A Year of Reading the World: A Q&A with Ann Morgan

WordPress.com News

Several years ago, writer Ann Morgan noticed that she didn’t read much literature from countries outside of the United Kingdom and United States — and had yet to dive into stories from around the globe. From this realization, her blog, A Year of Reading the World, was born. You can read about Ann’s journey in her new book, Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer, available now in the UK. (The US version, The World Between Two Covers, will be released on May 4.)

I chatted with Ann about the blog-to-book journey and her experience of reading and blogging about literature from 197 countries.

For readers new to A Year of Reading the World, can you talk about your original project — and how the blog came about?

A comment someone left on a blog I wrote four years back, A Year of Reading Women

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Manner-Man by Sherrill S. Cannon and Illustrated by Kalpart

The Picture Book Review

Wouldn’t it be awesome if, when you’re at the park and children aren’t being nice, a superhero would swoop down and literally teach them some manners?

“He teachers good manners, so take his advice:  If someone starts shoving, just shout out ‘Not Nice!'”

Manner-Man is a multi-award winning book that indulges my son completely!  I will happily take all the help I can get when it comes to promoting good behavior and manners.  The story is told in verse and talks about situations such as when another child takes a toy without asking, fighting, shoving, and bullying. Manner-Man is also very empowering — giving children skills and a call to action to join the Manner-Man team.  There’s even a Manner-Man badge at the end of the book or you can write to Sherrill Cannon and request a Manner-Man sticker.  This additional step made my son feel officially part of the Manner-Man…

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I Wrote Some Books.

Red Stone

This is extraordinary

Pursuit of Life

Arches National Park

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Think You’re Healthy? 5 Reasons You Should See Your Doctor Anyway

4 Causes of Chest Pain You Might Not Know About

Sometimes I have chest pains epically when I suck my thumb at night. I find that very weird though.

4 Causes of Chest Pain You Might Not Know About

Inactivity and Heart Disease

Dr. Diane Ferris

Every minute counts when it comes to your health. According to the Journal of American Heart Association, each minute of physical activity may reduce your chance of developing a heart attack or heart related disease. (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/289572.php)

What limits your ability to be active? Some have jobs which require them to be inactive for hours. Sitting staring at computer screens causes many individuals to adopt sedentary lifestyles. Some are hindered due to pain, illness and chronic fatigue. When every minute counts, we need to make decisions that will greatly impact our lives. You don’t need to be involved in moderate to high intensity workouts. Short low intensity activity can improve your health.

Avoid sitting excessive periods of time. Every half hour make yourself get up and move around. If pain is preventing you from moving, seek help. Many people are discovering the benefits of Chiropractic care. Chiropractic keeps people moving and healthy.

Keep…

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Sleep your way to a faster metabolism

Dr. Maria Luque

So by now you know that regular exercise and a healthy, balanced diet are essential to achieve your fitness and weight loss goals. But did you know that adequate amount of sleep can also affect your goals? Well it is…. sleep is probably the most overlooked component of health and fitness.

Sleep has a key role in supporting a wide array of the body’s hormones and metabolism. Chronic sleep depravation is often a factor in obesity. This is caused by several factors. First of all, people that sleep less tend to eat more because they have more time to eat and also tired individuals tend to eat more to combat exhaustion. Secondly, research indicates that sleep affects two important hormones that are related to appetite. Those hormones are ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin, which increases appetite, is higher with lack of sleep and leptin, which decreases hunger is lower with lack…

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The Beauty of Teens

The Human Rights Warrior

Photo taken by (and used with permission from) my son Sevrin at his high school sailing team practice.

As I write this, there are seven teens asleep in my basement.  My son and his friends came back from their high school dance in high spirits last night. Laughing and joking loudly, they boisterously descended on my kitchen, devouring everything within reach (even some chips that I thought I had hidden pretty well).  These guys were the human equivalent of an invading colony of army ants, foraging insatiably through my refrigerator.

Now these boy-men are dead to the world, asleep in a puppy pile on my basement floor.  And I have to be honest – I am loving every single thing about these teens.   In fifteen plus years of parenthood, I have grown accustomed to – perhaps, in some ways, inured to – the many and diverse aspects of wonder in…

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