Ron's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 15 Apr 2025 23:34:11 -0700 60 Ron's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Travelling Cat Chronicles 40961230
An instant international bestseller and indie bestseller, The Travelling Cat Chronicles has charmed readers around the world. With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru's longtime friends. Or so Nana is led to believe...

With his crooked tail—a sign of good fortune—and adventurous spirit, Nana is the perfect companion for the man who took him in as a stray. And as they travel in a silver van across Japan, with its ever-changing scenery and seasons, they will learn the true meaning of courage and gratitude, of loyalty and love.]]>
281 Hiro Arikawa 0735235244 Ron 0 currently-reading, audiobook 4.35 2012 The Travelling Cat Chronicles
author: Hiro Arikawa
name: Ron
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: currently-reading, audiobook
review:

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<![CDATA[The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys, #1)]]> 87976
The Hardy Boys will soon celebrate their 100th anniversary, but they remain the quintessential mystery and detective stories for younger readers. This first one, 'The Tower Mystery,' introduced the action, mystery, and suspense themes. The boys continue to deliver thrills to this day.

It all starts with the boys, Frank and Joe, on their motorcycles delivering important papers to a lawyer in Willowville for their father, Fenton Hardy. He's the well-known private investigator who lives with his family in Bayport. A reckless driver almost forces them over the embankment. It is not long before they find that their friend Chet's yellow jalopy has been stolen, possibly by the same red-haired driver! Stolen loot may be the issue. Later a dying criminal confesses that the loot has been stashed "in the tower" and the Hardy Boys make an astonishing discovery.]]>
214 Franklin W. Dixon 1557091447 Ron 0 currently-reading 3.91 1927 The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys, #1)
author: Franklin W. Dixon
name: Ron
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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When the Moon Hits Your Eye 211004190
It's a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.]]>
326 John Scalzi 0765389096 Ron 5 3.91 2025 When the Moon Hits Your Eye
author: John Scalzi
name: Ron
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves:
review:
I loved this book which had a very unscientific premise (which the author acknowledges). The moon basically turns into cheese. The author then goes through each day after this happens looking at various people and what it might mean to them. If you're looking for some great science in a sci-fi read, go somewhere else. If you're looking for a far fetched sci-for story with some great characters, this is for you.
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<![CDATA[Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944]]> 438930 The classic true story of one child's experiences during the holocaust.

Nine-year-old Piri describes the bewilderment of being a Jewish child during the 1939-1944 German occupation of her hometown (then in Hungary and now in the Ukraine) and relates the ordeal of trying to survive in the ghetto.

Upon the Head of the Goat is the winner of the 1982 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and a 1982 Newbery Honor Book.

“This is a book that should be read by all those interested in the Holocaust and what it did to young and old.� �Isaac Bashevis Singer]]>
213 Aranka Siegal 0374480796 Ron 4 3.94 1981 Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944
author: Aranka Siegal
name: Ron
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: newbery-honor, audiobook, young-adult
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book that I both read and listened to. It is the author's story of growing up in Hungary as a Jew when the Germans were invading her country. As far as a Holocaust books go, it is pretty tame. I think it does a good job of letting you know what was going on more from the viewpoint of a child than an adult.
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Why I Wake Early 71654 96 Mary Oliver 0807068799 Ron 5 poetry 4.41 2004 Why I Wake Early
author: Mary Oliver
name: Ron
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: poetry
review:
This is a small book of poems that are nature related. If you've read Mary Oliver before and liked it, you'll like this as well. If you're looking for a first Mary Oliver book, this one is short and is probably a good start.
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The Prophet 2547 The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.]]>
127 Kahlil Gibran 000100039X Ron 4 4.27 1923 The Prophet
author: Kahlil Gibran
name: Ron
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1923
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:
This book has been showing up on lists of books recommended for me. When a friend sent me a list of books she was getting rid of and this was on the list, I decided to take it and read the book. It is the story of a prophet who is leaving the town and spends his day answering questions on various topics for the people. I know that a lot of people think this book is great. For me, it was ok. I'll admit that I also recently finished The Alchemist which (I believe) is excellent and this is not on the same level (for me).
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<![CDATA[The Inquisitive Christ: 12 Engaging Questions]]> 51206607 Journey to know Jesus more deeply through exploring twelve questions He used to engage the human heart.

Giving God permission to ask questions, one question at a time, is a transformative experience. A careful reading of the gospels shows that Jesus taught Kingdom concepts using the Socratic Method, asking over 100 soul-pursuing questions to listeners who didn't expect this of God. This book shows that each gospel question serves as an intimate invitation for today's readers to engage with the Savior-Who-Asks. Examining the soul's insatiable need for engagement, and the relentless pursuit of God, this book will explore twelve questions asked by Jesus, using biblical background material, personal story, in-depth study prompts, and humor, to enter into the richness of Jesus' desire to reach our hearts.


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288 Cara L.T. Murphy 154603837X Ron 4 church 4.40 The Inquisitive Christ: 12 Engaging Questions
author: Cara L.T. Murphy
name: Ron
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: church
review:
I read this book looking for material for a class centered around questions that Jesus asked. While this book was interesting, it felt more like a devotional read for an individual rather than a read that would work for a class setting. Each chapter ends with some reflection questions.
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The Alchemist 865 197 Paulo Coelho 0061122416 Ron 5 audiobook
2025-04 This was a reread of the book. Somebody mentioned it in book club a couple of months ago and I felt like it deserved reading again. It is still excellent.]]>
3.85 1988 The Alchemist
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Ron
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: audiobook
review:
01-2017 A shepherd has a gypsy and a king tell him to go searching for treasure. This story is his search. It is a quick read, and it is interesting how the author ties in some Biblical perspective on the shepherd's journey.

2025-04 This was a reread of the book. Somebody mentioned it in book club a couple of months ago and I felt like it deserved reading again. It is still excellent.
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<![CDATA[Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Charlie Bucket, #2)]]> 6687 159 Roald Dahl 0142404128 Ron 3 3.69 1972 Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Charlie Bucket, #2)
author: Roald Dahl
name: Ron
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1972
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
review:
This is the sequel to the Chocolate Factory book. While one should expect some crazy things in a Dahl book and especially a Wonka book, this one was too farfetched for me. I just found too many of the incidents not nearly as humorous and more of a labor to get through.
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Memorial Days 212806569 A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey toĚýpeace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofâ€�Horse

Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz � just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy � collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.

After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha’s Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at Lambert’s Cove. But all of this came to an abrupt end when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf.

Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the varied waysĚýthose ofĚýother cultures grieve, such as the people of Australia's First Nations, the Balinese, and the Iranian Shiites, and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony's death.

A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between soulsĚýthat exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life.]]>
224 Geraldine Brooks 059365398X Ron 5 audiobook 4.35 2025 Memorial Days
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Ron
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: audiobook
review:
I both read and listened to this book. The audiobook is read by the author. I'm not sure how I stumbled onto this book. It is the memoir around Brooks' death of her husband. He died away from home. The book alternates chapters between the timeline around his death and the author's visit to Flinders Island a few years later to deal with her grief. The book offers some interesting insights into the grief process.
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The Bletchley Riddle 205064698 This middle grade historical adventure follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother’s death.

Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act�

Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi's Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.

The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother's disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues which unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?]]>
392 Ruta Sepetys 0593527542 Ron 5 audiobook, young-adult 4.12 2024 The Bletchley Riddle
author: Ruta Sepetys
name: Ron
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: audiobook, young-adult
review:
I heard Ruta speak at NTTBF 2025 and decided to move this book up on my to-be-read list. It is the story of a brother and sister (college/high school age) and there work in code breaking during World War 2. There is also some mystery around their mother and what role she may have played in spying and the Nazis. The story is clearly fiction, but introduces a lot of fact and has an note at the end to let you know what is fact and what is fiction.
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<![CDATA[That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America]]> 203579067 Part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of our vicious culture wars. One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,� she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing. Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians-in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and Christian. But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance. Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.]]> 288 Amanda Jones 1639733531 Ron 4 audiobook 3.81 2024 That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America
author: Amanda Jones
name: Ron
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: audiobook
review:
I heard Amanda speak at NTTBF 2025. She gave a quick overview on what is described in more detail in her book which is around the topic of book banning. She also mentions how she showed up at a board meeting to make a comment about the book banning process and her comments were taken out of context. She was then targeted by several people for things she didn't say or believe. The book is interesting and she does a good job as the reader of the audiobook. There is some language in the book.
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The Book of Lost Names 52762903 The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named RĂ©my, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and RĂ©my disappears.

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.]]>
388 Kristin Harmel 1982131896 Ron 0 audiobook
The book has quite a few quotes on books and reading.]]>
4.41 2020 The Book of Lost Names
author: Kristin Harmel
name: Ron
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/02/04
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: audiobook
review:
I both listened and read this book. It is a World War 2 book about the French resistance (one lady in particular) and forging documents to save Jews. The title refers to a book that they use to "code" the names of the children so that they can be found later. The book has some plot twists - some I saw coming, some I didn't.

The book has quite a few quotes on books and reading.
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Annie and the Old One 1289331 44 Miska Miles 0316571202 Ron 4 newbery-honor 3.90 1971 Annie and the Old One
author: Miska Miles
name: Ron
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: newbery-honor
review:
This is a very short Newbery Honor book. It is the story of Annie and her grandmother. Her grandmother realizes that she is at the end of her life and Annie tries to do things to prevent this from happening.
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<![CDATA[Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun: A Newbery Honor Award Winner]]> 103042 or Japanese. The country's people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore Perry and his troops sailed to the Land of the Rising Sun, bringing with them new science and technology, and a new way of life.

NOTE: Blumberg's "Shipwrecked! The True Adventure of a Japanese Boy" is a companion volume.]]>
144 Rhoda Blumberg 0060086254 Ron 3 newbery-honor 3.60 1985 Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun: A Newbery Honor Award Winner
author: Rhoda Blumberg
name: Ron
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: newbery-honor
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book that describes Commodore Perry going to Japan in 1854 to try and set up trade relations between the US and Japan.
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The Hundred Penny Box 616992 47 Sharon Bell Mathis 014240702X Ron 3 newbery-honor 3.86 1975 The Hundred Penny Box
author: Sharon Bell Mathis
name: Ron
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: newbery-honor
review:
This is a short Newbery Honor book. It deals with a family that has brought an aunt from her home to their home to live with them as she goes through dementia. The young boy is enamored with the Aunt and some of the things that she owns. One of them is a hundred penny box which has a penny in it for every year of her life.
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Harris and Me 570633 176 Gary Paulsen 015205880X Ron 5 4.21 1993 Harris and Me
author: Gary Paulsen
name: Ron
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:
I loved this story about a boy who gets removed from his family and sent to live with relatives on the farm. Harris is the son on the farm who is about the same age as the boy. There are quite a bit of shenanigans started by Harris that result in all sorts of humorous problems. Some of the stories were similar to what I did as a kid running around on the farm. The reading level of this book is clearly targeted towards upper elementary/middle school but I'd use caution on handing it to them. The boy is removed from his family because his parents are alcoholics. Harris likes to swear. The boy has some "dourty peectures" that he carries around.
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<![CDATA[Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes]]> 125116554
� Arthur C. Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and #1 New York Times bestselling author


From the author of the international blockbuster, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MONEY, a powerful new tool to unlock one of life’s most challenging puzzles.

Every investment plan under the sun is, at best,Ěýan informed speculation of what may happen in the future, based on a systematic extrapolation from the known past.

Same as Ever reverses the process, inviting us to identify the many things that never, ever change.

