Catching up - a miscellany
I've had some time off now, and am starting to feel human again. It didn't help that I saw 30 classes of kids this week ranging from Kindergartners to Eighth Graders. I think I've finally convinced my body that 6:15am is not a reasonably wake-up time again.
Time for another post of ramblings with random cuts as this will be long.
Edited to remove the poll which wasn't working properly. :(
I found a little notebook where I used to keep lists of all the books I was looking for. This would have been in high school or college. As I was flipping through, to see if I'd forgotten any books I really wanted, I discovered a list of Doctor Who Target novels that I either needed or had at the time.
Unfortunately, I got rid of the almost complete set before I graduated.
Video!
I'm not that good at long involved posts about how wonderful this week's episode of Doctor Who was, but pretend I made one. The Romans is also made of win.
And I'm finally caught up on Heroes. Beyond that I've been watching 70s sitcoms - Welcome Back Kotter and Bob Newhart. And now I shall date myself, by saying that I watched both shows when they were first broadcast.
They both hold up surprisingly well if you ignore the 70's fashion and certain jokes which would be considered inappropriate today. If you've never seen the shows, let's just say I could see Sarah Jane wearing most of the outfits worn by the female leads.
I haven't watched it yet, since I got the videos by other means and watched them recently, but I had a 40% off coupon for one box set at Borders and since they didn't have any of the three box sets I was hoping to find...Ken Burns' Baseball, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or The Key to Time, I made do with The Beginnings Doctor Who Collection. I was rather impressed with their selection of Doctor Who, as the DVDs are not easy to find in the US, but as I knew from past experience, the prices were much higher than my usual source online. Deep Discount
Books!
111 cm / 151 cm
(73.5%)
40cm to go, and I've got a few books in progress. I was hoping to finish before the beginning of our summer reading game, but I don't think that's going to happen, as it starts a week from Monday.
Betsy and Billy, Back to School with Betsy and Betsy and the Boys by Carolyn Haywood. Children's books published in the 1950s. Carolyn Haywood was the first author to do that sort of contemporary story about day to day life for younger readers. They were very big in the US for ages, though not so much nowadays. The first I read for my book group and then I went on to read a few of the others. Very much comfort reading for me.
Betsy, Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace. The second of the Betsy-Tacy books, set at the turn of the 1900s in Minnesota, based on the author's real life. This was the other book I read for my book club. Another comfort read.
The Chalet School Does it Again, A Chalet Girl from Kenya and Mary Lou at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. Slowly rereading my way through the series. These were pretty typical offerings.
Go Fly a Bike What is it about non-fiction, that I never remember the authors. One of the books I've been booktalking at the schools. All sorts of interesting facts about bikes.
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I'm not a big Agatha Christie fan, though I've read most of her books at one time or another, but the local high school decided that all of their students would read this title, this year and I wanted to be able to talk about it to the Eighth graders. I remembered whodunit, which I don't usually. Good, but it will never be among my favourites. Give me a good Dorothy Sayers or Rex Stout any day.
Four Party Line by Dorothy Butters. A career novel from the days when they used to publish career novels aimed at teens. Four women from very different backgrounds go to work as telephone operators and end up helping each other. Three of them find romance, solve their problems, and presumably leave, and the fourth, from the wrong side of the tracks, decides that romance is not for her because she wants more from life and to get that, she has to work hard at her job. *rolls eyes*
Dramarama by E. Lockhart. Two best friends go off to drama camp, which changes their friendship in various ways. Of course the guy is gay and the girl is straight. A bit cliched, but good, nonetheless. One of the advance reader's copies I got at ALA.
An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi. The friendship is between Mary Todd Lincoln and her dressmaker, a freed slave, Elizabeth Keckley. The book isn't so much about their friendship as their separate childhoods, told in two parts. Romanticized historical fiction. Good enough to booktalk.
Home on the Moon Another nonfiction and therefore no author. Lovely photographs and artists renderings about our travels to the moon and what it might take to build a moon colony. Another booktalk book.
Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I'm a big fan of his short stories, and I've read this before also. Another book from the 9th grader's summer reading lists that I reread to booktalk. Very eerie and not at all hopeful. I found it a little too depressing this time around.
Meet Julie by Megan McDonald. The newest American girl is only three years older than me. Can I be depressed now? Another freebee from ALA.
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. Another book I read for a booktalk, then realised it was from the wrong list, so I never talked about it. About a girl in Afghanistan who has to dress as a boy to support her family after her father is imprisoned. This time around I think I'll read the sequels.
Only Parent by Louise Dickenson Rich. A sequel to her memoir, We Took to the Woods about raising her children alone after her husband died. Written in the 1950s, there's an odd disconnect, because she's constantly talking about her unusual life, and how she prefers dungarees (jeans) to dresses, and hates having to dress up to go to town. Nowadays she wouldn't be out of place. Most of the book is about a trip they took to the shore one summer. Lovely prose and delightful anecdotes.
Icons!
Only 14 to go. The table is still here
I'm almost done with the butterfly socks. After that I'll be making a shawl for my cousin's wedding and joining who_knits Fourth Doctor Scarf knitalong. Pictures of the yarn will follow if anyone's interested. I'm too lazy to get the camera out now, and the yarn for the scarf hasn't come yet.
