they say he has grit...i wanted a man with grit...

seriously one of the best books i've read in years. it was told so candidly through the eyes of a tough, determined little girl. i say little, but 14 wasn't so young back in the days of cowboys and texas rangers and mattie ross.

i can't get over how determined she was to avenge her father's death. she didn't stop until she got exactly what she wanted- first, the help of rooster cogburn; then, ownership of her brave little pony, blackie; and finally, the life of the man that killed her father. she even endured a nest of rattlesnakes.

not sure i could do that, but i AM pretty sure that mattie ross was the one with true grit...

a bear, an elephant, and a firefly walk into a bar...

sounds like the start of a really bad joke, but i implore you to read on...

i am a terrible reader these days...not only did i only halfway finish jane eyre, i abandoned all of those other books on my list except goblet of fire. i did pick up gentle ben (by walt morey) and the magician's elephant (amazing work of fiction by kate dicamillo, of despereaux fame) and read those to my students. we laughed, we cried, we waited for the elephant to appear and for ben to find mark again. it was a great way to end the school year.

this summer...

• i will finish goblet of fire and read the rest of the HP series so that lillie peterson doesn't disown me
• i will finish true grit. i really only have an hour of reading left...it is a really, really good book so far
• i will finish gregor the overlander, but probably not read the rest of the series
• i will finish my 9th grad school course, take a week off, then start the 10th and final course, and *hopefully* graduate at the beginning of august
• i *might* reread the anne of green gables series or gone with the wind...still deciding
• i will make drew watch firefly with me...i'm kind of embarrassed for him that he hasn't seen it

these seem like some pretty lofty goals, seeing as i only have three and a half weeks of summer to do this in. it's safe to say that the whole grad school thing is in the bag...unless i fail the capstone class. hopefully i'll have some time during my short break to update you all on my reading successes.

happy reading, y'all!

i got logophilia and the only prescription is more cowbell!

in honor of the philosophy course that's taking up my reading for pleasure time, i'd like to give a shout out to a few words that i like the sound of...whether you're into philosophy or not, you've got to agree with me that these words have a lovely sound and feel as they roll off your tongue...

aristotelian- can't you hear some shakespearian actor such as sir laurence olivier saying this?

thomism- i adore the silent 'h'

platonic- can be a good thing

epistemology- i just want the sssss to keep on going

dualism- i just like it

hierarchy- the 'ie' and 'ch'

aesthetic- again, letter combinations that make unexpected sounds

transcendentalism- how very walden of them to include this. another letter combination

i'm not sure i'm this bad yet...

maybe this is more like it...

13 things i love about you...

i don't feel like writing about books tonight. i had dinner with a friend earlier and i just want to write about him. he will probably never read this, but i want everyone reading to know how much he means to me.

in no particular order, here are just a few of the reasons i love matthew hartley:

• his favorite song is "bulletproof" and he still loves it and is known to break into spontaneous dance even when i sing it to him (loudly and quite obnoxiously) almost every time i see him.
• he wears clogs.
• he has a pink sweater...enough said.
• he took a class full of first graders who really had no direction and he taught them how to make connections AND use evidence from the text to support their ideas AND write it down...i still can't get all of my babies to do that.
• he hugs me when i've had a rough day...today was one of those days.
• he loses his phone and/or his contacts about every three months.
• he is such a country boy...we're still working on his grammar.
• when he was my intern, we had phil collins singalong parties while we set up my classroom.
• he writes the most detailed and thoughtful lesson plans i have ever seen...i wish i could say the same for myself.
• he can't say 'thesaurus'...i've coached him for months and he still can't.
• he can't function without his morning coffee.
• he loves his students more than anything and works long hours so that he can meet every one of their needs.

and most importantly:

• he still loves me, after a year of me bossing him around, making him change bulletin boards, hang up student work, annunciate in read-alouds, and fix his grammar...he should hate me, but he doesn't...

how fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes...

