A Three Dog Life: A Memoir by Abigail Thomas - Thank God...back to good writing, and in a memoir at that! I'd admit, the name of this book is what hooked me (a friend of mine has three dogs, thus the connection). Sometimes I choose books like that. Sometimes I am greatly dissappointed, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. This book provided the later of the two.

This is the memoir of Abigail Thomas, more specifically her memories centered around the traumatic brain injury of her husband, Rich Rogin. One night, Rich took their newly acquired dog out for a walk on the Upper Westside of Manhattan and was hit by a car when the dog darted into traffic. The dog came home, but Rich didn't. Abaigail writes skillfully about the pain, confusion, and acceptance she experiences throughout the years following the accident when Rich lost his memory and became a totally different man. Unable to care for him at home, she writes about her visits with him in the hospital where he lives and their weekly visits when she takes him home. Although traumatically injured, many of his words seemed prophetic, as if he were seeing the world from a different plane.

Thomas is an artful writer who is able to write lucidly about a completely heartwrenching part of her life.

Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts - A Rival Readers Book Club selection, I was a bit dissappointed with this book. Written in the same style of her first book, Where the Heart Is, there are several very unique characters who she does a wonderful job of making the reader love and hate. With names like O Boy Daniels, Nicky Jack Harjo, Teeve, and Rowena Whitekiller, the reader can't help but get wrapped up in their individual stories.

Set in Oklahoma, we get a good idea of what this town and its residents are like from the beginning. Letts tells us a TON of important information about the characters in the first chapter...which was a bit overwhelming. From there the story unwinds. There's a murder and a lost child who is presumed dead but returns 25 years later looking for his real mother. When Nicky Jack Harjo, now Mark Albright, returns and finds that his mother was killed and he was stolen and then adopted, he sets his sights on uncovering the truth surrounding that day. Along the way he falls in love, barely misses being shot, and sets a small Oklahoma town topsy turvy before finally getting the answers everyone had been needing for so long.

The plot was suspenseful with enough mystery to hook the reader, but Letts' writing style was very plain and simple. Although I'm a sucker for a good story, I prefer good writing...and there she failed terribly.

I haven't had the chance to read much over the past few weeks with finishing my marathon training and traveling a bit more. I have read plenty of running magazines, though no one will be much interested in those. I should have a reading update very soon though as I'm reading our first book club book of the year and it looks to be awfully interesting! Check back for updates soon!

Bright Lights, Big ___(err...backside) by Jen Lancaster - Jen Lancaster is the writer I'd be if I had any writing talent whatsoever. Crass, sardonic, and downright catty, I'd love to have my own personal tete-a-tete with her. I mean, she SO could be me if I had been a sorority girl,liked pearls, or wasn't totally freaked out by pitbulls. We both adore Fox News. We both love to read Janet Evanovich. And if I hadn't sworn off cursing, I could SO see us sharing some awfully interesting discussions about certain liberals (aheemmm...Hillary Clinton....).

Her first book, Bitter is the New Black had me in tears. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the second memoir at Barnes and Noble. It was like manna from heaven. And this one did not disappoint, either. She's just as snide as ever, taking on everyone from her neighbors to the city aldermen. I'd have to say that the chapter about her love of Target had to be my favorite, closely followed by the chapter recounting her "love" of her personal trainer. Been there, doing that my friend!

Take the time to check this book out. I don't have it on my shelf at school, but it will forever be on the one at home!

Fade to Black by Alex Flinn - My second Eliot nominee this week was well worth the time. The nominees for this award usually confront current, edgy issues, and this was no exception. Flinn takes on several stereotypes and issues in this book, chief among them being teens living with HIV. Pair that with said teen being Hispanic, and you have the ingredients for an edgy book full of tense interactions between teens who are too young to fully grasp the meaning and gravity of both their words and actions.

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger - This was the first title I chose in my quest to read all the Eliot Rosewater nominees for this year before I actually have to sell them to my Senior English students at the start of second semester. This one would border on the controversial, so it seemed like the ideal place to start! Here's a link if you'd like to read more about this book. If you're open-minded, Hartinger has written a thought-provoking and compelling book that is worth your time (recommended for mature readers only!):

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/Geography-Club.html

Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier and Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy - These were two memoirs I'd been wanting to read all summer and finally had the time to sit down and spend time with this week. Both men are wonderful examples of not only African-American men who've broken out of the typical stereotypes of their peers, but they are wonderful examples of intelligent men who've stuck by their convictions through adversity and have reaped the rewards for having done so.

