Sunday Salon...June 23

Peninsula Park, NE Portland, Oregon

Weather: Rainy.  The way to tell it is summer in the Northwest...the rain is warmer.

Yesterday: My husband and I drove down to Portland, Oregon for a romantic evening as an early celebration of our 31st anniversary and to see friends visiting from the East Coast. Unfortunately I was nursing a bad cold so I don't think our romantic week-end quite lived up to the hype.

Today: we met our friends in NE Portland for brunch at Pine State Biscuits where we sat a covered picnic table and shared and ate the amazing biscuits meals. Afterwards we visited a nearby rose garden in Peninsula Park. It is appropriate to visit a rose garden in Portland since it is the Rose City. Thanks for the visit Ken, Carol, Allison, and Kevin. We love you.

This past week: was the first week of summer vacation for me but I worked or went to classes everyday.  The last two weeks of school are just a killer and I couldn't get everything done that I needed to do to close out the school year.  Now all the purchase orders are finalized, I've talked to the Principal about the technology needs for next year, and have cleaned up all loose ends except for the textbook repair.  I will probably work away on these repairs for a few hours here and there for the next few weeks. It is supposed to rain for the next few days so this may be as good a time as any to finish up this odious task.

Books read the past two weeks:

• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl---this was an audiobook selection that I listened to as I drove back and forth to work and during the rode trip down to Eugene to help my sister celebrate her retirement. It was my first qualifier to the Big Book Summer Challenge as the print version is over 400 pages.
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen---I finished this book in less than six weeks reading around 50 pages per week to stay on track.

Currently reading:

• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver--- my current audiobook. Kingsolver is an amazing writer.
• The Summer Prince by Alaya Johnson---a possible Mock Printz selection, so far not a favorite but it could have something to do with reading it way too slowly.

From the kitchen: Salsa Chicken with polenta.  I made up the recipe. It's easy.

In the garden: three of four rhododendrons deadheaded; sweetpeas transplanted; lilacs starts relocated; and pesky blackberry upstart yanked out.

Another hilarious summer reading list

Piles of summer reading books.  Will I get to them all? 

Another summer.  Another hilarious summer reading list that is probably impossible to complete.
Every summer I set my sites on reading new YA lit, old favorites, book club selections, and books that might entice reluctant readers.  Most of my summer reading is done for the expressed reason of finding good books to recommend to my students in the fall.

Here are the books I hope to get to:

Mock Printz preview books:

• Winger by Andrew Smith
• Etiquette Espionage by Carriger
• Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys 
• Summer Prince by Alaya Johnson
• Darius and Twig by Walter Dean Myers
• Maggot Moon by Gardner
• Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
• Midwinter Blood by Sedgwick
• A Corner of White by Moriarty
• Teeth by Moskowitz
• Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Medina
• Imprisoned: The Betrayal of the Japanese Americans
• Emancipation Proclamation by Bolden

Book Club Selections (that I know of to date):

• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• Saving Cee-Cee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Of interest to my teen readers:

• Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle
• Deathwatch by Robb White
• Crap Kingdom by DC Pierson
• Quarantine Lex Thomas
• Burger Wuss by M.T. Anderson
• The Silence of Murder by Mackall
• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• Henry Franks by Peter Salomon
• Trapped by Michael Northrup
• This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer Smith
• The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by Karen Finneyfrock

For my Reading Challenges:

• Period 8 by Chris Crutcher (Chris Crutcher Challenge)
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Big Book Summer Challenge)
• The White Bicycle by Beverley Brenna (Read all the ALA Award books)

My reading goal is usually 30 books so I might be able to accomplish this list if other books don't push their way in and crowd out these.  Wish me luck!

What's on your reading list?

Review: The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

Lucy is a normal teenager in every way except one. She is a piano virtuoso. At fourteen she was winning all kinds of competitions and was even recorded with the Cleveland Orchestra where she was the piano soloist. Just when it seemed that her talent was coming to a crescendo, Lucy quit the piano and hadn't even touched it for ten months. All of her family members attention shifted to her younger ten-year-old brother who was also extremely gifted on the piano. Now Lucy is just a normal teenager, going to high school, doing her homework, hanging out with friends, fighting with her mother, and wondering what happened to her and where did the music go. When her brother gets a new piano teacher, Lucy is lured back into playing. But can she play the piano without getting sucked back to the life she despised? Can she find a way to live a balanced life where she, not her family, make the decisions about what is best for her?

