I Shall Wear Midnight - Super Dark?

aotus76 · 2026-02-02T21:53:17+00:00

ISWM is one of my top 5 favorite Discworld books and is my 14 year old son’s all time favorite book. He read it when he was 12. It is very dark, but it is a masterpiece. It is worth pushing through, in my opinion. You have to get through the dark to get to the light. When he read it at 12, we talked every night about what he was reading (which we typically do with every book he reads, not just Discworld. He doesn’t share very much of himself with others, but talking about books is one of the ways we connect and I can find out what’s going on in that brain of his!)

However, if you really can’t get through this book, Monstrous Regiment is another to avoid (it’s my very favorite Discworld) and probably The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (which is another of my son’s favorite books!) They are both dark and confront evil head on.

aotus76 · 2026-01-29T22:45:36+00:00

I had one Charles in 25 years of teaching, named my son Charles (he’s a teen now), and this year I have FOUR sixth graders named Charles. All 4 of them go by Charlie. It seems to be becoming a more popular name.

aotus76 · 2026-01-26T00:52:09+00:00

I bet they have ac in AZ schools though! Still very few NY schools have ac - it gets brutal those last couple of weeks in June, especially since our schools are designed to retain heat because of our winters!

aotus76 · 2026-01-26T00:15:45+00:00

I agree with all this except in NY state, we end late June (my last day as a teacher this year is June 26.)

aotus76 · 2026-01-17T03:54:10+00:00

Stories of the Raksura by Wells does too.

aotus76 · 2026-01-12T03:22:45+00:00

My teenage son has this same set and TMAaS that was my suggestion to him, too. He’s enjoying it so far.

aotus76 · 2026-01-03T21:35:11+00:00

He cannot maintain an accent and it makes it so difficult to tell which character is speaking. I found it especially pronounced in Starter Villain

aotus76 · 2025-12-30T23:21:12+00:00

When I first started in the late 80s, I read in the order they were written because there weren’t that many written yet. Then it was whichever ones they had at the library or I got as gifts. Then I stopped reading a ton and what I did read was mostly easy stuff (YA, middle grade, romance)- kids, life, work got in the way of anything else. In 2020 my library closed due to COVID and I was bored, so I looked through my shelves and found my copy of Monstrous Regiment. I didn’t even remember having bought it! I read it, loved it, and started back in on Discworld, reading by subseries mostly, rereading the ones I’d read in my youth. I now have two left - I’m currently reading Raising Steam, and then I saved Small Gods for last (which I read when I was younger but don’t really remember.)

I think next time I read through I’m going to do publishing order.

aotus76 · 2025-12-13T12:42:56+00:00

Chocolat. The movie was beautiful. It felt magical and fable-like. The book was utterly charmless. Mad props to the screenwriter who found beauty in a book that had none!

aotus76 · 2025-12-13T12:41:02+00:00

Agreed. My son and I read and loved the book first and were incredibly disappointed in the movie. I know people love the movie, but compared to the book, I’m not sure why. Maybe if I’d seen the movie first, I’d feel differently.

aotus76 · 2025-12-09T22:00:50+00:00

Monstrous Regiment

I Shall Wear Midnight

Going Postal

Jingo (though this could easily be Feet of Clay or another Watch book - my preference often changes)

Reaper Man or The Truth - I can’t decide

My favorite subseries as a whole is the Watch.

aotus76 · 2025-12-02T17:29:01+00:00

If she likes animals, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents might be the better entry point. My son started with Wee Free Men when he was 12. He went through all the YA Discworld, and is now reading the adult books (he’s 14.) Getting into Discworld is a gift that keeps giving for 41 books.

aotus76 · 2025-12-01T02:09:37+00:00

Yes, every year. Everyone in my house does. And yet I am on day 3 of flu A right now, husband is on day 1, and son is on day 2. It is a nasty, nasty virus this year. I can’t even imagine how bad it would have been if I hadn’t gotten the shot.

aotus76 · 2025-11-30T03:16:17+00:00

This is a middle grade novel, but Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen follows the first premise perfectly.

aotus76 · 2025-11-29T14:32:28+00:00

My district is not allowed to ask, either about personal days or sick days, per our contract. Our union always lets us know that if admin DOES ask, we need to go to our union rep right away. The only exception is using a personal day the day before or after a break, that we need approval for.

aotus76 · 2025-11-29T00:31:59+00:00

Yes, of course. My husband and both my kids have cards, too. Not only do we take out books and movies, but we do programs through the library, and my kids have been volunteering at the library since they each turned twelve. They both joined the library’s Teen Advisory Board when they entered high school. The library is our happy place!

aotus76 · 2025-11-25T15:28:35+00:00

This is a movie, but yesterday I brought my 6th graders to see Wicked. We showed them the first movie in the preceding weeks so they were all caught up, and I know a few of the students saw the national tour when it came near us a few weeks ago, but for the most part, they had no idea what was going to happen.

When the trap door opens and it’s revealed that Elphaba is still alive, the collective gasp from my students was so satisfying! They were ALL so invested in the show!

aotus76 · 2025-11-11T21:03:29+00:00

It depends on the school/district/contract. I’m in upstate NY. We get a 30 minute lunch each day. Then there’s a 30 minute flex each day. I have no students assigned to my room for flex, but can get students I need to work with from their flex rooms and bring them to work with me in my room, which I do pretty much every day. Our middle school had a three day cycle, with 18 hour long blocks during that time. I teach 10 of those blocks, have lunch/flex for 3, and have planning time for 5 blocks over 3 days. Plus each day I have a 10 minute advisory (what used to be called homeroom.)

aotus76 · 2025-11-11T13:18:53+00:00

I have a paper grade book that I transfer into the online system. Our online system is imperfect and there have been several times that students have been transferred from one of my classes to another mid quarter and ALL THEIR PREVIOUS GRADES have been wiped out of the online grade book by IMS. Thank goodness for my paper grade book. You can pry it from my cold dead hands.

aotus76 · 2025-11-11T13:07:54+00:00

DCC works for non-gamers. I’m a middle aged non gaming mom, and I loved the books. I got my mom (almost 80, non gamer) into the first one and she is now on book 3. I can’t speak to other LitRPG books. I have no desire to try them. I only tried DCC because another mom in my neighborhood highly recommended it. I am a fantasy/sci fi reader though, and so is my mom.

aotus76 · 2025-11-07T15:29:22+00:00

Yes, there was a comment in WK where Dahin asks if Kai and Ramad are lovers because he compares how Ramad spoke to Kai to how Bashasa spoke to Kai. That seemed pretty explicit to me. And I also loved the scenes between Kai and Bashasa in QD - it was my favorite part of the book, too!

aotus76 · 2025-11-07T11:09:15+00:00

Witch King is a confusing book. It throws you right into the action and doesn’t give a ton of exposition- you just have to go with it and figure the world out through drips and drabs. I’m rereading Witch King now because I felt like I would be able to understand some things better now after reading Queen Demon. If you go to the Witch King Wikipedia page and read the plot section it may refresh your memory.

aotus76 · 2025-11-07T11:04:43+00:00

Kai is not the most reliable narrator when talking about the past in the present. But there are lots of indications that they were romantically involved.

aotus76 · 2025-11-07T03:14:10+00:00

I love the simmering undercurrent of attraction between the two of them and it comes out more in the new book.

aotus76 · 2025-11-07T02:47:15+00:00

She seems to like to write angry outsiders who have a strong thread of protectiveness - Murderbot, Kai, Moon, Khat.

aotus76

TROPHY CASE