Shawneinfl
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Posts posted by Shawneinfl
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Hello friends, both old and new! Just checking in, having finished my first book for the year. The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger. It's in the vein of the recent college scandals about the lengths people go to get their children into a new "gifted" school coming to their community. It centers around four families who started out as a play group and now have young teens. I didn't think I was going to enjoy it - seemed predictable at first - but about halfway through I was hooked. I'd give it 4.5 stars.
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Hello, Hello! I haven't visited much this year and I miss you all. I've managed to read a few books this month; I just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Wow, what a great book! I really need to go back and re-read it again - much more slowly this time. I also finished What is A Girl Worth? by Rachael Denhollander and Why Meadow Died by Andrew Pollack (about the Parkland shooting). These books were all heavy topics so I'm ready for something a little lighter. I just started Untamed: the Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island by Will Harlan.
I read The Bird Box a few months ago, so I will count that for my spooky read for the year. I hope everyone is well.
Blessings,
Shawne
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6 hours ago, faithmom said:
You've probably researched and found reviews, but I wanted to show you these. I hope links are allowed on WTM.
Fasicnating Chemistry review:
https://myhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/2017/07/review-of-fascinating-educations.html
Friendly Chemistry review:
I have done some research but I hadn't seen these particular reviews. Thanks for sharing!
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Looking at these for my 11th grader (probable liberal arts major). I want her to enjoy Chemistry without having to struggle with too much math yet I want a legit high school credit. Thoughts?
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I'm looking for something to catch up my math phobic 7th grade daughter. She is dyslexic and doing well in her reading. Now it's time to work on math again.
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57 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:
Robin put up this year's challenges a couple of weeks ago. I went and hunted down the post with the 10's for you. The 10x10 is the biggest of those; you could just do one 10-challenge. She also had another post with spelling challenges if you're into those. And there are lots of other less-daunting challenges on the 52 Books website Tuesday's Child linked in the PP.Thank you! These sound great! It's always fun to start the year with a new challenge!
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I keep seeing posts about "10 book Challenges". When did that begin??? Are there any normal challenges for less prolific readers? Y'all are leaving me in the dust.
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Hello Book-a-weekers! Just popping in to check on everyone. I've been busy, busy this year so we won't discuss my book numbers but I did finish two this month: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty and The Reckoning by John Grisham. I don't know if these are on anyone's radar but I enjoyed them. It's been soooo looong since I last read any of your posts...it would take me a month to catch up. Maybe I'll be up for some serious reading time again in 2019. Til then...happy reading.
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Please sign me up for the BAW 2020 CRUISE!!! I'm there.
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I'm enjoying SWB's new book: Rethinking School. I've been home educating for 18 years and this book has me looking at all my educational assumptions in a whole new way. I have much to chew on. I also enjoyed her recent podcast with Andrew Kern at Circe Forma.
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I think I will try the BINGO from Robin again :)
I started lasted year with that and it definitly broadened my readings.
It also helped me to make a better use of our library system.
DD wants to try again to get a black out
I may try BINGO this year. I just looked at it and I can't quite figure out how the "mystery" squares work. Can anyone explain it to me?
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Several of you have posted links to Goodreads but when I click on them it only takes me to my personal page. Is there another way to see the links? Do we have to be friends on Goodreads first?
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Merry Christmas everyone! This was a slow year for me book wise but I took on several big life projects and I'm finding that my need for sleep is cutting into what was formerly my reading time. I started teaching for VIPKID in April and I love, love, love this job. However it does require me to get up several hours earlier in the A.M. I am learning to be a morning person much to my husband's surprise. I also learned to crochet this year and have taken on several larger projects. The ADHD in me loves this new hobby. I think all boys should learn crochet to give them something to do so they can sit still. I do try to listen to audio books while I work but I find I'm just as likely to listen to the radio or, shockingly, listen to nothing and just have quiet time so my 50+ year old brain can recover and think a complete thought.
My current read is Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro.
I know I'm not a prolific poster but I feel privileged to be a long-time member of this group.
Blessings, Shawne
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I am finishing up the audio version of The Handmaid's Tale (narration by Claire Danes) while crocheting a Christmas afghan for my oldest daughter. I'm taking sneak peaks at the Hulu version of the story but I don't want to get too far until I finish the actual book. I read this when it first came out and of course it's a much different read now that I'm much older and have a wider view of the world.
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Just finished Scythe by Neil Shusterman and now I must wait until January for the sequel Thunderhead. Great story - seems to be a cross between The Hunger Games and The Giver. Shusterman's dystopian world where man has achieved immortality and the only death comes through random "gleaning" by the Scythedom who are charged with determining how and when someone has permanent death left me with much to ponder. I thought the ending was well played out - not a cliffhanger, but enough drama left in the story for a meaty sequel. Now I might try his Unwind series which got a lot of accolades in the YA genre.
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I read The Secret History - 2 Stars - Oh boy, I ended up not liking this one much at all. The only reason that I’m giving this two stars rather than one, is that she is a great writer. Initially, it was promising and I could barely put the book down in hopes that it would improve. It didn’t. The plot became more and more predictable and the characters were pretentious and abhorrent. I’m not exactly tolerant when I don’t like a single character. I need to feel sympathy for at least one person. I didn’t care for any of them. At the end, I asked myself, “What was the point?†and felt frustrated that I had wasted time on it. This is the second book that I have read by Donna Tartt and it will be the last one. One thing that I have to say for her books is that you don’t forget them easily. They really do stay with you, which is not necessarily a good thing.
