so finished the BOB list books this week – huge relief – of course, what i read isn’t necessarily going to make the list (all of them can’t in the first place – second, my tastes aren’t the tastes of the committee members) but…

“moon over manifest” – finished it – liked it – could tell why newberry honored it – best book of last year though??? mmm…

“the shadow project” – sort of a spy thriller – got really strange in parts – the book starts as a “sprint to the finish” race to save people, then it shifts to a “oooh, there’s a whole back story we need to learn about for, oh, about 100 pages” and then back to the race to the finish – sort of three books in one – but none of them that good

“how lamar’s bad prank won a bubba-sized trophy” – pretty decent read – best part of the book is that it’s a different voice for the kids that will read BOB – most of YA lit authors are white females – or males – a different voice introduces different characters – different things to think about – it’s not a book that BOB kids would pick so i’m pressing to get it on “the list”

“fever crumb” – i really liked this book but i don’t want it, ironically enough, on “the list” – future dystopia type book – so in that vein, similar to “hunger games” – and the central character is female, and she’s strong – best part of the book is that there are really tough choices that have to be made in the book – and most of the characters aren’t completely good – or completely evil – it’s the sort of book you could actually discuss with someone – so i’m hoping to have kids read it outside of BOB (i don’t like it with BOB just b/c i thought some of the issues were too weighty for sixth graders)

“drive” – not a YA book – as my reward for finishing “the list,” i went back to reading what i like – i got a business book to relate to education – to make me a better teacher – and “drive” was wonderful – best part, i learned how to make some cool things on the internet for my class – we’ll definitely be using it in the classroom this year

“odds and ends” – that’s not a title, but having finished “the list” plus one, i’ve been trying to break a bit – so i’m just reading on the old testament (it’s really long – i’m reading psalms and i kings right now) and my weekly magazines – i got a freebie on the nook yesterday that i’ll probably try next

hope your week is a great one – happy 4th

mafeld

my guess the answer to the question above is “b/c it’s too hot…”

hope everyone is well – i finished the tony blair book about mid week – took a while to finish the last 600 pages – after that, i went to work on the list i have for BOB consideration:

“long walk to water” – awesome little book – might use it in class – definitely will buy it for class – story of southern sudan – of loss and redemption – of helping others – of expanding one’s world beyond the petty themes that tend to dominate YA (those themes typically being the “weighty” issues like – “gosh, life is awful b/c i don’t fit in at school” or “gosh, i really, really like that boy but he doesn’t like me” or “gosh, no one understands me” – then, you read a book where a kid watches his uncle murdered – where the kid has to walk across countries to find refuge – who makes something of his life – and you realize “hey, i have no problems”…)

“grimm legacy” – enjoyed this book too – makes me think the BOB list will actually be good this year – story that mixes in grimm’s fairy tales, mystery, and suspense – pretty good – not great – but no sequel to it either – and all done in 300 pages – so i’m pleased

“moon over manifest” – 100 pages in – not sure where it’s going – it’s a newberry so i suspect it’ll go somewhere good – and i suspect we’ll read it – i found it funny that the KKK was bashed as much as it was in the 1930s – i mean, if our all knowing adolescents knew the klan was awful – that it took advantage of race and ethnic differences – then, oh, i don’t know, dumb question… but why in the world did that klan keep on and keep its power for so long??? there are just times when i feel like authors get into revisionist history where events have to be construed to make historical figures fit our present morals (all one of them – tolerance seems to be the one value everyone loves in the modern world)

st. k – you marched beautifully – no word yet on when bristol is coming to town though – thanks for the word on seng – you knew more about what was going on at the school than i did…

adison – thanks for the sweet potato – it was wonderfully good (and nutritious:)

maf

so i think i left off last week by saying i was 300 pages into bush’s “decision points” – i finished it this week – good book – frames why we went to war twice – and how those surges worked in both places – i thought he explained it very, very well – some of his harsher critics have contended all along that he was just bent on going to war, but i don’t think you can read his book and reach the same conclusion

i then read a couple of free nook books – “stupid history” – a quick read that basically was about how everything you were ever told in history was wrong – it had points, that some of what we think is true really didn’t happen that way – but most of the book seemed to go to the other extreme – that you can’t believe any historical event because people just made them up – the second book, “leadership prayers” was a freebie and written by a former prez of a california university – it was pretty good about how to trust in God to lead

