Sunday Post #2: Lazy Reading Week

Sunday PostI did not do a whole lot of reading this week. My students’ semester 1 grades were due, and I was stressed out (which means I probably should have read), so I wound up wasting a lot of time playing games on my iDevices, noodling around the the Internet, and listening to the Runaways (and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts). I am super excited that Joan Jett is being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (about time!). I have always thought she just oozed cool. I remember watching her music videos when I was a kid—her dark hair and makeup and her black clothes. I didn’t consciously model my teenage look on her, but now that I look back, I can tell I was definitely dressing and making up my face a bit like a tamer version of Joan Jett. I am also excited to see Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Green Day, the Smiths, and Nine Inch Nails being inducted. It makes me feel old, though, because all of these groups were music I listened to in high school, and they shouldn’t be old enough to be inducted. I don’t feel that old. Actually, Green Day came after high school for me. And don’t remind me Nirvana was inducted last year.

In other book news, I will be participating in some TLC Book Tours soon, and these two books arrived in my mail this week.

The Tell-Tale Heart and the Serpent of VeniceI actually have never read Christopher Moore before, but a work colleague has and said he’s funny. I hope I can still follow along in The Serpent of Venice without having read Fool first. I admit I wanted to read it after hearing comparisons to Monty Python and reading that it’s a mashup of Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and “The Cask of Amontillado.” Who could resist that?

Venice, a long time ago. Three prominent Venetians await their most loathsome and foul dinner guest, the erstwhile envoy of Britain and France, and widower of the murdered Queen Cordelia: the rascal Fool Pocket.

This trio of cunning plotters—the merchant, Antonio; the senator, Montressor Brabantio; and the naval officer, Iago—have lured Pocket to a dark dungeon, promising an evening of spirits and debauchery with a rare Amontillado sherry and Brabantio’s beautiful daughter, Portia.

But their invitation is, of course, bogus. The wine is drugged. The girl isn’t even in the city limits. Desperate to rid themselves once and for all of the man who has consistently foiled their grand quest for power and wealth, they have lured him to his death. (How can such a small man, be such a huge obstacle?). But this Fool is no fool . . . and he’s got more than a few tricks (and hand gestures) up his sleeve.

As an English teacher who has long taught “The Cask of Amontillado,” I have often wondered, and engaged students in wondering as well, what the thousand injuries of Fortunato were. I hope I remember enough of The Merchant of Venice to follow along.

I thought the premise of The Tell-Tale Heart looked interesting:

After years of excessive drink and sex, Patrick has suffered a massive heart attack. Although he’s only fifty, he’s got just months to live. But a tragic accident involving a teenager and a motorcycle gives the university professor a second chance. He receives the boy’s heart in a transplant, and by this miracle of science, two strangers are forever linked.

Though Patrick’s body accepts his new heart, his old life seems to reject him. Bored by the things that once enticed him, he begins to look for meaning in his experience. Discovering that his donor was a local boy named Drew Beamish, he becomes intensely curious about Drew’s life and the influences that shaped him—from the eighteenth-century ancestor involved in a labor riot to the bleak beauty of the Cambridgeshire countryside in which he was raised. Patrick longs to know the story of this heart that is now his own.

It’s not my usual fare, but the aspect of the blurb that piqued my curiosity was Patrick’s quest to learn more about the boy and even his family history.

In addition to these two books, here is the shortlist of books I want to read next:

 
 

 I have actually had The Lotus Eaters for a while—I seem to recall receiving it from PaperBackSwap. I heard about All the Bright Places from Shelf Awareness. I heard about We Were Liars at a recent English teachers’ conference. I was actually able to hear E. Lockhart and David Levithan speak at that conference (Jacqueline Woodson, too!). Men Explain Things To Me may have been another Shelf Awareness find, but I can’t recall. I do clearly remember reading a review or a blurb or something. I was raised in a different time, and I’ve only recently realized some of the ways in which my voice has been silenced. I know that sounds pretty crazy to some people, but conditioning and simply being used to things really affects awareness. And acceptance, too, I think.

Before I dive into all of these books, however, I need to finish The Traitor’s Wife aka The Wolves of Andover. I’m about halfway done with that one.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week on your blog, and showcase books and things we have received. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Overdue Updates

Worcester Academy on Flickr

It has been some time since I updated this blog, and as I have explained before, a job search was taking up quite a bit of my time. Not only was I not blogging much, but frankly, I wasn’t reading much, either. I’m pleased to announce that particular search is over. I accepted an offer and signed a contract for the position of Technology Integration Specialist at Worcester Academy in Worcester, MA. We currently live in the Atlanta-area, so needless to say, this is a substantial move. I haven’t moved this far away from a current residence in over 20 years, and I haven’t even moved to a different state since 1996—and that was moving from North Carolina back to Georgia. We have no family in Massachusetts, nor do we have that many friends, but even though it’s a bit of a scary prospect, we are excited about the adventure, too.

