SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written a Sunday Evening Post, and I thought I had given it up, but several blogging friends write updates of some sort, and they often end with, “What are you reading?” So, I’ve decided to give it another go, and this is my update, my Sunday (Evening) Post.

What I have recently finished:

Today’s Sunday edition of The Houston Chronicle

The Accidental Life by Terry McDonell, recently reviewed on this blog

What on Earth Am I Here for?, an inspirational study by Rick Warren, which I borrowed from my church library, which will be reviewed on this blog soon

The Light Between the Oceans, by M.L. Stedman, also to be reviewed soon

Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong, which I read earlier, then reread in a feeble attempt to write a review which would do it justice, but still have not accomplished

What I started this week:

Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, which describes the life and “adventures” of a grown up Daniel Torrance, the young son in the novel who had the “shining”

Carry Me Like Water by Saenz, which is on my Kindle, and because of that, may be a challenging read for me

Still reading:

The Lightning Thief , a YA novel by Rick Riordan

Book VII of The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King, which I have been reading for years and can’t bear to be “through”

The Fifth Season, first book of the Broken Earth Trilogy, which my Better Half and I are reading aloud together

What I watched this past week:

A Promise, a love story set in Germany during the war

a heart warming, tear jerker of an episode of “Queer Eye” recommended and sent to me by my grandson

several episodes of a Netflix original series, “Strange Empire”

 

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SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

The last time I did one of these was April 15th. I could blame it on the end of the semester; I could blame it on having back and foot trouble and having to schedule doctor’s visits and “down times,” but I guess I’d better “‘fess up” and tell the truth–I have been incredibly lazy. Not only have I not reported on books read, but I have not kept track of them at all, not even in my reading log. I am sure I have turned in to the library some books I have borrowed and read, and I KNOW I have purchased and read books and passed them along or put them in my LFL (Little Free Library).  This is the best I can do for now.

Books I have read:

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson which I borrowed from the library This one I found at the public library and finished in two days

I finished Kiss Her Goodbye for the “K” in my “Alphabet Challenge.”

Just Thinking, a collection of poems by blogger and author Colin Chappell

Remains of the Day, the April selection for our Third Tuesday Book Club

Tell Me More, a collection of essays

I have set aside (again) Book VII (the end of the series) of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower”

 

Books I have started and am continuing to read:

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Neffenegger  This book was published in 2003; why am I just reading it now? Described to me as a “tear jerker” by the librarian who recommended it, it is a wonderful read I literally can’t put down.

My Better Half and I have begun reading aloud a three book series, book one being The Fifth Season written by N.K. Jemisin.

My current non-fiction read is Rick Warren’s What on Earth Am I Here for? The situation is one is supposed to read one chapter a day and think about it all day.  There are also “talks” that go along with each chapter. I checked this one out of my church library, but it is way overdue, so I probably should buy a copy before continuing.

The Last Apprentice,a YA book I picked for the letter “L,” rescuing it after it was run over in the street near my house, then giving it one last read before tossing it (It was too dilapidated and tattered to put it in my LFL.)

For the letter “M,” I have begun The Man Without a Shadow by Joyce Carol Oates, one which I will definitely want to review (if I can!).

A blogger friend, James J. Cudney of “This is my Truth Now” blog’s second novel (first was Watching Glass Shatter), Father Figure is a recent purchase and one I’m enjoying a great deal.

Finally, I have picked up a book I started many months ago and forgot I had, The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. I’m only “in” a few chapters, but I do know it’s one I want to read and will enjoy finishing.

So, grades are posted. A celebratory lunch took place for the end of the semester, and OBVIOUSLY plans for the coming week are to catch up on my reading and finish what I’ve begun!

HAPPY READING

 

 

SUNDAY POST

It is not yet Sunday, but I am going to do my Sunday(Evening) Post early. Last week I skipped it, giving an update on how I was doing on the Alphabet Challenge instead. This past week…

I finished :

Dying for Space by author and blogger, S.J. Higbee, which I will review during the coming week.

Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie, a collection of poems by Maya Angelou, which counts for the letter “J” in my Alphabet Challenge.

