PRABE - REFLECTION

Hmmmm, I am glad that I was able to do as much reading outside of class that I did. It's nowhere near as much as it's going to be in a week and a half when I don't have homework to do every night after working a full day and then taking care of my family for a few hours. For my graduation/Christmas/birthday present I will be getting a Kindle Fire and can think of nothing that I am going to want to do more than fill it up with all of my To-Read list on goodreads.com. Then I will have it at all times; while cooking supper, while running on the treadmill, waiting in the doctor's office or just sitting on my couch. I can't wait. I have kept all of my textbooks and am interested in going back and really reading some of them in reference to my future classroom. To be honest, my in class reading was surface at best, to just get the needed information. I am really interested to have the time and perspective to dig deeper in to some of the topics and techniques, develop them and make them my own. Those are my intentions for future reading.

Week 10_PRABE #8

I'm not sure where this week went, but I did not have one spare minute to read. Thankfully, we are driving down to Tulsa today and I plan to spend a great chunk of that time reading. But, we will not be back until late late late Sunday night/early early Monday morning, so I won't be able to write about what I read until after the deadline for this assignment. So, here's what I plan to take with me to read: Acid House by Irvine Welsh. I watched Trainspotting again last night after not watching it for at least a couple of years. It inspired me to dig out all of my old Irvine Welsh books. I love his writing style even though his stories make me feel unsettled. I chose Acid House because it's a collection of short stories, so it will be easier for me to start and stop reading over the weekend. I can't decide which of the stories I like the best, but I haven't read it for many years, so maybe reading it from this new perspective will show one to be more appealing to me than another. All of the stories are gritty and have lots of descriptions of working class England and Scotland. I find that to be one of the most interesting parts of his work; seeing the differences and similarities between my life here in the US and the one depicted in the book. Granted, the stories tend to center around violent, depraved, drugged characters, so there isn't a lot of comparison. But, there is human nature and interpersonal experiences that feel universal despite the depravity of many of the situations he depicts.

I can't give exact dates and times read, but between the 3.5 hour drive today and the same tomorrow, I will easily exceed the 90 minutes.

Week 9_PRABE #7

I have to confess that I was out of town this week at my grandmother's house and forgot my backpack by the door at home. So, I did not have the books that I had planned to read in my down time with me. My grandmother's house is out in the middle of nowhere and the only books around are Jackie Collins novels. Forgive me for not being desperate enough to crack one of those; I just couldn't do it. There were a plethora of magazines, though, so I dug in to a few of those. Some were home decorating magazines and I admit that I only looked at the pictures. There were some People magazines and I did read some of those articles. One was about the Toddlers to Tiaras kids. There was one mom that dressed her 3-year-old daughter in a costume modeled after Julia Roberts's prostitute costume from Pretty Woman. Classy and so appropriate, right? I also found out what designer I would wear if I became a celebrity and had to do so: Marchesa. They are just gorgeous. I didn't just read trashy crap magazines, though. My grandparents have years and years of National Geographic magazines in their home. I worked my way through a few of those. The one I really enjoyed was from 1986 and was about the Santa Fe Trail. My grandparents live on the trail and have wagon wheel ruts on their land to this day from the days of the great migration. Many of the things that the article covered were straight out of the Oregon Trail computer game that I played as a kid. Others detailed poignant personal struggles and travels and motivations of the travelers. There were amazing photographs and I thought about these people on my drive home as I looked at the landscape around me and wondered how it looked back then to the myriad of people that made that trip over a hundred years before me.

11/23/11 - 40 min
11/24/11 - 30 min
11/25/11 - 45 min

Week 8_PRABE#6

I did not have a book to read this week, but I did see an article about a book that I'd like to read. It's called Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan. He writes a lot of articles for GQ and the initial article is here: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201111/john-jeremiah-sullivan-pulphead-interview-daniel-riley?printable=true. It talks about his writing style and why his seemingly pop-based articles end up touching a cord with readers and being about more than their superficial topics. That article had links to four of his long articles that are included in the book. I read each of them on my lunch breaks at work this week. The first was about a Christian music festival and his own reactions to what he thought would be just a stock coverage piece. Another was about Axl Rose, who declined to be interviewed, so the author had to find another angle for the story. One was about The Real World cast members after the fact and he was adorable in his unapologetic fanboy adoration for them. The last one was about Bunny Wailer and his attempt at interviewing him and understanding his life. All of these articles were engaging and fascinating to read and helped me pass my lunch hours this week.


