Before Green Gables: The Prequel to Anne of Green Gables by Budge Wilson

     It has been years since I last read the Anne of Green Gables series which  is something that I am planning to rectify soon. When I recently heard about a prequel to the series written by a different author I thought that reading that first would be the perfect way to jump back into the Green Gables series. The prequel is called Before Green Gables and was written by Budge Wilson.
     The story begins with a few chapters about Anne's parents and then focuses upon Anne's life from her birth up until the time she arrives at Green Gables. It is a story full of heartache and grief, but also one of endurance, liveliness, imagination, and hope. My favorite thing about this book is how beautifully written the language and descriptions of Anne's personality are. Much of the plot is believable and the author does a great job in imagining the circumstances that shape Anne into the quirky and lovable character we all know so well from L.M. Montgomery's delightful stories. I especially love the interactions that Anne has with friends, both real and imagined.
     While there are parts of the story that aren't as well-written, specifically in the second half of the book feels underdeveloped and rushed, I still felt like the story was a compelling and interesting read and fits well with the Anne that we all know and love from the Green Gables series.
   

Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life by Gladys Hunt

When I read a review about the book  Honey For a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life on the blog Sunlit Pages, I immediately added it to my library hold list. With one child in our house currently learning how to read and another child that is thoroughly engrossed by letters, I knew that we could use a lot of help in our house in figuring out good books for my girls to read. I love reading and in thinking back upon the stories, books, incentives (Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza for D.E.A.R. and the Ravenous Readers Club at my elementary school), my parents, and teachers that helped me to learn a love for books---compelling stories were an essential ingredient.  Because Honey for a Child’s Heart includes hundreds of suggested books with compelling stories, it is a great resource to turn to when looking for new books to read.

    Honey for a Child’s Heart can be divided into two parts. The first half of the book focuses upon how books help children to grow. “That is what a book does. It introduces us to people and places we wouldn’t ordinarily know. A good book is a magic gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure.” The author focuses a lot upon the privilege that parents have in being able to introduce books and ideas to the “uncluttered, supple mind of a child, the delight of knowing the many rich things God has given us to enjoy...Children don’t stumble onto good books by themselves; they must be introduced to the wonder of words put together in such a way that they spin out pure joy and magic.”

    What do good books do? According to the author books can give security, teach geography (as children visit families from other countries). They teach children “the pleasure of words so well chosen that they awaken sensibility, great emotions, and understanding of truth.” Books help us to communicate with one another to bond. A shared story helps communication. Reading good stories teaches children that reading is fun, regardless of their current reading abilities. “Good books are about the stuff that makes up life.”

   What kind of books should we introduce to children?  EVERYTHING! “Stories that make for wonder. Stories that make for laughter. Stories that stir one within with an understanding of the true nature of courage, of love, of beauty. Stories that make one tingle with high adventure, with daring, with grim determination, with the capacity of seeing danger through to the end.” Said C.S. Lewis, “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally worth reading at the age of fifty.”   When considering the qualities that makes one book superior ask some of the following questions: What is the author trying to say? (Theme; Weak themes = flabby story.)  How does the author use language? (Style) What is the plot? (Good plots grow out of strong themes.) The author urges that whenever possible we should read original versions because “simplifying great writing means less than great writing . . . the loss of words put together in the right way cheats the reader.”

    As parents we must make the conscious and intentional decision about our values. We teach our children by the way we spend our own time. “Families who care about their children need to monitor how much time is spent in an activity that offers so little in return.” Those who argue that they don’t have time, are making that choice. “We make time for what we think is important and in doing so we teach our children about what things really matter in life.” For me the strongest argument for why parents need to intentionally incorporate reading into family life  is the topic of influencing our children. “Who influences your children? Communication flows out of conviction. Far too many parents feel little responsibility beyond providing physical needs, seeing that order is kept, and making sure that their children are at the right places at the right time. They do not plan to be influencers of ideas, to furnish the mind with what is true. They expect the school and church to do that for them. . . . Influencing our children is not a casual task. It won’t get done unless we have a plan. Parents who read widely together with their children are going to be those who most influence their children.”

