“Perfect Strangers” – book about survivors of the Boston Marathon attack in 2013 – the biography of a lady who lost most of her leg – and the rescue team she’s stayed in touch with – she’s actually probably going to marry the fireman – i sadly realized while reading this book that i know a lot about amputees now – and a lot of it is due to Boston – but i know that things are tough with them – running with a blade may look cool but it’s very, very hard – the other takeaway i had was that there are levels of surviving things – so you can’t lament your case when there are others who are worse – you just have to stick your head down and keep going

“strangers in their own land” – for my trip to mobile, a book about louisiana – it’s in bad shape, by the way – it was an interesting book – a cal-berkley sociologist – the book is supposed to “explain” southern white voters – and it did to a certain extent – side note, strangers appeared in both book titles – what are the odds?

“bad singer” – great book about tone deafness – can it be cured – can it be improved – how do we learn music – it was  good book – fits well with giftedness – what can you improve on – what are you just given

j

so i’ve been reading lately…

“i am” by brian wilson – famed beach boy – good book – another one i could share with my father – lots of summer memories singing beach boys songs growing up – combined with the mike love book from last year that i read, there’s lots to compare between the two – there’s also a lot of beach boys in the 1970s i apparently missed – sunflower being one – caroline, no being one – i really enjoyed the book

“the red bandanna” – very quick read – espn did a piece on the topic a few years ago – it’s show annually now – basically, just a remarkable story about a 24 year old who still lives on for his heroism – he was a year older than i was when the towers were hit – it made me sad to read about his parents still grieving b/c i pictured mine doing the same

“romeo and/or juliet” by north – great concept – a choose your own adventure book based on romeo and juliet – there was a path that shakespeare followed – there was a comical midsummer night’s drift that i want to read for my eighth grade – mature audience definitely for the whole book – but cute for those adults who’ve read shakespeare

“catalyst: rogue one” – my first star wars book – probably my last – i really enjoyed the movie – but the book – a prequel to the movie – wasn’t great – wordy – tom swiftlys abounded as well

j

so i was hurt for the past few weeks which greatly increased my reading load…

“evicted” – highly recommendable – but a very sad book – the author spent 1 1/2 years in downtown milwaukee living with people who were consistently evicted – his basic premise is that we as a society should do something about this – that people who don’t have steady housing make really bad choices – the most heartbreaking part of the book for me was the mistake that led to a young child dying in a house fire – regardless of how you feel about the choices adults make, kids don’t get to make those choices – they have to live with the consequences

“the endurance diet” – i bought pills to solve my running woes:) actually, good book about the habits of elite athletes – the good things they do – unfortunately, i wasn’t feeling like an athlete when i read the book – so it was somewhat depressing to eat about all the things i couldn’t be eating

“handwriting” – whatever was the book that was a recent ny times bestseller – so there’s more  to the title – but a great book – lots of facts i could spring on the eighth grade about ancient civilizations and writing – the author was a bit (way) pretentious – she challenges her freshman students every year – and in her words, wins – that’s a bad way to look at teaching

“destiny and power” – book about the hw bush presidency – great book – long book – there were many times i read that book and thought about how different politics are today – but, sigh, history isn’t coming back for us – lots of other books i’d read before complemented this book – so i was surprised at how much i could recall

“bombastic, fantastic” – there’s another adjective in there – but a book on the 1970 A’s – well, the three teams that won world serieses – the owner was from b’ham – ensley – he isn’t a great guy in the book though – but the book was great – i enjoyed talking it over with my dad – he knew most of the major characters – it’s fun when you can have conversations like that

j

“best state ever” – spoiler alert: it’s florida – great book by dave barry – enjoyed it – got to reminisce with my mom about old florida events – got to tell her and others that mermaids are now employed by the state of florida – funny

“forward” – in my room – abby wambach book – sad – she didn’t really like soccer – and yet she played it forever – not a very soccer-ish book – but it is autographed

“carli lloyd” – that’s not the title – but it’s the author – very different that wambach, lloyd has played on the national team for about as long – she has more of a rags to riches, underdog story – hard, hard worker – i could identify with the thanksgiving and christmas day training

“joe buck” – again, not the title but about the announcer – good book – good for keeping my dad involved – i told mom details from the story when we ran at thanksgiving – the day i hurt my heel running – nevertheless, i don’t blame the book for that:)

“showtime” – book about the LA Lakers of the 1980s – sad book in ways b/c most of the characters led very decadent lives – but the book reminded me of my early childhood – i was surprised how much of the story i already knew – it was also the week kareem won a presidential medal of honor so it was a good tie-in to current events

“passion: bright lights of glory” – i knew some of this story already from a previous passion book – i was able to use the chic-fil-a story by the main author this weekend – it was a good book in matters of reminding me of the important things about my faith – flaming a passion that burns bright

j