Back to Work and Reading Update

Today I spent several hours working in my classroom. I put all the new classroom library books on the computer and my daughter helped shelve them all. I started setting things up and thinking about how I want to do things this year - what worked well, what I hated all year. I'm excited about the new school year, looking forward to seeing the kids sitting in those chairs. Only ten more days!

Since school got out for the summer, here are the books I finished reading:

Book #25: Kids are Worth It: Giving Your Child the Gift of Inner Discipline, by Barbara Coloroso. This is a great book, but since I had read it a couple of times before, it didn't hold my attention as much as when the information was new. That's why it took me so long to read it. I highly recommend Coloroso's parenting books.
Book #26: What Came Before He Shot Her, by Elizabeth George. At the end of George's previous book, there is a random murder; this book tells the story of that killing from the perspective of the killer and his family. If one of the purposes of reading is to enter new worlds, this book certainly succeeds. Again I found myself amazed that George is an American. The story helps us understand what it must be like to be disenfranchised in today's London. Harrowing reading, but I'm glad I finished it.
Book #27: The Other Mother, by Gwendolen Gross. I'm afraid this book was a bit of a disappointment - not as good as the descriptions I had read about it. It did have some interesting observations on the "Mommy War" - the battle that is allegedly raging between working mothers and those who stay at home.
Book #28: Touching Snow, by M. Sindy Felin. I know I just used the word "harrowing" but no other word will do to describe this book. It's about child abuse of a horrific kind taking place in a Haitian-American family in New York.
Book #29: The Day Joanie Frankenhauser Became a Boy, by Francess Lin Lantz. Somehow Joanie's name has been written as "John" on the roster at her new school. Since she has always wanted to be a boy, she seizes this opportunity, with some comic and interesting results.
Book #30: Replay, by Sharon Creech. This book is about memories, family, life with many siblings. Beautiful as Creech's writing always is.
Book #31: Austenland, by Shannon Hale. I was very much looking forward to reading this book but I was a bit disappointed by it. I wasn't convinced by the premise and I could never quite figure out the point of this story. Sorry, because I love Hale's other books that I have read.
Book #32: Black Ships, by Jo Graham. This is a retelling of the Aeneid and I enjoyed it immensely. I even bought my own copy of the Aeneid as soon as I was done reading the novel.
Book #33: Going Going, by Naomi Shihab Nye. I hadn't read any of this author's fiction before, and I love her poetry. This was a good read, raising some interesting issues about how packaged life is becoming with the increase in franchised businesses.
Book #34: The Wild Girls, by Pat Murphy. This book has a theme of writing as salvation. I enjoyed it but didn't find it completely convincing.
Book #35: Extras, by Scott Westerfeld. The first book of this series was my favorite, but I liked the ideas behind this one, too. Everyone in the world of this story (which turns out to be set in Japan) has a fame ranking. I think this could start some interesting discussions with middle schoolers.
Book #36: Due Preparations for the Plague, by Janette Turner Hospital. One of my favorite books is Hospital's short story collection Dislocations, but I hadn't read any of her novels. This one has a grim theme: terrorism and trauma. It is brilliantly plotted and although I at first thought I wouldn't enjoy it, I ended up loving it.
Book #37: The English American, by Alison Larkin. This book was a hoot. The author, according to the jacket information, was adopted from an American family and raised by a British one. The protagonist of the story has the same history. This is full of wonderful, spot-on observations of the differences between the two cultures. I can completely imagine this as a chick flick and the ending was a bit predictable, but this was a great read and lots of fun.
Book #38: Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri. What can I say? Lahiri is brilliant.
Book #39: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laurie Rigler. I feel silly saying this, but I found this book more convincing than the Hale one, and that's surprising when you consider that the heroine is a 21st century woman who wakes up one morning and finds she is living the life of a contemporary of Jane Austen. I liked it, especially the ending, which I didn't see coming.
Book #40: Warning Signs, by Stephen White. I've read several of White's books about the clinical psychologist Alan Gregory. His characters are very well-drawn and grow from book to book. This one was suspenseful and exciting.
Book #41: First Boy, by Gary Schmidt. I've already raved on and on about how much my students and I liked Schmidt's Newbery-honor-winning book The Wednesday Wars. This one wasn't quite as good but still very fun and timely, given the election coming up in the U.S. I can picture this one as a fast-paced movie. I think my middle schoolers will like it. It has a slightly mature theme, given the scandal that ends up being central to the plot (not going to say any more!), but I think my kids can handle it.

Sigh. I love summer. But now it's back to work and I won't be able to keep up this reading pace. I sure did enjoy it, though!