   In addition to a great list of recommended books for solitary reading and family read-aloud, several strategies are offered for incorporating more language and reading into our homes. Description games where the family describes an experience in words is one great example. Using a questions such as “How does a summer night sound? How does a rainy day feel? What does a Kindergarten child look like on her way home from school?” This game is great for teaching children about the possibility of words. Another great suggestion was a list of ten guidelines for raising readers vs. non-readers.  “Ten ways to raise a reader: 1. Restrict television watching drastically. 2. Keep the computer under control and where it can be monitored. Don’t allow too many hours on pointless computer games. 3. Have books and other good reading material within easy reach, an enticement to read. 4. Let your children see you reading. 5. Read books aloud together regardless of age. 6. Talk about books together; play games together. 7. Have well-lit rooms with comfortable chairs that invite reading. 8. Balance activity schedules with reading time. Let your kids know the library is important as the gymnasium. 9 Encourage reading in bed with good lights to do so. 10 visit the library often and listen to books on tape when traveling.”

    The author ends this first section by reiterating that children are eager in imaginative and the window in which they are incredibly open and formative is short. She also makes the very important point that children have different interests and we should honor their choices and try to select books that will be interesting to them, but to also introduce them to a large variety of reading material, everything from poetry, fiction, non-fiction, religious, etc. “While books are no substitute for life, a keener pleasure comes to life because of books.”

    The second half of the book includes several book lists. It starts with a great section on the best way to use the book list and then breaks reading suggestions into categories by age and  genre. Books suitable for children from ages zero through fourteen are recommended, but if you have older children there is also a book in this series specifically geared towards teenagers.

Better than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin

 

I just finished reading Better than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives, and found it to be the perfect book to read at the beginning of a new year. Like all of Gretchen Rubin’s books, Better than Before is very well researched and fascinating from start to finish. She begins the book with the basic premise that habits make change possible by freeing us from decision making and from using self-control. We often use habits to comfort ourselves when we are worried or stressed. While everyone is unique, we all have four “foundation habits” 1. Sleep 2. Move 3. Eat and and drink right 4. Declutter. Each of these habits help to build self-control and subsequently should be the first habits we address when we are looking to improve because foundation habits tend to reinforce each other. 

When people are looking to change habits, generally the changes sought fall into seven essential categories. 1) Eat and drink more healthfully (give up sugar, eat more vegetables) 2) Exercise regularly 3) Save, spend, and earn wisely (save regularly, pay down debt, donate to worthy causes, stick to a budget) 4) Rest, relax, and enjoy (stop watching TV in bed, turn off a cell phone, spend time in nature, cultivate silence, get enough sleep, spend less time in the car) 5) Accomplish more, stop procrastinating (practice an instrument, work without interruption, learn a language, maintain a blog) 6) Simplify, clear, clean and organize (make the bed, file regularly, put keys away in the same place, recycle) 7) Engage more deeply in relationships with other people, with God, with the world (call friends, volunteer, spend more time with family). 

To successfully change our habits, we need to practice some introspection and find out more about ourselves. For example we need to ask ourselves whether we are “a lark or an owl?” Larks are early-risers, owls stay up late. According to Rubin, “research suggests that this attribute is hardwired. Genes play a big role, as does age…  Interestingly, research suggests that Larks are likely to be happier, healthier, and more satisfied with life than Owls, in part, because the world favors Larks.”

Other questions we need to ask ourselves include questions about the way we best complete projects, “marathoner, sprinter, or procrastinator?” When we work on a project are we slow and steady (marathon), do we work in quick bursts of intense effort and deliberately wait for the pressure of a deadline. Do we overbuy or underbuy? I consider myself an under-buyer and so I found the following advice quite helpful “Under-buyers should remember that spending money to support a good habit is worthwhile; over buyers should remember that mere acquisition isn't strong enough to establish a good habit.”

Do we seek simplicity or abundance?  “Simplicity lovers are attracted by the idea of "less," of emptiness, bare surfaces and shelves, few choices, a roomy closet. Abundance lovers are attracted by the idea of "more," of overflow, of addition, of ampleness, of a full pantry. They always want to have more than enough. They like a bit of bustle, and they enjoy collecting things and having a wide array of choices.”