With his usual elan, Morgan Housel presents a master class on optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life. Through a sequence of engaging stories and pithy examples, he shows how we can use our newfound grasp of the unchanging to see around corners, not by squinting harder through the uncertain landscape of the future, but by looking backwards, being more broad-sighted, and focusing instead on what is permanently true. ĚýĚý

By doing so, we may betterĚýanticipate the big stuff, andĚýachieve the greatest success, not merely financial comforts, but most importantly, a life well lived.]]>
240 Morgan Housel Ron 4 work 4.13 2023 Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes
author: Morgan Housel
name: Ron
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: work
review:
I've read books by this author before and this one looked interesting. I'd describe it as a book that has you focus on the long term and not getting worried about what's going on in the short term. There are 20 (short) chapters that discuss some of what stays the same over time. I'll share some of my highlights that give more details.
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<![CDATA[Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American]]> 58085229
Growing up living the suburban American dream, young Wajahat devoured comic books (devoid of brown superheroes) and fielded well-intentioned advice from uncles and aunties. ("Become a doctor!") He had turmeric stains under his fingernails, was accident-prone, suffered from OCD, and wore Husky pants, but he was as American as his neighbors, with roots all over the world. Then, while Ali was studying at University of California, Berkeley, 9/11 happened. Muslims replaced communists as America's enemy #1, and he became an accidental spokesman and ambassador of all ordinary, unthreatening things Muslim-y.

Now a middle-aged dad, Ali has become one of the foremost and funniest public intellectuals in America. In Go Back to Where You Came From, he tackles the dangers of Islamophobia, white supremacy, and chocolate hummus, peppering personal stories with astute insights into national security, immigration, and pop culture. In this refreshingly bold, hopeful, and uproarious memoir, Ali offers indispensable lessons for cultivating a more compassionate, inclusive, and delicious America.]]>
272 Wajahat Ali 0393867978 Ron 5 audiobook, racism 4.16 2022 Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
author: Wajahat Ali
name: Ron
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: audiobook, racism
review:
I both listened (read by author) and read this book. It is the author's view on 'being American' if you are an "immigrant." The interesting thing is that he was born and raised in America. His parents are from Pakistan. The book is written as a memoir as the author goes through his life letting you know what things affected him and how he dealt with them. The book does have some bad language (which you might expect when he's quoting people who are racists).
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The Witches of Worm 597489
Jessica has read enough books to know that her cat Worm must be a witch’s cat. He’s cast a spell on her, but to whom can she turn? After all, no one will believe that Worm has bewitched her . . . or worse,]]>
183 Zilpha Keatley Snyder 0440497272 Ron 3 newbery-honor 3.70 1972 The Witches of Worm
author: Zilpha Keatley Snyder
name: Ron
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1972
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: newbery-honor
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book that leans towards horror. A young girl finds a kitten, nurses it back to life, and then starts to hear it telling her things. I can't believe that it would get much Newbery consideration today.
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All American Boys 25657130 Rashad is absent again today.

That’s the sidewalk graffiti that started it all�

Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next—that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing—the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again…and again…stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing.

And that’s how it started.

And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first Quinn doesn’t tell a soul…He’s not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school—and nation—start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism� and “police brutality.� Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he’s a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be.

Rashad and Quinn—one black, one white, both American—face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn’t die after the civil rights movement. There’s a future at stake, a future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world.

Cuz that’s how it can end.]]>
316 Jason Reynolds 1481463330 Ron 5 audiobook, racism
Because you actually know what is going on, it is interesting to see other characters try to rationalize what is happening (and wonder if you aren't doing it yourself when you only see a partial story).]]>
4.29 2015 All American Boys
author: Jason Reynolds
name: Ron
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: audiobook, racism
review:
I both listened and read this book. I got to hear Jason Reynolds speak at NTTBF 2025. I had seen this book before but never got around to reading it. He said some things about it that made me think I should read it. It is told in alternating chapters by two characters. One character is a model student who happens to be black and gets beat up by a cop for 'attempted robbery.' The second character is a white kid who is starting to have some doubts about what is going on since he actually knows the cop that did the beating.

Because you actually know what is going on, it is interesting to see other characters try to rationalize what is happening (and wonder if you aren't doing it yourself when you only see a partial story).
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<![CDATA[Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World]]> 194803864
Contrary to what your friends may have grumbled in high school math class, trigonometry is perhaps the most essential concept humans have ever devised. The simple yet versatile triangle allows us to map the world, launch ships into space, and send cat gifs. Trigonometry also makes it possible to play the piano so that it sounds like a human voice and was crucial to prosecuting the balloon trip company that caused a pig stampede.

In Love Triangle ,ĚýMatt Parker shares plenty of relevant and irreverent reasons we should all show a lot more love for the triangles in our lives. He tells extraordinary and entertaining stories of mathematicians, philosophers, and engineers—starting with Pythagoras—who dared to take triangles seriously. Humans have been using triangles for thousands of years to measure the earth and build structures. But trigonometry also underpins all modern data technology and is the essential component of GPS—without triangles, we’d still be at the gas station asking for directions.

Parker convincingly makes the case that trigonometry is vital, fun, and deeply useful. Its rules are the hidden pattern beneath the surface of just about everything we encounter, and we wouldn’t exist without them. Luckily, it’s never too late to learn!]]>
352 Matt Parker 0593418107 Ron 4 3.96 2024 Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World
author: Matt Parker
name: Ron
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
review:
This is a book that talks about triangle and trigonometry and where they show up in the world. The author has a sense of humor and it shows up in the book. If you aren't a math person, I'm not sure that you'd appreciate this book as much as a math person.
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<![CDATA[Bluey 5-Minute Stories: 6 Stories in 1 Book? Hooray!]]> 60149576
Cheese and crackers! This treasury includes 6 stories of Bluey and Bingo and their amazing adventures with their friends and family! It's the perfect read for bedtime, when you're on-the-go, and anytime in-between. This book includes the stories The Pool, Bingo, Charades, Hammerbarn, Typewriter, and Baby Race.]]>
160 0593521900 Ron 5 read-aloud 4.61 Bluey 5-Minute Stories: 6 Stories in 1 Book? Hooray!
author: Penguin Young Readers Licenses
name: Ron
average rating: 4.61
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: read-aloud
review:
This is a collection of Bluey stories that would make a great read-aloud for a little one. I thought it might be something to get the grandson not realizing that his parents had already got it for him.
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<![CDATA[The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend]]> 18295821
New York Times bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Dan Santat combines classic storytelling with breathtaking art, creating an unforgettable tale about friendship, imagination, and the courage to find one's place in the world.]]>
40 Dan Santat 0316199982 Ron 5 read-aloud 4.26 2014 The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
author: Dan Santat
name: Ron
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: read-aloud
review:
I heard the author speak at the NTTB 2025. There was a casual reference to this book which won a Caldecott Medal. Since these are picture books and quick reads, I got it from the library to read. It is the story of Beekle who is an imaginary friend who hasn't been imagined yet. I found the story cute.
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<![CDATA[Enchantress from the Stars (Elana, #1)]]> 37534694


Critical acclaim for Enchantress from the Stars:
A Newbery Honor Book
A Junior Library Guild selection
An ALA Notable pick
Winner of the Phoenix Award
Finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year Award]]>
368 Sylvia Engdahl 1681196131 Ron 5 3.91 1970 Enchantress from the Stars (Elana, #1)
author: Sylvia Engdahl
name: Ron
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: audiobook, newbery-honor, young-adult
review:
I both listened and read this book. It is a Newbery Honor book from the early 1970s, and I loved it. It has a sci-fi plot which appealed to me. It is the story of 3 peoples on a planet. There are the natives that live there. There are the people from the stars who are trying to colonize it. The third group is the galactic empire that watches over planets and tries to keep them from interfering with others until they are mature enough to know better. It definitely had a Star Trek Prime Directive feel. My copy had an intro by Lois Lowry which was also excellent. The book takes place on the 3rd planet around a yellow sun which is also where the other 2 peoples come from. It is deliberately vague about whether it is in the past or future and whether or not any of the peoples might be from earth which only makes the story better.
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<![CDATA[How to Retire: 20 lessons for a happy, successful, and wealthy retirement]]> 202922751
To answer that question, longtime Morningstar columnist and podcaster Christine Benz asked 20 retirement thought leaders to go deep on a single lesson that they believe contributes to success in retirement.

These lessons range from nitty gritty financial matters to quality-of-life considerations that help pre-retirees and retirees maximize their “time on earth� allocations.

On the financial side of the ledger, the book delves into knowing your retirement income style (Wade Pfau), understanding how your spending might change in retirement (David Blanchett), and organizing your portfolio to support in-retirement cash flows (William Bernstein).

Other interviews probe softer but no less important considerations, such as how to spend in order to optimize happiness (Ramit Sethi), the value of burnishing relationships later in life (Laura Carstensen), and living life so that you have no regrets in the end (Jordan Grumet). These lessons help soon-to-retire and already-retired individuals and their advisors tackle retirement with confidence, wisdom, and a specific plan for maximizing their financial and human capital.]]>
333 Christine Benz 1804090700 Ron 5 economics 4.37 How to Retire: 20 lessons for a happy, successful, and wealthy retirement
author: Christine Benz
name: Ron
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: economics
review:
The author interviews 20 different people to get their perspective on various aspects of retirement. There are discussions around spending, saving, insurance, housing, wills, etc. I've seen various pieces of this before. If you haven't done any kind of thinking about retirement, this book brings it all together. I'd suggest reading this book (or at least pieces of it) by 50.
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<![CDATA[Keeper of the Lost Cities (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #1)]]> 12842828
Everything changes the day she meets Fitz, a mysterious boy who appears out of nowhere and also reads minds. She discovers there’s a place she does belong, and that staying with her family will place her in grave danger. In the blink of an eye, Sophie is forced to leave behind everything and start a new life in a place that is vastly different from anything she has ever known.

Sophie has new rules to learn and new skills to master, and not everyone is thrilled that she has come “home.�
There are secrets buried deep in Sophie’s memory—secrets about who she really is and why she was hidden among humans—that other people desperately want. Would even kill for.

In this page-turning debut, Shannon Messenger creates a riveting story where one girl must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world, before the wrong person finds the answer first.]]>
496 Shannon Messenger 1442445939 Ron 4 young-adult 4.39 2012 Keeper of the Lost Cities (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #1)
author: Shannon Messenger
name: Ron
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: young-adult
review:
I had a 5th grader highly recommend this book. I enjoyed it, but I won't be going on in the series (too many books to read on my list). It is the story of a girl who doesn't quite fit in and eventually find out why. The whole book had a Harry Potter feel to me but not quite as good. I'm not sure where the rest of the series will go....
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<![CDATA[Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water]]> 56140 Cadillac Desert Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West.

Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of an Eden—an Eden that may be only a mirage.]]>
582 Marc Reisner 0140178244 Ron 5 audiobook, economics 4.27 1986 Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
author: Marc Reisner
name: Ron
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: audiobook, economics
review:
This was a book that had quite a bit of history in it around the 'colonization' of the American West and how little water there was to support it. It goes into great deal about the dam building that was done both for irrigation and power. It paints a pretty bleak picture of the politicians around the process and what they did without really thinking about the consequences. You can find better reviews on this book. My advice is to read the first chapter. If you find it interesting, keep going.
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The Box: Uncanny Stories 6376283
"Button, Button," Richard Matheson's chilling tale of greed and temptation, is now the basis of The Box, the new film from the director of Donnie Darko. In addition, this outstanding collection also contains many other unforgettable stories by Matheson, the award-winning author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come.

"The inventive plots and spare but convincing portraits of ordinary men and women caught up in forces beyond their control demonstrate why Stephen King has called Matheson his most significant influence."
--Publishers Weekly]]>
272 Richard Matheson 0765361434 Ron 4 3.40 1970 The Box: Uncanny Stories
author: Richard Matheson
name: Ron
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2010/04/10
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:

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A Bit Much 206101599
At long last, a book of poetry for people who didn’t even know they liked poetry. And they’re in good company: author Lyndsay Rush didn’t know she liked it either. That is, until she embarked on an internet experiment under the Instagram username @MaryOliversDrunkCousin that turned into a body of work that struck a chord with women across the country; thanks to her signature wordplay, witticisms, and—against all odds—wisdom.

With titles like "Shedonism", "Someone to Eat Chips With", "It’s Called Maximalism, Babe", and "Breaking News: Local Women Gets Out of Bed", Rush’s debut collection of poetry uses humor to grapple with the female experience—from questioning whether or not to have children, to roasting the patriarchy, to challenging what it means to "age gracefully"—and each piece delivers gut-punching truths alongside gratifying punchlines. Readers walk away from Lyndsay’s work feeling seen, celebrated, and wholly convinced that joy is an urgent, worthwhile pursuit.

