“in pieces” – sad book from sally field – my mother read it in the fall – i’m just amazed at what people – men in particular – can do to others – w/o conscious – it’s maddening – but the book was profoundly sad

“the elephant in the room” – a great, great book – a sportswriter’s view on his morbid obesity – it reminded me of my father’s struggle – it reminded of me as a fat kid growing up – i empathized greatly with the author’s battle – his honesty in the work was wonderful – highly recommended book

“yells for ourselves” – book on the mets teams from 1999-2000 – painstakingly reconstructed

j

“Personality Brokers” – book about how bad the Myers-Briggs test is – so I loved the book b/c I hate personality tests:)

“Rise of the Ultra Runners” – just an amazing read – i’m impressed with those that go beyond a marathon – not sure how they do it

“The Legendary Harry Caray” – read with love for my grandfather – it’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since Caray passed away – I enjoyed the book

“Parkland” – this was a much better book – a much more hopeful book – than I thought it would be – very recommendable

“Barnum” – b/c I loved the Greatest Showman – wonderful read – interesting – a biography of his life

“Get Thee Back to the Future” – absolutely LOVED this book – same series of Shakespeare’s Star Wars – very clever – enjoyable – want to add it to my classroom

j

“Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom” – great book – great long book – Douglass lived a full life – he lived into the 1890s – I don’t think I realized that – one of the sad aspects of the book – and of history – was for him – and the country – to live through the promise of freedom from the Civil War – and then watch things helplessly slide back – very recommendable book

“The Big Chair” – book by Dodgers GM – former-GM – Ned Colletti – enjoyed it

“G’Morning, G’Night” – Lin-Manuel Miranda – collection of his tweets – short – good

“A Good American Family” – great book on the red scare in the US – from the personal history of the writer – who’s a famous historian – enjoyed the book

“where do we go from here?” bernie sanders book – from last fall – or published then – picked up after scholars bowl saturday b/c i needed something to read

“you go first” – YA book – read it over the snow day – good – the kids are TAG – so that was a nice gifted tie-in

“pound the rock” – NY teacher – basketball coach – interesting read

“wolfpack” – former us soccer star abbey wambach – short – good though

j

“get lit rising” – poetry book – high school kids – read it going down to mobile – well, technically, when i was in mobile b/c i was driving when i was going down

“scripture and the English poetic imagination” – good pair for the first book b/c this book’s premise is that we’re losing our poetry today b/c we don’t know scripture – sadly, a lot of the lit references were way beyond me:)

“the darkening age” – good pair with the second book on the list b/c of ovid – although, he was a lot worse in this book:) anyway, the book was about Christianity’s darker edges – and past – from about 300 AD – when it came into governmental power – until the middle ages – this book tends to get extreme ratings – people love it or hate it – probably based upon their beliefs in the Christian faith – so that aspect of the book fascinated me

“108 stitches” – great baseball book full of stories i could share with my father – just in time for middle school baseball practice

“soccerwomen” – favorite book in a while – history of the women’s game – lots i didn’t know – i’m ready for world cup:)

j

Here’s what I have for the new year…

“Outrunning the Demons” – book on runners who’ve used running as therapy – lots of trauma – it made me grateful that I’ve lasted as long as I have on the roads

“Optimisfits” – for those who see JC as the ultimate rebel – what they can read between skateboarding sessions, I guess

“Ten Innings at Wrigley” – Cubs baseball – 1979 game that was crazy – the author knew the subject – even launch angles from WGN – good read

“Smart, but Scattered Teen” – good book for me on how to be patient and address students who aren’t maybe always thinking very much:)

“We Say #NeverAgain” – great book from Parkland survivors – high school kids in the jn department wrote about their experiences – not sure middle or high school kids will read it – but educators should

“Differently Wired” – was in a jam for a book – from the public library – the lady doesn’t like teachers – or public ed – so I wasn’t predisposed to enjoy the book – but I do sympathize with her problems