Am I a finisher or an opener? “Finishers love the feeling of bringing a project to completion, and they're determined to use the last drop in the shampoo bottle; Openers thrill to the excitement of launching a new project, and find pleasure in opening a fresh tube of toothpaste. Because finishers focus on their ability to complete, they may be overly cautious about trying to form new habits; Openers may be overly optimistic about their ability to take on additional habits.”

Am I a familiarity lover or a novelty lover? “For familiarity lovers, a habit becomes easier as it becomes familiar. Novelty lovers may embrace habits more readily when they seem less . . . habit-like. Novelty lovers may do better with a series of short-term activities -- thirty day challenges, for instances --instead of trying to create an enduring automatic habit.” Am I promotion focused or prevention focused? “Promotion focused people concentrate on achievement and advancement, on making gains, on getting more love, praise, pleasure. They eagerly and optimistically pursue their goals. By contrast, prevention-focused people concentrate on fulfilling their duties, on avoiding losses, and on minimizing danger, pain, or censure. They're vigilant against possible drawbacks or problems.” What do I value and find satisfying? Saving time, money or effort? What are my current habits and when am I most likely to indulge in a bad habit? 

The second half of the book presents a number of strategies and suggestions for using the self-knowledge of your habits in changing your habits. She emphasizes several things, including the strategy of monitoring. We manage what we monitor. “ Self-measurement brings self awareness and self-awareness strengthens our self-control. 

Scheduling is another important strategy because if it is on the calendar, it happens. Scheduling forces us to confront the natural limits of the day. I loved this quote that “what I do everyday matters more than what I do once in awhile,” and that “Something that can be done at any time is often done at no time.” 

When trying to change a habit, is it easier for us to moderate or to abstain? “Abstainers do better when they follow all or nothing habits. Moderators by contrast are people who do better when they indulge moderately. Abstinence takes zero mental effort.”

Convenience (the amount of effort, time, or decision making required), If-then (pre-planning for various scenarios), distraction, paring habits, clarifying habits, and rewards (“The best reward of a thing well done is to have done it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson) are other strategies that she addresses. 

For me the most important thing I gained by reading this book was more self-knowledge. It was the perfect read for making New Year’s Resolutions, but would honestly be helpful at any point in the year. 

And now, here are a few of my goals for 2016. 
1) Go to bed by 10:30 - When I was in school and teaching I was pretty good about going to bed on time. However over the last few years I've gotten into the bad habit of staying up late and sleeping in. I can't really sleep in anymore now that my oldest has started school, and the combination of staying up late and waking up early has left me feeling pretty exhausted for the past few months. I also without fail get migraines when I stay up too late. One week into 2016 and I've been following this 10:30 bedtime very well and I am feeling a lot less exhausted.

2. Read 50 books - I want to model good habits for my girls and I love to read so I figure it is the perfect goal for the year since my oldest is in the process of learning how to read.

3. Improve my photography skills - I plan on doing this by taking some classes (I signed up for a course that starts in a few days), learning how to use my new camera (by using it a lot and by reading the manual), perhaps join Clickin' Moms or some sort of community forum, read more photography books.

4. Fitness / Healthy Eating - I need to do some more planning for this goal but for the month of January I am not eating dessert. I would like to join a gym so that I can exercise more regularly but I am a bit cautious about gym contracts due to some bad experiences in the past. So for now all I can say is eat way less sugar, eat more vegetables, and move more. I'd also like to throw in some strength training.

5. One date a month with my husband - We've been really bad about this over the last few years. For several years money was tight and or we didn't think the kids were old enough to leave but I'm confident that they would be fine now if we hired a babysitter.

6. Declutter / simplify - To the point where I am not constantly doing this! I read the Marie Kondo book last summer, but did so while I spent a week at a very minimalist and pristine condo and so I felt no urgency to try the method. 

