Category: Reading Challenge

Shelf #12 Complete, On to Shelf #13

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I’m a morning person, so even though we have a two hour delay, I was up at the usual time. I love having time to read and reflect in the morning, and I hate feeling rushed, so I’m enjoying every minute of this time. I finished Howards End yesterday morning, and I liked it more than I thought I would. It had a “rich people are horrible and ruin everything” vibe that made me think of The Great Gatsby, and Forster’s writing wasn’t quite as dense as other literature from that time period. Howards End was published in 1910, so it’s a bit past the Victorian era. For some reason, anything written in that time period has either been a massive struggle for me or a DNF. Even contemporary works set in that time period irritate me. I’m not sure why because I know there’s a lot of brilliant Victorian writing. It’s just not my thing. Howards End satisfies “published 100+ years ago,” “on your TBR 5+ years,” and “an unexpected inheritance” on the Beat the Backlist Challenge.

Now for shelf #13!

I’m sure people who know me well will be shocked that I haven’t read everything I own by Neil Gaiman, so I’ll get to work on that. I’m reading Beowulf: The Script Book because I’m in the mood for some classic fantasy, and I’ve always been curious about this adaptation. I’ve not seen the movie, so that will have to happen. This also satisfies a bunch of challenge categories!

Books I’ve read:

  • American Gods 
  • Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
  • Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman
  • Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
  • Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
  • Neil Gaiman’s Make Good Art Speech
  • Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
  • Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
  • Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
  • Stardust by Neil Gaiman
  • Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
  • The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman
  • The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
  • Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
  • Grendel by John Gardner

Shelf #11 Complete, On to Shelf #12

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Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe was entertaining but definitely a product of the 80s. I must have seen the movie because as soon as I started reading, I remembered the basics of the plot. What I found most engaging was the structure and how the multiple points of view across different time periods pieced the main elements of the plot together. For my reading challenges, this will count as a book with a door on the cover, on my TBR 5+ years, between 300 and 400 pages, and 3+ points of view, so it was definitely a good choice in that sense.

Now for shelf #12

I’m  not sure why I started reading Howard’s End by E. M. Forster, because I had a lot of options on this shelf. It checks off most of the boxes for a book that usually ends up as a DNF, but I’m over 100 pages in, and I’m completely invested in some of these characters. There are exceptions to every rule, right? 

Books I’ve read:

  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  • Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
  • Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
  • Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
  • The Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Ben Franklin
  • All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
  • It Was on Fire When I Laid Down on It by Robert Fulghum
  • Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
  • An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
  • Written in My Heart’s Own Blood by Diana Gabaldon

When I have time to reorganize my shelves, I’ll probably make a separate section for autobiography/memoir. I don’t like that they are mixed in with fiction. I have no idea why I did that.

Shelf #10 Complete, On to Shelf #11

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I know I said I was going to read slowly and deliberately, but Sweet Land Stories was an extremely fast read. I’m not quite sure how to describe this collection, but it wasn’t at all what I expected. Each of the stories was pretty disturbing and tackled various types of moral ambiguity. What tied them all together was the question of why people go along with things that are not in their best interests or in many cases reprehensible. And why do so many people make excuses for those who do horrible things? My favorite story was “Walter John Harmon,” which was about a religious cult led by a con artist. The members of the cult refused to see the truth and found ways to continue to venerate Walter John Harmon even after his betrayal was clear. This collection was published in 2004, but there were so many parallels to what is going on today. I’ll be thinking about this for a while.

Reading this satisfied two challenge categories: “Sweet or Spicy” and “read a book based solely on the title.” They fit together nicely. It would have also worked for “door on the cover,” but I have other books that will satisfy that.

Now for shelf #11!

I plan to read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe because of the reviews and because it has a door on the cover! I like letting the reading challenges guide me because deciding what to read from this shelf would have been extremely difficult without them. It’s highly likely that I’ll get through all my fiction shelves before I finish the reading challenges. I’ll have to come up with a new plan once my shelf challenge is complete!

Books I’ve read:

  • Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
  • A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
  • Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi
  • The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
  • Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
  • You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
  • Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
  • Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nonfiction November Photo Prompt: Dedication

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For some reason, the first thing that came to mind when I saw today’s photo challenge prompt was how much I value the autographed copies of my books, especially those with the dedication, “To Michelle.” Here are the stories behind the encounters with some of my favorite authors.

