A fun meme to participate in

I haven’t attempted one of these in a very long time, but I’m in the mood to do so today. The meme asks the blogger/reader to share WHAT they have finished reading, WHAT they are reading now, and WHAT they are going to, or wanting to, read next.

Here’s my WWW Wednesday for February 9, 2022:

A former popular televangelist who held healing services all over the U.S. and had a huge ministries organization wrote this book about the promises in the Bible, from Genesis to the New Testament promised healing for those who ask.

Benny Hinn was an Israeli-born, Greek-ethnicity, televangelist whom many Christians supported financially. His healing services, shown on religious TV stations were supposedly faked, but still many people traveled great distances to be healed. This book was probably a give-away with a donation of a certain amount to his ministries, which I received from a friend whose mother followed Hinn on TV back in the 70s. Although his ministry damaged the “Christian Cause” more than helped it, the book itself is a gold mine of scriptures assuring Christians that God promises in His Word physical healing. And, I could sure use some healing at this point. The book is divided into daily meditations, which I read, ignored the disgraced author who wrote them, and allowed the meditations to guide my prayer life until I finished the book. Isn’t it great how we can take and use ideas/things from a book and be helped by them without accepting the entire premise of that book?

A quick-read novel about surviving the loss of a spouse

DEELIGHTFUL, true story

I started this once before, and I am trying it again.

I have misplaced this book and may have to get a library copy to finish it!

This is the 2020 version. I am reading the 1997 edition.

This was another hand-me-down from the same friend’s mother who sent me Benny Hinn’s book. It has the month and day, so I am able to apply its reading to this year easily, and all the devotional are new to me. LOL Seriously, it is often just what I need for a particular day.

Something I really WANT to read and finish

I really MUST set aside about three hours to get further involved in this book. Reading it in bits and pieces, dribs and drabs, setting it aside for days at a time does not do it justice! The writing is experiential and wonderful. I need to immerse myself in the experience of reading it–soon! Maybe a Readathon is called for here!

I hope this week is a good reading week for you. I know we all have busy schedules, (yes, I’m back in school) but SET ASIDE SOME TIME TO READ.

HAPPY READING!

Thanks, Evin, for the sign off.

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WWW Wednesdays

This blogger asks us 3 questions:

WHAT have you finished reading?

WHAT are you reading now?

WHAT will you read next?

This 2021 novel deals with family drama and relationships.

One thing in this novel that interested me and kept my attention was its examination of public schools vs private ones. It also includes: social media, the value of therapy, bullying, and parenting issues.

One family has younger kids, and others have junior high age children, so most angles of modern school life are covered. Two of the mothers, whose stories are presented in Are We There Yet?, are sisters. In one family we see the relationships between mother and junior high age daughter, and the same mother and her mother, then the granddaughter and grandmother.

Alice Sloan is “one of those mothers who can’t control her kids. She is Teddy’s mom. Meredith is Sadie’s mom, and Nadia is Donovan’s (the “bad kid”) mom. Throughout the book, Nadia constantly measures herself by other’s standards. The author writes of the day to day interactions of these three women, heading each chapter with the featured woman’s name. Sometimes the kids’ names head up a chapter; regardless, It is not hard to keep track of who belongs to whom, thanks to the author’s skill.

The mystery of who is drawing penis graffiti all over the town underlies the conversations and intertwining relationships, and family secrets also abound. It is a darned good read.

I picked this up on a whim, thinking it referred to Queen Victoria. To my surprise, it is about Queen Elizabeth II.

This imaginary foray into Royal Life was published in 2007 to very little fuss and folderol in the publishing world. It begins when Queen Elizabeth stumbles upon the local book mobile parked at the palace’s kitchen door. Realizing her “error,” she checks out a book, which seems the “polite thing to do.” Norman, an ordinary kitchen hand is sitting in the bookmobile, reading avidly. Her Majesty is impressed with him and his reading skills and promotes him to the position of aide to The Queen. By the time Elizabeth II discovers the joys of reading and the books Norman recommends (often written by homosexual authors) she begins to carry books in her ever-present purse to “assign” to individuals who answer her seemingly-innocent questions of “Have you read So- and-So? with “No, Your Highness.”

Bennet’s self-deprecating humor turns these mere 120 pages into a “touching, thoughtful, hilarious, exquisitely written” heck of a read.

A student explained to me the weird title, and I was compelled to read the book, especially since I am a huge John Green fan.

My students introduced me to John Green’s books, and my Third Tuesday Book Club read The Fault Is in Our Stars, which we enjoyed a great deal. We agreed that the label YA makes good reading for older people as well. This story has family drama and deals mainly with relationships as well.

