It’s my favorite time of the month.Today is  Twitterature Day, hosted by the lovely Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy. 

Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead is an amazingly beautiful book. By a completely lucky coincidence, I am reviewing Astonish Me at Great New Books today so please hop on over there to read my review. 

The Riverman by Aaron Stamer is my favorite new middle grade/young adult book. This book is billed as middle grade but I for one wouldn’t feel comfortable having my middle grader read this one. Part mystery, part fantasy, part realistic fiction and all great. 

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh was a good book. I didn’t love it but had heard good things about it. I wonder if it suffered because I read at the same time as some other books I loved?

 

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A random collection of photos to detail the past few days… A mom at our elementary school created these works of art for our bake sale. What I would give for the ability to do this. Look closely. They are like snowflakes. Not a single one alike.

Katherine and I fell in love with this welcome mat while running errands this afternoon. And yes. I do have a pedicure scheduled for later this week.

It’s pictures like this that make me wonder if I ever need a camera other than my iPhone. This photo was not edited at all. Just a snap and go as Katherine and I walked around town today.

While walking Daisy the other day, I was drawn to how the flowering trees stood out against grey, grey sky.

 

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“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”

-Joseph Campbell

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Thanks to my friend Jill (and Facebook), I just finished reading one of my favorite articles of the year. I suppose it is easy to love something that aligns perfectly with your beliefs and I know there are other sides to every coin but for now, let me share…

Our family is in the midst of scheduling our summer along with thinking about which activities the girls would like to pursue next year. Katherine has long been a jack of many trades and this tradition continues. She has yet to find a sport, a dance class or a play that she doesn’t love. This would all be well and good if society did not seem to dictate that all things become super serious, super fast. If you love soccer, than everyone says, “Try out for the travel team.” And by the way, the season is year round. If you enjoy spinning around the room, “Why not take ballet?” And while you’re at it, try jazz and hip hop and lyrical. And on and on and on. It seems to have become impossible for me to sign the girls up for one class or one practice per week. Doing so leaves me feeling like all of their peers are perfecting skills at mock speed while they are doing the equivalent of playing in the dirt.

In my new favorite article featured in the Boston Globe, “How Parents Are Ruining Youth Sports“, Jay Atikinson, writes, “single-sport specialization, the privatization of youth leagues, and the ranking and cutting of young children have become widespread. These are not positive trends, and coaches, educators, community leaders, and parents should take heed.”

I wish that people would listen but I realize how hard this trend is to buck. I believe strongly that we should let children be children yet I am one of these people who is signing up and committing and committing again to year round sports. If I am doing it, then how are we ever going to change the trend?

I wonder if we are simply caught in a culture that will not exist again. Atkinson writes, “Three out of four American families with school-aged children have at least one playing an organized sport — a total of about 45 million kids. By age 15, as many as 80 percent of these youngsters have quit, according to the Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine.” Something makes me think that those millions of kid who dropped out of sports by age 15 (the age when they should really be enjoying their teams), won’t subject their own children to such crazy schedules. Maybe we must just live through this and let these kids make better decisions for their own families?

I don’t know the answer and I don’t know what we will decide within our own family. All I know is that this is something that we really should be thinking about  and if possible, consider changing.

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There are times I feel guilty about not using my ‘real camera’ enough. I think about how much I love the pictures that I take when I use it. I think about the cost. I think about what I should be doing as I work to become a better photographer.

But then there are the times that I am scrolling through my camera role looking for blog post inspiration and I stumble upon pictures that would never have happened if it weren’t for the phone on my camera . And when I stumble upon these pictures, I often remember moments that I have already forgotten. Moments that would have remained forgotten were it not for the quick second that I snapped the picture with my phone. This is when I know that the best camera really is the one you have with you.

An example is below. A simple trip to a local store really can result in some pretty pictures and some good memory holders if you have a camera with you. Any camera.

 

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“Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you.”

-Carl Sandburg

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Anyone who knows me or has read even a tiny bit of this blogs knows that I am big fan of reading and books. I read all sorts of things from fiction to memoir to chick lit. I am especially fond of children’s books. I love picture books, easy readers, early chapter books and middle grade. Typically when friends (or in the past, clients) talked to me about their children’s reading preferences, I would celebrate any book. “As long as they are reading”, I would say.

Therefore, I find it a bit ironic that lately, I have been having a very strong reaction to the New York Times Best Seller list. My anger is directed toward the middle grade list. I love middle grade books. For those of you who have been reading along with me, think recently to The Riverman, A Snicker of Magic, Under the Egg, Counting by 7s, The Real Boy and Paperboy. And think back to Wonder, Because of Mr. Terrupt, See You at Harry’s and Out of My Mind. There are some really amazing middle grade books out there right now.

So now, enter the New York Times Middle Grade Best Seller List. First, the good. Wonder, The One and Only Ivan and Flora and Ulysses are on the list and they’ve been on the list for a long time.  There are a few titles that I have not read like Ever After High and A World Without Princes. I don’t read a lot of fantasy so I don’t know a lot about these books but I’ll just throw out there that a little research did reveal that Matel has a line of Ever After High dolls that look a tad scary. There’s also The Finisher by David Baldacci who is best selling adult author. Could be interesting. I wonder about the two books by Rush Limbaugh that are on the list. I have not read them and admit that I am letting pre-conceived notions impact my thoughts a bit but I do know that Rush is not a children’s author.

