{"id":1080,"date":"2013-02-13T04:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/?p=1080"},"modified":"2013-02-13T08:06:35","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T14:06:35","slug":"catching-up-on-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/?p=1080","title":{"rendered":"Catching up on books&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>June, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t this supposed to be a slower time of the year for educators? I&#8217;m not feeling it. Wonderful, joyful, and miraculous family happenings have been filling each day, so it&#8217;s all good.<\/p>\n<p>While rocking babies and playing with toddlers I&#8217;ve gotten through many great books this spring. Here are the highlights:<\/p>\n<p><em>Mechanically Inclined<\/em> by Jeff Anderson and\u00a0<em>Image Grammar<\/em> by Harry Noden: Many of my preservice teachers feel ill-equipped to teach grammar. I read these two books to be able to recommend them (or not) as resources. There is a great debate in our field as to the teaching of grammar. Most agree that embedding grammar instruction within the writing process is effective. However, if students don&#8217;t have the language of grammar and a good grasp of basic mechanics, that embedded instruction is difficult to deliver. Each of these books tackles this problem. <em>Mechanically Inclined<\/em> speaks more to my comfort level. Anderson carefully collects data regarding real world mechanical\u00a0issues with which his students needs help and pre-teaches some of those solutions so kids have the vocabulary and background knowledge to deal with them when needed. These would be excellent lessons to record as YouTube videos for kids to refer to as needed during the school year. Flip those lessons, people!<\/p>\n<p><em>So, What Do They Really Know? Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning<\/em> by Cris Tovani: I love Cris Tovani&#8217;s work. There. The bias has been revealed. This book is helpful in many aspects.<\/p>\n<p><em>With Rigor for All: Meeting Common Core Standards for Reading Literature<\/em> by Carol Jago: Disclaimer&#8211;this is another author I admire greatly. If you don&#8217;t follow her on Twitter, you&#8217;re missing some great stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Lest you think I&#8217;m no fun at all, here are the &#8220;light-hearted&#8221; fiction pieces completed this spring:<\/p>\n<p><em>Left Neglected<\/em> by Lisa Genova<\/p>\n<p><em>Faith: A Novel<\/em> by Jennifer Haigh<\/p>\n<p><em>Dancing on Broken Glass<\/em> by Ka Hancock<\/p>\n<p><em>The Might Have Been\u00a0<\/em>by Joe Schuster<\/p>\n<p><em>Calico Joe<\/em> by John Grisham<\/p>\n<p><em>Defending Jacob<\/em> by William Landay<\/p>\n<p><em>Anna Karenina<\/em> by Leo Tolstoy &#8211; Meh. I felt as though I had to read this one, you know? It&#8217;s one of those books. Didn&#8217;t like it, didn&#8217;t hate it. Glad I got through it, but wouldn&#8217;t want to do it again.<\/p>\n<p>Can&#8217;t wait to see what the summer e-Reader will hold!<\/p>\n<p><strong>February, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post above was written at the beginning of summer and never completed as I hoped to add thumbnail shots of each book about which I wrote. That perfectionistic desire is gone, so here is an update of the books that occupied my time over the summer and throughout autumn:<\/p>\n<p><em>Insurgent<\/em> and <em>Divergent<\/em> by Veronica Roth &#8211; This fabulous YA trilogy will conclude when the author releases the final book in the series (currently untitled) this fall.<\/p>\n<p><em>Gone Girl\u00a0<\/em>by Gillian Flynn<\/p>\n<p><em>Still Alice<\/em> by Lisa Genova<\/p>\n<p><em>The Age of Miracles: A Novel\u00a0<\/em> by Karen Thompson Walker<\/p>\n<p><em>The Fallen Angel: A Novel (Gabriel Allon)<\/em> by Daniel Silva<\/p>\n<p><em>Freeman<\/em> by Leonard Pitts &#8211; Loved this story.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Prophet<\/em> by Michael Koryta<\/p>\n<p><em>The Light Between Oceans\u00a0<\/em> by ML Stedman<\/p>\n<p><em>The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel\u00a0<\/em>by Rachel Joyce &#8211; Beautifully written!<\/p>\n<p><em>The Absolutist<\/em> by John Boyne<\/p>\n<p><em>Love Anthony<\/em> by Lisa Genova &#8211; This book create visuals that helps one see the world through the eyes of an autistic child.<\/p>\n<p><em>One Last Strike: Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season\u00a0<\/em>by Tony LaRussa<\/p>\n<p><em>Beautiful Ruins<\/em> by Jess Walter<\/p>\n<p><em>Tell the Wolves I&#8217;m Home: A Novel\u00a0<\/em>by Carol Rifka Brunt &#8211; A great read&#8211;highly recommended.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Secret Keeper<\/em> by Kate Morton<\/p>\n<p><em>The End of Your Life Book Club\u00a0<\/em>by Will Schwalbe &#8211; Fabulous!<\/p>\n<p><em>The Sense of an Ending<\/em> by Julian Barnes<\/p>\n<p><em>Crossing to Safety\u00a0<\/em> by William Stegner &#8211; I LOVE this book.<\/p>\n<p><em>Vanished: A Novel<\/em> by Irene Hannon &#8211; A pleasant book that takes place in St. Louis.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Good House\u00a0<\/em>by Ann Leary<\/p>\n<p><em>Where&#8217;d You Go Bernadette: A Novel\u00a0<\/em> by Maria Semple<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and various chick lit books I read to keep up with my Mom. She tends to enjoy books written by authors such as Kristin Hannah, Nicholas Sparks, Dorthea Benton Frank and Mary Alice Monroe. They are great treadmill stories.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June, 2012 Isn&#8217;t this supposed to be a slower time of the year for educators? I&#8217;m not feeling it. Wonderful, joyful, and miraculous family happenings have been filling each day, so it&#8217;s all good. While rocking babies and playing with toddlers I&#8217;ve gotten through many great books this spring. Here are the highlights: Mechanically Inclined [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-talk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1080"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1111,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080\/revisions\/1111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanahaswrinkles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}