100 Favorite Books--I'm up to 72!

(Note to self: next time, use Excel so that you can see right away if you're repeating yourself!! :-))  ***I've decided to put asterisks by the ones for adults.

A friend commented recently that he'd enjoy seeing a list of my 100 favorite books. Challenge accepted! So far, I've been able to name 60. Thank goodness I don't have to prioritize them... Here's what I have so far; it's a lot harder than I anticipated. I don't want to just list books I remember reading and liking--I want ones that matter, or that bring back the best memories, or that I never wanted to end.

1. The Bean Trees--Kingsolver ***
2. To Kill A Mockingbird--Lee
3. A Wrinkle in Time--L'Engle
4. Bud, not Buddy--Curtis
5. The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963--Curtis
6. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder--Wells ***
7. Unwind, Unwholly, Unsouled (and probably Undivided when it finally comes out!)--Shusterman
8. The Accidental Tourist (Tyler) ***
9. Breathing Lessons-(Tyler) ***
10. Tangerine--Edward Bloor
11. The Prince of Tides--Pat Conroy ***
12. The Book Thief--Zusak
13. Island of the Blue Dolphins--O'Dell
14. The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew--Sidney
15. The Cay--Taylor
16. The Boxcar Children--Warren
17. Travels With Charley --Steinbeck
18. Little Women--Alcott
19. Eight Cousins--Alcott
20. Kinsey Millhone collection--Grafton ***
21. Scarpetta collection--Cornwell ***
22. Stephanie Plum collection--Evanovich ***
23. The Secret Life of Bees--Kidd ***
24. The Language of Flowers--Diffenbaugh ***
25. The Hunger Games trilogy--Collins
26. Make Lemonade trilogy--Wolff
27. Harry Potter, especially #1 & 7--Rowling
28. Witness--Hesse
29. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate--Kelly
30. Bittersweet--Spencer ***
31. Waiting to Exhale--McMillan ***
32. What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day--Cleage ***
33. Hattie Big Sky--Larson
34. A Light in the Attic--Silverstein
35. Where the Sidewalk Ends--Silverstein
36. That Quail, Robert!--Stanger
37. The Great Gilly Hopkins--Patersen
38. Long Way from Chicago--Peck
39. The Mitford Series--Karon
40. A Time to Kill--Grisham ***
41. Tom Sawyer--Twain
42. The Green Mile--King ***
43. Bingo--Brown ***
44. The Napping House--Wood
45. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day--Viorst
46. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry--Taylor
47. All Creatures Great and Small--Herriot
48. Cannery Row--Steinbeck
49. Will Grayson-Will Grayson--Green & Levithan
50. Charlotte's Web--White
51. The BFG--Dahl
52. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe--Lewis
53. Far From the Madding Crowd--Hardy
54. Christy--Marshall
55. The Poisonwood Bible--Kingsolver ***
56. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes--Crutcher
57. Whale Song--Crutcher
58. The poetry book Grandma gave me when I was 5
59. The Joy of Cooking
60. Betty Crocker Cookbook

          61.   Anne of Green Gables--Montgomery 

           62.  Becoming Naomi Leon-Ryan

           63.  Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten--Fulghum

           64.  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Archambault, Martin, & Ehlert)

           65.  Skinjacker Trilogy (Everlost, Everwild, Everfound)--Shusterman

           66.  Bruiser--Shusterman

           67.  The Phantom Tollbooth--Juster & Feiffer

           68.  The Search for Delicious--Babbitt

           69.  Tuck Everlasting--Babbitt

           70.  Rascal--North

           71.  Any Small Goodness--Johnston
         72. The Anna Papers--Gilchrist ***

on loss and friendship

Someone important to someone important to me died this week. The deceased served as a role model, mentor, father figure, and best friend to someone who needed him terribly. I mourn his loss, and I am saddened that the state of our own friendship prevents me from being of any use to him in these dark days. He will say he's too busy to grieve, or at least to talk about grieving. He will say "later," his response anytime I want to talk about anything important. And knowing him as well as I do, I will simply say ok. This is how we work. Or don't work.
With Facebook I have somehow become this big discloser--can't sleep? Tell my 400 friends! Having surgery? Show everyone how funny and brave I am, and praise my nurturing husband and pets! Get my feelings hurt? Have them repaired by above-mentioned 400 friends! Need to vent? You guessed it.
But this friend doesn't tell anyone anything. As devout a Christian as he is, I'm not sure he even tells God. Where does it go, all that grief, anger, loneliness? Sometimes I think it goes inside me, even when he hasn't said a word. I am his status page, inside out and unread.

"The most powerful ways that you make a difference are usually the least visible."

(I wrote this tonight on a foster parent friend's Facebook wall). I like it!

Where I'm From, Part 2

(new class, so new version...again, written in the company of wonderful EDU 3540 students!)

Where I’m From 2-28-13

I am from Kennys and Baylises, with enough Rieman to give me big hips and a generous smile.

I am from down at the lake and Central Street, Beaver Island, and the Arch, always yearning for water.

