Twooooo Weeks?

I haven't posted for two weeks?  I guess I've been busy!  My birthday, a quick trip to Las Vegas, work, work, and more work, granddogs visiting for a week while their momma and daddy were in Hawaii getting married.  But I'll be back soon!  For real!

Random Tuesday

I'm linking up with Stacy today.

Short post coming up!  I worked both jobs yesterday, and I'm exhausted!  AND it was my birthday!  My son and daughter came to see me for my birthday.  Well, my son is here on most weekends, but since my daughter moved away, I don't see her often.  It's been 3 months.  We had some girl time.  So fun!  My husband , mom, and the kids took me to lunch Saturday, and DH is taking me to dinner tomorrow and to Las Vegas on Saturday. So 54 doesn't feel too bad.  Well, not any worse than 53!  Ha!

I'll get right to this...

Have a great week!

Sunday Synopsis

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anderson paints an extremely realistic view of high school from the young protagonist's point of view. The main character is depressed. She was at an end-of-summer party which became rather wild, and she was sexually assaulted. She called 911, and as a result, many of her friends were arrested. Now she is an outcast. And she hasn't spoken about her rape. The book is about her journey to "find her voice" again. The author's use of literary devices, figurative language, and symbolism that a young adult can relate to creates a well-written novel. There is a touch of humor, mostly in the narrator's descriptions of events in the school cafeteria or biology class, and this keeps the novel from getting too "heavy" due to the subject matter. I highly recommend this book.

P. S.  I didn't plan to have two books in a row that were about rape, although one was fiction and one was not.  They were also both set in Syracuse. 

View all my reviews Subscribe in a reader

Random Tuesday

I'm linking up with Stacy for some randomness.

It's been an emotional week!  I've finally come to the decision I have struggled with since last year.  I'm going to retire from teaching.  I don't have peace of mind yet, though, because I haven't decided when.  I could finish out the school year, but we're only five weeks in, and the way things are at school, I doubt I can't handle 31 more weeks of this environment.  So, that leaves me with staying until December, or not.  Because of events in the past week, I'm leaning toward sooner.  But I don't think my husband wants me to retire any time before December.  It's not as if I will need their recommendation for a future job since I will be retiring, not resigning.  So... I'm still undecided in a way.

My husband and I are going to be grandparents!  I'm so excited!  His oldest daughter sent us the ultrasound picture.  We couldn't be happier!  So, we had some good news amidst the drama at work.

Image Credit

Have you ever heard of a thief stealing, of all things, a toilet?  Well, it's not an ordinary toilet.  It's an 18 Karat gold toilet worth over five million dollars.  Reuters reports that it was on display as "art" at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Osforshire, England, not far from where my daughter lived during her "study abroad" semester.  It was apparently a fully functioning toilet, and the thieves caused significant damage to the home of the Duke of Marlborough.  NOW I've heard everything!

Blenheim Palace

So let's get to this...

Tee hee!

If you're old enough... you remember!  LOL!

I may already have posted this, but it's funny!

Have a great week!

Subscribe in a reader

Sunday Synopsis

Lucky by Alice Sebold
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow! I was not expecting this! My son was assigned to read this book for a class in victimology. I thought, "Oh, I've read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I want to read that, too." Little did I know that it was a memoir about the time she was raped when she was a freshman in college at Syracuse and how it shaped both the good and bad things in her life.

The first chapter of the book is shocking! Sebold didn't hold back any detail when writing about her brutal rape. I don't want to spoil anything for future readers, but she was a strong woman then and still is. She did some things years later that surprised me! I would say the book is not only about her experience, it's also about family dynamics that also shaped her to be who she is. And it's about friendships, guilt, bravery, and fear.

It's not for the timid, however. It's explicit. It's raw. And it's gritty. I gave it four stars!

View all my reviews

Subscribe in a reader