Equality in 4th Grade

Among my many other traits and hobbies, my main profession is as a 4th Grade Teacher at a unique school in Denver.  We have a sliding scale tuition which allows us to provide a quality education in a small classroom setting to a racially, culturally, and socio-economically diverse group of students.

In light of the recent events in Ferguson, and fueled by my recent reading of The Warmth of Other Suns I decided to do an activity with my students today about equality.  Without passing judgement on the verdict in the case of Darren Wilson, we discussed what happened in Ferguson, Missouri and why people around the country are so unhappy with the decision that the jury came to.

I first asked my students what equality looks like to them.  To this question one of my students brilliantly responded, "Life is like a math problem: Both sides should be equal.  But if one side is less that's bad."  We then went on to discuss the unfairness of people being treated differently based on their background or the color of their skin.  I was so proud and amazed by the insight my nine-year old students had on the subject.  Here are just a few of the momentous ideas that they shared:

"It makes me feel like people think less of me because of the color of my skin."

"You should be looking at who people are on the inside not on the outside."

"It seems like were wasting what all those people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks worked so hard for."

After this we talked about the violent protests that have erupted because of the verdict in Ferguson.  Again, I was amazed by how my students responded:

"I think we should not be solving this problem with violence, that is what Martin Luther King said."

"We shouldn't be angry or violent, but we should honor Michael Brown and his family."

"It's our job to talk to people about it so that it doesn't happen again."

I live and work in a community where I am fortunate enough to be able talk openly about our country's history and racial injustice.  Though I know everyone is not so fortunate, I encourage everyone to think about how they could have a conversation with a friend or family member or how they could be an agent for positive change today.  For, as this man's sign accurately states, "Knowledge is power." After my enlightening conversation today, I know fourteen little future agents of change in this country, and quite a few future leaders as well.

Great Escape Mustang Sanctuary

A historic remnant of the original Byers, Colorado- home to the Great Escape Mustang Santcuary

Inspired by my recent reading of Joe Camp's The Soul of A Horse, all about the healthy incentives to raising your domestic horses like wild horses, I made a visit this past weekend to the Great Escape Mustang Sanctuary in Byers, Colorado.  The Sanctuary, located on 900 acres, is home to 22 mustangs on free roaming property, an additional six in a smaller pasture space, and a handful of wild burros.  It is an amazing non profit that takes these these horses from holding locations, restores them to health, and gives them a safe and comfortable home.  In addition, many of the animals are available for adoption to qualified homes.

On our visit we got a tour of the ranch, and then rode out in an old pick-up truck to find the free-roaming mustangs.  Here are just a few of the pictures I took of our trip to this great organization:

Our chariot

The moment we came across the mustangs grazing

Some of the mustangs were particularly friendly and are comfortable with humans around

These guys were after the hay bales we were seated on in the back of the truck

The herd had a lot of unique members including the roan and the tri-color paint you see here.

Scratch- one of the rescue burros on the ranch

To get more information or schedule your own visit with the mustangs, check out their website.

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking

I'm going to be honest with you up front, I did not read this entire book.  I am of the firm belief that the presence of this book on Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime should have come with a disclaimer like-

"Warning: Don't read this book if you at one time thought you were intelligent because Stephen Hawking will make you feel extremely inferior."

I feel that recommending this book as one of the essential books to read in your lifetime, is like me saying you must read Robert Hughes' Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History.  Though I will rave about this book in my review, I would never recommend it to someone who does not nerd out on Roman history as much as I do.

That said, I'm not saying this book was bad.  In fact, I learned an incredible amount which I then attempted to impart on a less-physicsy-more-4th-grade level to my students during our Space unit.  In the end I mostly ended up saying to them, "OK it's hard to explain but this book I'm reading is insane you guys, it's like on another level of smart."

How I felt for most of the book

In case you are not already aware, (I was not) A Brief History of Time is exactly what the title implies.  It chronicles the scientific explanations for the development of our universe up until now.  It also, details Quantum Physics for the better part of the ending.  I did read in full the part about black holes and the potential for time travel, because that seemed like a very interesting topic.  So, if you have any interest in learning A LOT, I do suggest you pick up this book and attempt to peruse.  However, I would not really say it would be on my personal list of books to read in a lifetime.