wednesday, i made my way to columbiana to take POG grocery shopping at publix in calera – but when she balked, i went to the library and spotted “a journey: my political life” by tony blair – the brits’ prime minister from 1997-2007 – i really didn’t want to relive the bush years again so soon – particularly b/c the book was 1,200 pages long – but the book was just sitting on the shelf – brand new – it was paperback and no one had ever touched it (you can tell those things with a paperback – no creases) – so i felt sorry for the book  – i guess sorry for the state of reading in the county too:) and so i started that book – i’m now 700 pages-ish in, and it’s been a great read – british politics is different than its american counterpart – and i know that sounds obvious, but until you read a british book about it, it really doesn’t come home – blair makes great points that transfer to american politics – about standing up internationally for what’s right instead of selfish interest – anyway, i’ve been entertained – but i have a long, long way until i finish

reading back through the old testament – i started joshua saturday – it’s interesting to me how things like leviticus and deuteronomy can come to life when you least expect it – and remind you of God’s relationship with his people – b/c most people think of the OT as boring (and, fair warning, it isn’t very pleasant reading all the time)

oh, st. k, the reason i ended up with the blair book was b/c i was set to check out “fire” and they told me it was the sequel to “graceling” – and columbiana doesn’t have “graceling” – so i think i’m going to have to steal it from ms. blount  – sorry – i tried – glad you survived vbs – do i see you marching saturday at liberty day???

mafeld

and like eighty trillion spam comments…

so anyway, st. k, apology for misspelling palin – messed up on that one – and lazy me didn’t correct it (i do have an edit button, but it’s soooooo much trouble…)

you’re right – i do need to read graceling and fire – on the list – first though, i need to survive the BOB committee – which actually may not be that difficult b/c most of the books those people told me to read, i can’t get anyway b/c there are no copies in the libraries – alas…

“the rivalry: mystery at the army-navy game” – i did get to read this one for BOB this week – it was one of those books that would be great for BOB b/c it’s nonoffensive, but it wasn’t anything that like moves you to anything – the strange part to me was that mystery was in the title, but there really wasn’t a mystery in the book

“traveling light” by max lucado – free nook book – basically, give your burdens to God – and don’t carry around your own baggage all the time – good point

“prisoner in the third cell” – free nook book – historical nonfiction – basically, what happened to john the baptist after he was thrown in prison – tries to answer the question of why God doesn’t sometimes answer our prayers for help – or rescue “good” people

“the centaur” by updike – my lone “classic” book of the summer – heavy reading – boring reading – vulgar reading – the irony being that it was recommended from Christianity Today magazine – go figure – not at all impressed with the book – i know, i’m uneducated and can’t appreciate… (it gets worse if you think i’m uneducated though…)

“my life as a dog” – LOVED it – it was cute – book about eddy, the dog from the show “frasier” – a show i watched in high school – couldn’t believe there was a book about the dog – or that the show lasted 11 years – about 9 years after i went off to alabama – and probably like eight years before any of you were born…

“the millennials” – great book – free nook book – father and son look at a poll about the beliefs of those born post-1980 – the millennial generation – learned quite a bit – which is good b/c that’s still the generation i’m teaching – and as an X’er myself, there’s a gap (there’s a gap between just me and my sister) – one of the more heartbreaking things i read was that only about 15 percent, at best, are what i’d call “Christian” – 65 percent say they are but that’s from a very warped idea of what that means

“decision points” by george w. bush – about 300 pages in – i wanted to read it last year, couldn’t b/c all the copies were checked out at the library – but, rechecked this week and apparently, everyone is done reading about our last president:) really good book – i love reading president autobiographies – or things that presidents write – they explain themselves better than most writers that write about them – and, best of all, i found out that President Bush ran a marathon!!!

do hope the summer is going well

mafeld

okay, so i went whatever time i went without seeing that people had commented – i apologize – i blame the county for not sending them along to my e-mail – in their defense, maybe they block the word “foul” from their system – live and learn…

so for personal shout outs before i continue…

timothy – good to hear from you – glad summer is going well – yes, you’re welcomed to blog comments for the summer

marcy – funny about the book – although, aggravating – i can relate b/c i got a book last year with some of our boxtop money – “intelligence and how to get it” – ironically, the book contained duplicate pages and neglected others – wonderful experience (and you’ll notice we never used the book in class) – oh, best wishes with training with coach sutton (at least, i think that’s your trainer:)

st. k – did you read that bristol pailin is coming to town in july for a book signing??? i think you should totally go and then bug her for dance moves:) (i’d volunteer to take you but i know your father adores the republican party so i don’t think you’ll have a problem getting a ride for that one:)

olive-a – LOVED the blog:) and yes, i thought this morning about smiling – and remembered you – although, it would be hard to forget b/c i changed my desktop to the photo of you and i that last day of school – it makes me smile (in part b/c i’m wearing a twilight shirt) and cry at the same time (no, i’m not pregnant and over-emotional people – just a good last day this year – but sad – but good – still sad though…)