After finishing The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr I set the book aside thinking that normal teenagers, patrons of my library, would not be able to relate to Lucy and her issues. Students at my school don't have parents whose jobs center around their children and their musical talents. My students can't afford sweaters that cost $400 and obviously, because they attend a public school, don't have the funds to attend a private school, especially a music conservatory. Then I started thinking about other books that are great favorites where the characters live very different lives than  normal teenagers. Books can teach us things about ourselves and our lives without being identical to our experiences.

Ultimately Lucy is struggling with herself.  What kind of life does she want to live and who should have the say in those decisions? Aren't those questions that all teens grapple with? My students may not be struggling with which conservatory to attend but many will grapple with what college to attend and what classes to take.  All teens have to negotiate their relationships with their parents as they mature. These are universal themes. Lucy makes some good and some bad decisions along the way.  She hurts people that she loves, yet she finds ways to make things right. She struggles to find balance in her life, something that she didn't have the first fifteen years. These are issues my teen readers will be able to relate to.  In addition, musical students will appreciate all the musical references from musical terminology to actual titles of both classical and modern songs. I even spent a bit of time with iTunes listening to the short sound bites of songs referenced in the book.

If you are looking for another review of The Lucy Variations, I recommend that read The Playing's the Thing by Vivien Schweitzer of the NYT. Her review of the book has both a fuller summary (hint: a few spoilers) but really crystallizes the beauty of the book and the writing. This review turned my thinking from "meh" to good.

Lucy reminds us all that we need to find the joy in our lives. When she returns to music she won't allow it to control her, like it did before, "when she'd be too stressed to think about the beauty of music, when she'd trudge to the piano like it was punishment."

I consumed this in the audiobook format. Sara Zarr, the author, read the book herself and did a nice job.  I also enjoyed the musical interludes though I did notice that the book might reference the music of a famous composer and then the audio recording would play a piece by a different composer altogether. It bugged me at first but I didn't think about it much as I got more immersed in the story.

At the end of the book Lucy shares a list of her favorite songs. The song Happier by Guster was one of the songs on the list. I think (my opinion) that part of the reason Sara Zarr selected it because of the picture where a kid is smashing a piano. Have a listen.  If you go to YouTube someone has compiled videos of all the selections. Take a look at all of the,  Enjoy.


Metamorphosis by Philip Glass is an appropriate selection thinking about what the word means and that it is a piano selection.


Thanks Sara Zarr for an excellent book and for bringing some new music into my life.

Sense and Sensibility Weekly update #5

Willoughbys

50-page weekly met? Yes, plus some. This week I finished Part 3, chapters 1-11, which is pages 210-292 in this volume. At one point I thought I might actually finish the book but textbook fatigue would take over every time I sat down to read.

Willoughby is caught by Elinor and Marianne and the truth comes out.

Action: The Steele sisters go to stay with John and Fanny Dashwood and Anne lets the cat-out-of-the-bag about the engagement between Lucy and Edward. The girls are almost literally thrown out of the house in anger and revulsion. Edward, when forced to choose between Lucy or his inheritance, chooses Lucy and doing the honorable thing. Elinor now has to face it that she and Edward will never be together. She finally tells Marianne everything she knows and the sisters console each other. Col. Brandon offers his parish to Edward so that he can make a living somehow. Finally the girls are to go home. Mrs. Jennings is to accompany them as far as the Palmer's residence. While there Marianne gets gravely ill. It is feared that she might die. Col. Brandon rides to Barton Cottage to get Mrs. Dashwood. On the return trip he confesses that he is in love with Marianne, has always been. About the time that Elinor is expecting her mother and Col. Brandon's return, she is summoned out of the sick room and finds Willoughby waiting for her.  He unburdens his guilt on her as he confesses his true feelings about Marianne. Elinor's feelings toward Willoughby soften a bit. Once Marianne is well enough to travel and go home, Elinor tells her about the conversation that she had with Willoughby. His confession seems to bring Marianne a measure of peace and she confesses that she now sees that she would never have been truly happy with him in the long run.

Willoughby makes his confession to Elinor.

