Miss Lonelyhearts is the Dear Abby of her day during America’s Great Depression. But Miss Lonelyhearts is a he, not a she, and that’s only the beginning of the ways Miss Lonelyhearts deceives her readers. Though he feels pity for his readers and their terrible lives, Miss Lonelyhearts has little to offer to help them.

Oddly, the most disturbed character in the book is Miss Lonelyhearts himself. He obsesses over the troubles of his readers but no one is able to help him. His editor doesn’t even try, regarding the whole Miss Lonelyhearts column as a joke, a publicity stunt. His fiancé suggests he quit the job, something he can’t bring himself to do. Miss Lonelyhearts tries several ways to help himself but all fail.

This is a very short novel, a novella really, but it is very thoughtful and darkly comedic. I read it twice, the second time after reading some commentary about the novel, and the second reading was a rich reading for me. The commentary says that Miss Lonelyhearts is a Christ-like figure who, in the end, sacrifices himself for his people, but to no end. The author, the commentary goes on to write, saw there was no place for the innocent, the sacrificial, in the evil modern world.

21. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Lenny and George are friends who travel together, looking for work during the Great Depression in America. George is world wise and street smart but Lenny is slow and naïve. George and Lenny have struggles finding work and Lenny, because of his limited intelligence, is always struggling to keep from jeopardizing the jobs the men find. Despite their struggles, George and Lenny have big dreams, dreams of getting their own place and living off the “fatta the land.”

Lenny and George find work on a ranch, but within hours of arriving, the men are worried about keeping their jobs. The owner’s son is a small man who is always looking for a fight. In addition, the owner’s son’s wife is a flirt, inciting her husband’s raging jealousy and anger. And it is not long before trouble comes.

A powerful story, with vivid characters and rich symbolism. One of my favorite reads of all time.

22. Nine Hills to Nambonkaha by Sarah Erdman

Erdman relates the stories of the two years she spent as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small village in the Ivory Coast in Africa in the late 1990’s.  I had to look up the copyright date after I started the book; was the book taking place in the 1990’s or the 1890’s? It could have been either based on the lives of the villagers. No running water, no electricity. Mothers didn’t know the birthdates or even the ages of their children. Very little reading or writing. No knowledge of birth control or ways to combat disease. Little knowledge of the outside world.

Where should Erdman, assigned to the little village as a health care worker, start? She begins to teach the mothers about their babies, how to help them gain weight, getting them immunized, and gradually begins to help them learn about ways to avoid getting AIDS and about birth control. In the end, she feels a deep sense of accomplishment in her work in the village.

My new favorite travel story.

209. Window Boy by Andrea White

I liked Window Boy. Sam Davis is an entirely believable character who both loves basketball and is confined to his wheelchair with cerebral palsy. The year is 1968. Sam, with the help of his babysitter, Miss Perkins, is allowed to enroll in public school. Here he fails and excels, meets friends and makes enemies. Sam’s mother longs for a normal life and she thinks she might find it in a new boyfriend. Sam’s most faithful companion is a voice in his head, Winston Churchill. Churchill cheers Sam on time and again, just when Sam is ready to give up, and helps Sam make his way in an uncertain world.

One of my favorite conversations between Sam and Winnie:

I just wish that the inside of me was outside so that everyone could know me, Sam says.

We all do, Sam.

210. Rules of the Red Rubber Ball by Kevin Carroll

Carroll shares his thoughts on finding success in this very thin inspirational book.

211. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Toad is both the hero and the villain in this wonderful children’s book. He is really just a big child himself and, despite the near constant admonitions of his friends, he cannot stop himself from engaging in danger. Boats and cars call to him and he answers, but his adventures lead him into terrible troubles. Toad’s weakness is also his strength and he is able to use his daring mind to find a way to escape. Delightful.

212. The Book Stops Here by Ian Sansom

The third book in the mobile library mystery series. Israel Armstrong unexpectedly finds he and a colleague have been given an opportunity to attend a mobile library convention in London and he is determined to go. The mobile library van Armstrong drives is ancient; somehow, Armstrong is told he may choose a new van. Armstrong and his friend make their way to London and, before he knows it, the mobile library van is gone. The two librarians track down the perpetrators. Along the way, they engage in misadventure after misadventure and that is the fun of the book.

213. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

I read The Road and found it to be an unsettling and dark tale. The Handmaid’s Tale is as well, particularly so for women. The time is the future. The world’s religious sects are at war. Women have been relegated to serving men and attempting to have children. Not many children are being born and no one really knows why. Our main character is trapped into serving as a surrogate mother in this new society and it is not a world she likes. Instead, she longs for her days with her husband and child and seeks to find a way to rejoin them.

It does not seem likely this will happen. Yet our main character has no other choices in this life that she now lives; she must either try to find what pleasure she can as the handmaid of another woman’s husband or she must try to escape.

214. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

Claire Waverly has made a life for herself in Bascom. She creates magical dishes with wonderful herbs and spices she grows in her own garden that can change the people who eat them.

Then her sister, Sydney, returns home, and she returns with a child. It takes Sydney time, but she, too, is able to find her own Waverly magic to wend upon her world.

202. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Everywhere I looked on blogs, on book lists, on book review sites was this book. Almost every review was a rave. I liked it, too. A solid story, about intriguing people in a little-known part of the world, a bit predictable, with a happy ending that was unlikely but not impossible. The characters were good, but real, and never sappy.

203. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Just as I felt certain things would turn out okay in Guernsey, I felt certain things were going to be bad on The Road. The plot is quite simple: A man and his son are traveling down a road, headed south, away from the terrible cold. Something awful has happened to the world. Everything has burned and ashes lay everywhere in drifts. Death is on every page of the story. If the man had simply been traveling down the road on his own, the story would not have had the power it has. The boy was the only hope of the story, though how the world could ever be restored I don’t know. I hated the story at times, but I also found it very true. It was beautifully written and very thoughtful.

204. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf

I’d planned to browse through this book, but once I got started I couldn’t stop reading. I was reading about reading and it was fascinating. Here are some thoughts I want to save and think about:

“While reading, we can leave our own consciousness, and pass over into the consciousness of another person, another age, another culture.”

“The implications of cognitive automaticity for human intellectual development are potentially staggering.”

“…by five years of age, some children from impoverished-language environments have heard 32 million fewer words spoken to them than the average middle-class child. In another study, which looked at how many words children produce at age three, children from impoverished environments used less than half the number of words already spoken by their more advantaged peers….In the most underprivileged community, no children’s books were found in the homes; in the low-income to middle-income community, there were, on average, three books; and in the affluent community there were around 200 books….One of the major contributors to later reading was simply the amount of time for ‘talk around dinner.’ The importance of simply being talked to, read to, and listened to is what much of early language development is about….”

“Some up-front costs, such as transfer errors and substitutions from one language to the next, are less important than the advantages, if…the child learns each language well.” (learning two languages)

“When one realizes that children have to learn about 88,700 written words during their school years, and that at least 9,000 of these words need to be learned by the end of grade 3, the huge importance of a child’s development of vocabulary becomes crystal-clear.”

“An enormously important influence on the development of comprehension in childhood is what happens after we remember, predict, and infer: we feel, we identify, and in the process we understand more fully and can’t wait to turn the page.”

‘Recent reports from the National Reading Panel and the “nation’s report cards” indicate that 30 to 40 percent of children in the fourth grade do not become fluent readers with adequate comprehension….the entire school system (has) different expectations for students from grade 4 on. This approach is encapsulated in the mantra that in the first three grades a child “learns to read,” and in the next grades a child “reads to learn.”‘

198. Dubliners by James Joyce

My new reading strategy is making me very happy.

I’m choosing to read books recommended by two or more persons or groups. Dubliners, as you might guess, is on numerous great books lists. But it was because it was on the list of an online friend that pushed me into reading it last week.

Each story feels like the author wrote a complete book and then savagely cut a hunk out of the middle and threw it into this collection of short stories. The endings never felt like real endings, just stopping points. The people all seemed to suffer deeply, but tragically, almost as if they destroyed their own lives, yet could not stop themselves. Like other great books I have read, I could have happily started the book all over again just as soon as I finished it. It was the kind of book you can see would be an even richer read had you had an experienced guide to take you through it or a group of other readers to talk about it with.

With books like this in the world, it feels sad to think of people reading their lives away in silly romance novels or stilted mystery books.

199. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

A leisurely reread of an old favorite on my new Kindle. Good advice for writers; good advice for life.

200. Judy Moody Goes to College by Megan McDonald

I am raving to every kid I see about how good this book is. Judy gets a little distracted at school and gets sent to a tutor for math help. Judy is elated to learn that her tutor is a college student; thus, Judy Moody Goes to College. And is college ever a wonderful place! Judy learns a whole new vocabulary, gets to do all the really cool college things (like eating at a salad bar—not just for teachers), and even acquires a little helpful math knowledge.

201. Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It by Geoff Dyer

Dyer is a brilliant fellow and a fantastic writer who is an awful failure at life. He’s always trying drugs or new experiences or travel to help him make it to the next day and, at forty, these things are no longer working for him. Yet he can’t seem to find anything else that does work. This book is a compilation of Dyer’s struggles.

Emmons serepititiously began to study gratitude during a conference on the classical sources of human strength: wisdom, hope, love, spirituality, gratitude, humility; he signed up for humility but was assigned gratitude. Emmons was surprised to find that by practicing gratitude, people can increase their happiness. Apparently, the brain can not experience both negative and positive emotions at the same time. Emmons proposes ten ways for adults to practice gratitude: keeping a gratitude journal; remembering the bad parts of the past and being grateful for getting through those times; asking three questions (”What have I received from ___?” “What have I given to ___?” and “What troubles and difficulties have I caused ___?”); learning prayers of gratitude; “coming to your senses”; using visual reminders to be grateful; making a vow to practice gratitude; using the language of gratefulness; going through the motions; and thinking outside the box for things for which to be grateful. He also calls for gratitude training in childhood, in order to develop a tool that will foster well-being.

195. Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost

Just in time for the 2008 Olympic Games, I get a behind the curtain look at China. And that look at China is not pretty. Despite all attempts to appear as a modern nation, China’s leaders continue to rule the country with an iron hand. The law is wielded despotically and seemingly at a whim. Capitalism has somehow managed to sneak into the country, but it is an ugly capitalism, run with the tired hands of a weary people desperate to make a living and with side effects of rampant pollution that threatens the air and water of every large city in China. And there are people, people, people everywhere, one and a half billion altogether, with all the horrors that such a large population brings.

Not a place I wish to visit.

196. Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States; 22,000 Miles; 200 Shoes; 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband; and a Bus with a Will of Its Own by Doreen Orion

After the virtually joyless trip I just took with Troost in Lost on Planet China (not Troost’s fault…China is just not a pretty world these days), I was happy to climb aboard with Doreen Orion in Queen of the Road and travel around the (relatively) clean U.S. of A. Orion’s husband convinces her to buy an enormous bus, convert it to a travel-mobile, and set out on a yearlong adventure across America. Orion is a fun traveling companion and seems to find every quirky spot and person in the country. A great summer read.

197. A Death in the Family by James Agee

There are good reads that satisfy and are thoughtful and have lovely writing. And then there are the truly great reads that leave the reader longing to start the book over and reread it just as soon as one turns to the final paragraph. A Death in the Family is a great read.

The story is very simple. Jay Follet, the dad and the husband in the family, receives a call from his brother that his father is very ill and is near death. Jay goes to be with his father and on his return is killed in an automobile accident.

But there is so much more to this book that makes it a great read. The writing is beautiful, filled with wonderful words and phrases that feel fresh and new without feeling artificial. Agee gets inside each character’s head so that each character seems unique and genuine. The reader is left with the mysteries of the story that so often occur in real life: Had Jay been drinking when the accident took place? Was Jay’s father really seriously ill and, if not, why did Jay’s brother call? What will happen to Jay’s wife and children? How will the accident change their lives?

A must read.

185. The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer

I chose this book originally because of all the positive buzz I heard about it. I was happy to see when I received it that it was set in San Francisco. Consequently, I saved it for a month so that I could take it along with us on our anniversary trip to SF. We are here in SF now. I started it yesterday on the plane and finished it last night.

It was the perfect book for this trip. Of course its setting in SF is fun, as we visited some of the places mentioned in the book. But, more than that, the book looks at the idea of marriage and love and relationships and commitment. Greer is a master of ambiguity, as is life, so his book perfectly reflects both the despair and the joy that marriage and relationships can bring.