okay, reading…

WAIT – forgot – subject header – jordan knight, one of the members of “new kids” had a new album this week – first solo album since 1999 – so i was sort of excited about the deal – and the album was well worth the wait – i’ve only listened to it like 40 times through already – good pop to run to

okay, reading…

“massage” – something like that – it was a book on massage therapy – i read it b/c i’ve decided if i knew how to give massages that i’d be a better potential boyfriend/husband – and considering i haven’t updated my skill set of relationship things in like, oh, 85 years, i  figured it couldn’t hurt to learn how to give massages – oooooooorrrrrrrrrrr… i read the book to learn how to do some self-massage on my legs and feet – to help me recover from 80-mile plus weeks – it’s one or the other…

“alphabet juice” – ny times writer wrote about words – and the letters of the alphabet – the author would die teaching middle school b/c misuse of english bothers him (me, not as much b/c i know i’m first in line for having messed things up)

“connection in communities” – free nook book – not worth the free price – basically, i was encouraged to start a small group at my church – by inviting families in my neighborhood to join my family in cookouts and such (if you’re paying attention, you’ll know that i don’t have a family – even though that seems to be assumed if you’re my age and in the church – sigh…)

“ny public library book” – not the title, but another free nook book – great book – good reading – collection of authors about their favorite pieces at the NY library – good motivation to get to ny and run its marathon (a goal – not sure how much i’m progressing towards it)

“running with joy” – by ryan hall – oh, how i loved that book – the ups and downs of an elite marathoner as he trained for boston last year and tried to live out his christian walk – i too ran boston last year so it was cool on that level – and i run enough miles a week that the ups and downs hall goes through are similar to what i feel at times (you can live and die by the clock when you reach a certain age – like, when you start, every race is faster than you’ve ever gone – but eventually, the times don’t come down but you have to trust that things are okay – or try to)

okay, really long, but i was starved for attention this week so four e-mails make the week (again, it was a productive week if you exclude social communication – i cleaned the entire house, donated four bags to the thrift store – and managed to escape the store by only getting a cookie monster shirt in return:) and i’m up to 47,000 words in my third novel)

my sister tells me there’s a preview of “breaking dawn, part one” tonight on some awards show – i can only hope it involves bella and edward and a beach… 🙂

maf

so there i was, talking to dad in the corporate area of the sec baseball tournament, hoping against hope (b/c they lost) that bama could rally and beat the hogs friday, and lo! and behold, a foul ball lands near me – and i grabbed it!!!

little kids, sick people, old men – all begged for the ball – i told them to get lost:)

anyway, in between all of the baseball watching, this was what i read to kick the summer off…

“becoming odyssa” – by jen pharr davis – book about hiking the appalachian trail as a 22-ish girl looking for the answers to life’s questions – sort of the story of how the journey in life makes you a different person – makes you better (or can make you better) – i think i speak for everyone who’s read it that we probably all worried about a lone girl off hiking – glad that the trip ended as relatively well as it did…

“running dream” – new YA book by a decently published (in amount) YA author – the book is about a 16-year-old 400 meter runner who loses a foot in a bus accident – and learns to adjust to being an amputee – great book about learning to “see” people, learning to overcome difficulties, and adjusting to disappointments by resetting your goals (like when i realized i would never win the boston marathon or even qualify for the olympic trials – oh, wait, i still hold out hope on both – but that’s b/c i’m silly…)

“bottom of the 33rd” – great book to take to the ballpark – reminded me of rickwood – of watching barons games with my dad in the late 80s, early 90s – basically, this game in 1981 between two triple-a teams kept going until 4 in the morning – a fluke ruling by the ump on the curfew rule – lots of issues raised in the book – one, like what you do when the repetitions you do don’t come to an end one day but seem to keep forever going on (like the way a baseball game can go forever b/c there’s no clock)

who am i rooting for today in the finals??? not sure…

maf

well, this was the week to take care of oodles of other items – not much reading – still, i went from john through 1 corinthians in bible reading – finished my “prayer book of the nations” – 1000 pages of it – took five months, but i finished with zambia and zimbabwe

as for books, i finished “two wars” – it was sad – the guy fought in three wars and had severe difficulties returning stateside – go figure – i ordered “espn 30 for 30: volume 2” – it became available this week – there are a few on that set that i’m looking forward to seeing – one about a runner named terry fox – and i had his book – the 20th anniversary edition – and read it in a day – gripping story – fox had cancer in ’76 – in ’80, he ran for cancer research across canada – on one leg (the other leg was lost to cancer) – he ran until september when he had to stop – went to the hospital – he died (the cancer reoccurred) a year later – very tragic – but in his short life, he made a difference – over $24 million has been raised in his name through the years – and since none of us are guaranteed our next breath, it was a good reminder

hope your week is great – happy last week

maf

so it’s on to the summer blogs that no one reads – and better yet – no one comments upon – to ruin all the writing i create

yeah, sure, anyway…

“okay for now” – did i mention this one last week??? can’t remember – it’s the sequel to wednesday wars – loved it

