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Category Archives: Blogging

Mid-survey questions for October’s readathon

24 Oct

It’s halfway already??? Here are my answers to the midway survey.

  1. What are you reading right now? Cursed, a collection of retold fairytales edited by O’Regan and Kane
  2. How many books have you read so far? I think 6?
  3. What book are you most looking forward to in the second half of the readathon? Definitely my animal books: Where Have All The Bees Gone? and My Penguin Year.
  4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? A few including taking about an hour break to attend church. But I also do have a family and a dog, so random questions and dinner interrupted, so I roll with it.
  5. What surprises you most about the readathon so far? How quickly it has gone by when it starts at 8am.
 
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Posted by on October 24, 2020 in Blogging, Events, Miscellaneous

 

Opening survey questions for October’s readathon

24 Oct

I’m cutting to the chase here for the Dewey’s readathon by answering the questions of the opening survey.

  1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Upstate New York

2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

The graphic novel, Belonging which has been recommended by many


3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

A hand-packed pint of Pumpkin Pie ice cream from Stewart’s


4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I’m an obsessive Call the Midwife fan.


5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

I’m a hooked participant of the readathon for the last handful of years. As for doing anything different for this one, I don’t know if there’s anything specific. But right now it looks like it might rain so my workout will be on an elliptical and not on the trail.

 
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Posted by on October 24, 2020 in Blogging, Events

 

Outstanding book of the month for September 2020

30 Sep

It’s the end of September so that means I’m ready to announce the outstanding book of the month for September based on what I’ve read this month– it doesn’t mean that they were published this month or even this year– but it does mean that out of  the dozens of books I’ve read (at least one a day) that it had an impact on me as a reader and a librarian. 

Without waiting, here is September’s book! 

Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation by Candy J. Cooper with Marc Aronson

And boy, what a book! A nonfiction accounting of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan is both well-written and cringe-worthy. The multiple failures that maintained the secrecy and then the continued ignorance of the problem is explained in great detail by highlighting the citizen activists who took charge of holding people accountable. Poisoned Water gets the prize for encompassing all aspects of the story for a teen audience which includes STEM and citizenship, advocacy and politics. And Cooper also includes well-placed pictures to show how the water affected the skin simply from using the water to bathe but also showing what the brown liquid looked like in a bottle that would be unsuitable for drinking. 

This will find a home in our library but I know it won’t sit on the shelf for long because I have plans to share this book widely be it in booktalks but certainly during our social justice unit working with the English department. It’s a deeply affecting book and one that everyone should read. 

 
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Posted by on September 30, 2020 in Blogging, Book of the Month, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

Checking in

25 Aug

What are you doing with the last few weeks of summer?

What are you reading?

What are you drinking and eating or otherwise indulging in?

What new rituals have you added to your routine or are adapting for the fall season?

 
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Posted by on August 25, 2020 in Blogging, Miscellaneous

 

Reading a book a day

26 Jun

Working in a school in upstate New York, Friday, March 13th was our last day of in-person instruction. It also happened to be the day after my sons’ birthday and we had to cancel their friend and family birthday parties that weekend. Whatever school was going to look like for the rest of the year was undeniably tenuous. How would my co-librarian and I support our students and teachers? How would I support my 5th graders with their work at home? It was going to look different than it had every had, but one thing was going to be certain, I was going to read.

I’m a reader who rarely has reading slumps or droughts. I am always prepared with books for every mood and in every format so that I continue to read. Before the pandemic if there was a day or two I didn’t pick up a book, it was usually due to a day packed with work and family obligations but I had started reading for 15 minutes each morning so I could say that I did read daily, it just wouldn’t usually amount of finishing a book.

So Saturday, March 14th happened. It was the start of a weekend, but the start of new uncharted territory so I decided that to lay a foundation of familiarity, thus, I would read at least a book a day. Done. If there’s one thing you know, it’s that I like a challenge. Challenge accepted. It might be a picture book or it might be finishing a book I had been listening to for several days, but I would finish a book a day.

This past Sunday, Father’s Day, happened to be one hundred days of reading a book a day. I’ve documented my journey on my Instagram not only to be able to see how much I’ve read, but how varied my moods have been and what was available.

I recognize that many readers have been significantly affected by the pandemic and found themselves in droughts of reading. That’s okay. I look at my ability to read a book a day as a necessity– like a writer writing, I’m a reader reading. It has kept me grounded and focused when other things weren’t so definite. My safety net. My life raft.