Book Review: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

     I love any of the works of Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice, and before I turned thirty this year I spent some time rereading my favorites. Over the years I have also read and enjoyed a number of sequels and variations to her works and books written in what is described as "Jane Austen style," and so when a family member mentioned this book I decided to give it a try.
     Shades of Milk and Honey was written by Mary Robinette Kowal and is described as a "quasi-Regency Fantasy" novel. I feel a bit sheepish admitting this because when I was teaching high school, I constantly reminded my students that anytime they read something they needed to employ some pre-reading strategies (reading the book jacket, etc.) but I did not realize before I was about twenty pages into the book that the genre of the novel was fantasy. The characters kept describing something called "glamour" and using the term in such an unfamiliar way that I started to think that I was missing something in my understanding of the word. I ended up doing a little online research and realized that the book has a fantasy element and then what I was reading made a lot more sense. If I had just been a little more observant beforehand, I would have noticed that there is an appendix in the back of the book containing a Glamour Glossary. "Glamour: This basically means magic... In this alternate history of the Regency, glamour is a magic that can be worked by either men or women. It allows them to create illusions of light, scent, and sound. Glamour requires physical energy in much the same way that running up a hill does.
    The basic plot of the novel follows the story of Jane Ellsworth, a woman who is plain but very talented in the use of glamour. Her sister Melody on the other hand is beautiful but lacks talents. The story follows the two navigate their societal roles, and various opportunities for courtship. The relationship between the sisters is rocky and the sisters often find themselves in competition with one another for the attention of the male characters. In true Jane Austen style, the heroine finds love in the end but a few of the plot twists are surprising and unexpected.
     I enjoyed reading this book and found the plot amusing but it is definitely not Jane Austen. The writing is decent, especially considering it was the authors debut novel, but I found myself wishing that some of the major plot occurrences had been more developed. Many of the critical turning points in the story were shoved into the last 1/3 of the book and ended up feeling rushed and not as descriptive as they could have been.
     The author has gone on to write other books that continue the storyline, and while I am not sure I will be reading them anytime soon I won't rule it out because I found this story to be enjoyable.

My Favorite Photography Resources

One of the fastest ways to take better pictures is by reading about photography and then of course practicing, again and again, and again. I find that using these resources while I practice helps me to better focus my efforts and in turn I end up with better results.

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
I really love all of the photography books by Bryan Peterson because they are easy to understand, especially if you are just starting out with the technical aspects of photography. My favorite is Understanding Exposure, but the others are also worth a read. There are certain topics that are repeated between books, but I look the repetition as a good review. 

Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson

Beyond Portraiture by Bryan Peterson

Understanding Digital Photography by Bryan Peterson

The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman

He covers both composition and the human issues related to photography. I like that he covers how to find your photographic style. 

The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression by Bruce Barnbaum

The main focus of this book is what makes a great photo. This is an excellent book to read to learn more about composition, especially if you are pretty serious about photography. I think that this book is worth owning because I often find myself wanting to go back and read it again.

Bonus Resource: KenRockwell.com
This website is fabulous! I go there to read reviews on cameras and gear, to find out which stores I should buy camera gear from, and a very extensive list of articles on how to take better photos. He is very direct and at times blunt and I love that about his writing. He uses several clever acronyms to help in remembering the content. One of the things that I appreciate the most about his website is that he is honest in his opinion that better gear doesn't always mean better photos. Often times it is how you use the camera and you can get great pictures with any camera. I appreciate that attitude since I shoot with a Nikon D60 that we bought back in 2009. 

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley

     A few months ago I read a book review  on the book “The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way” by Amanda Ripley, and I walked away feeling a bit irritated and defensive because of my background in education. When I read a book that spend a good deal of time criticizing teachers, it irritates me because I often feel like an accurate opinion can only be formed after spending some real time in the school with students. So after being irritated for a few minutes, I decided that the best thing to do was read the book for myself. The book examines the the education systems in three countries who outperform the United States on international academic testing. Those countries are South Korea, Finland, and Poland. Analyzing test scores and firsthand accounts from American students studying abroad in those countries, as well as teachers, administrators, and policy-makers, the author looks at the systems in place and the cultural norms in each society in an attempt to account for the lackluster performance of students in the United States.

