Stephenie’s Comments (group member since May 17, 2014)

Stephenie’s comments from the Mrs. Eriksson's Summer Reading Challenge 2015 group.

I can see this one becoming a great movie! Glad you enjoyed it.

The main difference between students and teachers is that teachers just have more experience struggling because we're old. ;)

It's a really tough read! I read it over Christmas Break and really struggled! I think I need to read it a few more times to really grasp it. It's nightmarish and confusing. Many people find it to be a tough read. I am always relieved that other English teachers say they struggle with it too. :)

Glad to see a classic like Ethan Frome make the summer reading list! I love this book. I have to confess that I hated it when it was required reading my sophomore year of high school. It was a totally different reading experience when I read it because I wanted to this past Christmas. I would read it again!

"Like" :)

Anna,

I am so proud of you for taking on the challenge of this novel! This was heavy summer reading. I know many adults who have abandoned it. I have read it twice and found it even more amazing the second time! If you loved The Poisonwood Bible, you may also love her novel, The Lacuna It stuck with me. I also think you would appreciate, perhaps even LOVE, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese . It is one of my top ten favorite books of all time. Neither of these are "light" reads. So, read/listen to something light and quick before Wednesday if you have time. :)

Thanks for reminding me that Watership Down is a book I need to put higher on my "books I need to read" list! :) This is not a genre I typically choose, but I need to push myself out of my comfort zone.

Have you read I Have Lived aThousand Years by Livia Bitton Jackson? If you have not, I highly recommend this memoir of a Holocaust survivor. It had a profound impact on me.

I'm going to challenge you to do a little analysis ... What is Hazel's biggest question/fear revealed by her obsession with An Imperial Infliction? Why do you think Green does not have Peter Van Houten provide her with an answer? In the end ... and answering this here may give spoilers ... what does Hazel come to understand? Do you think she finds any resolution?

Steelheart was a good one. :)

I just finished reading Stuart Little to my son. We were very disappointed. Seb's response at the end was, "That's not an ending!" We enjoyed it for the most part, but, yeah, most unsatisfying ending ever!

DIABOLICAL!!! And I loved it! Rebecca has been on my "to read" list for years, and I finally read it. I will say, that after reading a lot of contemporary fiction, it took me a while to adjust to the language in Rebecca. It was written in 1938, and reads a bit more like a Victorian novel. But sticking with it was so worth it! I love a good gothic romance/mystery, and this was just about PERFECT! I'd call it Jane Eyre meets Gone Girl (I was not a HUGE fan of Gone Girl, but there were some moments in this novel when I thought of those crazy people) ;) By the way, Alfred Hitchcock adapted Rebecca to film in 1940 -- now I need to watch it.

Another fascinating read. On an otherwise normal day, the Earth's rotation begins to slow and continues to slow for months. At the same time, the dynamics in Julia's family and friendships are shifting. I guess you would best classify this novel as a speculative fiction/science fiction, that explores a "What if?" question. As a result of the Earth's slowing rotation, some people are suffer from a syndrome caused by the change in Earth's gravitational pull, and some prepare for what they see as the coming Apocalypse. The government imposes "clock time" laws and some resist the law and insist on staying on "real time." There are no zombies, but I thought a lot about how The Walking Dead fits into this same category of fiction and how Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road would be a good follow-up if you have read or plan to read The Age of Miracles.

The author of this novel is a former CIA agent who was in Saddam Hussein's palace after he was executed. In her afterword for the novel, she writes about an extravagant children's "play house" that included an elevator and intercom system within Hussein's compound that made her wonder about the children that lived there. Who were they? How did they view Hussein? Was he a kind uncle? father? godparent? This question partly inspired The Tyrant's Daughter. The main character, her younger brother, and her mother are taken to the United States as refugees after her father, a self-appointed king in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, is assassinated by his brother who is a religious extremist. Laila has perceived her father as a good, loving man; however, when she starts school in the United States and has free access to media, she discovers that he is not the man she thought he was and as she untangles a web of lies, she begins to question her family's role in world events. This was a fascinating book and made me think about how major world events are controlled and/or caused by a few individuals. In fact, I just read an article that explores a similar question about events in the past couple of weeks. In his Time Magazine - August 4, 2014 commentary, "War Without End: From Ukraine to the Middle East, We Still Live in the Long Shadow of 1914," writer Jon Meacham quotes author David Fromkin, "it takes two or more to keep the peace, but only one to start a war ... An aggressor can start a major war even today and even if other great powers desire to stay at peace."

I love memoir, and I love reading about food! My favorite articles are often from Eating Well or Cooking Light. Kate Christensen's memoir tells her life story through her memories of eating. The first essay is jarring as she remembers her father brutally beating her mother as she and her sister eat soft-boiled eggs for breakfast, and she examines how each of her life experiences leads her to the women she has become. The memoir traces her life from child of hippie parents, to a young woman living in France and traveling Europe, to a women searching for happiness in her marriage. Each section ends with recipes that I hope to try. WARNING: Once again, this memoir is intended for an adult audience, so be warned of language and discussions of adult situations.

James and the Giant Peach was a great read aloud for my son. He laughed hysterically throughout , and the other day, when he was being a bit bratty to a friend, all I had to say was "You are acting like the centipede." He knew exactly what I meant, and straightened up. We watched the movie after finishing, and I had a proud momma moment when he was upset that the movie changed the book! I think he is on his way to becoming a READER! :)

I heard Laurie Halse Anderson speak at the National English Teachers Convention in Boston last November, and she shared that much of what she writes comes from personal experience. Melinda in Speak is partly her and Hailey and her father in this book are based on her experience growing up with a father who suffered PTSD after Vietnam. The setting is contemporary and Hailey's father has returned from Iraq, suffering from his war experiences. While I appreciated the story and found the experience authentic, this is not my favorite Laurie Halse Anderson novel. The dialogue felt forced, and I didn't believe in her characters the way I did in both Speak and Twisted. There were a lot of similarities though between Billy Lynn in the book I posted about earlier and the father in this book, so if you are interested in PTSD, I do recommend this one.

I love A.J. Jacobs. I especially love listening to A.J. Jacobs read his books on audio. Mrs. Lovin recommended this one a few years ago, and I finally got around to listening to it. A few years ago, I listened to his book, My Year of Living Biblically, which I also recommend. Jacobs is an "immersion" journalist, which means that what ever he is researching and writing about, he experiences. He is a bit extreme, and that is what I LOVE! In Drop Dead Healthy, his goal is to become the healthiest man alive by researching the latest in healthy living, and then following the research recommendations to the letter. For example, when he learns that noise pollution can lead to premature death, he wears noise canceling headphone everywhere he goes. Another thing I love about this book is that while there is a lot of research, Jacobs integrates his personal family experiences, drawing you into his life of with his wife, his children, his grandfather, and his eccentric aunt. By the end, I was driving and crying.

I have been reading quite a few books about PTSD, and this one is GREAT! I started it in the fall and put it aside, but once I got into it again this summer, I could not put it down. It challenged me to think from the perspective of a young man whose buddy dies in his arms during an attack in Iraq. The entire novel takes place during a single Dallas Cowboy's game on Thanksgiving and explores the contrast between the life and death reality that our military personal face and the well-intentioned, yet ignorant perception of those of us who have not experienced battle. I anticipate that the novel could be offensive to some, but I think it explores a perspective that is realistic but not often talked about. WARNING: This novel is written for an adult audience, so you will encounter language that may be offensive to some and discussions of "adult" issues and experiences.

Would you recommend it?