Orphan Train

Christina Baker Kline

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline was one of the books I picked to read from not on Amazon's list.  It's been circling around my friends and family and, since one of those friends who read it recently was my roommate, it's been sitting on my coffee table for quite some time.  Therefore, it was quite easy to pick it up and read it.

Right off the bat I was hooked.  The book switches back and forth between the perspectives of a young delinquent orphan in modern day, and an immigrant orphan from Ireland in the 1920s.  This character, who in the beginning of the book goes by the name of Niamh, rode the so-called Orphan Train from New York to Minnesota.  This was a phenomenon in the early 1900's that brought orphaned children from the overcrowded East Coast, to the farms of the Midwest in need of laborers.  Obviously my fascination with history kicked in, and I was entranced.  The tumultuous first half is filled with wicked foster homes and bonding between the two main orphans as their stories become intertwined.  This part I loved. 

After about two thirds of the book the historical drama faded, and the book became a love story.  I had loved the book up until this point, but was quite disappointed in the ending, which felt a bit kitschy to me.  However, if you enjoy this kind of fairy tale ending, the book will definitely be up your alley.

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

You know those books that, when you finish reading them it takes you awhile to start reading a new book because you become so involved in the characters and the story that you can't bring yourself to meet new characters or discover a new story?  I knew from the first chapter that this would be one of those books.

Hazel Grace Lancaster is a 16-year-old girl who had previously been diagnosed with Thyroid cancer.  That cancer metastasized into small tumors in her lungs which force her to be on an oxygen tank all the time, which she cleverly names Philip, "Because it just looks like a Philip."  Augustus Waters is 17-year-old boy who struggled briefly with osteosarcoma which took one of his legs from him, but at the time of the book is a healthy young boy.

The two leading characters meet in a support group one day, that they have both been involuntarily brought to, and their story begins.  The novel is filled with laugh-out-loud humor which, though it is often aimed at cancer, is never insensitive or callous.  This I had not expected, I went into this book thinking I'd be crying the whole time, but it is not until the end, after you are fully engrossed in the lives and love of these two individuals, that you are brought to tears.

The book is filled with too many quotes to possibly try and include in this blog post, all of which are unforgettable, and make me dream that someday I could be as brilliant of a writer as John Green.  The Fault in Our Stars was also recently made into a major motion picture, it comes out in a few months and I cannot wait to relive the story again on the screen.

The Warmth of Other Suns

Isabel Wilkerson

"The story of the Great Migration is among the most dramatic and compelling in all the chapters of American history- So far reaching are its effects even now that we scarcely understand its meaning" (as cited by Wilkerson, 2010, p. 10).

The Great Migration was a term I had never heard before until I read this book, and I am a little ashamed to say that.  There are many other details of the history of black America, that I had never known before I opened this book.  Though that is partly my fault, I also think it is the fault of our Education System which failed to convey this side of our country's history.  This, too, is one of the long lasting effects of the Great Migration.

The Warmth of Other Suns is not on Amazon's list (I promise my next one will be- I've already started it) but it was as life changing as it was informative.  For the start of the school year, my employer had required all of us to read one of three books to help us better teach the minority youth in our classrooms.  By chance I picked this book because it happened to be the only one that the Denver Public Library actually carried... and it ended up being a great choice.

The Warmth of Other Suns follows the stories of three migrants from the Jim Crow South to the "free" North.  They traveled from Monroe, Louisiana to Los Angeles, California from Chickasaw County, Mississippi to Chicago, Illinois and from Eustis, Florida to New York City, New York.  It interweaves these stories with the history of the movement all the way from 1910 to present day.  It reads like a work of fiction, and at times the horrors within are so unbelievable and heartbreaking that you wish it was, but it is in fact nonfiction.  All of these people were seeking, as Richard Wright stated, "the warmth of other suns" (as cited by Wilkerson, 2010, p. 13).

The book is stirring, emotional, and informative.  It is a commitment- 622 pages- but it is so captivating that I plowed through it in five days.  The book ends with a powerful statement about the brave souls who left their lives and family behind to seek opportunity: "They did not ask to be accepted but declared themselves the Americans that perhaps few others recognized but that they had always been deep within their hearts" (Wilkerson, 2010, p. 538).  Wilkerson is an evocative and vivid writer who's book will leave you with a different view of the America you know today.  I recommend buying a copy, or checking one out from your local library, today.

