Hectic After a Three Day Weekend

Tuesday was really hectic adjusting after the three day weekend. The biggest reason for that was that I had to go to a meeting with the education department yesterday that was an hour and a half long. There was a lot of important information, of course, but there's no doubt that it took up a lot of time.

Today is my busiest day of the week typically, since my night class is tonight. I'm hoping I can get all of my work done before that class, but who knows. I have quite a bit of it today. I've already done a fair amount though, and I haven't even been to my first class yet. I'm going to go read The Boy in Striped Pajamas. I have to have it read by tomorrow, and I want to get farther in it before my first class. It's a relatively short book, and I'm already more than half done. Hopefully it won't take long.

Book Review: Praying in Rome by Timothy M. Dolan

ISBN: 0804139288
Published: July 9th, 2013
Publisher: Image
Read from August 26th to September 2nd, 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads:

The Archbishop of New York offers his insight on his time in Rome, the Conclave and the election of a new Holy Father, Pope Francis.
Since February 2013, many have asked Cardinal Timothy Dolan to comment about Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, his final days in the Vatican, the Conclave, and the excitement and joy of the election of Pope Francis. Those two months--between the time Pope Benedict announced his retirement up until the election of Pope Francis--were a deeply spiritual and important period for the Cardinal. In this eBook original, he reflects on that most exciting of times. By turns, witty, provocative, and inspiring Cardinal Dolan gives a first hand account of what happened during those days and what it means for the future of the Church.

Review:

I thought this book was excellent. First of all, it's relatively short. As I read it on my Kindle, I can't give you an exact page number, but I feel as if it couldn't be more than two hundred pages at the absolute most. It's entirely possible that it's less than a hundred. Either way, it's definitely a quick read. I would have been finished with it much faster if I hadn't been so busy while reading. If you want something short to read in one sitting, I would definitely recommend this book for that.

In addition to being on the shorter side, I loved the writing style. It's written in a very conversational style that I loved. It's not formal at all. It's also very honest. It's intriguing to read about the conclave from the point of view of one of the cardinals, and since it was Dolan's first conclave, his views on it is even funner to read. He is fascinated by everything happening, and that helps make the reader just as fascinated. His writing style makes me want to check out his other books as well. I'm a big fan of it.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about the conclave from the point of view of someone who was there. I think it's a fascinating look at an event that few actually get to witness, and the writing style in this book is great. I just all around loved this book, and I would recommend it to just about anyone who has any interest at all in the conclave. As I said, it's a quick read, so it can't hurt to check it out and see if you like it.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Labor Day Traveling

I should not be writing this since I still have a decent amount of homework to do and it's somewhat late. However, I think the fact that I have no motivation to do homework is what's causing me to write this. I really have no motivation to do anything.

I just got back to school less than an hour ago, so I was in the car for almost four hours. Once we got to Indianapolis, we walked around downtown Indy for a while. My sister is currently going to school with a Swedish exchange student, and she came with us. It was fun because she seemed really excited to see Indy. It was the biggest city she'd been to in the United States other than the Chicago airport. Still, I'm exhausted after the car ride and that all day, so I'm not happy to be doing homework now. Hopefully, this work won't take too long.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long week, even if it's only four days of classes...

Book Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

ISBN: 0393926354
Published: January 1st, 2006 (first published 1911)
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Read from August 22nd to 26th, 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Born in England and transplanted to New York toward the end of the Civil War, Burnett made her home in both countries, and today both countries claim her as their own. The Secret Garden, her best-known work, became an instant modern classic and world-wide bestseller upon its publication in 1911. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on the first edition and is accompanied by explanatory annotations. "Backgrounds and Contexts" and "Letters" illuminate important aspects of Burnett s life and work and include her own writings on gardens and their spiritual healing. Four illustrations point to Burnett s prominence in popular culture. "Criticism" includes fourteen contemporary reviews and nine recent critical views of The Secret Garden, including Jerry Phillips s sociopolitical interpretation and Phyllis Bixler s comparative analysis of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Review:

The best word I can think of to describe this book is "cute." I read this for my adolescent literature class, and when the entire class was asked what they liked and disliked about the book, quite a few mentioned that they were put off by the cuteness of the book. I didn't have that problem at all though. I quite enjoyed how cute it was, but maybe that's because I went into the book expecting that and I had kind of accepted it or something.

Prior to taking this class, I'd heard of The Secret Garden and had absolutely no desire to read it. I only had an extremely vague idea of what it was about, and it didn't sound interesting to me at all. I'm kind of glad that I had to read it for school because I really enjoyed it. There were parts where I got a little bored, but overall, I thought it was a really good book.

The Norton Critical Edition (which is the edition required for my class) also has essays and such on the novel, and we're currently reading some of those for the class. I really enjoy those as well because they present quite a few different ways of looking at the novel, and many of them are about things that I would have never thought of on my own.

I definitely don't think this book is for everyone, but I found it enjoyable. It's definitely a "cute" novel, so if you think you would enjoy that, then I recommend checking it out.

Back to Hogwarts

It's September 1st. It's also nearing nine at night in Britain as I'm writing this, so I'm going to assume that the Hogwarts Express has already made it to Hogwarts.

We were supposed to all go over to my grandma's today, but she's apparently hurt herself (pulled her neck is what I was told), so she canceled it. It sucks that I won't get to see my family, but it does mean that I've had time to get homework done today (fun, I know). I'm pretty much done with all the work I need to do at this point, but I do need to read a bit of The Illiad. I think I'm going to take a bit of a break before getting to that though, since I've been doing homework for a while now.

After I get my work done, the rest of my day is probably going to be watching Little House and/or something on Netflix. This is pretty much the only day I get to relax at home, since I go back to school tomorrow and was busy the past two days. It's nice.