Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

Hey guys. Leave your link in the comments if you write one of your own.

1. Has anyone ever read Clarice Lispector before? I had never even heard of her until the Belletrist started posting occasionally and I picked up The Hour of the Start a week or two ago. I'm about ten pages into the novella and am totally blown away by the unique narrative. I feel like I need a college class to read this for and discuss with (either as the student or the teacher, not that I plan on that career path). 

2. I have a pre-sale code for the Michelle Obama event promoting her upcoming book in LA in November- cross your fingers for me! I have my hopes way up, which is stupid, since I know that there will only be a limited number of tickets available. But still. What if? WHAT IF?

3. Milk Bar LA is opening this weekend and it breaks my Christina Tosi-loving-heart that I will not be lined up around the corner waiting for some amazingness. I'll probably wait until November when the rush has slowed down and I have more down time.

4. This weekend starts a series of like six or seven weekends that I am booked up solid (ha, like I'm important or something). There's so many exciting things happening! My brother is getting married, I'm getting my itty-bitty tree tattoo, a Pete Souza event, Halloween activities and more. Now as long a we can stay healthy and I can keep up with my grading. 

5. I've started Fear by Bob Woodward and am totally fascinated... as we usually are with massive train wrecks. I've never read anything written by him before, I just know of him from his Watergate fame/heroism, so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. Books concerning politics can be so dull! I'm about twenty or thirty pages in and find it accessible and professional. 

6. Some of my students are doing ten minutes presentations this week on The Catcher in the Rye and it's really hard for me to sit period and after period and score them. It's not their abilities, it's just literally hard for me to sit for that long every day and not be able to interject or roam around the room.

7. We are in the midst of some pretty tough negotiations between our union and district and the "s-word" has been getting thrown around quite often. The whole thing is such a distraction and at the end of the day I wish they'd have a huge meeting for all of us and both sides present their facts. I am tired of getting things second- and third-hand. The uncertainty of it all is such a distraction and I fear things are going to get even more complicated over the next few months, since there are various ranges of opinions. We'll see....