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The Generation’s Best Books - Scathing Reviews for People
Had to post this the old-fashioned way because del.icio.us is acting out of sorts
Yes, there is a real post coming, in fact, I hope a whole slew of them. Just need to suck it up and deliver for YOU!
| Category: General, Entertainment Tonight, Chomping on Books, All about me | 2 Comments
It’s great to be back among the flatlanders.
California is a nice place to visit. The weather is beautiful, the people are beautiful, the cars are beautiful, and the land itself is gorgeous. Everything is growing in California– there are plants everywhere, and yet it doesn’t feel like a jungle. And everything is so darn tasteful. The roofs all match in souther Cali.– stucco of various earth tones that make you feel like it’s all one big happy family. I see why some people think it’s a paradise, and why people miss it so much.
But it’s not home for me, and I’m not sure it would ever feel like home. Scary as it sounds, I like the fact that the weather changes here in the Midwest at a moment’s notice, and that I might need a jacket the same day I go swimming in Lake Michigan.
Regardless, I’m just happy to be back on the planet, instead of 32,000 feet above it. Don’t even get me started on the MD80 that had to make an emergency landing at O’Hare this morning. Had I been on that plane, that would have been it. After cleaning up my pants, I probably would have started investing in RV’s and cruise ships. For now, I’m happy I wasn’t, because it means that I will get back on an airplane again. Someday, but probably not in 2006.
So it’s great to be back in Illinois. V and I are switching roles– she’s super busy grad student, and I get to do grad school casually. This means the cat and I are spending time together. It won’t end well.
The rest of the California trip was fun. We went to Hollywood, and did the touristy stuff; the walk of fame, the hand/footprints outside Grauman’s Theatre, and we saw Cars at the restored El Capitan Theatre. Of course, we ate at In ‘N’ Out… On Saturday, we went to the Santa Barbara Mission and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Both were good sources of information for the local region, and had nice exhibits. The mission is in really good shape for 200+ years. (I’m guessing it has to do with the weather.) The museum had a random exhibit on frogs, which I took a decent amount of pictures. I’ll try to use some of them in the classroom next year, but for now, I put some of them on my flickr page, so you can see what I did.
I also got to read a lot on the trip, and for me, instead of grad school. I continued reading a fantasy series (Child of Flame by Kate Elliot) which I’ll get more into later. Currently, I have my fingers in three other books.
Dreams From my Father is the autobiography written by Barack Obama before he became a senator. It’s a pretty interesting read. It gives me a little more insight into who he is, and I feel like he is very candid in it.
On the recommendation of Minneapolis Red Sox, I’m reading Summer of ‘49 by David Halberstram. Just started it on the train yesterday, but I love baseball, and I’ve always been fascinated by DiMaggio and Williams, and the writing is good so far.
The most interesting book I’m reading right now is called Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball’s Lunatic Fringe. It’s written by Sam Walker, a sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal. It’s about his attempt to break into the elite circle of fantasy baseball. It’s a quick read, and really engaging, especially if you thought you were obsessed with fantasy baseball. These people are truly obsessed, but have changed the way we evaluate talent and the way statistics are used in the game. I highly recommend it if you love fantasy (fanalytic) baseball.
Next up: Getting finances in order, cleaning, healing, and grad school. It definitely doesn’t get any less busy until maybe March of next year.
It’s great to be home.
| Category: General, School Daze, Chomping on Books | 3 Comments
For my birthday, Mom and Jerry got me a book I requested off of my Amazon wishlist. (They also got me a kick-booty article of clothing that will make its debut this fall.) Entitled Teacher Man, it is a memoir of one English teacher’s struggle to edumacate the masses, from the poorest of the poor, to New York’s elite. Covering nearly 30 years of teaching in the public school, Frank McCourt pulls you into his classroom by discussing the fears we all have as teachers. Did I mention the fella won a Pulitzer Prize for writing Angela’s Ashes? Though many of the struggles McCourt faced as a teacher are not the same challenges I have had, his questions, his self-doubt, and his demeanor all struck deep chords in me. I’m not sure it was an excellent book, but I did enjoy it. It was difficult for me to understand all of his situations, with me being an elementary teacher in a much different area and era, but I think a lot of his anecdotes are universal. I am especially recommending this book to Mrs. Zigzag, (Mrs. PhiBetaKappa Peterson…); I think she’ll enjoy it.(You can even borrow my copy!) For the rest of you looking to read something a little different, it’s a quick read. Pick it up, read it, and then go hug a teacher. 
| Category: General, School Daze, Random, Chomping on Books | 3 Comments
Kenny and I started having conversation #72– good poems. Stop snickering, I’m a man, I like poems. MANLY poems. Here are the two we’re discussing:
For Once, Then, Something
Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
My myself in the summer heaven, godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths-and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.
~Robert Frost
And…
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!
< ~Rudyard Kipling
And just for fun, here are two “grown-up” poems that I’ve done with my kids… we used the visualizing strategy with them, and the kids did a nice job with making mental images:
The Dream Keeper
Bring me your dreams, you dreamers
Bring me all of your heart melodies
That I may wrap them in a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers off the world.
~Langston Hughes
And…
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it’s queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there’s some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~Robert Frost
Good stuff, one and all. Hope you enjoyed this fake, long post. I know I did!
| Category: General, Music and Movies, Site-Based Management, Chomping on Books | 1 Comment
So, um, I made a wishlist.
I like books and music, and stuff. People keep asking me what I want for special occasions. I don’t really want anything. But, I figured I might as well build this so that I can remember stuff for down the road. Besides, Amazon makes it so easy. I’ll try to keep it updated. It’s in the links over on the side too. Happy perusing!