I am from Siamese cats and too many spiders, mourning doves and grackles, and Grandma's calling to tell me she's seen the first robin.

I'm from teachers, readers, and racist Republicans, whose loving roots I trimmed to keep only the good.

I am from nifflies, sugar cookies, overdone roasts, and rolls burned on the bottom from an oven so old, my mom had to guess at the temperature.

I'm from sun-bathing in April and grilling in February, all the while stoically shivering in the Michigan chill.

In my closet are boxes all beaten and tattered, filled with Grandma's letters and Mom's goodbye. Where I'm from is just a beginning, but an integral part of who I soon shall be.

I agree with Eddie Rabbitt...

It’s 6 p.m. and I’m alone at the “cottage” (as we call our teeny tiny house that is a second home in Wisconsin) with my sweet boy Bud, not Buddy. It’s been raining and raining all day, and I cannot tell you how wonderful the sound is. I can hear it on the roof, on the porch as it streams over the plugged-up gutter (poor Joe just HATES that!), and ting- tangeling on the window a.c. I can’t remember the last time I was able to just sit quietly and listen to the rain! It was probably on the front porch at home, most likely with Luna sitting between my feet on the footstool.

I’d like to say the sound brings back memories, but it’s more like sensations…a sense of warmth, of snuggling, of rest. Why do so many people dislike rainy nights, I wonder? Is it loneliness, perhaps a wistful longing for someone to share the night with? Does the rain bring melancholy and thoughts of so many regrets? Or is it just another thing to worry about—did I roll up my windows? Damn, I didn’t clean out the gutters yet! Oh, crap, my newspaper’s out there getting soaked! Geeze, how much more rain will the ground absorb?  Or the more social justice minded: “Oh, those poor people who have nowhere to go!”

And still, here I sit…mellow, with a Mona Lisa smile as I just soak in (pardon the pun) the song of the rain. My heart and my worried mind are eased with its cadence, my sore muscles seem to loosen at its wordless song of peace.

Where I'm From Poems

In EDU 3540, Language Arts in the Middle/Secondary Classroom we try out a number of creative writing activities from Linda Christensen's texts. (Christensen, Linda (2000). Reading, writing, and rising up: Teaching about the power of the written word. Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools.)
Last week the students and I worked on writing our own Where I'm From poems, based upon the original by George Ella Lyon.  I find it to be a wonderful way to help students discover what's important to them in their families, cultures, and upbringings. An interesting outcome is how responsive the students are to one anothers' writing. They also seem to loosen up some with this activity--the ones who are reluctant to answer questions or share seem to be more willing after we do this. I wrote with my students last semester, too, and made some revisions. Here's the latest...

I AM FROM STRONG STOCK—P. Rieman 9-19-12

 I am from strong women and absent men, always cats and books, from copper-bottomed pots and hand towels (which are not the same as dish towels!)

 I am from a tiny apartment on the second floor of an old white house, barely room to turn around. Living with a homecoming, prom, and penny carnival queen sister while I won the spelling bees.

 I am from Grandma and Uncle Dick and from the roses in Aunt Kay’s yard. From creaky old stoves, missing stairs, and “Mr.Otherland.” I’m from cribbage, euchre, double solitaire, King in the Corner, Spite & Malice, and jigsaw puzzles.  

 I’m from goofy klutziness, comparing bruises at get-togethers, stubbornness, getting the giggles, and reading on the couch with a cat on my lap. From shivering in the weak April sun trying to get the first sunburn of the year and being the first in the neighborhood to grill outdoors in the spring—snow, or no snow!

 I’m from “remember, it’s just as easy to love a rich man as a poor man” and “boring people get bored,” or, “is it time to be hungry yet?” or, “there’s no such thing as don’t like!” And singing, “Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy, a kid’ll eat ivy too, wouldn’t you?”

 I’m from a dime in the birthday cake and Beaver Island every summer. From Ann Arbor and Dexter and the Isle of Man; Porterhouse steak, fried green tomatoes, and licking the pan after making fudge.

 Grandma’s letters to me are packed away in a dusty old box where I hope I can still find them. On the wall are pictures of Mom when she was well and happy, in my heart are memories of Mom as she lay dying. What else didn’t she tell us?

 I’m from a love of education and no suffering of fools, from self-reliance and the desire to give back. I am from strong stock.

100 Word Rant

In Joe's latest issue of Funny Times, there was a One Hundred Word Rant by Dave Maleckar. (see picture) This gave me the idea of having my language arts methods students write their own 100 Word Rants, too. I think the students had fun with it, I know I did. The point was to write about something we realize is silly and rather inconsequential, but that occupies our minds, just the same.
Here's mine:

A single moment’s decision makes me crazy! When I take the elevator to get to my office on the 4^th floor, at first it’s all quite simple: Exit elevator. Pass several offices on right. Bathroom’s on the left. But then, BAM! The railing around the spiral staircase is right in front of me! I have to choose: left past the collage of pictures, the President’s offices, and Adult Ed; or right past the mosaic and Career Services.  Which way is faster? Closer? Better aerobically?  Who’s watching me? Will someone think I’m avoiding them? Every single time, I have to decide!