Summer Reading

Once again, it’s Ivy and I holding down the fort. We woke early. Actually, she got up after my alarm went off and I followed her out of the room. I could hear her whimpering as I quietly came down the stairs and turned toward the kitchen to start the coffee. I let her outside, where she seemed very interested in the sprinkler system and wanted to sniff around the yard. I stood and watched from the deck and looked out on the lake. I realized that visits from eagles were probably over if I had a dog in the yard but, I’d rather have Ivy.  Last night, before bedtime, the kids asked if I would wake them early, so they go running with the ‘running club’ this morning and I’ll be breaking our solitude shortly. Meanwhile, Ivy lies curled up on her pad sleeping, peacefully.

Yesterday was a lazy day. I did not accomplish much other than a good afternoon nap, reading, and painting the mailbox post bucket. It was Beth’s first full day at the cottage and it was great to sleep in, both of us are tired from travelling and being away from home. I had forgotten to reset my watch and woke thinking it was only eight, when it was really nine. I very rarely wake that late and felt guilty, well almost.

Every summer I pick a few books to read over break. I have a large pile to choose from and I have been trying to read adolescent literature and have read my way through several books this summer. Last weekend, I finished reading Suzanne Collins’s book, The Hunger Games. It started slowly and eventually I couldn’t put it down. I would like to read the second and third books before summer ends. The series is wildly popular with seventh graders and one of the scouts at camp discovered I was reading it, gushed, “I love The Hunger Games, it is my favorite book, I have read it 24 times!” How can you beat that endorsement? It seems the books I have picked up this summer are the first in a series and I don’t have time to read a series through to the end however, I would like to finish the Alex Rider series. I started reading the Alex Rider series during the school year when Angela, my school librarian (LMC director), casually suggested I read one of Anthony Horowitz’s books to my Language Arts classes and I agreed. Horowitz was visiting Naperville as part of the town’s Naperville READS! Literacy program and Angela was hoping to win an author visit. The students developed a campaign to lobby the author (and the judges) to select our school for the visit, and we won! His visit to school was part pep rally and political candidate stump speech, but it filled the gym with energy and I am sure a few of the students who attended it walked away with the idea they, too, could be an author someday. I was hooked after the the first book, Stormbreaker, and I finished the next five in succession; I have the last three books and would like to finish the series before school starts in August. But, yesterday, I was reading a new book, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson. It came up in my Language Arts meeting Tuesday and I picked it up along with a couple of other books to add to my growing reading pile. It’s an easy read and it’s about a kid who decides he is going to break all of the rules in school handbook before the end of the year. We are planning to read it aloud as a grade level this fall and it might lead to some interesting class discussions. When I am finished, I’ll pass it on to William with a recommendation. I’ll let you know how that goes.

often the best part of the morning are the views - morning light illuminates the other side of the lake

The kids played with their friends in the evening leaving Beth and I time to enjoy a quiet dinner together on the deck, though with Ivy begging it was almost like having the kids with us. William joined us late and we enjoyed a good laugh with William. When he finished he was gone. I cleaned up the kitchen and walked down the lake to collect the kids and bring them home for the night. There was talk of a running club in the morning and I mentioned that they needed a solid good night’s sleep before running in the morning and I eventually coaxed them home. It took even more coaxing for showers, but it was a good thing.

Earlier, I tried to get the kids up and I got the snooze alarm, come back in five minutes. They are up and out with the running club, Beth is out garage sale-ing, and Ivy and I are at home, together. I have a few jobs planned for the day, but first, while it is quiet, I am going to curl up and read that book. Today is gonna be great day. Making the Days Count, one book at a time. What book are you reading this summer? Are you enjoying it?    

2 thoughts on “Summer Reading

  1. I had to take U.S. History (from the time before Columbus through the Reconstruction), this past Spring semester. I used Howard Zinn’s, “A People’s HIstory of the United States” as the “devil’s advocate” to my textbook. It helped a lot with my “comparing essays.” I’ve been trying to finish it, but not reading it in chapter order…just reading the chapters when things jump into my head (Vietnam War, The Seventies, etc).
    I get bored easily, reading the same thing, so I’m also reading The Rebel (Albert Camus), Ten theories of Human Nature (Stevenson & Haberman), and A World of Ideas (Lee A. Jacobus) – the last 2 being my English textbooks that were not completely used during those semesters, and contain many, many essays from many, many different people.
    In answer to your question…Yes, I am enjoying them.
    Glad your family is back together to spend the rest of the summer together…will grandma and grandpa be coming?

    1. Sounds like you have a lot to read! Grandma is still in rehab and will need to work hard we’re encouraging them, by phone, letter, and postcard. Tomorrow is her bd! No number for the blog. Oh my!

      I finished my book yesterday, after a power nap. I am on to a new one – Catching Fire book 2 of Hunger Games trilogy. I get bored easily, too and I have several books I’ve ‘been reading’ on the side table at home for years – most notably a Lincoln biography and 1776 the story of our founding published a few years back. But lately, I have been focusing on reading kid books so I have an idea what they are reading. WOW!

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