, but it wasn’t good at all

magazine reading-wise – i read a story about the colt’s owner (son to the old owner – and not much like his dad), men who take anti-aging drugs (no, not me – don’t have the money for the $10,000 a year it takes – also, not that interested), and how things are in europe (mostly, cold)

started rereading a book on running – in addition to my work on the old testament (got through isaiah and jeremiah last week – long, long books – working on ezekiel right now)

suppose that’s mostly it for now – happy reading this week

sincerely,
dr roy

getting ready for the 10k

which has nothing to do with reading – other than that while i read on the treadmill (last week – newsweek, the economist, ny times magazine, sports illustrated and the books of psalms, ecclesiastes, proverbs, and song of solomon – which, by the way, isn’t very grade level appropriate for you young ‘uns out there:)

yes, as i treadmilled away, i thought about the race i’m running this weekend – in mountain brook – a 10k – i know, you wish me luck – ah, thanks:)

as for books, i read “smiles to go” by jerry spinelli – i like other spinelli books better – but i finished – oh, i probably like other spinelli books better b/c i was really the main character in that story – but things went differently for me

i read flush – enjoyed it – i think i like all haison books – although i didn’t like it enough to be a sixth grade summer book – little too elementary how no one died and all turned out okay – by the way, the dad was a loser for what he did to his family

i started “my story” by paula radcliffe –Ā a running biography – a re-read for me – she starts with her childhood – go figure – most biographies do – she had a very dedicated coach – which made me feel guilty when i first read it b/c i’m a lousy coach – but i feel better now that i re-read the book because her coach didn’t have all that i have going on – like being awesome:)

i also had a book from princess pink – who i miss dearly – she gave me a fictional story about running – that i read in like two hours – and absolutely loved – even though it was from 1981 and completely cheesy – but sometimes cheese can be good, right???

guess those are the highlights – read on darlings

mafeld

Ye olde mid-January post…

Dear readers,
Just think… in a few months, it’ll be warm (at least, I’m hoping – that’s about all that’s getting me through this right now..)

since i have plenty of indoors time right now, i’m definitely prolific in terms of reading – finished “write it when i’m gone” – an off-the-record book a reporter did with president ford that was to be published when ford died (he passed away in ’06) – i guess what i enjoyed most about the book was some of the details from the 1970s – an era i’m not too up on

started “where men earn glory” by jon krakeur – a book about pat tillman – a pro football player who left the nfl after 9-11 to join the army rangers – he was killed by friendly fire in ’04 in afghanistan – the book has been a good read – even though it’s tragic – very motivating

on the treadmill, i’m reading psalms (read 90 of them in the last two days) and the ny times magazine for this week – i’m currently reading an article about the battle for florida’s senate seat – two republicans trying to out-republican each other

guess that’s most of it for now – hope you all have happy reading weeks

sincerely,
mafeld