Although similar in focus, these books were very different in scope. Poitier's writing was much more thought provoking on an intellectual level, while Dungy's book encouraged the reader to be more introspective from a spiritual standpoint. Both men recounted the experiences, both positive and negative, of their lives while asking the reader to go further and also examine their own lives and values at the same time.

I'd highly recommend either of these books to anyone who enjoys reading memoirs, biographies, or autobiographies. Sports fans and Christians alike will be inspired by Dungy's book, while anyone willing to take a good, hard look at society and all its ills and shortcomings will be thoroughly surprised by the wonderful books these two mean have created.

While in Europe over the summer, I had the chance to do a few geeky librarian things like visit the British Library (where all kinds of cool, original manuscripts like the Gutenburg Bible are kept), The Globe Theatre, Kings Cross Station (Platform 9 3/4 even!), and Shakespeare and Company. I'll post a few pictures over the next few weeks so all the literary types like me can enjoy!

FINALLY....I finished it. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It only took me four weeks and a lot of late nights, but I savored it along the way and, in the end, was incredibly happy with the last installment in J.K. Rowlings series of books that are all bound to be classics one day.

I won't divulge a lot of what happens in the book as I know many of you haven't read it yet. However, I will give away just a small bit that I was extremely pleased with. That is near the end of the book when Dumbledore's Army (along with all of the other "good guys") battle all of the Death Eaters (and all of the other "bad" guys). This, to me, brought the entire series to one final, common point and wrapped everything that had strung out along the way into a nice, neat package. The ending was more than I could have hoped for!

The end of summer is upon us, and I haven't written once about what I've read! I guess part of that is because I haven't read a whole lot, and what I did read was while I was on vacation. It's time I take a few mintues to catch you up with my reading world!

While on vacation I read the following books:

• Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Miakelson. This book had been on my list of YA books to read for quite some time, but I decided to use it as our summer school text and needed to get with it. It's a really, really good YA book, especially for the more troubled of the lot. The main character, Cole Matthews, has been through the legal system and finally pulls his last straw...severely beating a fellow classmated. His last chance at avoiding jail is to take part in a new program derived from the Native American form of healing called Circle Justice. Cole decided to take part and is banished to a remote Alaskan island where he confonts not only his own ghosts, but a mythical bear called the Spirit Bear.
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Honestly, I only selected this title because it was on Oprah's Book Club list (I know...pretty lame!). Usually I am happy with the books she chooses, but not this time. I respect McCarthy as a writer, so I was a bit surprised that I didn't take to this book at all. There were a few good lines ("Each was the other's world entire" -- good writing!) but the tone of the book was just way too dark for me...especially for a vacation read. Father and son survive a nuclear winter and attempt to make their way in a world that is totally foreign to them, attempting to allude other survivors who mean them harm. The ending didn't dissappoint; it was just as dark as the entire tome!
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahled Hosseni. Again, I was anxiously awaiting this book by the author of The Kite Runner. His first book was an Eliot Rosewater nominee and an all-out excellent book. This one lived up to my anticipation, and was, I think, possibly even better than the first book! This is the story of two Afghan women who are both wives of one Afghan man. Their hate for one another turns into friendship and their seemingly diverse and hurtful pasts are woven into one life that, like those of most Afghan women, takes a tragic turn that tests the bonds of their friendship and love.
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. We selected this as our next book club title and I'm really excited for our group to discuss it next week. It's a memoir, and not just any memoir...it's funny. Gotta love that! Alas, most of the humor throughout comes from the insane (literally) antics of the author's parents who, honestly, are just not mentally stable enough to be raising one kid let alone four. From putting the kids in the back of a U-Haul while moving to "checking out" of the hospital by jumping into an ideling car, their parenting skills leave much to be desired. In the end, her parents wind up homeless (but happy), living their eccentric lives with the same passion and flair as always.

It's the end of the school year....and I haven't read a book in what seems like ages! I guess it's only been a few weeks, but when you're a reader who can't find the time, a few weeks seem like forever!

Regardless, today is the LAST day of school, so that means my reading time will increase by leaps and bounds. My reading plan for the summer: read at least half of the nominees for the Eliot Rosewater Book Award for next year. That means 12 books. I think I can do that. Currently I am about halfway through Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This is our next Rival Readers book club selection. I'm enjoying it even though the tales of some of the more seedy parts of the circus sideshows are enough to make a girl like me blush! I'll be back soon with a full review of this book...and, hopefully, at least one more!

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult - Another title (that's all I seem to have the time to read these days) for the Rival Readers Book Club, and yet another outstanding book by Picoult. I was more than a bit apprehensive at our group choosing this particular title. Picoult is a great writer, and I suggest her works to students all the time. However, this club is about reading things outside the traditional "school" box, so when they chose it, we had to acquiesce.

