A day of reading ahead... (with update)

This is the last weekend of Spring Break and I was determined to spend one full day reading over break. That leaves today or tomorrow. Since tomorrow is church and a party, Sunday won't work, leaving only today. So I begin. Here are a few reading goals for the day:

1. Finish A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley. I've been listening to the audiobook and am now on the last disc. Done. I listened to the last disc as I drove around doing errands.

2. Read the entire book Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kubler. It is short, just over 200 pages. I read over 100 pages on Saturday and finished it this morning.

3. Read 50 pages of Mansfield Park, my weekly page allotment for the read-along. Done. Poor Fanny, Henry Crawford won't leave her alone.

4. Get started with A Shadow in the Wind, make a beginning dent, enough to really launch me into its plot. I listened to three audiodiscs out of 16, which is approximately page 100.

5. Read a few poems in 100 Poems to Lift Your Spirits edited by Leslie Pockell. I started the day with a poem from it, "To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It is a fairly long poem but here is a favorite verse:

Teach us sprite or bird,
   What sweet thoughts are thine:
I have never heard
   Praise of love or wine
That poured forth a flood of rapture so divine.

I read a few more poems. Unfortunately, I am in the portion of the book full of the Romantics' poems, not my favorites. Here is one I did like, though:

"Dawn Revisited" by Rita Dove

Imagine you wake up  
with a second chance: The blue jay
hawks his pretty wares 
and the oak still stands, spreading 
glorious shade. If you don't look back,

the future never happens. 
How good to rise in sunlight, 
in the prodigal smell of biscuits--- 
eggs and sausage on the grill. 
The whole sky is yours

to write on, blown open 
to a blank page. Come on, 
shake a leg! You'll never know 
who's down there, frying those eggs, 
if you don't get up and see.

6. Drop by the library to pick up the book club kit for this month. Peek at the book, Secret Son. Got it and I read the first page of the book which is set in Morocco. I'm looking forward to reading more of it soon.

7. I also read a small gift book called The Jane Austen Companion to Life which is full of illustrations by C.E Brock.

I'm off to read but will check back in later. It was a good day of reading.

Mansfield Park Read-along, the fifth installment

Fanny Price with Henry Crawford at the dance.
Illustration by WC Brock

Mansfield Park Read-along is designed to break the book into bite-sized pieces suitable to easy reading and enjoyment.

50+ page goal met? Yes, to the end of Chapter XXX.

Action: Fanny's brother, William, is visiting Mansfield Park on leave from the Navy. The Bertrams attend a dinner party hosted by the Grants. Lady Bertram shows her true colors when she cannot play even the simplest card game and required Henry Crawford to tell her what cards to play every turn. As William's visit nears its end, Sir Thomas decides that it is high time for Fanny to come out and he decides to host a dance in her honor. Both Mary Crawford and Edmond give Fanny gold chains to wear with the amber cross given to her by her brother. The whole rest of the section is devoted to preparations for the dance, the dance, and the aftermath of the dance. Henry Crawford was quite devoted to Fanny the whole evening. The next day Henry and William leave for London where William will join back up with his unit. When Henry returns several days later he confesses to his sister how much he loves Fanny. He admits that he didn't start out with pure motives but he is now besotted by Fanny.

Surprises: Both Mansfield Park movies spend quite a bit of time on the dance and on Henry's attentions to Fanny Price. What surprised me was his lengthy revelation to his sister about how much he loves Fanny and how his motives toward her have changed from the beginning. I suppose that the movies don't have time for true love confessions but it explains a lot. Henry is no longer just trying to make a little hole in Fanny's heart, he is setting himself up for a broken heart himself. Of all Austen's Cads I have always liked Henry the best and after reading chapter 30 where he makes his true confessions it makes me like him even better.

Quote:
Henry to his sister, Mary...

'Yes, Mary,' said he, drawing her arm within his, and walking along the sweep as if not knowing where he was---'I could not get away sooner---Fanny looked so lovely! I am quite determined, Mary. My mind is entirely made up. Will it astonish you? No: you must be aware that I am quite determined to marry Fanny Price.'