The Wild Horse Way

The Soul of a Horse

by Joe Camp

Ok.. In case it isn't immediately obvious, no this book is not on Amazon's Top 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime.  As an avid reader, I found it quite difficult to stick just to that list when there are so many amazing novels coming out every day that I would also like to read.  So I made a new deal with myself:  For every book off the list I read, I can read one book that is not on the list.  Thus, came Joe Camp.

Camp is the writer, director, and producer of the Benji movies.  One day, Camp and his wife Kathleen decide to delve into the world of horses which.. is not for the naive of mind or heart.  As Ralph Waldo  Emerson once aptly stated, "Riding a horse is not a gently hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire.  It is a grand passion.  It seizes a person and once it has done so, he will have to accept that his life will be radically changed."  I can only assume, that Camp and his wife had not heard of this quote when they decided to purchase three horses with no prior experience whatsoever.

Again, in case it isn't immediately apparent, this book appeals to a very select group of people: horse lovers.  Horses have been a part of my life since I was seven years old, and much to the chagrin of my parents, who paid for it my whole youth, it will always be a huge part of my life.  I recently bought a new horse named Coco Chanel, who is quickly proving to be the most wonderful animal I have ever encountered. 

Camp beautifully captures the world of horses in his account.  It is filled with anecdotes about those things that horses do every day that humans will simply never understand.  He also is extremely enthusiastic about the natural horse approach. This method of horse training is based on the idea that humans have put horses in conditions that are convenient for humans but not actually good for the animal.  It embodies the ideal that horses are healthiest and happiest when living outside, with no shoes on their feet, in a large space, with other horses to create a "herd" environment.  He also emphasizes this idea of "join-up" in which humans bond with their horse, and become their leader, so the horse wants to work with them rather than be forced to do so.  He gets a little preachy on this topic, and I'll admit I took a bit of a hiatus from the book because it was too much for me.  I understood his point, and valued it, but there was a part that felt like I was being lectured.

Camp brings the story back around though, and ends with a picturesque scene of happy horses and a happy family.  Over all, it was a delightful read about what life is like with horses.  If you have horses, have had horses, or might ever have horses, I definitely recommend giving this a read.

The Lion Mountains

A Long Way Gone

by Ishmael Beah

"You mean you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?"

"Yes, all the time."

"Cool."

From the very first page A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah shocks its readers.  It is powerful, compelling, and eye-opening.  It is a statement.

In his book, Beah recalls his time in Sierra Leone, his home country, as a teenager during the civil war through stories both heart wrenching and, at times, jaw-dropping.  In spite of the atrocities he commits in the book, you never find yourself siding against Beah as the enemy.  Throughout his journey, you find yourself crossing your fingers that someday he finds peace and reconciliation with himself.

This book has quickly gone to the top of my list of favorites, as one of those stories that opens your eyes to something we Americans in our houses have no possible way of relating to.  Yes, we have been involved in a war for the last several years.  But when I open my door, that war isn't storming into my apartment and burning down my home.  Beah was both a victim and an aggressor in the war, and he illustrates both sides beautifully in his Memoir.

I don't want to give away the ending of the book, but Beah proved himself to be an excellent writer.  If you love fiction or nonfiction, you will find an appreciation for the way Beah spares no detail in his account.  Similar to the last book on my list, be prepared to go on a journey with this one.  If you have read it, please comment and tell me your thoughts!

I'm beginning to wonder if that's what I should expect from every book on this list....

A Picture of Desolation

The Road

By Cormac McCarthy

Well first, I must apologize for my failure to keep up with my blog posts.  Turns out, being a full time teacher, and being in grad school occupies quite a bit of one's time.  I really don't think I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for all of that.  In a recent hiatus from writing papers I was able to complete a book and find a few moments to sit down and write about it.  That book was The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I'm sure we've all seen the apocalyptic zombie movies that have been permeating the movie theaters these days-

Zombieland

Shaun of the Dead

McCarthy painted a very different apocalyptic picture.  One in which there is no hope.  There is no salvation.  There are no one-liners for comedic relief.  All they have is the road and survival.  The struggle to stay alive is constantly endangered by the "bad guys" who capture and enslave or eat any others that they find on the road (they are not zombies, in spite of the comparison that pictures lays out.)

