Week 12 in review

Page Numbers for the Week: 751. Total Pages for 2019 so far: 8017. Page Average Per Day: 98. Total Number of Books: 29.

A bit of a busy week. Grades are due and there's a ton of organizational stuff happening at school. I'm behind on reviews again. Seems like I need to get them done during the weekend to make them happen but the weekends get pretty full too.

A Short List:

1. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (Dekalb Library)
2. Dinner For Everyone by Mark Bittman (Gift from Ryan)
3. A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Tsundoku - bought it in Chattanooga last summer)
4. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (Dekalb Library)
5. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik (Tsundoku Stack and also got a mention on Book Riot)
6. Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi (School Library)
7. Teaching English by Design by Peter Smagorinsky (Pedagogy book - Playing Catch Up)

In other news, I'm thinking of doing Camp NaNoWriMo for April. Unlike the standard November event, there are different kinds of goals, including a time based one. I'm thinking of committing to 30 minutes a day for the month. It feels doable, anyway.

Week 11 - Back in the Saddle

Page Numbers for the Week: 1,500. Total Pages for 2019 so far: 7266. Page Average Per Day: 97. Total Number of Books: 27.

As promised, I'm back on track and making up ground. I started the week eight books behind pace, and I am now only three behind. I've also pulled my daily average page count up 12 pages. So things are turning around.  I also caught up on my back log of reviews which resulted in a new post each day last week. Even though some of this apparent gain is the result of strategy, it still feels good to get my feet under me.

A  Short List:

1. Dinner For Everyone by Mark Bittman (Gift from Ryan)
2. A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Tsundoku - bought it in Chattanooga last summer)
3. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (Tsundoku Stack and also got a mention on Book Riot) - Finished 3/17/2019
4. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (Tsundoku Stack and also got a mention on Book Riot) - Finished 3/21/2019
5. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik (Tsundoku Stack and also got a mention on Book Riot)
6. Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi (School Library)
7. Teaching English by Design by Peter Smagorinsky (Pedagogy book - Playing Catch Up)

I'm sure my gains over the next week will be more moderate. I've started on His Majesty's Dragon and it's absolutely enthralling. I've added the next two books in the series. All three came out of a box donated to me by a coworker. Actually he donated me three boxes and I'm still sorting through it all. Lol. It's a nice problem to have.

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

More and more kids are growing up in divorced households. In previous generations, narratives tended to cast one or the other of the parents as some sort of evil selfish person at worst or at best as simply absent and leaving behind a void in their kids lives. In truth, for most families there is no villain which makes it all much harder for the kids and so much sadder. Without hate and anger, loss is harder to deal with and so much more raw. That’s what Tree, protagonist of Stand Tall, is dealing with.

Tree is six foot three at the age of 12. He visually just doesn’t fit in. (Excellent metaphor for adolescence by the way) He’s a good kid though. He helps his Vietnam vet grandfather with his post amputation physical therapy. He helps the new girl, Sophie, find a place in their school. He just helps people and while doing so finds a place for himself.

I think this is a good book in general, but especially for what it does exploring issues surrounding adjusting to a broken home.


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The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Good science fiction explores ideas. It’s not all zap guns and silly aliens. A good idea drives the story and questions that the central idea raises fuel the conflict. This is why I love science fiction. Unfortunately, many of the novels published as science fiction fall woefully short of this. So many in fact, that I find many of my students have a poor understanding of what science fiction should be. This leads to a phenomenon that has many English teachers scratching their heads.

Somehow The House of the Scorpion has become a common assigned text in middle school. It is true science fiction and every kid I’ve talked to, save one, has hated it. This is really too bad because it’s an excellent book. The House of the Scorpion takes on the idea of human cloning. Told from the point of view of Matt, who is the clone of a drug lord called El Patron, the story takes on the social, legal, and religious perspectives on what being a clone means.

Matt, of course, is just a kid and has no idea what he is for a large chunk of the novel. Religiously and legally, he’s considered sub-human and without a soul, but things get complicated when he, against the odds, survives his original purpose as a living source of replacement organs.

It’s all very interesting and, while not all the questions raised can be answered, the book does its job by illustrating the complexity of the issues. I’m looking forward to tracking down the sequel.


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Life Below Stairs: True Lives of Edwardian Servants by Alison Maloney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I admit it, I love Downton Abbey. The dichotomy of the leisure class and serving class is just so alien to me. As much as I liked all the Granthams, I found myself more interested in the various servants. It’s just such a weird world. So I did what any highly educated person does when confronted with something strange. I bought a book.

Ok, so in all fairness this is a good little book. It provides an overview of the world and concerns of the edwardian servants. While the author has a modern outlook on the plight of the servant class, she is also pretty realistic about relative opportunities of the time. The whole social landscape was just different.

This is just an overview, but it’s a good one and provides good direction for where to find more information.


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The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Song Rising picks up just after the events of the previous book The Mime Order. Paige Mahoney is now Underqueen of the Mime Order. She’s driven Jaxon into hiding with Scion London and is working with dissident members of the enigmatic Rathan to overthrow their totalitarian regime. Paige’s relationship with Warden is officially on the rocks and the whole narrative takes a hard turn into political intrigue.

Paige really grows in this volume. Despite being a member of a criminal underground, she’s always struck me as bizarrely naive in all the practical ways. Finally, in this novel, it seems that she spends time really thinking about trust and relationships instead of simply reacting to events. While that could make for an exceeding tedious read, Shannon blends the introspection with plenty of action. The end is explosive and opens up the series for more books. I can’t wait.

