May Reading List: Kindle Books

 It seems like everyone who likes to read has an opinion on whether "real" books or e-books are better.  Purists swear by physical books - they like the comforting weight in their hands, the smell of the pages, and the smoothness of the paper.  A walk through a bookstore is magic to a reader.  Just browsing the aisles and touching different books is a satisfying experience, even if you don't buy them.  These elements combine to make a reading experience that a tablet just can't replicate.  It's not quite as easy to curl up with a cup of tea and an electronic screen. 

Those who prefer e-readers like the immediacy - you can buy a book online and read it instantly, including difficult to find titles. They also like the space-saving functionality of reading electronically.  You can contain a bookstore's worth of books behind a slim, small rectangle of plastic.  The ability to electronically highlight passages and take notes are also a plus for e-readers, not the mention the nifty little percentage in the corner that shows you how much of the book you've read so far.

I fall somewhere in the middle of these two camps. I love the feel of a physical book, but I appreciate the space-saving nature of my Kindle.  Simply put, I have too many books.  I have books spilling over my bookcases, stacked in piles on the floor and taking up shelf space in my closet.  I have books in plastic bins, books all over my classroom and books that other people have loaned me.  I simply don't have the space to contain all of the books I own.  The Kindle helps alleviate this issue, but my first instinct is still to go to the bookstore and buy a physical book before downloading one.

This doesn't mean that I don't buy Kindle books.  I do all the time, and then I almost immediately forget I have them and read out of the stacks on my bookcase.  The fact the the books on my Kindle aren't visually present means that they aren't on my mind.  When picking what I want to read, my eyes wander to my shelves, not to the e-reader plugged in under my nightstand.

This month, I aim to change up my habits a little.  During May, I'm going to read entirely from my Kindle. This way, I can finally get to all those books I've forgotten that I own and get in the habit of reading electronically.

I have way too many unread books on my Kindle to read them all in one month, but here are some that I would like to get to:

The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure by James Dashner - I read The Maze Runner in January as part of my science fiction month.  While this wasn't my favorite read, I would still like to finish the series and see how everything turns out.

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - This was another novel I didn't get to during my month of science fiction.  This story of how humans must race to resettle on another planet after a catastrophic event on earth was a Goodreads Choice award nominee last year.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey - This novel about a childless couple who build a young girl out of snow was a Pulitzer Award nominee in 2013.  It's been languishing, unread, on my Kindle since 2012.

The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits - This novel is about a young psychic who is recruited to track down a controversial artist.  The description sounds like fluff, but it's the winner of a few literary awards.  I bought this one at the same time as The Snow Child.  It's time to get it read!

The Girl Giant by Kristen Den Hartog - This one is about a girl born a giant, with some interesting emotional abilities.  Several Goodread reviews claim that this book defies categorization and explanation.  I'm excited to see what they're on about.

A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving: This is a classic book about a young boy who accidentally kills his friend's mother during a Little League baseball game and the events that follow that fateful event.  I want to be able to discuss this one with one of friends, who loves it deeply.

Bonus Round Books:
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

Will I survive without reading a physical book for a whole month?  Let's find out!

April 2016 Wrap Up

My month of reading only nonfiction has drawn to a close.  It's been a different kind of month reading only informational books, and I have to say that I really missed my fiction! I had a hard time keeping focused on some of these novels.  I read for an hour early in the morning, before work, and I had trouble staying awake sometimes. 

That's not to say I didn't enjoy myself though - I learned a whole lot too. For example, I now know how a human body decomposes, how to spark joy through cleaning my house, and how Victorian London dealt with their sewage.  I read about how two boys orchestrated the first school shooting and saw what happened when a celebrity turned his hand to teaching.  I watched an 8th grader try out fashion advice from the fifties and learned about the emotional complexities of animals. My brain is bursting with new knowledge and I am undoubtedly a better person for it.

Another hidden benefit of reading nonfiction was that it made for excellent conversation-starters.  No one cares about what's going on in a fiction novel, but nonfiction reading gives you endless facts to discuss with people, in which they will usually politely feign interest.  

