Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. Rebecca Skloot did a wonderful job of bringing the Lacks family to life and explaining the science. She clearly presents the moral issues and gives you a lot to think about.



Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Just a little up date and slice of my current life


I haven't been doing a whole lot of blogging lately. It's been a very busy summer. In July we made numerous trips between Maine and Massachusetts. We worked on our new rental, cleaned and moved out of our old. I've been meeting with parents and teachers and trying to recreate an entire high school program (still much to do on that). In August we officially moved to Maine. I've been trying to take care of all those things that must be done when one changes states. I've been meeting with parents and teachers and trying to recreate an entire high school program and be ready to teach in a new school starting September 6. We've made two trips to our family cottage in central Maine, a trip back to MA for a wedding, and now here we are two weeks before the start of school. I've still not been able to get into my classroom (actually, I'm not sure which room is going to be mine), I don't have my curriculum guides for World Literature or World History, my 79 year old aunt is in the hospital awaiting open-heart surgery, my dad was just diagnosed with cancer (they found it in his chest on the CT scan yesterday), and this morning my brother called to tell me that Mom was calling the paramedics to take Dad to the hospital because he wasn't doing well (physically or emotionally) and there was blood in his urine. My husband is unemployed and we have no insurance. When I took this job (which I still believe was the right thing to do), I took a pay cut and my husband quit his job because we would be moving out of state. The leech field at our house has failed and we are still waiting for it to be replaced; it was supposed to be done last week. In the meantime, we are continually checking to make sure the septic hasn't backed up into the basement, conserving use of the plumbing, and having to go to the laundry mat instead of using the washer that is here.

Now all that sounds pretty bad, but I'm actually doing pretty well so far. I'm not freaking out or getting bowled over by the stress. It's not because I'm such a calm, put together person. It's because of my faith in God and my trust in his care and provision. It's a rather eerie feeling to see all that is going on in my life, and just feel so calm and at peace. But it's a whole lot better than feeling stressed out and overwhelmed!

Monday, August 22, 2011

You Don't Know Me by David Klass

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I stayed up until midnight to finish this book and when I turned the last page, all I could say was "wow". It took me a little bit to get into the book and to adjust to the narrative style, but once I did, I loved John's narrative voice. He was very funny! It's a very unique voice and a very compelling story.



Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Slice of Life

The only misadventures of this move so far was when beloved husband got on I-495 South, instead of I-495 North. I teased him that I thought he'd decided to head to Cape Cod rather than Maine. Oh, and then there was this morning when we went to return the rental truck (2 days late) and the owner and secretary were not in, but the owner's wife who knew nothing about checking in rentals was manning the shop. We figured out what we thought we owed, paid in cash, and got a handwritten receipt with a promise that if we didn't hear from them, everything was fine.

You can't make a major move like this without some story to tell!

On the more delightful side, I'm at my library (that is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays) and the collection is pretty good for a little library and it is a really nice, interesting space to work.