And then there is the number one best selling middle grade book. Frozen by RH Disney. And just in case you think that Walt Disney has a relative who is has brought the imaginative gene to literature don’t get too excited. The RH stands for Random House.

With all the amazing literature out there right now for middle grade readers, the number one selling book is a movie adaptation written by a publishing house. I have lots of goals in my life right now but I am starting to think that one of them needs to rise to the top. I have to find a way to connect parents and children to the remarkable children’s literature that exists today. There has to be a way to fight the commercialization of everything but most importantly literature. We wonder why children are not reading the way ‘they used to.’ Maybe it’s because they aren’t getting to the good stuff. Maybe it’s because the big money machines are putting books that are really movies in to their hands.

It’s hard to resist the joke that is sitting right in my hand so I’ve got to do it. I really don’t think this is a time when I should say “Let it Go”. I think this is a time to act. If you are a parent of a middle grade reader, please go out and buy some of the really good books that I listed above. Let’s change the current truth and celebrate the literature.

 

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Reading

Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead which is astonishing because it is about a ballerina which is not typically my go-to topic.

Listening to

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. I used to listen to a lot of audio books and for some unknown reason I stopped. I was thrilled when Nina Badzin wrote this fun post in which she mentioned audio books and I was reminded to go back to them. The Invention of Wings is particularly fun in audio version because the story is narrated two girls; a slave and her reluctant owner. It is fun to hear the story told in two separate voices.

Watching

Nothing. A few weeks ago, I posted on Facebook that I had finished Season Two of House of Cards (wow!) and was in need of a new show. I got lots of great suggestions but I also got a reminder. One of my writing teachers, the amazing Christina Katz, responded to my post and if she’d been talking instead of writing, I think she would have said, “No, she didn’t?!” You see, I had just dropped out of one of Christina’s fabulous classes because of lack of time. Sigh… She got me. I responded that it was ok because I only watch my shows at the gym but that was really a half truth. I intend to only watch  my shows at the gym but I have to admit I don’t stay on the treadmill or the stair mill for the length of an entire show, so more often that not I will finish an episode at home. And sometimes that will lead to another and you get where I’m going with this. I do think that television is a good way for me shut off my ever running brain for a bit of time but that said, a little break for now is a good thing. I am starting to adjust to my new volunteer role and beginning to find time to bring writing back in to my life. When I am bit more in control of this new schedule, I think that Breaking Bad might the on the horizon.

Wearing

My darn winter clothes. If I have to wear jeans and a sweater one more time, I think I might cry. And according to the forecast, I’ll be crying a bunch still this week. Not sure when spring is really going to come but I am really ready for it to arrive and stay put.

Eating

All sugar, all the time. Between Easter and my birthday, my sweet tooth has been more than satisfied. I have been eating cake, ice cream and jelly beans more than I have been eating my fruits and veggies. I think this is the week to pull myself together. We’ll see how that goes…

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a post detailing some of my favorite articles from my weekend newspaper reading. I had fun writing the post and readers seemed to enjoy reading it so I thought I would write another edition of “The Weekend Papers.”

Here goes…

Me, My Shelfie, and I (WSJ) by Dale Hrabi explores the latest Instagram fad; the ‘shelfie’. Hrabi writes, “The latest twist on the selfie is a photo of your artfully arranged stuff.” Now I have to admit that I have admired many ‘shelfies’ on Instagram and am definitely drawn to certain types of arrangements. I must admit though that I can never see myself purposely arranging my stuff and taking  a picture of it. I definitely fall in to the category of people described in the article who stumble upon an arrangement and photograph it. As I looked back in my Instagram feed just now, I did find quite a few arrangements involving books, my laptop and coffee. I guess that seems about right.

I loved reading Karin Gillespie’s piece A Master’s in Chick Lit (NYT) about her experience in an MFA program. She was a published author before going back to school and reading about her experience was fascinating. Turns out that getting ‘serious’ is not really all it is cracked up to be. This piece is a part of a series at the NYT called Draft  which focuses on the craft of writing. I look forwarding to going back and reading more of their pieces.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I represent the girls in my writing.  Caroline, understandably, would like me to write less about her which panics me a bit seeing as I write about my life and she is a big part of it. Therefore, I was fascinated by this weekend’s Bookends piece (NYC) in which Francine Prose and Leslie Jamison answered the question, “What you make of mining actual relationships for literary material?” It seems they might agree with Caroline…

Laurence Steinberg’s Friends Can Be Dangerous (NYT) reinforces my worst fears about the approaching teenage years. The piece summarizes results of studies looking in to the effect of groups on risky decision making. Turns out that even mice binge drink in groups but are far more responsible when they are alone.

As a person who loves to talk to strangers and embarrasses my family regularly by doing so, I was thrilled to read Hello, Stranger (NYT) by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton. According to their research, talking with strangers, makes us happier. They report for example that “commuters who talked to a stranger reported having a more positive experience that those who had sat in solitude.” Sorry family! It seems that it makes sense for me to keep talking to all those people!

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“To pay attention, that is our endless and proper work.”

-Mary Oliver

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