With over 140 convention-bending poems—most of which are never-before-seen—this book is quite literally A Bit Much.]]>
304 Lyndsay Rush 1250323460 Ron 5 poetry 4.44 A Bit Much
author: Lyndsay Rush
name: Ron
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: poetry
review:
This book was recommended as part of my reading group and it is excellent. The author looks at various parts of her life and writes poetry around it. Some are humorous, some are serious, all are enjoyable.
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<![CDATA[Letter from the Birmingham Jail]]> 203899 There is an alternate edition published under ISBN13: 9780241339466.

Martin Luther King, Jr. rarely had time to answer his critics. But on April 16, 1963, he was confined to the Birmingham jail, serving a sentence for participating in civil rights demonstrations. "Alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell," King pondered a letter that fellow clergymen had published urging him to drop his campaign of nonviolent resistance and to leave the battle for racial equality to the courts. In response, King drafted his most extensive and forceful written statement against social injustice - a remarkable essay that focused the world's attention on Birmingham and spurred the famous March on Washington. Bristling with the energy and resonance of his great speeches, Letter from the Birmingham Jail is both a compelling defense of nonviolent demonstration and a rallying cry for an end to social discrimination that is just as powerful today as it was more than twenty years ago.]]>
48 Martin Luther King Jr. 0062509551 Ron 5 audiobook, racism 4.72 1963 Letter from the Birmingham Jail
author: Martin Luther King Jr.
name: Ron
average rating: 4.72
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: audiobook, racism
review:
This is a short read (or listen). It is a letter that MLK wrote while in jail after protesting. He gives some great insights to his (peaceful) protesting and this should be required reading for just about everybody.
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<![CDATA[If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries]]> 558665 56 Judith Viorst 0689707703 Ron 4 elementary, poetry 4.11 1981 If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries
author: Judith Viorst
name: Ron
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: elementary, poetry
review:
This is a small collection of poems that are written from the perspective of a child who is in charge of the world.
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The Amazing Bone 242041


The Amazing Bone is a 1976 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, a 1977 Caldecott Honor Book, and a 1977 Boston Globe - Horn Book Awards Honor Book for Picture Books.]]>
32 William Steig 0374403589 Ron 4 elementary, read-aloud 3.92 1976 The Amazing Bone
author: William Steig
name: Ron
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: elementary, read-aloud
review:
This is a quick read for an adult. It is the story of a small pig that finds a bone that is able to talk. She eventually gets captured by a fox and the bone helps her escape.
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One Big Open Sky 173476164 Three women narrate a perilous wagon journey westward that could set them free—or cost them everything they have—in this intergenerational verse novel that explores the history of the Black homesteader movement.

1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer Lettie may have her head in the stars, but her body is on a covered wagon heading westward. Her father, Thomas, promises that Nebraska will be everything the family needs: an opportunity to claim the independence they’ve strived for over generations on their very own plot of land.
But Thomas� hopes—and mouth—are bigger than his ability to follow through. With few supplies and even less money, the only thing that feels certain is danger.

Right after the war ended/and we were free/we believed/all of us did/that couldn’t nothing hurt us/the way master had when we were slaves/Couldn’t no one tell us/how to live/how to die.

Lettie, her mother, Sylvia, and young teacher Philomena are free from slavery—but bound by poverty, access to opportunity, and patriarchal social structures. Will these women survive the hardships of their journey? And as Thomas� desire for control overpowers his common sense, will they truly be free once they get there?
Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome’s striking verse masterfully portrays an underrepresented historical era. Tackling powerful themes of autonomy and Black self-emancipation, Cline-Ransome offers readers an intimate look into the lives of three women and an expansive portrait of generations striving for their promised freedom.]]>
304 Lesa Cline-Ransome 0823450163 Ron 5 audiobook, newbery-honor 4.13 2024 One Big Open Sky
author: Lesa Cline-Ransome
name: Ron
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: audiobook, newbery-honor
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book that I both read and listened to. It is written in verse and is the story of three women who are leaving the South after the Civil War and moving to Nebraska. The story is very interesting and the pages at the end where the author gives some specific history helps give context to the story.
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<![CDATA[Now and Not Yet: Pressing in When You’re Waiting, Wanting, and Restless for More]]> 180352003 Bestselling author Ruth Chou Simons guides readers who are restless in their current circumstances on a journey of growth, purpose, and pressing in.

Too often, we feel disappointed with our "right now"--our life circumstances, our relationships, our progress, our daily grind. We want to do so many things--good, godly things--but our situations don't allow us to step into them. Are we missing out on our own lives? Why does right now seem so far from where we really long to be?

Bestselling author Ruth Chou Simons reminds us that it's okay to not like the right now we've been given, but we don't have to like it to lean in. InĚýNow and Not Yet, Ruth shows us how to.. .

embrace the biblical truth that someday is made up of thousands of right nows;discern how the difficult parts of our lives are actually a unique gift by discovering five ways to flip the script on a hard season;stop feeling trapped when we are not where we want to be with guided liturgies for what we are facing today; andlive faithfully in the tension between what is and what is not yet.Ěý

Your right now matters. And you can choose to press in and not check out. To know God is at work even when you don't see the progress you're looking for. To start where you are in this very moment. Because he's not through with you yet.]]>
224 Ruth Chou Simons 1400225051 Ron 4 audiobook, church 4.40 2024 Now and Not Yet: Pressing in When You’re Waiting, Wanting, and Restless for More
author: Ruth Chou Simons
name: Ron
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: audiobook, church
review:
This book is clearly a book that will be for some people based on where they are in life and not so much for others. I happen to be an other. The author talks about the restlessness of having to wait in situations when you might rather be doing something else. She quotes quite a bit of scripture and walks you through her life journey.
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Sociopath: A Memoir 176443093
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing� felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.]]>
368 Patric Gagne 166800318X Ron 5 audiobook 3.74 2024 Sociopath: A Memoir
author: Patric Gagne
name: Ron
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: audiobook
review:
I both read and listened (read by author) to this book. The author knew that she "wasn't normal" at an early age and this book gives her journey to figuring out why. She ended up with a diagnosis of sociopathy. She gives details on what it meant to her as a child, dealing with others, building relationships, etc. She eventually ended up with a PhD in psychology and is married and has kids.
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<![CDATA[Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories]]> 25489154 New York Times bestseller Wonder--the book that inspired the Choose Kind movement--and have fallen in love with Auggie Pullman, an ordinary boy with an extraordinary face.

Auggie & Me gives readers a special look at Auggie's world through three new points of view. Previously only available in ebook, now they'll be published all together--complete with an introduction from the author on how she came to write them--in a gorgeous hardcover package!

These stories are an extra peek at Auggie before he started at Beecher Prep and during his first year there. Readers get to see him through the eyes of Julian, the bully; Christopher, Auggie's oldest friend; and Charlotte, Auggie's new friend at school. Together, these three stories are a treasure for readers who don't want to leave Auggie behind when they finish Wonder.]]>
303 R.J. Palacio 1101934859 Ron 5 young-adult Julian is the story from the perspective of the bully.
Pluto is the story from a childhood friend who is at a different school (this probably is a prequel).
Shingaling is the story from the perspective of the girl who was on the welcome team.]]>
4.28 2015 Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories
author: R.J. Palacio
name: Ron
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2015/09/23
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: young-adult
review:
This book isn't quite a sequel. It gives the stories of 3 other people in Auggie's school year from Wonder. I thought the Julian story was far and away the best of the 3. However, all make for a good read and give some additional insights.
Julian is the story from the perspective of the bully.
Pluto is the story from a childhood friend who is at a different school (this probably is a prequel).
Shingaling is the story from the perspective of the girl who was on the welcome team.
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Antiracist Baby 52535437 Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.]]> 24 Ibram X. Kendi 0593110412 Ron 5 read-aloud 4.04 2020 Antiracist Baby
author: Ibram X. Kendi
name: Ron
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/26
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: read-aloud
review:
I picked this book up after seeing Ted Cruz comment on it at the supreme court justice hearings. For starters, this is a board book that is really meant for adults. It is a quick read that gives 9 rules that you (the adult) should live out as you raise your baby. It is designed to make you an anti-racist (a person who is proactive against racism as opposed to neutral). I found it an interesting read and have no idea why Ted Cruz didn't like it....
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The Wrong Way Home 182484333
Fern’s lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch's leader, Dr. Ben. So when Fern’s mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn't believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving.

Suddenly Fern is thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world. At first she thinks only about how to get home. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place—the library, a friend from school, the ocean—and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just...not true.

Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben’s vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?]]>
336 Kate O'Shaughnessy 0593650743 Ron 5 newbery-honor, young-adult 4.34 2024 The Wrong Way Home
author: Kate O'Shaughnessy
name: Ron
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: newbery-honor, young-adult
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book that I had trouble putting down. It is the story of a girl and her mother who flee from a cult and try to rebuild their life. The daughter doesn't understand all of what is going on and wishes to return. It is an interesting read as an adult as the author gives you some insights into what the daughter is thinking and doesn't give you much from the mother's point of view. It would also make for good discussion with a kid about how people get sucked into situations that most people would avoid.
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<![CDATA[Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans]]> 54304028
In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop—it’s built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones.

Maya parents are masters at raising cooperative children. Without resorting to bribes, threats, or chore charts, Maya parents rear loyal helpers by including kids in household tasks from the time they can walk. Inuit parents have developed a remarkably effective approach for teaching children emotional intelligence. When kids cry, hit, or act out, Inuit parents respond with a calm, gentle demeanor that teaches children how to settle themselves down and think before acting. Hadzabe parents are world experts on raising confident, self-driven kids with a simple tool that protects children from stress and anxiety, so common now among American kids.

Not only does Doucleff live with families and observe their techniques firsthand, she also applies them with her own daughter, with striking results. She learns to discipline without yelling. She talks to psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, and sociologists and explains how these strategies can impact children’s mental health and development. Filled with practical takeaways that parents can implement immediately, Hunt, Gather, Parent helps us rethink the ways we relate to our children, and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted for American families.]]>
352 Michaeleen Doucleff 1982149671 Ron 5
I'm actually a grandfather of a 2.5 year old and I found a lot of this interesting. I'm already thinking that I should change some of the ways I interact with my grandson. One example would be to get him involved in more actual work around the house (eg, sweeping the patio, throwing out trash, setting a table) rather than doing it myself.]]>
4.11 2021 Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans
author: Michaeleen Doucleff
name: Ron
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:
I had a parent who has 3 young children recommend this book to me. It is broken up into four sections: TEAM - togetherness, encourage, autonomy, minimal interference. I'm not sure that a review can do this book justice. The author explains each area and gives examples of how they can be implemented. As a parent, I believe you'd need to buy a copy of this book and go back to it regularly.

I'm actually a grandfather of a 2.5 year old and I found a lot of this interesting. I'm already thinking that I should change some of the ways I interact with my grandson. One example would be to get him involved in more actual work around the house (eg, sweeping the patio, throwing out trash, setting a table) rather than doing it myself.
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<![CDATA[Pilgrim Heart: The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life]]> 992046 224 Darryl Tippens 0976779072 Ron 4 church 4.03 2006 Pilgrim Heart: The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life
author: Darryl Tippens
name: Ron
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: church
review:
I'm looking through various church types of books for potential materials for adult education. This book has a list of 15 practices that are described in about 10 pages each. The book is well written and gives some insights on these practices. I consider it more of a reference for a class rather than actual topics for a class.
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<![CDATA[Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow]]> 31138556 Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style—thorough, yet riveting—famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda.

What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo DeusĚýexplores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This isĚýHomo Deus.

With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.

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450 Yuval Noah Harari Ron 2 audiobook 4.19 2015 Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Ron
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: audiobook
review:
I both listened and read this book, and for me, it was a real beating. I have read the author before and I understand his belief in there being no God. It seemed like he harped on this more and that he lifted man (Homo Sapiens) up to the point where we can do anything. I find this a little hard to believe as I look at constant turmoil in the world with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
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<![CDATA[The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted]]> 21913640 The Etymologicon � reveals in this essay, specially commissioned for Independent Booksellers Week, the most valuable thing about a really good bookshop.

