More Good Reads

I'm back to share more of my recent good reads! I didn't get through these books quite as quickly as I did the previous five (and this time I only read four), although, I read Miles to Go in less than 24 hours.  Speaking of the book titles, here were this week's:

• Here's the Deal Don't Touch Me (Howie Mandel's autobiography)
• George Washington Carver (biography)
• Harriet Tubman (biography)
• Miles to Go (Miley Cyrus' autobiography)

 

As I mentioned, I did have five books I brought home from the library, but only four were read.  I started reading the fifth book, but I just could NOT get into it! It was another war autobiography, so I figured since I liked the Jessica Lynch book I read last time, I'd like this one too. Um, no.  No offense to whoever that guy was that I was trying to read about (I think his name was Ryan?), but if you can't grab my attention in the first twenty pages, I'm not reading the rest of your book.  Sorry 'bout it.

 

So here's a few facts from these four books!

 

 -He DID have hair at one point!! haha. I definitely already knew this.  This book included many pictures, and it was pretty funny to see the "old" Howie!

-He is VERY OCD.

-He's the voice of Gizmo in the movie Gremlins.

-He's a puppet on Sesame Street, who's character plays Meal or No Meal! ha!

-He was in a TV show with Mr. Feeny!!  The show was called St. Elsewhere.

-He once played a prank on a friend while they were on a trip and it just kept escalating as the trip went on.  Howie even had the flight attendants in on the joke!  It went so far that Howie and that guy aren't really good friends anymore.  Sad.

 -He was the first African-American student at Iowa State College.  He loved to learn and he also loved to teach.  Later, he would teach many many students in tons of classes at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.  GWC also started Jesup Wagon, which was a movable school that went around to teach farmers.

-I knew that he was the one we all know as the founder of peanuts and peanut butter, but I had no idea that he also used the peanuts to make things such as sauces, beverages, pickles and candy!

-He also used sweet potatoes to make breakfast foods, molasses, coffee, vinegar, and some other edible products, but he also used them to make library paste, ink and shoe polish. 
Actually, just the other day, I was thinking of using sweet potatoes to clean my shoes...

-The back of this book actually includes some of his favorite sweet potato and peanut recipes.

-When she was born, she was named Araminta and was nicknamed "Minty."  Her mother's name was Harriet which influenced her decision to change her name to the same later on.

-After first taking the Underground Railroad to escape from slavery herself, she made a trip back to help one of her brothers escape.  (She did help 3 of her brothers escape.)  After this, she wanted to travel back to Maryland to see her husband.  She found out that he had a new wife and no longer wished to be with Harriet.  Sad.  But this just made her more determined and gave her more time to help free slaves.

-There was a song called "Go Down Moses," and some of the lyrics are, "Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt's land; tell old Pharoah, to let my people go."  Harriet sang this song, as did many other conductors of the Underground Railroad.  Whenever Harriet was going to be going back south, the slaves could tell each other the lyrics of this song, and their masters never knew what it meant.  "Egypt" meant the South and "Pharoah" mean slave owner.

-Harriet Tubman also worked as a nurse in a veteran hospital in Fort Monroe, VA.

-She was a competitive cheerleader for many years.  During her early middle school years she was bullied.  Also during this time, she had been going back and forth from call-backs for Hannah Montana.  Since she got the part, she had to leave her cheering team and bullies behind her.  I don't think she cared about leaving one of those groups...

-I remember when Hannah Montana first came on.  It was cool to read about how it got started.  Billy Ray wasn't originally going to play her dad - it was kind of just a comment jokingly stated and he ended up gettig the part (after auditioning, too!).  Miley's character's first name on the show was supposed to be Chole Stewart, but ended up being Miley Stewart.

-Her book has notes written in the margins, and lists of "top 7" things throughout it.  I like when books include things like this to make it more interesting when reading.  There are also quotes bolded and in bigger font throughout the chapters, as well as relevant Bible verses.

-She had her 16th birthday in Disney World!  The park was closed to the public and people paid $250 to come.  All of that money was donated to Youth Service American and over one million dollars was raised!

-The song "I Miss You" that Miley plays in a Hannah Montana episode was written for her grandfather.  She was very close to him and knew that he wouldn't be around much longer.  She never got to actually play and sing the song for him, but Billy Ray Cyrus played a short recorded clip of the song for him.