It doesn’t have to be reading, but has there been something you’ve done daily since the pandemic? As I wrote that last sentence, I thought of Aisha Saeed’s daily Twitter post

and a recently-read book, but yet-to-be-published book by Syed M. Masood called More Than Just a Pretty Face where main character Danyal shares a thought about a new girl he’s met: “I hope that Bisma Akram had something similar in her life, something that could bring joy and light when all seemed dark.”

 
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Posted by on June 26, 2020 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Miscellaneous

 

This lady’s reflection on a month of daily blogging

30 Apr

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Well, it happened. Each day in April, whether you subscribe and had an email waiting each morning or you found it through WordPress, Twitter, or Instagram, there was something from me. I talked about specific books and other people’s books. A 24-hour readathon. And my love of books centered around the kitchen… more than once.

And it was fun. A lot of work, but fun. Simply put, the ideas were plentiful because I’ve always had lists and ideas, plus I’m reading and learning each day to share new information too. What I’ve learned that most people already know too:

  1. Write it the day before and schedule it to post the next day
  2. Write about what inspires you because every experience is an opportunity to share with others
  3. Shorter is better
  4. I want connection with others which is why I usually ask a question at the end of a post and I get very excited when someone comments
  5. I might do this again!

CelebrateVictorySo as I sign-off from sending out a daily post and settle back in to “when the mood strikes me”, know that today, Thursday, April 30th, I’ll do a little dance and toast with a little cocktail in celebration to my readers and to anyone who has achieved a small victory both big and small as I have.

Cheers!

 

 
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Posted by on April 30, 2020 in Blogging, Miscellaneous

 

Where do you read?

28 Apr

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Post-readathon reminded me of all of the places I read, in particular because during a readathon in the dawn hours, I usually will take a bath and it’s only a rare occasion when I won’t have a book in the bathtub.

In 2015, I wrote a post for our newspaper’s books blog about where people read that I thought would be fun to revisit. Where are the places that you read, the obvious and the awkward? When it’s awkward, what are the props and tools that you must have on hand to make it work? Have books been ruined this way? (I’m dedicating that one to my sister in-law who borrowed a book of mine only to replace it with a new copy because she fell asleep reading it in the tub and dropped it).

I have my typical places and the average reader places too. Do you run and listen to an audiobook? Do you enjoy scrubbing the tub because you can listen to a book? Please share!

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One of the pictures from this past weekend’s readathon where were were sharing a photo challenge for reading during quarantine. 

 
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Posted by on April 28, 2020 in Blogging, Miscellaneous

 

It’s got that old book smell alright

27 Apr

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I don’t often try to find books published in 1943, but when I do, it’s for a good reason. Last summer I was listening to an audiobook, When Books When To War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II by Molly Guptill Manning that mentioned the servicemen particularly loving Chicken Every Sunday: My Life with Mother’s Boarders by Rosemary Taylor. The description evoked the feelings I get when I talk here about books about the kitchen and food so I started searching for a copy. My indie bookstore for the win, they were able to secure a copy for me to purchase at a fair price of $20. I didn’t know what kind of shape it would be in if it was published in 1943, but as she mentioned on the phone, it appeared to be in decent condition- so I said yes.

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I picked it up months ago and was waiting for the right time to read it and this past weekend’s readathon seemed like that time. In the wee hours of the morning as the first light appeared, I was smelling the smells of Mother’s kitchen and pulsing with the energy of a houseful of boarders. This memoir is dedicated to Taylor’s mother who spent her life catering to others in her home as a rough and tumble entrepreneur who took care of people around the table and in the home. There’s an instantaneous connection to how Taylor describes her mom that I felt like she was sitting next to me. And each story about a boarder was essentially a vignette detailing an experience from the early 1900s  and how they came to revolve around Mother’s world. A good meal. A kind ear. And making sure her husband didn’t get the rent from anybody- she kept him in line too.

Mother was, and is, an utterly divine cook. It isn’t that I’m her daughter. It isn’t just a nostalgic backward look at my childhood. But, just as there are artists who paint, sing, sculpt, so there are also artists who cook. There are Carusos, Pavlovas, and Michaelangelos. There is also Mother over the cookstove. And like any artist she needed a public. She had it in the boarders. The curtain went up three times a day, and she took her applause in the chorus of appreciation and also in the visible poundage that went on the eaters.