Surprises: This section could be titled "Confessions". The movies make quite a bit about the confessions of Lucy that she is engaged to Edward but do not play up or even include Willoughby's confessions to Elinor. I was most surprised to learn that the note that Willoughby wrote to Marianne the night after she saw him at the dance which contained a locket of her hair, was written by Willoughby but dictated by his fiancee, Miss Gray. I was also surprised by the length of his guilty confession made to Elinor and the effect this confession had on her and eventually on Marianne. Knowing how the story ends I am surprised there are only 30 pages of book left to go.

Note: Even though I think of myself as a person very familiar with the works of Jane Austen I keep finding little surprises each week as I read along. I encourage you to pick up a Jane Austen novel this summer and look for those little surprises within, too. By following this format of reporting on the action and remarking on my surprises I find the reading opening up to me.

End of the year haiku (or are they senryu?)

After reading a description of the formula for writing haiku poems (5-7-5 syllables) I learned that this Japanese poetry is typically about nature. Whereas senryu poems are merely three-line poems that deal with foibles of human nature, often in a satirical way and are not bound by a syllable count. So here are my three-line poems (haiku, senryu, or otherwise) about my experiences at the close of this school year. Please take a look at last year's end-of-the-year haiku here.

Who needs to eat?

No time to grocery shop?

Steady diet of textbooks.

Armloads of textbooks.

Cranky students, teachers, all.

Last day of school "joys."

A teetering pile

of novels on my dresser,

but no time to read.

Fell asleep today

while sitting on the blue couch 

writing this haiku.

Two rolls of tape left.

Unfortunately won't fix

Piles of broken books

Last day of school year
Happy, sad mixed together-
Friends retiring.

End of year party
Laugh so hard I nearly pee-
Teaching stories!

Sense and Sensibility Weekly Update #4

I've been off-the-grid for the past week so this post is a day late. My apologies.

50-Page Goal Met? No. In addition to not having enough time to blog, I haven't been reading much either. I did read 42 pages, Part 2, Chapters 9-14, ending this weeks reading on page 207.

Action: Marianne now knows that Willoughby is to wed another woman, a rich woman, and she is completely undone.  She just wants to leave and go home to her mother. Mrs. Jennings tries to tempt her out of her sadness with rare foods and social events. Col. Brandon shares with Elinor that a young charge of his was impregnated by Willoughby who left her destitute. Though Marianne  hears this new information, she is not completely ready to consider him a cad. On a rare outing, the sisters end up bumping into their half-brother John Dashwood. He asks them to introduce him to the Middletons and to Mrs. Jennings.  Soon the families are socializing together often. The Steele sisters, who are staying with the Middletons, end up in the social mix also, which ends up being advantageous for Lucy as she has an opportunity to meet Mrs. Ferrars. Elinor thinks that Edward's mother is a snob but Lucy thinks otherwise. During this time Charlotte, Mrs. Jennings daughter, has a baby, forcing Marianne and Elinor to socialize more with the Middletons, the Steeles, and their sister-in-law, Fanny. Edwards makes an awkward visit while Lucy happens to be visiting. Elinor seems resigned to her lot in life without him.

Surprises: On my last update I reported that there were few surprises and that the dialogue was very familiar as it was very close to what has been used in the movies.  This section is the opposite.   Few of the details were well known to me and little of the dialogue was familiar. It is hard to imagine life so ordered by social rules. Marianne and Elinor seems to be genuinely tortured by how much time they have to socialize with the Middletons, the Steeles, and their sister-in-law. Apparently unmarried women had very few opportunities to move about freely in society without the escort of a married woman.

Expand your horizons...READ

This video speaks for itself...ENJOY!





 

Sense and Sensibility--- Weekly Update #3

Here is the weekly update on my progress reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. My goal is to read a minimum of 50 pages, to note differences between the films and books, and to discover some surprise within. How did this week go towards these goals?

50 page goal met? Yes. Part 2, Chapters 1-9. I'm on page 164 out of 308, in my edition.

Current Action: Lucy Steele tells Elinor ALL about her love for Edward Ferrars and details of their long engagement. Elinor dare not tell her mother or sisters what she has learned. Mrs. Jennings invites Elinor and Marianne to stay with her in London for the season. Almost as soon as they get to London, Marianne sends off a note to Willoughby. When he doesn't arrive, she sends another note and spends all her time looking out for him. They eventually end up at the same party where Willoughby is decidedly cool. The next day he sends Marianne a note explaining that he is engaged.  If she was a basket case while she waited to hear from him, she is now a double basket case. I selected the cover picture this week because so much of the action involved Marianne moping around.