Another poetry installment

I'm in Eugene, Oregon right now for Spring Break. Today I went to the Smith Family Bookstore which is huge, overstuffed with used books, indie bookstore. It is fun to hunt for the diamonds in the rough. I stumbled upon the poetry section and bought several poem books: two love poetry books; a poetry book by Barbara Kingsolver (who knew she wrote poetry?); poems by Rumi; poems by Rilke with the German on one side of the page, English on the other; and another titled 100 Poems to Lift Your Spirits edited by Leslie Pockell.  Here is a silly poem I found within, by the publishers of Mad Magazine. Apparently they were making fun of the William Wordsworth poem Daffodils. That poem starts, I wandered lonely as a cloud. Here is the MAD magazine version of the poem for your enjoyment today?

I Wandered Lonely as a Clod

I wandered lonely as a clod,

Just picking up old rags and bottles,

When onward on my way I plod,

I saw a host of axolotls;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

A sight to make a man's blood freeze.

Some had handles, some were plain;

They came in blue, red pink, and green.

A few were orange in the main;

The damndest sight I've ever seen.

The females gave a sprightly glance;

The male ones all wore knee-length pants.

Now oft, when on the couch I lie,

The doctor asks me what I see.

They flash upon my inward eye

And make me laugh in fiendish glee.

I find my solace then in bottles,

And I forget them axolotls.

From MAD magazine #43, 1958.

Here is what axolotls look like, in case you wanted to know. 

I didn't even know such a thing existed until today. Ha!

Photo from National Geographic

Doesn't this photo just make you want to laugh?

I hope you enjoy this poetic moment.

April is National Poetry Month

 April is National Poetry Month.

Here are 30 suggestions found on Poetry.org of ways to encorporate more poetry in to your life. I'm heading outside to write a poem on the driveway, if I can find the sidewalk chalk. What will you do today?

Muffy sitting in the middle of the Shel Silverstein poem, Where the Sidewalk Ends.

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
*
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
*
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
                                                      ---Shel Silverstein

Review: Your Food is Fooling You by David Kessler, M.D.

Several weeks ago another book blogging librarian commented that she had lost 70 lbs applying the principles in David Kessler's The End of Overeating, the grown up version of Your Food is Fooling You: How Your Brain is Hijacked by Sugar, Fat, and Salt. I am trying to eat more healthfully and I am looking for all the solid eating advice I can get. If Kessler's advice worked for my blogging friend, why not me? However, when I commented on her site that I was reading this book she replied that The End of Overeating is a much better choice. Perhaps this book, rewritten for young readers, is too simplified.

Since I haven't read its adult counterpart I can only remark on the book I read. Your Food is Fooling You makes a lot of good points about the food industry and how companies purposefully manipulate ingredients to make their food full of more salt, sugar, and fat because they know that it will make us like it better. Kessler makes comparisons to the brain chemistry of drug addiction when referring to our food choices. Our brain reward center is altered just like what happens with addicts when we select high fat/high sugar foods. The scariest part of this research shows how the brains of very young children stop sending cues to tell them that they are full and should stop eating when they consume these unhealthy diets. Thus our society is getting fatter and unhealthier every year. Oddly, these changes really started in the early 1980s, right around the same time our obsession with low-fat diets started.

All of this information, while fascinating and often very disturbing, was presented in a very simplistic way. I wanted more meat and potatoes (excuse the pun!) in the form of more specific details. Without these details the book seemed tedious and monotonous. It was not until page 142 of 168 that Kessler finally offered some suggestions for how to overcome our food choice problems. Two of these suggestions really intrigue me and I plan to use them myself:

• Make "rules" for yourself around eating that you repeat to yourself frequently. When we get the urge to overeat we have a split second to make a decision. These rules help us make the right choice. Kessler says that "rules are not the same thing as willpower. You aren't arguing against something you want. You're reminding yourself that you really don't want it." These rules can have a very powerful impact on cravings especially if the rule is paired with a reason. For example a rule might be I don't eat candy bars and the reason because I always feel worse after I eat them.
• Use any form of exercise as an alternate reward or diversion. I've noticed that this really works for me. If I want a snack after school but delay snacking until after I've walked the dog or did 40+ minutes of Wii Fit activities, the desire to snack is usually gone altogether. This all goes back to brain chemistry. In the middle of the afternoon I want a lift because my chemicals are down, food will temporarily provide that lift but so does exercise. Exercise has the increased benefit of the chemicals lasting longer and burning-up calories not adding more.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, but with a note that this book was designed for young readers and probably won't seem meaty enough for most adult readers. I hope to pick up Kessler's The End of Overeating which I suspect will be more to my liking.

