We have a guest review of the book this month. I read the book in October 2018, but the reviewer read it more recently. Enjoy! Book Title: Where’d You Go, Bernadette Author: Maria Semple Publication Date: 2012 Publisher: Little, Brown and Company My interest in this book: The book was not on my radar until I received a copy in the mail a few years ago. It sat on my shelf for awhile. Guest review: My friend and former colleague, Katie Stueart, wrote the following book review. She agreed to let me include the review as part of this blog post. Thank you, Katie!!…
Category: General
Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men Often Go Awry
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Meaning, “No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it. The saying is adapted from a line in ‘To a Mouse,’ by Robert Burns: ‘The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley’” **(www.dictionary.com) I know it is cliche, but hey, once in awhile it works. State of Mind I received some news August 20th and 27th that weighed heavy on my heart, but I knew I had to put it aside for awhile. Preparations needed to be made for our upcoming vacation and dealing with…
My Querencia – Where I Feel Most at Home
“Querencia – A place where one feels at home.” When I was looking online for the piece by Georgia Heard, I discovered many sites about “querencia” and this same lesson. The idea for me came from Cindy O’Donnell-Allen’s writer’s notebook unit during training at an AP Summer Institute in 1997. The Lesson As part of my Writer’s Notebook lesson when I was teaching, I would read the following article with my students: “Querencia” by Georgia Heard A few summers ago I experienced my first–and last–bullfight, in a small French town near the Spanish border, where Picasso once lived. When the gate to the ring opened,…
The Nonfiction Book I Finished This Month
I plan to share my monthly reads via this blog, starting this month. My hope is to share my nonfiction choice the last week of the month (and my fiction choice sometime during each month). I love to read, but I have not been as committed of late. I miss sharing about books with my students, so I hope you will share your thoughts on a book I mention or share about what you are reading. Having kept a hand written book log/journal for years, I just started keeping it on Google drive for quicker reference and for making my notes for upcoming months. I…
Mom, Dementia, Daughters, and Dying
This post is the conclusion to my last post about Mom. Our last Christmas with the remnants of our Mom was in 1997. We knew that it would be. We made our peace with that and tried to prepare for what was to come. The years 1998 and 1999 are a blur for me. Mother’s mental capacity and physical health rapidly declined. Two years of visits with doctors to discuss her physical problems. The blankness of her stare with an unintelligible babble or sound comprised our visits. I was a single mom starting my teaching career, and my sister, blessedly, attended to many of those…