Karen’s Book Nook

I’m not sure where I heard about this book or if the cover just caught my eye in the new section of the library, but I’m reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. It’s all about thinking positively and living the life of your dreams.

Visual Supports for People with Autism: A Guide for Parents and Professionals by Marlene J. Cohen and Donna L. Sloan is chock full of examples of graphic organizers and tools for visual learners. People with Autism benefit greatly from picture supports and as a special educator I’m always looking for more ideas.

The Elements of Organic Gardening by HRH The Prince of Wales this is a full color coffee table style book that I’m anxious to read and peruse. I’ve already planted my garden and look forward to its nice organic bounty this summer.

Last night was the final webcast of Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth but I’m not putting the book aside. This one needs some re-reading and intense digestion. I really need to not just read and learn but apply some of his practices… I’m forever multi-tasking and I need to learn to be more present.

Since I’ve blown through 5 books in the past 3 days, I’ve got some time left on the remaining library books before they’re due. I’ve decided to pick up two that I hadn’t finished and had put aside to read other things, Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and Teacher Man by Frank McCourt. I saw the play Wicked and loved it. The book is good as well, but quite different. Teacher Man is a memoir and I’m almost through and want to return it to the teacher that I borrowed it from. It was kind of dry as I remember it but we’ll try it again.

I picked this up at the library as a reference book. I won’t be reading it cover to cover but will jump around to answer any questions that I have.  My switch to the Macbook Pro has been quite smooth and painless… ( I LOVE MY MBP!!) I figured most things out myself but I’m sure that there some things that I haven’t even looked into or tried yet (e.g. spaces, garageband, imovie, etc.)

I’m always interested in reading and learning as much as I can about Autism. Today’s read is Making Autism a Gift: Inspiring Children to Believe in Themselves and Live Happy, Fulfilling Lives by Robert Evert Cimera. I’ve had this one for awhile and it’s my final renew so I’m bumping it up to the front of my list before I have to return it to the library.

Trying to get through my soon-to-be-overdue pile from the library and this one is a shorty. Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen looks like a one day book for me. (At least I hope so… which will mean that I’m spending some of my vacation doing exactly what I want to do!

I’m participating in the Heard it Through the Grapevine Challenge that I heard about (a few times removed) on Lynne’s Little Corner of the World. I believe I originally found Lynne through Mary on the Weight Watcher’s Booklovers board after visiting Mary’s book blog. I’ve got tons of books on my TBR (to be read list)… WAY more than I’ve even listed in my Reading Now library at this point. (So many books, so little time!) Since the goal is to read 3 books between June 1 and November 30 that have been recommended to you by others, and my summer vacation falls between those dates, this is an easy one for me! I’ve got plenty of books to read in the meantime so I can save these so that I get to them during the right timeframe as well.

Extra special thanks goes out to Natasha of Mawbooks for helping me out and answering all of my questions about Now Reading. I don’t know her and found her through links on Mary and Lynn’s blogs. I searched for someone using wordpress with the plug-in and took a chance emailing her with a question. She graciously offered to help me in any way that I needed and it feels like we’ve known each other all along! Thanks so much!!

The first book for my challenge is Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog by John Grogan. It was recommended by fellow dog lover and my co-teacher Sydney.

I’m also going to read Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen. I read Water for Elephants and didn’t even realize that this one was out. It was recommended by Mary (Bookfan) a fellow WW Booklovers Board member.

I purchased this one to read with Oprah’s Book Club but life (work!) got in the way…. I’m looking forward to reading this one on my summer vacation. Oprah raved about it! So, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet is my final choice for the challenge.

As a dog lover, this one caught my eye in the library so I grabbed it. It’s actually over-due and I have no more renewals so I need to finish it ASAP and pay my fine. It’s worth paying the 10 cents a day to me to finish it instead of taking a chance that I won’t get it back for awhile. (Glad school vacation started yesterday at 2:30!)