Posts
Must Read:
A Night Divided, by Jennifer A. Nielsen was recommended to me by a fourth grade teacher friend of mine. Some of her students were reading this for book clubs. I didn't know much about it when I picked it up, but boy was I amazed! This book is about a family that is divided between East and West Germany when the Berlin Wall is erected one night. Can Gerta and her brother live in a society where the secret police keep files on children and neighbors are spying on each other? What might they do to escape? This was a riveting story that kept me on the edge of my seat until the final pages. It has such a huge amount of tension that I am a bit surprised that fourth graders would read it and not have nightmares (I sure did!). Such a great book!
Must Listen:
Audio Dharma is a podcast that offers Buddhist talks and meditations from the Insight Meditation Center of Redwood City, California. I am NOT a Buddhist, but I think these talks are very interesting and offer a perspective on life that I didn't know about previously. Each podcast is about 45 minutes each. The episodes that are meditations are really helpful for relieving stress (at least for me).
You can find all their podcasts on iTunes or Here at www.audiodharma.org
Must See:
The Lives of Others is an excellent film about East Germany during the Cold War. This won the Best Foreign Film Academy Award in 2006. It is in German with subtitles, and it is SO GREAT!!! This is an R-rated movie filled with tension. But I loved this film because it puts a human face on the people on both sides of an impossible situation.
What are your Monday Musts for the week? What are you excited about? Let me know in the comments, and have a great week.
