It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Thanks, as always to Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts for hosting one of my favorite weekly blog events! Make sure to visit their blog today for lots of great lists!

This last week, I finally feel like I can breathe again. I feel like I can read a bit again. The piles of unread books is growing and I had about 1000+ unread items in my Google Reader. It is good to have  a little bit of time to read again this week.

Debbie Miller recommended How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Touch. I have just started the book and I imagine I will take my time reading it so that I can really slow down and think about all that the author is saying. If you enjoyed Peter Johnston's work, this is a great piece for additional thinking.

I finished Lois Lowry's new book Son . What an amazing read. As expected. This book was definitely not a disappointment and I am so glad I reread the entire Giver series before I read this last one. Not that it couldn't stand alone but I was blown away by The Giver again. Not sure I would have ever made time to revisit it without this reason.

I've also been reading a fun adult fiction book, What Alice Forgot that was recommended on Twitter--from someone who I talk to a lot, but not sure who...I hate when that happens. So, to whoever recommended this book, thanks! I actually heard about it first from Twitter but then from other friends. It seems to be getting a good buzz now.   It has been a good, fun read over the last few weeks.  If you are looking for a grown up read that is good, but not too intense, I would recommend this one. The premise is a fun one--Alice, who is getting ready to celebrate her 40th birthday and going through a bitter divorce, hits her head and forgets the last decade of her life.  So much has changed--she is trying to figure out how she got from there to here.

And I got a copy of A Poem as Big as New York City: Little Kids Write About the Big Apple this week. What a great book. So many possibilities.  Just a gorgeous book in general. I am about maxed out on children's poetry books so I am trying to be very picky about what I add to my collection. This is a good addition for sure!

And here are some of my favorite blog posts this week:

Bud the Teacher always seems to say the right thing and he seems to be able to read the world with clarity.  I loved this post about innovation.

I love E Tells Tales--she is a teacher but lots of her blog is about life in general.   First of all, just so you know, there will never be a feature on our blog on "What We Wore to School this Week". Unless I win a new wardrobe and can dress as fun as Elle from this blog, it will never happen. But I Love this feature of her blog.  Such a fun girl!  For some serious thinking, look closely at #3 where she talks to her teenage students about an article (linked) and when it was that they lost their love of learning. So sad.

And I loved Alyson Beecher's Nerdy Book Club post on her Top Ten Nonfiction Picture Books. I have been looking to add more nonfiction read aloud to our classroom so this list was a great one for me.

And finally, I was happy to see that one of my favorite organizing blogs, I HEART ORGANIZING,  had a post on organizing books. I thought that this was exactly what I needed. But then I peeked at the post and this post is meant for people who have a normal amount of books. Not for those of us who are readaholics, who have books lining every wall of our life. (I am not actually sure when reading this post if the books that are organized are ever meant to be read but they do look nice:-)  I think the blog should do a special edition of book organization for Nerdy Book Club Members, don't you?