My Western Sky

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly Started: February 2, 2011 Finished: February 25, 2011 Format: Hardback--My last book purchased from the Border's in Mesquite, Texas. I am in mourning. Goal: 5 of 25 I first fell in love with Jennifer Donnelly's writing when I read A Northern Light , which is still one of my favorite YA books, so I was thrilled when I found out that Donnelly had written another YA book. Revolution uses the same "formula" as Northern Light : two girls from two different time periods are connected by a diary and a dark secret, but that is where the similarities end. These are two totally different books, but Revolution ranks right up there with Northern Light ; it is sensational. I escaped into the 472 pages of this book for most of February. It kept me warm during the snow days, and it provided stress-relief as the rest of the month whizzed by. I read it slowly (until the end), savoring every word because I wanted it to last. Thi...

Before I use this blog to step up on my proverbial soap box, I must make a disclaimer: I am not a political activist. In fact, what is happening in Texas public education right now is the reason I despise politics. In case you haven't heard or are too self-involved to care, Texas public schools are in trouble--not just any trouble-- but what my three-year-old would call "big bad trouble." $15-27 billion worth of trouble (depending on which "parent" you ask). Listen to the local news and count the number of times you hear "school district" and "budget cuts" in the same sentence--you don't have enough fingers and toes to keep track. Rather than look at the problem objectively, some politicians see things in hues of red or blue. Politics, pride, and that sense of who is "right" are getting in the way of common sense for some of our lawmakers down in Austin. While school districts are slashing at already meager budgets, cutting pos...

School closed for an unprecedented four days. Wind chills plummeted into single digits and sometimes into the negatives. Impassable roads left us home bound. These are not common occurrences in North Texas. Special thanks to the Packers and Steelers for bringing their winter weather with them to the Super Bowl. Despite being in our own version of the Frozen Tundra, this past week has been heavenly for my family--lots of cooking in the crock pot, cuddles, and curling up with good books. However, we did not become like Little House on the Prairie and totally disconnect from the world. Technology helped keep the boredom at bay. We watched our fair share of TV and movies, played Wii, and relied on Facebook to keep us up to date on the status of the rolling power outages and school closings. But we did turn off the TV and turn the pages of our books. Landry read for a total of three hours on Wednesday; she finished two and half Diary of a Wimpy Kid books over the course of our four-day su...

Matched by Ally Condie Started: Beginning of January Finished: February 1 (Ice Day 2011) Format: Started as an audio book checked out from the MISD Digital Library and then bought the hardcover from Border's Goal: 4 of 25 What a lovely way to spend an icy, frigid day off from school. I hunkered down in my Snuggie, drank hot tea, and read off and on all afternoon. Pure bliss. Thank you, Mother Nature, for this rare treat. Finishing this book and blogging about it are my two major accomplishments for this serendipity of a day; I feel slightly productive even though I should have been working on my UNT assignments. Blah. Now to this thought-provoking book, the first in a TRILOGY by Ally Condie , a former high school English teacher from Salt Lake City, Utah. (I have great admiration and interest in former teachers turned writers because it proves that it CAN be done. And I'm so excited to have another trilogy in my reading life!) I first heard about this book in December during ...