In honor of National Poetry Month, I pulled Michael Gilmore’s Restless Astronomy off of my bookshelf and gave it the readthrough that it deserved. Admittedly, I am not an expert on poetry. Although, when I find poets that I do enjoy, like Saul Williams and Miguel Pinero, I dig in. Gilmore’s collection gave me plenty to underline and ponder on. Gilmore has a knack for speaking beautifully about mundane things like getting drunk or appreciated a barista who knows your drink. Restless Astronomy is a […]
Trench poets breaking my heart
Every so often I come across a book and think, god I wish I was still in the classroom so I could get this book into the hands of kids. I think I’m going to email my friend who teaches reading and be all crazy about using this book, or parts of it, in her poetry unit. Where was this when I was trying to learn/understand/make meaning of poetry? Not even to get started about WWI Trench Poets and the passing of the 100th Anniversary […]
The first ugly cry of 2015
Kwame Alexander won the Newbery Award the same week that Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman was announced for publication. Of course, Lee’s news totally trumped Alexander’s achievement, so to show some solidarity, I requested his novel from the library. And I was blown away. The Crossover is a verse novel (that is, a novel told in poems) about Josh Bell, a tween boy who is a star basketball player on his middle-school team. His twin brother Jordan, or JB, is on the team with […]
Almost as Good as that last Scene in North and South
Did everyone have a nice Galentines/Valentines/President’s Day/”oh dear godtopus the Fifty Shades the Movie has been unleashed on us” weekend? Mine involved my siblings all in the same state for the first time in 2 years and snowstorms. So, all things considered, not bad. But we aren’t here to talk about that, we’re here to talk about what I read over the weekend (because sadly for you, my Cannonball reviews have seemingly devolved into one long diary entry). I have DNF’ed The Line of Beauty […]