11/14/11 - 30 min
11/14/11 - 30 min
11/15/11 - 30 min
11/16/11 - 30 min

Week 7_PRABE#5

We spent twenty hours in the car this weekend traveling to and from a funeral, so I had a lot of time to read. Unfortunately, my children were absolutely rotten during this trip and none of them napped, so I spend less time reading than I had hoped and more time playing referee between them. *sigh* Anyway, I grabbed my husband's iPad to see what books he had downloaded on it. One was Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life by Jim Lindberg. We listen to a lot of punk music and his band is one that I have seen multiple times in concert. We met him this past May at a festival in Vegas, so I thought I would give the book a read. At first there were a lot of anecdotes and stories and I found the book enjoyable. It discussed meeting his wife, life on the road and becoming a parent. But then, it morphed in to a parenting/relationship book trying to give advice. I had to finally stop reading because he did not give any information or tips beyond common sense and the typical advice given in parenting/relationship books. It felt like he didn't have enough to say, so he started giving advice and it felt wrong and dull. I had heard others that started reading but then lost interest and now I know why. He's a punker and needs to write about his punk experiences from a family perspective instead of doling out platitudes and silly words of "wisdom".

11/10/11 - 55 min
11/11/11 - 60 min
11/13/11 - 30 min

Week 5 - PRABE #4

So, we finished Mockingjay. It was, as a series and overall, very enjoyable. The author was great at leaving each chapter on a cliffhanger or major revelation that didn't feel forced. But, it did about kill me and my daughter because each time we tried to stop reading, we felt like we needed to read for just one more chapter. The last book was full of death and destruction, which at times felt a little much for me to be reading out loud to my daughter. But, she's 11 and this was about a war. War is not pretty and she knows that, so the book would not have worked if the battles had been sugar coated. The resolution of everything felt a little rushed. I have felt that way in the last couple of books that I have read. I don't know if it's me or if these last few books have just not had strong conclusions. I am, though, somewhat of a sucker for a happy ending, so I appreciated the epilogue greatly. There were enough twists and turns, events and relationships for me to visit this series again, so that marks it as a winner in my book.

10/23/11 - 50 min
10/24/11 - 35 min
10/25/11 - 23 min

Week 4_PRABE#3

We are still reading Mockingjay. Today we hit on one of the points that has been an issue for me for some time; the fact that she has used these two boys when the situation suited her. The author is still trying to justify this and make it seem like a legitimate love triangle rather than a wishy washy girl that is so co-dependent that she can't not have one or the other of these boys constantly there supporting her. At the same time, she tries to write her as a loner who doesn't need anybody and pushes people away to "protect" them. I don't know, I hate this part of it because the personal relationships are what really make a story and some of them have seemed really genuine and this aspect of the main characters' relationship just sucks. But, I want to find out what happens. Another thing that's weird in this book is that nothing will happen for a long time or there will be weeks or hours (that spreads multiple pages) of prep for something, then other big events take place within a paragraph. The pacing feels awkward sometimes. I know my reviews make it seem like this book/series are not great, but I am enjoying reading them and my daughter is really liking them. I guess we'll see how it ends before I make my final decision. Stay tuned for next week...