Along the way he considers the wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld, naughty French photographs, why Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy would never have met online, and why only a bookshop can give you that precious thing � what you never knew you were looking for.]]>
23 Mark Forsyth 1848317840 Ron 5 4.21 2014 The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted
author: Mark Forsyth
name: Ron
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:
This book (essay) was recommended to me from a co-worker. It deals with finding books that you didn't even know you needed to read in small bookshops. When I travel, I always look for a small bookshop and try to buy something that the owner recommends. I've found quite a few treasures this way and will continue to do it.
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Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All 201721655
Down at the bottom of the tall buildings of New York City, Magnolia Wu sits inside her parents� laundromat. Magnolia has pinned every lost sock from the laundromat onto a bulletin board, in hopes that customers will return to retrieve them. But no one seems to have noticed. In fact, barely anyone has noticed Magnolia at all.

What she doesn’t know is that this is about to be her most exciting summer yet. When Iris, a new friend from California arrives, they set off across the city to solve the mystery of each missing sock, asking questions in subways and delis and plant stores and pizzerias, meeting people and uncovering the unimaginable.

With each new encounter, Magnolia learns that when you’re bold enough to head into the unknown, things start falling into place.]]>
160 Chanel Miller 0593624521 Ron 5 4.28 2024 Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All
author: Chanel Miller
name: Ron
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: audiobook, newbery-honor, young-adult
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book about a girl whose parents own a laundromat. She find some single socks and decides with a friend that they need to find out who they belong to so they can return them. It is a very good story and I can see why it was a Newbery Honor book.
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Home in a Lunchbox 200150490
When Jun moves from Hong Kong to America, the only words she knows are hello, thank you , I don’t know , and toilet . Her new school feels foreign and terrifying.

But when she opens her lunchbox to find her favorite meals—like bao, dumplings, and bok choy—she realizes home isn’t so far away after all.

Through lush art and spare dialogue, Cherry Mo’s breathtakingly beautiful debut picture book reminds readers that friendship and belonging can be found in every bite.]]>
40 Cherry Mo 0593661346 Ron 5 read-aloud 4.59 2024 Home in a Lunchbox
author: Cherry Mo
name: Ron
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: read-aloud
review:
This is a read-aloud book about a girl who doesn't speak English, shows up at school, and finds 'home' in her lunchbox.
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Across So Many Seas 150246193
In 1492 , during the Spanish Inquisition, Benvenida and her family are banished from Spain for being Jewish, and must flee the country or be killed. They journey by foot and by sea, eventually settling in Istanbul.

Over four centuries later, in 1923 , shortly after the Turkish war of independence, Reina’s father disowns her for a small act of disobedience. He ships her away to live with an aunt in Cuba, to be wed in an arranged marriage when she turns fifteen.

In 1961 , Reina’s daughter, Alegra, is proud to be a brigadista, teaching literacy in the countryside for Fidel Castro. But soon Castro’s crackdowns force her to flee to Miami all alone, leaving her parents behind.

Finally, in 2003 , Alegra’s daughter, Paloma, is fascinated by all the journeys that had to happen before she could be born. A keeper of memories , she’s thrilled by the opportunity to learn more about her heritage on a family trip to Spain, where she makes a momentous discovery.

Though many years and many seas separate these girls, they are united by a love of music and poetry, a desire to belong and to matter, a passion for learning, and their longing for a home where all are welcome. And each is lucky to stand on the shoulders of their courageous ancestors.]]>
272 Ruth Behar 0593323408 Ron 5 4.10 2024 Across So Many Seas
author: Ruth Behar
name: Ron
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: audiobook, newbery-honor, young-adult
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book that I both read and listened to. It takes place over several generations starting with the Jewish Expulsion from Spain in 1492. The main characters are always having to move for one reason or another. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and finished it very quickly. It reminded me of Echo (Pam Munoz Ryan) and Refugee (Alan Gratz) since it had several threads going that eventually tied together.
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This Moose Belongs to Me 13595647
Most of the time Marcel is very obedient, abiding by the many rules of How to Be a Good Pet. But imagine Wilfred's surprise when one dark day, while deep in the woods, someone else claims the moose as their own...]]>
36 Oliver Jeffers 0399161031 Ron 5 read-aloud 4.12 2012 This Moose Belongs to Me
author: Oliver Jeffers
name: Ron
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: read-aloud
review:
This is a read aloud book about a boy who (thinks he) owns a moose.
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No More Dead Dogs 160698
Wallace Wallace won’t lie, even if it means detention. And after he handed in a scorching book report of the classic novel, Old Shep, My Pal, detention is just what he’s been handed. He is sure he’s done nothing he hated every minute of that book, especially when the dog dies in the end! Why do dogs always die at the end?
Ěý
Wallace refuses to do a rewrite of his report, so his English teacher, who happens to be directing the school play of Old Shep, My Pal, forces him go to the rehearsals to teach him a lesson on why the story is the way it is. Surrounded by theater kids who are apprehensive of him, Wallace sets out to prove himself. But not by changing his mind. Instead, he changes the play into a rock-and-roll rendition, complete with Rollerblades and a moped!
Ěý]]>
180 Gordon Korman 0786816015 Ron 4 elementary
As an aside, I actually got to hear the author talk about writing at the North Texas Teen Book Festival. This was one of the books that he mentioned and how all the books we have kids read that deal with dogs dying. He's a great speaker.

6-30-2024: I found a copy of this book on a giveaway shelf and picked it up for a reread. Everything from my previous read is still true. I'll also add that I got to hear Gordon speak again in 2024 at the NTTBF. I was able to go up to him at the end of the day and let him know how much I appreciate his books. One of these days, I should probably buy one of his books to keep and have him sign it. Korman books might be the most common books I give away.]]>
3.73 2000 No More Dead Dogs
author: Gordon Korman
name: Ron
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/30
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: elementary
review:
4-10-2019: The main character refuses to tell a lie and ends up butting heads with an English teacher over how good/bad a book is. He ends up serving detention which means no football and starts working with the school play (which he changes). If you've read Gordon Korman before and liked it, you'll enjoy this one as well.

As an aside, I actually got to hear the author talk about writing at the North Texas Teen Book Festival. This was one of the books that he mentioned and how all the books we have kids read that deal with dogs dying. He's a great speaker.

6-30-2024: I found a copy of this book on a giveaway shelf and picked it up for a reread. Everything from my previous read is still true. I'll also add that I got to hear Gordon speak again in 2024 at the NTTBF. I was able to go up to him at the end of the day and let him know how much I appreciate his books. One of these days, I should probably buy one of his books to keep and have him sign it. Korman books might be the most common books I give away.
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The Life Impossible 198281740
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…�

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.]]>
324 Matt Haig 0593489276 Ron 2 audiobook 3.45 2024 The Life Impossible
author: Matt Haig
name: Ron
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: audiobook
review:
I've got a general philosophy of avoiding books that have a rating of less than 3.75, but I've read several Matt Haig books and enjoyed them. I figured that I'd give this one a try. I both listened and read it, and it clearly deserves its 3.5 rating. While the book starts out ok, it only gets worse. It is the story of a widow who gets left a house on an island by somebody she had befriended decades earlier. This friend has died under mysterious circumstances. There is a lot to spoil here so I'll avoid any serious details and simply say: let the reader beware.
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<![CDATA[Call Me Roberto!: Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos]]> 202777366 Here is the often overlooked yet inspirational story of Major League Baseball player Roberto Clemente—not Robert—who endured years of racism and discrimination to become one of the greatest baseball players of all time.Roberto Clemente always loved baseball. Growing up in Carolina, Puerto Rico, he swung tree branches (since he didn’t have a bat) and hit tin cans. He was always batting, pitching, running, sliding. His dedication paid off when, at the age of 19, he was tapped for a major league team. First chilly Montreal . . . where he warmed the bench and himself, longing to play baseball. Months later, he finally got his chance with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Clemente became an instant star on the field—hitting the ball and making it to first base and finally home. Many Pittsburgh fans loved his bold style on the field, but not everyone was quick to embrace a Black man from Puerto Rico who spoke español.ĚýThis nonfiction picture book by MLB.com reporter Nathalie Alonso and award-winning illustrator Rudy Gutierrez shows the emotional highs and lows of Roberto Clemente’s career as he fought racism—from fans, reporters, and other figures in the sport—to become one of the greatest baseball players of all time. With English and Spanish words intermingled in the text, this book will inspire young readers as they learn about Clemente’s contributions to Black, Latino, and American history.]]> 40 Nathalie Alonso 1635928117 Ron 5 young-adult 4.25 2024 Call Me Roberto!: Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos
author: Nathalie Alonso
name: Ron
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: young-adult
review:
This is a short book that is about Roberto Clemente. If you've never heard of him, then this is a good book to start with because of its length. I'm a big fan of Roberto and the Pirates so there wasn't anything new in this book to me. It does have quite a bit of artwork in it.
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<![CDATA[The Spice Must Flow: The Story of Dune, from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies]]> 144409208 Ěý
Using original, deep-access reporting, extensive research, and insightful commentary, The Spice Must Flow brings the true popularity of Dune out into the light for the very first time. With original interviews with the beloved actors and directors behind the films—including Timothée Chalamet, Kyle Maclachlan, Denis Villeneuve, Patrick Stewart, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Newman, and many more� The Spice Must Flow also examines the far-reaching influence of Dune on art, music, politics, and, most notably, its status as the first ecological science-fiction story specifically concerned with climate change.
Ěý
Britt skillfully and entertainingly guides readers through the history of how the Dune universe has unfolded, including the novel’s unlikely evolution from a failed piece of journalism about Oregon sand dunes into an epic science-fiction story, the way Herbert’s work inspired George Lucas, untold stories from the 1984 David Lynch film, the knife-edge balance between blockbuster hit and indie film Timothée Chalamet brings to the 2021 movie, and the exciting future of the franchise. Through a blend of narrative, oral history elements, and fascinating trivia, The Spice Must Flow is the new essential guide to the behind-the-scenes story of Dune .

The fiction of Dune is deadly serious, but the real-life story of how it came into existence is full of wonder, surprises, and spice.]]>
288 Ryan Britt Ron 5 3.77 2023 The Spice Must Flow: The Story of Dune, from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies
author: Ryan Britt
name: Ron
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves:
review:
I got this book as a gift for Christmas, and I was excited to receive it. I'm a big fan of Dune (both books and various movies). I wanted to see what the author had to say about the history of Dune and (for me) this book did not disappoint. There is all sorts of information on the inspiration of the book, the publishing, the various movies, etc. If you are a fan of Dune, you'll probably enjoy this book.
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<![CDATA[Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life]]> 30010106 184 Tish Harrison Warren 0830846239 Ron 5 church
1-2025 I was looking for Bible class material and decided to re-read this book. I think it is more of a candidate for a small group study than a Bible class. It still has some great thoughts.]]>
4.31 2016 Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life
author: Tish Harrison Warren
name: Ron
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: church
review:
9-2022 In this book, the author goes through a normal day and compares what she does with Anglican liturgical practices. The book gives some great thoughts and perspectives on simple things (making your bed, eating a meal) and how they can become sacred. There are quite a few study notes at the back which would make this book a candidate for a Bible class.

1-2025 I was looking for Bible class material and decided to re-read this book. I think it is more of a candidate for a small group study than a Bible class. It still has some great thoughts.
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<![CDATA[The Bakery Dragon (The Bakery Dragon, #1)]]> 205307705 The heroic taleĚýof a tiny dragon with a heart of gold and a taste for baked treats! A scrumptious picture book for fans of funny fairytales and fantastic beasts.

Ember has always been different from the other dragons. His fearsome roar sounds more like a polite sneeze, and when he breathes fire, the villagers just pat his head and say awwww.

Ember fears he’ll never collect a respectable hoard of gold until a chance encounter with a baker causes his fortunes to turn (and his stomach to grumble). As the little dragon soon discovers, the gold you make is way better than the gold you steal—and gold that is shared? That’s best of all.