186. A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester

What better book to read while on a trip to San Francisco than this one? A Crack in the Edge of the World tells the tale of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. The fires that started just shortly after the earthquake exacerbated the devastation the earthquake created. It took three days for the fires to be completely put out. By that time, all of Chinatown and much of San Francisco was in rubble and ashes.

It’s a little scary to read a book about an awful earthquake while visiting the site of the earthquake, reading expert opinion that there is a 65% probability that another terrible earthquake will hit San Francisco before 2032.

187. Roughing It by Mark Twain

Another book I chose to read while on our California trip. Roughing It is an account of Twain’s life in the West. Twain travels with his brother to California and Nevada during the time of the Gold Rush. Twain looks for silver, has run-ins with bad guys, and observes the West in its early days with humor and cleverness. Lots of politically incorrectness that probably struck the readers of the day as hilariously funny.

188. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Unaccustomed Earth is Lahiri’s third book, with two collections of short stories and one novel. She seems to know the immigrant experience, the loneliness, the out-of-sync feeling with the rest of the world. Her characters try to form new bonds and try to change to fit the new world in which they are living. The title comes from a Hawthorne quote that promotes the benefits moving into new soil, both for plants and for people. These benefits are subtle in the stories presented here and only occur after an initial crisis of transplanting takes place.

189. Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Famous & Obscure Writers edited by Smith Magazine

Here are some of my favorites:

“I was born with some assembly required.”

“I live the perfect imperfect life.”

“You are all in my imagination.”

“Take a left turn, then fly.”

“Cursed with cancer. Blessed with friends.”

“I wouldn’t change it a bit.”

“Can’t read all the time. Bummer.”

“Put whole self in, shook about.”

190. Live Generously: 50 Small Acts that Make a Big Difference edited by Julie Van Pelt

This little book shares ways we can do small things that will improve the world. Some easy things that I want to do are to plant bulbs and to use my own coffee cup when I buy coffee.

191. What Now? By Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett gave a commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence College that was so widely regarded that it ended up as this book.

I liked this part: “The secret is finding the balance between going out to get what you want and being open to the thing that actually winds up coming your way. What now is not just a panic-stricken question tossed out into a dark unknown. What now can also be our joy. It is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance. It acknowledges that our future is open, that we may well do more than anyone expected of us, that at every point in our development we are still striving to grow.”

192. This Land is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich

I like Barbara’s books, but she, an extreme liberal, does exactly what the extreme conservatives do:  She tells little scary stories out of context to promote her own agenda. Is our land really such a scary and terrible place? I don’t think so. What are her suggestions for making things better? She rarely proposes solutions, and, if she does, they are generally a single sentence at the end of her diatribe. Is it useful for people to read books like this? Not if it hardens us to the world and makes dialogue with others more difficult, I think.

193. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Sharp

A book that was on many people’s recommended reads lists. Jean Brodie is a teacher at a girls’ school with a following. She’s sharp and well-read and clever, which goes against the grain of the educational institution, but she is also flawed and leads her students onto paths that do not always serve them or the world well. Why is it when we find someone we admire we seem to ignore the parts that don’t work for us? A cautionary tale, in a sense, for me.

I took part in my first ever twenty-four hour read-a-thon, complete with prizes and mini-challenges. Great fun, even though I didn’t win anything.

So this will be a first time (and last?) I read eight books in the single day.

Here they are:

169. The Archivist by Martha Cooley

I’m participating in a twenty-four hour read-a-thon. I chose this as my first read (or half-read, as I was already up to page 175 when I started the read-a-thon).

Thoughts about the book: This book reminds me in many ways of one of my all-time favorite reads, Possession. The novel has several storylines: Matt and Judith, Roberta and her boyfriend, Roberta’s parents, Judith’s parents, and Eliot and his wife and Emily Hale.

As a librarian, I was intrigued with the idea of saving or not saving written work. In some fashion, Matt blamed Judith’s fall into insanity on his destruction of her survivor files and her poems. Judith had relied on Matt to keep these, but he felt their presence was exacerbating her illness. The saving of Eliot’s letters to Emily went against Eliot’s wishes, and the novel concludes with Matt’s thoughtful destruction of the letters.