10/16/11 - 30 min
10/17/11 - 30 min
10/18/11 - 45 min

Week 3_PRABE#2

This week my daughter and I are reading the third book in the Hunger Games
series, Mockingjay. I would estimate that we are almost half way through it.
I can't decide if I like it as well as the other two in the series yet.
*spoiler alert - if you haven't read this and want to, don't read any
further* This is the time when the areas are in full rebellion and Katniss
is the symbol of the revolution. As much as I have enjoyed the series, I am
frustrated by her character. She is incredibly timid about her leadership
role in the rebellion and the love triangle feels ridiculous to me. There
are two boys that sit patiently as she leads them both on with her
indecisiveness and they get irritated, yet continue to put up with it. But,
sometimes I wonder if I'm too hard on her character. I want her to be strong
and take the leadership role and make decisions, even though I know that
human nature is not black and white and that the author is trying to show a
person thrust in to a position that she had no knowledge of. Also, a lot of
the times Katniss is completely oblivious to the feelings and situations
surrounding her in a very unrealistic way. Nobody is that oblivious until
the end with a grand reveal. Other than that, the imaginative world and
adventure and scenarios are great and the writing is engaging. We're always
ready for just one more chapter. I guess that outweighs the issues I have
with the character development since I always want to keep reading.

10/10/11 - 30 min
10/12/11 - 45 min
12/13/11 - 45 min

Week 2_PRABE#1

This week I was out of town for a work function for my husband. We had lots of travel time, so I was able to read a bunch. The main book that I read was Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I had heard about it on the radio one day and called my library. They said that they had it in but they were still processing it, so they put my name down first on the list. It came in the day before we left, so I was able to read it on our trip. The atmosphere in this book is one of its best features. There is a ton of imagination and ambiance created through the descriptive writing. While the author set up a strong plot in the beginning, it all kind of crumbled away in the end and I did not feel like the book concluded in a satisfactorily manner. But, the crumbling away was kind of a plot device as well, so maybe it was intentional. Either way, it was worth the read and I definitely enjoyed it.

The other book I read was World Leaders Past and Present - Catherine the Great by Catherine McGuire-Max. I love reading about Russia and the Tsars and their lives. This was a great one because I didn't really know much about her prior to reading this one. She overthrew her husband as Tsar and became the Tsarina. The information about the opulence that the royal family displayed when so many had nothing was timely with all of this 99/1%.


10/2/11 - 180 minutes
10/3/11 - 60 minutes
10/6/11 - 150 minutes

Week 11_PRABE #10

I did not have time for reading this week. With school starting soon, soccer club gearing up and all the finals coursework for my classes, I have been swamped every evening after work. But, I have Fridays off, so I took the kids to the pool for a few hours and spent a chunk of that time reading. I just grabbed a book that I have read before off of the shelf and started re-reading it. It was Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen. I haven't read this for a couple of years, so it was nice to revisit it. I find that I'm reading it from a different perspective now that I'm studying to be a teacher. Where as the first time I read it I was homeschooling my young daughter and reading it for my own interest. Now I find the sections like the one about the invisibility of racism in history text books even more impactful. I'm glad this is the book that I chose to take with me yesterday because it was good to get a reminder about the things that I was taught that don't hold up historically and use that when teaching my own classes.

8/5/11 - 90 minutes

Week 10_PRABE#9

This week I was very strapped for reading time, but I was able to squeeze in a little bit of reading to my girls. With this morning's chapter, I barely squeeked out my 90 minutes. With finals in all of my classes the next two weeks, I have a feeling that my reading time will be equally difficult to find. We have been reading The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. This is a book that my fourth grade teacher read to my class and I have always loved it. My children are enjoying it as well. It deals with a mixed family that moves in to an old house with a reputation for being haunted. Mysterious things happen, but some are suspect as Amanda, the one "new" sibling, and her interest in the occult often seem suspicious. It's really a tale about fitting in, creating new family and children dealing with the hurt of divorce and distant parents. But it's all told in a great narrative fashion and my kids are staying equally engaged in it, as I did when I was a kid.

7/25/11 - 15 min
7/26/11 - 25 min
7/27/11 - 20 min
7/28/11 - 15 min
7/31/11 - 15 min

Week 9_PRABE#8

I have a single literary weakness, the True Blood series. There is nothing redeeming in any literary fashion from these books. Even while I'm reading them I wonder why. The characters are just silly and their motivations are often shallow and obvious. But, for some reason, I read them like candy. It doesn't hurt that I adore the TV show developed around them. But the show is darker and edgier and I prefer it greatly to the books. But, since I finally saw the most recent one in paperback, I bought it and have been happily reading it over my lunch hour this week. (Well, for two days, they are super quick reads.) Dead In The Family by Charlaine Harris was no exception to the silly fun that the previous ones in the series were. The problem with these books is that now that there have been 10 of them, I can't exactly remember where one thing happened as opposed to another. I know the basic plot from start to finish, but they all tend to blend together without many distinctions arising from any of them. This one in particular dealt with the further political repercussions of the different natured creatures declaring their existence, Sooki's PTSD from past trauma, vampire family lines and her own family's special powers. And fairies. Lots of drama, lots of randomness and some smut thrown in for effect. Good times.