We meet Aza; her best friend, Daisy; and Davis and Noah, billionaire Russell Pickett’s sons. Aza’s therapist, Dr.Singe plays a secondary, but very important role. Aza has mental issues , often “spiraling into her own thoughts,” which she does in the story. Her relationship with her mother is also an integral part of the story. Pre-occupied with her digestive tract and whether she has Clostridum difficile (C diff, for short), she can barely function at school. Her obsessions are magnified because she “keeps things in,” so people won’t “think she is crazy.”

When the boy’s father suddenly and mysteriously disappears, Daisy and Aza get caught up in a scheme to find him and collect the reward money to help Daisy enter college in the fall, something her parents can neither afford or think is important.

To say that what happens is “crazy” would be inappropriate, in light of the serious, empathetic look at mental illness this novel presents. But as Aza spirals out and the boys wonder why their father left without explaining, the action takes on a frantic, unreal pace. The ending is satisfactory, but it is arrived at by many twists and turns. The author is a genius.

I read more than one book at a time; this week is no exception.

Wide Sargasso Sea for the Classics Club, which I need to finish soon to stay on schedule.

S

For My Madeline L’Engle “project”

Two Part Invention, another book of the Crosswick Journals for the project.

Something for Saturday Mornings for Kids on PWR

THAT’S WHAT I’M UP TO THIS WEEK WHILE SWAMPED WIT READING STUDENTS’ “ESSAY #1′ s”.

Have a good reading weekend. I’ll be frantically grading. LOL

WEDNESDAY SUMMING UP

I did some good reading this week.

I finished Dinner with Buddha, the Netflix series, Sweet Magnolias and Virgin River, and a poetry collection, When You Ask Me Where I’m Going.

I am continuing to read Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore–nearing the end; I am slowly reading and thinking about Things That Join the Sea and the Sky: Field Notes on Living, and I am close to finishing Redhead by the Side of the Road.

This is WHAT I have finished and WHAT I am reading currently. As far as what’s next–anything goes!

WWW WEDNESDAYS

WWW Wednesdays originally started by MizB at Daily Rhythm is now hosted by Taking on a World of Words. It answers the following W questions:

WHAT are you currently reading?

WHAT have you finished recently?

WHAT will you read next?

I will add, WHAT have you watched?

I am currently reading The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. I am pretty sure it will have to be returned to the library by May 4th, so I may have to request it again. It has been great, Brazoria County Library System, to have this book for so long, but grading final papers has arrived, so I may have to let someone else have their turn before finishing it.

I am re-reading Bob Goff’s Everybody Always and finding good advice I totally missed the first time. Also I am still savoring the quotable “pieces” in Mark Nepo’s Things That Join the Earth and the Sea. I have used some of the more poetic sections as the day’s poem (on PWR and Literacy and Me) during April, National Poetry Month.

I have finished   as well as my “I” selection for the 2020 Alphabet Soup Challenge, Robert Inman’s Old Dogs and Children, which will be reviewed on this site shortly. I have also finished blogging friend, Ritu Bhathal”s Marriage Unarranged, which I will also review soon.

Carla at Carla Loves to Read recommended a new author with whom I have fallen in love,  Kristan Higgins, and I have just finished her Good Luck with That. I am scrambling to meet my goal of reading 20 books recommended by fellow bloggers in 2020.

I am so far behind on grading (This happens at the end of the semester every time because I am a soft touch when it comes to granting extensions on due dates.) and behind on reading (There simply are not enough hours in the day!) that I have no expectations on what to read next.

I am adding the category of what I have watched to recommend the film, The Zookeeper’s Wife and the PBS series A World on Fire. Both are outstanding entertainment.

Until next time, HAPPY READING!

 

WWW WEDNESDAYS

The Three Ws are WHAT are you currently reading? WHAT have you just finished? and WHAT are you looking forward to reading soon? Let’s start with books finished:

Flow was a book chosen last year (and set aside )aimed at the 2019 goal of reading more non-fiction. It turned out to be much more of a study than a “read,” and the pandemic gave me enough time to complete it. Although it was published in 1990, it deals with the current obsession of “living in the moment” and “making every moment count”, or as the subtitle calls it,”Steps Toward Enhancing the Quality of Life.” This book refers to them as “optimal experiences.”

A goal set for obtaining “sometime during my lifetime” is to read all seven of Susan Vreeland’s novels. Clara and Mr. Tiffany.  Like Vreeland’s other books, it is art-related, telling the story of Clara Driscoll, the true creator of the famous Tiffany lamps. Another novel, Gilbert’s City of Girls, satisfies the letter “G” in Dollycas’s 2020 Alphabet Soup (author edition) Challenge. I had so much fun doing the title challenge in 2019, I had to participate in this one.

Currently I am reading Old Dogs and Children by Robert Inman to satisfy the “I” part of the challenge, the “H” being satisfied out of order by   a book also selected for National Autism Awareness Month by Naoki Higashida, reviewed elsewhere on this blog and on Literacy and Me, my other blog on WordPress.

