what karen has been reading...

while in charlotte over the weekend i finished reading "the overachievers the secret life of driven kids" by alexandria robbins. she wrote another book that i read last fall called "pledged the secret life of sorieties". and one called secrets of the tomb: skulls and bones, the ivy leagues and the hidden paths that i want to add to the pile of books to read.

i enjoyed overahievers as much as i enjoyed pledged. it really makes you think - especially when you are employed by a university. the book follows the lives of eight or so high school juniors or seniors from a prestegious high school in maryland as they prepare and experience the SAT's and college application process. i know for a fact that i never pushed myself in high school as hard as these kids did. i took the ACT once. i got a score that was good enough to get into the college that i wanted to attend and teach in missouri and i didn't take it again hoping for a better score. i only applied to one school because application fees cost too much. if i hadn't been accepted i would have probably attended community college.

these kids took the SAT three or four times hoping to increase their score just a couple more points. many applied for early admission - something i don't think i knew existed. if they were accepted - they were stuck there. if the weren't - the could reapply or apply elsewhere. then the applied to several schools. they visited several colleges - i didn't even VISIT fontbonne until after i was accepted and had to take my placement test. and i was baffled how these kids could log onto a webpage and see their SAT scores on a certain date and time - or check for admission results on a college's webpage. what happened to the old "thick or thin mom? is it thick or thin?!?!?" days?

in between stories about the individuals there are periods of commentary and research. i find myself in agreement with the author about the ranking of colleges and universities. i won't say what it is - since i work for a ranked university and all. but i do agree with her.

i really don't think i would have been any happier in an ivy league than i was at a small school like fontbonne. i rather liked the small school atmosphere to be honest because i think it allowed for much more productive and intellectual conversations during classes because the student:teacher ratio was so small. it's hard to have a good productive conversation with 50 people in a room.

then again - had i gone to an ivy league - maybe nina's daddy daddy would have been a kennedy...

next on the book list is "if i am missing or dead". a personal memior about the author's life with an abusive husband and emotional feelings when her own sister turned up missing and then dead at the hands of her own abusive relationship. so far it seems most of the book is back story and the abusive husband story with the climax of the sister's death taking place near the very end and not holding as much of the book's focus which i find pretty disappointing since i was drawn in by the fact that the author's sister left a note in her desk drawer at work saying that if she were missing or dead - her boyfriend was to blame and why. it's also written in a very strange tense - sort of a first person present sort of tense with things like "i walk down the beach and sit on a log. kurt comes up and beats me up." which is strange for a memoir. plus - she doesn't use quotation marks when someone speaks. now i know i type in all lowercase letters and use a lot of ..... which drives my english major friends nuts (right kristine?) - but at least i use quotation marks!

gotta make sure i don't get myself too involved in a long drawn out book though. harry potter comes out in 3 weeks....