Now that a decision has been made and I can refocus my free time, I am hoping that you’ll see more frequent updates here and that I will also have more time to read. I’ve missed that.

If you are familiar with the area around Worcester, please feel free to offer information or advice. I’m all ears. The only time I have been there was when I visited the school in March. I have only been to Massachusetts twice before. Once on a school trip with my students the first year I taught at Weber, and once on a trip to Salem with the family. Both times I thoroughly enjoyed myself. My daughter Maggie is a real history buff, so I think she will like the historical aspect of living in Massachusetts. A part of me has always been interested in the state, but I never dreamed I’d have an opportunity to live there.

WWW Wednesdays: December 14, 2011

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s YA novel [amazon_link id=”0142400017″ target=”_blank” ]Catalyst[/amazon_link]. It was, incidentally, mentioned in the most recent book I read by Sherman Alexie: [amazon_link id=”0316013684″ target=”_blank” ]The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian[/amazon_link]. It’s one of Junior Spirit’s favorite books. I also recently read [amazon_link id=”0142402516″ target=”_blank” ]Looking for Alaska[/amazon_link] by John Green. You can read my reviews of these books here and here. John Green will be in Atlanta next month, and I think my daughter wants to go see him. I have also finished Stephen King’s novel [amazon_link id=”0451169522″ target=”_blank” ]Misery[/amazon_link] since I last checked in with WWW Wednesdays. My review of that book can be found here.

I am not totally sure what I’ll read next. It’ll be something from this list. I have a lot of those books already, many on my Kindle, and it seems about time for a Kindle book.

WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays: December 7, 2011

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Wow, I haven’t played along with WWW Wednesdays in a long time.

I am currently reading several books. The main one is [amazon_link id=”0451169522″ target=”_blank” ]Misery[/amazon_link] by Stephen King. I have seen the movie, and I thought Kathy Bates was brilliant in the role of Annie Wilkes. I had never read the book, and I admit that reading King’s memoir [amazon_link id=”1439156816″ target=”_blank” ]On Writing[/amazon_link] is what prompted me to finally pick it up. I am enjoying it a hell of a lot. I’m also still dipping into [amazon_link id=”1439170916″ target=”_blank” ]The Emperor of All Maladies[/amazon_link] by Siddhartha Mukherjee. I can totally see why it won the Pulitzer for nonfiction. It’s not just an interesting subject; it’s well written. I tried reading [amazon_link id=”1613821530″ target=”_blank” ]Anna Karenina[/amazon_link] on DailyLit, but I finally had to admit I wasn’t into it when I had a huge backlog of unread book installments and no desire to even open them. I have to just say it: I’m not into the Russians. I have tried them and tried them, several times, and I have given them a fair shake. I think it’s time to give up trying to be cultured. I picked up [amazon_link id=”1466210303″ target=”_blank” ]Madame Bovary[/amazon_link] instead, and while it hasn’t grabbed me yet, I will give it more than two installments. I guess I’m also still reading [amazon_link id=”074348486X” target=”_blank” ]As You Like It[/amazon_link] when I think about it.

I recently finished a re-read of [amazon_link id=”9626343613″ target=”_blank” ]Sense and Sensibility[/amazon_link] read by Juliet Stevenson. I highly recommend her Naxos audio book readings of Austen’s works. I think the only one she didn’t record for them was [amazon_link id=”9626343567″ target=”_blank” ]Pride and Prejudice[/amazon_link]. Stevenson is a brilliant reader. I also recently finished [amazon_link id=”0142411841″ target=”_blank” ]Twisted[/amazon_link] by Laurie Halse Anderson, who consistently writes amazing books for teens that are straight out of the Judy Blume School of writing about what young people are really like and what they care about. I discovered that Laurie Halse Anderson creates playlists for her books, so given that I love creating Spotify lists, I went ahead and put her playlists in Spotify (at least all the songs that were available). Here is her playlist for Twisted. Naturally, you need to have Spotify to listen. Here are my reviews for Sense and Sensibility and Twisted.

The next book I read will be either Sherman Alexie’s [amazon_link id=”0316068209″ target=”_blank” ]The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian[/amazon_link], John Green’s [amazon_link id=”0142402516″ target=”_blank” ]Looking for Alaska[/amazon_link], or Laurie Halse Anderson’s [amazon_link id=”0142400017″ target=”_blank” ]Catalyst[/amazon_link]. I am in a YA mood right now (probably because I just went to NCTE). I also really, really want to read [amazon_link id=”0062024027″ target=”_blank” ]Divergent[/amazon_link] by Veronica Roth soon, but I don’t have it, and neither does my school library. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was recently challenged here in my home state of Georgia. My daughter, however, says I should start with Looking for Alaska, but that I’d better be prepared to cry. I think I will probably read that one first just because she wants me to and so we can talk about it.

