• Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 78 other subscribers

  • “Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers” — Isaac Asimov

  • Recent Posts

  • Pages

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Blog Stats

    • 197,146 hits

The Future of Us – A Book Review

Posted on April 12, 2012 by auburnchick

Last night, I finished reading The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler…

A few things drew me to this book.

First of all, its main characters are high schoolers.

I’m all about young adult fiction these days.

The second thing that drew me was the theme of the book…what do you do when you catch a glimpse of your future?

The book takes place in 1996.  It tells the story of two best friends, Emma and Josh.  Their friendship hit a snag six months before when Josh makes a move on his best friend, wanting to escalate the relationship beyond friend status.

When Emma is given a new computer, Josh walks over with an AOL CD he received in the mail (remember those days?).  He’s not allowed to install it on his computer because his parents don’t believe in making the internet available at will.  Emma’s mom is supportive though, figuring it will help Emma with her homework.

After Emma signs on to AOL for the first time, she sees another window and is asked for her password.

She enters the one she uses for everything and…VOILA…she’s taken to a blue and white screen with the word “Facebook” at the top.

Remember that it’s 1996, and Facebook hasn’t been invented yet.

She doesn’t understand what she’s seeing…at first has no idea what the status updates are about; however, it doesn’t take her long to figure things out.

She gets a peek at who she’s married to and who she’s friends with (not to mention who she’s NOT friends with).

Out of curiosity, she looks up Josh’s name, and finds out he’s married and has children.

She and Josh temporarily mend their friendship as they wade through the waters uncertainty and fear while figuring out why their futures keep changing each day.

Through the process, they discover a lot about their present-day selves.

My Thoughts

First off the bat, I loved all of the references to pop culture from the 90’s.  Emma runs with a Discman strapped to her arm.  How funny, eh?  To access the internet, you had to use dial-up, tying up the phone line (boy do I remember that!!).  Emma has to go to the library to get a phone book with California phone numbers (as opposed to going to Whitepages.com).  The mere mention of Wayne’s World, which I never saw, made me giggle.  I also had to chuckle when I read that one of the boys had a beeper and had to find a pay phone to call his girlfriend when she beeped him.  Oh, and there was no LOL back then.  LOL!

Now to the less-superficial part of my review.

I had made the mistake of taking a peek at some of the reviews on GoodReads.com, a site where I keep track of my books.

Some of the people were in disbelief at how shallow Emma comes across and how the characters don’t have much depth.

I am a teacher…

Of high school students.

I’ve seen how ridiculously shallow kids can be.

Heck…I remember what it was like to be a teenager.

Teaching school has taken me back to the angst that accompanies these drama-filled years.

Here’s the thing, though.

Emma GROWS during the time she’s allowed to look into the future.

She discovers things about herself that some people never figure out during their lives.

Josh learns a few lessons along the way as well; however, he is much more grounded than Emma.

I flew through this book.  I couldn’t wait to read about what Emma was going to do next to try to change her future.

I made predictions along the way.

I kept thinking about how much my students would relate to this book with so much of their lives yet to live.

I think this book sends a good message about how the decisions we make today impact our futures.

I think the book also provides a strong warning to not obsess about the future but to enjoy the moment and trust your instincts.

As I closed the cover on this book last night, I couldn’t help but think about my own children as they face their own unwritten futures…unwritten but not unknown to the Lord.

My babies are going to ask some of the same hard questions of themselves, and they’re going to want to look into the future to try to make decisions easier.

Knowing wouldn’t help though as we’d only try to avoid doing those things that would shape our futures the most.

Overall, although I wouldn’t go to this book if I wanted to get down and dirty with the brain thinking thing, it was a pleasure to read, and it’s been fun to chew on some of the questions that the book makes you ask of yourself.

I think it would make a great addition to any young adult’s library.

Filed under: Books, Teaching | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Someone’s Been Reading Again

Posted on March 26, 2012 by auburnchick

Oh, my love of reading has definitely kicked in this year, despite the enormous volumes of work that I wake up to each day.

Last week, I finished reading TWO books!

The first one I read was Don’t Blink by James Patterson…

A friend had loaned me several books, so when I saw this one on the pile, I quickly put down the one I was in the middle of reading and began this one instead.  I love anything written by him, but I’ve gotta admit that this one was not my favorite.  Though it moved quickly, and it didn’t take me long to finish it, I found the characters somewhat superficial.  It was as if Patterson didn’t want to allow his characters to delve too deeply into conversations (or rather to share those conversations with the reader).  He skimped on describing a lot of events, running rough-shod over scenes.

I’m used to the blood and gore of his vicious criminals.  I’m used to heroes (and heroines) who are deep in the throes of emotional turmoil.

Still, it made for somewhat light reading, if you like mobster kinds of books.