7/18/11 - 60 minutes
7/19/11 - 60 minutes

Week 8_PRABE #7

Well, since we had tickets to go see the midnight premiere of Harry Potter 7 with our oldest daughter this weekend, I went ahead and re-read the entire book 7. We were on vacation with our friends and had a ton of time to read on the drive there and while the kids were splashing around in the pool. I finished it Sunday evening, with my husband asking me to read out loud at around the third-to-last chapter. I'm not sure how much I love the ending of the book/series. On one hand, it satisfies the whole "happily ever after" thing that I have going on. On the other hand, it seems a little too "happily ever after". I know, quite a few people die during the series, so there is some loss and it's not where the good guys are invincible or anything. Seeing the movie was fun, but of course, it was nowhere near as good as the book. There's no way that everything included in the books would be able to be portrayed in the movies, of course. But, the final battle seemed weak compared to the chapters and chapters of description attributed to it in the book. It certainly made our six hour drive go by quickly on Sunday, having this book to read.

7/10/11 - 240 minutes

Week 7_PRABE #6

I found myself with a free afternoon and nothing pressing to do, so I was able to grab a book and have a nice long stretch of reading. Instead of starting a new book that I would have to put on hold the next day, I decided to just pick up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and flip to the middle and dig in to it. Since we're going to see the final movie installment next week, I thought it would be the perfect thing to flip through so that I could reacquaint myself with some of the finer details. This is one of my favorites from the entire Harry Potter series. I thought it was quite daring to introduce an entirely new element, the Deathly Hallows, to the final stage of the book. If not done correctly, it could feel like she was making it up just to find a way to solve a story that she didn't have an ending for. But, the way she intertwined it with the horcruxes that were introduced specifically in book 6 and the invisibility cloak that was in the first book, made it feel like a natural progression of the story. Something that has always bothered me about the Harry Potter series is how Voldemort essentially takes the summers off in hunting for Harry. That never seemed terribly believable to me. But, the more detailed information about the protective spells on his family's home helped to give that more validity. This book also had a lot of loss. Everything did not end happily ever after, it ended well enough. People died, children were orphaned and lots of bad things happened. If that had not been the case, these books would not have held the interest of most of the readers.

7/4/11 - 180 minutes

Week 6_PRABE #5

My kids were heavily involved in camps this past week, so instead of reading to them, I read for myself over my lunch hour. It feels so decadent to take time to read only because something interests me. Because I was hesitant to start a book for fear of not completing my assignments because I wanted to read said book instead, I spent a lot of time at www.longreads.com. I have read about Life After Zionist Summer Camp by Allison Benedikt, about a girl's experiences growing up, living abroad and her changing views and religious and political convictions. I read Marriage Lessons from My Turkish Grandmother by Sevil Delin. In this, the author discusses the old folktales that her grandmother shared with her while simultaneously weaving in her family's love history and tradition of bucking the system and marrying for love, much as the heroines in the stories bucked the system and outsmarted their male oppressors. This one struck me as timely because I have also been reading this blog, http://bettermyths.blogspot.com/, where he retells old fables and myths in a conversational and profanity-riddled manner. Many of the myths on the blog followed the same patterns as the Turkish stories told by Delin's grandmother. I also enjoyed the non-fictional piece of The Mystery of the Canadian Whiskey Fungus by Adam Rogers. This article told the modern story of a mysterious mold while also giving an extended history on the study of mold and the processes involved. I found it fascinating.

