Book 139: A Clockwork Orange and Book Stats.

Title: A Clockwork Orange
Author: Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)

First Published: 1962

My Edition: Norton Paperback (seen at left)

Pages: 212

Other Works Include: Time for a Tiger (1956), The Enemy in the Blanket (1958), Beds in the East (1959), The Worm and the Ring (1960), Honey for the Bears (1963), A Vision of Battlements (1965), Abba Abba (1977), Earthly Powers (1980)

I decided that while I am chugging slowly along in Nicholas Nickleby I should start something a little smaller for Adam's Magical March Event. After looking at the titles I had on my list, this one seemed to jump out at me as being one that would suck me in.

I don't know too much about this one, beyond that fact that it is a dystopian and that it is on the weird side. I remember a friend in high school reading this for AP English, and he said it was crazy! I think I've also heard that there is some crazy slang and such. That's about it. But since I like dystopia and weird, I'm sure I'll find something to like in this one. :)

Anyone read this one before? Any advice for me as I tackle it?

Weekend Cooking-March 4, 2012: My Recipe Binder.

I'm really excited to be participating in Weekend Cooking this week. :) It is a weekly event held at Beth Fish Reads that focuses on food-related posts. I've been eying the event with a bit of apprehension for the last year, and I finally decided to join in on the fun.

As many of you know, one of my goals this year is to work on my cooking skills. Matt and me were in a bit of a rut when it came to meals, so I have been working hard to find new recipes to work into our meal rotation. The last couple of months have been a blast!

One of the things that I wanted to do was organize the binder Matt's mom gave me for Christmas this past year. Since there are 4 of us girls on that side (Matt's two sisters, our sister-in-law, and myself), she bought us all a binder and wrote out family recipes for us each to have. I was really excited about it-since some of the recipes are family secrets-and I've slowly been trying them out. I also had a big recipe card box filled with recipes from my wedding shower. I wasn't sure how I was going to combine the two until Matt knocked the box off the counter and it broke. With recipe cards flying everywhere, and the cats batting them around on the floor and under the fridge, I decided to reorganize the binder and add in everything. After purchasing page protectors and going crazy from categorizing, I finally got it all set.

Since the binder was a set and meant for recipes only, I followed the categories that it came with on the dividers. The dividers included:

• Appetizers
• Soups/Salads
• Breads
• Main Dishes
• Seafood
• Pastas
• Side Dishes
• Desserts
• Beverages

I think putting all the recipes in categories was the hardest part. Some of you on twitter were a huge help! I mean really, where does pasta salad go? :)

But now that the binder is all organized, I like flipping through it to decide if a recipe is going to be our next dinner. I also love that the cards come from multiple people. There is something about seeing old recipes written in others' handwriting that makes me smile. There are old family favorites, new recipes I've discovered on my own, and some clipped from magazines. Let me show you bits and pieces from the binder.

One of the best parts of putting this together was looking at recipes I got from my wedding shower. A blank card was included in with the invitations. This was a great way to get a lot of recipes for my newly wed self, and get a lot of variety! The one at right comes from my friend Kyla. I've made this one a couple of times and it is uber-delicious.

There are also a lot of recipes and things I've pulled from other places. While I'm not a huge magazine reader, I do flip through on occasion and pull out things I think might be useful in the future.

I'm starting to look for things to challenge myself with when I'm cooking. Little ideas like the marinades and toppings on this page are helpful. The casserole clipping is actually from Matt's mom. :)

Another thing I really loved about the binder from Matt's mom were the family recipes she included. I've been with Matt for almost ten years, so I've come to love quite a few of these as well!

This corn casserole dish comes from one of Matt's mom's relatives, and I've had it every holiday with them. :) It is definitely a good comfort food recipe!

 She also included the names of family members who loved some of the recipes. It was kind of neat to flip through to see everyone's favorites. I haven't made the Confetti Meatloaf yet, but knowing it is Sarah's favorite (Matt's younger sister), makes me anxious to give it a try.

One of the last things she included in the binder were recipes from her time as a profession pastry chef. She met Matt's step-dad while working at a restaurant (he was the head chef), so some of the recipes they created while working there have become some other family favorites.

In addition to some crazy dessert recipes I have to master some day, she also included some basics. I've never made bread from scratch, but it sounds like a fun experiment. :) This one, from her days of working at the restaurant, doesn't seem so bad for a rookie.

I also spent a day at my mom's plowing through her recipe cards so I could steal some family recipes from our side. My mom makes a bazillion kinds of Christmas cookies around the holidays, so I definitely needed to copy those down.

I was excited that she had some doubles in her recipe cards, so I just took the extra of a few. :) Seeing her handwriting will make the actual cookies even better. These, the Apricot Brandy Cookies, are hands down my favorite cookie. Ugh, SO GOOD. Believe me, these are addicting.


 The other cookie recipe I was happy to snatch are another favorite from my family: Belgian Waffle Cookies. These are wafer thin cookies you cook in a press over a stove. They have lots of fatty goodness in them, but egads, these are AMAZING. I can't wait to try them on my own.