Magic shimmers on every page of author-illustrator Devin Elle Kurtz'sĚýfeel-good story that celebrates baked goods, dragons, and generosity in equal measure. Filled with adorable illustrations, this is a perfect read aloud for bedtime or brunchtime!]]>
42 Devin Elle Kurtz 0593710967 Ron 5 read-aloud 4.51 2024 The Bakery Dragon (The Bakery Dragon, #1)
author: Devin Elle Kurtz
name: Ron
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: read-aloud
review:
A short, cute read-aloud book about a dragon who learns to bake.
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Old School 211642066
Dexter Foreman is twelve� going on eighty. He has lived at The Pines Retirement Village with his grandmother since he was six years old, and as a result, he gets along better with senior citizens than kids his own age. He’s been home-schooled by the residents up until the day the county’s truancy officer shows up and announces that Dex has to go to the local middle school.

At school, Dex sticks out like a sore thumb. He dresses like a grandpa (and can be just as cranky). His taste in movies and music is decades out of date. Only a few students—like Gianna Greco, a reporter at the school’s newspaper—find him intriguing. For most, he is a weirdo ... or a target.

Raised among a generation of Mr. Fix-its, Dex can repair seemingly anything with his trusty Swiss army knife� which comes in handy since their old school building seems to be crumbling around them. It also ends up putting Dexter in a situation that could either make or break his school career.

Dexter would do anything to return to his old life at The Pines. But when his wish finally seems to be coming true, his old and new worlds collide in a way that surprises everyone—and Dexter most of all.]]>
288 Gordon Korman 0063238144 Ron 5 elementary, young-adult
If you're a fan of Korman, this book won't disappoint.]]>
4.35 2025 Old School
author: Gordon Korman
name: Ron
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: elementary, young-adult
review:
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that I'm a big fan of Gordon Korman. With that said, I found this to be one of his most enjoyable books. It is the story of a middle schooler who has been 'home schooled' by the senior citizens at his grandmother's retirement home. The truancy system finds out and makes him go to school. As usual, you can expect some things to go right, some things to go wrong, and for everything to work out in the end.

If you're a fan of Korman, this book won't disappoint.
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31 Questions Jesus Asked 18971276 148 Risa Baker 0989587428 Ron 4 church 4.67 2013 31 Questions Jesus Asked
author: Risa Baker
name: Ron
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: church
review:
I'm looking for material around the questions that Jesus asked to craft a Bible class at church. I saw this one and thought it might be a good resource. This book is crafted more as a 31 day devotional series and less as a class resource. It has some interesting thoughts and is a quick read as each day is less than 5 minutes.
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Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]>
560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Ron 5 audiobook
I've not read David Copperfield and I'm thinking I should try it soon.]]>
4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Ron
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: audiobook
review:
I both listened and read this book. The audiobook is excellent. This is the story of Demon Copperhead who ends up orphaned and in the system. You watch him grow up in various environments and wonder where he'll end up. There are a lot of situations in the book that deal with pain drugs and their abuse which was an interesting read after having just finished Revenge of the Tipping Point.

I've not read David Copperfield and I'm thinking I should try it soon.
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The Questions Jesus Asked 27431765 189 Butch Entrekin Ron 5 church 5.00 The Questions Jesus Asked
author: Butch Entrekin
name: Ron
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: church
review:
I'm looking to craft a class at church on questions that Jesus asked and this book looked like it would be a great resource. The book breaks the questions down into four categories: rhetorical, personal examination, truth engaging, and ambiguous. The book then looks at various questions to help you understand what Jesus was asking and why he was asking it.
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<![CDATA[Potty Training for Boys: Say Goodbye to Diapers in 3 Days: Stress-Free Toddler Toilet Training]]> 205464779
Unlock the Secrets to Swift Success

Every parent knows that potty training can be a challenging task. But what if we told you that it doesn't have to be?

This comprehensive guide is tailored to meet the unique needs of little boys, providing a stress-free method to help your son become a potty pro in just three days.

What's Inside the Book?

� Three-Day Discover a step-by-step plan designed to help your little one confidently use the potty in three short days. Say goodbye to diapers and hello to newfound independence!

� Tailored for Boys, Including Poop Understand the unique challenges when potty training boys, including aiming techniques, dealing with poop, and building positive habits that last a lifetime.

� Comprehensive Benefit from expert advice, practical tips, and real-life success stories to boost your confidence as a parent and ensure your son's success.

� This book is not just about training your child—it's about fostering a supportive and loving environment that makes the transition to potty a joyful family experience.

� Positive Learn how to motivate and reward your little one effectively, making potty training a positive and empowering journey for both of you.

� Track Discover handy tools and charts to monitor your child's progress, allowing you to celebrate every milestone along the way.

� Understanding the Gain insights into your child's mindset during this crucial phase, helping you to navigate any challenges with patience and empathy.

� Smooth Transition to Dry Uncover effective strategies to guarantee your child's comfort and boost their confidence during the process, especially at nighttime.

Don't let potty training become a source of stress or uncertainty. Say goodbye to endless diaper changes, costly disposables, and the stress of cleaning up accidents.

With "Potty Training for Boys" you'

â� Enjoy a quicker, more efficient transition to potty independence.

â� Strengthen the bond with your child through a shared accomplishment.

â� Relish the newfound freedom from diaper duty.

â� Experience less frustration and more confidence in your parenting skills.

â� Witness your child's pride and self-confidence soar.

If you're ready to make potty training a breeze and create lasting memories with your little one, "Potty Training for Boys" is the only guide you'll ever need. Embrace the freedom, celebrate the milestones, and empower your child to conquer the potty in record time.

Grab your copy today and embark on a journey to stress-free potty training success! Click the "Buy Now" button and give your child the gift of independence.]]>
144 Jane York Ron 4
There are lots of resources and ideas in this book.]]>
4.16 Potty Training for Boys: Say Goodbye to Diapers in 3 Days: Stress-Free Toddler Toilet Training
author: Jane York
name: Ron
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:
The grandson is going through potty training and I thought I'd do some reading to see what they say about it these days. The basic thought is that you find 3 days where you dedicate yourself to the child's getting potty trained. This means that you make frequent trips and get excited when they go the bathroom.

There are lots of resources and ideas in this book.
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<![CDATA[The Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life's Great Answers]]> 226173
The Gospels are filled with stories, parables, miracles, commandments, and dramatic incidents that trace Jesus� life and recount his teachings. A close reading of the Gospels reveals, however, that they are also filled with questions. As John Dear points out in this remarkable book, Jesus, like any great teacher and rabbi, “has a question for everyone he meets, for every occasion, for every experience, for every potential disciple.� Dear uses these questions as a starting point, an invitation to readers to discover the lessons they contain by searching their own hearts and minds for answers.

Throughout The Questions of Jesus , Dear interweaves insights from ethical and religious teachers ranging from Buddha to Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr. Using recent events as powerful and poignant examples, he shows why a renewed commitment to Jesus� message of nonviolence, compassion, justice, and peace is essential to healing a world torn by violence and war.]]>
336 John Dear 0385510071 Ron 5 church 3.81 2004 The Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life's Great Answers
author: John Dear
name: Ron
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: church
review:
I'm reading through various books looking for material to craft an adult Bible class. I saw a few books on questions of Jesus and thought this might be a good topic. This book has quite a few chapters that start with a question, have questions throughout the chapter, and give some insights into why Jesus was asking the question. While I haven't created my class, I know this will be a great resource when the time comes.
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<![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Ron 4 audiobook
I did feel like he painted a very optimistic picture of what we are capable of doing in regard to fixing things that are broke (eg, the ecology) that I'm not sure I share.]]>
4.33 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Ron
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: audiobook
review:
There's a lot of good in this book regarding humankind and the kinds of things that they do. The author clearly doesn't believe in a higher being which makes a lot of his religious comments very suspect (to me). Still, you can learn a lot about how we've gotten to where we are and where we might end up.

I did feel like he painted a very optimistic picture of what we are capable of doing in regard to fixing things that are broke (eg, the ecology) that I'm not sure I share.
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<![CDATA[Tiny Humans, Big Emotions: How to Navigate Tantrums, Meltdowns, and Defiance to Raise Emotionally Intelligent Children]]> 84097626
We’re in the midst of a parenting revolution that is radically changing the way we raise our kids. Gone are the days of minimizing emotions: Don't cry. You're fine. Don't make a scene. As our understanding of developing brains has increased, today’s parents are looking for a new way to help their children understand their feelings and learn to process them.

Emotional development experts Alyssa Blask Campbell, M.Ed. and Lauren Stauble M.S. are at the forefront of a movement to foster little ones� emotional intelligence. Their revolutionary Collaborative Emotion Processing (CEP) method has been a game changer for parents and educators, and now they are sharing it with readers in this indispensable guide.

Tiny Humans, Big Emotions provides the tools to tackle every sort of stressful child-rearing situation, including:
� What to do when your child throws a tantrum (it's not what you think!)
� Helpful scripts to handle any challenging moment like school refusal and bedtime resistance
� How to react when your child hits, punches, or bites
� Easy tips that help regulate your child’s nervous system
� How to anticipate and end meltdowns before they even begin

Designed for all humans—tiny and big—this book shows caregivers of children how to handle their children’s outbursts while empowering them to recognize and manage difficult feelings like anger, sadness, and shame, along with anxiety. All caregivers will find valuable insights and guidance in this book, especially those caring for children from infancy to age eight. Tiny Humans, Big Emotions equips adults with tools for emotional intelligence so they can respond with intention. This innovative, research-based approach teaches children self-regulation and empathy, even as it strengthens the parent-child relationship, setting the groundwork for a lifetime of emotional resilience and wellbeing.Ěý

This book is an essential, empathetic guide that will teach parents to notice their own habits and hold space for their tiny human's big emotions.]]>
304 Alyssa Blask Campbell 0063306263 Ron 4
As with all of these parenting types of books, you need to read them with an understanding of your child and family dynamics and take what will work best for you.]]>
4.09 Tiny Humans, Big Emotions: How to Navigate Tantrums, Meltdowns, and Defiance to Raise Emotionally Intelligent Children
author: Alyssa Blask Campbell
name: Ron
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves:
review:
I'm not sure how I stumbled onto this book. Since I have a 2 year old grandchild, I figured that I'd read it. It has a lot to say about emotional intelligence and helping kids learn to deal with their emotions. It also gives some great examples. I think it might have been better if it had been a little shorter.

As with all of these parenting types of books, you need to read them with an understanding of your child and family dynamics and take what will work best for you.
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Nothing But the Truth 121877
Ninth grader Philip Malloy is forbidden to join the track team because of his failing grades in English class. Convinced that the teacher just doesn't like him, Philip concocts a plan to get transferred into a different homeroom. Instead of standing silently during the national anthem, he hums along. And ends up on trial.]]>
177 Avi 043932730X Ron 5 newbery-honor 3.18 1984 Nothing But the Truth
author: Avi
name: Ron
average rating: 3.18
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: newbery-honor
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book that I really enjoyed despite the low rating. As an adult, you know exactly what is going to happen which wasn't a problem for me. It is the story of Philip who wants to be on the track team but can't because his English grade is too low. He decides that he'll fight the teacher to get out of her class rather than work on his grade. His fight is over the National Anthem.
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<![CDATA[The Cabinet of Wonders (The Kronos Chronicles, #1)]]> 2850734 Marie Rutkoski's startling debut novel, the first book in the Kronos Chronicles, about the risks we take to protect those we love, brims with magic, political intrigue, and heroism.

Petra Kronos has a simple, happy life. But it's never been ordinary. She has a pet tin spider named Astrophil who likes to hide in her snarled hair and give her advice. Her best friend can trap lightning inside a glass sphere. Petra also has a father in faraway Prague who is able to move metal with his mind. He has been commissioned by the prince of Bohemia to build the world's finest astronomical clock.

Petra's life is forever changed when, one day, her father returns home � blind. The prince has stolen his eyes, enchanted them, and now wears them. But why? Petra doesn't know, but she knows this: she will go to Prague, sneak into Salamander Castle, and steal her father's eyes back.

