“rocket men” – story of the 1968 trip around the moon and back – the men that made that trip are still alive – this was a book my mom and i could share – she loves the space program – so that was an added nice feature

“eunice” – another book my mom and i shared – the kennedy daughter that the author argued would’ve made the best president – had the times been different for expectations of women – her passion for the special olympics and for life was an added bonus

“let’s go exploring” – book on calvin and hobbes – made me want to reread the series – it was a good, critical analysis of the strip and what happened – and why it’s beloved

“those turbulent sons of freedom” – fascinating book on ethan allen and the green mountain boys – learned a lot about vermont – highly recommendable

j

“lone stars” – great YA for guys – highly recommendable – I hadn’t read anything by Lupica, but i’d heard the podcast and tried it – and it was a great read

“educated” – by westover – sad book – makes you appreciate education – and learning to understand other people’s stories – i couldn’t put the book down

“lions” by beasley – great book – loved it – lord of the flies adapted to middle grades – clever – and worth reading – very recommendable

“running is my therapy” – new book on connecting running with fighting depression – really good book – insightful

“fire and fury” – the book on trump that’s been read by lots – good book – read it quickly – interesting – probably can’t say more w/o offending someone:)

j

book update…

“this miscalculations of lightning girl” – cute book – story of a math savant who ends up in middle school – you know, nothing could go wrong from that:)

“legends of the court” – book about carolina hoops – duke, nc state, unc – from the 1980s on – enjoyed reading it

“the nix” – adult fiction which i actually liked – it was clever – but definitely for adults

“this close to happy” – disappointed in the book – read a good review but didn’t enjoy the actual book

“beholding bee” – great YA – middle grade – book – and included running spots in the story

“another season” – story of former alabama football coach – his special needs son – read this book almost 20 years ago – well worth reading again

“i am not your sweet baboo” – peanuts book – great book – i actually had read many of the strips – but i really enjoyed it – laughed aloud at many things

“champions” – book on the resiliency of several athletes – large swarth of them – known and unknown – my fave read was on mark prior b/c i remembered his arc – it was good to get an update on his story

“patchinka” – one of the top reads this year from the NY Times in fiction – i don’t read many adult fiction books – so this one was purposefully out of my usual reads – but i did enjoy it – learned a lot about the relationship of koreans in japan

“nutrcaker” – just in time before christmas – i read both versions – technically, there’s only one version – hoffmann – but the book i got had two versions – dumas wrote the second – but he basically translated hoffmann’s account – so i thought that it would be a waste of time to read the second account – however, i didn’t do a great job reading the first version – it was hard to read – so reading dumas was good b/c it helped me get the first version:)

“baby bombers” – in honor of my first period – book on the new NY Yankee players – lots of good stories with those guys

“dreamer” – YA book on pablo neruda’s early life – easy to read – very recommendable

“race everything” – book from retiring runner’s world editor – bart yasso – everything from 5k to ultramarathons – his second book – i enjoyed it, of course

“alou” – book on a great baseball player – his life – both as a player and as a manager – he’s had an incredible life

“jordan: a life” – finished the break reading a 600 page book on MJ – the hero of my childhood – i’ve already read several things on him – this was still a good book though – sad book in ways

so i’m now caught up:) happy new year to everyone:)

“gulf” – great book on the history of the gulf of mexico – although, rather depressing and dark b/c we’re not doing a great job taking care of it – the book won some notoriety though and i could see why

“magic misfits” – loved this book – by Neil Patrick Harris – great middle grade novel – or something fun for all ages to read – and i now know a magic trick!