I have also been savoring and slowly reading the “notes” in Mark Nepo’s Things That Join the Earth and the Sky, using it similarly to a devotional. I rarely read more than a page or two a day.

I was fortunate to have just received Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile (” A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz,” which is an enormous, non-fiction book just before the libraries closed, so my due date has been extended until the libraries reopen, something I count as an unexpected blessing.

I have begun (mainly because it was in Large Print) a “novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, titled Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King. I haven’t read far enough to determine whether I will finish it or place it on my DNF (Did Not Finish) shelf.

I Am Looking Forward to Reading two whole shelves of my TBRs and a book that came in the mail yesterday. More on those another day.

WWW WEDNESDAY

The three W Wednesday is a meme originated by Miz B of Daily Rhythm and continued by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It asks three questions: WHAT are you currently reading? WHAT have you recently finished? and WHAT will you read next?

Currently I am reading Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland, which I checked out (in large print) before the library closed.

I just finished today Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls. This was in the top five novels I’ve read in 2020.

I have a book, Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, that was started as a Continuation of a 2019 goal–to read more non-fiction.It has been a long, slow haul, but the end is in sight, and I would like to finish it up soon.

Let me add WHAT I am watching. I am binge watching The Grand Hotel, a historical romance/mystery in Italian  with subtitles (on Netflix.)  The actors are all beautiful, and the scenery and costumes are magnificent. It is my “guilty pleasure.”

Wednesday’s Words/The 2020 Alphabet Challenge

Today’s post is a mishmash of many memes.

 I want to tell you first why I ordered a copy of this particular book. First, one of my students read it for her Memoir Assignment, and her review made me want to read it. Second, in April I’m going to start a meme, “All Things Autistic” for the month, participating in National Autism Awareness Month; and third, because the author’s name begins with an “H.”

It is an easy read, done in the form of Questions and Answers, and it is written by a thirteen-year-old, autistic author. So far it is a great read.

WWWWednesdays

What are you reading?  

 

What did you finish lately?

What will you read next?

 

I will finish City Of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert .

 

Wednesday Word of the Day

audacious

Audacious is my word for 2020, and it means  “bold” / ” courageous” / “outspoken.  This is something I want to learn–to speak up for myself, to speak up when something is not right (I just finished watching the movie, The Hate U Give on Amazon. I highly recommend it.), to try new things: foods, techie skills, teaching on line; maybe you CAN teach an old dog/woman/professor new tricks! LOL

Let me know YOUR word for 2020. Write a comment in the reply box below.

AND…AS ALWAYS…KEEP ON READING. Books are cheap in a time when libraries are forced to close.

WWW WEDNESDAY

Several of my blogging friends participate in WWW Wednesdays where the post tells WHAT you have just finished reading, WHAT you are continuing to read, and WHAT you are looking forward to reading. Here are my three Ws for 2/12/2020.

WHAT I have just finished is Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor’s Traveling with Pomegranates, a mother-daughter story of musings on travel and familial love.

WHAT I am continuing to read is Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls, one of several books I’ve read set in old New York City.

WHAT I am looking forward to reading (and finishing this weekend since it is due Monday at my local library) is The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett, billed as ” a novel of obsession” and another of my own choices to read as many Books about Books as I can.

What are you reading? List the titles and authors in the reply box below and let us know what your three Ws are for this week.

WWW Wednesday

Several bloggers I follow participate in WWW Wednesdays which answer the questions:

WHAT are you reading currently?

WHAT have you just finished?

WHAT are you looking forward to reading soon?

This is what I have just started reading and am enjoying immensely. I am not reading it for a specific challenge, nor is it a book club selection, but a novel by the author of Eat, Pray, Love was tempting enough for me to purchase it. So far, I consider it money well spent.

This YA novel is one I recently finished as letter “A” (for the author, Avery) of my Alphabet Soup 2020 Challenge, author edition. I recently reviewed it on PWR.

A book I am looking forward to reading is Miles Moreland’s A Walk Across France . I don’t know where t came from, but there it sat on my TBR shelf, and one of my goals for 2020 s to clear, or at least make a dent in, my TBR shelves. When I will get to this promising memoir, is anyone’s guess.

WHAT are you currently reading? What have you recently finished? What are you looking forward to reading? Give us your answers in the reply box below.

WWW Wednesday

What have you finished reading? / What are you continuing to read? /What are you likely to read next?

Because I read several books simultaneously, I finished up

I am undertaking a Middle Grades reading project, where I will read many books before Christmas. My Better Half picked up 30 at the library today after I’d brought home 19 yesterday. So far I have read two books in one day.  I am continuing to read middle grade books and

I also am continuing to read:

I have a big week of reading ahead. How about you? What have you finished? What are you continuing to read? What will you read next?