yo,
still in big book land – although i’ve finished the previous ones i’ve discussed…

bonhoeffer – i’m taking a break to blog b/c i’ve read 220 pages today in the book – incredible read about a german pastor that in his late 20s, early 30s, had enough insight to see past and fight hitler – bonhoeffer lost his life near the end of hitler’s reign – fascinating story about standing up to evil

the scandal of father brown – an english mystery collection – from about 100 years ago – read the book pretty quickly – wasn’t very impressed – humorous at times – not so at other times

marathon by hal higdon – i got the book at the chicago marathon – waited nine months to read it – and then was thoroughly disappointed – not at all what i’d hoped – the part about the pope running in the marathon was amusing – other things weren’t (and since this is a G-rated blog we’ll leave things at that)

more fire – started re-reading this book about kenyan running – very motivated group – we have things so lucky (unless you’re my sister and then you’re injured every third day)

working on my nanowrimo book – hit the 35,000 word mark today – yeah!

sincerely,
dr mafeld

no surprise what i was reading this week as based upon the title – two heavyweights – both over 700 pages long – my arms are weak from reading:)

jonathan edwards – a biography from a professor at yale – the book won a christian biography award in 2003 – edwards was a pastor during the great awakening – i’m a sucker for pre-revolutionary war history – i guess a puritan at heart – so i really, really enjoyed the book – expected to take a lot longer to finish it but got caught up in the book and read it in about four days (not bad for teeny-tiny print that was over 700 pages)

just as i am by billy graham – read this autobiography when it came out – in 1997 – it was long as well, over 700 pages – amazingly, the book didn’t come close to analyzing and relaying all the events that have happened in graham’s life – despite that, the book was a wonderful read – an ecouragement to keep the faith

now write by someone – actually, the someone was an editor – the book was a collection of writing exercises – 90 percent of them weren’t particularly great – but i found a couple – one that was really awesome – so it was worth the reading

other things – i started rereading the new testament in may – i’m nearly through romans now – sports illustrated is backing up on me at CMS, but i’ve managed to keep up with the world through the economist – and christianity today – and history channel magazine – and runner’s world

speaking of runner, i’m headed to peavine falls this weekend for a run up a mountain – and then back down – oh, and 1.2 miles of trail – all in all, 8.2 miles of fun – hope your reading is going well

sincerely,

mafeld

so i’ve decided this is the summer to read different things – this and that – mostly that though…

“captain saturday” – written by inman – who i think is coming to our county in february to speak – basically a story about a middle-aged man who loses everything and discovers what’s important – which is cutting grass – i couldn’t relate… 🙂

“looking for alaska” – again, a guy who’s coming to the county in february – green – this book is – actually, both books are – at the county library – the book’s author satirizes indian springs and weaves in a story about death – a  student death – you’re left to wonder whether the death was accidental or suicide – the second half of the book (the “after”) was better than the first half (the “before”) if just b/c there are certain things i’d rather not know in detail – and those things were described in detail

“lance” – biography on lance armstrong – really enjoyed this book – story of a guy who has faced many obstacles and overcome – inspiring – lots of lessons to draw from – one of them is the question, what motivates you? do you do things out of anger (like lance rode angry when he was younger – and won a bunch) or for other reasons??? (ego, money, love, the like)

must run – children coming at ehes – happy reading

sincerely,
mafeld

happy mid-june everybody!!!

“you haven’t taught until they’ve learned” – i know, heavy irony that i read this book – anyway, it’s by swen nater – a holland guy who was separated from his parents for a few years before finally getting the U.S. – and then he played basketball for john wooden – very famous basketball coach – anyway, the book was very inspiring – for teachers at least – sort of reminds you why you teach (for the money, of course:)

“walk-on” by thom gossom jr – heavily recommended to those of you that bleed orange and blue – gossom was the first au african-american athlete to graduate – one of the first african-american athletes at au period – and he walked on (no scholarship) on top of that – very good, inspiring, story of how you can achieve your goals if you’re determined enough – and a good reminder of how close to remarkable history we all live in

the other reading i’ve been doing lately would concern south africa – a bunch of articles the economist did on the country in ready for the world cup being there – i guess what i learned is that while things look really good at the venues for the games, the country still has many economic – racial – political problems – oh, and education is still very much in need of help – of course, those of you that have me as a teacher are in need of help too:)

guess that’s it – do hope you’re enjoying your break

sincerely,
dr mafeld

went back to some time in high school – i forget when because we read “mythology” by edith hamiliton one year – but i read “the odyssey” by homer this week – i had totally forgotten most of it – like events, no – but how the book was told – so it was an enjoyable read – i’m sure it would’ve been better in greek – except for the fact that i wouldn’t have been able to read it:)

i suppose it stands as a classic for high schoolers because it’s both a love story (man and wife stay true – sort of – to each other for 20 years) and a gorefest – so it appeals to both guys and gals:)

read “sunday” by craig hareline last week – story of how sunday got to be sunday – interesting how sunday came to be viewed as a day of rest – for some – for others, as a day to do other things – like there’s a big difference supposedly between a continental european sunday and a london sunday – and that’s all different from the US

i have a few requests out – one for a book to get me in the mood for the world cup – another for alabama football in the fall (did i just say fall??? ooooh, too far away) – anyway, let me know if you have trouble with summer reading

sincerely,
mafeld

so i’m postponing reading my assigned summer reading for now…

“schoolhouse door” by culpepper clark – story about the integration of the university of alabama – good book about why wallace made his stand at foster – one of the interesting aspects of the book i guess is that you tend to find what you look for – so when university officials were looking to keep african-americans out of alabama, they got really good at keeping them out – and when that changed, all the sudden, they learned that things were more equal than they’d thought