MY RATING SYSTEM
5 Stars
Fantastic, couldn't put it down
4 Stars
Really Good
3 Stars
Enjoyable
2 Stars
Just Okay – nothing to write home about
1 Star
Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.
I felt pretty much the same way about The Goldfinch. I kept waiting for redemption but it never quite happened. I remember slogging my way through the last few chapters just to get done.
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Finishing up the audio version of Scythe by Neil Shusterman, author of the YA series Unwind.
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Conditions deteriorating, heavy wind. The girls and I are getting out of Dodge, heading south to stay with friends in Half Moon Bay. I'll check in when I can.
Be safe Rose!
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I finished a "new" Michael Crichton book called Dragon Teeth. It was just the kind of quick read I was looking for. Apparently it was one of his early manuscripts that was finished and published after his death. It definitely had all the elements of a big screen adventure movie. 4 stars
The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars.
Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to survive a summer in the west to win a bet against his arch-rival, William has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But when the paranoid and secretive Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. William is forced to join forces with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. With this extraordinary treasure, however, comes exceptional danger, and William’s newfound resilience will be tested in his struggle to protect his cache, which pits him against some of the West’s most notorious characters.
A page-turner that draws on both meticulously researched history and an exuberant imagination, Dragon Teeth is based on the rivalry between real-life paleontologists Cope and Marsh; in William Johnson readers will find an inspiring hero only Michael Crichton could have imagined. Perfectly paced and brilliantly plotted, this enormously winning adventure is destined to become another Crichton classic.
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Oh Rose, If I could send some of our unseasonable humidity your way I would do it in a sec. Thoughts and prayers to you.
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Hello, friends new & old (that's "old" in the figurative sense of the word, naturally) ~
Just happened by chance upon this discussion. I've not visited WTM for quite some time but it made me smile to recognize a few names. Also served as a reminder that my book reading of late has been rather lackluster. I perused your lists & mentions and felt inspired, so much so that I considered dusting off my copy of Susan's Well-Educated Mind and pretending yet again that I'd make my way through the suggestions. Well, eh, perhaps not, lol. But a book a week isn't too lofty a goal. And I did already complete War and Peace, back when my college boyfriend and I read it simultaneously while apart for the summer. We wrote letters ~ actually put pen to paper ~ discussing the book. Ah, the lost art of letter writing!
In the spirit of spooky & spectacular October reads, thought I'd suggest Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. I have soft spot for it, as it was among the first English books read by my German mother when she was young.
Off to reserve a few titles. Nice 'seeing' you!
So nice to "see" you Colleen (in the figurative sense, of course). Thanks for the reminder to read Rebecca. It's been on my tbr list for years now and I finally have my own cheap copy from the thrift store.
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I am currently enjoying Celine by Peter Heller after previously enjoying The Dog Stars several years ago. This book is totally different and feels like I have discovered a new genre: "old woman as herione lit". Actually I'm sure there are many books that show an older woman turned private investigator but this is my first. Turns out that it is based on the author's own mother. I'm about 3/4 through and I hope that the ending of this mystery is satisfying. Here is the premise:
Working out of her jewel box of an apartment at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, Celine has made a career of tracking down missing persons, and she has a better record at it than the FBI. But when a young woman, Gabriela, asks for her help, a world of mystery and sorrow opens up. Gabriela's father was a photographer who went missing on the border of Montana and Wyoming. He was assumed to have died from a grizzly mauling, but his body was never found. Now, as Celine and her partner head to Yellowstone National Park, investigating a trail gone cold, it becomes clear that they are being followed--that this is a case someone desperately wants to keep closed. Inspired by the life of Heller’s own remarkable mother, a chic and iconoclastic private eye, Celine is a deeply personal novel, a wildly engrossing story of family, privilege, and childhood loss. Combining the exquisite plotting and gorgeous evocation of nature that have become his hallmarks, Peter Heller gives us his finest work to date.
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I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - 5 Stars - This is just a wonderful book. It’s a coming of age story of a young girl in Brooklyn in the early 1900’s. The writing is beautiful and I didn’t want it to end. For the longest while, others have recommended that I read this. I’m delighted that I finally did so.
My favorite quotes:
"Francie thought that all the books in the world were in that library and she had a plan about reading all the books in the world. She was reading a book a day in alphabetical order and not skipping the dry ones."
“To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.â€
and The Ladybird Book of Red Tape - 3 Stars - Funny, as all they are. Not the funniest in the series, but still an enjoyable read.
MY RATING SYSTEM
5 Stars
Fantastic, couldn't put it down
4 Stars
Really Good
3 Stars
Enjoyable
2 Stars
Just Okay – nothing to write home about
1 Star
Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my favorite books ever.
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Book a Week 2020 - BW23: 52 Books Bingo - Steampunk and Technology
in The Chat Board
Posted
I just finished The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. Though some have been critical of the Hunger Games prequel, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was way more philosophical than the other books and seemed to present as the first of a new series but don't quote me on that.