The book is written without chapter breaks, perhaps representing the idea that they never have a break in their journey.  It is desolate and dark but a book worth reading.   In our modern age when our "needs" include cell phones and iPads, this read truly shows what it's like to only have one other person in the world, and reduces "needs" to those most necessary for survival.

Finishing this book almost required a recovery period.  I needed a mental break in order to process the life presented in The Road; and it certainly made my daily complaints of lacking a boyfriend and my phone that is in a constant state of dying (even when it's on a charger) seem menial.  That said, it is a soul-wrenching page-turner that is definitely worth reading.  

2 + 2 = 5

1984

by George Orwell

I did it! I finished my first book off the list: 1984 by George Orwell.  This is one of the many books on that list that I'm pretty sure I should have read in American Lit X in high school.  Maybe it was on the reading list, but I somehow circumvented reading it.  Although, to be fair, I think that at that time in my life I definitely could not have fully appreciated this book, or any of our required reading in high school, as much as I can now.
1984, for those who don't already know, is about the futuristic society of 1984, shown through a post-WWII lens.  In the book, the world has been reorganized into three super powers: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia.  The story is set in Oceania, and the main character is a separated government worker named Winston.  This futuristic society has adopted communism and is ruled by a force called "Big Brother" who is present in every room in every building through a "telescreen" device.  I don't know about you, but I can't help but note the resemblance between Big Brother, and Adolf Hitler, the antagonist of the time period in which this story was written.

 Big Brother rules by three creeds "War is Strength, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength."  These three contradictions are the essence of the power that Big Brother has over the people.  They are in a constant state of reverence for and obedience to Big Brother, living in an illusion of the success of the communist government and economy.

The Happily Ever After Problem

As I read 1984 I kept wondering how it ends.  As Winston and Julia were defying Big Brother I kept thinking to myself, "Well, the only way for this to end happily is for an uprising to occur, or Winston's ex-wife to die or Oceania to lose the perpetual war, and then Winston and Julia will be able to be together."  Because the average book has a happy ending.  But as you keep reading you can't help but wonder, what would the happily ever after ending be?  How could this book possibly end happily? 

And indeed it did not for the world of 1984 was a dystopian society.  I'm not going to spoil the ending for you but it certainly wasn't the fairy-tale down-with-Big-Brother ending I was anticipating. If anything, it ends with a victory for the book's antagonist.  But then again, this book is supposed to be set in real life and in real life there aren't always happy endings.  And perhaps, therein, is the reason why 1984 is on Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime.  If this book had had a happy ending it would not have made as much of a statement about where society could head, or is heading.

But then I still can't help but wonder, if 1984 had a happy ending, what might it have been?

The List

Having lots of free time as a teacher (Sometimes I wish there was a sarcasm font) I used a tiny portion of that time to go through that list of books and compile, in an organized fashion, all of the ones that I had NOT YET read.

You may notice that Diary of a Wimpy Kid is absent from this list.  I have not read that book, but I refuse to read it.  When my students read it, it influences their writing in a way that is the opposite of what I am trying to teach them.  They write essays and answer reading comprehension questions as if they are writing a comic.  I recognize the value in it, in getting struggling readers to read, and I know there are many people who will disagree with me, which I can respect.  However, I am still going to abstain from reading it.  So, here is the list sans Wimpy Kid.

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. A Brief History of Time by Steven Hawking
3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
4. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
5. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
6. Alice Munro: Selected Stories by Alice Munro
7. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
8. All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
9. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
10. Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret by Judy Blume
11. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
12. Beloved by Toni Morrison
13. Born To Run - A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
15. Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
16. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
17. Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
18. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
19. Dune by Frank Herbert
20. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson
21. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
22. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond
23. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
26. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
27. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
28. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
29. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
30. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
31. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
32. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
33. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
34. Moneyball by Michael Lewis
35. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
36. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
37. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
38. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
39. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
40. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
41. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
43. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
44. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
45. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
46. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
47. The Color of Water by James McBride
48. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
49. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
50. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
51. The Giver by Lois Lowry
52. The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
53. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
54. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
55. The House At Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne
56. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
57. The Liars' Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr
58. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan
59. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
60. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
61. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
62. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
63. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
64. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
65. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
66. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
67. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
68. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
69. The Stranger by Albert Camus
70. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
71. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
72. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
73. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami
74. The World According to Garp by John Irving
75. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
76. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
77.. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