Sunday Salon, March 30

Spring Break

An artsy shot of me taking a cold walk on Pacific Beach. There was lots of flotsam and jetsam.

Pacific Beach, Washington: Don and I got out of town and into a traffic mess Friday after school to begin Spring Break at the Washington Coast. The weather is exactly what one would expect for this time of year---windy, cold, rainy, with a few sunbreaks.

New camera being put to good work. Don played with his new camera and got some very good shots on our beach walk.

A seagull posing in the surf

We both had our hoods up to cut the wind. This is one of my first attempts on the new camera.

Quinault Lake: The wettest place in the continental United States with over 150 inches per year as an average. It is in the middle of a rare temperate rain forest. With moss and dripping trees everywhere we understood we were in a very wet place.

Inside Quinault Lake Lodge built in 1926.

Quinault Lake Lodge

Biggest Sitka Spruce in the world: This tree is over 1000 years old. It was a wet, muddy walk to see it.

Looks like a regular big tree until...

...you stand at its base.

Books read this week:

• Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Don and I finished listening to this audiobook on our trip to the ocean on Friday. We discussed many aspects of Cheryl's trip along the Pacific Coast Trail during our breakfast the next day.

Currently reading:

• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I've read another 50 pages toward my read-along challenge.
• Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple. I've decided to finish it but it's not a favorite choice.
• Your Food is Fooling You by David Kessler, MD. 

Spring Break Reading Goal: I want to finish the last two books on the above list and to start The Shadow of the Wind while making progress on my next audiobook, A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley. I also hope to spend one whole day doing nothing but reading! Call me a reading addict!

Mansfield Park Read-along, half-way point

The Mansfield Park Read-along is an opportunity to read a favorite book at a pace that is doable each week. Join me.

Read 50+ pages. Goal accomplished this week. I have read up to Chapter XXV.

Action in this section: Sir Thomas Bertrand returned from Antigua before the group could put on their play, Lovers' Vows. He was not interested in allowing them to continue with their endeavor and within a few days of his arrival home the while stage was dismantled and the cast dispersed. Mr. Yates left to seek his dramatic talents elsewhere and Henry Crawford left for Bath. Maria Bertrand was quite distraught about his departure and within a few days of his leaving was more determined than ever to marry Mr. Rushworth to spite him. Once the wedding took place she and her sister Julia moved to Sotherton, the Rushworth estate ten miles from Mansfield Park. Later Julia joined her sister as she honeymooned in Brighton. Now Fanny was the only young female at home and Lady Bertram depended on her more than ever. Mary Crawford also befriended Fanny and invited her over to the parsonage often, much to Mrs. Norris' consternation. One night when Fanny and Edmond were invited to dine with the Grants and Mary Crawford they found that Henry had returned from Bath. At that time Henry made up his mind to make Fanny Price fall in love with him and to cause just a small hole in her heart. In the last chapter in this section we are introduced to William Price, Fanny's dear brother, home on leave from the Navy.

Surprises: this sections explains many of my questions I have had from viewing the film adaptations of the book. I often wondered why Sir Thomas Bertram was so uncaring toward his children when he returned from West Indies; Why Maria married Mr. Rushworth so soon after her father's return; and what was Henry Crawford's motivation for flirting with Fanny. Mr. Bertram isn't the monster that the films make him out to be; Maria Bertrand was in a rush to marry Mr. Rushworth because she had her feelings hurt by Henry when he quitted the parish so abruptly; and Henry clearly liked the idea of having everyone in love with him and enjoyed the chase and the challenge. He just didn't understand the determination inside Fanny to resist him.

Favorite quotes:
Mr. Rushworth to Sir Bertrand---

'If I must say what I think,' continued Mr. Rushworth, 'in my opinion it is very disagreeable to be always rehearsing. It is having too much a good thing. I am not so fond of acting as I was at first. I think we are a great deal better employed, sitting comfortably here among ourselves, and doing nothing.'

No wonder everyone thought he was a very dull fellow.

Edmond to Fanny in reference to a compliment that her uncle paid her---

'You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at. You must try not to mind growing up into a pretty woman.' 

