"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Sunday Salon, Jan.11, 2015

Welcome Australians!
Weather: Drizzly and foggy. It has been really awful weather all this past week.

Australian visitor: last night we picked up our Australian visitor, who is chaperoning a group of students on exchange to our school for the next eleven days. We didn't get home after picking up Claire until after midnight. We look forward to showing off our state and area. Let's hope that this foggy weather pattern disappears soon. I keep thinking about this group of people leaving sunny, hot Australia for our foggy, wet weather.

More football: Exciting football days. Our Seattle Seahawks football team won their first playoff game yesterday evening, 31 to 17. Our University of Oregon Ducks play in the first-ever championship game vs Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday night. It won't be as exciting for us as the playoff game we saw in Pasadena last week but we will cheering from home this time.

Back-to-work week: I think a lot of teachers didn't spend time relaxing over the winter vacation. I heard more from teachers who said they needed a week off. After having just returned from two weeks off school that struck me as funny.

Graduate school applications: Carly has worked on her applications all week. She mailed one off today and hopes to hit submit on the others before the end of the weekend.  These applications have loomed large in her life for many months and we are so proud of her for hard work to get them done.

Book completed this week:
  • Clariel by Garth Nix...the prequel to the Old Kingdom series (Sabriel) and I just loved it. Nix is an Australian author so it is perfect timing that I just finished up a book by authors I am highlighting this week because of our international guests. Look for my review soon.
Currently reading: 
  • Half Bad by Sally Green...I have been SLOWLY reading this book for over a month and I am so close to finishing it I can finally say I will finish it. Sometimes when I read a book too slowly I just can't seem to get the traction I need to enjoy it but when I spend time with this book I really do like it, so I am not sure why I can't seem to make myself bear down on it to finish. Progress: page 330 of 394.
  • Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater... the third book of the Raven Cycle series. This is my current audiobook. The voice actor is Will Patton. I just love him. I'm on disc 8 of 9.
  • Please Look After Mom by Kyong-sook Shin...this month's book club selection. I have it on audiobooks but want to finish Lily Blue first. Eek! I must get going on it or I won't finish it.
From the kitchen: Homemade turkey meatballs and spaghetti one night, crumbled meatballs on homemade pizza the next. Not bad.

Funny quote: “Everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems, in case they are ever trapped in an elevator.” ― Lemony SnicketHorseradish

Shane Koyczan: To This Day...for the bullied and beautiful---it it worth the time to listen to this poem on TED.


5 comments:

  1. So what you're saying about the Sally Green book then is that it's "half good"? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, love the quote. Hope anyone trapped in an elevator with me knows a couple of good jokes and a few poems!

    readerbuzz.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I get what you mean about slowly reading a book -- odd how some books have momentum and others just don't even when I'm enjoying them.

    Thanks for the TED talk link -- a beautiful piece!

    Joy's Book Blog

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I understand that the Shane Koyczan poem has been made into a graphic novel. I will look for it for my library.

      Delete

I look forward to your comments and interactions! Join in the conversation.