Joining forces with Neel, whose fingers extend into invisible ghosts that pick locks and pockets, Petra finds that many people in the castle are not what they seem, and that her father's clock has powers capable of destroying their world.]]>
258 Marie Rutkoski 0374310262 Ron 5 audiobook, young-adult 3.94 2008 The Cabinet of Wonders (The Kronos Chronicles, #1)
author: Marie Rutkoski
name: Ron
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: audiobook, young-adult
review:
I both listened and read this book. It is the story of a young girl who is trying to steal her father's eyes back from the king. Needless to say, there is magic in this book. The father built a clock and the king took his eyes so that he wouldn't be able to build anything like it again. The daughter feels that this is unfair and is going to steal the eyes back. This is the first book in the series. It has a 'solid' ending but I can see where you can expect more to happen in the sequels.
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Kareem Between 203608470 This heartfelt coming-of-age novel in verse tells the powerful story of a seventh grade Syrian-American boy and his struggles, big and small, as he navigates middle-school.Seventh grade begins and Kareem’s fall should be off to a great start. But he’s already fumbled it. His best friend moved away, he bungled his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid � a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent � around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hot-shot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There’s a to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.Then like a surprise blitz, Kareem’s mom returns to Syria to bring her aging parents out of a war zone and to the United States. But a new executive order prevents her from coming home. If Kareem could throw a penalty flag on the fouls of his school and home life, it would be for Unnecessary Roughness. Kareem is stuck between. Between countries. Between friends, between football, between parents—and between right and wrong. It’s up to him to step up, find his confidence, and navigate the beauty and hope found somewhere in the middle.]]> 336 Shifa Saltagi Safadi 0593699262 Ron 5 audiobook, young-adult 4.36 2024 Kareem Between
author: Shifa Saltagi Safadi
name: Ron
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: audiobook, young-adult
review:
I both listened and read this book. It is written in verse which makes it a fast read. It is the story of Kareem who is the son of Syrian refugees and has to help a new Syrian refugee acclimate to middle school. Kareem also wants to be on the football team and has to deal with trying to fit into both worlds.
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<![CDATA[The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories, #1)]]> 11607446 The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.]]>
438 Chris Colfer 031620157X Ron 4 elementary, audiobook
12-2024: I had an 5th grader at church give me this book to read. He loved the series and thought I would enjoy it. It has been 11 years since I read it. I read (and listened to) it again. My original review still holds. As an adult, you see a lot of what is going on that might be missed by kids. I don't plan on moving on in this series.]]>
4.25 2012 The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories, #1)
author: Chris Colfer
name: Ron
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: elementary, audiobook
review:
12-2013: A different take on fairy tales - two kids fall into a book and end up in a land where fairy tales are real. They wander through various lands trying to gather items so they can make the wishing spell and get back to our world. Most elementary kids would probably enjoy this book.

12-2024: I had an 5th grader at church give me this book to read. He loved the series and thought I would enjoy it. It has been 11 years since I read it. I read (and listened to) it again. My original review still holds. As an adult, you see a lot of what is going on that might be missed by kids. I don't plan on moving on in this series.
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<![CDATA[Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering]]> 216857785
Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.

Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.]]>
352 Malcolm Gladwell 0316575801 Ron 4 4.03 2024 Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Ron
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:
The book starts with a court case that doesn't give you a lot of details. Gladwell then looks at various phenomena which eventually get to the last chapter where you find more out about the court case and how it came to be. Some of the interesting topics - the size of medicare fraud, how Harvard controls the race of its admissions, how one person can be a superspreader of the covid virus. If you liked his other books, you'll like this one. I just felt like it wasn't quite as good as the others.
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The Hurting Kind: Poems 59571658 An astonishing collection about interconnectedness—between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ourselves—from National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist Ada Limón.

“I have always been too sensitive, a weeper / from a long line of weepers,� writes Limón. “I am the hurting kind.� What does it mean to be the hurting kind? To be sensitive not only to the world’s pain and joys, but to the meanings that bend in the scrim between the natural world and the human world? To divine the relationships between us all? To perceive ourselves in other beings—and to know that those beings are resolutely their own, that they “do not / care to be seen as symbols�?

With Limón’s remarkable ability to trace thought, The Hurting Kind explores those questions—incorporating others� stories and ways of knowing, making surprising turns, and always reaching a place of startling insight. These poems slip through the seasons, teeming with horses and kingfishers and the gleaming eyes of fish. And they honor parents, stepparents, and grandparents: the sacrifices made, the separate lives lived, the tendernesses extended to a hurting child; the abundance, in retrospect, of having two families.

Along the way, we glimpse loss. There are flashes of the pandemic, ghosts whose presence manifests in unexpected memories and the mysterious behavior of pets left behind. But The Hurting Kind is filled, above all, with connection and the delight of being in the world. “Slippery and waddle thieving my tomatoes still / green in the morning’s shade,� writes Limón of a groundhog in her garden, “she is doing what she can to survive.”]]>
100 Ada Limon 1639550496 Ron 5 poetry 4.34 2022 The Hurting Kind: Poems
author: Ada Limon
name: Ron
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: poetry
review:
This is a short collection of poems that revolves around the four seasons. As with any poetry, some really good ones, some not so good.
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The Psychology of Money 41881472 242 Morgan Housel 0857197681 Ron 5 economics - Save money just to save money (don't need an actual goal)
- what's right for somebody else might not be right for you
- understand compounding and letting your money sit
I'll put some more details in some of the highlights I made in the book.]]>
4.28 2020 The Psychology of Money
author: Morgan Housel
name: Ron
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: economics
review:
This book has some great insights on how we deal with money. I wish I had known some of this when I was younger. The author has 20 chapters in this book that address various thoughts. Some that I really remember:
- Save money just to save money (don't need an actual goal)
- what's right for somebody else might not be right for you
- understand compounding and letting your money sit
I'll put some more details in some of the highlights I made in the book.
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Somewhere in the Darkness 152098 176 Walter Dean Myers 0439523567 Ron 3 audiobook, newbery-honor 3.78 1992 Somewhere in the Darkness
author: Walter Dean Myers
name: Ron
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: audiobook, newbery-honor
review:
I listened to this book. It is the story of Jimmy who has his father who has been in prison just show up. They end up taking a road trip to try and exonerate the father from his crimes. I thought it was ok. It was a Newbery Honor book back in the day. I suspect it wouldn't get consideration today.
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<![CDATA[The Treasures of the Kingdom (Kingdom of Fantasy #16) (Geronimo Stilton and the Kingdom of Fantasy)]]> 63899114 304 Geronimo Stilton 1339005999 Ron 4 elementary 4.25 The Treasures of the Kingdom (Kingdom of Fantasy #16) (Geronimo Stilton and the Kingdom of Fantasy)
author: Geronimo Stilton
name: Ron
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: elementary
review:
A 1st grader at church was reading this book which got me interested in reading it. It is a book in a series about Geronimo Stilton (a mouse) who has to rescue a princess and save some books. There are a lot of pictures in the book and it is clearly targeted to early readers.
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The Most Boring Book Ever 207974153 48 Brandon Sanderson 1250843669 Ron 4 read-aloud 3.92 2024 The Most Boring Book Ever
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Ron
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: read-aloud
review:
This is a read aloud book that I was interested in because of Brandon Sanderson being the author. As an adult, you can read it in 5 minutes.
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<![CDATA[A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments]]> 6748 Infinite Jest.]]> 353 David Foster Wallace 0316925284 Ron 4 audiobook
The title is the essay about being on a cruise. I found this one particularly interesting since we plan on going on a cruise in a couple of weeks. The essay is about 100 pages long and goes into quite a bit of detail on all sorts of topics.]]>
4.24 1996 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again:  Essays and Arguments
author: David Foster Wallace
name: Ron
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: audiobook
review:
I've read several DFW books and I always feel like they can be hit or miss. This book is a collection of essays. I thought some were great and some were long (and bad). I enjoyed the two about tennis, the state fair, and the cruise. The others not so much.

The title is the essay about being on a cruise. I found this one particularly interesting since we plan on going on a cruise in a couple of weeks. The essay is about 100 pages long and goes into quite a bit of detail on all sorts of topics.
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Popcorn 203379830 The beloved author of Wink is back with a hilarious and moving story about coping with anxiety on a day when everything is going wrongAndrew’s just trying to make it through Picture Day, which is easier said than done when it seems like the whole world is out to get him—from a bully to a science experiment gone wrong to a someone else’s juice snot (don’t ask).But as Andrew goes through the school day, and as one thing after another goes wrong, that little kernel of worry in his stomach is getting hotter and hotter, until it threatens to pop and turn into a public panic attack, his worst fear. He tries to keep his anxiety at bay, but the news that his grandmother with Alzheimer’s is missing is too much.Interspersed with humorous spot art and “anxiety file� panels that depict the real, difficult feelings of anxiety and OCD and real tips for coping, this is a poignant, personal, and laugh-out-loud funny story about letting go of control and accepting help—all while trying to get the perfect school picture.]]> 288 Rob Harrell 0593697928 Ron 5 audiobook 4.33 Popcorn
author: Rob Harrell
name: Ron
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: audiobook
review:
A 3rd grader at church said he was reading this book so I decided to read it. It's a good story but probably beyond what a 3rd grader should read. It is the story of Andrew on picture day at school and he has to deal with a number of problems. I listened to most of the book. The author has quite a few drawings in it. Even if you listen, you should get the book to see the drawings.
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Nuclear War: A Scenario 182733784
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds� notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]>
400 Annie Jacobsen 0593476093 Ron 5 audiobook 4.37 2024 Nuclear War: A Scenario
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Ron
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: audiobook
review:
I listened to this book. The author does her research and goes into great detail on what a nuclear war might look like. The book is written as a timeline by looking at what happens in the past, the actual launch, and iterations over (literally) seconds as the war unfolds. This makes it a much better read.
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Watch With Me 227275 224 Wendell Berry 0679758542 Ron 5 audiobook
12-2024: I listened to the entire audiobook. This is a collection of short stories about Ptolemy Proudfoot and his wife, Miss Minnie. Some are humorous, some make you think, all are very good.]]>
4.40 1994 Watch With Me
author: Wendell Berry
name: Ron
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: audiobook
review:
10-2010: I didn't write a review.

12-2024: I listened to the entire audiobook. This is a collection of short stories about Ptolemy Proudfoot and his wife, Miss Minnie. Some are humorous, some make you think, all are very good.
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A Summer to Die 25897686 192 Lois Lowry 0544668413 Ron 5 young-adult
Lois has an afterward at the end of the book where she describes her life and how this book is semi-autobiographical.]]>
4.20 1977 A Summer to Die
author: Lois Lowry
name: Ron
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: young-adult
review:
I heard Lois Lowry speak at a conference and she briefly discussed this book. It is the story of a family that has two sisters and the older one has some kind of disease. The book does a great job of handling the emotions that the younger sister is going through.

Lois has an afterward at the end of the book where she describes her life and how this book is semi-autobiographical.
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<![CDATA[Juniper’s Christmas (The Juniper Lane Adventures)]]> 123185413 368 Eoin Colfer 1250321948 Ron 3 3.94 2023 Juniper’s Christmas (The Juniper Lane Adventures)
author: Eoin Colfer
name: Ron
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves:
review:
This is a book about Santa Claus and how he became disillusioned and left his job. He is living in a park and doing good to others. When Juniper's mother disappears, she find out about this guy doing good and wants him to help find her mother. There are criminals, magic, flying reindeer, etc. in this story. It had a little bit of a feel of Elf to me, but without all of the light-hearted humor that made the movie special.
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<![CDATA[Free-Range Kids: How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow]]> 58367114 Learn to raise independent, can-do kids with a new edition of the book that started a movement

In the newly revised and expanded Second Edition of Free-Range Kids, New York columnist-turned-movement leader Lenore Skenazy delivers a compelling and entertaining look at how we got so worried about everything our kids do, see, eat, read, wear, watch and lick -- and how to bid a whole lot of that anxiety goodbye. With real-world examples, advice, and a gimlet-eyed look at the way our culture forces fear down our throats, Skenazy describes how parents and educators can step back so kids step up. Positive change is faster, easier and a lot more fun than you'd believe. This is the book that has helped millions of American parents feel brave and optimistic again - and the same goes for their kids.