The other theme of the book was Judaism vs. Christianity. All the characters of the novel wrestled with religion. Several converted from Judaism to Christianity. Christianity was a refuge for those who had suffered as Jews. However, it caused great suffering for those who later learned of the conversions.

I’ve had this book for over three and a half years. I’m happy to have finished it.

170. Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney

The Peppers are horribly poor, too poor for the children to go to school, too poor to celebrate Christmas, too poor to even buy an envelope to mail a letter in. Then the Peppers meet Jasper and their lives do a complete turnaround.

Five years I’ve had the Five Little Peppers. I’ve finally completed it!

171. Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates

If Beasts were a movie, it would be rated R, R for raunchy and revealing and reviling and revengeful. The story centers on a young college student who falls in love with her writing professor and his wife. The professor reads poetry from D. H. Lawrence and exorts his students to go for the jugular, seducing every girl in the class with his voice and his eyes. Gillian, like the others, falls for his charms. When the professor and his wife head off to Europe for Christmas break, Gillian discovers photographs that reveal the identities of others the two have used and discarded. The professor and his wife have wielded the power of their bohemian lifestyle on the innocents of the college to suit their own purposes. Gillian responds with fury and gets her revenge.

172. Pippa Passes by Rumer Godden

Pippa is startled to find herself chosen to dance with her ballet company on an international tour. While in Venice, she is selected to dance a special part designed with her in mind. She meets a handsome gondolier who hears her beautiful voice and decides she is perfect for his band.

A delightful lark of a story.

And I’ve had this book for a mere two years.

173. Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat heads off into the Canadian wilderness in search of wolves. He knows everything people have learned about wolves and everything he knows is wrong.

I wasn’t expecting this to be such a clever and funny book. Highly recommended.

174. The Mammy by Brendan O’Carroll

The Mammy has sat here on my bookshelf for almost four years. I finally picked it up and read it today.

What a crazy story! Agnes Browne and her heap of seven children. Her husband dead. Agnes never quite getting it.

A hoot!

175. Rascal by Sterling North

I’d anticipated spending the full twenty-four hours reading Newbery Honor books, but somehow this is the only one I have managed to finish today.

Rascal is a raccoon who befriends a young Sterling North. Together with Sterling’s indulgent father, the raccoon and boy traverse the wilds of Wisconsin, camp near lakes, and watch wild deer and mink. It’s a small book that draws beautiful pictures of life in America during the latter part of World War I.

176. Underground by Haruki Murakami

You know how Hakuri Murakami is wacky and zany and nutso? Well, not in Underground. He’s a Serious Journalist. I was like a third grader in the last hour of the day; I could hardly keep my seat.

But plug away I did, as Murakami interviewed victim after victim. And so on and so on.

Good news: I’m finished with one more dusty BookCrossing book.

163. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

At Ella’s birth, a fairy begifts her with the ability to always obey. It turns out to be more of a curse than a gift, however, when Ella’s friends learn of her compliance and use it to make Ella their servant.

164. Five Good Minutes by Jeffrey Brantley

This book is composed of one hundred practices designed to be accomplished in the morning, that take only five minutes each, and that help one to be calm and relaxed throughout the day.

165. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge appears in every story in this book, though she is generally not the main character. What a brilliant book! I loved the close examination of people and their relationships within a small town. A book I’m encouraging everyone I meet to read.

166. Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes

When I was in junior high and high school, my favorite subgenre was the group of books where the story takes place after the Apocalypse, after Earth has self-destructed and people are beginning to rebuild. This story would fall into that category. Lisse has just graduated from school and is hoping to be placed in one of the few jobs available in the world, but this does not happen. Instead, she is sent to live with a group of other unemployed young people in an old building in the dying inner city. Then the group receives an invitation to the Game and everything changes.

167. Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich

You can’t help laughing at Stephanie and her family and friends in this series. Grandma Mazur…Ranger…Morelli…Lulu…Tank…even Stephanie herself consistently find themselves in ridiculous situations. The humor is both silly and profane, so be warned.

168. Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm

Holm writes Babymouse, so I was pretty much expecting this book to be exactly what it is: Wimpy Kid for girls. A friend since childhood deserts our main character for a more popular group…problems in the family, including stepparents and juvenile delinquent brothers…a mom who just doesn’t understand…teachers who are clueless…mean fellow middle schoolers….I would guess this would be very popular at my school among fourth and fifth graders, just because of the fun format and situations to which most could relate.

