Book a Week 2015 - BW36: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

[Angel]

I finally had a reading day! We spent it at the beach, it was a long drive because the local beaches were all packed, so we had to drive aaaaalllll the way out to Pt. Reyes seashore, but it was lovely. We stayed till the sun went down, waiting for the green flash as it disappeared over the horizon.  Morgan and I built Stonehenge and she dug the deepest beach-hole ever.  Just what the dr. ordered.

 

And . . . I finished The Castle in Transylvania. I was skeptical at first - a gothic horror ghost story by Jules Verne? But it did not disappoint - it ended just like a gothic horror ghost story written by the father of sci fi should end!  Eat your heart out, Edgar Allan Poe!  If anybody else is interested in reading this, let me know and I will pass it along.

 

I also read Itch by Simon Mayo - an adventure story about a 14 year old kid who collects the elements - yep, The Elements - and ends up with more than he bargained for.  I read all 400 pages sitting on the beach today, so it clearly wasn't a deep or meaningful read, but it was entertaining, although the end did stretch my suspension of disbelief muscles pretty much to the breaking point. But it's a book my dd will enjoy reading when we get to Chemistry later in the year.

Ooh, the green flash!  That's very Pirates of the Caribbean!

 

If The Castle in Transylvania is not spoken for, I would be interested!

 

I had planned for Aly to read this at the end of last school year, but we never got around to it!  I thought it sounded like a neat story, very similar to the Michael Vey books by Richard Paul Evans, which Aly loved.  

 

 

Still plugging along on The Rook. This morning a seal joined my kids for their ocean swim. He just watched from a safe distance. He was so cute! He stayed with them the whole time. We were shocked, not expecting a seal. Scared dh and I when he showed up, dark thing swimming in the water...watched Jaws 2 last week. We are in France near the Bay of Somme.

 

Speaking of Jaws, I read the Reader's Digest version of that book many years ago while no one was paying much attention. Yes, I also read Reader's Digest along with their book collection.

:lol:    We have seen Jaws way too many times for me to be comfortable in the water!  We had a similar experience in the Gulf when Skye was young.  Dark thing swimming up the beach, people jumping out of the water, scared the heck out of me.  It turned out to be two very large leopard rays.  

 

I read Jaws in high school.  

 

Still reading:

 

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman - My fascination with Russian history probably started when I saw the movie Doctor Zhivago on late night tv as a teen. Of course I had a romanticized version of that country's history in my head for years, but I still find it an interesting country with both a colorful and tragic history. This book is well written and easy to read, even IMO, for someone who might not have the same interest I do.

 

Aly and I just read about Catherine the Great in our history.  I'm going to add this book to my massive tbr list.  I found her story fascinating! 

 

 

This was a grinding teeth week getting back into lessons.  The start of 10th grade with a teenager who thinks he knows it all, but doesn't.  It's been a week of negotiation, figuring out what's going to work..or not.  Loving IEW and Teaching the Classics.  

 

I changed my mind again with history and decided to go back to Human Odyssey so Volume 2 is on the way.  The History of Art is way too up there for me and James, so got  ART Talk, Map Art Lab (so cool) and Exploring Visual Design.  Lots of projects to do, so we'll see how that works for my sensory sensitive kiddo.  

 

 (and this will make Angel happy) with Jordan's Wheel of time #4 - The Shadow Rising.   :thumbup:

I liked how you described your week :laugh: Our first few weeks of 9th grade have been a little rocky.  We will be doing IEW in co-op so I'm glad to hear a favorable review.  I really need to get a good look at it since I'm the one that's going to be teaching it. ;)  For Aly Worldview & Latin have been the rocky parts.  Both will be co-op classes but both had work to begin before co-op meets.  We've had some tears over it.  

 

It's about time you got back to Robert Jordan!   I can't believe it's been almost two years since I did my year long read of them!  I, like Rose, have reread them each time a new book came out, so I'm very familiar with the first books.  

 

I finished painting my family room the day the new furniture came.  I actually had to put the second coat of trim on after the furniture was delivered.  Painting is exhausting!!  Aly and were left to get the old furniture out of the basement and promptly got the loveseat stuck in the stairwell  :rolleyes:  :lol: For at least twenty minutes.   :glare:  It took a hammer to get it unstuck.  It was kind of funny.  I also painted Aly's room.  So I've made very little progress on To Kill a Mockingbird.  I've fallen into bed exhausted and ready to do nothing but crush the candies. Book club is Thursday so I'm hoping to finish it.  

[Kathleen.]

I'm still doing the name challenge.  For the letter T I read "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan.  It was better than I thought.  My 9yo finished the rest of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.

 

:)

[Kareni]

 

...  I've fallen into bed exhausted and ready to do nothing but crush the candies.

 

I've never heard this expression!  Is it a regional saying?

 

Regards,

Kareni

[shukriyya]

I've never heard this expression! Is it a regional saying?

 

Regards,

Kareni

I'm pretty sure that's a reference to an app called 'Candy Crush.' It seems to be very popular but I couldn't tell you what it entails.

[Robin M]

Link to week 37 - please continue conversation in new thread.