It has come to my attention that some of you have had trouble commenting because I didn't know I had to change the setting to allow ya'll to comment. I believe I have now fixed it so feel free to comment away.
Also I've also had a request to add a way to get a RSS feed. I think I've also managed to fix that. How you go about setting it up, well, I'm not sure, so if someone wants to give it a shot, and it's not working I'll try again.
Thanks for your feedback and of course for reading along,
Magpie
Monday, July 29, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Chapter 5: Creating Tasks
There is something incredibly fun about working with faculty and staff and leading them in a book group setting. I think it's a bit of that whole, "the student becomes the master" thing. Not saying I'm better or smarter, because I can promise you, on a regular basis I'm reminded how awesome the faculty and staff on our campus are. Having said that, I love giving them assignments, because I just love seeing those smarts come out. I mean these people are great, funny, and smart and that is why giving them assignments have become my mission for every book we do. As you saw last week their assignment last week was to do something kind for someone on Tuesday in honor of the victims of the Vel d'Hiv. As a result people made donations to students needing help to get back to graduate school, donations were made, and I was even the recipient of a yummy apple pie.When we read Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto there was a great deal of discussion about bucket lists so one of the things I asked them to do was share with me some of those items. I dare you to read it and not be impressed or not want to update your own personal Bucket List. It's a good little list and it again reminds me of what an interesting group of faculty and staff that I'm surrounded and inspired by. If you haven't had a chance to read The Checklist Manifesto I really encourage it. As a list maker myself I loved it and it was one of the books that our group really liked.
've already mentioned the impact that Gretchen Ruben's book, The Happiness Project, had on me as being the initial kick start for me in writing this blog. Now let me say this. This was one of those books that the group just loved to hate. And hate is a very strong word, but you get the idea. They would complain about certain aspects of the book, but then with a guilty look talk about how they had done something she had encouraged, or liked something she suggested. As a moderator who likes to play the devil's advocate, it was a dream, and not a group didn't pass that I didn't go back to my office and kinda giggle about something that had happened that day. One of the things Gretchen mentions in her book was about her "12 Commandments" and her "Rules of Adulthood". While the discussion of these lists were earlier in the reading they were often referred to during the remaining part of the book so they were constantly brought back up and on people's minds. So this was an easy one. I encouraged them to share with me their "12 Commandments" or their "Rules of Adulthood" which I then combined in one major list. I still have mine posted on the bulletin board in my office and every now and then I read them, smile, and again am thankful for the shared wisdom of the folks I get to spend time with. Just about any book can have a task associated with it no matter how large or small. This is your opportunity to get folks thinking a bit more intently about the book, what they are reading and the effect it can have on them after the book has been finished and placed back on the shelf.
Magpie
Friday, July 12, 2013
Friday Fun
I try really hard not to be a book snob. When people tell me to read something even if it isn't something I normally read, I'll give it a shot. I feel if they know me well, they kinda get how I work and should know what I like to read. Often times, people aren't just off, they are WAY off (you know who you are). This is where not being a book snob comes in. I have to remember we all have those books we love to read, those types of books that make us happy, help us relax or just plain comfort us.
I like to call these types of books, "brain junk food". We all need books that are simply chips and ice cream after we've read books that are nothing but pure meat and veggies. After reading Sarah's Key, I'm sure many of you feel that way. In addition to reading Sarah's Key, I've also been reading a great book called, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the author of Seabiscuit. I picked up this copy at my conference this year and on a recent weekend roadtrip decided it was time to read it. I literally haven't been able to put it down, and I can't wait to go home and finish reading it! Why pick up another "heavy" book, I can't answer, it was at the top of the stack so I went with it. Suffice to say I'm way over due a little "brain junk food".
So its confession time. What is it that you read that you consider your "brain junk food"? I have a couple of different things that normally work for me when it comes to this. I am a big fan of Jane Austen fan fiction. I don't know what it is, well, yes I do. Sometimes when you've come to love a group of characters it's hard to let them go. So for me I love getting to check back in on Eleanor, or Elizabeth to make sure things are going well for them. Or simply reading more modern day versions of the stories, think Bridget Jones's Diary.