There is something really comforting about having all of these family recipes together in one place. I'm one of those people who likes to hold on to memories. And knowing that I have all these in one place means that I can build on them and pass them down to my own kids. Cheesy? Heck yes! :)

I also love that I can continue to add to my binder as I learn new recipes. Already, Matt and I have tried new things found online and recommended by others. I'm sure those items will also become family favorites.

How do you organize your recipes?

Weekly Wrap-up for March 4, 2012: Thoughts on School.

I'm feeling very tired this morning. I think part of it is because I stayed up a little too late last night. That threw off my plans to try and get get into a decent sleeping schedule before going back to school. With working only a couple days a week for the last three and a half months, my whole schedule got messed up. I would stay up way too late and sleep in. Not good. I'm sure I am going to be tired tomorrow, but hopefully my body will straighten itself out.

Today I'm going to be working on a few things for the placement. This week at the school is odd, since the juniors are going to be testing in the morning 3 days, and the other kids coming in just for the afternoon. Tuesday is just a testing day, so I won't even see my classes. Hopefully I can get back into it and get to know my kids relatively quick, since I also have conferences Thursday afternoon. Odd, right? It should be interesting.

Anyway, lots of planning to do today. I did want to say thank you to everyone who commented with ideas for The Hunger Games. I've been brainstorming all week, and I think I finally have some solid ideas. I'm going to be outlining and starting the plan today, so we'll see how it goes. I also have a few other things to get ready for tomorrow and such, so hopefully I can get everything ready so tomorrow will go smoothly.

I was a bit of a reading machine this past week. Knowing that I was going to be finishing up the very end of two units, I decided to read the books again. I flew through both Night and Kindred. I won't be doing too much with the kids on either of them except reviewing before a test, but I feel better with having them fresh in my memory. I also pulled The Girl who was on Fire off my shelf to read, even before you all suggested it. :) For those who don't know, it's a collection of essays on The Hunger Games. I was considering using one in class and reading it with the kids, but since all of them talk about the entire series, I can't do that (don't want to spoil the other two). I did find a lot of interesting passages I might use, as well as some quotes I think we're going to discuss in class.

So even though I didn't even touch Nicholas Nickleby or any of the books I am planning on getting to this month, I still think I had a good reading week.

I am going to cut this short, since I just seem to be rambling anyway. There will be another post going up later for Weekend Cooking. I tried to get it up yesterday, but I got sidetracked. And I'm sure it'll be much more interesting than this was. :)

Happy Reading!

Thoughts on Kindred by Octavia Butler.

“...I realized that I knew less about loneliness than I had thought - and much less than I would know when he went away.”

I'm trying to get myself as prepared as possible for my new teaching assignment, and since I am jumping into the middle of a couple units on books I haven't read in ages. I managed to read all of Night by Elie Wiesel on Monday, and I spent Tuesday reading Kindred. It has been a busy week, so if my thoughts are a little scrambled, that's why. :)

I've read Kindred once before-in high school! When I was a student, this book was taught in a different class, so I was a little surprised, and excited to get the opportunity to teach it (I should note that I am teaching in the same district I graduated from).

Kindred is a novel that is hard to classify. I think it is often labeled as science-fiction, but I don't consider it under that genre. There is time travel in the novel, but since that isn't based on science, you technically can't classify it as such. :) But, it does have that other-wordly vibe and that one element takes the power of the story to another level.

The main character, Dana, lives in the 1970s with her new husband Kevin. It is important to the story to keep in mind that Dana is a black woman and Kevin is white. On her 26th birthday, she is suddenly overcome with dizziness and finds herself on a riverbank watching a young boy drown. Instincts kicking in, she pulls him out, administers CPR, and finds a gun pointed directly on her head. Again, she is overcome by dizziness and she finds herself back with her husband...but on the other side of the room.

Unsure of what happened to her, she tries to explain the experience to Kevin. Only a few hours later, she is again transported. This time she finds herself in a boy's bedroom as he sets his curtains on fire. It is only during this second experience that she realizes she has not only gone to a different place, but a different time. By asking the right questions, she learns that the boy she has saved this time was the same, and that he is her many times great-grandfather. She has been sent back to the antebellum south and to a plantation owned by the boy's father.

Butler does a marvelous job of developing the purpose for Dana to time travel. The boy, Rufus, needs her help to stay alive. Whenever his life is threatened, she appears to save him from danger. At different points in his life, Dana reappears just in time to save his life. She knows that to let him die before he fathers her own distant relative condemns her to an "nonexistence" of sorts (think the grandfather paradox-you can't change the past without harming your own future). So after she saves dear Rufus from whatever idiotic thing he did, she has to wait to return to her own time, and that only happens when her own life is threatened.

It is an interesting novel and one filled with so much that I'm going to discuss with the kids (I will be discussing the last portion of the novel with them, as they've read the rest with the teacher I'm replacing). Besides discussing the time travel, the relationship Dana has with Kevin, and Dana's connection to Rufus, there is also the huge issue of race-in both the 70s era of Dana and Kevin and the era of slavery. Because of the role Dana plays in Rufus' life, she is given different privileges from the other slaves. It was a stark contrast to my recent reading of Roots. Dana also has some interesting insights about how quickly people can fall into acceptance of slavery because the system works to insure that. I think that will be an enlightening discussion to have with my students.

