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Saturday, August 30, 2008
Movie: Saved!
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Friday, August 22, 2008
Something Unexpected in My Inbox
For your viewing pleasure --- A photo of Willa from COCA's "Under the Sea" Summer Camp finale unexpectedly found in COCA's latest email newsletter. Her role, you ask? Hard Coral.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Book Review: The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes
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Saturday, August 16, 2008
Grand and Hartford
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Book Review: The Elie Wiesel Trilogy
A few years ago, a lot of people were exposed to author Elie Wiesel's Night courtesy of Oprah's Book Club. Personally, Oprah annoys me but I cannot deny the positive influence that she has had, especially with the estrogen crowd, in promoting reading. So, between Oprah and your high school History or English teacher, you have probably read Night. For those of you who happen to live in a darkened cave (with internet access!), here's the story--Night is a small novel based on Wiesel's own experiences of having survived the Holocaust as a Jewish teenager from Transylvania. Wiesel's story is bleak and inconceivable. It offers no resolution, no conclusion, no hope. Yet, it is a powerfully important book. If you haven't read it, you must.
In Dawn, the reader meets Elisha who, like Wiesel, also survives the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald as a teenager. Elisha is living in British controlled Palestine when he is recruited by members of the Israeli freedom fighters. He agrees and without much display Elisha carries out his orders. It isn't long before Elisha is given a big job: kill a British prisoner at dawn. As he waits for the execution (or will it happen?), Elisha is forced to confront his past, his present, and his future.
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Day is considered the final book of the Wiesel trilogy. Again, Day contains biographical elements from Wiesel's life. A journalist, the main character, steps off the curb and into the path of an oncoming taxi. As he recovers in the hospital he must deal with the same reoccurring themes --- guilt, ghosts, and god -- that are found in his other books.
All of Wiesel's books are short, rich, and thought-provoking. And, who doesn't need a little more of that in their lives? So, go read, read, read......
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
No. 5, 1948
School started for the teachers on Tuesday. It's still funny to me that I ended up in the teaching profession. If we had crossed paths in college, you would have known that my sole professional goal was to become an art museum curator. So, I got the art history degree and promptly landed my first job in ............ a bookstore. Well, roll the reel forward and here I am starting my 10th year of teaching---history. And, in celebration of 10 big years, I have decided to indulge myself by incorporating as much art history into the curriculum as I can find the time to do. Who knows? Maybe I'll inspire a little Clement Greenberg or Jackson Pollock in my class.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
CraftaNostra
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Fiddler on the Roof
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Book Review: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
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Friday, August 01, 2008
Book Review: A Wolf at the Table, A Memoir of My Father by Augusten Burroughs
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A Wolf at The Table is what it is - a simple memoir of a son who spends a lifetime searching for the love of his father (who happens to be detached, cunning, and mentally ill). Yet, it is powerfully written and evocative. Burroughs' growth and maturity as a writer, the ease at which his writing breathes from the page is most evident in A Wolf at the Table. It compelled me from the start. In fact, I contend that might be the best Burroughs' work to date.
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