Happy May!! Happy BEA to those attending.
There is only one month of school left and then I can sleep and relax a little bit before my trip to Spain and Morocco in June. Life is crazy busy in an awesome way. My son turns 18 this month and is super close to attaining his the rank of Eagle in BoyScouts. My daughter has joined the a team competition for the Worlds here in October and she will be skating on the same ice as Gracie Gold for a day. So cool. I'm probably more excited than she is. My students are in the midst of two awesome projects. My Hart class is painting a mural with acclaimed muralist Gustavo Lira. My college class is done next week. Phew! My 9th grade class is working on a Ripple effect project. My trips for the summer are being finalized and fundraising is pretty much done. Thank goodness for May! I'm exhausted.
I have an awesome author in store for you this month. Her name is Pamela Carter Joern and she has written 3 awesome books.
Here are the three books she has written and their synopsis from Goodreads:
In Reach
In writing both rich and evocative, Pamela Carter Joern conjures the small plains town of Reach, Nebraska, where residents are stuck tight in the tension between loneliness and the risks of relationships.
With insight, wry humor, and deep compassion, Joern renders a cast of recurring characters engaged in battles public and private, epic and mundane: a husband and wife find themselves the center of a local scandal; a widow yearns for companionship, but on her own terms; a father and son struggle with their broken relationship; a man longs for escape from a community’s limited view of love; a boy’s misguided attempt to protect his brother results in a senseless tragedy. In the town of Reach, where there is hope and hardship, connections may happen in surprising ways or lie achingly beyond grasp.
The Plain Sense of ThingsIn prose as clean and beautiful as the stark prairie setting, The Plain Sense of Things tells the stories of three generations of a western Nebraska family. These tales of sorrow and hope are connected by the sinews of need and flawed love that keep families together. A farm wife struggles to support her children after the death of her second husband; a young woman grapples with the shift from girlhood to motherhood; World War II wreaks havoc on those left behind; and a failing farmstead breaks a family’s heart. Amid hardship and change, these interwoven stories illuminate the resilience and dignity—and the subtle sweetness—of a life lived in clear view of the plain sense of things.
The Floor of the Sky
In the Nebraska Sandhills, nothing is more sacred than the bond of family and land—and nothing is more capable of causing deep wounds. In Pamela Carter Joern's riveting novel The Floor of the Sky, Toby Jenkins, an aging widow, is on the verge of losing her family's ranch when her granddaughter Lila—a city girl, sixteen and pregnant—shows up for the summer. While facing painful decisions about her future, Lila uncovers festering secrets about her grandmother's past—discoveries that spur Toby to reconsider the ambiguous ties she holds to her embittered sister Gertie, her loyal ranch hand George, her not-so-sympathetic daughter Nola Jean, and ultimately, herself. Propelled by stark realism in breakneck prose, The Floor of the Sky reveals the inner worlds of characters isolated by geography and habit. Set against the sweeping changes in rural America—from the onslaught of corporate agribusiness to the pressures exerted by superstores on small towns—Joern's compelling story bears witness to the fortitude and hard-won wisdom of people whose lives have been forged by devotion to the land.
This month you can expect a giveaway, a book review, an author interview and hopefully a guest post. Please check out Pamela's website at http://pamelacarterjoern.com/
Happy Reading
Hope the sun shines down on you and warms your days.