Using research, humor, and feisty common sense, the book How parents can reject the media message, "Your child is in horrible danger!" How schools can give students more independence -- and what happens when they do. ( Teachers love it.) How everyone can relax and successfully navigate a judge-y world filled with way too many warnings, scolds and brand new fears Perfect for parents and guardians of children of all ages, Free-Range Kids will also earn a place in the libraries of K-12 educators who want their students to blossom with newfound confidence and cheer.]]>
281 Lenore Skenazy 1119782163 Ron 5 audiobook 1. Know when to worry
2. Turn off the news
3. Avoid experts
4. Boycott baby knee pads
5. Don't think like a lawyer
6. Ignore the blamers
7. Eat chocolate
8. Study history
9. Be worldly
10. Get braver
11. Relax
12. Fail!
13. Lock them out
14. Listen to your kids
15. Take the long view
16. Trust strangers
17. De-fang anxiety
18. Embrace (some) tech

While some of these chapter titles might seem strange, reading the book will give clarity on what is meant.]]>
4.30 2009 Free-Range Kids: How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow
author: Lenore Skenazy
name: Ron
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: audiobook
review:
This is an interesting read regarding what we allow children to do today compared to when we were children. A good example would be my walking (or riding my bike) over a half mile to school and kids today being driven by parents for a couple of blocks. The author contends (and I would agree) that we have sheltered our children too much and kept them from suffering adversity and learning how to handle it. The chapters:
1. Know when to worry
2. Turn off the news
3. Avoid experts
4. Boycott baby knee pads
5. Don't think like a lawyer
6. Ignore the blamers
7. Eat chocolate
8. Study history
9. Be worldly
10. Get braver
11. Relax
12. Fail!
13. Lock them out
14. Listen to your kids
15. Take the long view
16. Trust strangers
17. De-fang anxiety
18. Embrace (some) tech

While some of these chapter titles might seem strange, reading the book will give clarity on what is meant.
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<![CDATA[What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird]]> 208145504 A charming and eye-opening exploration of the special relationship between humans and chickens from Sy Montgomery, “one of our finest chroniclers of the natural world� (The New York Times).

For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery—whose The Soul of an Octopus was a National Book Award finalist—has kept a flock of chickens in her backyard. Each chicken has an individual personality (outgoing or shy, loud or quiet, reckless or cautious) and connects with Sy in her own way.

In this short, delightful book, Sy takes us inside the flock and reveals all the things that make chickens such remarkable only hours after leaving the egg, they are able to walk, run, and peck; relationships are important to them and the average chicken can recognize more than one hundred other chickens; they remember the past and anticipate the future; and they communicate specific information through at least twenty-four distinct calls. Visitors to her home are astonished by all this, but for Sy what’s more astonishing is how little most people know about chickens, especially considering there are about twenty percent more chickens on earth than people.

With a winning combination of personal narrative and science, What the Chicken Knows is exactly the kind of book that has made Sy Montgomery such a beloved and popular author.]]>
91 Sy Montgomery Ron 4 3.84 2024 What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird
author: Sy Montgomery
name: Ron
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves:
review:
This is a short book that describes the author's interactions with various chickens that were family pets.
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<![CDATA[The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World]]> 28256439 The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. Much like human families, tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, and support them as they grow, sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling and creating an ecosystem that mitigates the impact of extremes of heat and cold for the whole group. As a result of such interactions, trees in a family or community are protected and can live to be very old. In contrast, solitary trees, like street kids, have a tough time of it and in most cases die much earlier than those in a group.

Drawing on groundbreaking new discoveries, Wohlleben presents the science behind the secret and previously unknown life of trees and their communication abilities; he describes how these discoveries have informed his own practices in the forest around him. As he says, a happy forest is a healthy forest, and he believes that eco-friendly practices not only are economically sustainable but also benefit the health of our planet and the mental and physical health of all who live on Earth.]]>
272 Peter Wohlleben 1771642483 Ron 5 4.06 2015 The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World
author: Peter Wohlleben
name: Ron
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves:
review:
I found this book very interesting. The author is a German forest manager and he's seen quite a bit over the years. There are things in this book that I've heard before (eg, mother trees, beneficial fungi) and things that I haven't heard before (eg, insects, discussions around tree ages). If you have any kind of interest in trees, then you should read this book.
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The Wood at Midwinter 206101583 'A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They're the same thing really.'

Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees—and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.

One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst—and the path of her life is changed forever.

From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting, beautifully illustrated short story set in the Strange universe. Featuring an introduction by Susanna Clarke and gorgeous illustrations from Victoria Sawdon truly worthy of the magic of this story, this is a mesmerising, must-have addition to any fantasy reader's bookshelf.]]>
64 Susanna Clarke 1639734481 Ron 3 3.47 2024 The Wood at Midwinter
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Ron
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves:
review:
I read Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which I thought was overly long. This book doesn't suffer from length. It is a short book with illustrations and can be read easily in under an hour. That might be (for me) the best part of the story. It deals with a couple of sisters with one of them liking to spend time out in nature. I didn't know anything about the book before picking it up.
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Pastoralia 14295
The stories in Pastoralia are set in a slightly skewed version of America, where elements of contemporary life have been merged, twisted, and amplified, casting their absurdity—and our humanity—in a startling new light. Whether he writes a gothic morality tale in which a male exotic dancer is haunted by his maiden aunt from beyond the grave, or about a self-help guru who tells his followers his mission is to discover who's been "crapping in your oatmeal," Saunders's stories are both indelibly strange and vividly real.]]>
188 George Saunders 0747553866 Ron 1 audiobook 4.10 2000 Pastoralia
author: George Saunders
name: Ron
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2000
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: audiobook
review:
I know there are a lot of reviews about how great this book is. For me, I didn't enjoy a single one of these stories. The first one started out good but (for me) quickly went downhill.
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<![CDATA[Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience]]> 58915933 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER â€� In Atlas of the Heart, BrenĂ© Brown writes, “If we want to find the way back to ourselves and one another, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories and be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for meaningful connection.â€�Don’t miss the five-part Max docuseries BrenĂ© Atlas of the Heart!In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances—a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.ĚýOver the past two decades, Brown’s extensive research into the experiences that make us who we are has shaped the cultural conversation and helped define what it means to be courageous with our lives. Atlas of the Heart draws on this research, as well as on Brown’s singular skills as a storyteller, toĚýshow us how accurately naming an experience doesn’t give the experience more power—it gives us the power of understanding, meaning, and choice.ĚýBrown shares, “I want this book to be an atlas for all of us, because I believe that, with an adventurous heart and the right maps, we can travel anywhere and never fear losing ourselves.”]]> 318 BrenĂ© Brown 0399592571 Ron 5 4.29 2021 Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience
author: Brené Brown
name: Ron
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves:
review:
There's a lot going on in this book about emotions and how we deal with them that I don't believe you can take it all in with a single read. This book is probably a great reference for somebody that does counseling. For me, it gave me some insights into some of my (and other people's) behaviors.
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<![CDATA[Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm]]> 58643507 Pull on your wellies, grab your flat cap and join Jeremy Clarkson in this hilarious and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the farm we're all obsessed with

THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
________

Welcome to Clarkson's farm.

An idyllic spot offering picturesque views across the Cotswolds, bustling hedgerows and natural springs, it's the perfect plot of land for someone to delegate the actual, you know, farming to someone else while he galivants around the world in cars.

Until one day, Jeremy decided he would do the farming itself.

After all, how hard could it be? . . .

Faced with suffocating red tape, biblical weather, local objections, a global pandemic and his own frankly staggering ignorance of how to 'do farming', Jeremy soon realises that turning the farm around is going to take more than splashing out on a massive tractor.

Fortunately, there's help at hand from a large and (mostly) willing team, including girlfriend Lisa, Kaleb the Tractor Driver, Cheerful Charlie, Ellen the Shepherd and Gerald, his Head of Security and Dry Stone Waller.

Between them, they enthusiastically cultivate crops, rear livestock and hens, keep bees, bottle spring water and open a farm shop. But profits remain elusive.

And yet while the farm may be called Diddly Squat for good reason, Jeremy soon begins to understand that it's worth a whole lot more to him than pounds, shillings and pence . . .
________

Praise for Clarkson's Farm:


'The best thing Clarkson's done . . . It pains me to say this' THE GUARDIAN

'Shockingly hopeful' THE INDEPENDENT

'Even the most committed Clarkson haters will find him likeable here' THE TELEGRAPH

'Quite lovely' THE TIMES]]>
464 Jeremy Clarkson 1405946547 Ron 5 4.42 2021 Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm
author: Jeremy Clarkson
name: Ron
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves:
review:
I stumbled onto this book about a journalist who spends a year on the farm. It looked interesting. It is interesting to see what he has to say as he applies some humor the life of being a farmer. However, he is clearly a journalist and not a farmer so this isn't his livelihood. The book has some funny things to say about some serious aspects of farming. If you like the first couple of stories, you'll like the entire book.
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<![CDATA[Spy School British Invasion (Spy School, #7)]]> 42129263 Superspy middle schooler Ben Ripley is finally going to take SPYDER down, once and for all in this latest addition to the New York Times bestselling Spy School series.

Stranded in Mexico after nearly capturing the leaders of SPYDER, thirteen-year-old Ben Ripley desperately needs to take a shower. But even more so, he and his spy school friends need to come up with a new plan to defeat their enemies, their only clue a key that opens…something.

The Mission: Go rogue from the CIA, join up with the British MI6 to locate the leader of SPYDER, the enigmatic Mr. E, and bring down the evil organization once and for all.

Only it won’t be easy. They’ll have to deal with rival evil splinter factions, devious double-crosses and learning to drive on the opposite side of the road. But they have no other choice: this is their last and final chance to crack the code on SPYDER.]]>
320 Stuart Gibbs 1534424709 Ron 4 4.45 2019 Spy School British Invasion (Spy School, #7)
author: Stuart Gibbs
name: Ron
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
This is the first book that I've read in the Spy School series. I can see why middle schoolers would love these books. For me, one was enough. This book picks up right after the last adventure. I hadn't read any of the previous books, but I was able to figure out what was going on.
]]>
A Work in Progress 62919120
Will is the only round kid in a school full of thin ones. So he hides…in baggy jeans and oversized hoodies, in the back row during class, and anywhere but the cafeteria during lunch. But shame isn’t the only feeling that dominates Will’s life. He’s also got a crush on a girl named Jules who he knows he doesn’t have a chance with, because of his size—but he can’t help wondering what if?

Will’s best shot at attracting Jules’s attention is by slaying the Will Monster inside him by changing his eating habits and getting more exercise. But the results are either frustratingly slow or infuriatingly unsuccessful, and Will’s shame begins to morph into self-loathing.

As he resorts to increasingly drastic measures to transform his appearance, Will meets skateboarder Markus, who helps him see his body and all it contains as an ever-evolving work in progress.]]>
368 Jarrett Lerner 1665905158 Ron 5 4.34 A Work in Progress
author: Jarrett Lerner
name: Ron
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
This book is written in verse with lots of graphics which makes it a very fast read. It is the story of a young boy who has a fellow student bully him by telling him that he is fat. This leads to all sorts of negative images in the boy that play out at school. It is interesting to see how this plays out in the boy's head. If you've got a kid with an eating disorder, this would be a worthwhile read.
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What Are People For? 7507664 224 Wendell Berry 1582434875 Ron 5 church 4.12 1990 What Are People For?
author: Wendell Berry
name: Ron
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2013/03/13
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: church
review:
This is a collection of essays. Most of them are excellent if you are into Berry and the things that he is passionate about.
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The Elephant's Girl 44285416
Now that she's twelve, Lex is finally old enough to help with the elephants. But during their first training session, Nyah sends her a telepathic image of the woods outside the zoo. Despite the wind's protests, Lex decides to investigate Nyah's message and gets wrapped up in an adventure involving ghosts, lost treasure, and a puzzle that might be the key to finding her family. Can Lex summon the courage to hunt for who she really is--and why the tornado brought her here all those years ago?]]>
336 Celesta Rimington 0593121228 Ron 5 audiobook
I both listened and read this book.]]>
4.17 2020 The Elephant's Girl
author: Celesta Rimington
name: Ron
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: audiobook
review:
This is the story of a girl who is dropped at the feet of an elephant during a tornado. They can't find her parents. She lives with her guardian (zoo train conductor) on the zoo grounds and has a connection (paranormal) to both the wind and the elephants. She meets a ghost that gives her a mystery to solve and the book is her trying to figure things out.