The Pre-Task

Prior to setting out on the task of reading all of Amazon's Top 100 Books, I had to read the list of Amazon's Top 100 Books.  This was a trial in itself.. going through all these great works and attempting to recall whether or not I read them in American Lit X in high school or not.  For example, I know for a fact that I read Fahrenheit 451 in high school.  I also know for a fact that I read Charlotte's Web, both as a child, and a little over a year ago to run a book club for my nine-year old students.
I can also confidently state that I have read Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Where the Wild Things Are.  Not only was Goodnight Moon a favorite of mine as a four-year old but I have the good fortune of having three beautiful nieces and an adorable nephew.  These books are all fresh in my memory, thanks to having read them to the kiddos in at least the past two years.

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein is another one that I have (believe it or not) also read recently.  We do a poetry unit in my 4th grade classroom in which all Shel Silverstein books feature prominently.  The Book Thief, I would love to say I read because of my classroom, but I owe that one to my librarian mother.  I read it long ago, before it became a movie and suddenly everyone knew what it was.
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by the brilliant Roald Dahl, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling (all of the Harry Potters if we're being frank,) The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkein (and The Hobbit even though it's not on the list,) Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee I can also confidently cross off the list.

I wanted to reserve special mention for Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  Hillenbrand is above and beyond one of my favorite authors of all time, if not my favorite.  She has a brilliant way of taking a completely nonfiction story and making it read like a novel.  I first read Seabiscuit many years ago because of my love for horses.  Even as a teenager, who struggled to follow some of the more dense parts of nonfiction writing, still found myself enthralled by her work.  If you have not read either or both of these books they need to go to the top of your list immediately.

Another special mention had to go to The Shining by Stephen King.  The movie does not even remotely do this book justice.  I read it while staying at my parents house and was too terrified to go down into their basement, where the boiler was, for the duration of my stay.  If you have the tolerance for a good scary story (I don't just mean scary, I mean bone-chilling terrifying) you must read The Shining.
Now that I've crossed off all the books I've read... I guess I have to get reading :)

The Task

I have always considered myself a fairly well-read person.  In high school and college, I was never the person who shirked my reading responsiblities for class in favor of spark notes or a descriptive summary from a reliable friend.  I actually read the books (imagine that!)

In addition, my mother is a librarian and has been forcing books on me since the day I was born.  I have never been without a stack of at least four books (and now my kindle) on my night stand.  She is a reading purist, however, which means, in spite of my kindle, she still buys me the actual flesh and blood books.  Or I guess I should say, paper and ink books...  Whether I wanted to or not, I was going to be a reader.

(My nightstand as it looks currently.  There's also a National Geographic in case, God forbid, I should run out of books.)

In addition to being a reader I like to fancy myself as a writer.  I have about four in progress books saved on my computer at the moment and someday I plan to finish at least one of them.  I am also a free lance writer for a local magazine called Denver Life.  Not to mention, I took four years of college Latin, which has turned me into (as my students so lovingly call me) The Grammar Police.

What I have lacked as a writer is the follow-through to actually complete a long term work.  Sure, I can make up excuses (too busy with grad school, too busy with work, too busy attending to my kitten) but they are all just excuses.  I stumbled upon a link the other day (literally I was on the website StumbleUpon) on how to make you a better writer.  One of the words of wisdom was to "find your muse."  Here is the link:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-writing-better-than-you-normally-do/

Conveniently, Amazon also released their list of 100 books to read in a lifetime.  So I combined the two and have started my journey to find my muse.... by reading Amazon's 100 books to read in a lifetime.  In case you are so inclined to do the same, here is the link to their list:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=pe_629030_112574320_pe_row1_ptr/?node=8192263011 

Maybe this is just another excuse.  But by starting this blog, I am already writing.  And at the end of it, at the very least, I will have completed a blog (to potentially be read by friends and family and hopefully a few others) and I will be DAMN well read.