Frances' Spring Reading

[Frances]

Spring
It's starting to look like spring (for some more than others)! While New Year's is often the time for resolutions, there's a certain excitement about the fresh start that happens in the spring. The grass is getting greener, more animals emerge, and the flowers start to bloom.

1. Read a book with a title beginning with a letter in SPRING (you can ignore or use a, an, or the)
2. Read a coming-of-age or inspirational book
3. Read a book with themes related to nature

March Birthdays: Gabriel García Márquez
Most readers know him for his most famous work, One Hundred Years of Solitude. After all, this is the book that most led to his Nobel Prize for Literature. Gabriel wrote the book while traveling by bus with his family from Colombia to Mexico City and throughout the southern United States, a dream inspired by his interest in the author William Faulkner. Many of his books include themes related to his strong, liberal political views, influenced largely by his grandfather, and the history of Latin America, (guerilla warfare, drug trafficking, the failures of communism, the evils of capitalism, and the dangerous meddling of the CIA).

1. Read a book set in Colombia.
2. Read a book with themes inspired by the author's life or values (family, magical realism, Latin American politics/social issues).
3. Read a book by an author who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

March Madness
One of the most popular sporting events of the year kicks off on March 17, when 68 basketball teams compete in a single-elimination tournament. Some of the players can't get enough of the sport and go on to become coaches. The oldest coach (Jim Calhoun of the UConn Huskies in 2011) to win a title was 68, while the youngest was 31 (Emmett McCracken of the Indiana Hoosiers in 1940). Even spectators can participate in a little competition by filling out a bracket with their predicted winners. But don't get too confident. The odds of a perfect bracket are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (that's quintillion). 2008 may have been the most predictable year for the bracket ever, since it was the only time that all four No. 1 teams - Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, and Memphis - locked horns in the Final Four.

1. Read a book with a page count that appears in the number 9,223,372,036,854,775,808.
2. Read a book published between 1931 and 1968.
3. Read a book set in Kansas, North Carolina, California, or Tennessee.

St. Patrick's Day
March 17 isn't just a day dedicated to basketball. It is also one of the most popular holidays in the world. St. Patrick's Day is historically a religious holiday, with the famous Shamrock, or three-leaf clover, representing the Holy Trinity. St. Patrick, born Maewyn Scott, was actually born in Wales but was taken taken captive and enslaved in Ireland. He eventually became a priest and was known for ridding the country of evil, symbolized as "snakes". Despite this notoriety, biologists have since learned that there weren't actually ever snakes in Ireland due to cold climate and surrounding waters. There are now more people throughout the world who claim Irish heritage than there are in the entire country of Ireland and some of the biggest celebrations occur in Boston, New York City, and Chicago.

1. Read a book written by an author whose initials appear in Maewyn Succat.
2. Read a book with a theme of good vs. evil.
3. In honor of the famous Shamrock, read a book that is third or fourth in a series.

[Frances]

1. Read a book with a title beginning with a letter in SPRING (you can ignore or use a, an, or the)

The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

[Frances]

2. Read a book with themese from the author's life:

The Mountain that Eats Men