Top Ten Tuesday Things on my Bookish Bucket list

Top Ten Items on My Bookish Bucket List:

• Write reviews for all the YA books I have read so far this year and stay current from this point forward. Also catch up on adult book reviews I'd like to include in my blog. I've only written 10 reviews this year but read 26 books so far. Gulp.
• Complete my own reading challenge to Read all the 2014 ALA YA Award Winners. Of the ten books/categories in this challenge, I still need to read five books.
• As part of the Chris Crutcher Challenge I would like to read at least three more of his books this year.
• Read the Prinz Honor books: Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susan Cokal and Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool. That will keep me current on my challenge to read all the Printz books every year.
• Get myself current on the 2014 YA Audiobook challenge. I signed up to read/listen to twelve YA audiobooks and I've not checked back in with the host of this challenge with an update yet.
• Whittle away at my other reading challenges for the year: to read six books I should have read in school but didn't; read ten books from my own shelves at home; and to read or deal with the books on my bedside table.
• Work with my principal to get new desktop computers in my library. This is long overdue.
• Spend time with the EBSCO Trial Database over Spring Break.
• Spend one full day reading over Spring Break.
• Go see the Divergent movie.

 

Review: How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig

Months ago, on a quick trip to the public library, I picked up and checked out How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. I didn't go into the library to get this book. I was picking up a book on hold for my book club. At the moment before seeing this book I was thinking how reading was becoming a drudgery because I always have to read books for a purpose (ie., book club) and never because I just want to read them without any other purpose. I selected this one off the Lucky Day kiosk thinking it would be fun to thumb through it for an hour or so.

Little did I know that this book would become my new obsession. I renewed it three times because I was reading it so slowly and carefully. I was savoring every word. It took time to let everything sink in. Then the library wouldn't allow any more renewals, so I bought a copy for my own library, which I promptly checked out to myself.

Ken Ludwig is both an acclaimed playwright and an actor. He used several simple tools outlined here with his own children.

[He] used the simple methods in How to Teach your Children Shakespeare while teaching his own children how to understand, and love, the works of the Bard. Beginning with memorization of short, specific passages from Shakespeare's plays--it is easier than your kids think--Ludwig's approach then illustrates how Shakespeare's plots, characters, language, and themes continue to resonate today. ---From the book jacket

Before you stop reading because you have no children or your children are grown and out of the house, so are mine! I wish that I'd had this book when they were young but I got a ton out of the book anyway. Now I am pushing it on all my friends with young children so they can benefit from it. And I think this book would be a wonderful resource for any English teacher at the secondary level. As I read the book I couldn't help myself. I had to tag favorite phrases, tidbits about Shakespeare and pieces of advise from Ludwig. Look at the hilarious number of tags I placed in the book before I was done. Ha!

Post-it note tags on just about every page. How will I remember all that I want to save?

 Let me give you some examples of the type of stuff I tagged:

Ludwig talks about the value of viewing different movies of the same Shakespeare plays and noting the evolution of his works over time:

First, Shakespeare's plays, like all great works of art, are open to interpretation. That is the hallmark of art that has real value. If a work is static and never changes, then it can never tell us much about how we change over our lifetimes, and how mankind changes over time. As Hamlet says, it is the artist's job to hold the mirror up to nature.
-----
Second, Shakespeare's work is particularly susceptible to this openness of interpretation, more than the work of other dramatists. The critic Stanley Wells calls this a 'self-renewing quality' of Shakespeare's work 'as if [Shakespeare] himself had had the wisdom to leave his plays slightly unfinished, to hold back from final decisions so that future ages could read into them preoccupations of their own times...Perhaps there is, somehow, a more mythic quality about Shakespeare that enables his plays to speak to generation after generation.'

Ludwig offers his paraphrases for Shakespeare's line to assist understanding for young learners. I really appreciated this part of the book since I have never studied Shakespeare and sometimes feel so lost when I read words and phrases I don't understand. Here is one paraphrase he provided for Henry's battle cry during the battle to conquer the city of Harfleur in Henry V:

Shakespeare’s lines	Ludwig’s paraphrase
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,     Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage…   Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,  Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit   To his full height. On, on, you noblest English! ... Be copy now to men of grosser blood.             And teach them how to war.	Stiffen your muscles and disguise your peaceful natures with looks of rage so you can frighten the enemy. Bare your teeth and stretch your nostrils, hold your breaths and raise your spirits to their full height. On you noble Englishmen! Show lesser men how to fight.