I'm looking forward to talking about this one with the kids, and I can't wait to talk about the end of the novel. And if you've put this one off because you thought it was a science-fiction, don't be scared of it. The author once said she considered it historical fiction, so give it a try. :)

“Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free." I thought of the sleeping pills in my bag and wondered just how great a hypocrite I was. It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain.”

Goals for March 2012.

I decided at the end of January to create monthly goals in an effort to help myself be a little more organized in all aspects of my life. I wasn't sure if I was going to keep this up, but after a month of working towards my little mini-goals, I found that they worked for me. :)

The first thing I am going to do is recap what I had planned for February. My little insights will be next to the original goals in italics (and you can find the February post by clicking here). I think I did reasonably well all things considered. I neglected some things in favor of other opportunities! A little further down I have stuff outlined for March.

FEBRUARY RECAP-
Grad School:

• Revisit requirements for the three programs I am interested in. Create a timeline for due dates, etc. This is pretty much done. I am still applying to all 3!
• Write to old professors for letters of recommendation, etc. I am working with 2 professors, but I need a third. Would it be appropriate to ask someone I am currently working with?
• Draft personal statement Not done. I outlined some ideas, but I am struggling with this a bit.

Writing:

• Continue working on my current piece The writing I did do this month was on the same piece I started in November, so hurrah!
• Write 20,000 new words this month  Ha! I only wrote about 2,000 words this month (I blame all the reading), so not even
• Continue writing in my journal 3x per week  I'll give myself credit for this. I wrote about once a week, and that is a fine pace for now. I know it'll pick up once I start teaching.

Blog Related:

• Finish the two Dickens titles I have selected for the month (David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby) in celebration of his birthday I managed to finish David Copperfield. I think I could have plowed through Nicholas Nickleby in the last few days if I hadn't stopped to read a couple of books for the new teaching job.
• Make progress in War and Peace (Hoping to get to 120 chapters) Haven't even opened it. If I intend on rereading it by the end of June, I need to at least start it this month
• Start Les Miserables Haven't touched this one either. I have plans to start it in a couple more days so that I can hit the first checkpoint on the 18th.
• Read Roots for the readalong Success!
• Read other books off my project list if time. :) After realizing I needed to read some books before starting the new job, I neglected the list for awhile. I'm okay with it and I still had a great reading month.

Crafts: I'm considering this entire section a FAIL. I ended up organizing my recipe binder instead of some of these because it was more urgent. I have pictures picked out, just need to order them. We'll just scratch this section.

• Finish my senior scrapbook (from my senior year of high school. Seriously, I need to finish it)
• Finish crocheting my mom's scarf (been half done for a year now)
• Print some wedding pictures to put in our frames...we've been married for over two years. This needs to be done.

Domestic:

• Continue to try one new recipe a week (I might be combining this into my weekly update posts in my continued effort to make the blog more "me" than just books). I think I averaged it out to 2.5 new recipes a week! We had a lot of yummy dinners this month and I'm getting a bit more confident in the ktichen
• Use my crock pot more (inspired a bit by Trish and this post) Also a big success. I used the crock pot to cook a few new things, including a yummy pot roast on Sunday (it was SOOOO good).
• Clean out our second bedroom and organize (seriously, it is our dumping room) I actually went organizing crazy and went through almost everything in the apartment. The only thing that needs a good going through is our big coat closet. Matt also has a few boxes of junk he needs to organize.
• Continue my "ten-minute" clean-ups every night (basically I set the timer and clean up for ten minutes every night and stop when the timer goes off-very helpful in getting rid of daily clutter, etc.) This is probably the most helpful thing I have done for myself!

Health:

• Go to the gym 3x per week I'm going to be honest and say it was probably only 1x per week. With the mild weather, I've been doing a lot of walking.
• Work-out videos and Wii Fit 3x per week
• Carry water with me everywhere! Matt makes fun of my water bottles, so success!
• Continue my diet! I did better this month than last, but I still need to improve.

 

MARCH GOALS-
Grad School:

• Finish Personal Statement 
• Order transcripts from MSU
• Hopefully get letters of rec back?

Writing:

• Continue progress on WIP-Add 5,000 to it?
• Continue weekly journal writing

Blog Related:

• Finish Nicholas Nickleby
• Start Les Miserables-hit first checkpoint
• Participate in Adam's Magical March event (finish the books I selected)

Crafty/Domestic Goodness:

• One new recipe/week
• Pack my lunches the night before (I sometimes have the habit of skipping lunch while teaching)
• Continue to cook 1 new recipe a week 
• Work on scrapbook since it was a fail in February
• Put our pictures in frames!

Health: 

• In bed by 10:30 on school nights :)
• Water, water everywhere! (I'm hoping for 3 bottles during the day at school)
• No getting overworked with school stuff!

There you have it! I'm hoping that getting back into a normal schedule will help me as I start teaching again. Keeping regular hours and staying busy always makes me more productive!