“tuscaloosa runs this” – ebook from bama on the tornadoes – the english department published it – awesome, gripping read – i had nightmares that night envisioning what some of the authors wrote – some of the entries, like all collections, were better than others – i’d forgotten how much of college at UA is perceived (or is) spent in bars and other seedy places – i was too busy with work and school – missed out on so much of the college experience…

“33 men” – chile miners back in the fall that were trapped for 69 days – the story of their rescue – just amazing – both how they could survive and how they could be lifted from 2,000 feet down the depths of a mountain – things like that inspire me to go out and run 18 miles like i did this morning – b/c that doesn’t seem nearly as difficult when compared to going 17 days without food

“reshaping it all” – by DJ from full house – or candance cameron-brue (hockey player she married) – more a book for women on eating – i liked the full house stories – the rest, eh, not as much

reading now on “two wars” – a book about a soldier dealing with stress disorder after fighting – it’s from a christian publisher so i’m interested in how it turns out (typical books in this genre are all pro-military and nothing critical)

remember, final is thursday

maf

wow – the play was so good – well worth getting down to columbiana this afternoon – even if it meant i had to spend the hour beforehand trying to program, reprogram, deprogram, grandmother’s tv remote (it sort of works now, which really means it doesn’t work b/c she’ll never figure out a “sort of fixed” remote – so sort of fixing really did no good, sigh…)

anyway, every year, i’m blown away with the play – this year’s was the best i can ever recall – kudos to all the kids that had roles – just fantastic – i mean, the best i could say about it was that it interrupted nap time, i had gotten up at 4 today and run 18 miles before church – and yet, in a room w/o air, i still managed not to fall asleep – it was that good (or sam and brennan were that loud – or something…)

i did read though…

“confessions of a teenage nomad” – it was free on nook – and a quick read, like 183 pages, so it wasn’t a terrible torture – still, sort of a twilight-like novel where the misfit girl goes to a new school, and suddenly, the gorgeous guy loves her – and it’s all confusing to her – ah, young love – sick… 🙂

“east of eden” – finished early last week – wonderful book – like i said last week – i now want to find it on dvd and see james dean as caleb – i guess the thing i liked most about the book this time was how it addressed time – how, sometimes, if you wait long enough for it – things come back to a wonderful ending – if you can hang on – and as someone who struggles to hang on sometimes, that was a great lesson to reread

“the digital disciple” – book on how to be a follower of JC in the internet world – good read – i learned that none of you like e-mail b/c you can text quicker – which makes me feel old… the author closed the book by suggesting digital holidays – closing everything down sometimes so you can think – i think that’s important – one reason why i don’t keep net at home – that, and i don’t want to watch the red sox lose at home – i’d rather watch that at snap or read about it in the paper

nearing 40,000 words on “Battle of the Books” – my nanowrimo for this year

well, last blog for the year for you – write me something great…

love,
maf

well, two more – here we go… i read “the last boy” about mickey mantle – on loan from mr. scott – last week – sad, sad book – mantle had a sad life – basically was bent on killing himself for the 70-ish years of his life – alcohol, women, etc. – having read a biography on willie mays two years ago, the differences were stark – the book chain of darkness continued later in the week when i started “east of eden” – well, picked back up after three weeks off – i’m 300 pages in – that book starts very dark too – i had read it a few years back, maybe 10, so i knew to keep with it – this time around, i can identify with the character “adam” a whole lot more – last time, i just liked the redemptive nature of the book – this time, so far, what i’ve liked is the story of a guy that is never really loved – and how he learns to cope in the world after years of just basically “going through the motions” because he doesn’t feel anymore – the book is 600 pages long so i have a while to go – not in too big a rush – i did get a “shakespeare for kids” book that i’m hoping will help me teach julie, st. k, and the gang (the gang being goth girl maddie and possibly cailea – but definitely not jerame or tyler – and definitely not any eighth grader left that’s still blogging – i don’t think any of them are though – they’ve contracted that work out to india or something)

you heard it here first – three journals this week if you turn them in thursday – any guesses how many will wait ’til friday and still turn in just three??? i’m guessing most everyone – although, i strongly suspect at least 25 percent of my students do the work right before class – anyway, you also heard it here first – come to my booth friday – the dash race – race your friends – it’ll be fun

mafeld