Year: 2019

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I’ve often made an end of year posts reviewing my blogging. I though this year I might review my blog reading. These are a few of the sites I’ve enjoyed. The blogs I try not to miss and some I would love to be able to emulate.

Cogdog blog. Alan’s blog has been a constant in my life for years. Discussing sharing, sharing WordPress code and more wrapped in a real life with a real voice. I follow Alan wherever he roams.

Read Write Collect is my main education hosepipe filter. Aaron reads and comments on a huge range of educational and web tech blogs wrapped in a tasty IndieWeb coating.

I spend more time on the gentle, eclectic Micro.blog community/aggregator than social networks nowadays. @smokey is a one man community engine nearly every week he produces a post with a list of posts and pictures he has picked out. A few of us tried this for a while, as far as I know @smokey is the only one to have kept it up.

I love Tom Woodward’s Weekly Web Harvest which I think might be auto generated from pinboard. The rest of the blog certainly isn’t auto generated but is a must read too.

Scripting News

Tom Smith, I follow across twitter, Instagram and now his blog. Creative Chaos.

ScotEduBlogs, an aggregation of Scottish Educational bloggers. I run this as a gift to the community, but also because it means it is easy to read great stuff from across Scottish education at all levels.

I read a lot more via RSS. My twitter browsing has decreased but I have a couple of private lists one called regular & one for primary classroom folk.

I continue to find some really good resources on twitter. I do wish more of the teachers sharing would use a blog. (much easier to keep track of, organise etc). If they are in Scotland they could join in ScotEduBlogs too.

Featured image from Image from page 285 of “Studies in reading; teacher’s manual” (1919) on flickr no known copyright restrictions.

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I love the WordPress display-posts plugin, I can do this:

[display-posts category="book" include_excerpt="true" include_title="false" date_query_after="2018-12-31" date_query_before="2019-12-31" posts_per_page="50" include_date="true" order="ASC"]

.post-11479 .display-posts-listing {
list-style-type: decimal;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column-reverse;
}

and get:

  • (1/12/2019) - Read So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley – Roger Steffens 📚★★★☆☆
  • (1/31/2019) - Read All Among The Barley by Melissa Harrison 📚 ★★★★☆ Thoroughly enjoyed. Some lovely writing. Perhaps too many themes pulled in at the end.
  • (2/16/2019) - Read: The Priory by Dorothy Whipple ★★★★☆ I can’t imagine that this novel would get through a writers workshop or past a publisher today. Several story arcs weave, some slip away. Lovey clear writing, some nice nature and a rather comfortable happy ending. 📚
  • (2/16/2019) - Read: The Blank Walk By Elisabeth Sanxay Holding 📚 ★★★★☆ A surprise. Noir-ish from the POV of a well off mother. Raced through it.
  • (2/27/2019) - read: Love is Blind William Boyd ★★★☆☆
  • (3/1/2019) - Amongst Women by John McGahern ★★★★☆
  • (3/6/2019) - Read: Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo ★★★★☆ Quite delightful set of characters giving a wee peek into life in Lagos at the top and bottom of the social ladder. Enjoyed.
  • (3/28/2019) - Read The Far Cry by Emma Smith winner of the James Tait Black Prize for best English novel of 1949. I enjoyed this a lot. Some lovely descriptions & character revelations. I do wonder if it would get published today. 📚 ★★★★☆
  • (4/20/2019) - Read The Melody by Jim Crace ★★★★☆ set in a slightly altered eastern European country, hints of strange wild creatures.
  • (4/30/2019) - Monsieur Ka by Vesna Goldsworthy ★★★★☆ fascinating idea, the decedents of Anna Karenina in post war London.
  • (5/7/2019) - Read: Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple ★★★★☆ another lovely read. I like the way her stories don’t have an arc in the way a modern novel does. I am taking her books only occasionally as I am worried about running out. 📚
  • (5/22/2019) - Read: My Former Heart by Cressida Connolly ★★★★☆ slow, in a good way, drift through the lives a few generations of women.
  • (5/22/2019) - Read: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne ★★★★☆ Recent social history of gay men in Ireland through the life of one and his unlikely family. Lots of jokes, set pieces and conicidences beyond belief.
  • (5/27/2019) - Read Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss ★★★★☆ Felt like two separate books, surprisingly moving when the stories came together at the end.
  • (6/24/2019) - Read Tiger by Polly Clark ★★★★☆ Enjoyed descriptions of the wilds of Siberia. The first couple of pages and the last two or three were weakest parts of the book.  📚
  • (6/27/2019) - Read: Sal by Mick Kitson ★★★★☆ Enjoyed the setting and nature writing. The narrative voice of 13 year old Sal was strong and the book wears its heart on its sleeve. Felt somewhat like a YA novel.
  • (7/5/2019) - Read: Transcription by Kate Atkinson ★★★★☆ WWII home front spies. Heroine Juliet is engaging & funny. Some nice twists & turns. 📚
  • (7/20/2019) - Read: Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple ★★★☆☆ My least favourite of a favourite author so far.
  • (7/20/2019) - Read: Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba 📚 ★★★★☆ Such a disquieting book, almost unpleasant at times. Short & powerful.
  • (8/1/2019) - Read: Bread Making for Beginners by Bonnie Ohara ★★★★☆ I’ve usually made bread by following the instructions on a bag of flour. Even the first recipe in this is an improvement.
  • (8/9/2019) - Read: The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov ★★★★☆ second time round after many years, still a great read.
  • (8/15/2019) - Read: So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell ★★★★★ Another one to re-read. Lovely voice. 📚
  • (9/7/2019) - City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert ★★★★☆ for the first half, some nice fast paste banter. Really laughed out loud.
  • (9/7/2019) - The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff ★★★★★ a lovely unexpected delight. A 2 week family holiday in 1930s Bogner described in gentle detail. Tender and a little sad.
  • (9/15/2019) - Read: The Book of Night Women ★★★★★ this is a hard book to put down but hard to read the iniquity and violence.
  • (10/15/2019) - Read Ask Again, Yes by by Mary Beth Keane ★★★☆☆
  • (10/15/2019) - Read: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton ★★★☆☆ I probably would not have finished this if I had another novel to hand, but I did enjoy it more as I went on. Family saga, I imagine this would speak to Australians more than me.
  • (10/15/2019) - Read: Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler ★★★☆☆
  • (10/30/2019) - Read: John Crow’s Devil by Marlon James ★★★☆☆ my least favourite Marlon James so far. Got a bit too “magic realist” for me around the middle. 📚
  • (11/16/2019) - Read: Calypso by David Sedaris ★★★☆☆ I think I prefer David Sedaris on the radio in small doses. I did laugh out loud a few times 📚
  • (11/16/2019) - Read: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins ★★★☆☆ 📚 l think I would have liked this better if I'd read it quicker.
  • (12/1/2019) - Read: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett ★★★★☆ good fun modern fairy tale, with some unlikely happenings.
  • (12/9/2019) - Read: The Leavers by Lisa Ko ★★★★★ great read that grew and grew on me. Chinese illegal immigrants in New York and back in China. Great characters and story.📚
  • (12/16/2019) - Read: Shadows on Our Skin by Jennifer Johnston ★★★★★ heartbreaking. 📚
  • (12/20/2019) - Read: Marilyn and Me by Ji-min Lee ★★★★☆
  • (12/27/2019) - Read: Rosewater by Tade Thompson ★★½☆☆ I like the Nigerian setting and the less esoteric parts. Found the time jumping annoying on Kindle.
  • (12/30/2019) - Read: Olive Kitteridge ★★★★★ As good as I expected. I was completely absorbed by stories. Probably the last book I'll finish this year and possible the best.