Picoult always seems to be able to take a current, edgy issue and weave it into a wonderfully compelling story that has you on the edge of your seat the entire time. This time the reading experience was no different. This book's issue: a child abused by a priest...but, as always, it's not nearly that simple when Picoult starts to examine it. Nathaniel's mother is a District Attorney and knows that the legal system will not do her son justice. He will have to testify and will undergo further trauma, possibly even worse than the abuse he's faced already. The strong woman she is vows not to make him undergo the process, so she takes fate into her own hands and murders the priest in cold blood...in open court...in front of the entire world. As characters enter the story, Picoult creates a cast of characters that are both incredibly real and vulnerable at the same time. The twists and turns of the book keep the reader guessing and, even at the end, you're not entirely certain that you know yourself.

I've recommended this title to several students and teachers alike after reading it myself. Now, I can't wait to get my hands on Ninteen Minutes, Picoult's newest title featuring a character from Perfect Match.

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson - One of the classic tomes of western individualism, this essay struck several chords with me while I was reading. Those of you who know me know that I am a "quote girl", so I'm just going to share a few from Emerson's essay that might inspire you, too:

• Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
• Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
• Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
• What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.
• Insist on yourself; never imitate.
• The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.
• Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
• Nothing at last is sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne - This book has been on the NYT best seller list as well as the most popular lists at Barnes and Noble and Borders. It's been on my shelf for a while as I just didn't know about whether or not it was worth the time. On that note, I decided to pick it up and see for myself what all the hype is about.

Here's the thing...I think this book has A LOT of good ideas about "The Secret", which is essentially that in order to have what you want in life you must attract it to you through your thoughts and feelings. I was able to glean plenty of good thoughts from the text. Here are a few examples of things I took to heart during my reading:

• "It is impossible to bring more into your life if you are feeling ungrateful about what you have."
• "The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
• When you do not treat yourself the way you want others to treat you, you can never change the way things are.
• "What you resist persists." ~Carl Jung

That said, I still have some issues with this popular book. The first and biggest is that The Universe is credited for being the supreme guiding force in what does or does not come back to you in life. As I was reading, I started inserting God. I believe in divine intervention so it was hard for me to not take the omission of God to heart. As an example:

• "You are God in a physical body." (uh, no...I am not)
• "All power is from within and therefore under our control (again, not in my world)

Generally, this book did have some valuable things to offer, but only if you're able to take the good and leave the bad. I wouldn't recommend it to a student who isn't able to do that.

A few quotes from books I've recently read to help fill all that empty space between books....

"Literature is no one's private ground, literature is common ground; let us trespass freely and fearlessly." - Virginia Woolf

"A true friend will stab you in the front." - Oscar Wilde

"Cruelty is only the passing on of a wound from one person to another." - The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole

"A journey may be long or short, but it must start at the very spot one finds oneself."

"It is a wealthy person indeed who calculates riches not in gold but in friends."

Sole Sisters: Stories of Women and Running by Jennifer Lin and Susan Warner - An inspirational book that focuses on the bonds created when women run together, for health, for competition, or just for friendship. This collection of stories can make you both laugh and cry, but any woman who has ever run with a group can identify with the emotional connections examined in this book. From a woman who lost her husband in 9/11 running her first marathon in his honor to a group of new moms in town looking for friends, the power of being accountable to a group and of the emotional bonds that are formed through running are evident.

Any woman who runs will be able to relate to various stories in this book. I've often wondered why it's so much easier to run with my friends than it is to run alone....why it just hurts less. I don't think this book answers any of the physiological reasons for that, but the phsycological reasons are quite apparent...I am a woman. Enough explaination.

>u>I Run, Therefore I Am -- NUTS! by Bob Schwartz - If I'd have my choice, I'd always choose a funny book first. This book fits the bill because I laughed my way through it, but didn't learn a thing. It was just FUN....and we all need more of that, especially when we're taxing our bodies way past the point of any sensibilty.

One portion of the book that did hit home with me was when the author humorously talked about looking to your gene pool and facing (and accepting )the facts:

"My pragmatic philosophy is, inspiration is good. However, perspiration will take you only so far - if you want to be a speed demon...you'd best be selective in choosing your parents. The gene pool my legs were wading in wasn't exactly full of the fastest currents in the water. My parents were like Tommie Turtle and Sally Snail."

The Non-Runner's Marathon Guide for Women by Dawn Dais - There isn't a lot of humor to be found in running (or as far as I'm concerned), but this author was able to not only find the humor, but was able to give it life and make the reader laugh out loud with the turn of every page.

