The Book Nook

Vol. 5, Iss. 2   | June 6, 2023

Holy Trinity Catholic High School

An Opening Thought…

Just a thought here…one of the books logged this month was by my daughter, Dorothy Shea.  She’s mentioned below in the “What Celtics Are Reading” section.  Shea has relatively recently learned how to read.   She’s now enjoying that sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a chapter book by herself.  Believe it or not, there was a time when YOU had that same excitement about reading!  FIND IT AGAIN! 

Seniors of 2023 and before!  If you would like to continue to receive The Book Nook at another email address--and you totally should because it's awesome--send me your email address!

Award Winners!  

For each newsletter, one winner will be selected at random for an award.  The more books you log, the better your chances.

This week, the random winner is…WESLEY KURIGER!   Wesley, you are the winner of a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card.  Look for it in your email soon, and no, it’s not SPAM.  

ALSO, for being the first student to log a book this summer, ZACHARY BOOR is a winner!  Zach, you also will be getting a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card.

 Summer Reading Program

For every book you read, you are asked to fill out the Summer Reading Form 2023.  

If you have a Holy Trinity e-mail address, please use that address when logging into the form.  This form will help us keep track of how our school community reads.  It will also give you an opportunity to earn some rewards!

Your goal is to read at least two books each month.   Our SCHOOLWIDE goal is to reach 200.   We can do this!

Who’s Ahead?

hrough June 6, here are the numbers of books read and recorded by our community.

• Seniors: 12
• Juniors: 0
• Sophomores: 4
• Freshmen: 2
• Faculty and Staff: 4
• Parents: 1
• Alumni: 
• Other: 1

Number needed to get to our 200-book schoolwide goal: 176

 Suggestions

SPORTS: Hey there, sports fans!   Pick up a book about your favorite sport.  There are great books out there about sports—both fiction and non-fiction.  There is a great movie about baseball from the 1980s called The Natural.  That movie is based on Bernard Malamud’s novel The Natural, and it does NOT end the same way.  Check it out.

The Novella: If you are having a hard time deciding what to read or just can’t get started, consider reading a novella—a book that is longer than a short story but shorter than a full-fledged novel.  These books are usually about 40 to 90 pages in length.  I mention more of this below.

Support local bookstores!  Consider going to McWha Bookstore on the square in Belton or The Book Cellar in downtown Temple to find your next great book.  If shopping online, use abebooks.com.   Though it is a service of Amazon, abebooks.com is a network of local bookstores, and the prices are GREAT!

TAPPS Literary Criticism and Social Studies Contests

The Academic Team won the state championship this year!  We are always looking for new students to compete.  There are two contests that require outside reading—the Literary Criticism and Social Studies contests.  This year, for Literary Criticism, students are asked to read Silas Marner by George Eliot and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.   The Social Studies contest is about Modern South Asia with the primary reading selection beging His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle Against Empire.  For more details and resources, follow these links to the UIL website:  Social Studies and Literary Criticism.

What You’re Reading…

Two of our Celtics have read Ban This Book, a novel by Alan Gratz, that tells the story of a student who speaks up when her favorite book is banned from the school library.  Sounds like a good one!

Senior Zachary Boor was the first student to register a book this summer.  He read A Simple Explanation of the Mass by Fr. Eamon Tobin.  Zach says the book provides “a short and simple explanation into every part of the Mass providing a deeper appreciation of the entire Mass.”

Dorothy Shea Mosmeyer, a second-grader at St. Mary’s and sister to sophomore Victoria and senior Therese, read Junie B. Jones, First Grader Aloha-ha-ha!  Junie B. goes on vacation to Hawaii with her parents and shares her photos with her first grade class.

Sophomore Robert Campbell recently finished Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami: “A man walks into an airport and he hears ‘Norwegian Wood’ by the Beatles. He thinks of his past when he was in college in Tokyo.”  Robert also read The Stranger by Albert Camus.

What the Teachers are Reading…just in case you’re curious

Science teacher and library manager Tristan Mosmeyer read The Last King of Texas by Rick Riordan: “Tres Navarre, a private investigator with an education, agrees to teach as a professor of Medieval English literature at UTSA while investigating the death of the professor before him.”   Mrs. Mosmeyer also read The Passion of Molly T. by Lawrence Sanders.

 What Mr. Mosmeyer is reading…

I recently finished Daisy Miller by Henry James.  It is an excellent short novella—about 58 pages in my copy of Short Novels by Henry James.  I remembered reading and liking this story in my college days but had no memory of what it was about.  It’s an excellent story about a young woman named Daisy Miller traveling in Europe.

I picked it up because I wanted to re-read it, but I also wanted to knock out a book quick.  Sometimes, I don’t want to make a days- or weeks-long commitment that a longer book requires.   A novella is a great choice.

I’m also reading The Last King of Texas by Rick Riordan.  You might recognize Riordan as the author of The Lightning Thief and other young adult novels.  He also wrote some mysteries set in Texas.  Riordan is a San Antonio-based author.  The Last King of Texas is set at the University of Texas at San Antonio and investigates the death of a professor.

What is The Book Nook

The Book Nook is a biweekly newsletter produced by English teacher Chris Mosmeyer throughout the summer.  It is intended to provide helpful information and encouragement to stay active academically throughout the summer.  Study after study shows that regular readers are better students.   Keep reading!

--Chris Mosmeyer
Director of Fine Arts
English, Forensics, Latinpages to go!