     Before I get into the details of what the author found, I have to confess that I ended up loving this book. I found the different information that was related to be fascinating and the book was well researched to the extent possible. Obviously the information in the book does not paint the entire picture, there are many exceptions to the rules, and using too many generalities to describe a problem can be a problem in and of itself. However, as I read this book I found myself relating to many of her topics and nodding my head in agreement both from the perspective of a student and teacher in the United States. And oddly enough I vaguely remember taking the PISA exam, the primary test the author is looking at when comparing the intelligence of students worldwide. It was first given while I was a senior in highschool, and it wasn’t administered at very many schools in the United States but I’m pretty sure that my school participated.

     Here are just a few of the points that the author makes that I found to be interesting:

• School in Finland, South Korea, and Poland is about one thing, the mastering of complex academic material. In the United States, the purpose of the education system is “muddled.”
• In the United States, “schools were about many things, only one of which was learning. This lack of focus made it easy to lose sight of what mattered most. . . no one could say there was a consensus around rigor. In a culture plagued by distractions, from digital whiteboards to self-esteem building to high school football, that clarity of purpose was hard to find.”
• The strong emphasis placed upon athletics in the education system in the United States, detracts from the education happening in schools. Outside of the United States, sports are run independently of school.  
• “Without a doubt, sports brought many benefits, including lessons in leadership and persistence, not to mention exercise. In most US high schools, however, only a minority of students actually played sports. So they weren't getting the exercise, and the US obesity rates reflected as much. And those valuable life lessons, the ones about leadership and persistence, could be taught through rigorous academic work, too, in ways that were more applicable to the real world. Draining focus and resource from academics for everyone. The lesson wasn't that sports couldn't coexist with education; it was that sports had nothing to do with education. . . Sports, for all the value they offer, also siphon money and attention from classroom learning. It is their relative importance--not their absolute existence--that is worrisome.”
• An education system based upon rigor is necessary for learning. In South Korea the education system is intense. Students spend the majority of their time in school because the end of school exam has real consequences for the rest of their life. Career and future jobs are all based upon well a student does on the test. In the United States we are so worried about building self-esteem, that we don’t allow our students to fail at a young age and learn from those failures. So often we do everything we can to just get students through the system and give them second and third chances, which is not realistic in real life. Said Winston Churchill “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Failure is often delayed until later in life when the stakes are higher. Praise is often used to boost self-esteem. While self-esteem is important, “it comes from hard work and authentic accomplishment, not flattery.”  
• Parent involvement worldwide is very different. In South Korea parents view themselves as coaches and education is one of their jobs. “American parents tended to act more like cheerleaders.”  The type of parental involvement that had the most positive impact happened inside the home. Parents who read for pleasure, and also read to their children daily, had students who  “performed much better in reading, all around the world, by the tie they were fifteen.It sounded like a public-service cliche: read to your kids. Could it be that simple? . . . Done well, it meant teaching them about the world--sharing stories about faraway places, about smoking volcanoes and little boys who were sent to bed without dinner. It meant asking them questions about the book, questions that encouraged them to think for themselves. It meant sending a signal to kids about the importance of not just reading but of learning about all kinds of new things. As kids got older, the parental involvement that seemed to matter most was different but related. All over the world, parents who discussed movies, books, and current affairs with their kids had teenagers who performed better in reading. Here again, parents who engaged their kids in conversation about things larger than themselves were essentially teaching their kids to become thinking adults.”
• Cultural attitudes in the United States about math, are detrimental. “Math was something you were either good at, or you weren’t, and they weren’t. Interestingly, that was not the kind of thing that most Americans said about reading. If you weren't good at reading, you could, most people assumed, get better through hard work and good teaching. But in the United States, math was, for some reason, considered more of an innate ability, like being double-jointed… American adults didn't like math or think it was critical to kids' life chances. . .  But based on the standards of modernity, all decent jobs required some math and science fluency. Contractors needed to be able to factor inflation into cost estimates. X-ray technicians used geometry. In real life, math was not optional, and it hadn't been for some time.”
• Math curriculum in the United States needs to be reformed. Because the standards and textbooks are inconsistent, students end up with gaps in their math education. Because math builds upon concepts, students start to struggle. Often too much time is spent learning a topic which leaves not enough time to move on.
• “In a majority of states, American kids learned decimals for six years, until they were nearly catatonic with boredom, while kids in the world's education superpowers covered decimals for three years and moved on. That meant that all the time American kids spent going over--and over -- fractions and decimals could not be spent learning other things.”  
• “internationally the average eighth grade math textbook was 225 pages long; in the United states, eighth grade math texts averaged 800 pages.”
• Teacher training and the lack of rigor in the United States. In Finland candidates for teacher preparation programs must be in the top third of their high school graduating class, they must compete for limited spots in training programs (only twenty percent of candidates are admitted), and getting into a teacher training program in Finland “was as prestigious as getting into medical school in the United States.”  In the United States, “just one out of every twenty education schools was located at a highly selective institution in the United States. Far More than that had no admission standards at all. In other words, to educate our children, we invited anyone--no matter how poorly educated they were--to give it a try.” When efforts were made in the United States to move in the direction of Finland, critics immediately blocked those attempts, calling them “elitist . . . [arguing] that a teacher who struggled in school was actually a better teacher, because that teacher could relate to students who were failing.” When it comes to the amount of training received in their education programs, teachers in the US received far less than teachers in Finland.  In Finland student teaching lasts for about a year. In the United States it averages twelve to fifteen weeks. “For some American teachers, the lack of serious training didn't matter; they made up for what they didn't know by learning on the job. Some got lucky and had a strong principal or mentor. For other teachers, though, this education gap did matter. As more of their students aspired to attend college, and the economy increasingly rewarded higher-level thinking, more teachers were being asked to teach material they'd never really learned themselves.”

