5.28.19 It’s Monday! What are you reading? ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE, and THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Celebrating the books we’ve read in the past week

&

the titles we are currently reading.}

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Memorial Day is for…

Remembering:

Yard work (planting hostas and mulching):

 

Finishing a book on the deck:

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Have you ever read a book that makes you stop and think, How did the author think of describing it that way? This happened repeatedly while reading ATLWCS. Doerr must have an amazing ability to visualize something… and then find a unique way to explain it.

We are becoming familiar with books that tell a story from two points of view. This one also jumps back and forth in time, and that time is moving forward as well. Confusing? Sometimes. I used all the tricks we’ve discussed in class. The dates are helpful, but trying to remember where the author left that part of the story was a challenge.

I think being older and having waded through many of books like this makes it easier for me. I knew that the two main characters who were from such different walks of life would eventually meet and that their stories would collide. But how? I kept forming mini theories as I read, adjusting and tweaking them as the story changed.

I’ve read a lot of WWII books, but this one certainly has a different feel to it.

I like hearing about where authors get their ideas. This video is certainly for adults, but see if you can catch the three origins of the book:

 

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Does anyone think about getting married in the far distant future? I think I always knew I would get married. How do we learn about what to expect in marriage? What if what we expect and what our future partner expects is different?

I take my marriage very seriously. It’s important to me and worth reading books to help it get better.

This book did a great job discussing some of the typical complications that arise in marriages. It encourages the reader to look at marriage in a fresh way.

Some day—I mean in the WAY WAY future 😂 you may want to revisit this book

 

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WHAT ABOUT YOU?

LET’S RING THE BELL!

Period 2&3 read 6 books this past week.

Period 5&6 read 11 books this past week.

Period 8&9 read 10 books this past week.

 

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•••

AUDIO BOOK

 

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5.17.19 {BOOKflix Friday} ONE OF US IS LYING; PRETEND SHE’S HERE: STRAYS LIKE US

Get the popcorn ready.

Lights…Camera…Action!

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Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

 

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Emily hasn’t stopped grieving over her best friend Lizzie’s death, so when Lizzie’s family comes back to town, Emily is stoked to see them! Except, the Porters desperately miss Lizzie, too. . .desperately enough to do something crazy. From bestselling author Luanne Rice comes a gripping novel about the lengths people go to get back the ones they love and the strength we have to survive even the most shocking circumstances.

 

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From the moment Fred (never Winifred!) spots a scruffy little mutt with sad eyes, she knows she’s in big trouble. Toby’s in bad shape, and Fred longs to rescue him from the old man with the mile-long mean streak who lives next door. But Margery — the straight-talking woman who is fostering Fred — says going over to their house is against the rules.

And since Fred will only be around until her mother comes to grips with her dependence, Fred can’t let herself care too deeply. Not about Toby or Margery or Delia, a new classmate whose insistent friendship surprises Fred at every turn. Because the more Fred lets this lovable band of misfits into her heart, the harder it’ll be to leave them all behind.

In this story of loss and love, acclaimed author Cecilia Galante examines life’s difficult choices and how a girl plus the dog she loves can add up to finding family in the most unlikely places.

 

5.13.19 It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Celebrating the books we’ve read in the past week

&

the titles we are currently reading.}

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The links to the Bluford High audiobooks is now available in the READING folder in Schoology 🙂    Happy listening.

• • •

I’m still working my way through All the Light We Cannot See. It’s a slow book for me, but I’m enjoying it. I may have gotten out of practice with reading literature like that. It’s really good, but deep and slow. Very descriptive.

 

On Saturday we took advantage of the great weather to get out for a little nature walk. We were all happy—but Prim was probably happiest. She sniffed EVERYTHING… and probably tried to pee fifty times.

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WHAT ABOUT YOU?

LET’S RING THE BELL!

Period 2&3 read ? books this past week.

Period 5&6 read ? books this past week.

Period 8&9 read ? books this past week.