After finishing Don’t Blink, I picked up my other book…The Lady of the Rivers…by Phillipa Gregory.  It’s the third in her series The Cousins’ War, and it follows The White Queen and The Red Queen.

This book goes back in time and tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville’s (aka the “white” queen) mother.

If you like British/royal history, you’ll LOVE this series.  This book did not disappoint, although some of the political intrigue and backstabbing had me losing my way.  Hey, don’t fault me.  I loathed my English History class in college because I had a retarded professor (sorry, but he could have done better facilitating the class…just sayin’).

Anyhoo…I loved reading about Jacquetta’s devotion to her husband…how she left her lofty social position to marry the man the loved…even paying financially for this faux pas.  Her faithful service to her country and queen were admirable, as was her love and longing for her children while she was away at court.

I think what I enjoyed the most about this book was reading the notes that the author included at the end of the book.  She spoke of wanting to research women’s roles in British history…how historians have glossed over these particular women and the impact they had on history.

If you’re looking for a good read, I highly suggest this book, in particular, but the series as a whole.

Oh, and I have to share a funny.

I took all three books to school, along with the new book that I began reading (I read during my students’ silent, independent reading time).  One of my students said, “Mrs. AuburnChick, you finished ANOTHER book?  You read a book every weekend!!

That’s what I do, folks…model good reading habits to my students who struggle.

It’s a win-win for everyone!

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

A Smorgasborg of Books

Posted on March 13, 2012 by auburnchick

I’ve been on a buying spree.

No, I haven’t been spending all of my hard-earned cash on lip gloss.

Wait.

I did buy one more tube.

Um.  Yeah.

No, seriously though, I bought something of more worth.

BOOKS!

I’ve been buying a few here and there, but over the last few days, I managed to pick up six books!!

First, I found these when I visited Books a Million…

They were on a clearance cart outside of the store with a sign that said Buy 2 Get 1 Free.

These days, I’m too busy to hunt for coupons, so a deal right in front of my face makes me happy.

The first book on the left, The Long Shot, immediately drew my attention.

Yes, you could say it was the picture of the tattooed hands…

I was instantly drawn in when I read the back cover.

It’s a story about a martial arts fighter and his trainer who travel to Mexico for one last fight.

I am sure that my students will love it.  I started reading it Sunday evening, and I just don’t want to put it down!  I’m about halfway finished and will do a book spotlight when we return to school after Spring Break.

The middle book is part of the Elm Creek Quilters series.  Yeah.  I know.  The third, which is why it was discounted.  Who cares.  A few years ago, I read a series of books that had quilting as its theme.  I have no idea if it was the same author…can’t even remember the names of the books.  I enjoyed those books, so I figured this would be good, clean reading for my students.  Of course, I’ll have to preview it by reading it.  😉

The third book is 29, and it’s about an 80-something year old grandmother who longs to trade places with her 29 year old granddaughter.  Through the magic of birthday wishes (think 13 going on 30 only in reverse), she gets her wish.

With my educator discount card, I got two of the books for $3.18 each, and the third was free!  Yay!

On Monday, I received an Amazon order I’d placed for the following books…

At the beginning of the year, I had a student in one of my classes who was an avid reader.  I quickly discovered that he did not belong in my class.  He wasn’t a struggling reader and had only been placed there because he was a transfer student, and the school didn’t have his records.  After he got placed in another class, he returned to me one day and said, “Mrs. AuburnChick, you have got to read this book.  It’s fantastic!”  He loaned me the middle book, The Dead and the Gone.  Though, technically, it’s the second in the series, it can be read before the first one, Life As We Knew It, without missing anything.  The third book needs to be read at the end.

The premise of this series is that an asteroid has hit the earth and caused catastrophic natural disasters that leave the main characters, teenagers, to take care of their families.  The first two books focus on one major character each (a girl and a guy).  In the third book, they meet up.

It’s a little like the movie The Day after Tomorrow, but I enjoyed reading about dealing with such a disaster from a teenager’s point of view.

Naturally, I’ll read the first and third books before putting them on my bookshelves, but I’ll introduce the second book to my kids.

One other book I just finished, which my friend Barb had purchased from the Reading Department’s money, was Split, by Swati Avasthi.

This was a good but tough read.  The main character is a 16 year old boy who gets kicked out when he steps in between a scene of physical abuse that his father is inflicting on his mother.  He fights back, hits his father, and leaves home.  On his way out, his mother hands him his brother’s address and promises to go to him at Thanksgiving.  His older brother, it should be noted, made a stealthy escape five years before and left no trace behind, save for a letter he sent his mother.

Jace, the teenager, finds his brother, moves in with him, and begins his life anew; however, he has secrets about what happened before he left his former home.

