Category: Books

Brene Brown is quite literally changing my life.

This month’s book was her most recent gift to the world– Rising Strong. It’s a book about getting back up after falling down, which inevitably happens when we’re being brave and vulnerable.

Some highlights:
“The only decision we get to make is what role we’ll play in our lives.”

“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”

“The irony is that we attempt to disown our difficult stories to appear more whole more more acceptable, but our wholeness– even our wholeheartedness– actually depends on the integration of all of our experiences, including the falls.”

“Regret is a tough but fair teacher. To live without regret is to believe you have nothing to learn, no amends to make, and no opportunity to be braver with your life.’

“Connection doesn’t exist without giving and receiving. We need to give and we need to need.”

“Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.”

“The most dangerous stories we make up are the narratives that diminish our worthiness. We must reclaim the truth about our lovability, divinity, and creativity.”

“The middle is messy, but it’s also where the magic happens.”

And then this BEAUTY:

So the essence of the book is to be mindful about your emotions, and really think about WHY you’re feeling/ reacting a certain way, rather than letter an experience or reaction define you. She talking about “rumbling with our stories” and getting curious about emotion. I love it.

I haven’t written about my books for a while, but I’ve still been reading. November’s book was recommended by one of my favorite professors. He taught High School English before becoming a professor, so he and I got along really well.

One day we were talking about “cannon” literature, and I was saying how important I thought it was to read the Classics. He surprised me by responding that he didn’t place as high a value on the Classics as Modern literature. He said he felt modern literature resonated more with modern students, because it deals with actual issues of our day. I was initially mildly offended, but I’ve given thought to his opinion, and I see where he’s coming from. Modern literature does raise discussions that are more relevant to the life of a Generation Z teenager. (That awkward moment when Millennials are all grown up.)

So Speak. (Subtitle: The groundbreaking novel that changed everything.) Melinda is 13 years old and just beginning her first year of High School. She ruined a wild back-to-school party by calling 911, and now everyone hates her. The actual incident that caused her to call the cops isn’t revealed until later in the book, but once she’s able to speak up and talk about it, everything changes. Powerful story. Not 6th grade.

I’m interested in others’ thoughts on Classic vs. Modern literature. Pros and cons? Is one better? Is Hawthorne timeless? (Obvi HP is a Classic.)

Upon Lucy’s and Kristen’s recommendations, I started this book like five years ago. For some reason I never finished it, so this month I decided to get ‘er done. I’m glad I did it.

I feel like my experience with this book was vastly different from Kristen’s and Lucy’s because they are both introverted, and I happen to be very extroverted. Coming from that different perspective, I can offer my take on the book– I felt like in Susan Cain’s efforts to expose some less-celebrated virtues of introverts, she sometimes made me (an extrovert) feel like a bad person. But that aside, I gained several insights on myself, my loved ones, and past and future students.

1. This world needs BOTH introverts and extroverts
2. A good talker is not necessarily a good thinker
3. Introverted students needs to be accommodated for
4. Listening is key
5. We should try to get everyone in their “sweet spot” (#classroomgoals)

If you’re like me, you read Louis Sachar’s Holes at least once in Elementary school. Since I’m back in Elementary school now, I’ve been rereading Elementary classics, and Holes is the one I chose this month.

If you’re unlike me and pretty much every other kid, and you’re unfamiliar with the story of Holes, I’ll give a quick synopsis.

Holes is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats, who is wrongly accused of a crime and sentenced to serve time at Camp Greenlake– an alternative detention center for juvenile delinquent boys where the days are passed digging holes. The story is fraught with mystery, suspense, comedy, and intensity. Join Stanley as he embarks on a quest to break the curse brought on by his dirty-rotten-no-good-pig-steadling-great-great-grandfather.

Ohhhhh my goodness. This book. Adjectives include, but are not limited to: exciting, thought-provoking, insightful, life-changing, beautiful, eloquent, unique, entertaining. Defs in my top 5 faves of all time.

Life of Pi is about an Indian boy named Piscine Patel (Pi for short) who is tragically shipwrecked and orphaned, and left to traverse the Pacific ocean on a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger.

Allow me to share a few of my favorite quotes.

“If we citizens do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams” (XII).

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation” (28).

“Hindus, in their capacity to love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims” (50).

“I offered prayers to Christ, who is alive. Then I raced down the hill on the left and raced up the hill on the right– to offer thanks to Lord Krishna for having put Jesus of Nazareth, whose humanity I found so compelling, in my way” (58).

“These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defense, not God’s, that the self-righteous should rush” (71).

“I must say one word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary. … Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you’ve defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you” (161-62).

“Time is an illusion that only makes us pant. I survived because I forgot even the very notion of time” (192).

“I cannot think of a better way to spread the faith [than leaving Bibles in hotel rooms]. No thundering from a pulpit, no condemnation from bad churches, no peer pressure, just a book of scripture quietly waiting to say hello, as gentle and powerful as a little girl’s kiss on your cheek” (208).

“Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love” (208).

“The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar. It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering, I should turn to God” (284).

“Isn’t telling about something–using words, English or Japanese– already something of an invention? Isn’t just looking at this world already something of an invention? The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn’t that make life a story?” (302)

This is a clever nonfiction book about the history of punning in the English language. There is at least one pun per page, which makes it a joy to read. One example of punning in this book is the subtitle: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics. Haaaaa.

This is one quote that I particularly loved:
“The assumption that puns are per se contemptible, betrayed by the habit of describing every pun as a ‘bad pun’ or a ‘feeble pun’ is a sign at once of sheepish docility and a desire to seem superior. Puns are good, bad, and indifferent, and only those who lack the wit to make them are unaware of the fact.”
Preach! I HATE it when people say stupid things like, “Pardon the pun.”

So if you want an interesting, witty, informative book, I recommend The Pun Also Rises.

Some favorite puns from the book:
The ham walked out of the doctor and said, “I’m cured!”
The archaeologist’s career ended in ruins.
Dermatologists sometimes make rash decisions.
How many ears does Davey Crockett have? Three- a right ear, a left ear, and a wild front ear.
Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants? In case he got a hole in one.
A distraught patient rushes into a psychiatrist’s office. “Doctor, doctor! I think I’m a wigwam, then I think I’m a tepee. I’m a wigwam, I’m a tepee. I’m a wigwam, I’m a tepee.” “Relax,” the shrink says. “You’re just too tense.”

El Deafo is a super presh book I just finished about a little girl named Cece. She gets meningitis when she’s about 4 years old, and ends up becoming deaf as a result. This book follows Cece through her journey of discovering who she is and how she can live a happy life.

Sophie gave me this book for Christmas, and I just finished it. Absolutely adorable. It’s a collection of poems by a little boy who’s grieving over the loss of his dog. The poems are sweet, simple, heartfelt, and really beautiful. TBH one made me cry.

This book is a quick read, but it leaves a lasting impression. There was a period of my life when I hated poetry, but I can now say it’s one of my favorite genres. This book got me stoked to do a poetry unit with my kids.