So, what are you reading?

WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—August 31, 2011

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Sharyn McCrumb’s [amazon_link id=”B000MWFFS8″ target=”_blank” ]The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter[/amazon_link]. I have just been tearing through her books, but this one is fairly dark! Still good. I think I should finish it before too long, and then it’s R.I.P. Time.

Speaking of which…

Peril the First

I’m doing it this year. I am not playing around. Four books or bust! Actually, I think I have a shot this year since I seem to have figured out, at nearly 40 years old, how to read a little faster. Better late than never.

I recently finished [amazon_link id=”0451197399″ target=”_blank” ]The Ballad of Frankie Silver[/amazon_link] by Sharyn McCrumb (review).

I am not sure which books I’ll read next yet, but I have several ideas. Sharyn McCrumb books count for the R.I.P. Challenge! [amazon_link id=”0345369068″ target=”_blank” ]If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O[/amazon_link] arrived in my mailbox today via PaperBackSwap, so maybe that one. Looking forward to the challenge, as I do every year.

WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—August 24, 2011

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading [amazon_link id=”0451197399″ target=”_blank” ]The Ballad of Frankie Silver[/amazon_link] by Sharyn McCrumb, and it’s engaging in a different way from [amazon_link id=”0451202503″ target=”_blank” ]The Songcatcher[/amazon_link], which I recently finished (review). A few choice quotes:

It is difficult to explain the law to laymen. They seem to think that justice has to do with right and wrong, with absolutes. Perhaps when we stand before our Maker on Judgment Day, His court will be a just one, but those trials held on earth are not about what happened, but about what can be proven to have happened, or what twelve citizens can be persuaded to believe happened. Sometimes I think the patron saint of lawyers ought to be Pontius Pilate, for surely he said it best: What is truth? (227)

Sounds to me like an excellent explanation of law, or at least courtroom trials. Here is another I liked:

Colonel Newland eyed me sadly. “You are dealing in justice, Mr. Gaither,” he said. “I am dealing in mercy. I hope some day—before it is too late—you find that Mrs. Silver is deserving of both.” (230)

Frankie Silver, if you didn’t know, may or may not be the first woman executed for murder in North Carolina (Wikipedia cites a news article describing an earlier case, but everyone else says she was the first—plus, I’m not sure about the source as it isn’t on a news site). She supposedly killed her husband with an ax and dismembered him. Keeping in mind that I am not finished with this book, and some new twist may change my mind, I have two theories about Frankie Silver:

  1. She did the crime because, as we say in the South, her husband needed killing. A translation for non-Southerners: He was doing something like beating her or hurting their baby or even cheating on her. Now, I don’t mean to say that people deserve to be killed. I only say that when they commit wrongdoing, and they are subsequently murdered, the “He needed killing” defense has been considered viable in some corners of the South.
  2. She didn’t do it, but she knew who did, and she was protecting them for some reason.

In either case, I think her trial, if it happened the way it is described in the book, was a gross miscarriage of justice. Even if she did the crime, some procedural mishaps should have resulted in a mistrial or she should at least have been granted an appeal.

I am not sure what I’ll read after this book. Everyone at work wants me to read [amazon_link id=”0553386794″ target=”_blank” ]A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One[/amazon_link], and I want to, but it’s so long! I want to be done with any books I pick up before the R.I.P. Challenge, and there is no way I can finish that book in a week. I am going to win that challenge this year. I mean it!

WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—August 17, 2011

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading a wonderful book by Sharyn McCrumb called [amazon_link id=”0451202503″ target=”_blank” ]The Songcatcher[/amazon_link]. I am so in love with this book! It’s definitely running on five stars and is, so far, one of my favorite reads of the year. I keep thinking it would make a great movie along the lines of [amazon_link id=”B0001MDP3G” target=”_blank” ]Cold Mountain[/amazon_link] or [amazon_link id=”B00005JLTZ” target=”_blank” ]Coal Miner’s Daughter[/amazon_link]. I’ll tell you one thing: It gives me even more appreciation for my ancestors who settled in North Carolina, Georgia, and points west when it was truly wilderness.

I recently read [amazon_link id=”0061579289″ target=”_blank” ]Adam & Eve[/amazon_link] by Sena Jeter Naslund (review).

I think I am going to dive into [amazon_link id=”0451197399″ target=”_blank” ]The Ballad of Frankie Silver[/amazon_link] by Sharyn McCrumb next, as I am loving The Songcatcher so much. Her latest book, [amazon_link id=”0312558171″ target=”_blank” ]The Ballad of Tom Dooley[/amazon_link] will be out before too long. I can’t wait to read that one.

