Well, I promised a book review. It's of a teenage romance novel that takes place in a futuristic dystopia; sadly, I haven't finished it yet.
I'm also a day late, but lucky for me, occasionally tardiness does have it benefits. Most of this post is based on some VERY interesting information I came across in a Review-Journal that was laying around in the auto shop. This "news" is actually about a week old. Anyone who watches the nightly news is already informed of these things, all of which blew my tired little car-problem-addled mind.
First of all, the Moapa band of Southern Paiutes has made a deal with the city of Los Angeles to let them rent land for a solar farm. This means that the Paiutes will be selling solar power to L.A. as early as 2016. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can read about it here. This is momentous. Did I already use the word momentous? Somebody besides me must have read Suzanne Weyn's teenage novel, Empty.
REVISION!!!
I nearly forgot about this video featuring my Wittenberg sorority sister's daughter and her classmates.
Secondly (that's right, there's more), MEXICO has decided to rent Lake Mead for water storage and to therefore GIVE UP part of its rights to the Colorado River! WHAT??? This long but super-delicious story includes a MAP (map! map!) of the water allotments for the seven areas that split the water from the Colorado for hydration and power. *drool* The agreement is only good for five years, but it's a major step toward fairer use of what is arguably the planet's most important resource. At least, it's the planet's most important resource when you live in the desert.
AND THEN!
Finally...the selfsame issue of the RJ handed me the following transition, which otherwise could have been horribly awkward, on a silver platter with this opinion piece about the Twinkie. Yeah, yeah. But this opinion piece is actually awesome. My favorite part is: "Flags in the schoolyards of childhood memory immediately were lowered to half-staff." Well said, John L. Smith. Well said.
The day of the 2012 Hostess debacle or the next day, Sue Phipps linked this video clip on facebook. It's from Zombieland, a movie I had never seen. Sue, and her sister Kristy, spoke so highly of Zombieland at the delicious Thanksgiving dinner that they cooked, that I just had to see it. I now own it, love it, will keep it forever and HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend it if, like me, you are late to the party.
Twinkies are a recurring theme in Zombieland.
I had to stop on my way to the movie clip to watch a Miles Jai fanmail video. Beware profanity. We love Miles Jai.
So, that's that. Next time, All These Things I've Done, which I read about on the now-defunct but still archived Book Envy blog. The fact that the blog is archived means that I'm late once again when it comes to reading this novel. I think I'll skip tomorrow, my regular updating day, and then return you to your regularly-scheduled Apocalypse Blog next week.
Showing posts with label Book Envy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Envy. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?
This title, made famous by several characters on the Simpsons through the years, indicates that this post is dedicated to those readers of mine who are parents.
I'm not a parent myself, but as a teacher I have long been a reader and fan of juvenile fiction, as you know because I frequently link to HydroJen's Book Envy blog. The books that Jen reviews are for teenagers, as is the one that I'll talk about later. But first, in honor of my friend Beth's facebook posting asking for reading ideas that are appropriate for a younger audience...I would like to introduce you to Lauren Tarshis. This author writes a book series called, "I Survived..." [insert famous historical event like the Shark Attacks of 1916, the Sinking of the Titanic 1912, and the San Francisco Earthquake 1906, where I inserted the elipses.]
Conveniently, I have bracketed the three books that I personally read. My grown-up self is able to get through an entire Lauren Tarshis historical adventure novel in about half an hour. So far, in these three books, the hero characters have all been boys. (Hmm. That may decrease the interest factor for my friend Beth.) In fact, it rather struck me that in the Earthquake book, there were no women at all in the story.
In each of the books, the hero finds himself in the middle of a major historical event that ended some lives, but the hero comes out okay. What I enjoy about the books is the detail they include, and the fact that the hero holds on when he is close to losing hope, thanks to memories of loved ones and the encouragement offered by family.
The lexile score for the Lauren Tarshis books is about 610, marketed to ages 7-11. The lexile score for Empty by Suzanne Weyn is 790. The website suggests it for readers ages 12 to 100!
The concept behind Empty, which I mentioned in my The Walls Came Tumbling Down post, is that the world oil supply has been depleted. Teenage protagonists, both male and female, deal with a world at the outset of disaster. I would summarize the main point of this book as, "We've known forever that we would run out of this non-renewable resource. So why didn't anybody do anything about it?" I think that's a valid question posed at an appropriate time (the book was published just this month). I also LOVE the ending, but I refuse to be a plot-ruiner. Please consider my hyperlink to the book's amazon.com page a strong endorsement of the idea that this book should find its way to your shelf.
For the record, I and Mrs. Lovejoy are not the only ones asking our famous question. The social media informs me that National Geographic Education has been pondering it, as well. So, put the "When was the last time you got lost?" article in your #1 Essential: Navigation file.
I'm not a parent myself, but as a teacher I have long been a reader and fan of juvenile fiction, as you know because I frequently link to HydroJen's Book Envy blog. The books that Jen reviews are for teenagers, as is the one that I'll talk about later. But first, in honor of my friend Beth's facebook posting asking for reading ideas that are appropriate for a younger audience...I would like to introduce you to Lauren Tarshis. This author writes a book series called, "I Survived..." [insert famous historical event like the Shark Attacks of 1916, the Sinking of the Titanic 1912, and the San Francisco Earthquake 1906, where I inserted the elipses.]
