remarkable creatures

Friday Finds—October 14, 2011

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Dana

I found a few interesting looking books this week. Also, I have been listening to lots of great new-to-me music on Spotify. I am quickly becoming a huge Spotify fan.

First the nonfiction:

[amazon_image id=”0674048563″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Keats Brothers: The Life of John and George[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0804841764″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]A Tea Reader: Living Life One Cup at a Time[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”160606083X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Books: A Living History[/amazon_image]

I think the approach the Keats book is taking is an interesting one. I don’t recall much being published about Keats’s brother who emigrated to America. I don’t know what it is, but when the weather cools, I just become sort of obsessed with tea, and there are several tea-related books on my to-read list. Doesn’t that book about the history of books look good?

Some fiction:

[amazon_image id=”0771084188″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Curiosity[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1565126297″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]When She Woke[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1402258585″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Rose Garden[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0771084188″ target=”_blank” ]Curiosity[/amazon_link] by Joan Thomas is about Mary Anning, who was a hero of mine when I was a girl: I loved fossils. You might also be interested in Tracy Chevalier’s book about Mary Anning, [amazon_link id=”0452296722″ target=”_blank” ]Remarkable Creatures[/amazon_link] (review). I won [amazon_link id=”1565126297″ target=”_blank” ]When She Woke[/amazon_link] by Hillary Jordan from a Goodreads giveaway. It looks intriguing, and I’ve seen some reviews. I think I know what to expect: this one has an agenda. I so enjoyed Susanna Kearsley’s [amazon_link id=”1402241372″ target=”_blank” ]The Winter Sea[/amazon_link] (review), so I’m looking forward to [amazon_link id=”1402258585″ target=”_blank” ]The Rose Garden[/amazon_link].

One more book:

[amazon_image id=”1451616880″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” class=”alignleft”]The Time In Between: A Novel[/amazon_image]Here is what interested me in María Deuñas’s [amazon_link id=”1451616880″ target=”_blank” ]The Time in Between[/amazon_link]—this review by Book Him Danno on Goodreads:

“I am going to be honest. I said I would read this book because I think I need to read more women authors and more foreign writers, just to get out of my comfort zone. But when I finally got the book in my hands and read the synopsis I was scared because it was hitting a lot of things I tend to avoid. What will I have in common with a pre WWII seamstress as she deals with love and intrigue in Southern Europe. A dressmaker for goodness sake! But being the dutiful guy that I am I took it to work with me to read on break, to at least make a start. That was a mistake, a big mistake, because

BLOODY HELL THIS BOOK ROCKED!!”

I’m sold.

[amazon_image id=”B0038BBA4I” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” class=”alignright”]Sigh No More[/amazon_image]I want to try to share more music finds on this blog. I try to stay on top of music, but I can be pretty slow sometimes. Spotify is great for helping me discover music because I am not locked into owning a music file I don’t want. A colleague told me a long time ago I needed to check out Mumford & Sons because I’d love them. Finally did. She was right. Not a bad song on [amazon_link id=”B0038BBA4I” target=”_blank” ]Sigh No More[/amazon_link].

So, did you find any good books? Or music?

Friday Finds—September 30, 2011

Birthday Books

Thursday Threads: Where Are You Reading?

Posted on June 15, 2010September 19, 2015 by Dana

When I was a little girl, I loved dinosaurs. It might be I don’t remember things correctly, but I don’t remember dinosaurs being all that cool when I was a kid. Mrs. Jones taught us about the Trachodon in first grade, the first day of our unit on dinosaurs. I was hooked. The first “chapter” book I ever read was called Prehistoric Monsters Did the Strangest Things. As an accurate dinosaur book, it probably wasn’t very good, but I was fascinated by it. The book was part of a series on animals. I remember clearly that the chapter about Mary Anning’s discovery was titled “What Mary Found.” She wore a pink dress and a white mob cap over her blond curls. I was entranced by the idea of finding a real fossil, just like Mary Anning. Many years later, I still remember much of what I learned, and while my fascination with dinosaurs waned with time, I couldn’t resist picking up a novel about Mary Anning.

