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Reading is Life
The last week of the school year hits different every year. While the circulation stats, anecdotal evidence, and conversations with colleagues reveal many of our students are reading more than last year, we still have so very many students who are struggling and below grade level. I do not despair for them, because the teachers…
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Reading Goals 2020
The Backlist Reader Challenge: fifteen books I’ve been hoarding on my To Read shelf are getting read this year! 📚 #BacklistReader
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The Orphan in My Family Tree, Part 6
This is Part 6 of The Orphan in My Family Tree. It is the true tale of my ongoing search for the parents of my great great grandpa Fritz, who was orphaned in New York City in the late 1870s and sent, at the age of seven, to live with a foster family in Bow Valley, Nebraska.…
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The Orphan in My Family Tree
I’d like you to meet Fritz. He is my great great grandfather on my mother’s mother’s mother’s side. His parents are a mystery in my family tree, and I love a good mystery. Family lore informs us that Fritz, whose real name was Frederick, was born sometime in the early 1870s in New York City.…
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11 Books Behind
I’m generally more of a “the journey is the thing” person than a goal oriented person, but for the past few years I’ve enjoyed participating in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. In years past, I’ve set reading goals that I knew would be pretty easy to blow past. My biggest challenge during those years was actually…
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Reader Response: Thank You For Your Service
“Thank You For Your Service” was not optimistic or pessimistic, angry or trite. It was simply, overwhelmingly honest. Like, two boxes of tissues honest.
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The Half-Pint Award: What’s in a Name?
I am instead suggesting we have continued conversations as a reading community about building the best collections we can that include characters and stories that have the potential to connect with each of us in a way that makes us all better and that increases our understanding of our society, our history, and our connectedness.
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Reader Response: War and Peace
I loved War and Peace from the moment Pierre bumbled into scheming Anna Pavlovna’s party and proceeded to horrify everyone by fawning over Napoleon.
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Book Review: Ulysses
I appreciate Joyce’s technique and experiments with style. I found his echoes of, and connections to, other literary works rather fun. I, in turns, enjoyed Joyce’s cleverness and found that cleverness eye-rollingly overdone.
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Reader Response: Ulysses
I look forward to doing a book review for Ulysses next, but a Reader Response based on my margin notes felt more appropriate given the nature of the work. Okay so this may not be as bad as I remember I mean it’s just some dudes eating breakfast and borrowing money from each other and then…
Dog-eared & Overdue 