The book was deceptively short. The old thick paper with that old book smell make it seem like there were more pages than there were but I was also drawn in to a mood all its own. It was the chaos of big families, it was how it was done in the old days, it was the pioneering West too.

Chicken Every Sunday is a diamond in the rough; where one thing led to another and now I’m holding on to that diamond that hit me in way that books should. Maybe it was sleep deprivation or maybe it’s my unabiding love for the magic of kitchens, but either way I’m better for having this book on my shelf. It’s a feeling. It’s stroking the front cover and giving it some googly eyes.

Are there super old books that might not necessarily be the “classics” that you adore for one reason or another?

 
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Posted by on April 27, 2020 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Nonfiction

 

Dewey’s 24-hour readathon: Part II

26 Apr

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It’s so hard to say goodbye. Parting is such sweet sorrow. It’s not goodbye but see ya later. However you say it, the readathon is over for now. I’ll patiently await October and then if there’s a reverse readathon in the summer- I’m there. In the meantime, I’m celebrating my successes for the readathon and hope you’ll share yours if you participated too.

Here were my stats:

Time spent reading:

22 hours 38 minutes 02 seconds

Books read:

Junk Boy by Abbott (Digital)

Grown by Jackson (Digital)

Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Krosoczka (Digital)

The Season of Styx Malone by Magoon (Audiobook)

Ginger Kid by Hofstetter (Print)

Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History by Chaline (Print)

Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates (Young Readers Edition) by Kilmeade & Yaeger (Print)

The Cool Bean by John (Digital)

My Neighbor Seki by Morishige (Print)

Chicken Every Sunday by Taylor (Print)

Part of Girls of Paper and Fire by Ngan (Print)

Almost all of American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Callahan (Audiobook)

Snacks and food consumed:

Saturday kickoff breakfast: overnight oats and tea,

Snacks: homemade chai tea biscotti, Sour Patch Kids, copious amounts of tea, Stewart’s Shops’ limited release peanut butter cookie ice cream,

Saturday dinner: Pulled pork and cabbage slaw tacos, Amaretto and cranberry

Sunday celebratory breakfast: chocolate milk, biscotti, and tea

Locations for reading:

Couch

Kitchen table

On the patio

On a bike trail

By the fire outside

Bathtub

 

Thank you to all who put it together time after time. There will be a change in lineup for next time as Heather and Andi will both step back while Gaby and Kate take the reins. Au revoir and welcome all in the same breath.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2020 in Adult, Blogging, Childrens, Events, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Upcoming Releases, Verse, Young Adult

 

Dewey’s 24-hour readathon: Part I

25 Apr

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It’s here.

The Dewey 24-hour readathon. Several times a year a collective group of like-minded individuals put together an amazing twenty-four marathon reading session to engage readers across the world. There’s usually mini-challenges, discussion posts, BINGO cards as well as general cheerleading of other readers by following hashtags and plugging in to the Goodreads group and their website. It was born from a woman named Dewey who was inspired by her husband and son’s 24 hour comics day yet sadly she only ran a few before she passed away. That was over 10 years ago.

I’ve been doing them for only the last several years, when I had first heard about them and if you read my blog or know me IRL, I love a good challenge. You can see my edublog posts, my foray into making every sandwich in the Sandwiches! book, and even my challenge to myself to blog every day in April. So it’s not a stretch to think I’d enjoy this. Plus, I’m always going to try to break my previous time. And I also try to recruit people when I can.

I actually have two special guests joining me for this one. While my sons’ have routinely sat and read with me at the very beginning or very end of the readathon, this year, at 11 years old and while social distancing, they asked if they could really participate (which was really code for can we stay up past our bedtime or potentially skip sleeping altogether Mom, please?) And as the great meme goes:

Community I'Ll Allow It GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

I also think a few of my colleagues will pop in for a little which is part of it’s beauty too. For the relaxed reading types, they’ll sit to read for a few hours just to do it. For the hardcore reading types such as myself, it’s a new teacup or t-shirt, a book pile, planned and prepped snacks, and a wide-open calendar.

Depending on where you are in the country or world, you may be a little late to the readathon party, but you can check out the reading start times on the website if you’re unsure. All I know is that I have overnight oats and a mimosa planned to start my day after a morning workout and at 8am I will happily ignore you until 8am on Sunday morning.

Join us!

 
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Posted by on April 25, 2020 in Blogging, Events

 
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