It's been quite some time since I've updated my blog. Since I have some extra time over the summer, I'll fill you all in on what I'm reading! Here are my last four Goodreads updates:

  Columbine was a nightmare to read. I stayed up until 3:45am, trying to find a spot to stop that wouldn't leave sleep impossible. When my eyes stopped working, I finally went to bed, but I dreamed of exit strategies and evidence. I woke to the sound of a gun going off (probably a neighbor boy's bb gun or a door slamming - it sounded tinny). I had to finish the book or risk feeling terrible until I did. It didn't work. I still feel terrible. What a raw and terrifying experience, and I feel like a voyeur, peeping in for my own....knowledge? entertainment? need to know? My only saving grace is that Eric Harris wanted to create fear and destruction, and I don't have to feed into that. Chilling. I think it has traumatized me.

Julia Alvarez follows four sisters as they navigate the Dominican Republic rebellion of the 1960s. I loved the personalities of each sister. Even though Alvarez wrote each section, I liked some sisters' voices better than others. The beginning felt a bit slow and confusing (which I found out later was Dede's voice), but I had to share juicy tidbits with my students as I read on. The end felt a little slow too, but overall an informative and fascinating novel. I'm going to go look up more about the Miribal sisters right now!

  I had to read this book at the right time. I picked it up before Christmas Break but just couldn't manage to get into it; however, when I picked it up during my social psych unit, I just couldn't get enough of it. I'm going to try to use parts of it in my social psych and personality units, but mostly I just want students to read it and say, "Hey! I've heard of Allport, Eysenk, and Fundamental Attribution Error before!" I'm excited to read Blink now!

  I read this book slowly over a long period of time because it was weighty and wordy. I even got mad at one point and put it down for a few weeks. I'm not sure if I agree with the central premise of the novel, but it definitely leaves me thinking. I have to say that I rarely find God silent, so it felt strange to read about God's silence in the face of suffering.

Grammar Time

Breaking Rules by Edgar Schuster

I've finally overcome my academic/professional reading aversion, and I enjoyed my first FULL book in the genre. This book a) substantiates some of my suspicions about the fallibility of grammar (only discovered since I started using mentor sentences and paying better attention to author's craft), b)takes the edge off my general grammar Naziness (already greatly reduced since my above discovery), and c) allows me some freedom in teaching grammar in a variety of ways - strength-based or mentor-text based. I would have liked it if Schuster provided a few more positive examples of what/how grammar can be taught, but I suppose that I'll have to move on to Jeff Anderson for that. 

Other Books Read since December

I haven't updated this since December...mostly because I had gotten busy and because I didn't think many people were reading my posts anyway. But in case anyone wants to know, these are some of my goodreads reviews since I last updated:


I am the Messenger
by Markus Zusak
I adore Markus Zusak. He is my current literary crush. I avoided I am the Messenger because it didn't seem to have the same feel as The Book Thief, but I am so glad I finally picked it up! Zusak's poeticism is beautiful, and his combination of humor and tension is impeccable. Did I mention I adore him?

I still need to chew on the ending because I feel mildly cheated by it. It was brilliant in it's exploitation of reader predictions but a tiny bit "deus ex machina." In general, I see the necessity of the conclusion, and I love Zusak so much I don't particularly care how he chose to end it.


The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #1)
by M.T. Anderson

 For the first several minutes of reading this book, my thought was, "What type of student would want to read this?" The book wasn't very action-packed...although it got better towards the end. The diction was challenging, and it didn't have the usual tricks to keep unmotivated readers wanting to read more. Besides my general desire to finish any book that I start, what kept me hooked through those first few chapters was the marvelous voice of the book-on-tape narrator. I've decided that the book leans towards a male audience with a proclivity for science, historical fiction, and disgusting details. (The main character spent quite a bit of time discussing the weighing of his feces.)

By the middle of the novel, I found myself sitting in my car to finish another scene. By the end, I was applying the novel to my understanding of racial injustice in America as well as the merits and faults of educational systems. Overall, a solid read, and I'll be looking for the second book to come out on "tape."

Crossed (Matched, #2)
by Ally Condie  

I listened to this book on a Playaway, which is basically a little box that you plug headphones into. Unfortunately, I think listening to the book reduced my enjoyment of it. The main character's name sounded too much like Ke$ha (which I just found annoying), and I kept tuning out while I tried to do other tasks around my house. My favorite part of the book was Condie's poeticism, and I think I would have enjoyed it even more if my eyes, hands, and mind were all involved in reading. 

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

This is a book I'll need to chew on for a while. The narrator's experience is so foreign yet familiar that I need to tease my thoughts and emotions out a bit. A very intriguing read, and I can't wait to talk about it at the Cedar Springs High School Book Club the Tuesday after break. 

The Secret Adversary (Tommy and Tuppence #1)
by Agatha Christie  

So, I'm rediscovering my love for Agatha Christie...mainly because the library near my house doesn't have much of a selection of books on tape. I ADORED Agatha Christie when I was in middle school, and it's fun to re-experience my complete inability to figure out who the bad guy is - even if I already read the book before. Also, I've realized that Agatha Christie probably was a key player in my interest in human nature and psychology. Until I read her books more recently, I didn't realize all of the analysis of human nature that goes on in a good Agatha Christie mystery.

This particular mystery was unique because it was NOT a murder mystery with a typical Agatha Christie detective solving the crime. It was more of a WWI conspiracy mystery without much murder at all. Really, only the bad guys die. I had some strong hunches about who the secret adversary was from the beginning, and even though I guessed wrong, then guessed that it couldn't be that simple, and then vaguely considered the right answer, I felt accomplished at my sleuthing work. In most Agatha Christie novels, I feel completely lost - either too many suspects with plausible motives or too few. It was a nice treat to actually feel some ability to narrow down the evidence! I also found this novel free on my Kindle...so bonus!  

