17: The Maze Runner

James Dashner is such a good writer!  When I began the novel The Maze Runner, I found myself annotating...and annotating...then thinking, I have to take this back to the classroom and show my students!  That's what I did, using the novel's sentences as examples of compound-complex sentences using semi-colons, absolute, participial, and appositive phrases, and parallel structure...all that we had been discussing in class   

Chosen by the students as our second novel for our high school book club, this book was one that I had meant to read for several years, remembering other teacher friends talking about how well-liked it was when first published.  This one was chosen also because we all wanted to read it before seeing it on the big screen in August. 

Main character Thomas awakes in an elevator in a world of boys who have arrived in this different environment in the same manner, all with most of their memories wiped clean, to a world in which the only escape, although no one has done so successfully, is through the maze outside the compound.   

Dashner creates an interesting mix of characters, only one of which is female.  Awry with emotions due to the survival nature of the novel, the characters are presented in extreme situations, exuding many strong emotions.    Never boring, the author brings these characters alive through the many conflicts presented throughout. 

 I so enjoyed discussing this novel with several students, two of whom checked out a copy the novel the day we discussed the above lesson.  Cool!  AND we read the novel BEFORE the book goes to the big screen in August.

16: A Year on Ladybug Farm

Love the Ladybug Farm series...maybe even more so the second time around!

I joined our local bookstore's book club at the beginning of the year and volunteered to take a month when a slot came open.  Knowing these ladies as I had come to know them, I just knew they would love this series...and they did!

One of the questions I asked the ladies was which main character from A Year on Ladybug Farm did they most resemble?  I am Bridget, for I love to cook.  Interestingly, among our group, each main character was represented...there were Cici's who love to work outside and are the "handy-woman," and Lindsey's were present, the artistic ones, loving to create and restore (both objects and humans).  What a great way to learn more about each other!

This novel relates a year's adventure of three 50+ women who purchase a farm in Virginia, leaving their years in Baltimore, Maryland, behind...they go from being newbies to this community to a valuable part.  They go from three living in the farmhouse to six.  They simply grow.

Author Donna Ball creates characters that speak to you...a mix of Golden Girls, Designing Women, and Steel Magnolias...you become immersed in their lives and cannot wait to pick up the next in the series that now includes five novels.

Enjoy!

15: Walking on Water

Sadly, this novel concludes Richard Paul Evans' The Walk series.  I know you can only walk so far until you come to the end of your journey, but doesn't another walk just begin then?  Right.  That's the novel I hope Evans' writes next!

In Walking on Water,  main character Alan faces adversities, conquers the past, and loses more family...then gains much.

From the first novel, we learn of his loss:  the loss of his wife, his business, his hope.  From that loss comes the decision to walk from one point of the United States:  from Seattle, Washington, to Key West, Florida, where he finds hope again.  Along the way, he meets many special people, resulting in his own growth and expansion of self.

In this novel, Alan has to fly back home when he learns his father has had a heart attack.  While there, he discovers a book that his father has compiled of their family history, learning then of a past that he knew little of concerning his father.  During this time, Alan also realizes that love may be his again as he accepts that true love does bless people more than once in life.

I recommend this series often for its inspiring story for both female and male readers alike, for I have had several male students become interested and read this series, also.  Just this week, I recommended this series to my book club.  When one of the women suggested that we wait on place it one of next year's reading slots, I replied, "No.  You cannot wait that long to start this series."

No, you should not wait long to read this series, either.  Enjoy!

14: The Chosen One

Hannah asked, "Mrs. Gillmore, if I find you a copy of this book, would you read it with me?"

Me:  "Yes."  (Inwardly thinking, "How will I find time to read another book right now?"

In five minutes, back she walks in, having borrowed another copy of the novel The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams.  Soooo...I picked it up and read a few pages.  Then, I kept reading until I had finished the novel.

A fast read, a young adult read, this one captured my attention as it was told through the eyes of 13-year-old young lady who has been chosen for marriage...to her sixty-year-old uncle who already has six wives as ordered by their leader the Prophet.

Up close and personal, this narrative takes the reader into a world alien to most of us:  of dictatorial decrees, of large and growing families, of life-changing decisions, and or rites of passages that should remain alien to us.  Kyra has to make decisions that affect the well-being of just not herself but of also her family...and the librarian that brings books-on-wheels each Wednesday.  The literary lover in me has to appreciate that books play a part in her freedom...yes!

This book reminded me autobiography I read in 2009 entitle Escape by Carolyn Jessup (review here).  These books remind me again how blessed I am to have the God-blessed marriage I do.  Yes.

Several days later, Hannah asked if I had read the novel.  I so appreciated the conversation that followed...her anger, her dismay...her willingness to pause in her busy life and chat about a situation that resulted in our expressing our appreciation for the lives we lead.  AND...isn't it just inspiring to have a young adult encouraging an adult to read?  Yes!

Happy reading!

Summer Reading List: A Southern Perspective

Looking for interesting books to read this summer?

1. Here's a link to a list a friend just posted on Facebook:  Deep South Magazine.  Some of these look very interesting...only a few have I read.
2. This one is for Women's Bible Cafe.  The group meets the last week of the month to discuss the chosen reads, both fiction and non-fiction.  Hoping to read two of these.
3. This one I just happened across...Talks with Teachers...and joined their June read of Laurie Halse Anderson's the The Impossible Knife of Memory.  Interesting...

What lists have you considered this summer?