In the end, I confirmed that fiction will always be my first love, but there's nothing wrong with throwing a little nonfiction into the mix every now and then.

Books Read
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Spark Joy by Marie Kondo
Columbine by Dave Cullen
I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had by Tony Danza
Dirty Old London by Lee Jackson
Popular by Maya Van Wagenen
Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina

Best of the Month: Stiff, I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had, Popular
Worst of the Month: No worsts!  All were pretty good.


Books I didn't get to, but am saving for later:
True Notebooks, A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides

New Favorites:
I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had, Stiff


I'm glad to be getting back to fiction again, but I'm glad that I chose this theme for April.  It was nice to step outside my comfort zone and experiment with a different kind of reading for a little while.  I proved to myself that I am more than capable of polishing off a thick nonfiction novel without getting too bored, and I won't hesitate to pick up these types of books in the future.

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina

"If you look at side-by-side drawings of human, elephant and dolphin brains, the similarities overwhelm the differences.  We are essentially the same, merely molded by long experience into different outer shapes for coping with different outer surroundings, and wired inside for special talents and abilities.  But beneath the skin, kin.  There is no other animal like us.  But don't forget: there are no other animals like each of them, either."

Have you ever watched an animal pacing back and forth in their cage at the zoo and wondered if it understood and was sad about its captivity? Have you ever given your dog a treat and considered whether she truly likes you or if she is merely reacting to the prospect of food?  Can animals experience joy, humor, and love?  These idle curiosities are what author and ecologist Carl Safina writes about in Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel. He examines the idea of whether animals have complex emotional lives and personalities, and if they do, what implications that would have regarding the way humans treat them.

While Safina discusses many different types of animals throughout his book, he focuses in on elephants, wolves and whales.  He tags along with scientists who observe these animals, and conveys their research and experiences, along with his own observations.  His writing reveals that these animals lead surprisingly rich lives and have distinct personalities.  For example, he discusses how elephants mourn and even bury their dead, showing a depth of feeling and awareness that humans generally consider to be unique to themselves.  He also shares the story of Twenty-one, a wolf so successful at leading his pack that those observing him considered him to be a "super wolf."  This wolf never lost a single fight, and also never killed any wolf he defeated, an unusual act of magnanimity that served to strengthen his leadership and ensure that his bloodline survived after his death (which, by the way, was caused by old age - almost unheard of for a wild wolf).  Of course he also tell the tragic story of Tilikum, Seaworld's most famous killer whale, who was most likely driven insane by his capture and captivity-- killing a total of three people.  It is worth noting that a free-living killer whale has never killed a human.  It has happened several times with whales in captivity.  All of these examples, plus numerous others, serve to illustrate the idea that animals have more going on in their heads than humans are willing to give them credit for.         

While a book about animal emotions could easily drift into non-scientific territory, Safina is careful to base his assertions on research and observations from scientists.  He establishes in the beginning of the novel that humans are a type of animal - a unique animal, of course, but an animal nonetheless.  He also asserts that all other animals are unique and capable of experiencing human-like emotions in their own different ways, on a sliding scale of complexity.  This is an interesting idea that immediately got me thinking about animals in a slightly different way.  I've always been interested in "smart" animals, like elephants and chimps, but I hadn't really considered the deep similarities that people share with them. Whether we are human, elephant, dolphin or wolf, we are all striving for the same general things in life - to survive, to reproduce, and to thrive.  We face different circumstances, have differently shaped bodies, and communicate in different ways, but what we share with each other is far more profound than what we don't.  It is harmful for humans to consider themselves as the pinnacle of all life.  It would be better to consider ourselves as uniquely suited to be successful in our environments - something that could be said of any animal, from a honeybee to a hyena.  Mutual respect and admiration should characterize our interactions with other animals.  It is a tragedy that it doesn't, as evidenced by how many species are being pushed slowly to extinction due to human actions.

Anyone who loves animals will be intrigued by Beyond Words.  It offers several thought-provoking insights that leave readers thinking about animals in a new way - as partners and friends instead of subordinates.  At times, the chapters seem to drag on a bit too long, but overall, the novel held my interest.  I really enjoyed this one and learned a lot of new information.  I think I actually like animals even more after reading this, and I didn't think that was even possible. I suppose I couldn't offer any higher praise than that.   