 

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•••

AUDIO BOOK

 

I have about 2 hours left in this one…

 

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5.6.19 It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? GUEST POST: Truth talks Bluford High

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Celebrating the books we’ve read in the past week

&

the titles we are currently reading.}

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GUEST POST from Truth B:

Truth: The characters in this series all end up going to the school Bluford High and they all are black people that have similar problems. I have not read all the books yet but they are all in search for safety and if they have safety already then they are going to be heading into something that is not good—something  that has an effect on that person’s whole family.

 

From the site Bluford.org:

Stories to Experience

The Bluford Series is a collection of twenty-one young adult novels that focus on the lives of a group of high school students and their families. The series draws its name from the school which many of the characters attend: Bluford High, named after Guion “Guy” Bluford, America’s first black astronaut.

Set in contemporary urban America, each novel addresses complex topics relevant to the lives of today’s students: family, friendship, trust, isolation, violence, and peer pressure, to name a few.

In addition, the books feature male and female characters and include elements from many literary genres, such as mystery, suspense, romance, and a touch of the supernatural. In other words, the Bluford Series offers something for almost every reader.

Truth: If you were to read this series I would truly recommend that you read Until We Meet Again as the first book that you read because it gives you some sense of the kind of books that you will be reading. (Mr. Etkin:Actually, it might be better to start with A Matter of Trust—the prequel to Until We Meet Again.) And I will also recommend this book if you are black. I am saying this in the nicest way possible. I am only saying this because black people will understand what this person is going through and will really feel this person’s pain.

I recommend this book to people that love drama and that are satisfied with scary things. Do not read this book if you do not like people getting mistreated or worse. This series is good and it helps you get through things that might be happening to you and it also inspires people. 

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Big News: 

The audiobooks for this series are available on the site, but I am working on downloading them to Drive you you can listen. Here is the link to the folder where I’m collecting them.  If you want to know what each book is about, the blurbs are available here.

Thanks for sharing, Truth. I hope some students who are looking for a good book add some of these to their TBR pile.

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WHAT ABOUT YOU?

LET’S RING THE BELL!

Period 2&3 read 6 books this past week.

Period 5&6 read 11 books this past week.

Period 8&9 read 5 books this past week.

 

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•••

AUDIO BOOK

 

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4.3.19 {BOOKflix Friday} The Rule of 3; My Seventh Grade Life in Tights; Truly Devious

Get the popcorn ready.

Lights…Camera…Action!

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From this morning’s announcements:

One shocking afternoon, computers around the globe shut down in a viral catastrophe. At sixteen-year-old Adam Daley’s high school, the problem first seems to be a typical electrical outage, until students discover that cell phones are down, municipal utilities are failing, and a few computer-free cars like Adam’s are the only vehicles that function. Driving home, Adam encounters a storm tide of anger and fear as the region becomes paralyzed. Soon—as resources dwindle, crises mount, and chaos descends—he will see his suburban neighborhood band together for protection. And Adam will understand that having a police captain for a mother and a retired government spy living next door are not just the facts of his life but the keys to his survival, in The Rule of Three by Eric Walters.

If you like this book, you’ll want to read the next two:

 

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All Dillon wants is to be a real dancer. And if he wins a summer scholarship at Dance-Splosion, he’s on his way. The problem? His dad wants him to play football. And Dillon’s freestyle crew, the Dizzee Freekz, says that dance studios are for sellouts. His friends want Dillon to kill it at the audition—so he can turn around and tell the studio just how wrong their rules and creativity-strangling ways are.

WORK IT.

At first, Dillon’s willing to go along with his crew’s plan, even convincing one of the snobbiest girls at school to work with him on his technique. But as Dillon’s dancing improves, he wonders: what if studios aren’t the enemy? And what if he actually has a shot at winning the scholarship?

BRING IT.

Dillon’s life is about to get crazy . . . on and off the dance floor.

 

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Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. 

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.