Continued:

Book VII of the “Dark Tower Series”

Began:

Kiss Her Goodbye (Letter “K” in my Alphabet Challenge) by Wendy Corsi Staub

This was an extremely busy week. It reminded me when my mother was alive and living in a retirement home.  She had so many activities to choose from she’d wear herself out at the end of the day and be too tired to sleep at night. I would tell her, “One big thing a day, Mother. One big thing a day.” I am learning to tell myself the same thing, and indeed, I had a big thing every day this past week. Monday I met three students at the Cheesecake Factory in Houston and helped them with an upcoming paper. Tuesday there was a doctor’s appointment in Friendswood first thing. Wednesday is my teaching day at the university, and on the way I stopped and saw a friend in the hospital. Thursday our Bible Support Group met here and we shared a lunch together. Friday brought another  doctor’s appointment, this time in Houston , and today my AAUW group met here for brunch and to fill toiletry bags for the local women’s shelter. Tomorrow I teach fifth graders in Sunday School. I hope to rest and read tomorrow afternoon as well as finish up some school plans and schoolwork.

Hopefully next week will not be quite as demanding, and I’ll have more books read by the next time I do a Sunday (Evening) Post.

 

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

I can’t believe Sunday is here again already. Its rapid arrival gives a whole new insight into the old saw, “My, how time flies”! The highlights of this past week were teaching my own class Wednesday where we began our blogging, teaching my grandson’s classes on Thursday, and Easter Sunday. Overall it was a good week and one in which I actually did some reading.

Finished this past week:

Holes, a YA novel by Louis Sacher, which I’m sure starts many conversations among kids who have read it

I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Wasn’t) by Brene Brown, a researcher and social work lecturer at UH Main Campus, part of the UH system for which I teach. The research and the book deal with shame, the definition, the concepts and all its many ins and outs.  She specifically introduces her terms “Shame Web” and “Shame Resilience,” helpful tools for exploring women and shame and how to deal with it. She examines the quest for perfection women take upon themselves and well as the social expectations our culture and society lay upon women, especially. The cover subtitle is, “Making the Journey from “What Will People Think?” to “I Am Enough,” a journey she assists readers with quite well. Seven years of research and hundreds of interviews went into the book, and it shows.

I Thought It Was Just Me has been described as having the potential “to turn lives around (Harriet Lerner, PhD author of The Dance of Anger). The insights and even the strategies offered are not only helpful but workable for most women. She gives women specific things to say to prevent saying, “I wish I had said something” after an incident where they, or another person was shamed by a group of women,  The feeling the reader has at the end of the book is, “We are all in this together, and Brown offers a group solution.

Continuing to read:

Dying for Space by blogging friend and author S.J. Higbee, an excellent, action-packed, fast-paced sequel to her outstanding Running Out of Space. I am not necessarily a fan of Space Opera novels, but this one contains all the elements of any good novel and also has “keeps-you-reading-writing.”

I did not have time to start either of the “I-Can”t-Wait-To-Begin selections” I purchased at Half-Priced Books last week. I still have those to look forward to. Also, the Brene Brown book completed the “I” requirement of my Alphabet Challenge (aka known as “The Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge” from Lori Coswell at the blog, “Escape with Dollycas Into a Good Book.”

I have a wonderful book for “J,” and since it is a book of poems, I have high hopes of finishing it by next Sunday evening’s post. I plan to KEEP READING and trust you’ll do the same.   

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

Last week was Spring Break, and I took a break from my Sunday (Evening) Posts. I am pleased to report that during Spring Break and over this week end, I have been able to work in a good bit of reading. Here’s my “progress report.”

Finished:

The Fortelling by Alice Hoffman (reviewed on this blog this past week)

Second Chance Grill by Christine Nolti, a light, escape-reading romance that will be reviewed soon

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart, a delightful mystery which kept me turning pages and staying up too late    Shout out to Aurora–Yes, I’ve finished it!

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, a strange, depressing, but truly beautiful book, which counted for my “H” in The Alphabet Challenge

Started:

I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Wasn’t) by Brene Brown, a book I have had for a long while on my TBR shelf and which will count as the letter “I” in the challenge

Holes, by Louis Sacher, a YA novel recommended by the clerk at Half Price Books to place in my Little Free Library for males

Books I purchased and can’t wait to start:

McEvan’s The Children Act and John Irving’s Last Night in Twisted River, both books I have heard of or read ABOUT, but haven’t gotten around to reading. Now I have no excuse.

