JOY (and Kindle) FOR BEGINNERS

A couple of weeks ago on Twitter, a new friend (@mimireads) told Patrick Allen and I that we should check out THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS by Erica Bauermeister. I did, and loved it (see post here) , so on Friday night, I online went looking for other books Bauermeister had written. Bauermeister's newest book, JOY FOR BEGINNERS, was just released a couple of weeks ago. Knowing that my boys had a football-a-thon (ok, really a 7 on 7 tournament, that lasts for twelve hours, which is divided approximately equally between watching football, fetching water and gatorade for grumpy, overheated children and just sitting around waiting for games to happen), I downloaded JOY FOR BEGINNERS onto my Kindle and threw that into my bag. I spent more time being water girl and less time waiting, so I didn't get much read during the tournament, but I read a good chunk yesterday, then finished JOY FOR BEGINNERS this morning.

The main character in JOY FOR BEGINNERS is Kate, a woman who has been through a mastectomy and subsequent treatment for breast cancer. In the opening chapter of JOY, Kate and six of her closest friends, women who have cared for her during treatment, are having a victory party, celebrating Kate's return to health. Shortly before the party, Kate's college-aged daughter, Robin, has asked her to consider a river rafting trip down the Grand Canyon and hung the pamphlet on the bulletin board in the kitchen. Kate's friends encourage her to go on the trip. Kate agrees that she will, but only if each of her friends will take on a challenge during the next year. The biggest twist is that Kate will decide what each challenge will be.

Bauermeister has come to be a new favorite author. She goes into a "category" with Elizabeth Berg and Anna Quindlen. Those authors write simple clean stories that I can read at football practices or waiting rooms. Even though the stories are relatively straightforward, there are lots of big truths, great lines that I write down or mark to share with friends. I loved this story about women and friendship and taking on challenges. I want my book club to read it. I want us to think about challenges we might set for each other. Maybe even set a few…And like Quindlen and Berg, Bauermeister is a terrific writer, a master of specificity and sensory details, someone I revisit again and again as I attempt to become a better writer.

As I was reading JOY FOR BEGINNERS, I also thought a lot about my reading process. I got my Kindle for Valentine's Day, and I'm still trying to figure out what place it has in my reading life. I had wanted one for a long, long time, but if I am honest, I have not really used it all that much. Here are some initial observations:

Things I love about my Kindle:

• The size.
• I can get a new book within a couple of minutes (this might also be a dangerous feature, given my propensity for buying books instead of food or clothing).
• I love that once I'm done with a book, it doesn't take up a lot of space in my life. I still have it on my Kindle, and I can go back to it any time I like, but I don't have to try to find room for it on my overflowing bookshelves.
• That ebooks, even new books, are much less expensive than "regular" books (and yeah, I'm aware that I don't have the right language).

Things I'm still trying to figure out:

• I can't pass on books I love, like JOY FOR BEGINNERS, to my friends. Last night, for example, I was telling my friend, Kathleen, how much I was enjoying Erica Bauermeister's books. She said she needed something new to read. Ordinarily, I would just pass the book on to her, but because it was on my Kindle, I couldn't. I don't like that, at all.
• I'm also not sure I will buy many children's books on the Kindle, because if I like them, I want to be able to put them into kids' hands. That's not a possibility with the Kindle, unless I give them my Kindle to use.
• I'm am thinking, though, about what place the Kindle might have in the lives of kids who struggle with reading. Would it make reading easier for those kids if they could adjust the type size or face, number of words on a line, or the orientation of the page? If so, why would we not give them that option?
• I'm also trying to decide whether buying ereaders for my sons might encourage them to read more than they are reading now (not at all).
• And then I'm still trying to figure out the "gadgetry"of the Kindle. I haven't figured out, for example, whether I can get the stuff I highlight from my Kindle to my laptop. And I haven't taken time yet to learn how to get stuff from my Netgalley account onto my Kindle, even though I am pretty sure I can do that.

