The Running Dream and the Revolution

This post could be about how much I wish I could be a runner, but how that will always be a dream because I hate running. Really hate running. I ran every day straight for a year and a half in college and got endorphins once. Once, I tell you. Even then, those endorphins were weak and perhaps due to altitude.

But I'm not going to talk about exercise because that would turn this blog into fiction. Instead, I'm going to suggest a book I suggested once before because I picked it up again this week in a moment of brain deadedness (those moments are very rare for me...) and reread the whole thing.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen


So good for anyone twelve and up. It's about courage and work and faith, and of course... love. It's inspirational and motivating no matter what frame of mind you are in, and who couldn't use some inspiration and motivation? Perhaps even to go running? (I prefer to read about athletes rather than pretend to be one—it's very motivational in an empathetic sort of way.)



And for your family-nonfiction-around-the-dinner-table discussion, Those Rebels John and Tom by Barbara Kerley.

It's a light, sweet take on the relationship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, their differences, and how they got the revolution going and the people of America united against the British. The pictures are fun—a good opportunity to have a miniature family SOLE.

(I'm going to talk more about those on Monday!!! Very exciting—and just so you aren't worried this is some weird mystical thing, SOLE stands for Self-Organized Learning Environment—just a way for you and your kids to learn together or apart.)