Films watched:

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Mudbound, both excellent viewing

The week ahead promises to be full, but filled with a variety of activities: class, of course; a guest lecture for my grandson’s writing class; a haircut, needed very badly; and hopefully some shopping and eating out.

I hope your week coming up is as promising and that it brings on Esster weekend as a fresh start and good spirits for all.

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

This past week was a busy one with doctor’s appointments, a couple of tests (hoops to jump through for insurance coverage of a back procedure I badly need), and readying my Advanced Writing class for Spring Break and the Argument/Research papers that are due on the 21st of March. Therefore, I had a minimum amount of time to read until Friday.  Since then, I have made up for time.

What I finished this past week:

“If you do not like the past, change it”: The Reel Civil Rights Revolution, Historical Memory, and The Making of Utopian Pasts a dissertation for the PhD degree by Dr. Andrew Joseph Pegoda, my grandson   I started this when it was presented to me back in December and have just now finished it. I must admit that it changed my thinking that all dissertations had to be stuffy and rhetorically “stiff.” I am very glad I took on this huge 8″x11″ page-size book as a labor of love, for I learned a great deal about the Civil Rights era and about the films made that represented it.

Speak by Louise Halse Anderson, a YA novel mentioned by several of my students.  I highly recommend this novel.

Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser This 2000 “classic” is a fictional probe into the mind and motivation of a school shooter, which is “vivid, distressing, and all too real.” (Kirkus Review) The stats and facts peppered across the bottoms of the pages are real and should be alarming to us all.

What I quit reading this past week:

Where’d You Go, Bernadette  I rarely give up on a book, but give up I did on this Third Tuesday Book Club selection for March. I had a copy of the book already, and I voted to read it. I gave it a fair try, reading to page 97 before I hollered “Enough!” and put it down.

Continuing to read this past week:

The Dark Tower by Stephen King the seventh and last book in the series  It just keeps getting better and better.

Started and continuing to read this past week:

The Fortelling by Alice Hoffman Hoffman is one of my favorite authors and she is not disappointing in this magical, mythical tale.

Both The Fortelling and Give a Boy a Gun will count as “F” and “G” in my current “Alphabet Challenge” which is an on-going project. (see earlier post, search “Alphabet Challenge”)

I guess I read more than I realized I did this past week, stealing a precious moment and a resting half-hour here and there. This coming week is Spring Break for us, so maybe I’ll have another week of reading accomplishments. Hope you’ll have many reading accomplishments too.

 

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

Back to my traditional format for the Sunday (Evening) Post.

Books I have finished since the last post:

Emerald City, a book of short stories by Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach (to be reviewed this coming week)

Boy, Snow, Bird, a strange, really different novel (also to be reviewed this coming week)

Uncommon Type, short stories by Tom Hanks (reviewed recently on this blog)

Playing With Fire by Tess Gerritsen, author of “Rissoli and Isles,” TV series (book to be reviewed soon)

Barkskins  by Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News

Continuing to Read:

Finishing Strong

Anticipating Reading: End of Life Book Club, recommended by a blogger friend; and Where’d You Go, Bernadette, my Third Tuesday Book Club selection for March

To be completely honest, I had started several of the books finished earlier in my down time when the start of my semester was delayed by icy weather, but once the semester was underway, much of the time I would have used for reading was spent grading, planning, and creating and typing handouts. We hosted our Bible Study/Support Group on Thursday, and a day was dedicated to shopping for new slacks for school, then returning two of the pairs two days later. It was a busy week, but My Better Half and I accomplished two major projects, including a session with the plumber and a session with our “computer guy”/ friend who checked out our security and “got us up to speed.” It promises to be another busy week, and I can hardly wait to see my class Wednesday and tell them what a wonderful job they did on the three minor writing assignments they did last time. It always is a blessing when you have such wonderful “raw material” to shape into excellent writers. Enjoy your week and KEEP ON READING!