Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Doing some SERIOUS reading this summer . . .

I'd like to call this post: The Summer of Reading. Why? Because I'm reading a lot of AP European History materials. I'm also trying to get some "relaxing" reading thrown in as well. There wasn't much downtime this past school year for me to read for leisure and I missed it. Reading for me is the best feeling in the world. Relaxing. Serene. Peaceful.

A brand new spanking textbook for the AP Euro History Class (I'm talkin' a textbook with a copyright of 2011)! For History teacher geeks: You all know what I'm talking about . . . a new textbook is like Christmas! :-) I ended up choosing the Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, and Frank Turner text: The Western Heritage Since 1300. I've been spending the last few days reading through the textbook and getting familiar with it.

I'm also trying to read the book I gave out to students for the summer assignment: The World Lit Only by Fire (William Manchester). Manchester definitely portrays the Middle Ages in a realistic way: corruption of the Catholic Church and the violence of the survival of people (famous and everyday folks). I'll be curious to hear from my students if they enjoyed the book. If not, I may have to pick another book for next summer.

For a leisure read, I've been reading (and really enjoying) Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I highly recommend this book! The movie starring Julia Roberts is coming out in August but I would recommend reading the book first.

What are you reading this summer?

1 comment:

traci said...

i love anything by James Patterson... i only read for relaxation...

the last book i read in one sitting... while the kids were asleep... from about 11pm til 2:30 am...

enjoy your reading!!!!