Spring Break Reading List

So today is the first official day of Spring Break in the sense that usually Monday is a work day, but today I got to sleep in and lounge around my house.

At the beginning of the school year, I put together the goal to read at least 90 books this school year, and so far, I'm not on track. Therefore, I have a heavy week of reading prepared while I'm out of school to try and catch up on my goal.

This morning I finished The Whole World Over by Julia Glass. It is 509 pages of beautifully written, engaging story lines involving a couple in crisis, a gay restaurant owner and his punk nephew, New York circa 9/11 and a tidbit of the water crisis in the western United States. The whole book was woven together beautifully and I found myself reading nice and slow to take in all of the phrasing and description. If you couldn't tell, I loved it. This book was the selection this month for my book club and I can't wait to talk about it with the ladies a week from today.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling. I never would have purchased this book on my own due to the fact that I speculated it was written purely to prove that Rowling has not died and can still rake in the cash for any book with her name on it. Although, as I've been reading through the short tales, I've found them relatively delightful. This is a book you could read to actual children (not young adults or adults as her other books eventually wandered through death and romance). It is short and the margins are ridiculously huge. I'm excited to finish it this afternoon.

My list for this week also includes:
- The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney. I read this book when I was in 5th or 6th grade, but am thinking of teaching it to my Communications class during 4th quarter.
- Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson - a William Allen White book award nominee for 2008-09.
- Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes - winner of the Coretta Scott King award and recommended to me by another teacher for students who are hesitant readers.
- Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever by James Patterson. This is the second book in a series, the first of which I only mildly enjoyed. A student really wants me to read it, so I figured I'd give it a go.

Tonight, we went out to Arthur Bryant's for barbeque - another restaurant we had not tried before and were informed that we must before we move away. It was certainly really good and I'm glad to add it to my list of BBQ experiences. I ranked their sauces from best to worst:
Sweet Heat - not too spicy with nice honey overtones
Rich & Spicy - sort of unoriginal really - it tastes like other sauces I've had before.
Original - this one should really be named "revolting." It tasted like grainy A1 sauce. No good.

I still think that I like Oklahoma Joe's the best.

So thus begins my week off from school. Stay tuned for more posts!