Abby: Politics, Romance, Poetry, and I'm back?

Well, I'm sort of back. I guess I just haven't had much to say. I'm not sure what I'll read for poetry, but I've loved the little I've read of Emily Dickinson so maybe I'll try that. I've never really read much poetry actually. So this should be fun. I loved the poetry from Grandma, Grandma Tense, Beccy, and Curt. I'm sure that Lulu will have some poetry to share. And Liz. And Kate, if we add her to here! I do have some to share, though more for laughs than anything else. I'll have to digging but I have a poem I wrote in junior high in the style of Shel Silverstein's "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout". Here's a link for another that some of you have already seen on my blog...it's good for a laugh too. I wrote it when I was thirteen, as a response to an English prompt in class.

In January I fully intended to read something political, but it didn't happen. I especially wanted to read something that explained the way "delegates" play into the primaries. It all sounds so similar to an electoral college when you really get down to the basics of it. And this whole time I had thought primaries were purely decided on the popular vote. I think I have it figured out now, but I was hoping to find a book that explained everything without being biased. I did request some childrens' books on elections from the library (thinking the simpler the explanation, the better it might be), but they only became available to me this last week so I haven't sat down to look at them.

I have been watching the debates and keeping close tabs on what's been going on and have been more interested in things than I have for quite some time. Right now I'm not feeling very optimistic about our presidential candidates. I try not to think about how things might have been if certain (grrr...Huckabee really bugs me) candidates hadn't entered the race at a later date than others in the Republican party and I shudder to think of Hilary as President. I started out so gung-ho about these primaries but right now I'm politically frustrated.

In February, I sort of read within our topic of Romance but I didn't have enough to say about the books to give them their own post. For the last couple of months I have been reading Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and thoroughly enjoying each book. I'm reading book four right now. They're fantasy, for those of you who haven't heard of them. Sort of "Tolkienesque" but at the same time not. I love how well he develops his characters and how involved I feel in the story. I haven't wanted to read much else lately. I guess I can count them for romance since Aunt Rae said they could be books with some romance in them or relationships and these do meet that criterion.

Autumn and I are reading "The Spiderwick Chronicles" together and enjoying them.

I've also been reading a lot of homeschooling literature as I prepare for next year. (Yeah, that may come as a surprise for any of you who haven't talked to me recently or caught that little paragraph on my blog...but we're homeschooling next year and I'm REALLY excited!)