        As I mentioned before, the explanations that the author gives about the gap between the United States and these higher performing countries may not be fully explained, but many of her arguments have merit. The emphasis upon sports is real, and schools end up with many “coach” type teachers. Teachers who are there primarily because they love their sport, and not so much because they love to teach or are even good it at. That’s not to say that you can’t be a good coach and a good teacher, I have met plenty who are good at both. But especially in history teaching there is a stigma associated with coaching and teaching. We’ve all heard of the history teacher who played movie after movie for their students so that they could prep for their big game. IT’S REAL! One of the questions that was always asked when I interviewed for teaching positions was “What can you coach?” The first high school that I worked in had a history department of ten teachers. Only three of us could not coach anything, and when it came time to divide the staff when a new high school was built, coaching was the primary consideration. Never mind how good you were at your actual job. We had one teacher in our department who was always outside his classroom (a portable) bouncing a ball against the wall when he should have been inside teaching. I kept running into him during my prep period and it always made me roll my eyes. When the school was split, he stayed!

    Math has always been a topic of concern for me, especially as my daughter is about to enter school next year. At her registration appointment the Principal asked if I had any particular concerns, and of course my concern is that she learns her math and learns it well. Not understanding math can become a huge limitation in life. In my interactions with math teachers, I have met a lot of bad math teachers and only a handful of good math teachers. The author discusses possibilities as to why that is, one example is that secondary math teachers don’t necessarily have to major in math to teach it. I thought that the comparison of textbooks was fascinating because anytime I didn’t understand something in math I was told to read the textbook, and then read it again. As an eighth-grade student in math, 800 pages can be daunting. I love that the author tried to emphasize why math ultimately mattered:  “Why did math matter so much? . . . more and more jobs required familiarity with probability, statistics, and geometry. The other reason is that math was not just math. Math is a language of logic. . . Mastering the language of logic helps to embed higher-order habits in kids' minds: the ability to reason, for example, to detect patterns and to make informed guesses. Those kinds of skills had rising value in a world in which information was cheap and easy.”