The story is told from Jace’s point of view, and it gives a very candid view of the lasting effects that abuse leaves on a child and how it affects that child afterward.  Jace is split between loyalty to his mother and the desire to begin afresh.  Split can also be taken to mean that Jace is split between not repeating the abusive behavior and becoming more like his brother, calm and controlled.

I read this book in two days and cannot wait to share it with my students!!

So, this is how I’ve been spending the first couple of days of Spring Break…reading books in preparation for getting my students excited about reading.  Comments such as, “Mrs. AuburnChick, I’ve never read as many books as I have since coming into this class” really motivate me to keep on keeping on.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Anahita’s Woven Riddle – A Book Review

Posted on June 28, 2011 by auburnchick

Hello, my name is AuburnChick, and I’m an English teacher, but I haven’t read much, for pleasure, during the last four years.

Shhh…don’t tell anyone I said that.

😉

It’s not because I haven’t wanted to.  However, when I took online classes to finish my Bachelor’s degree several years ago, I got burned out from all of the reading I had to do.

At the same time, I taught myself how to knit.

Listening to audio books is just not my cup of tea.  I have difficulty focusing when books are read aloud.

I do so much better when I can see the words…allowing them to seep into my mind and soul.

When I started teaching last year, I discovered how much I had missed my books.

Then, EPI took over my life.

Well, that’s over now, and I finally have had time to reacquaint myself with my former hobby.

Before I closed up my classroom for the summer, a book on one of my bookshelves caught my eye…

The main character of this book is Anahita, a seventeen year old girl growing up in rural Iran during the late 1800’s.

Anahita is told, by her father, that it is time for her to marry, and that the khan has asked for her hand.

Instead of meekly complying with her father’s wishes, she asks for permission to choose her own suitor, through the clever use of a riddle, which she weaves into her wedding carpet.

Although this book is intended for “young readers,” I found this book quite enjoyable.

In fact, parts of the book were breathtaking.

As a knitter, I appreciated the many references to yarn dyeing, spinning, knitting, and, weaving.

Because I taught Muslim students last school year, I appreciated the history, told in story form.

Another thing I love about this book is that all proceeds benefit development enterprises for woman and children who suffered after the 2005 Iranian earthquake.

If you’re looking for something to read this summer, I highly recommend this book.  It was an unexpected treasure that I found tucked away right in front of me.

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

A Book That is a Keeper

Posted on May 6, 2010 by auburnchick

I rarely read books for pleasure any more.

This would surprise those who know me personally, because there used to be a day when you could not find me without a book in my hands.

My journey back to college a few years involved so much reading that I simply could not stomach the thought of ingesting a book for the fun of it.

However, this week, I have been spending quite a bit of time in the high school’s library – the site of the AP testing I’ve been involved with.  As such, it has been hard to ignore the plethora of books surrounding me.

A couple of days ago, when passing by the circulation desk, I noticed a book sitting on a stand…

The book is Keeper, by Mal Peet.

Now, I’m sure I know what you’re thinking…a soccer book…no surprise as to why AuburnChick might have been drawn to it.

Well, maybe initially, much as we’re drawn to members of the opposite sex because they appeal to us physically.

However, I am not one to “judge a book by its cover,” so I read the first page…and I was hooked.

Folks, I read this book in only a few short hours’ time.

The storyline immediately captivated me.

A young boy, heralding from a small town in South America, discovers a soccer goal in a clearing the middle of the forest.  A mysterious man emerges from the trees and begins teaching the boy the finer points of goal tending.

The boy grows up to become the world’s best goalie.  The story is told from his perspective.

You guys…even if you aren’t a soccer fan, this story will grip you.  It is about more than just soccer but of a coming of age, with a bit of mystery thrown in.

I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed when I closed the book upon finishing it.  I wanted the story to continue.

I am so happy I came upon this unexpected gem.  I hope you’ll take the time to pick it up and read it.  You won’t be disappointd!

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Which of These Have You Read?

Posted on August 31, 2008 by auburnchick

My knitting stuff is progressing, but I don’t really have pictures to show you…hence this non-knitting post (course, I tend to have a lot of those).

This post is all about the books you’ve read — or haven’t read.

Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you’ve started but haven’t finished, cross out the ones you hated, and underline the ones on your book shelf! Combine indicators as appropriate.

The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown (I didn’t like this because of my Christian beliefs)
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story – George Orwell
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Lord of the Flies- William Golding (read this in 7th grade…weird, weird book, and the movie is scary!)
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
1984 – George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini (loved this book…has a nice twist at the end)
The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold (very sad, but powerful book)
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer – William Gibson
Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens – Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement – Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Dune – Frank Herbert

Hmmm…I haven’t read much, have I?  Now, I have read almost all of James Patterson’s books.  Does that count for anything?

LOL

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: | 4 Comments »

« Previous Page
  • February 2026
    S M T W T F S
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728

  • Currently Reading

  • Books I’ve Read