 152. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

First time read. I’ve read all about this book, of course, but I’ve never read the book itself. Like many people. Characters that make you think, I know him…Doesn’t he go to church with me? Excellent. A must read for everyone.

 153. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

This book blew me away. Talk about a heartbreaker. Two boys lie to their parents, telling them they are going to ride their bikes up to a park when they fully intend to do something they’ve been forbidden to do. One boy doesn’t come home. Newbery Honor.

 154. Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes

A Newbery Honor Book, but also a picture book. A boy and his stepfather grow closer when they realize they are more alike than they thought.

 155. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

Loved, loved, loved this book. Miss Pettigrew is middle-aged, a spinster, and having trouble finding a new position as a nanny. She has never really been successful in her profession. She’s dowdy and has no friends and no suitors. Her life is about as grim as life can get. Then she is inadvertently sent by her employment agency to the wrong house where she meets a nightclub singer. Her whole life is about to change.

156. The Second Journey by Joan Anderson

Anderson, author of A Year by the Sea, has fallen back into old habits. She is running and gunning and she is not happy. Reflection about her stressful life sends on a short sabbatical where she reconnects with the deepest and most satisfying part of herself again.

157. Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Natalie Goldberg

Another book I picked up because the author is beloved. Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones was the first book I read about writing that inspired me. I’ve read all her books since then (including one very disappointing novel) but nothing’s clicked with me like Bones. This book was close; I felt a click here and there. Old Friend is fundamentally an expanded Bones. It has lots of fun exercises for those who are suffering from writer’s block. I’d like to keep it a little longer and try more of the exercises.

158. Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

Hollis is a foster child. Her foster parents seem to always find the bad in her and she ends up running away. Now she’s been sent to stay with an elderly woman, Josie, who loves her and gives her room. But Josie is slowly growing forgetful. How long will Hollis be able to stay with her? Newbery Honor

159. The Jazz Man

Newbery Honor. Sad, sad, sad. Why do all Newbery Honor books have to be sad? An African American family lives in an apartment building. The mother works hard and doesn’t make much money. The dad is always getting and losing jobs. The boy is handicapped and doesn’t go to school. Next door is the jazz man who plays beautiful music, music that gives everyone renewed strength and hope.

160. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

I read this before I read Omnivore’s Dilemma. The whole book can be summed up with the phrases circling the lettuce on the cover: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

161. Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America by Donna Foote

Does teaching have to be a twenty-hour-a-day job? Can it be a lifelong profession or does everyone burn out after a couple of years? Why is it so difficult? Why aren’t more children learning? How can we make it better?

This is the story of a group of Teach for America teachers working in one of the worst schools in America, a high school in urban LA. Some of the stories were so horrible I couldn’t imagine how I would last a month. Some of the teachers produced excellent results with the students, although moving from an average reading level of third to fifth grade when students are in high school is still leaving lots of room for growth.

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I bought this on pure impulse after hearing Cokie Roberts speak and visiting the bookstore that sponsored her talk. It was the best impulse buy I’ve made. Why, oh why, can’t textbooks read like Tony Horwitz? Lots of information, yes, but info interspersed with cool stories. Everything you always wanted to know about American explorers. Some I wish I hadn’t learned (DeSoto wasn’t a nice guy, for example.)

 152. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

First time read. I’ve read all about this book, of course, but I’ve never read the book itself. Like many people. Characters that make you think, I know him…Doesn’t he go to church with me? Excellent. A must read for everyone.

153. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

This book blew me away. Talk about a heartbreaker. Two boys lie to their parents, telling them they are going to ride their bikes up to a park when they fully intend to do something they’ve been forbidden to do. One boy doesn’t come home.

 154. Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes

A Newbery Honor Book, but also a picture book. A boy and his stepfather grow closer when they realize they are more alike than they thought.

155. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

Loved, loved, loved this book. Miss Pettigrew is middle-aged, a spinster, and having trouble finding a new position as a nanny. She has never really been successful in her profession. She’s dowdy and has no friends and no suitors. Her life is about as grim as life can get. Then she is inadvertently sent by her employment agency to the wrong house where she meets a nightclub singer. Her whole life is about to change.