   When it comes to teacher skill, I didn’t love how many generalizations the author used about the number of poor teachers out there. She briefly points out that there are some exceptions to the poorly trained teachers, but spends the majority of time focusing upon the lack of rigor in the programs, the low and non-existent admission standards, etc. I have met several fabulous, highly-intelligent, and amazing teachers. People who would have easily been in the top third of their graduating class, who attended respectable teacher training schools. While the schools they attended were not necessarily Ivy League schools, the programs were rigorous and these teachers work hard. These teachers are conscientious, constantly looking for professional development opportunities, and effectively teaching their students to think critically. So the bottom line is that in the education system you will bump into teachers that are unprepared and doing a poor job, but there are also some really great teachers out there so I don’t think the argument about teacher skill level paints a complete picture of what needs to change for education to improve. Of course if admissions standards were raised for teacher training programs, these excellent teachers that I am referring to would make the cut and would not be excluded from the profession, which essentially proves the author correct in the first place. And weeding out the bad teachers before they get to the point where they are teaching would obviously be a great thing too. Perhaps this filtering would allow for more focus upon professional development opportunities that push teachers above and beyond the mediocre seminars they are sometimes forced to sit through just to make sure those that are behind reach the appropriate level.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

     When I first heard about the book All the Light We Cannot See, I immediately placed myself upon the library hold list. I was number 176. I was tempted several times to buy the book because I didn't think that I would ever make it to the top of the list, but with a little luck (and a two-week checkout) it only took three months.
     The novel is set during WWII in Saint-Malo France, located in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel.  The story follows the lives of two main characters, a blind French girl, Marie-Laure and a German boy named Werner and shows the life-altering changes that war brings to the lives of each. Throughout the novel, the author does an amazing job of conveying the little ways in which people act with humanity and bravery, despite the difficult circumstances. I think that the way the author ended the book was both realistic and perfect in describing the impact that living through such devastation can cause.
    (This may sound like a little bit of a spoiler, but I cannot help saying that when the lives of the two characters briefly intersect, I half expected that they would fall in love and there would be a happy ending with the two of them together.  Obviously my hope was far fetched considering the wartime circumstances...)
    All the Light We Cannot See was definitely a book that made me think. Each time I set down the book, I thought about it constantly until I could pick it up and read again. I stayed up late for several nights because I wanted to know what would happen next. The format of the writing helped the book to feel like a quick read. The chapters average two-pages and skip back and forth between the two main-characters.

Here's a map showing where Saint-Malo is in relation to Paris. Image Source: Bing.com/maps

The author painted a vivid picture of Saint-Malo, the imagery (both through detailed words, and the cover of the book) is beautiful throughout, so I was curious to see what Saint-Malo looks like. This picture definitely makes me want to visit. Especially because the Brittany region of France is where

Kouign-amann is a specialty. 

Saint-Malo Image Source: Wikipedia.com

Marie Antoinette The Journey by Antonia Fraser & a Trip Planning Quirk

I love to read and learn about history. I love it so much that I majored in History Teaching and spent a few years teaching high school students all about United States History and Ancient World History. Sometimes this love history inspires me to read long books, very long books. Books that others might classify as "boring," or too "textbook." I can often get so caught up in these books, that I cannot put them down and end up neglecting things like housework, to-do lists, etc. Especially when I am preparing to travel to a new place I like to read anything I can about the history, so that I will know as much as I can about these places when I see them. I am currently fleshing out plans for an upcoming trip to London and Paris and since both of these places have such amazing and long histories, I have been caught up in the details of the history (rather than spending more time researching the logistics of the trip like should be doing.) Being side-tracked like this is probably one of my biggest quirks when it comes to preparing for a trip.

One book that I recently read and cannot stop thinking about, is Marie Antoinette The Journey, by Antonia Fraser. I also just watched the 2006 movie Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst. I found the details of Marie Antoinette's life fascinating and my desire to visit the Place of Versailles quadrupled. I have often heard her described as immoral, lavish, and a major cause of the French Revolution. I loved this book because I came away from reading it feeling like the author had done her best to present Marie Antoinette in an unbiased light and to detail who she was as a wife, mother, and queen. I finished this book feeling very sad for her and her family and the "unfairness" of the situation. The author doesn't deny her vices, but she makes the great point that the causes of the French Revolution were much greater than one woman could spend. I also was impressed by the bravery shown by both Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. They were given several chances to escape and they did not take them because they felt it their duty to stay. 

