"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." ~Toni Morrison

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

What I'm Reading This Week

I discovered this blog: The Perpetual Page-Turner and spent a lot of time reading reviews and top ten lists and adding books to my TBR list.  The blog's author has inspired me to try writing reviews of some of the books that I read.

I read this post about common grammar mistakes on the Huffington Post blog and realized that I may not be overusing commas like I thought I was.

Finally, Dan Savage's attempt to write a review of Sarah Palin's new book make me giggle.  

I am still working my way through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and working on a review that will be posted here on my blog.


What are you reading this week?
Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.

Monday, December 23, 2013

WOTW: Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton: noun, a literary device; the use of a conjunction before (almost) every item in a series.

I read some poetry books earlier this year and found this term.  I love to use polysyndeton and now I know what to call it :)

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Writing Update: Did I Get My Groove Back?

I have been feeling inspired recently.  Last week a student entered my class and said, "Is it true that you're writing a book?  I just heard somewhere that you were."
I explained that I am writing a book, more than one actually.  I told him about NaNo and how I've never 'won' but how I keep trying and working on those books. 

Something about the whole conversation must have inspired something inside my brain because all of  a sudden, I am writing again. 

Did I get my groove back?  I sure hope so.  

Here's the update!

12/16/13:  438 words of ZF; about 150 words of a blog post

12/17/13:  91 words of ZF; 51 words of a blog post

12/18/13:  144 word blog post; typed up last 2 days of writing on ZF

Total = 874 words!
Yay!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

What I'm Reading This Week

image source:  amazon.com
I am currently reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, a very interesting book so far.  I don't often read nonfiction but I do enjoy it.  I have heard a lot about this book and decided to finally read it.

My favorite quote at this point is about a woman who worked with the HeLa cells every day in a lab.  When Henrietta died and the scientist was presented with her dead body, she had an interesting reaction:

"Then Mary's gaze fell on Henrietta's feet, and she gasped: Henrietta's toenails were covered in chipped bright red polish.
"When I saw those toenails," Mary told me years later, "I nearly fainted.  I thought, Oh jeez, she's a real person.  I started imagining her sitting in her bathroom painting those toenails, and it hit me for the first time that those cells we'd been working with all this time and sending all over the world, they came from a live woman.  I'd never thought of it that way." "   Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

It reminds me how we tend to depersonalize things; I guess it just makes some things easier to do.

Other Stuff I'm Reading:
I've decided to expand these Wednesday posts to include articles and other tidbits that I find interesting.  Today that's just one article.

As a woman who has chosen to be child-free, this appealed to me.

What are you reading?

Monday, December 16, 2013

WOTW: Affinity

Affinity:  noun, a spontaneous or natural liking or sympathy for someone or something

This morning I was bouncing some ideas around in my head for a blog post I am planning.  I wanted to use the word affinity, but the more I thought about it, the more wrong it sounded.  I had to grab a dictionary and look it up.  Luckily it means exactly what I thought it did but I like to double check before publishing something I am unsure of.  The blog post is still a work in progress, a review of a book I am reading.  Keep watching this space if you'd like to see the final product :)

Thursday, December 12, 2013

WOTW: Susurration

Susurration: noun, whispering, murmuring, or rustling

Seen in NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
"Vic lowered her head and listened to the susurration of the tires on wet asphalt, that sound that was so like white noise on the radio."

Sunday, December 1, 2013

WOTW: Panzer

Panzer: noun, a German armoredvehicle, especially a tank used in WWII

Seen in NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
"The car held the road like a panzer, never slipping, never wobbling, never slowing below sixty."