Nothing to see this time folks…
This eclipse will only be seen from parts of South America, Antarctica and the South Atlantic.
Diving Gracefully
I found this article about the astrology of this period and I feel like I am falling rather than diving gracefully as the article suggests one should do. I am about the age of 42 and as suggested, perhaps I am having a mid-life crisis. More likely I am just tired and coming to terms with a thing or two. I know I will get above this melancholy and resistance to the changes occurring in my life. Only 9 school days left of this term. Reports to write, parent interviews, a deb ball to attend added to the usual routine means my holidays will be a fitting reward.
Highly Charged Date
September 11th is a date we all shudder to hear. Six years ago…I remember that day facing a class of students and trying to make sense of what they’d seen on TV before coming to school that day. I hadn’t been teaching long, probably about 12 months (I was a late starter at 35). Not an event we’d ever want to see repeated anywhere on the planet.
On a Lighter Note
My son is no longer in Ja’mie’s top friends on MySpace. He was booted today. He took it well.
I got loaned a copy of the sequel to “Don’t Call Me Ishmael”. ‘Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs”, I am told is even funnier. I could do with a laugh.
‘Rose by any other name’ by Maureen McCarthy
Maureen McCarthy read aloud the beginning of this novel to us at the Melbourne Writers Festival and I was hooked. I have devoured this book in a day. I could no longer resist it sitting in that pile next to my bed.
Remembering Young Adulthood
‘Rose by any other name’ is a novel I would recommend to all older teenagers about how life can get in the way of your plans and sidetrack you. I loved it as I remembered my first year out of school and how I went in every direction other than the clear and planned path. Sometimes the emotional upsets in our life drive us to seek escape from all the good and nurturing things in our life. They build a cranky outer shell that disguises who we really are from both the world and ourselves.
Unconditional Families
I loved this novel as a mother and a daughter. That tension between the mother and daughter that is so prevalent in my own mother/daughter and daughter/mother interactions. It was so realistic and funny and sad. Maureen McCarthy captures beautifully the pleasures and trails of belonging to a close family.
Rants
Sprinkled throughout the novel are rants about the things Rose hates, that she has published in a music magazine. My favourite:
“Don’tch just hate it… when you find out the all your dirty secrets are public knowledge? You go around thinking your life is private, that no one knows your business. Well, I’m here to tell you, you millions of multi-talented, meat-eating, hoodwinked, rock-loving Saucers, that not only do the banks, ASIO, the tax department and the credit companies have all your details on file, more than likely your family knows a lot more about your every move than you do. Yep,that’s right! Face it! Your mother reads your diary. Your siblings trawl through your emails. Your friends, hungry for contact with warm-blooded creatures after a day in front of the screen, spread your private confidences like preachers at a religious rally. Don’t blame them. Privacy is dead. Get used to it!……”
(pg 266)
And what a relief it is to have all our darkest guilty secrets and pains exposed and accepted. You try to save those close to you from the pain you experience, yet it is the pain of separation from them that is the real sin.
I really adored this novel. It contains so much emotionally; from the freedom and bliss of surfing, the joys of shared music taste, the intimacy of best girlfriends and sisters, the pain of betrayal, the vulnerability of being in love, the deep pain and anger of our most important people falling to human status, the discovery of loving the wrong person to the myriad of interactions that occur in relationships. It is a full and juicy novel.
Master of the Books by James Moloney
I was looking forward to reading this sequel to ‘The Book of Lies’. It was just as gripping and further unravelled the lies and truths of the first novel.
The characters journey further and fight against evil once more. I hesitate to give too much away. I enjoyed this novel and the many twists and turns of the plot. The Book of Lies has been destroyed and Marcel finds the true source of his gift.
As before, I look forward to the promise of the third book. At the Writers Festival for Schools the year 7 & 8 students attended James Moloney’s talk, and knowledgeably inform me that there will be another in this series. He keeps me wanting more.