Book Time

So now that it's summer, I have some time in my hands again.  And my favorite hobby has always been reading.  I can get lost in a book quicker than anything else on the planet.  Oddly enough, not the reason I became an ELA teacher, but that's a story for another blog post.

Everyone knows I love to read.  I always thought it was a shame I don't work in a DEAR school.  It's well known I can be found outside, on a free period, in warm weather, reading a book.  My kids get me book marks as gifts.  And I have the best library in be school (yes, I'm tooting my own horn) thanks to Donors Choose. I try to read 1-2 books a month. Sometimes, I sadly fall far short, but the summer is my time to shine.  

Last spring, the Resource teacher at my school recommended a book to me.  We have similar tastes; historical fiction.  Usually we tend toward Ancient Rome, but this time he recommended a WWII novel, The Long Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.  It's the story of an Australian soldier in a Japanese POW camp in WWII. It's told before, during, and after the war.  It is amazing.  It is graphic both in terms of sex and violence, but it is the second best book I have ever read, and I have read A LOT of books.  I had a mani-pedi appointment as I neared the end of the book. I took it with me and bawled in the pedicure chair as I finished it.  It's that good.  I also got about a dozen people to buy it in the London Heathrow book shop as I was looking for All the Light We Cannot See, another great book. 

Please do yourself a favor and pick this book up, you will not be disappointed.