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| The Stars and Stripes displayed for the Memorial Day Celebration 2016 |
Weather: Beautiful. Sunny skies and temperate temperatures making it very pleasant to be outside.
Memorial Day: Yesterday Don and I attended a public ceremony to honor American heroes, the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their military service. It was a moving ceremony with several speeches by politicians, appropriate songs sung by the Pierce College Chorale, and a naming ceremony where all military personnel from Puyallup who lost their lives in any conflict from WWI through the Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts had their names read out and wreaths were placed by the War Memorial in their honor. We remember. During this part of the ceremony a thought struck me, what will happen when this generation dies off? Who will remain to carry on these traditions? It seems really obvious by the average age of attendance that the young generations in our country are not interested in participating in these types of events. Sigh.
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| We remember. We are grateful. |
Long weekend: We had both Friday and Monday off work for the long Memorial Day week-end. Opting to stay home meant getting a few things off our "to-do" list. I've finished reading five books, four of them I've been working on for a while. Carly and I got outside and deadheaded the rhododendron bushes. Don and I pulled up a dead azalea bush and planted a few annuals for some summer color in its place. Right now Don is outside playing with his new birthday gift, a saw. He is making tomato cages. Friday nights we went to a Mariner's Game in Seattle. our team lost (boo) but we still got a great fireworks show afterwards (yay.)
Currently reading:
- Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley. A young adult book dealing with mental illness, panic attacks, and friendship.
- Lit Up by David Denby...the subtitle says it all: One Reporter, Three Schools, Twenty-Four Books That Can Change Lives.
- The Art of X-Ray Reading by Roy Peter Clark...another book about the value of reading, especially reading the classics. This book then focuses on what a writer can learn from these books to make his/her writing better.
- Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling by Tony Cliff...a graphic novel set in the 1800 with a female character who is like Indiana Jones.
- Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamela Turner...a real life Samurai who lived in Japan over 700 years ago. He is still a hero today!
- The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry...The Crusades, The Inquisition, Mystics. Europe in the thirteenth century. Love, love, love this book. (Audio)
- The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge, YA/print.
- We are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson. YA/print
- Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Audio.
- Circling the Sun by Paula McClain. Audio.
- Unbecoming by Jenny Downham. YA/print.
A confession and a promise: I seem to have taken an inadvertant hiatus from writing books reviews for the past several months. I am something like 15 reviews behind where I want to be. I promise to do better going forward and shall attempt to write at least shot reviews of those past books I missed. When I finally got around to counting them up the other day, I was very shocked at how behind I am.
Sorry your team lost but glad you got to see the fireworks. As for the reading, even if you aren't posting lots of reviews, it looks like you're rocking the reading, something I wish I could say I was doing, but lately just haven't been. Beautiful photo of the memorial above too.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with baseball games (maybe all sports) is that they can be so boring. Lucky we had a fireworks show to look forward to at the end of the game otherwise it would have been a total bust.
DeleteI would love to see an Ms game!Perhaps if you get very behind, just a thumbs up/down on each book and a brief reason why. It will catch you up, then you can go forward from there, without feeling overwhelmed. xoxo
ReplyDeleteGood advice. I think I will try to do just brief summaries along with my evaluation on these past due reviews. Nothing fancy. Several of the books are potential Mock Printz books so I want to focus on them, for sure.
DeleteYour thought about traditions is a very interesting one. I can only hope that there will be people to carry it on. Although as you say, the younger generation does make me wonder. You asked on my monthly post about how you are a high school librarian, and so am I! How cool that we got paired up in the comment challenge! I can't imagine school going that late into the summer. But then my school district starts back up the 2nd week of August, so we'll be back soon enough.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm behind on my reviews as well. The end of the school year was crazy! I'm hoping to get caught up this summer! We'll see.
Your June comment buddy, Lisa@Lisa Loves Literature
The young generation is not into joining organizations like past generations. Churches, service organizations, and other clubs have all experiences declining membership. I hope that someone comes in to replace those who fill the civic duties associated with Memorial Day, but I worry they won't.
DeleteIt's okay that you are behind on your book reviews. Summer is coming soon.
ReplyDeletehttp://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2016/06/that-happy-place-its-time-for-summer.html