Popular by Maya Van Wagenen

Middle school student Maya Van Wagenen considers herself a social outcast.  She's smart, geeky and has a mouthful of braces - which is the perfect combination to attract adolescent bullies.  Most of the time, she tries to just be invisible - to blend into the crowd.  Her deliberate anonymity changes, however, when she discovers Betty Cornell's 1950s guide to teen popularity in  a stack of old books.  Intrigued, she decides to try out its advice throughout her 8th grade year and see if Cornell's old-fashioned tips still work for modern teens.

What follows is a funny and honest memoir about a girl coming out of her shell, trying new things and meeting new people.  Cornell's popularity guide has Maya trying everything from squeezing into a girdle to wearing Vasoline on her eyelids, and she faithfully tries it all.  By the end of her final year in middle school, Maya has become more popular, but not in the way she expected.  It turns out that popularity isn't about sitting at the cool table at lunch after all.  It's something better.

I found Popular to be refreshing.  Maya, at only 14 years old, has written a memoir brimming with youth and humor.  Her inviting writing style encourages readers to feel each heartbreak and triumph right alongside her as she makes her way through the school year.  Her journey, which she conveys in diary format, is well-organized and deeply meaningful.  I often found myself asking what I would do in certain situations, or pondering how one truly measures popularity. 

While this was an easy read, it was still a thoughtful one, and one that I enjoyed very much.  As soon as I finished reading, I loaned this to one of my students-- another 8th grader who reminds me so much of Maya that I was making comparisons between the two of them all throughout the book.  There are a lot of Mayas in the world - shy, smart girls who could use a confidence booster. I think Popular could help a lot of them see life a bit more positively.

It is clear that Maya Van Wagenen is headed for a bright future at a writer.  Popular is an excellent first outing, and I can only imagine how her skills will grow with time and maturity.  This is one young lady to watch, and this book is one that everyone could benefit from reading.

Star Wars Dark Side Challenge 2016

So, it's been about a week now since my family and I braved the crazy Disney crowds and ran a Star Wars-themed 10K and half marathon in the same weekend.  I didn't train too well for it, because, as usual, I lacked the motivation to actually get out and practice.  Well, to be more specific, I fell down and scraped both knees and a palm a few weeks before the event and milked those injuries for all they were worth.  I actually did pretty well on the races themselves, I just was in a lot of pain afterwards. 

That being said, finishing was really awesome and I would totally do it again.

Dirty Old London by Lee Jackson

I love to read fiction from the Victorian time period.  In fact, Charles Dickens is one of my very favorite authors and I love the Bronte sisters and Oscar Wilde as well.  In light of this, it seemed like a natural fit for me to pick up Dirty Old London by Lee Jackson during my month of reading nonfiction.  This novel is all about how the Victorians dealt with various types of filth, and it paints quite a graphic picture of what is was like to live in London during this time period.

The chapters in this novel are arranged by types of filth, with topics ranging from garbage collection, to toilets, to cemeteries, to air pollution.  London at the beginning of the 1800s was a huge city without modern conveniences.  All travel was by horse.  There was no indoor plumbing.  There were no sewers.  There were no public restrooms.  Factories belched out huge quantities of soot into the air everyday.  Churchyard cemeteries were literally overflowing with corpses.  All this together created an intensely dirty and smelly environment. Jackson goes into detail on each of these topics, and more, to give readers a good idea of how unsanitary things were and how the Victorians worked to make improvements in these areas.

Indeed, Jackson shows that by the end of the time period, the Victorian had made some significant strides in public health.  Flush toilets were invented, an impressive sewer system was constructed under the streets of London, cemeteries were moved to large plots outside the city, public housing was being developed to alleviate the heinously filthy conditions of London's slums, and public restrooms were constructed in parks and other city spaces.  By the 1900s, conditions had definitely improved.  While the city was still far from being perfect in relation to filth management, the Victorian time period saw a number of innovations that made life a bit easier...and less disgusting.