The one book that I go back to again and again is Nancy Turner's These Is My Words. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've read it, or how every time I read it knowing the end I'm still completely enthralled. Don't be shocked, but, it's also historical fiction, set in the American west during the pioneer days. I just love this book. The author based the book on letters and journals from her own family and that gives it a great deal of realism. While there are two other books that followed this one about Sarah's life, this is the only one I read, and re-read over and over again. Its also been about a year since I've read it so I'm really due a reading. Problem is, I suggest it to so many people or have "loaned" it out so many times I've had to buy at least 3 copies after the first one, and you guessed it, it is out on loan now. Here is my dilemma, go buy yet another copy of it, or maybe find another book that can become my new comforting brain junk food. Decisions, decisions.
Magpie
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Sarah's Key Final Assignment
Each time my faculty and staff book group reads a book I try to give them an assignment. With Sarah's Key it has taken me some time to really think about what that assignment could be. While doing some scheduling one day for work events, I looked at the calendar and realized that if today weren't our last book group meeting, we would be meeting next week on July 16th. Tuesday marks 71 years since the round up at the Velodrome d'Hiver. This got me thinking and I've come up with an assignment. I'm asking each of the book group participants to take some time on next Tuesday and do something kind for someone else. I want them to consciously think about something they can do to be of service to someone that they normally wouldn't. I'm going to ask if any of them would like to share their experiences, which I will share here. To all of you out there following, I challenge you to do the same. Take some time to reach out a hand to do something in service of another person or organization in need.
Magpie
Magpie
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Sarah's Key pages 221 - 293 reading questions
The questions below mark the final questions for the rest of the book. It has been a good summer reading for our group and they've seemed to enjoy our time together with this book. I hope you have. Stay tuned for a bit of a confession in Friday's blog!
Magpie
As Julia spends time with her sister and her husband she has some time to contemplate what was going to happen for her and her marriage. Do you think Julia will be happy after her marriage ends like her sisters? Does she have a second chance for happiness in a marriage? Does it feel like the author is giving you another clue?
Does it bother you that Julia is keeping things from Zoe it preserve her happiness as Sarah’s parents did for her?
After Julia reveals what she knows about Sarah to William, she doesn’t get the reaction she was hoping for. Had Julia spent so much time thinking about her reaction to the history that she didn’t take the time to consider how William would handle things?
On page 264 Julia interprets William’s expression as a plea for “time and silence, and peace. “ that he needed “time to find out who I now am.” Do you think such thoughts echoed those of his mother?
As Julia sits with the Tezac family after they have learned about the families secret, their reception of the history is mixed and it takes Zoe to tell them about Mame knowing and about how proud she was of her mother to have done what she did. What significance does the author give that moment by having a young person being the person to remember and be proud?
How did baby Sarah help Bertrand and Julia finally come to terms with their marriage and the truths about what they wanted?
Sarah, Julia and William all go to America to have a fresh start after a very difficult period in their lives. What will make this transition work for Julia and William where it didn’t for Sarah? How will they learn from her mistakes?
If you didn’t like the ending – how would you have changed it?
How did this book teach you about, or change your impression of, this important chapter in French history?
How do you imagine what happens after the end of the novel? What do you think Julia’s life will be like now that she knows the truth about Sarah? What truths do you think she’ll learn about herself?
What does it take for a novelist to bring a “real” historical event to life? To what extent do you think de Rosnay took artistic liberties with this work?
Why do modern readers enjoy novels about the past? How and when can a powerful piece of fiction be a history lesson in itself ?
We are taught, as young readers, that every story has a “moral”. Is there a moral to Sarah’s Key? What can we learn about our world—and our selves—from Sarah’s story?
In a story filled with so much grief, what were some positive aspects of Sarah’s Key?
Magpie
As Julia spends time with her sister and her husband she has some time to contemplate what was going to happen for her and her marriage. Do you think Julia will be happy after her marriage ends like her sisters? Does she have a second chance for happiness in a marriage? Does it feel like the author is giving you another clue?
Does it bother you that Julia is keeping things from Zoe it preserve her happiness as Sarah’s parents did for her?
After Julia reveals what she knows about Sarah to William, she doesn’t get the reaction she was hoping for. Had Julia spent so much time thinking about her reaction to the history that she didn’t take the time to consider how William would handle things?
On page 264 Julia interprets William’s expression as a plea for “time and silence, and peace. “ that he needed “time to find out who I now am.” Do you think such thoughts echoed those of his mother?
As Julia sits with the Tezac family after they have learned about the families secret, their reception of the history is mixed and it takes Zoe to tell them about Mame knowing and about how proud she was of her mother to have done what she did. What significance does the author give that moment by having a young person being the person to remember and be proud?
How did baby Sarah help Bertrand and Julia finally come to terms with their marriage and the truths about what they wanted?