I'm thinking I want to rip out both of the other sweaters I started and try knitting them both flat, like the patterns suggested. I think attempting to knit them in the round was a disaster.
Whew. Done.
Time for another post of ramblings with random cuts as this will be long.
Edited to remove the poll which wasn't working properly. :(
I found a little notebook where I used to keep lists of all the books I was looking for. This would have been in high school or college. As I was flipping through, to see if I'd forgotten any books I really wanted, I discovered a list of Doctor Who Target novels that I either needed or had at the time.
Unfortunately, I got rid of the almost complete set before I graduated.
Video!
I'm not that good at long involved posts about how wonderful this week's episode of Doctor Who was, but pretend I made one. The Romans is also made of win.
And I'm finally caught up on Heroes. Beyond that I've been watching 70s sitcoms - Welcome Back Kotter and Bob Newhart. And now I shall date myself, by saying that I watched both shows when they were first broadcast.
They both hold up surprisingly well if you ignore the 70's fashion and certain jokes which would be considered inappropriate today. If you've never seen the shows, let's just say I could see Sarah Jane wearing most of the outfits worn by the female leads.
I haven't watched it yet, since I got the videos by other means and watched them recently, but I had a 40% off coupon for one box set at Borders and since they didn't have any of the three box sets I was hoping to find...Ken Burns' Baseball, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or The Key to Time, I made do with The Beginnings Doctor Who Collection. I was rather impressed with their selection of Doctor Who, as the DVDs are not easy to find in the US, but as I knew from past experience, the prices were much higher than my usual source online. Deep Discount
Books!
111 cm / 151 cm
(73.5%)
40cm to go, and I've got a few books in progress. I was hoping to finish before the beginning of our summer reading game, but I don't think that's going to happen, as it starts a week from Monday.
Betsy and Billy, Back to School with Betsy and Betsy and the Boys by Carolyn Haywood. Children's books published in the 1950s. Carolyn Haywood was the first author to do that sort of contemporary story about day to day life for younger readers. They were very big in the US for ages, though not so much nowadays. The first I read for my book group and then I went on to read a few of the others. Very much comfort reading for me.
Betsy, Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace. The second of the Betsy-Tacy books, set at the turn of the 1900s in Minnesota, based on the author's real life. This was the other book I read for my book club. Another comfort read.
The Chalet School Does it Again, A Chalet Girl from Kenya and Mary Lou at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. Slowly rereading my way through the series. These were pretty typical offerings.
Go Fly a Bike What is it about non-fiction, that I never remember the authors. One of the books I've been booktalking at the schools. All sorts of interesting facts about bikes.
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I'm not a big Agatha Christie fan, though I've read most of her books at one time or another, but the local high school decided that all of their students would read this title, this year and I wanted to be able to talk about it to the Eighth graders. I remembered whodunit, which I don't usually. Good, but it will never be among my favourites. Give me a good Dorothy Sayers or Rex Stout any day.
Four Party Line by Dorothy Butters. A career novel from the days when they used to publish career novels aimed at teens. Four women from very different backgrounds go to work as telephone operators and end up helping each other. Three of them find romance, solve their problems, and presumably leave, and the fourth, from the wrong side of the tracks, decides that romance is not for her because she wants more from life and to get that, she has to work hard at her job. *rolls eyes*
Dramarama by E. Lockhart. Two best friends go off to drama camp, which changes their friendship in various ways. Of course the guy is gay and the girl is straight. A bit cliched, but good, nonetheless. One of the advance reader's copies I got at ALA.
An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi. The friendship is between Mary Todd Lincoln and her dressmaker, a freed slave, Elizabeth Keckley. The book isn't so much about their friendship as their separate childhoods, told in two parts. Romanticized historical fiction. Good enough to booktalk.
Home on the Moon Another nonfiction and therefore no author. Lovely photographs and artists renderings about our travels to the moon and what it might take to build a moon colony. Another booktalk book.
Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I'm a big fan of his short stories, and I've read this before also. Another book from the 9th grader's summer reading lists that I reread to booktalk. Very eerie and not at all hopeful. I found it a little too depressing this time around.
Meet Julie by Megan McDonald. The newest American girl is only three years older than me. Can I be depressed now? Another freebee from ALA.
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. Another book I read for a booktalk, then realised it was from the wrong list, so I never talked about it. About a girl in Afghanistan who has to dress as a boy to support her family after her father is imprisoned. This time around I think I'll read the sequels.
Only Parent by Louise Dickenson Rich. A sequel to her memoir, We Took to the Woods about raising her children alone after her husband died. Written in the 1950s, there's an odd disconnect, because she's constantly talking about her unusual life, and how she prefers dungarees (jeans) to dresses, and hates having to dress up to go to town. Nowadays she wouldn't be out of place. Most of the book is about a trip they took to the shore one summer. Lovely prose and delightful anecdotes.
Icons!
Only 14 to go. The table is still here
I'm almost done with the butterfly socks. After that I'll be making a shawl for my cousin's wedding and joining who_knits Fourth Doctor Scarf knitalong. Pictures of the yarn will follow if anyone's interested. I'm too lazy to get the camera out now, and the yarn for the scarf hasn't come yet.
I'm thinking I want to rip out both of the other sweaters I started and try knitting them both flat, like the patterns suggested. I think attempting to knit them in the round was a disaster.
Whew. Done.