Reading life reality check in for 2016

readers note: I often use audible to read as it can read to me while I read or just read to me while I am on the go through Audible. 2016 was a many adulating milestone year for me personally but a rather slow year for my reading, total of 26 books finished this year so far. 8 books over half done with and several more just started.

In 2016 As of today I’ve read

Finished:
Most Books for NCIBA YA book of the year panel including

Tell Us Something True by Dana Reinhardt

1 Brie Spangler, Beast
great book! I really feel for the socially awkward big guy who has horrible self image, mom is trying to help, friends have their own agenda, identity, relationships

2. Tracy Chee, the reader
amazing epic fantasy fable of subversive magic and power of reading

3. Everland by Wendy Spinale
Steampunk Peter Pan with strong Wendy lead

4. Laura Stampler Little black dresses, little white lies
girl gets lucky gets blog teen interest internship in NYC
only thing, she gets the relationship blog and has never been in a relationship, forced to have summer flings, and start as dating amateur giving "advice" very relate able to today's YA readers

5. Lily Anderson the only thing worse then me is you
Great nerd relationship puzzle, extremely well written.

6. Tim Floreen, Tattoo Atlas
redemption forgiveness, change, transformation
can sociopathic killer be redeemed changed and programmed to care?
free will discussion

7. you know me well by Nana LaCour and David Levithan
Identity, coming of age, empowerment, character driven

8. Stacy Lee, Out run the moon
great depiction of San Francisco founding of China town, 1906 earthquake, identity

9. Front Lines Michael Grant
historical retake on world war 2 where women could fully join millitary

10. Timekeeper by Tara Sim
Great steam punk use of time and other fantastical elements

shadow of the wolf
Connect the stars
Wilfull machines
Warren the 13th
Odds of getting even
.tell us something true
Click here to start
Sugar
When we collided
The Real boy
Every single second
Every single word

23 books total

Read completely For 2nd time

The Last Wild
Book of Elsewhere the shadows
 Ghost hawk
Love in the time of global warming

26 total

Ready Most of the way through
The Reader
Jerkbait
Boomerang effect
Wonders of the invisible world
Night Gardener
Fuzzy
Little black dresses, little white lies

Partially done with several more

Resolution:
Write reviews of books and post to blog, while taking better reading notes, do book report projects, and write found poems from favorite pages.

2017 reading goal 36 full books with reviews, found poems and annotations,
Keep calm and READ ON!!

Stories Blog

Newest Blog post:

Scholars, common folk, sages and fools all through the ages continue to prove that we are a storytelling species. We are a species that, regardless of seasons or reasons, regales those around us dozens of times a day with an abundance of lessons, tales, myths, fables, fiction, memories, mysteries, narratives, anecdotes, advertisements, articles and all other types of stories. But are we also good story listeners? We here at Reach And Teach sometimes feel that as a species we can too often be far greater storytellers or ‘story givers' than we are as story receivers.

One of the key themes that guides us as an organization is that the shortest distance between two people is a story. And, the difference between an enemy and a friend is a story. When arguing about a particular social issue, instead of sharing an opinion, we are more likely to say "Let me tell you a story about my experience, my story, because that story shapes how I feel about this issue."

What is a story? A story, for the purposes of this blog and from our friends at Webster's Dictionary, is simply any account of imaginary or real incidents or events or a statement regarding the facts pertinent to a situation in question including narratives and anecdotes. Thus stories are basically anything we tell or write to ourselves or others through written, nonverbal or verbal language. All a story really needs is an observer (listener or reader), content (the story), a storyteller (writer or performer or storyteller), a willingness to share, and attention (hopefully) given on both sides to the story being portrayed.

The historical, physical, social and most of the other parts of the scientific record give credence to the need for a listening and attention revival. New and recent books and articles galore argue about the role of attention merchants and advertisers, the role of attention on memory, and the deterioration of communication attention spans into tweets, short profile updates, soundbites and snapchats. The impact of social media on listening and reading attention spans is clearly a hot item in social science and psychology today. Better storytelling and better listening can be remedies to attention spans run amok......

As the saying goes, listening is an act of love. Yet contrary to what would be healthy communication, instead of actively listening and thoughtfully reflecting... so often we immediately attach ourselves to the content and context of what the other is communicating. This is not healthy as it is an entanglement with the words being conveyed. If we allow ourselves the perspective of a listener and untangle the attachment to what is being said or written then we allow time and space for more complete understandings and discernments of the messages being shared............

http://www.reachandteach.com/content/article.php/stories