Stories of how Ludwig's children personalized Shakespeare into their own lives were both funny and poignant. I've decided it is not too late for us. I'm grabbing some of Shakespeare's funniest and loveliest lines and will incorporate them into my speech and life. Maybe they will catch on. I hope so. Here are a few lines his family was able to personalize (and I hope to copy):

• As an excuse for slacking off, insert family member's name for Hal...

"Why Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal. 'Tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation."

 ---Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1

• Or the ultimate insult, best if said in a loving, teasing way...

"Sell when you can; you are not for all markets."

 ---Rosalind in As You Like It

I close this review with one more quote from Ludwig:

Shakespeare should not be an occasional visitor. He should be a permanent house guest, living in your spare room down the hall, ready to join you for a meal or an evening whenever you crave his company...

He goes on to say that he wants Shakespeare to be an inspiration to our children so they know that can do anything if they work hard. He wants them to eventually recognize his genius and to find consolation in him in their old age.

Be sure to visit the How to Teach Your Child Shakespeare website.

Sunday Salon, first Sunday of Spring 2014

Flowering plum blossoms, our street trees

Weather: beautiful with clear skies and a warmish temperature. Yesterday Don and I got out and pruned the roses. It was a month later than we usually try to do it but the weather has just hasn't cooperated until this week.

Musical selection of the day: Vivaldi's Spring. It is a very familiar song but appropriate for today. Cue the music and listen while you read the rest of the blog post.



My sister and her husband were in town this weekend. They live in Boise so we don't don't see them as often as we would like. When our kids were young they lived in Tacoma. All important family functions were spent together. I miss that so much. We really enjoyed our time together. Their youngest son just announced his engagement and plans a late summer wedding. Whew, the kids are growing up so fast.

FitBit: I had my fist 10,000 step day this past week. When it happened the Fitbit practically exploded with its weird form of congratulations. I actually didn't know what was happening until I pieced together the pieces later in the day.

Health tip of the week: Apple Cider Vinegar has surprising health benefits from lowering cholesterol, aiding in digestion, even curing hiccups. Drink 1-2 tablespoons mixed into at least 12 oz of water before a meal for dietary help. Admittedly it is an acquired taste but it is doable, not ghastly. I recommend that you buy organic apple cider. It will be a bit cloudy. Read about all the ways that is helps the body here on the Reader's Digest site.

Apple cider vinegar can help you lose weight. Here's why: The acetic acid suppresses your appetite, increases your metabolism, and reduces water retention. Scientists also theorize that apple cider vinegar interferes with the body's digestion of starch, which means fewer calories enter the bloodstream.----Apple cider benefits

Jane Austen Week is this week. It starts tomorrow. I am ready. The video has been selected. Prizes purchased. Trivia questions written. I hope to recruit a whole new army of Jane Austen fans. Stay tuned for updates this week. I may have to suspend the video on Wednesday because my Principal decided to host a full-day meeting in the library. I will either have to move the video to the auditorium or just cancel it for a day. For this reason I selected the shorter of the two videos I was considering. (I will reveal my selection tomorrow.)

Book read this week:

• How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig...I LOVE this book and intended to write a review this week-end but left the book at school. Look for my review tomorrow! Needless to say, I recommend it. 

Currently reading:

• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. Don and I are sharing the audiobook edition, both listening as we drive to work and back.
• Your Food is Fooling You: How Your Brain is Hijacked by Fat, Sugar, and Salt by David Kessler. I had hoped to finish this book this week-end but also left it at work when I ran out of school on Friday afternoon.
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I'm reading 50 pages a week in a read-along.
• Where'd You go Bernadette by Maria Semple. To finish or not to finish, that is the question. This book is not my cup of tea.

Refreshment Sunday: This Sunday represents the middle Sunday of Lent and is thought to be the refreshment Sunday. Not sure what that is all about but I've decided to take it literally and the family will make a trip to the Root Beer Store in a few minutes. Yes, you read that right. We have a Root Beer store in our town. It makes me smile to even say it. Ha! 

Prayers for: Dom, my cousin's daughter's husband, who is shipping out to another tour of duty in Afghanistan this week. We prayed over Dom today in church so I know that he will be safe.

Soup of the week: Corned beef, cabbage, potato soup. Heck, we love our corned beef meal on St. Patrick's Day, why not take the ingredients and make soup? We had it three times and still have leftovers.

Today

BY BILLY COLLINS

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,
a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies
seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking
a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,
releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage
so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting
into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.
Source: Poetry (April 2000).

Lovely Spring colors

View from our front yard