The biggest challenge with these books is figuring out what is going on. If it’s been a while since you read the first two books in the series, I recommend a quick reread. I’m a huge fan of the Bone Season Series in general. It’s literary science fiction of a sort that challenges the reader. These aren’t books that one can pick up expecting an easy read. They are, however, immensely satisfying.


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Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Infusions: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Flavorful Infusions Using Modernist and Traditional Techniques by Jason Logsdon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have recently become fascinated by the idea of infusing flavors into other things - think coffee, tea, vinegar, and yes also booze. My sister and brother in law have always been very supportive of my cooking so they hunted out this book for me. Apparently, there is a whole series of Modernist Cook Made Easy books that play with new technology to cook with. It turns out I’m more of a traditionalist than I would have thought, but my read has me seriously considering playing with sous vide as a technique. (I can do without the whipping siphon)

Alright so, as an overview on infusion this does a good job. While Logsdon spent a lot of time on his ‘modernist’ techniques he did a good job covering the traditional techniques and gives solid guidelines on how to modify a recipe for a different technique. He also does an excellent job describing the effect the different methods have on flavor.

Because his focus is on Modernist technique, most of the recipes are in those sections. Additionally, infusion is an old process, so this feels more like a cookbook that probably is in aid of his other books where infused liquids probably come in handy. He seem particularly enamored of sous vide. In any case, this is a solid text. He did a good job.


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The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Xiomara is caught between her mother’s church and what she feels. She is silenced. Her great strength is words and she writes them in the leather bound journal her twin, Xavier, got her. She writes her thoughts and her feelings, no matter how sinful. She is a poet. Her heros are all rappers and beat poets. Mom will not approve. This tension increases and turns into conflict.

This is a beautifully lyrical novel in verse. Acevedo created this genuine voice that reeks of conflict and pain. Xiomara is completely relatable despite being about as culturally different from me as possible. When she writes about her fractured relationship with her mom and the catholic church, it resonates. When she writes about discovering her love of poetry, it hits hard. Despite being an absolute angsty teen, Xiomara is easy to sympathize with.

This is an excellent quick read for the the rap lovers out there and for anyone who ever felt caught between two worlds. While there are some pretty rough moments and strong language, it is all in service of the plot and feels appropriate to the story. I highly recommend this book with the caveat that there are some girl moments that might make adolescent boys a little uncomfortable. (Nothing hair-raising)


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So, this book wound up in my hands long before I discovered it on any of the lists I follow. Nathan dropped it on my desk muttering ominous things about appropriateness. Now Nathan and I have very different ideas about what makes something uncomfortable with very little overlap. That being said, I can usually figure out what it is that bothers him. In this case, I'm at a loss. This is a pretty straight-forward coming of age story with an overlay of immigrant narrative and religious questioning. I guess I'll have to ask him later. Personally, I'm thrilled to add it to my classroom collection.

Week 10 - The Impossibility of Page Counts

Page Numbers for the Week: 0. Total Pages for 2019 so far: 5766. Page Average Per Day: 85. Total Number of Books: 20.


It will seem, from the numbers, like I'm still stuck. I'm not. I just broke my block on a 700 page book and that takes time to get through...even for me. I'll probably finish it up some time today or tomorrow and next week's numbers are going to look amazing. I'm feeling a little exhausted by it all, I hate falling behind and by any metric one chooses, I'm behind. I also haven't kept up with my writing and it all kind of weighs on me.


Nothing to do in a situation like this but turn into it and keep moving forward. So here we go.

A Long Short List:

1. War Storm by Victoria Aveyard (Dekalb Library) -  Finished 3/12/2019
2. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 1 Cosmic Avengers (Ryan's Christmas gift from Thomas) - Finished 3/12/2019
3. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 Angela (Ryan's Christmas gift from Thomas) - Finished 3/13/2019
4. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 Guardians Disassembled (Ryan's Christmas gift from Thomas) - Finished 3/14/2019
5. Dinner For Everyone by Mark Bittman (Gift From Ryan)
6. A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Tsundoku - bought it in Chattanooga last summer)
7. Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (Classroom Library) - Finished 3/16/2019
8. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (Tsundoku Stack and also got a mention on Book Riot)
9. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Tsundoku Stack) - Finished 3/14/2019
10. Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (Classroom Library) - Finished 3/15/2019
11. Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi (School Library)
12. Teaching English by Design by Peter Smagorinsky (Pedagogy book - Playing Catch Up)

A longer list than normal that features three books that are almost completed and five that are very short. All determination for hard work aside, boosting the book count number will almost certainly go a ways to improving my overall motivation. Is it strategy or cheating? I can't decide.

Week 9 - *Head Slam Desk*

Page Numbers for the Week: 0. Total Pages for 2019 so far: 5766. Page Average Per Day: 95. Total Number of Books: 20.

I accomplished nothing. Absolutely nothing. I read maybe 5 pages all week. Can't say why, I just didn't/couldn't. I run into that from time to time, I guess I just needed a break. I'm back to mixing in some library books, so that should help get me going again.

A Tempting Short List

1. War Storm by Victoria Aveyard (Dekalb Library)
2. Dinner For Everyone by Mark Bittman (Gift From Ryan)
3. A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Tsundoku - bought it in Chattanooga last summer)
4. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (Tsundoku Stack and also got a mention on Book Riot)
5. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Tsundoku Stack)
6. Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi (School Library)
7. Teaching English by Design by Peter Smagorinsky (Pedagogy book - Playing Catch Up)

Ok, So the Sedaris book is still on the list, but I just have to get through the thing. I'm getting stubborn, I admit it. I just need to get it out of my life.