“STEAM Stories: The Picnic Problem” – cute picture book about how to use math and science to “save the day” – would love to use that format with my own kids – adapt it – for our books

j

busy, busy holiday season for reading…

“silent agreements” – new book on the things we don’t say – and how we can say them – the book made me think about my own agreements – and my students’

“auma’s long run” – you too can read this one at the CMS library – thanks to ms. blount, i got a head start on this one – wasn’t really about running – but a really good book for YA

“i lived on butterfuly hill” – another ms. blount book – and a great, great YA book – very recommended

“stranger things: worlds turned upside down” – to get me ready for season 3:) even made my mom read it:)

“the library book” – recent NY Times best seller – book about the LA library – meh – i LOVE the columbiana library so i didn’t need to be re-introduced to libraries

“good to go” – book on recovery – funny part at the end that athletes who use recovery stuff the most are the ones who don’t win – lots of money is spent now on recovery stuff – and i think in part b/c it’s easier to spend money on stuff than it is to put in the actual work

“shade” – book comparing trump’s tweets to what obama had done in a related field

“northern lights” – florida lady sponsored an alaskan football team getting a football field built – within eight months – alaskan high school football is interesting – so i learned a lot

“the magic misfits: book 2” – Neil Patrick Harris’s new book – loved both of them – probably a 4th-5th grade book, but so what? 🙂

“late bloomers” – got a great idea for us to use when we get to shakespeare this year – would like to use this to make my AAGC presentation this year

“highway under the tunnel” – from the book sale at the public library – about a NYC tunnel – was an interesting read – even if it was dry at times:)

“the mamba mentality” – kobe bryant’s book on why he was awesome and we just didn’t appreciate all the time (really, really self-congratulating – a giant waste of space)

“detroit” – sad book on a dying city

so yeah, i’d say i read a bit over break:)

j

“26 marathons” – great, great book for runners – meb’s third – and i’ve learned something from each one of them – even inspired me to add up my marathon numbers – i’m at 22 or 23 – amazing – and, like meb, there’s a story behind each one

“the power of sports” – i really read good books this week – this one was on sports and the media – great critique of the industry – probably at times a bit too harsh – i mean, it is just sports – but it was really good and an interesting read

“hindsight” – JT’s new biography – disappointingly short – really, almost just like the 1D books i’ve read – you would think a man near 40 would be more insightful – maybe not:)

“come november” – YA book – from ms. blount – read it today – okay

j

so i got word last saturday that i was nationally board certified – which was a huge relief – and, amazingly – i kept reading after all that stress:)

“almost yankees” – story of the 1981 columbus clippers – it was a good read – obviously, there aren’t a lot of books out there recapping a minor league season – so i enjoyed that

“big fella” – yes, all i’m reading is baseball right now – but, sigh, i read another baseball book – babe ruth – it was critically acclaimed – big book – meh

“becoming” – iron bowl saturday, i went to mt. laurel and got this book – i was excited – although, my mom was even moreso – she really enjoyed the book – i did too – just interesting from an education perspective – how one escapes southside chicago to princeton

“crimes of grindelwold” – screenplay – library book – great read – doesn’t take too long either – very recommended

“bestseller” – story of the bestselling books in American over the last 120-ish years – was an interesting read – although, very dry at times (such and such book begat such and such book begat…)

“unstoppable” – great tennis biography – tennis talent is for the young – like gymnastics, in a way – so how to manage kids when they are kids is always an interesting read to me b/c it relates to teaching gifted

“they said it couldn’t be done” – great book on the ’69 mets – got the history and the facts of NYC done well – enjoyed it

“a sin by any other name” – story of robert lee – a great-nephew years removed of the confederate general – and his reconciling his name with that general – this lee is a pastor and has made headlines by denouncing racism – it was an insightful book

“play by play” verne lundquist’s biography – or story of his announcing journey – i enjoyed reading it before the iron bowl

j