May flowers

Had fun visting Mischler's Florist at the end of April to get flowers for the front yard and the diaconate luncheon. Primroses were on sale and they were gorgeous.  The rabbits have enjoyed all of the ones I planted in the front yard, so I hope they rebound OK. Daffodils are blooming so we have some color all around.

I was able to share the daffodils with my Uncle Steve before he passed last weekend. They really did brighten up the room. We lost him on May 4, which was odd considering the Big Bang Theory episode last week about Sheldon coping with a death on Star Wars Day. I'm not really sure I want to start finding clues to my destiny in random tv episodes, but that hit awfully close to home.

With his illness and the diaconate needs, I really have had no time to read or do any other activities around the house. I really need to finish Maggie's dress too. Time is slipping away.

Three more books under the bridge though. The most fun was Red Shirts by John Scalzi. I love that concept from Star Trek and it was a brilliant take on the idea. Also read The Alloy of Law from Brandon Sanderson (a mistborn book) which was OK and the Druggist of Auschiwitz by Dieter Schelsak. It was a sad take on the "medical" side of the concentration camp.

Books and Work and NCAA

Update on the reading (three more done). Am tracking all of them on this Pinterest board cause I'm lousy at the running count ! It says 21 so far, so I'm well ahead of the goal. I am sure real life will stop me at some point LOL.

• 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal
• The Blessing by John Trent
• League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth by ESPN reporters

I tried to read a Rex Stout mystery but just could not bring myself to sort through the old-fashioned language and sexist attitudes. I know that noir literature is like that but I just was not in the mood.

So, next I'm going to read the Divergent series. We have a rule in my house that you are not supposed to see a movie until you have read the book. As Maggie points out regularly, I have not held Matthew to that standard all the time. But he was a baby when we started reading Harry Potter and I wasn't going to stop him from enjoying those movies. However, I am enforcing that rule with the Hunger Games, Enders Game and Divergent. So, now I have to read those books!

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Off Peak Update
I am in the process of launching some new initiatives for the Tri-State Consortium including surveys to help with their research, an experts roster and expanded LinkedIn options. I'm excited to work on their materials because it is such a great way for me to connect all of my marketing and highered experience.  Plus, it helps me to start new projects because it keeps me current. I find sometimes that we just let things ride until we are forced to change. By continuing to expand my skills, I can bring new ideas to work and vice versa. Grateful for these opportunities. 

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Just a note about the NCAA.  Boy, the brackets are broken. I don't recall any other tourney where there have been so many upsets. But the basketball has been amazing to watch. I love March Madness !

A blur of a month

So, after the excitement of the hospital visits, I had the pleasure of sharing the flu with my kids. Well, they probably shared it with me. So, I'm a bit concerned that today is March 11 and I feel like I've missed all of March to date.

On the plus side, the weather is still super cold so I don't think I'm missing much LOL.

Book update. I've started a Pinterest Board to help me track my books and I did manage to read a few while under the weather.

I read The Sports Gene by David Epstein. He quoted Outliers quite a bit so that was interesting. Peter brought it home over break and I swiped it for a few days.

I also skimmed Hunters of Dune and all of Sandworms of Dune so I'm calling that one book to be honest. Very repetitive at the start but I did like the ending a lot.

Read through the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. World War Z was much more interesting, but his ideas are creative.

Total count for year is 17 complete in week 11. Doing pretty well so far!

On deck are: The Monuments Men, 700 Sundays and League of Denial. I also have a few mysteries to read but I'm not sure I'm interested in those right now. We'll see.

February Break

Not the week/ month I expected to have but a couple of days sitting as a hospital visitor really boosted my reading.

Last entry I had finished 7 books. Since then 7 more (Blink, Altered Carbon, I will fear no evil, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers (last 3 by Heinlein) Fever Dream and Cold Vengeance by Preston/Child)

I hit the library and picked up two mysteries, two of the newer Dune books and downloaded 2 more to my kindle. We'll see how many I finish now that things are "back to normal."

American Lit

So, I got into a discussion on twitter about American Lit (note, I work in higher ed, so intellectual discussions are possible 140 characters at a time). I hated American Lit in high school, managed to talk my teacher into letting me read War & Peace instead. Yes, Russian fiction in lieu of three American lit novels. The page count was greater and she was excited to be able to tell people one of her students read that book. I was excited to skip the whiny novels.

So, as an adult, when I could not contribute to the discussion about which American authors are better, I asked for suggestions of what to read. I was told these novels:

Invisible Man (already read)
Angle of Repose
Sound and Fury
Absalom, Absalom
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Slaughterhouse Five (already read)

My dad's favorite book of all time is the Old Man and the Sea (already read). Another suggestion outside of twitter was Of Mice and Men (already read).

Since the twitter exchange I have read two of the books (Angle of Repose and Death Comes for the Archbishop) and I discussed Slaughterhouse Five with my son.

I went and looked for a list of great American Novels, I've read 25 of them. Was surprised to have so many. 

I will go get the Faulkner novels from the library and attempt them. But I'll be honest. As beautiful as some of the descriptions of the wild west, I still find these novels whiny. My issue with American Lit 30 years ago and still today is that we don't have enough history here to claim any understanding of the world. We are only a few generations removed from people who believed in miracles and came here. The disappointment these authors report is inevitable. Reality is always harsh. I find that these characters are so busy being disappointed in their lives that they miss the beauty being described around them. And I want to shake them.

Do you feel differently about American Lit? Why? Help me see the other side. 

Books

I've noticed people commenting about how many  books they've read or how many books people read in a year. I'm not sure I could ever count how many I've read. If left alone I could probably read a book a day. With three kids, work and a new puppy I am lucky to finish one book a week. My kindle got me back to this average... it is easier to carry that around with me and I can read a few pages when picking up from sports etc. I remember summers reading a book a day and spending every allowance to buy new books. Conservatively I have probably read over 1200 books, assuming an average of 30 books a year times 40 years (been reading since before Kindergarten but only counting since then). If you think that number is high, I'd like to point out that I won the reading contest in 4th grade for the month of October (how many mysteries can you read?) with 31 accepted books. I read more but the teacher would only credit me with one a day and my mother had to write a note that yes I really did come home from school everyday and sit down and read. Plus more than half of those books came from the school library and the librarian had to attest that I did check out a different book everyday and could answer questions about each one.

My kids don't read nearly as much. Aside from their overall increase in homework, they have activities I never could do (my Mom didn't drive) and they have multi-media entertainment to consume. They all do read, but not nearly as voraciously as me. The sad part is that they watch a movie and think they understand a book... and yet Hollywood uses book titles and themes with no regard for the real material. Even when they are motivated to stay true to the material, ie, Harry Potter, they still change things just because (the 7th movie with Snape, Harry and then Harry with the elder wand). No reason to change it but they did.

I have a new rule with my kids that they cannot see a movie without reading the book first. That way they have their own vision in their minds eye and can compare as opposed to a two hour synopsis that may or may not be right and then to get frustrated when the book is different. This helped our family enjoy the Hunger Games and I hope the future ones as well.