Conveniently, I have bracketed the three books that I personally read. My grown-up self is able to get through an entire Lauren Tarshis historical adventure novel in about half an hour. So far, in these three books, the hero characters have all been boys. (Hmm. That may decrease the interest factor for my friend Beth.) In fact, it rather struck me that in the Earthquake book, there were no women at all in the story.
In each of the books, the hero finds himself in the middle of a major historical event that ended some lives, but the hero comes out okay. What I enjoy about the books is the detail they include, and the fact that the hero holds on when he is close to losing hope, thanks to memories of loved ones and the encouragement offered by family.
The lexile score for the Lauren Tarshis books is about 610, marketed to ages 7-11. The lexile score for Empty by Suzanne Weyn is 790. The website suggests it for readers ages 12 to 100!
The concept behind Empty, which I mentioned in my The Walls Came Tumbling Down post, is that the world oil supply has been depleted. Teenage protagonists, both male and female, deal with a world at the outset of disaster. I would summarize the main point of this book as, "We've known forever that we would run out of this non-renewable resource. So why didn't anybody do anything about it?" I think that's a valid question posed at an appropriate time (the book was published just this month). I also LOVE the ending, but I refuse to be a plot-ruiner. Please consider my hyperlink to the book's amazon.com page a strong endorsement of the idea that this book should find its way to your shelf.
For the record, I and Mrs. Lovejoy are not the only ones asking our famous question. The social media informs me that National Geographic Education has been pondering it, as well. So, put the "When was the last time you got lost?" article in your #1 Essential: Navigation file.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Lite Reading
As you know, I am busy reading Independence Days and How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It. The first is about food storage and preservation, and the second is about which guns to buy to stock your arsenal and how we should all invest in Pakistani medical kits, plenty of extra birth control, heirloom seeds and gold. SO I'll keep reading these things and reporting on them if there's anything of interest to a general readership.
In the meantime, in response to numerous recent requests on facebook about what to read, I will offer a list for myself and others. Surprisingly, I am a slow reader in my old age. It should not be surprising that most of the information I find useful in preparing for a possible catastrophe comes from history. I was thrilled with Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm. From this read, we can learn not to squabble pretending we know more than someone who could actually help us. We can also learn not to put off projects that we know need to be done "someday," and not to ignore warnings of imminent doom. I recommend it. Like the other of Larson's books that I have read, Devil in the White City, it starts out slow but pays off if you stick with it. The last line makes the whole read worth it.
Lately, I haven't finished anything else of note since the nice post-apocalypse utopia in After the Fall, which I read during Nevada Day weekend. Really, the only post-apocalypse aspect of After the Fall is its story of wanting to get back to your family, and how people who know how to do things can work together to accomplish good. Not for consumption by people who don't want to read about a lesbian main character.
Before that, it was summertime and I was reading Divergent (shout out to HydroJen's Book Envy blog!), The Urban Homestead and a couple of books about the Salem witch trials. I suppose it was those books that got me interested in thinking about building a skill set for a different economy. Which you may have noticed I'm not building. I'm just thinking about it.
Of course you're already familiar with the now-classic The Hunger Games, which teaches us how to prioritize in a pinch.
Other than that, books upcoming on my reading list are more by James Wesley Rawles: Patriots, and of course Alas, Babylon (recommended by Miss Gokey, whose name nearly escaped this post...). If I think of anything else useful, I will update. Until then, may as well practice reading like in the old days, from pages and not from a screen. But don't do that for too long, or I'll lose my loyal readers! Hahaha.
In the meantime, in response to numerous recent requests on facebook about what to read, I will offer a list for myself and others. Surprisingly, I am a slow reader in my old age. It should not be surprising that most of the information I find useful in preparing for a possible catastrophe comes from history. I was thrilled with Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm. From this read, we can learn not to squabble pretending we know more than someone who could actually help us. We can also learn not to put off projects that we know need to be done "someday," and not to ignore warnings of imminent doom. I recommend it. Like the other of Larson's books that I have read, Devil in the White City, it starts out slow but pays off if you stick with it. The last line makes the whole read worth it.
Lately, I haven't finished anything else of note since the nice post-apocalypse utopia in After the Fall, which I read during Nevada Day weekend. Really, the only post-apocalypse aspect of After the Fall is its story of wanting to get back to your family, and how people who know how to do things can work together to accomplish good. Not for consumption by people who don't want to read about a lesbian main character.
Before that, it was summertime and I was reading Divergent (shout out to HydroJen's Book Envy blog!), The Urban Homestead and a couple of books about the Salem witch trials. I suppose it was those books that got me interested in thinking about building a skill set for a different economy. Which you may have noticed I'm not building. I'm just thinking about it.
Of course you're already familiar with the now-classic The Hunger Games, which teaches us how to prioritize in a pinch.
Other than that, books upcoming on my reading list are more by James Wesley Rawles: Patriots, and of course Alas, Babylon (recommended by Miss Gokey, whose name nearly escaped this post...). If I think of anything else useful, I will update. Until then, may as well practice reading like in the old days, from pages and not from a screen. But don't do that for too long, or I'll lose my loyal readers! Hahaha.
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