Weekly Wrap-up for May 15, 2011: New Books and Stress.

I have truly been running on empty all week. I fell behind on sleep Sunday night and just never caught up. With interim grades due Tuesday morning and lots of things to grade and finish during the week, I was stressed and at my limit. But, things will only be getting better this week.

I have 1 more week with my seniors before they are done, and their big projects are underway. They were put in groups of three or four, and together they decided on a broad topic (like Survival, Love/Romance, Addiction, Heroes, etc). With their group members, they developed a theme and then a thesis. Each member had to find five sources (3 fiction (1 of those a novel), 2 non-fiction), and then put together a multimedia presentation that would last 50 minutes (a little under a class period). Sound crazy? It is. They also have to write a big formal outline and an annotated bibliography of their sources, so they have been stressed. But, the first two groups went and I was thoroughly impressed, so I hope the next 5 groups are as wonderful.

I only have 5 more weeks of teaching and working at the park, so I will make it through. It really stinks not having any free time, but I'm doing okay. Tired and a little cranky, but I am managing well-enough.

Anyway, on to the books!

I've been acquiring quite a few books over the last few weeks, so I attempted to round them up for a picture. Here are most of my new additions:


From L to R:

• The four books on the left (in the primary colors) are a box set of The Game of Thrones series. We don't have HBO so I haven't been watching the series, but I have heard so many good things about them that when I got a 40% off coupon and saw the set...well...
• On top of those are two paperbacks (a collection of Robert Frost poetry and Edgar Allen Poe stories) that I won from Trisha! THANK YOU! I will love them forever.
• The next four books are my new Penguin Clothbounds. They include A Tale of Two Cities, Middlemarch, Dracula, and Gulliver's Travels. I pre-ordered them a couple months ago and I jumped up and down when they came. My only complaint is that the whole collection doesn't fit on one shelf. ;)
• The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan: Okay, technically I haven't read the first in the series yet, but I know I want to get to them sooner or later.
• Ranger's Apprentice Book 10 by John Flanagan: I knew this one was coming out, so I made sure to go grab a copy shortly after the release date. Imagine my shock when I saw the notice on it that it is the last in the series! It made me sad, but also super anxious to get to it. One day...
• Divergent by Veronica Roth: I love a good YA novel, and since hearing about this one a while ago, I knew I wanted to read it eventually. When I saw one little copy sitting on the shelf all by itself...well, it ended up in my arms.
• Archeological Study Bible: I posted about this yesterday, but I am going to start reading the Bible, and this is the edition I chose.
• A whole slew of paperbacks. Includes The Madonnas of Echo Park (a win from hosting the readathon), and three ARCS from HarperCollins (including Tolstoy and the Purple Chair), which I cannot wait to read!

So yes, lots of new reads to get to at some point and only a handful from my list.

This week was full of posts, which you may have missed. The whole blogger debacle from Thursday night really messed up my posting schedule, so I decided to reschedule them over the last couple of days instead. Here are the posts from this week:

• The Bible Reading Project
• Vanity Fair June 2011 Readalong Sign-ups
• The Last Jane Eyre Post
• Wide Sargasso Sea Finished.
  
• Mary Barton Book Stats

I hope you all have a great reading week!