6/13/11 - 30 minutes
6/14/11 - 30 minutes
6/15/11 - 30 minutes
6/16/11 - 30 minutes
6/17/11 - 30 minutes

Week 5_PRABE #4

This week my girls and I continued reading Island of the Blue Dolphins. We have gotten to the point where Karana sacrifices her place on the boat with the white men to go back for her brother who was accidentally left on the shore. We had friends over this weekend and one of them saw the book and asked which of the girls was reading it. The girls answered that we all were. The friends are originally from California and stated that they had visited the burial site of Karana in California once. One of the couple spoke with the girls, explaining that this was one of his favorite books ever. I love seeing literature span all ages and demographics and provide something of substance for people to discuss.

6/7/11 - 15 minutes
6/8/11 - 30 minutes
6/11/11 - 30 minutes
6/12/11 - 25 minutes

Week 4_PRABE #3

I went out of town for the holiday weekend, so I was able to have lots of reading time during my flight home. Other than Sky Mall, I read Pont Dume by Katie Arnoldi. It covers a little coastal California town and five of its residents. There is Ellis, a native to the town and an avid surfer. She is upset about the uppity and wealthy people that have invaded her sleepy town and changed the sport of surfing from a physical spiritual event in to a traffic jam on the waves. She resents their mcMansions and vineyards, SUVs and everything else that they brought with them. Frank is one of the newer residents with a huge house, a vineyard on the property and drives out to hit the waves in his BMW each morning. Ellis and Frank end up with a relationship of sorts, but they are mostly just using each other during periods of stress in their lives. Janice is Frank's afflicted wife who hates the vineyard and eventually realizes she hates her husband. We watch as Janice delves in to a considerable midlife crisis. Pablo is friends with Ellis and another native. He makes his living by teaching surfing, selling pot and living out of his camper. Pablo and Ellis also have a relationship, but it is initially borne out of their comfort with each other. We meet Felix in Mexico on his family farm. His cousin gets him across the border to grow marijuana in the hills of California just outside this town. We watch his paranoia and isolation dissolve in to madness. All of these characters intertwine in the book and their story culminates with the Santa Anna winds and a large fire.

5/30/11 - 135min
5/31/11 - 20 min

Week 3_PRABE #2

This week the girls and I started a new book. We were debating between The Hunger Games and Island of the Blue Dolphins. The library was out of the former, so we didn't have to flip a coin to decide after all. After reading the synopsis (I've never read the book before), I was concerned that some of the story might feel too intense for the youngest (5 years old). The story begins with a description of the island and its inhabitants. There are descriptions of the people's way of life; the type of food they hunt and gather, how and where their village is situated, etc. The conflict begins when a ship appears on the horizon and strangers come to hunt the otter that live in the surrounding waters. Through suspicion and spying, each group keeps strict tabs on the other. The last we read, the main character, Karana, watched the men of her village fighting with the outsiders and in the end, her father, the chief, laid dead on the beach.

My daughters were well engaged in the chapters. I was wondering if the subject matter would feel too simple, slow and old-fashioned for them. They have recently read much more modern accounts full of action. The fight and the death, while sad, were handled with a minimum of gore or gratuitous descriptions of the violence, so my youngest was not terribly shaken up by it. The girls loved the descriptions of the island and the animals. I think they will enjoy this book. It is a simple and quick read so far.

5/22/11 - 25 min
5/24/11 - 40 min
5/25/11 - 35 min

Week 2_PRABE #1

This week we read a version of Shakespeare's  A Midsummer Night's Dream. My daughter asked that we read it because of a previous series of books mentioned Titania and Oberon and she was intrigued and wanted to hear more about them. We found this version of the story in our local thrift store and it was perfect for relating Shakespeare to a young person. It kept many of the more famous lines from the original play while relating the entire story in a more modern tongue and with extended explanations as to what was going on. While I wondered if it would be too confusing for her, with all of the going back and forth and different people falling in love with others, etc., but she was quite acute at keeping it all straight. Her favorite part was the play that Nick Bottom and the others put on at the end, Pyramus and Thisbe. I don't know that she "got" a lot of the humor, but she enjoyed Puck and the mix ups that he caused. We followed up the book by renting the movie this weekend. The movie included all Shakespearean dialog, but having read and discussed the book prior, she was able to keep up with the storyline.