Remarkable Creatures is the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, women who paved the way for a great deal of scientific discovery in an age when women weren’t even allowed to join the scientific societies that celebrated their discoveries. Mary and Elizabeth come from two very different classes: Mary’s family is poor, working class, while Elizabeth is solidly middle class. Theirs is an unlikely friendship established over their shared fascination with fossils of the remarkable creatures they find on the beach at Lyme Regis. The novel explores their complicated relationship with each other and with the men of science who take credit for their discoveries.

Chevalier brought the setting of Lyme Regis alive, the beaches teeming with fossil ammonites and belemnites. The reader can feel the sea spray and the hard rock holding the fossils fast until they are released by Mary’s skilled hands. Her attention to detail is precise. I could see the layout of Morley Cottage, where the three Philpot sisters lived as well as if I had been there. If you’ve read Girl with a Pearl Earring or Chevalier’s other books, you know she’s a thorough researcher. Chevalier managed to bring these fossil hunters alive for me—they are my kindred spirits. Some of the male characters seem to run together, and I found them hard to distinguish from one another and perhaps not as fully realized, but I think that was most likely Chevalier’s aim.

I am not sure this book qualifies for the Typically British Challenge, as Chevalier is an American living in England and writing about England, but not an English writer herself, so I’ve elected not to count it. I am, however, tagging the post with my Jane Austen tag because the book mentions her and her visit to Lyme Regis as well as Persuasion, which is set there.

Rating:

Review: The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

Review: Shakespeare: The World as Stage, Bill Bryson

Review: Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds

Summer Reading

Posted on May 20, 2010May 20, 2010 by Dana

Summer is rapidly approaching. I have one more week of teaching, one more week of finals, and a couple of days of post-planning, after which my teaching responsibilities for 2009-2010 will have ended. Of course, before you tell me how lucky I am to have two months off (it’s not actually three), don’t forget I am actually not paid for that time. Most teachers are paid for ten months, but have their pay divided among twelve. Also, no teacher—let me rephrase that—no good teacher I know really takes that time off. Most of us usually spend that time planning for the next year, doing professional reading, and taking professional development courses or college courses. I’ll be doing all three. However, more time will also mean more time for reading. Here are the books on my radar (subject to change) for summer reading.

Rebecca Fraser’s The Story of England and Melvyn Bragg’s The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language are on tap as I plan my British Literature and Composition courses. I have also checked out the DVD companion for Bragg’s book from my school library. Both books should help me plan my courses. Terry Jones’s Medieval Lives should add some dimension to studies of Chaucer next year.

In terms of professional reading, I plan to finish some books I’ve started, specifically:

Even if I am not teaching 9th grade next year, which is the grade level at which our grammar instruction is focused, I still think a solid foundation in how to teach grammar in a way that will stick and will make a difference in student writing is a good idea. In addition, I would like to try to read this book:

In this day of easy cut and paste, plagiarism is much easier, and I believe, more tempting than ever before.

Finally, for pleasure reading, I plan to select from the following:

I thoroughly enjoyed Syrie James’s second novel, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, and as a fan of Jane Austen, I look forward to The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. I originally purchased both The Forgotten Garden and The Meaning of Night for potential reading for the last R.I.P. Reading Challenge. My husband is thoroughly enjoying The Meaning of Night, and he highly recommends it.

These first two books will indulge my interest in the Romantic poets. The first book, Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Land, explores the story of Byron’s own contribution to the famous writing challenge that produced Frankenstein and the first vampire novel. Passion: A Novel of the Romantic Poets explores the lives of Byron, the Shelleys, and Keats. As a child, I was extremely interested in dinosaurs and paleontology. Of course I want to read Remarkable Creatures, the first novel I know of written about Mary Anning, who discovered the fossil of an ichthyosaur and two plesiosaurs near her home at Lyme Regis.

The Little Stranger comes highly recommended from our art teacher. Emily’s Ghost promises to be an interesting novel about Emily Brontë: most of the novels about the Brontës either focus on Charlotte or broaden the focus on the Brontës in general. The Dream of Perpetual Motion will be my first steampunk novel.

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Tag: remarkable creatures

Friday Finds—October 14, 2011

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