May I suggest Algebra with a side of Jane Eyre?

Lately, my high school tutoring student, is working her way through Algebra, which is not at all my specialtyy.  Except that I do have a soft spot in my heart for math.  Not crazy advanced math, but nice, neat Algebra.  Polite, plug a formula into it and come out with the right answer, Algebra.  Can I just say, fellow moms, or anyone who often feels like life would be much easier with formulas and some concrete black and white answers, that Algebra is just the thing you need!!!  There is something so therapeutic about being able to find the right answer.  About a formula that works every time.  If only it worked that way in parenting ;)

And, speaking of high school flash backs, I decided to read Jane Eyre last week.  I know that I was supposed to read it my senior year of high school, and as I stood in front of my book shelf, scanning the books, hoping to find something that I hadn't read yet, Jane Eyre popped out at me.  I have been attempting to go back and read all those books from high school and college that I was supposed to read but that I opted for the cliff notes instead.  It turns out that Jane Eyre is SO GOOD.  Now that is the way to write a story ;)  And now I wish I could go back all those years and hear what my senior English teacher had to say about the book.  Did I write a paper on it?  How did I get by without reading these books?!!  And can I also just say, that when I was the English teacher myself, I would think to myself that if I , who ended up majoring in English, didn't read the books that were assigned to me, then it was some serious wishful thinking to believe that these students in my class who weren't even pretending to be interested in literature were reading anything that I was assigning!!  All of that to say, if you're looking for a great story, Charlotte Bronte provides it in Jane Eyre.

I think I might revisit Faulkner next.  My first summer of graduate school, I took a seminar on Faulkner.  Just Faulkner, on Thursday afternoons, for four hours.  I remember wading my way through his writing, so sleepy, and only getting sleepier as I tried to make sense of what he was saying.  It left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and now I want to try it again.  It changes everything when it's not required, doesn't it?

(the pictures have nothing to do with this post, but I just thought I'd add a little color to the post.  We are loving fall, and I am not quite ready to say good-bye and move on to the Christmas season. I haven't soaked it up as much as I wanted to.  Oh well, at least it will come again next year...)