Some of the most interesting parts included the details of her journey to France at the time of her marriage. She was not allowed to take anything from Austria into France. The hand-over was on the border of the two countries and she had to leave everything behind and use new things from France, including her clothes and her dog. She was age fourteen at the time, and the thought of being married at such a young age and being forced to leave everything behind is a very foreign concept to our current culture. 

Her relationship with her mother Maria Teresa was also very interesting to read about through snippets of the letters exchanged between the two. Maria Teresa put it best when she talked about her daughters as pawns. "They are born to obey and must learn to do so in good time." Empress Maria Teresa on her daughters, 1756 (p14) The undertone of every message from mother to daughter as all about duty. 

The rituals and norms of the court were described very-well. "I put on my rouge and wash my hands in front of the whole world." -Marie Antoinette on her daily routine, 12 July 1770 (p 72) There was a story included in which Marie Antoinette had to stand shivering during her daily dressing, because people with higher degrees of authority kept entering the room and taking their place in the ritual, making it impossible for getting dressed to occur at a decent pace.

The most common misconception about Marie Antoinette, is the attribution of the phrase "Let them eat cake." I have read this in textbooks before and I find it sad that the idea is still passed on, when historical evidence is readily available to discredit the idea. "Now, if at all, during the period of the Flour War, was the occasion when Marie Antoinette might have uttered the notorious phrase: "Let them eat cake". Instead, she indulged to her mother in a piece of reflection on the duties of royalty. Its tenor was the exact opposite of that phrase, at once callous and ignorant, so often ascribed to her. "It's quite certain," she wrote, "that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The King seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shall never forget the day of the coronation." This was the tender-hearted Marie Antoinette who, alone among the French royal family, refused to ruin the peasants' cornfields by riding over them, because she was well aware of the minutiae of the lives of the poor. In fact that lethal phrase had been known for at least a century previously, when it was ascribed to the Spanish princes Marie Therese, bride of Louis XIV, in a slightly different form: if there was no bread, let the people eat the crust of the pate. It was known to Rousseau in 1737. It was credited to one of the royal aunts, Madame Sophie, in 1751, when reacting to the news that her brother the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand had been pestered with cries of "bread, bread" on a visit to Paris. . . . But the most convincing proof of Marie Antoinette's innocence came from the memoirs of the Comte de Provence, published in 1823. No gallant guardian of his sister-in-law's reputation, he remarked that eating pate en croute always reminded him of the saying of his own ancestress, Queen Maria Therese." (p135)

Just how much of an "outsider," Marie Antoinette always was, was portrayed best through all of the horrific attacks she endured through the press. They were constantly publishing stories and attacks with little evidence backing them, and she was always the "little Austrian." This may be crossing the an over generalization, but the criticisms that Marie Antoinette took, often from women, made me think about how catty women can sometimes be. And clearly it is not a new invention, it took place throughout history. Marie Antoinette is a prime example of suffering at the hands of female ill-will. I'm not saying that I believe the woman was a saint, but some of the details the author shares about the attacks she endured were outrageous. 

Obviously the ending of Marie Antoinette's life is well-known fact. I did find it interesting though that she was denied some of the dignities in her final hours that her husband received. He was given a few days to prepare for his trial, she was given a few hours. He was allowed to say goodbye to his family, she was not. She was forced to ride to the guillotine facing the crowd, etc. There are several more details that could be pointed out.

On one final note, if I had done my research prior to watching the movie I would have realized that the movie script was based on details from the book. I however did not realize that before-hand and so the whole time I was watching the movie I kept marveling about the similarities with the book. With the exception of a few things (some of the music, the inclusion of a Converse high-top sneaker in one scene) I thought the movie was excellent! And that is saying something because I don't normally love the lead actress. I loved how they kept the movie moving with snippets from the letters between Austria and France. I also loved the part of the story that they ended with--the royal family leaving Versailles. At first I wished that they had continued on and finished their story, however I think it was for the best because for the most part the movie had a very light-hearted vibe, and finishing their story would obviously turn the movie into a tragedy.