Sarah, Julia and William all go to America to have a fresh start after a very difficult period in their lives. What will make this transition work for Julia and William where it didn’t for Sarah? How will they learn from her mistakes?
If you didn’t like the ending – how would you have changed it?
How did this book teach you about, or change your impression of, this important chapter in French history?
How do you imagine what happens after the end of the novel? What do you think Julia’s life will be like now that she knows the truth about Sarah? What truths do you think she’ll learn about herself?
What does it take for a novelist to bring a “real” historical event to life? To what extent do you think de Rosnay took artistic liberties with this work?
Why do modern readers enjoy novels about the past? How and when can a powerful piece of fiction be a history lesson in itself ?
We are taught, as young readers, that every story has a “moral”. Is there a moral to Sarah’s Key? What can we learn about our world—and our selves—from Sarah’s story?
In a story filled with so much grief, what were some positive aspects of Sarah’s Key?
Friday, July 5, 2013
Sarah's Key Reading Assignment
Next week we will be discussing pages 221 - 293 which is the conclusion of the book. Questions will be posted on Wednesday along with one final assignment so be sure to check out next week's blog. In the meantime check out some of these other interesting links and pictures about the events of July 16, 1942. I used Pinterest this time and just typed in Vel d'Hiv and these were a few of the ones in English that I found.
Magpie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vel%27_d%27Hiv_Roundup
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/france/vel_dhiv_roundup.asp
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/27/world/la-fg-france-vichy-20120728
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1880118,00.html
http://photosofwar.net/german-pows-forced-to-watch-concentration-camp-footage/
Magpie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vel%27_d%27Hiv_Roundup
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/france/vel_dhiv_roundup.asp
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/27/world/la-fg-france-vichy-20120728
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1880118,00.html
http://photosofwar.net/german-pows-forced-to-watch-concentration-camp-footage/
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Sarah's Key pages 147 - 220 reading questions
This week's discussion will focused on pages 147 - 220. The questions from those pages are below and I encourage you to think about them either during or after reading and of course leave some comments or other questions for us!
Magpie
As Sarah, Jules, and Genevieve make their way into Paris the lessons Sarah has learned helped aid her in that journey. Talk about how she was able to make her way through the crowd, how people acted around the German soldiers, and how the money from the guard at the camp once again save her.
On page 155 you begin to learn about Edouard’s pain about the events of 1942. How did it make you feel as a reader. Did you have sympathy for him also being a child and having such an experience? Were you pleased to know that Mame didn’t know?
On page 158 Sarah wrestles with hope for her brother while her innermost voice tells her no. As the reader were you having the same struggle at the same time?
Page 160 marks the last time we hear from Sarah. Do you miss her voice as a character? How do you feel about the focus on Julia’s perspective?
On page 162 Edouard tells Julia that a plumber was coming within the week to investigate the smell. If they had found Michael they would have been able to spare Sarah the shock of seeing him in that way. Would that have made it easier and less traumatic for Sarah?
Did Edouard and his father Andre owe Sarah or her descendants anything?
Edouard describes Sarah on page 162 as having “The eyes of a woman in the face of a ten-year-old girl.” And Genevieve on page 196 says that she has a “hardness” to her. Do these descriptions give you concern for Sarah concerning her future?
Through the search for more information on Sarah, Julia and Edouard are able to share something unlike anything else in all the years they have known each other. Do you think the author does this so that Julia can help Edouard heal in a way he hadn’t been able to before. Both his view of his father, and his view of what happened to Sarah?
On page 172 Julia wants to share with Zoe about what she is learning but doesn’t. “Of course I trush you. But there are things I can’t tell you because they are too sad, too difficult. I don’t want you to be hurt by these things, the way they hurt me.” Is this perhaps a statement that Sarah’s parents would have stated if they’d been able to?
On page 174 Sarah goes in for her scheduled abortion on the same day as the round up. Is this a coincidence? Did it take this one last thing for Julia to realize what she wants and her need and willingness to stand up for it?
Why do you think the author “scheduled” Julie to have her “operation” on the anniversary of Vel’ d’Hiv? Did the text describing Julia on that morning strike you with its double meaning? “I could only lie there in my paper dress and paper hat, and wait. Wait to be wheeled into the operating room. Wait to be put to sleep.”
Why did Julia first describe the nurse as having a hearty smile and then after the call he smile became garish? (p180)
Did you find it interesting that Bertrand was going to “exile” Julia, Zoe and the baby to the new apartment so he could come to terms with and/or forget them?