 

Son of Laughter by Frederick Buechner

I read this book on recommendation from a friend. She loves this book and wanted to share it with me. Now, it was a far cry from the young adult literature that I have gotten used to reading, and I wondered what I was going to get out of it. Buechner beautifully crafted this earthy drama covering the life of the Biblical forefather Jacob. Although his writing style is terrific and I enjoyed his literary genius, the walk-away message for me came at the end of the novel: "[God] makes us no promises about life. I do not know what he promises to the dead if he promises anything...He gives us daughters and sons so our seed may live after us and the promise he has made us may be kept to the world's luck and blessing" (p. 273). Since Jacob's time, it seems that God has revealed more about death; however, I believe that God put us on earth to live here and help make it the best place it can be for the future. The book reminded me that as I go through struggles and challenges, God is working out his plan for myself and for generations after me. I have a responsibility to live this life well rather than to avoid it by staring only at the glories of heaven.

On a somewhat related note, tragedy and mistakes and deception and out-right evil are part of Jacob's story, but somehow it all turns to God's purposes. It reminds me of Tolkien's Iluvatar singing Malkor's discord back into the musical theme that created the world and cast its story. Hopefully, I have my eyes open to see how to live well now on this earth and to turn darkness back into light as best as I am able. 

Saint by Ted Dekker

I was slightly annoyed by this novel...

First, because it is a sequel, and I didn't realize it. The entire time I was thinking, "I should know the back story. Should I stop and read the other book first?" However, I was listening to it on CD, so I really didn't want to stop, nor did I know if the library even had the first book.

Second, it is Christian fiction, and the Christian themes weren't fully developed. I was waiting for a wonderful, philosophical, spiritually re-energizing message. I was disappointed. Maybe I missed it because I was listening in the car in broken chunks. However, the main character supposedly found his powers because of his belief in God, but the book doesn't adequately show how this transformation happened, completely skipping any of the compelling thoughts that go along with a theological shift. The best spiritual message came in the form of explaining that Christians get comfortable in the world, and when they suddenly realize that they don't fit in with the pattern of the world, they would rather stick with their new behaviors than to be thought of as freaks. Now that I write that, I'm not sure if I completely agree with the idea that Christians are meant to be opposed to the world...weren't we all created for it? I guess I'll take it for what it is worth...sometimes Christians can't fit in...and sometimes Christians get persecuted. In any case, I didn't feel like my faith benefited from this read - I'm willing to say this is more my fault than the author's, though.

Finally, I listened to it on CD. The actor who read the novel did a TERRIFIC job with all of the voices; however, some of the general scenes didn't pack as much punch as the author might have intended. I kept trying to decide if I would have found the story more captivating if I was reading it in my head.

So, it was okay. I might go back and read the first book in the series...just because I feel like I need to know the back story. We'll see. For now, I'm going to be listening to an Agatha Christie mystery in my car.

Madeleine L'Engle and Connectedness

I've had this blog idea for quite some time now, and I'm finally taking the time to write it down.

"'We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.' That's how it is with human beings and mitochondria and farandolae--and our planet, too, I guess, and the whole solar system. We have to live together in---in harmony, or we won't live at all." - Meg Murry in A Wind in the Door


"'So if we blow up our planet it would certainly have some small effect on our solar system, and that could affect our galaxy, and that could....'

"'The whole chain-reaction theory?' Sandy asked.

"'More than that. Interdependence. Not just one thing leading to another in a straight line, but everything and everyone everywhere interreacting.'"  
                 
                    - Conversation between Meg and her brother Sandy in A Swiftly Tilting Planet

L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet is easily my favorite of her Time Trilogy (or Pentogy? Quintogy? Series?) STP is also similar in theme to the second book in the series, A Wind in the Door. This theme has been following me around lately, and I've been working towards connecting the dots. In both STP and WD, a small person or event has astronomical impacts. The novels emphasize the importance of caring for ourselves and others, not just for our own sake's but for the sake of the universe.  

A few weeks ago in church, our pastor referenced a book in which a social researcher explored what made societies unhealthy (in the areas of physical illness, mental illness, crime rates, poverty rates, and more). The researcher concluded that the countries that were MOST unhealthy (the USA was the 2nd runner up for the Unhealthiest Nation Award - big shocker) were the countries that had the greatest disparity between the rich and the poor. And it wasn't just entire countries; states, cities, regions showed similar tendencies. The places in the US with the least economic disparity were healthier than those with the most. And it wasn't just the poor that demonstrated the symptoms of an unhealthy culture. The wealthier classes had higher rates of depression, mental illness, anxiety, heart disease, cancer...

The researcher determined that the best way to create a healthy nation is to close the socioeconomic gap. It seems like an impossible task. Maybe the first step is to see the problem, rather than bury our heads in our same-class neighborhoods and schools and jobs. Now, I don't think this is intentional for most of us, but our culture has pushed us here. It may be time to push back.

On all sides, I'm seeing the power of interconnectedness...and the responsibility of it. Now what to do?

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Veronica Roth's debut novel is fluid and engaging. The plot moved swiftly and effortlessly through each climactic moment. I read this book because I heard that it was better than Hunger Games, and although I can praise Roth for her story-telling abilities, I did not find its themes as personally relevant as the themes in Hunger Games. I was also slightly annoyed at the use of commas before subordinating conjunctions in the middle of sentences (maybe grammar is changing again?); however, as I entered the storyline, I no longer read them as disjointed parts of the sentence and simply enjoyed the plot. 

By the way, Veronica Roth is only 23 years old! I'm hoping that some of my promising creative writing students are published by that age!