Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 I know I posted about this book a couple of years ago, but I just wanted to take a second and highlight it again. I just finished this for another time through (probably my fourth or fifth time reading it). I can't say it enough: I LOVE this book. It gets me every time I finish it (even like four times later). I convinced my mom to read it, at a time when we're watching her parents struggling with illnesses and conditions we know aren't treatable. And it's hard. And we're so far away. And it just sucks. I hadn't even thought about them, when I suggested it, because I just wanted my mom to read it. She came back to me and told me how much she loved it. She finished it in one day, and her reaction was, "It allows you to feel however you feel about death and terminal illness. It shows that whatever you feel is ok and if you are honest with yourself you can be ok too." And as I said in my last review: Losing loved ones is a universal experience of being h...

 This is once again a book that I teach with my seniors, and it is one of my all-time favorite books. There is also a film version of this book that is every bit as good as the novel; in fact, Patrick Ness had a significant hand in creating that film. Conor O'Malley is 13. His life is not normal. His mom is horribly sick with what we assume is cancer, and this fact has completely altered every aspect of his life. Conor is determined that his mom is getting better. He is determined that the treatments are helping her. It isn't long before at 12:07 AM, Conor is woken from an awful recurring nightmare by a monster. Conor finds that he is not afraid of the monster, much to its surprise and annoyance. The monster tells Conor that he will tell him three tales, and once he is finished, Conor must tell his own tale, and that tale will be the truth. Can Conor face the reality that faces him? This book is amazing. There are no other words to describe it. The illustrations in this book ar...

 Again, this is another novel that I read with my students. I LOVE this book. I always thought that it would be scary, and initially, I was terrified to read it. Everyone paints it as such a horror story, and of course, we all have Halloween. Frankenstein  by Mary Shelley is considered the quintessential horror book. Victor Frankenstein had what he considered a perfect life. He had a happy family and close friends in Geneva. Victor was fascinated by the sciences from a very young age and pursued the philosophies of the alchemists. After being mocked mercilessly by a college professor, Victor eventually gives up these beliefs, but not for long. He discovers the secret to life. Creating a being out of the remains of the dead, initially, he is thrilled by his creation, but once he finally bestows the spark of life, he is terrified at his creation and abandons it. The monster is then left to fend for itself, learning morality from works like Paradise Lost , and observing a French ...

My reading habits have definitely changed in the last few years! College kind of killed off my love of reading for a while, but now that I'm teaching high school English, I've started reading more, and more often for pleasure. I'm going through the books I've read so far this year and posting some reviews of books. First on my list is A Christmas Carol  by Charles Dickens. I read it for the first time with my students last December. This classic novel follows Ebeneezer Scrooge through one insane night filled with ghosts. Mr. Scrooge is a stalwart Christmas hater. The descriptions of him at the beginning of the novel describe him as cold and almost uncaring. His partner, Jacob Marley, died before the events of the novel, but they are also a key to understanding what's happening. Marley was possibly more cold than Scrooge. Scrooge goes home on Christmas Eve after sending his assistant home and reluctantly giving him the next day off. After climbing into bed that n...