Surprises: There were few surprises for me in this section. The action and dialogue is very similar to the films. Willoughby was more obviously in London than in the movies. We know this because he did drop by Mrs. Jennings house while the girls were out and later was spotted by Sir John Middleton who invited him to a dance he and his wife were hosting. Willoughby didn't attend or he would have run into Marianne.

Question: As close as Elinor and Marianne are I am surprised at how little they actually share with each other about what is going on inside their minds and their feelings. Do you think that it is realistic?

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards Announced

The 2013 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature were announced on Friday, May 31, 2013.

The Fiction Award Winner is Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell!

Honors go to Seraphina by Rachel Hartman  

and A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty

As you may know I am a huge fan of both Eleanor and Park and Seraphina. A Corner of White recently came to my attention but now I will have to run down a copy and read it for myself.

Unlike the American Library Association book awards which are announced in January and cover books published during a calendar year, Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards cover books published during a given school year. That is how Seraphina, published in July 2012, and the other two books, published in 2013, end up being considered for the same award.

For summaries of the books follow the link to the Boston Globe-Horn Book Announcement.

Sunday Salon...June 2nd

Weather: Overcast.  It was sprinkling this morning.  The weather was gorgeous yesterday afternoon, so much so that I got a bit of color on my face and took a ride in my husband's sports car with the top down.

Today: I have been very aware of songbirds. They have been singing so loudly and sweetly. For some reason I've been noticing them more than usual this week.

Yesterday: I volunteered with a few others from my church at L'Arche Farms. L'Arche communities are worldwide for individuals living with mental disabilities. The L'Arche community in Tacoma has a farm and the individuals work on the farm growing produce and plants for sale at Farmer's Markets in the area in the summer. In the winter they make soap and greeting cards from paper they made themselves.  It is a very cool organization.  Check out your area to see if they have a L'Arche community and learn how you can volunteer.

Last evening: My hubby and I went to McNamara's Irish bar so that I could have a glass of cold draft hard cider. It is a new favorite of mine.

This past week: we had our last Bethel S.D. Librarians meeting of the year at my house. Five individuals are retiring this year from our ranks. It was a wonderful celebration of their service but it is really hard to imagine the school year without them.

This next week: is all about textbook collection at work. Seniors last day is Friday so all their books must come in and fines/fees cleared.  Lots of work ahead.  In honor of it, here are a few haiku I wrote about textbook collection (See all here):

"I didn't do it," 

the red-faced student complains. 

Graffiti on page.

Black tape: bent corners,

Glue broken spine,  tape ripped page.

Book repair on cheap.

End of day drive home.

Listen to audiobook.

Only literary fix.

Books read the past two weeks (since I didn't post last week):

• Jepp, Who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh...set in the 1500s the story centers around Jepp, a dwarf who is forced to serve in Court of the Infantata. An audiobook selection.
• Freewill by Chris Lynch...the story of a boy who is experiencing a mental breakdown related to unresolved grief over the death of his father. This book was a challenging read because a portion of it was written in 2nd person as if the voice in the boy's head were someone else. This is the first book for which I've actually given a rating of 1 (bad). 
• Courage Had No Color: The Story of the Triple Nickles America's First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone...Interesting and infuriating in equal measure. The racism in our country's history just makes me sick.
• Uses for Boys by Erica Scheidt...a graphically portrayed description of the life of lonely teenager who becomes involved sexually early and for all the wrong reasons.
• The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr...Lucy is a piano prodigy who quits playing suddenly to the consternation of her family. This is a story of how she finds her way back to music and discovers what she loves along the way. This was an audiobook selection. At the end of the book we are treated to a list of songs that Lucy loves.  One is Beethoven's 5th Symphony, the 3rd movement. I was going to post a YouTube video of it here for you but decided instead for Beethoven's 7th Symphony, 2nd movement. I like it better.
• 
  

Currently reading:

• The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson...set in Brazil in some far off future.
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen...I'm nearly half finished. At this pace I will complete it within a six-week window of time.  Pretty good considering it took me a year to read Emma.
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia...my upcoming audiobook selection.

From the kitchen: Salmon with pesto and pine nut butter. This is Northwest comfort food.

Scripture today: Luke 16: 31  “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

I'm praying for: My daughter.  She has a job interview tomorrow. Also prayers for a friend who is struggling mightily with chronic fatigue and lack of calorie absorption.

Quote of the Day: "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." — Mother Teresa