OK, enough Joy (and Kindle) for beginners. Gotta go do some real life stuff, like laundry and housework!

TILL WE HAVE FACES- C.S. LEWIS

A month or so ago, someone recommended that I read TILL WE HAVE FACES by C.S. Lewis. TILL WE HAVE FACES is Lewis' 1956 adaptation of the myth, Cupid and Psyche. The main character in this book, Orual, is the daughter of a king. She has two younger sisters, Redival and Psyche. Orual and Redival's mother passes away, the king remarries, then the girls' stepmother dies while giving birth to Psyche, and Orual ends up raising her younger sisters. Orual is very intelligent, but battles the demons many of us face every day- she believes herself to be extremely unattractive, she doubts herself, and she questions and regrets her decisions and life choices. Psyche, her youngest sister, is almost an exact opposite-- very, very beautiful, both in mind and spirit.

When Psyche is a teenager, the gods become angry at the land of Glome and demand the sacrifice of Psyche. The god Cupid intervenes and Psyche's life is spared, but Psyche must spend her life in a faraway castle as Cupid's bride. Orual discovers that her younger sister is still alive, and she attempts to reclaim her. Psyche however, is happy in her new role, and does not want to leave. Orual's efforts upset the gods, and she spends her entire life reliving and regretting her decisions.

This was a hard read for me. Fantasy is not my favorite genre.I didn't like Orual very much. I wanted to be like Psyche, who was good and pure and beautiful, but sometimes, a lot of times, maybe most of the time, I found myself identifying more with Orual.

The ideas in FACES were big and metaphorical and hard to wrap my head around. And as much as I hate to admit it, usually I don't read books with themes about the nature of humans vs. the nature of the holy, healthy love vs. destructive love, and the journey of life, at this time in the school year. It was one of those books that disturbed me so much I wanted to put it away and forget about it.

At the same time, it's a book that has stayed with me. I keep coming back to the ideas again and again. TILL WE HAVE FACES causes me to see myself and my life journey and my relationships and other people through a whole different lens. I want to read the book again this summer. I want my book club to read it, because I need to talk about it. I want everyone I know to read it.

Here are a few quotes I keep going back to. I'm not posting them because I like or dislike them, but rather because I keep going back to them. :

Don't you think the things people are most ashamed of are the things they can't help? (111)

You don't think-
not possibly-
not as a mere hundredth chance
that there might be things
that are real
though we can't see them?
141


Child to say
the very thing you really mean,
the whole of it,
nothing more or less
or other than what you really mean
that's the whole art and joy of words. 294


"Psyche had no more dangerous enemies than us.
And in that far distant day when the gods become wholly beautiful,
or we at last are shown how beautiful they always were,
this will happen more and more.
For mortals, as you said,
will become more and more jealous.
And mother and wife and child and friend
will all be in a league
to keep a soul from being united
with the Divine Nature. " p. 304

"I know now Lord, why you utter no answer.
You are yourself the answer.
Before your face, other questions die away.
What other answer would suffice? (308)

EDGAR SAWTELLE (WHY I NEED TO READ)

Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I am an avid reader. A gotta-read- every-day kinda gal. I read just about anything with print- magazines, newspapers, cereal boxes, kids' books, professional books, poetry, signs on mailboxes, blogs etc., etc. What I don't read, at least not much during the school year, is adult fiction. It's not that I don't like adult fiction, it's just that between a full time educator, and a full time mom, I don't have a whole a lot of time. I'm starting to believe, though, that I need to rethink that decision.

