September 12, 2017

August Book(s) 2017

I had a weekend recap more or less ready to go...it mainly involved Scott taking the dogs hunting and me watching hurricane coverage..but then I woke up to an internet outage yesterday so I scrapped it.

I taught a somewhat brilliant 9/11 lesson yesterday (I'm sure I'll get a phone call or something) and put more into it this year than I have in the past. These kids were born in 2008 (...). They really just wanted to know about the specifics of the towers, both Twin and the new one, and the planes. We also got into a conversation about how the subway works. We read some great non-fiction kid-friendly articles and watched the BrainPop video, as well as listened to President Bush's speech from that day. I will #primarysource forever.

And then they referred to # as a hashtag when they saw it in front of a number.

I can't do everything.

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Happy wedding anniversary day to us! 





Someone said to me a few weeks ago, "Oh you've been married what? 4 years?". No, 8 years today. It's been a VERY full 8 years at that. 
^This was exactly one week before we packed up and moved from Pennsylvania to Alaska.


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As a rule, or pattern that I've noticed anyway, I don't read in August. I don't have time. Which is a cliche excuse but I don't have the headspace to read. Headspace is equal to time, I've often found.

That being said...I had plenty of time to watch Bachelor in Paradise lately. It takes very little mental effort, that show. But it also takes an enormous amount to physical time.

Also, I suspended my Audible account but I wasn't enjoying audiobooks the way I used to. I have one if I get desperate, but otherwise, I'm okay for now with podcasts on my commute.


Beartown by Fredrik Backman C-
My thoughts are many: This is probably the most popular book out there. I was on the wait list for 3 months.
I felt that I had trouble connecting with the story because of the vague, prosy writing. This, for example, is the last page. Don't worry, it gives nothing away.


To me, this makes about as much sense as "pizza....garage.....couch".

This kind of writing makes me feel like I'm reading or watching or visualizing through some sort of filmy material. I couldn't get the clear picture of what was happening. I heard one or two reviewers say that it's a book about hockey that's not about hockey. No. It was entirely about hockey. I found myself skimming all the locker room and practice scenes. Even the game scenes, really. The big game was told in snippets of metaphors from different POVs and it was exhausting. I skimmed ahead. I found I did like the end, though I skipped from 70% to 96% in order to get there and I feel like I didn't miss a thing. The only reason, I'm convinced, I even got to the end is because I had 11 hours left on my library loan and I'd waited 3 months for the book and, darn it, I was going to get to the last page.
I didn't like A Man Called Ove either and this could very well be a translation issue because the books are originally written in Swedish. However, I think Britt-Marie was Here sounds interesting. I don't think it's the author alone; I think it's a translation problem and these Swedish books just aren't for me OR it's because Backman is put up on this pedestal and maybe I expected too much.
But, then again, it is the vagueness that got me; both of the Megan Miranda books I've read were written the same way and I'll never pick up another of hers again because I found I just couldn't connect and didn't care. Beartown was much better, as a story, than either of those, though.
But I do think Beartown had too many characters. For the ones who were introduced mid-book, I just didn't care.

Did you read it?

I really think I like the method of reading one or two books and doing deep-dive reviews, rather than reading a bunch and not being able to talk about them.

Linking up with Jana and Steph!