i have really become fickle in my reading over the last month, so i haven't posted. i am finding it difficult to prioritize my reading list, so much so that at one point i was reading about five books and trading off every night or two. i've put most of those down (yes, no. 1 ladies' detective agency) and i'm reading jane eyre right now for the first time. i also want to read true grit- it's sitting on my shelf beckoning me silently. then again, i really want to read the daily five again to keep it fresh in my mind as i train and retrain my students to be independent readers and writers.

i'm actually doing what so many of my students do everyday in class. there are so many amazing book options out there, and i really just can't decide what i'd like to read. so, i grab or download all the ones that strike my fancy and try to read them all. this is not the orderly way that my literary life is supposed to run. i need to simplify.

this is my currently reading list on goodreads.com (follow me on there, if you so desire). all excellent books, but not remotely related in theme. le sigh.

1. jane eyre by charlotte bronte

2. the four loves by c.s. lewis

3. harry potter and the goblet of fire by jk rowling

4. the no. 1 ladies' detective agency by alexander mccall smith

5. bud, not buddy by christopher paul curtis

on a side note, if i ever become a published author, i guess i have to decide if i'd rather go by my first two initials or all three names, since that seems to be a trend. OR, i could opt for a new pseudonym altogether...just a thought. i'm totally open for suggestions.

anyway, back to my fickleness...i think i'm going to work on jane eyre first since i enjoy it and the goodreads movie and book challenge is up in 23 days. that's a nice healthy goal. i can do that. according to my kindle app, i've completed 19% of the book. the other books will just simply have to go on spring break and enjoy their time on the shelf, my bedside table, the back of the couch...until i'm through with jane and mr. rochester...

happy reading and more importantly, happy spring break!

my kind of mystery

i am not very far into the no. 1 ladies' detective agency yet, but so far, i love it. that precious ramotswe is clever! i am especially enjoying the subtle humor that is present even in the most dramatic points of the story.

my favorite quote so far is from the very beginning of the book. here are the wise words of mma ramotswe...

"i love all the people whom god made, but I especially know how to love the people who live in this place. they are my people, my brothers and sisters. it is my duty to help them solve the mysteries in their lives. that is what i am called to do."

it made me think of being a teacher and how the biggest part of my job is not to teach my students, but to love them and help them learn about themselves. i think the biggest mystery i have solved this year was how to get my students to read. once i figured out it was sharing my passion for reading with them, i haven't been able to get them to quit reading! if you're a teacher, you'll totally understand how hard it is to motivate reluctant readers and why this is such a huge triumph.

ok, back to the book. since i'm snowed in, i should get quite a bit of quality couch-and-book time. i'll keep you posted on how that goes!

most spectacular book on earth

i just finished reading water for elephants. it took me about 2 days to read it, because i had to put it down to go to work. believe me, that was hard to do!

this is easily one of the best novels i have read. i don't know that i have ever felt so many emotions at one time while reading a fictional story. and i know for a fact, that i've never wanted an extramarital affair to happen so badly.

the character that i unexpectedly liked was walter/kinko. he was so ridiculously angry and upsetting when i first met him, that i didn't know how jacob would survive living with him. i kept thinking that walter would throw him under the train somehow, just because he didn't like him. i knew there was more to walter when jacob saw that he read classic literature. unlike many of the people who worked the circus, walter must have had a decent education. that makes me think that he was destined for great things, but was unsure of where to go to make those things happen. what i do know is that he came to a premature, and quite tragic, end.

the other character that caught my eye, never said a single word. i loved rosie, just like i'm sure most of you did. the beast that so many regarded as dumb and stubborn was actually the most perceptive being involved in that circus. i'm going to be a teacher here for a moment, so bear with me. rosie reminds me so much of the students i have met over the years that have some sort of language barrier. these students have no hope if someone isn't willing to take the time to cultivate a relationship with them. when you haven't taken the time to learn about such a person, there is no way to discover all of the wonderful things that person can do. as a result, rosie was beaten because of august's intolerance for those who didn't catch on right away. when jacob and greg discovered rosie's secret, she was then able to become the heroine in a surprising way.

what did you think?