What about you?

WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—August 10, 2011

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m currently reading Sena Jeter Naslund’s [amazon_link id=”0061579289″ target=”_blank” ]Adam & Eve[/amazon_link] for a TLC Book Tour. I am about halfway through. I have to say that so far, it’s not bad. I wouldn’t have chosen the book if I had not been asked whether or not I wanted to participate in the tour, but I have read a lot of reviews that pan the book, and it’s averaging three stars on Amazon and less than that on Goodreads, so perhaps it spins out somewhere in the second half. I’m keeping an open mind.

I recently finished [amazon_link id=”0451531388″ target=”_blank” ]A Room With a View[/amazon_link] by E.M. Forster (review), which I truly enjoyed. Great read!

I have a large TBR pile, and I plan to pull one of the following books next:

  • [amazon_link id=”0451202503″ target=”_blank” ]The Songcatcher[/amazon_link] by Sharyn McCrumb
  • [amazon_link id=”0451197399″ target=”_blank” ]The Ballad of Frankie Silver[/amazon_link] by Sharyn McCrumb
  • [amazon_link id=”0679781587″ target=”_blank” ]Memoirs of a Geisha[/amazon_link] by Arthur Golden
  • [amazon_link id=”0152053107″ target=”_blank” ]A Northern Light[/amazon_link] by Jennifer Donnelly
  • [amazon_link id=”0312304358″ target=”_blank” ]Moloka’i[/amazon_link] by Alan Brennert
  • [amazon_link id=”0060791586″ target=”_blank” ]The Widow’s War[/amazon_link] by Sally Gunning
  • [amazon_link id=”0452289076″ target=”_blank” ]Burning Bright[/amazon_link] by Tracy Chevalier

I’m leaning to the Sharyn McCrumbs just because her ideas about using old Appalachian murder ballads and stories appeals to me. I come from old Appalachian hill folks on my dad’s side, and something about Appalachians has always spoken to me.

WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—August 3, 2011

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m currently reading [amazon_link id=”0451531388″ target=”_blank” ]A Room With a View[/amazon_link] by E. M. Forster. It’s not much like anything I’ve ever read before. The characters are perhaps the most realistic characters of any books I’ve read recently. I’m liking it.

I recently finished [amazon_link id=”1402241372″ target=”_blank” ]The Winter Sea[/amazon_link] by Susanna Kearsley (review). I enjoyed it. A nice book to finish my summer on. Our new school year starts on the 15th, but I came in this week to prepare some technology training materials for faculty. I expect my reading will slow down, now.

The next book I will probably read is [amazon_link id=”0061579289″ target=”_blank” ]Adam & Eve[/amazon_link] by Sena Jeter Naslund. I have to admit I’m nervous about it. I agreed to read it for a book blog tour, but it has pretty low ratings, and most of the reviews read something along the lines of “What was she thinking?” and “I loved [amazon_link id=”B000FC10KC” target=”_blank” ]Ahab’s Wife[/amazon_link], but what is this?” I actually really loved Ahab’s Wife (review). We’ll see.

WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays—July 20, 2011

WWW WednesdaysTo play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m currently reading a book my mother passed on to me called [amazon_link id=”B000BLNPIW” target=”_blank” ]More Than You Know[/amazon_link] by Beth Gutcheon. It was published over a decade ago, and I think she found it at a library or paperback book sale. I’m over 1/3 the way in, and it’s really good so far: New England setting (love those), ghosts, and an ax murder that has a familiar Lizzie Borden taint. I hadn’t actually heard of this book or seen it mentioned on book blogs. Let’s bring it back! I’ll save more for my review.

This week, I finished reading [amazon_link id=”055338483X” target=”_blank” ]Garden Spells[/amazon_link] (review) and [amazon_link id=”0553384848″ target=”_blank” ]The Sugar Queen[/amazon_link] (review) by Sarah Addison Allen since my last WWW Wednesdays update. Both of them were very enjoyable, but I liked Garden Spells better. I will probably read the rest of Allen’s books. It’s fun to find a new author you like.

The next book I read will probably be [amazon_link id=”B001P3OLEM” target=”_blank” ]Burning Bright[/amazon_link] by Tracy Chevalier. She’s another author I enjoy, and this is one of only two books of hers that I haven’t read, the other being [amazon_link id=”B000234N76″ target=”_blank” ]Falling Angels[/amazon_link]. Also, how did I not know that Tracy Chevalier was on Twitter? Followed. If I don’t read Burning Bright next, I’m not sure what I’ll read, but I have a huge TBR pile, and I daresay if you are at all interested, you’ll find out what book I pick next soon enough. 😉