Sunday, November 3, 2013

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Nov. 4, 2013)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

On the Personal Front:

Since this was the final week of the quarter, my time at work was filled up with finishing things up and doing report cards. This is the first year for many years that I have had to grade my classes. It was decided that all specialists would grade students using a separate report card. Since our grade-book vendor didn't have the report card ready, I had to recreate the report card using Google Docs which took one whole afternoon. My colleagues and I then took advantage of the time available when two classes went on field trips to make report cards for all K-3 students. It took 5 of us over two hours to make the roughly 400 cards. 

We were supposed to be able to use our regular vendor to do our fourth and fifth grade students. However, it wasn't until late Friday afternoon that we figured out how. It didn't work for me because one of my classes was missing and the rest had the wrong assessments. I had used the vendor's grade-book and thought I was ready to go with my fifth graders only to learn that they weren't getting letter grades but were using the same 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 scale as the younger students. It looks like I'll be spending most of Sunday afternoon converting the grades I have into the proper format for 90+ kids -- and each one gets 3 grades!

Last Week:

I had a pretty slow reading week. I finished only three books.
I have been catching up on Cat Adams' Blood Singer series. I read The Isis Collar and The Eldritch Conspiracy. Both were engaging urban fantasy titles. I finished up just in time, too. The next book in the series is being released this week. Reviews will be posted on Nov. 7 and Nov. 9 for these two.
Twinmaker by Sean Williams was a fascinating science fiction story. It was an exciting story that I am eager to share with my students. My review will be posted on Nov. 9.

Currently:

Haven't started my next book yet.

Next Week:

Here are my must reads for the rest of November.
I got The Whole Golden World by Kristina Riggle at ALA this past June. It will be released on Nov. 5.

Hard As It Gets by Laura Kaye is an Amazon Vine pick that has to be read in the next 30 days. It is a Nov. 26 release.
Wild Justice by Kelley Armstrong was a LibraryThing win that is being released on Nov. 26.

Kissed by a Dark Prince by Felicity Heaton will have its cover released on Nov. 4. I think this one is being self-published as I can't find any information about it at Amazon. I am told it is being released on Nov. 30.
Extracted by Sherry D. Ficklin and Tyler H. Jolley is a time travel story that I got from Spencer Hill Press. It will be released on Nov. 12. 

Uncrashable Dakota by Andy Marino is an alternate history story being released on Nov. 12.
Pawn by Aimee Carter and Crash Into You by Katie McGarry are both eARCs I got from NetGalley. Both books will be released on Nov. 26.

Reviews Last Week:


That was my week. I'm off to grade papers and plan next quarter's lessons. What was your week like?

11 comments:

  1. You've got some exciting books lined up for the month, Kathy! I read a book by Sean Williams a really long time ago, first in a fantasy trilogy I think it was (for adults), but I struggled with it towards the end. I think it was his first novel though.

    I have Pawn on my Kindle too. I keep seeing The Whole Golden World on blogs lately.

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  2. Nice fat mailbox! enjoy them all.

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  3. Looks like November will be a great month for you!

    Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out

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  4. Oh nice! I will probably read Wild Justice when it comes out! Read the first two solely because they were Kelley Armstrong books! Hope you enjoy your reads this week!

    Here's my Monday Wrapup

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

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  5. Hope you enjoy your reading and wow, what dedication recreating all those report cards. My kids' schools changed systems too so they are delayed and coming home today. Hope you will stop back by and add links to one or two of your reviews in my Small Victories Sunday linky. http://momssmallvictories.com/small-victories-sunday-5/

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  6. Hope you love The Whole Golden World as much as I did.

    Enjoy your reading...and what a pain that you had to put so much work into the grading!

    Enjoy your week, and here's MY WEEKLY SUNDAY/MONDAY UPDATES

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  7. WOW! You work full time and still read 3+ books a week. I can't even come close and I'm retired! Hmm, I must spend too much time reading other people's blogs! hahaha

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  8. Sounds like you had your hands full with the grading! Twinmaker sounds interesting and I've been thinking Pawn looks good... looking forward to seeing reviews of that one.

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  9. You are busy lady this week! However, you have some GREAT reads this week! I would like some of them, especially the Cat Adams books.

    Enjoy!

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  10. Best of luck on your November reading goals.

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