I mean, seriously...if had any sort of writing talent whatsoever, this is exactly the type of book I'd write. Both helpful and hilarious, I could hear myself talking while I was reading. It was as if everything she was writing was something I had either said myself or, at least, had contemplated but thought better of actually putting into words. She is my hero for having the courage to write about how fat her butt looks in spandex....but what's more...that she no longer cares because, after all, it's all about comfort! I almost DIED laughing when she wrote: "Yeah, they were running the last mile TO the race to warm up. Why not just poke your eye out with a stick, it would make about as much sense." I think I have actually uttered those words before...maybe even recently!


If you're a runner, or not, and just want a good laugh with some insightful information to boot, I highly recommend picking up this book. It is well worth the time and the side stitches you'll get from laughing your way through it!

The Complete Book of Running for Women by Claire Kowalchick - I know, I know....enough with the running already. But, when so much of your time revolves around something, it's natural to read more about it. However, you'd think that I'd become a better runner with all the reading I'm doing about it. Then again, you'd be wrong. I think I very well could be the best-read, bad runner there is!


The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall - An uplifting, quick read that happens to be the second book our Rival Readers Book Club selected to read. As it happens, it came out as a movie with James Garner and Brian Denehey just this past Friday, and I hadn't even a clue it was a book until early last week. Bad librarian...

Anyhow, the book tells the story of Jason and his great-uncle Red. The book opens with Red's family awaiting the details of his will. Red was a wealthy Texas oil and cattle man and had, through his hard work, become a billionaire and had provided well for his extended family, taking care of their every need during his life. In the end, Red saw the error of his ways as his family became spoiled and lazy. Through his will he vowed to remedy some of those mistakes by taking Jason under his post-mortem wing and molding him into the person he should be. This happened through a series of lessons, or quests, that Jason undertook. At the end, if he succeeded, he'd get his "ulimate gift". Along the way, Jason learns many of the valuable lessons that living a life of leisure had robbed him of: The lesson of hard work; the lesson of friendship; the lesson of gratitude. Twelve lessons in all help Jason win his "ultimate gift" and, in the end, become the man he was always meant to be.

Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland -"I'm the one Scrabble tile with no letter". Have you ever felt that way? Like you're the only one no one really notices? As if you could simply dissappear without a trace and no one would sit up and take notice? Liz Dunn is a 42-year-old, over-weight spinster, and desperately lonely. Her narrative tone, however, is lively and engaging, as she tramps back and forth in time to tell her dramatic and eventful story.

While recovering from dental surgery in her utilitarian Vancouver condominium, Liz receives a call from the local hospital. A young man, resuscitated after a near-fatal overdose, has her name on a bracelet on his wrist. It is her son Jeremy, who she gave away for adoption at the age of 16. If this weren't enough of a life-changing encounter, it happens that Jeremy is dying of multiple sclerosis, and has a short time to live.

Liz's sudden, belated, experience of being a mother in this extreme situation is all the more moving for being lightly handled. Jeremy is a charming and lively character, and his demise is described without much ado, and even has the unusual comic touch.
Throughout the book one feels a certain glibness to Coupland's treatment of his tragic material, but this is compensated for with the heartfelt material and the lightness with which the heavy stuff is handled.

Although this book was well-written, I did have a hard time following some of the dialogue, especially between Liz and Jeremy, and in the end, between Liz and Klaus. However, I would recommend this book simply for the language. Coupland writes well!

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson - The best-selling author Erik Larson writes books that weave together multiple plots based on actual events. His best-known book is The Devil in The White City, about the architect who built Chicago's World's Fair and the serial killer who preyed on women drawn to that city. I was enthralled with this particular book and simply could not wait for his next book to come out. Narrative nonfiction is really my most favorite genre, and Larson has a narrative style that captivates the reader.

In his new book, Thunderstruck, Larson examines the North London Cellar Murder, writing about a notorious crime that happened in the city early in the 20th century. Essentially, like his previous book, it's a tale of two men, this time Harvey Hawley Crippen, a seemingly mild-mannered doctor who murdered his wife to run away with his mistress, and Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor who created the wireless telegraph -- the device that helped capture Crippen as he fled over the Atlantic with his lover. The progression the book takes, from the initial seed of the idea of the telegraph, to the eventual use of the technology to capture two fugitives, is really quite captivating. Throw in the drama and suspense of the murder and the chase, and this book is, at once, both informative and memorable. Unlike many nonfiction and history writers, Larson is able to keep the reader yearning for the next chapter!