Do you feel like Julia is having her own mid-life crisis – or has this merely become and obsession? Or do you feel like Julia’s doggedness is a reflection of her being a journalist.
If her focus is from being a journalist, why did she miss out on interviewing the guards, police, or railway workers?
Has Julia been a bystander in her own life as many were during the round up? What was it about the decision to keep the baby that gave Julia strength to stick with her decision and not cry in front of Bertrand, as Sarah wouldn’t with the guards?
When Julia and Natalie go to visit her grandfather, Gaspard, and he begins to tell them about Sarah, Julia realizes that Natalie will now remember what she was hearing. Is this how stories like this should be told and remembered? If more people in France did this would the events at the Vel d’Hiv have been so easily forgotten?
Sarah returns to the states looking for Sarah – did you feel the same hope of her finding her as perhaps Sarah felt for her brother?
Did you make the connection between William and his mother not wanting to return to places that had caused them so much hurt?
Should the author have wrapped up the story here?
Magpie
As Sarah, Jules, and Genevieve make their way into Paris the lessons Sarah has learned helped aid her in that journey. Talk about how she was able to make her way through the crowd, how people acted around the German soldiers, and how the money from the guard at the camp once again save her.
On page 155 you begin to learn about Edouard’s pain about the events of 1942. How did it make you feel as a reader. Did you have sympathy for him also being a child and having such an experience? Were you pleased to know that Mame didn’t know?
On page 158 Sarah wrestles with hope for her brother while her innermost voice tells her no. As the reader were you having the same struggle at the same time?
Page 160 marks the last time we hear from Sarah. Do you miss her voice as a character? How do you feel about the focus on Julia’s perspective?
On page 162 Edouard tells Julia that a plumber was coming within the week to investigate the smell. If they had found Michael they would have been able to spare Sarah the shock of seeing him in that way. Would that have made it easier and less traumatic for Sarah?
Did Edouard and his father Andre owe Sarah or her descendants anything?
Edouard describes Sarah on page 162 as having “The eyes of a woman in the face of a ten-year-old girl.” And Genevieve on page 196 says that she has a “hardness” to her. Do these descriptions give you concern for Sarah concerning her future?
Through the search for more information on Sarah, Julia and Edouard are able to share something unlike anything else in all the years they have known each other. Do you think the author does this so that Julia can help Edouard heal in a way he hadn’t been able to before. Both his view of his father, and his view of what happened to Sarah?
On page 172 Julia wants to share with Zoe about what she is learning but doesn’t. “Of course I trush you. But there are things I can’t tell you because they are too sad, too difficult. I don’t want you to be hurt by these things, the way they hurt me.” Is this perhaps a statement that Sarah’s parents would have stated if they’d been able to?
On page 174 Sarah goes in for her scheduled abortion on the same day as the round up. Is this a coincidence? Did it take this one last thing for Julia to realize what she wants and her need and willingness to stand up for it?
Why do you think the author “scheduled” Julie to have her “operation” on the anniversary of Vel’ d’Hiv? Did the text describing Julia on that morning strike you with its double meaning? “I could only lie there in my paper dress and paper hat, and wait. Wait to be wheeled into the operating room. Wait to be put to sleep.”
Why did Julia first describe the nurse as having a hearty smile and then after the call he smile became garish? (p180)
Did you find it interesting that Bertrand was going to “exile” Julia, Zoe and the baby to the new apartment so he could come to terms with and/or forget them?
Do you feel like Julia is having her own mid-life crisis – or has this merely become and obsession? Or do you feel like Julia’s doggedness is a reflection of her being a journalist.
If her focus is from being a journalist, why did she miss out on interviewing the guards, police, or railway workers?
Has Julia been a bystander in her own life as many were during the round up? What was it about the decision to keep the baby that gave Julia strength to stick with her decision and not cry in front of Bertrand, as Sarah wouldn’t with the guards?
When Julia and Natalie go to visit her grandfather, Gaspard, and he begins to tell them about Sarah, Julia realizes that Natalie will now remember what she was hearing. Is this how stories like this should be told and remembered? If more people in France did this would the events at the Vel d’Hiv have been so easily forgotten?
Sarah returns to the states looking for Sarah – did you feel the same hope of her finding her as perhaps Sarah felt for her brother?
Did you make the connection between William and his mother not wanting to return to places that had caused them so much hurt?
Should the author have wrapped up the story here?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)