“ten men you meet in the huddle” by bill curry – ex-bama coach – i guess i’m in a rut – or something like that – anyway, curry talked about 10 men that were influential in his football career – or playing days – would probably be interesting for us all to identify 10 people who’ve influenced us – after b. spears, i’m not sure i have anyone else:)

few adolescent fiction books i’m eager to read and they’re next up – hope your reading gets off to a great start this summer

sincerely,

mafeld

yo,
so that i remember and when i’m 50 i don’t read the same books again…

“work hard, study, and keep out of politics” – by james baker – really good book – former secretary of state – worked for reagan and bush 1 – also had a role in ford’s campaign for the presidency – for the most part, the book didn’t get into the “republicans are evil” or “democrats are evil” tendencies of the current bestsellers – so that was refreshing – some the lessons i remember were that you win metaphorical wars by winning every day battles – so in other words, always do the most that you can today so that you’re prepared for tomorrow – i enjoyed hearing about how rice university came about as well

outside of that book, most of what i read was magazine articles – i tried to follow britain’s  election – for some reason – and the spill in the gulf – read about the ny would-be bomber – read sports illustrated and about how the celtics are the old men in the nba playoffs

guess that’s it for now – will eventually need to start summer reading, i suppose

sincerely,
mafeld

yo,

so i was reading last week – i think – a few things…

“memoirs of a teenage amnesiac” – really good book – sort of twilight-ish at times with one of the characters – wasn’t as predictable as i thought it was going to be – enjoyed thinking about how i’d be if i suddenly couldn’t remember the last four years of my life

“the penultimate peril” and “the end” – wrapped up the baudelaires – i’d forgotten much of the final book – enjoyed the tie-in to “the tempest” – would love to see more books come out that are tied to that series

“still growing” – teenage star kirk cameron’s biography – he was a star on a show, “growing pains,” i watched growing up – enjoyed reading about him – and his sister – who was in full house – which i watch with my sister now on re-runs on sunday mornings

other things – i learned that the iceland volcano thing was big b/c volcanic ash can shut down airplane engines – never a good things – macarthur was an idiot and that’s why truman got rid of him in the korean war – and hilary clinton is taking a more active role now as secretary of state – and i finished colossians this morning

hope your week of journal writing is fun

sincerely,
dr mafeld

dear bloggers,
wow! i count up five full weeks of school left – so can’t be more than four more blogs, maybe less…

“eat this book” by eugene peterson – about how to read the Bible – like about the fourth-ish book i’ve read in the series that he did about the words of Christ – as was the case with the other three books, i enjoyed the book thoroughly – in this volume, what i found most interesting was about translation – how translations come to us and what we do with them – he talked about how the Bible was written, for the most part, in very common language – there wasn’t a newly-invented vocabularly that the writers used, and most of the words describe very common, ordinary things

“the grim grotto” – book 11 in unfortunate events – the baudelaires go underwater in this episode – ironically enough, i read the book saturday while most of alabama was under water… 🙂 i enjoyed most the captain and his motto that “he who hesitates is lost” – rather absurd – a good running motto though…

additionally, there was a good article about exercise in the ny times magazine (run now, benefit later), a rather disturbing article about cell phones and their harmful radiation, and i’m now into late 1 corinthians in my quest to finish the new testament

your readings???

maf

hey, happy wednesday:)

read two books that i can immediate recall last week – one, mental math strategies, was a book on tricks one can learn to do math tricks – really, they’re not tricks, but you appear to be a genius – i’d say 90 percent of the book was a bit too technical for every day use, but there was 10 percent that was cool – like how to remember every mulitple of 11 (add the two numbers that are being multipled by 11 and then stick that number in the middle – so 23 x 11 is 253)

second book i read was on stopping readicide – death of reading – the author, an english teacher i’ve read books from before – thinks that testing is killing reading – and i would agree – he also thought that overteaching and underteaching a book can kill the joy of reading – again, i would agree – and that books at home should be read for fun – lots of good points in the book that i’m going to try and work into the classroom

i’m rereading the new testament so when i was out awaiting the start of the 114th boston marathon, i read almost the entire book of acts and most of romans – i had to check that book before i ran – i figured no one would steal my new testament in my bag – and they didn’t:)

read adverbs by daniel handler – clever writing at parts – definitely not a middle school book:)

guess those are the highlights – remember, you only have to write two journals this week since i was lazy in getting this one up

sincerely,
mafeld