I both listened and read this book.
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<![CDATA[The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural]]> 199623 dark-thirty--pick one of these spine-tingling tales and savor it...

-A white bus driver who refuses a ride to a penniless black woman later encounters her ghost.

-Phantom pictures etched on the windowpanes of a man's house proclaim his guilt in a lynching.

-A retired Pullman porter hears a ghostly whistle and knows it's the last train he'll ever ride.

Mesmerizing and breathtakingly original, these tales are inspired by African American history and range from the time of slavery to the civil rights era of the twentieth century. With her extraordinary gift for suspense and her sure sense of storytelling, Patricia C. McKissack has created a heart-stopping collection of lasting value, a book not quickly forgotten.]]>
122 Patricia C. McKissack 0679818634 Ron 5 newbery-honor 3.91 1992 The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
author: Patricia C. McKissack
name: Ron
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: newbery-honor
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book. I've read quite a few of these and most of them are just there. For me, this one was excellent. It is 10 supernatural tales that have a history in the Black people and all that they've had to go through in America. I wouldn't consider any of them real scary.
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The Eagle of the Ninth 149405
Rosemary Sutcliff spent most of her life in a wheelchair, suffering from the wasting Still's disease. She wrote her first book for children, The Queen's Story, in 1950 and went on to become a highly respected name in the field of children's literature. She received an OBE in 1975 and died at the
age of 72 in 1992.]]>
294 Rosemary Sutcliff 0192750453 Ron 5 3.94 1954 The Eagle of the Ninth
author: Rosemary Sutcliff
name: Ron
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1954
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:
I had a friend recommend this book, and I finally got around to reading it. It is historical fiction of when Rome was in England. It is the story of a son who is wondering what happened to his father's legion since they never returned from their journey into northern England to fight the barbarians.
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The Explorer 34228372 336 Katherine Rundell 1481419455 Ron 4 audiobook, young-adult 4.15 2017 The Explorer
author: Katherine Rundell
name: Ron
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: audiobook, young-adult
review:
I both listened and read this book. I thought it started out very slow before getting around to being good. It is the story of 4 children who survive a plane crash in the Amazon and have to figure out how to get back to civilization.
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<![CDATA[ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD]]> 180352087 Hi, friend! Welcome to the ADHD club.

You're here because, like me, you've been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder—which, by the way, just might be the worst name for a condition ever—and you're trying to figure out how to make your life a little more manageable. Or because, like my wife, Kim, you love, teach, or work with someone who has ADHD, and you're trying to figure out how to best support them.

The world isn't built for ADHDers, and navigating it can wear us down. But we'll let you in on a little secret: having ADHD doesn't have to be a burden. It can actually be a superpower that propels you to creative heights and allows you to achieve more than you ever thought possible.

We want to give you a new perspective on ADHD, whether it's your own brain or a friend or family member's that you're trying to understand. We hope you come away with strategies you can employ to make things a little easier. (We also hope you laugh out loud, at least once or twice.)

Most of all, we want you to silence that voice that whispers that you're broken or a mess or a failure. None of that is true. You have ADHD—and that makes you awesome.

—Penn Holderness]]>
292 Penn Holderness 1400338611 Ron 5 4.22 2024 ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD
author: Penn Holderness
name: Ron
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves:
review:
This showed up on a connection's feed and it looked interesting enough to read. It was an excellent book that gave all sorts of insights into dealing with ADHD. If you know anybody that has ADHD, this book is a must read. If you deal with them on a regular basis, this book is a must own. In addition to thoughts on the person that has ADHD, it gives insights to help caregivers as well.
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<![CDATA[Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals]]> 56269214 An inspiring and moving memoir of the author's turbulent life with 600 rescue animals.

Laurie Zaleski never aspired to run an animal rescue; that was her mother Annie's dream. But from girlhood, Laurie was determined to make the dream come true. Thirty years later as a successful businesswoman, she did it, buying a 15-acre farm deep in the Pinelands of South Jersey. She was planning to relocate Annie and her caravan of ragtag rescues—horses and goats, dogs and cats, chickens and pigs—when Annie died, just two weeks before moving day. In her heartbreak, Laurie resolved to make her mother's dream her own. In 2001, she established the Funny Farm Animal Rescue outside Mays Landing, New Jersey. Today, she carries on Annie's mission to save abused and neglected animals.

Funny Farm is Laurie's story: of promises kept, dreams fulfilled, and animals lost and found. It's the story of Annie McNulty, who fled a nightmarish marriage with few skills, no money and no resources, dragging three kids behind her, and accumulating hundreds of cast-off animals on the way. And lastly, it's the story of the brave, incredible, and adorable animals that were rescued.]]>
256 Laurie Zaleski 1250272831 Ron 5 audiobook 4.24 2022 Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals
author: Laurie Zaleski
name: Ron
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves: audiobook
review:
I both listened and read this book. I'm not sure how I stumbled onto it. It is the story of the author's life which dealt with a physically abusive father. She starts the story when she is little at about the time her mother leaves her father. The facts of this relationship are pretty graphic. Her mother is the person that starts taking in stray animals which eventually leads to the author's Funny Farm. Each chapter ends with a story about one of the animals on the farm.
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The Message 210943364
The first of the book’s three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist, Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the “steampunk� city of “old traditions and new machinery,� but everywhere he goes he feels as if he’s in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream.

He takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he meets an educator whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates’s own books. There he discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed by the “racial reckoning� of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths of the community—a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares.

And in Palestine, Coates discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we’ve accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians—the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young, who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him—and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.]]>
232 Ta-Nehisi Coates 0593230388 Ron 5 racism 4.52 2024 The Message
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Ron
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves: racism
review:
This book consists of 4 essays. The first one deals with journalism and gives some insight into how Coates got where he is and how he writes. The second one gives some perspective on history by looking at the Pharaohs. The last two involve trips he made to Africa and Palestine. While I thought they were all excellent, I'd consider the first and last ones to be the best.
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Song for a Whale 40645659
From fixing the class computer to repairing old radios, twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius. But she's the only deaf person in her school, so people often treat her like she's not very smart. If you've ever felt like no one was listening to you, then you know how hard that can be.

When she learns about Blue 55, a real whale who is unable to speak to other whales, Iris understands how he must feel. Then she has an she should invent a way to "sing" to him! But he's three thousand miles away. How will she play her song for him?

Full of heart and poignancy, this affecting story by sign language interpreter Lynne Kelly shows how a little determination can make big waves.

"Fascinating, brave, and tender...a triumph." --Katherine Applegate, Newbery Award-winning author of The One and Only Ivan]]>
320 Lynne Kelly 1524770248 Ron 5 young-adult
10-2024 I both listened and read this time. I picked up more on the grandmother this time around in the story. The grandmother supports her granddaughter and is able to reclaim joy in her life after her husband's passing.]]>
4.52 2019 Song for a Whale
author: Lynne Kelly
name: Ron
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: young-adult
review:
3-2019 This is the story of a girl who is deaf and find out about a whale who sings at a different frequency. She wants to talk to the whale and has to figure out how and how to get there. I won't spoil anything, but I really enjoyed the story.

10-2024 I both listened and read this time. I picked up more on the grandmother this time around in the story. The grandmother supports her granddaughter and is able to reclaim joy in her life after her husband's passing.
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Eruption 199372731
“The book is a classic summer beach read...Eruption will revive the art of speed-reading...told with a singular voice that is a compelling amalgam of the two writers.”—USA Today

“Eruption is an epic thriller…fast-paced and deeply considered…a cinematic story rooted in science and infused with plenty of heart, tackling big themes like love and loss.�
–Tľ±łľ±đ

The master of the techno-blockbuster joins forces with the master of the modern thriller to create the most anticipated mega bestseller in years.

Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, and Westworld, had a passion project he’d been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson, the world’s most popular storyteller.

“Red-hot storytelling... The action scenes will make readers� eyes pop as the tension continues to build." –Kirkus, starred review

“Explosive…the summer’s ultimate literary mashup.� —Washington Post

"Takes readers on a thrilling journey." —BBC

"Beachbag-ready." —Boston Globe

“A seismic publishing event…all the elements of a summer blockbuster…it’s a thrill and the pages practically turn themselves.� —Associated Press

“Eruption is this summer’s literary version of a blockbuster action movie.� –Los Angeles Times

"Breakneck and plausible." —Publishers Weekly]]>
423 Michael Crichton 0316565083 Ron 4 3.79 2024 Eruption
author: Michael Crichton
name: Ron
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves:
review:
I'm a Michael Crichton fan, not so much James Patterson. This book is a quick read for its length because all of the chapters are short. I had the ebook and could constantly pick it up and read a couple of chapters when I was sitting and waiting on something. The actual story is about a volcano in Hawaii that is ready to erupt and the damage it could do. The story then follows the various characters as they try to figure out how to avoid disaster.
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<![CDATA[The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West . . . Again]]> 607319 144 George G. Hunter III 0687085853 Ron 4 church 4.04 2000 The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West . . . Again
author: George G. Hunter III
name: Ron
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: church
review:
I read a book recently about Celtic religious experiences as it related to enchantment. I thought this book would give me some more information. It is an interesting read about how Christianity grew in the Celtics because of the missionary philosophy of adapting to the people (eg, using their music). The book goes on to give details about how this works (and could work better) in the West.
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Eleanor Roosevelt 78517
The intriguing story of Eleanor Roosevelt traces the life of the former First Lady from her early childhood through the tumultuous years in the White House to her active role in the founding of the United Nations after World War II. A Newberry Honor Book.]]>
208 Russell Freedman 0395845203 Ron 4 audiobook
In these days, I can't imagine a book like this actually being considered for the Newbery.]]>
3.95 1993 Eleanor Roosevelt
author: Russell Freedman
name: Ron
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: audiobook
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book that I listened to. It is a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt that is written more for a young adult to read rather than an adult. It gives a broad perspective of her life without going into lots of details.

In these days, I can't imagine a book like this actually being considered for the Newbery.
]]>
<![CDATA[My Side of the Mountain (Mountain, #1)]]> 41667 Jean Craighead George, author of more than 80 children's books, including the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves, created another prizewinner with My Side of the Mountain--a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Notable Book, and a Hans Christian Andersen Award Honor Book. Astonishingly, she wrote its sequel, On the Far Side of the Mountain, 30 years later, and a decade after that penned the final book in the trilogy, Frightful's Mountain, told from the falcon's point of view. George has no doubt shaped generations of young readers with her outdoor adventures of the mind and spirit. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

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177 Jean Craighead George 0142401110 Ron 5 audiobook 4.10 1959 My Side of the Mountain (Mountain, #1)
author: Jean Craighead George
name: Ron
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1959
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: audiobook
review:
This is a Newbery Honor book about a boy who decides to leave home and live on his own in the wild. If you are a fan of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, you'll probably love this book as it gives more details on the same type of story.
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Our Souls at Night 23602562
In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife. His daughter lives hours away in Colorado Springs, her son even farther away in Grand Junction, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in houses now empty of family, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with.

Their brave adventures - their pleasures and their difficulties - are hugely involving and truly resonant, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer's enduring contribution to American literature.]]>
179 Kent Haruf 1101875895 Ron 4 audiobook 3.91 2015 Our Souls at Night
author: Kent Haruf
name: Ron
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves: audiobook
review:
This is a fast read - the audiobook is only 3.5 hours. I both read and listened. It is the story of a widow and a widower. The widow is tired of being lonely and asks the widower to come over, sleep in her bed, and talk (no sex). Needless to say, the townspeople start to gossip and their children also get concerned. The story is interesting in that two older, lonely people are just looking for friendship and everything falls apart around them as people 'think' about what they are 'doing' (which they're not).
]]>