Starter Vegetable Gardens

Well this blog post is about gardening books. For some reason I have decided to put in a vegetable garden this year. So, for me, this means an extensive search for the best gardening books and a trip to Barnes and Noble to purchase all of the "best" books on gardening and if you know me then you know this also means a new cookbook. The gardening books that I selected include The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, The Vegetable Gardener's Container Garden, and Starter Vegetable Gardens. The cookbook is Around My French Table. Wish me luck.

The Hunger Games

Many of us have read or are reading The Hunger Games. Check out this post by Frank Baker, media literacy guru.When reading The Hunger Games, what were you thinking about? Politics? The Media? or Who will Katniss choose?

goodreads

If you ever wonder "What should I read next?" try joining goodreads. goodreads is a site that allows you to keep up with what you have read, are reading, and hope to read soon. It also allows you to share your recommendations and read the reviews of books by other members of the goodreads community. Many people you know may already be on goodreads. Take a look!

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

As I mentioned in an earlier post we are reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand next. We are enjoying our book club so much we decided to meet in April instead of waiting until May. Unbroken was written by the same author as Seabiscuit both books are nonfiction works which document how humans and animals can prevail against great diversity. During our book club meeting we also discussed the movie, 50/50 a movie where a young man with a very rare form of cancer, fights this cancer with the help of his family, friends, and his therapist. I sometimes wonder why humans want to read about the suffering of others, would we not be better off "thinking happy thoughts?" I just got back from seeing The Hunger Games a movie based on the book by Suzanne Collins. Again, this deals with humans facing great diversity. Are we obsessed with reading and watching tragedies?

Chris Crutcher

I had the great honor of seeing and listening to Chris Crutcher, one of the most banned authors in SC, at the South Carolina Association of School Librarians Conference recently. I mentioned some of this books in my Teacher as Readers book club meeting this week. Here is the link to his webisite Take a look. His books target the teen audience.

Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

Our teacher's book club met today to discuss Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur. All attendees agreed that the book was wonderful. Several teachers commented that they "cried" through the second half of the book. Others expressed sympathy for Aubrey while others could understand her mother's breakdown. One teacher commented that only the members of the book club who were not mothers sympathized with Aubrey's mother. Most agreed that Aubrey's decision at the end of the book was the right one. What made Love, Aubrey touch our hearts? What would we do when faced with this kind of tragedy? Would be like Aubrey, her grandmother or her mother? How can we use what we learned about this book in our own lives? Good books make a person think and Love, Aubrey was a great book.

Due to the excitement about the books that we are reading, we have agreed to move up our next meeting to April 11, instead of waiting until May. We will read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand next.