One small criticism I had while reading this book was the amount of time spent discussing the governmental aspect of cleaning up. While I found the subject matter highly interesting, I still struggled to get through some of the chapters.  This was one of those books that I tended to fall asleep while reading, which is why it took me such a long time to finish.  Part of the issue was the endless political in-fighting that Jackson described.  Much like today, any innovation the government tried to put forward during this time period (especially one designed to help poor people) was challenged by self-interested conservatives.  It took forever to get anything done in service of public health, and describing all the various bills and committees that were formed and failed takes up a significant portion of the book.  I wish that a bit more focus had been placed on describing the actual living conditions and innovations of the time period, and less time on government troubles.  This isn't really Jackson's fault though, because history is history and he was just reporting the facts.  The facts, however, got pretty boring.  

All of this information makes perfect sense in hindsight, but I'd never thought about it before.  When I read a Victorian novel, I'm thinking about the fashion, the modesty and the manners.  I'm not thinking about how the characters were relieving themselves in a box in their basement that would have to be shoveled out later or how everyone would have been covered in a film of soot all the time.  This book, while boring at times,  was still fascinating, and will change the way I interpret the setting of books written during this period.  Sorry, Charles Dickens.  London in the 1800s just got a little less charming.  

I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had by Tony Danza

 In 2010, the famous actor Tony Danza decided to teach high school English for a year.  A&E filmed the experience for a short-lived reality show called Teach.  On its face, the premise of this experiment sounds absurd and potentially exploitive to the kids who would become Danza's students.  However, one chapter in to Danza's book about the experience will put any reader's mind at ease about his motives.  I really enjoyed this one.

I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had is Danza's own account of his year teaching tenth grade English at Northeast High School in Philedelphia.  He describes everything from his awkward first class, to his run-ins with the administration, to his struggles creating lesson plans, to the strong relationships he develops with his students.  His tone is genuine and caring throughout; his feelings and experiences are typical of any first year teacher struggling to make it in this very difficult profession.  He sweats buckets, cries, talks too much and forgets things. He breaks up fights and catches kids cheating.  He tries lessons that flop and lessons that work.  Everything he writes about are things that I experienced myself in my first year.  Through all the struggles, he comes to know what all good teachers know - that each success in the classroom makes up for the million failures that came before.   

Danza admits that his experience is easier than most teachers' first year.  He only has one class, and it's a double period.  A mentor teacher sits in the classroom and observes each day, debriefing with him after his class is over.  He only has to keep track of a small handful of kids, and he has the financial resources and connections to treat them to things like field trips.  Even with all of these advantages, Danza struggles mightily.  At one point he asks himself how teachers can do this job with a full class load.  He's right - it seems impossible sometimes to do so much for so many. All we can do is try.

One thing I loved about Danza's experience was how he handled the filming of his class.  The series based on his experience, Teach, was drastically shortened from what it was supposed to be.  The series ended up containing only six episodes.  Producers were disappointed with the lack of "usable material," which baffled Danza.  They captured his students completely engaged in interesting lessons, but this wasn't enough drama for a reality series, according to the higher-ups.  They wanted to begin scripting some tension into the show, and Danza categorically refused.  That wasn't what he was there for, he explains.  He wanted to give teaching an honest shot and help his students, not make a fake television show.  I found this to be so admirable.  I feel weird saying this, but Tony Danza seems like a really stand-up guy.

I feel a little bit of a connection to Danza.  2010 was also my first year of teaching, and it was tough.  We were probably both crying at the same time on some days.  It was nice to read something written by someone who was trying as hard as I was during that time.  He also touches on some of the political issues that plague education, like standardized testing and Adequate Yearly Progess (AYP).  These mandates bother almost everyone involved in this career, myself included.  This job can be very isolating.  Sometimes I don't get to talk to another adult for more than five minutes in a day.  It was just so comforting to read the words of someone who understands what teachers deal with and stuck out the year.        

I'd Like to Apologize was a very relatable account of a teacher's first year.  Danza's struggles, triumphs and frustrations mirror the experience of so many teachers who are trying their best to help their kids. This is a very honest picture of what it's like in public education right now, and those who want a clearer understanding of what's going on in our schools would benefit from picking this one up.