My Amazon wishlist (beginning of it, anyway)
I’m feeling icky and happy at the same time. Stupid coroporate world making my life so easy, yet making me feel like a greedy little pig. (ooh, is the song in your head?)
| Category: General, Music and Movies, Chomping on Books | 6 Comments
Believe what you want.
Know this.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion Witch, and the Wardrobe was an 85 page book written nearly three score years ago. PBS did a version of the first three in the late ’80’s. And now, the first serious attempt has been made to recreate a story that enchanted me since the late ’80’s.
The attempt worked. TLMEK has been VERY excited to see this movie since the first trailers started making their way out at the end of summer. She has read the books 6.02214 x 10 ^23 times, and I warned her:
“Please don’t be disappointed if the movie doesn’t live up to your gianormous expectations.”
Boy, do I feel silly. This movie was excellent. Maybe it’s the nostalgia, but the story was told well. True, Clive can be a little dry at times, and the movie took awhile to take off, but as soon as we got all four children through the wardrobe, I was enchanted. Here’s why…
1) The actress playing Lucy was adorable. I wanted to take her home in a very baby-fever sort of way. Of course, TLMEK and I would have to move to the UK, so our little Maggie ( 
) would grow up British.
2) The CG was MUCH better than I thought it would be. Talking animals are talking animals, but it didn’t feel as clunky as I was expecting. They were not over the top; nor did they did not take away from the movie. I hope this means that we’re turning the corner of just-having-special-effects-for-special-effect’s-sake and learning how to integrate them more.
3) The story stayed close to the oringinal, and resident archivist TLEMK said the changes were neglible enough that she didn’t feel slighted. (ARE YOU LISTENING HARRY POTTER FRANCHISE? Stop, I know 85 pages versuses 700 pages is a lot different.)
4) Have a I mentioned how cute Lucy was? It hurt my heart. It may have grown three times its regular size.
Walden Media has optioned all seven movies, and most reviews expect the movies to get better as Narnia establishes itself, just as the ‘Arry Pottery Barn movies have.
So, go out and watch this movie.
Believe a little.
Have some faith in myth, and suspend reality for a bit.
We could all use a little of that every now again.
| Category: General, Music and Movies, Chomping on Books | 7 Comments
Well, that happened.
I saw the most recent installment of the Harry Potter movie series this weekend. Fun times abound as we got there an hour early, allowing we and the Zigzags to be 136th-139th in line. (We know this thanks to TLEMK’s genius detective work of counting all the people in front of us.)
Never fear, we got terrific seats. I love opening night at an over-hyped movie. People cheered at the WB logo. It was very Star Wars-esque
My review: Read everyone else’s review about it, and you’ll get the idea. They cut a lot out, and there wasn’t enough dialogue for me. I thought it captured the adolescence/coming-of-age/raging hormones part fairly well. I thought the end was probably the best part of the movie.
(Stream-of-conciousness time-out– Target is doing their celebrity wakeup call thing again this year to get a start onthe shopping. Kermit can call you. Did you hear me people? KERMIT THE FROG CAN WAKE YOU UP!)
I could rant and rave about the inconsistencies between the book and movie, but those are naturally going to happen. So much happens inside the head of Harry in the book that one pan and scan shot of Harry looking at Cho (who is adorable in this movie) is not nearly enough to convey all the emotions that any of the characters are going through in the story. I went back reread book V and VI after I finished IV, and now I just want the next book and movie to come out.
You may not be suprised to learn that I stick by my description of myself as a very fat Hermione, and here’s the proof:
Well, who are you?
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Calvin and Hobbes- The last great newspaper comic strip. By Chris Suellentrop
DUH.
Keep up, people, would you?
Watch the slide show, it’s good stuff.
| Category: General, Chomping on Books | 1 Comment
You may have noticed, gentle readers, that I like to read. And when the bookworm bites, I let him bite. Hard. So it should come as no surprise to those of you who know me that I read and finished a grown-up book over the last 24 hours. (Hey, I went to school today and worked, too!)) The Time Traveler’s Wife was delicious. It had a little bit of everything. Science fiction, intrigue, suspense (to me, anyway) and a little romance thrown in. Okay, it had a lot of romance. But good-macho-ugh, ugh,me-man-you-woman romance. And readers, I suggest you go out and read it. It has a very different way of looking at the world. I can’t give too much away, lest you ruin your appetite, but suffice to say, it was a terrific concept, and well-written. I know I missed a ton of symbolism and allusions, because the ones I caught were not until the last 100 or so pages of the book. Take a leap, and buy into what the author is selling, and enjoy(?) the ride that this book gives you. The narration is very smooth, even though it jumps around for forty years, and there many paradoxes, much to the befuddlement of my Star-Trek-cum-Marty-McFly trained brainiverse on how time travel works. Also, it was very Quantum Leap-y, only on a much more personal level. I can’t keep talking about it, so please, put it in your library queue, and go read it. Zigzag, I’m making TLEMK read it, so you can have it back soon. Probably tomorrow or Tuesday. Mrs. Zigzag, I will read anything else you suggest if you promise to make it good like this one. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a masterpiece for the ages, but I tend to find those a little full of themselves anyway.
Go read. Or I will be forced to bite YOU.
———————-
Update: After reading some reviews on Amazon, it turns out not everyone loves this book. Well, of course not. I try to enjoy books for what they are. I’m not smart enough to dissect them to the point of taking away the story. If I wanted that, I would go back to English 103. I liked it for what it was. That’s all. Now really, why are you reading this still when you could be reading that book and agreeing/disagreeing with me?
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