Last night I finished THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE. Edgar is a middle-grade boy growing up on a farm close to Lake Superior. He can hear, but has never been able to speak. Edgar's family survives by breeding and training a line of dogs they call Sawtelles (because of my own background knowledge, I kept picturing the dog as labs, but they really sounded more Shepherd-ish). Edgar's father, Gar, is responsible for tracking the dog's lineage and making decisions about breeding. His mom, Trudy, trains the dogs. Edgar, under the watchful eye of his four legged best friend, Almondine, helps with chores and training. Life on the dog farm is hard, but it's happy until Gar's brother Claude arrives…

EDGAR SAWTELLE brought me back to the roots of what I believe about teaching kids to read. First, it reminded me of the importance of background knowledge. As a dog lover, I totally connected with Edgar and his family. Almondine was my Ramsey, and now, to a degree, the dog that Jack Black is becoming. Smart, impudent, strong-willed Essay, another dog important to the story, was my Maggie, and now Stargirl. I loved reading about how the family cared for their dogs. The book made me want to dig out DOG TRAINING FOR DUMMIES and spend some time working with my badly behaved teenager puppies. I don't think my non dog-loving friends would connect with this book or enjoy it quite as much as I did.

Second, the book reminded me of all of the strategies readers use. I read the prologue a couple of times, still didn't totally understand it, and finally just decided to push forward and see if I could figure it out as I went along. I had to reread and reread and reread from page 1 to page 525-- this morning, even though I should be wrapping Christmas presents, I really want to go back and do the least twenty pages again. David Wrobleski is a very talented writer, but sometimes, when I just wanted to know what was going to happen next, I kind of raced through his beautiful descriptions in search of more plot. I "talked" to Wrobleski, fought with him, and asked lots and lots of questions, especially about character's motivation. Last night, after I finished reading, I laid awake for another hour or so, thinking about the ending…

Finally, EDGAR SAWTELLE reminded me how much readers need to talk. I loved EDGAR SAWTELLE, but there is a lot I didn't quite understand. Today, even though it's Christmas Eve and even though I have plenty to do, and even though I'm sure most of my friends are spending time with family and friends, I want to talk to my dog-loving, book-loving friends-- Laura, or Stevi, or Kyle to see if they have read the book, and to see what they thought. I want to talk about Almondine. I want to talk about the ending. I need other readers to help me make sense of what I read.

I've always known that teachers need to be readers. Sometimes, though, I need to be reminded of what that really means…

BIG RUSS AND ME

I have to confess. I'm not much of a television watcher, and I'm sure not a Sunday morning television watcher. When my mom told me that Tim Russert had passed away, I had to think for a minute to remember who Tim Russert was.

Nevertheless, I'm fascinated by the stories of people's lives- who they are, what experiences shaped them, who they love, etc. Last weekend, then, I picked up BIG RUSS AND ME, the story of Tim Russert's relationship with his father. Russert grew up in a working class neighborhood in South Buffalo. His father, Big Russ, always held two jobs. First, he was a garbage collector and later a supervisor in the Sanitation Department. Then he drove a truck that delivered the newspaper in Buffalo. Tim grew up attending parochial schools. He talks again and again about the teachers, the nuns and priests that mentored and shaped him into the scholar, the thinker, and the man he became. 

In some ways, Russert's upbringing reminds me of my own. Big Russ believed in hard work, and discipline. Tim knew that the teachers/coaches/bosses were always right, and if he got in trouble at school, he would be in twice as much trouble at home. Big Russ, however, was also man who loved his wife and his kids, and who laughed often. Hearing people talk about Tim Russert in the past few weeks, it would appear that he inherited all of these qualities from his dad.

Most of all, Big Russ was a man of huge integrity. When I talk about integrity with my boys (and we talk about this subject on an almost daily basis) , I always tell them that everyone in your life- your family, your coaches, your teachers, your friends, the salesclerk at the grocery store- would describe you in the same way, and that you make the right choices and do the right thing whether or not anyone is watching you. My dad, as imperfect and human as he was, was a man of huge integrity. I hope I inherited this quality, and I hope I pass it to my guys. 

This book has made me laugh and cry. Big Russ reminds me of my dad- how hard he worked, how little he said,  and how much he loved us. He's been gone almost fifteen years.…