Middle Grade Fiction:
Flight of the Outcast: The Academy: Year 1, by Brad Strickland (***) [2010] - 13-year-old Asteria Locke is the only survivor of a raider attack that destroys her family and their farm.  Now she must find a way to get her new religious guardians to let her take her cousin's place at the Academy instead of marrying her off.  She' ( Read more... )

Middle Grade Fiction Novels:
Whales on Stilts (A Pals in Peril Tale), by M.T. Anderson and Kurt Cyrus (***1/2) [2005] - You know a story is going to be a fun read when it starts like this:

"On Career Day Lily visited her dad's work with him and discovered he worked for a mad scientist who wanted to rule the earth through destruction and desolation."

( Read more... )

Fiction Books Finished:
Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games), by Suzanne Collins (****) [2010] - Whether she's writing swashbuckling fantasy novels for elementary schoolers or dystopian action-adventure stories for teens, Suzanne Collins' novels can be summed up in one phrase: "War is Hell." That sentiment goes doubly true for the ( Read more... )

Audiobooks:
The Boyfriend List, by E. Lockhart (****) - [2006] Fifteen-year-old Ruby Oliver never thought of herself as the type of person who might have panic attacks or need to see a shrink. Now here she is writing a list of all the boys she's ever dated, kissed, or thought about, trying to figure out what they have to do with the unfortunate ( Read more... )

Highlights:
Road Trip - My son and I cruised along Midwestern highways on a 12-hour drive to Lake Michigan, squeezing in plenty of teen driving practice, and passing by a few colleges along the way. I made a road trip playlist of music we both liked: The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Violent Femmes, Rage Against the Machine, and the Dr. Horrible ( Read more... )

Highlights:
Girls Gone Wild (Camping At Assateague Island) - My camping trip this year was an all-girl event with the daughterling, her friends, and me. These fantastically fun girls put up and took down the tents & canopy, washed the dishes, swam in the ocean for hours, dug in the sand, and had me laughing all the time.

Fiction Books Finished:
Where ( Read more... )

Highlights:
Eureka! (Or How My Life is Like An Episode of Castle) - Sometimes on the TV show Castle, Detective Beckett arrests a suspect.  They're clearly a key to the killing but the murders keep happening anyway. That's how my health has been.  I find I'm allergic to something, get shots for it or stay away from it... And then... I'm still ( Read more... )

Movies:
10 Things I Hate About You (***) - [1998]  I rewatched this because it was available on Netflix instant and I was in the mood for something fun and light. [Netflix Instant]

Breaking Away (****) - [1979] Cycling enthusiast Dave Stohler and his three best friends have no idea what they should do with their lives now that they've graduated high ( Read more... )

Quote of the Month:
"There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." Edith Wharton

Highlights:
Sinus and Poison and Snow!  Oh my!  Fresh off my victory of passing a new kidney stone without medical intervention-- Ding Dong the Stone is Gone! -- I set off on my own yellow brick road in search of productivity.  I ( Read more... )

Highlights:
Subbing- Subbing for a full week reminds me why I stopped teaching full-time. By day three the constant interacting goes from fun to exhausting and I suddenly remember I'm an introvert.

I also remember how hard an American elementary school teacher works.  There's 6- 7 daily hours teaching  25 students, plus, preparing all the materials ( Read more... )