I had the opportunity to meet Sir Ken Robinson at an extremely difficult time in my life. He was the keynote speaker at the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Conference and Expo (PETE&C), and I would have backed out if I didn’t want to hear him speak so badly. When it was my turn at the autograph table, I thanked him for his work and told him that my students always love his TED Talk, “Schools Kill Creativity.” He treated me like the most important person he’d ever met, had me sit beside him, and picked my brain about how I was using his work in my classes. It was a moment I’ll never forget, and it was exactly what I needed to bring me out of the funk I had been in.

In 2019, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi spoke at the Harrisburg Book Festival, so of course, I HAD to be there. He was speaking with Dr. Imani Perry, whom I had never heard of. I purchased a copy of Breathe: A Letter to My Sons, to familiarize myself with her work, and I was mesmerized by the brilliance of her writing. On the day of their talk, I was set on making myself look like the biggest dork in the world. On my way into The Midtown Scholar, I walked in front of a car and almost got myself run over. I was mortified when Dr. Kendi got out. He was very nice and held the door open for me, so I guess he wasn’t judging me too harshly! Then, when I was in the signing line, I was fangirling over Dr. Perry’s writing. Dr. Kendi laughed and told me that he felt the same way the first time he read her work. They were both so gracious and wonderful to talk to.

Dan Pink and Guy Kawasaki were also keynote speakers at PETE&C. I don’t have a funny story about Dan Pink, because I didn’t have a lot of time to interact with him. Guy Kawasaki was Apple’s Chief Evangelist, and I was trying to hide all my Windows devices from him during the smaller breakout discussion after his keynote. I remember joking with him about the Borg and Star Trek, which led to what he wrote on the cover of his book.

Another highlight of my life was getting to have lunch with an astronaut at Kennedy Space Center. As soon as I told Tom Jones I was a teacher, he treated me like a total rockstar. I kept thinking, “YOU’VE BEEN TO SPACE FOUR TIMES!!!” as we were talking.

It has been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to see an author speak and then meet them. I need to work on that.  As much as I appreciate interacting with authors on Zoom, I’d love to have more in person experiences. That may be a good reading goal for 2024! 

Book Review: Verified by Mike Caulfield & Sam Wineburg

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Today, I finished reading Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online by Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg for Nonfiction November’s “Web” prompt.

I consider myself a very savvy person when it comes to navigating information online. I’ve been teaching high school English for almost 24 years, and I have master’s degrees in Classroom Technology and Library and Information Science. I love teaching research skills, especially evaluating information for credibility and bias, mostly because I’ve seen so many people I care about get sucked into misinformation and easily debunked conspiracy theories. Because I know the information landscape is constantly changing, I do my best to keep up. When I saw that Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg were releasing a book, I knew I had to have it immediately, because I’ve used their work with my students and when preparing professional development for my colleagues. 

I’m familiar with Caulfield’s SIFT method, and Verified provides many examples of how to use it in different contexts. As a longtime fan of the CRAAP test, I appreciated learning why checklists don’t hold up, and why the SIFT method is a faster and more reliable alternative. I may be most grateful for the chapter on Wikipedia because so many of my students and colleagues are not aware of how far it has come or what a valuable tool it can be. As I was reading, I kept marking pages with ideas that could be turned into activities for students (and possibly colleagues), and I see myself sitting with this book as I revise and update my research lessons. I learned a lot from the chapter on advertising because I found out that there’s so much I didn’t know about online advertising, especially native advertising. Caulfield and Wineburg also address AI in the postscript and explain how the SIFT method holds up in the face of AI generated disinformation. 

This book is extremely accessible and would be valuable for anyone who wants to be smarter in how they approach the information they encounter online. For those of us who teach research, it’s a must read.

Nonfiction November

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I’m a sucker for creative reading challenges, so when I saw posts about Nonfiction November on Instagram yesterday, I immediately scrambled to figure out what I wanted to read. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do the daily photo challenge, but I should be able to read four books based on the prompts. I love that the prompts are single words that participants can interpret however they want. Here are my selections.

Fraud — This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving by David J. Silverman

Web — Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about what to Believe Online by Mike Caulfield & Sam Wineburg

Capital — How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

Display — The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Now I need to finish Underdogs tonight, so I can start Verified tomorrow.