“tru and nelle: christmas” – second book in this series – i didn’t read the first one – but we’ve all read “A Christmas Memory” now that i’ve moved that story to sixth grade so while it’s a middle grade book, i think even middle school could appreciate it

“patina” – book two in the TRACK series – didn’t like it as much as ghost – but it got great reviews so there:)

j

book update…

“finish first” – great book – i read some of it to you – olympic medalist – great motivational book

“i can only imagine” – to fit with the new movie – great book – sad at many spots – but very recommendable

“sometimes you have to cross when it says don’t walk” – another great read by a female pioneer in sports TV – lots of pictures – but recommendable

“Helen keller – biography” – great book to supplement what you know about the miracle worker – helen’s life was full

j

wow, what a month – it did involve reading though…

“larry norman: why does the devil have all the good music?” book about one of the founding fathers of Christian music – it was a good book – sad – but his music influenced DC Talk – and i’m a huge fan of them – so it was a good read

“lie tree” – BOB – or whatever BOB is – good book – surprisingly good – very recommendable

“grant” – the new book by chernow – the guy who wrote about hamilton – that started the musical – this book was long – super long – 965 pages long – took over a week – probably 1 1/2 weeks – i knew a lot about grant already – i guess i was just reminded of things – and some of the violence that the South was bent on in the Civil War that went unmentioned when we studied it in school

“A race like no other: NYC Marathon” – got through this one real quick after grant – very good – mile by mile of the race i hope to run next year – sad though b/c it was written the year – 10 years ago – when a healthy elite runner unexpectedly passed – i went and found an update on his family – it was good to read and remember

“we all fought in the war” – book on Bama contributions during WWII – Conrad Fowler chapter – and one on the guy who wrote the fight song – good reading – big book though – nearly 400 pages

“turtles all the way down” – i haven’t read everything by john green – but i’ve read most – this one was good – coupled with a piece in runner’s world on him, i like him more and more:)

hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving

j

thought I’d add a bit of what I worked on this week:

Ichabod, humiliated, left the story stage in search of comfort food and finding it all cleared away was on the way out the door headed for the truck when one final storyteller began with a story so great Ichabod was stopped dead in his tracks.

“Stop dead in your tracks,” the storyteller began, “And listen to the tale of the Headless Horseman.”

The storyteller continued with a tale that was honestly not very scary to the crew of the Starship Mayfield: there was a guy, he was headless, he seemed only to appear at nights and he just basically ran with people and scared them before disappearing. The story, however, had a terrifying effect upon the residents of Sleepy Hollow – and Ichabod.

“Didn’t anyone notice that Brom seemed to be the hero of that story?” Captain Patrick said to his crew once the story was told and everyone raided the kitchen for comfort food.

“Yeah, it sound suspicious that there’s only one person not scared of the thing and he’s known for his practical jokes,” Abbey said.

“Sir, the whole thing reminds me of a show I used to watch on the Hallmark feed,” Jade said, “There was this guy who liked this girl only he didn’t have the words to express his feelings. He did though know when a potential rival was in his midst and so when one arouse he played on the rival’s fear of some vegetable, I think it was broccoli…”

Captain Patrick shuddered at mention of his arch-enemy.

slow compared to the months before – in my defense, tougher reading – or maybe i’m just making excuses:)

“what happened” – hillary clinton’s book on the election – obviously, your political view will influence how you read this book – honestly, you probably don’t read it if you don’t feel for her in the first place – that said, i liked it – i know no one else did – they wanted her to take more of the blame for the election – whatever…

“i’m buffy and you’re history” – great book – very much enjoyed it – made me go back and listen to “once more with feeling” a few more times – even used one idea at the gifted conference – basically, that series is just super rich and there’s a lot in it to write about

“my gold” – frank shorter – good book about the US marathon gold medalist at Munich – he’d actually written a book before – maybe like 1984 – and I’d read that one too – this one went into the abuse he suffered from his father – a beloved small-town doctor – abuse that shorter kept secret for most of his life – so his courage to now come forward, i thought that was good and powerful

“becoming brilliant” – read so i could be a good uncle to my niece – who’s one-years-old – but the book wasn’t really about child development – it was about how terrible schools are – and it blamed testing – grrr – basically, just written by peeps who didn’t know what they were talking about – but you know, throwing stones at public education always works…

j